Anime: My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi (Season 1)

The anime that's taken the nation by storm, My Hero Academia has become such a phenomenon here in the US since it's release and it doesn't seem like it's going to be slowing down any time soon. Originally the hype put me off of this series myself. It just isn't interesting to me when something is really hyped up to the extreme, I usually wait a while so that people calm down then get into reading and watching it. Season four of this series has come out but I'm still only watching season two, if I catch up that's great, but that's not my goal. Moving on, this review will be focusing on season one since I haven't finished season two just yet. 

My Hero Academia is about a young 15 year old boy named Midoriya Izuku. In a society where 80% of the population has acquired powers, he was not born with the option. He is considered "Quirkless" and the powers everyone has are called "Quirks." Izuku wasn't born with the option of having powers because he still has two joints in his pinky toe. It is believed if you are born without the second joint and only have the one, you have evolved and will have your quirk develop when you reach 4 years of age. When humans evolve, the body tends to get rid of things that are no longer needed and thus people started to develop quirks to compensate, at least that was my understanding when the doctor explained this to Izuku's mother in the first episode. This broke little Izuku's heart, because he aspired to be a hero one day. Since quirks came around the fictional occupation of hero became an option, the impossible became possible, and there were many heroes defeating villains in this day and age.

Due to the fact that Izuku has no quirk, his childhood friend Bakugo Katsuki, Kacchan as Izuku calls him, starts to call him Deku, meaning "good for nothing" or "useless." Bakugo has an amazing quirk that's flashy enough to become a Pro Hero. When Bakugo was young, everyone praised him about his quirk, which made him grow up twisted and arrogant, thinking himself better and above everyone else. Bakugo bullies Izuku relentlessly from their childhood all the way up to their third year of junior high when things take a turn for the better... 

(SPOILER WARNING! START)

In the first episode it shows the backstory of Izuku and how he is quirkless. It skips forward to when he is a third year junior high student, him and Bakugo are no longer really considered friends, just a bully and his victim. After school, due to some circumstances, Izuku ends up meeting All Might! All Might is the number one hero and is highly revered by critics and greatly admired by children and adults. Anyways, he is Izuku's favourite hero and it was like a dream come true for him to meet All Might. He ends up tagging along with All Might so that he can ask his burning question: "can I become a hero like you even without a quirk?" 


All Might's true form is revealed to Izuku during his questioning, due to All Might running out of time. Several years ago, when All Might fought against a villain, he nearly lost his life. He never fully recovered and as a repercussion from the fight, All Might can only perform hero work for approximately three hours a day. All Might promptly denies Izuku of his dreams, telling him to face reality and that he wouldn't be able to become a hero, recommending him to become a police officer. This absolutely crushes him... 

All Might leaves Izuku, going to hand over the villain that he caught when he met the kid. He finds the villain no longer where he left him, in some soda bottles he bought because the guy is literally Grimer, two points for that reference. The bottles were gone and he was panicking a bit, not liking the fact that he let a villain get away because he was dealing with a fan. Turns out, the Grimer guy tried to take over Bakugo's body, the bottles fell near him, using him as a hostage and his quirk to keep the heroes at bay. All Might came by the crime scene but couldn't transform anymore because he ran out of time and can't keep his other form going any more that day. He was disappointed in himself and thought himself pathetic. Izuku, is his depressed state, subconsciously walked towards the scene as well and seeing Bakugo struggling to breathe and being close to dying, his feet moved before his mind could think. He tried to save Bakugo but couldn't on his own, All Might, feeling inspired and encouraged by Izuku's actions, was able to transform one more time and save the both of them.

The day ended with Izuku walking home after the debacle, suddenly All Might appeared before him, startling him, and then told Izuku that he can be a hero. There is then a montage of Izuku training his body for the next ten months, prepping his body to be able to receive All Might's quirk, "One for All." During those ten months Bakugo had left Izuku alone and didn't bully him at all. Anyways, All Might's quirk is one that is passed down like a torch, honed and trained to become stronger and stronger. 

Izuku gets "One for All," despite not knowing how to use it, just receiving it the morning of and takes the entrance exam for U.A. High, the most prestigious school for up-and-coming heroes in Japan. Obviously he gets accepted, being the main character, but even so, it puts you on the edge of your seat a bit because essentially he failed the entrance exam. He gets places in the Hero Course class 1-A, where, it turns out, Bakugo ended up. Izuku winds up in a class with many different kinds of people that you end up caring for, along with many teachers who are all Pro Heroes including All Might himself. The class 1-A homeroom teacher is Aizawa Shouta, AKA the Erasure Hero: Eraser Head! His quirk allows him to temporarily erase your quirk so you can't use it. The entire class, including Izuku, has 20 students, and you learn to tart to care for most of them, I'm not too much of a fan of Mineta but he makes for good comedic relief. 

The main event of this season is the invasion of the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, USJ, by the League of Villians, LoV, who intend to kill All Might. The invasion is stretched throughout the episodes, showing all sides and the different students working together due to the fact that they get separated throughout the USJ. It follows there adventures fighting the various villains until it reaches its climax, All Might finally making his appearance and defeats the villains, for the most part. The man in charge, Shigaraki, and the man with the portal quirk, Kurogiri, retreat while the low level minions get arrested by the police when they show up. All Might and Izuku are worn out from fighting and are hospitalized in the infirmary, while Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen-sensei, the hero who was going to teach them the lesson in the USJ, are sent to the actual hospital because their injuries were a little extreme.

U.A. is closed for about either two days or two weeks, I can't really remember, and Aizawa-sensei comes back mummified, to inform the class that the sports festival is coming up and that they need to prepare. The U.A. Sports Festival has replaced the Olympics and so everyone will be watching. Pro Heroes also use the festival to scout out new talent for their agencies. So, the students all begin to prepare for one of the three opportunities they have of making an impact on Japan before graduation, if they survive that is... 

(SPOILER WARNING! END)

This season was really just a way to introduce all the characters and to demonstrate their quirks while showing what they can do when under pressure and in danger. Some of my personal favourites are Tsu-chan, Bakugo, Kirishima-kun, and Tokoyami-kum just to name a few. This anime is very hyped up but it definitely lives up to the craze. There are currently four seasons out and I'm slowly catching up, but this is a really good anime, there hasn't really been anything like this made before concerning superheroes, at least in manga and anime. Sure, there are magical girl anime and manga but they aren't really considered superheroes, which is probably why this series got so popular, especially in America. 

Thank you for reading! I hope you guys enjoyed this week's post. Comment below and tell me what you think: have you tried this series out or not yet? I would love to hear from you all! Hope you guys are excited for next week's post! I'm going to be reviewing a slew of Studio Ghibli movies in the coming weeks because while they are very popularized movies, they are anime! See ya next time!