My Hero Academia

Hello, dear readers!

My boyfriend Rory and I are watching a really cool Japanese anime at the moment. It’s about young superheroes. Awesome, right?!

My Hero Academia is a show about young hopeful superheroes. It blends high school drama with the action and training involved in becoming a real pro-hero at UA High. It feels fresh, not just because of the unique superpowers–but also because it looks at the hero’s journey from the perspective of our main protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, a plucky teenager. He wants to develop a quirk so he can be just like his idol All Might, the number one hero in Japan. All Might is not only very strong, but also incredibly brave. He’s good at saving people in need.

In this anime universe, about 80% of the human population possesses what’s called a quirk, which is just a fancy word for “a special, superhuman ability” (from the anime’s wika page).

Midoriya originally doesn’t start out with a quirk, just like other superhero plots. But unlike other superhero films, the goal in this world is to develop a quirk–a process as normalized as losing your baby teeth or going through puberty. Midoriya’s devastated when he realizes he is quirkless. When he meets All Might, Midoriya is thrilled. When he does receive All Might’s power, One for All, he is so overcome with emotion that he ends up sobbing with joy. One for All, which can be passed down from one person to another, is Izuku’ inheritance.

What I love about My Hero Academia are all the little emotions that enhance the fight scenes, the training, and intimate scenes like the one above. The emotions–earning people’s approval, passing a test–makes this show about wanna-be superheroes far more superior to the run-of-the-mill superhero shows. Adding the emotional component to the characters motives helps you become more invested in these kids, which is exactly what you need when you’re rooting for the underdogs.

Watching Midoriya succeed as he takes steps towards becoming a certified hero is fun and rewarding, especially when you get to see him do cool moves like this: