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What are your thoughts on My Hero Academia as a whole?
I am certainly in love with the show. It somehow manages to invoke in me a feeling of admiration for a cartoon (which I haven't felt for a long time). Do you like or dislike the show? Why?
It never reinvents the wheel or really subverts my expectations, but it does what it does so well that I don't care. I get hyped when it wants me to be, and I have fun with the bits in-between and that's more then enough.
Love it. I have never been so obsessed with an anime/manga like this before. What's different is that it's not just one character that draws me in, I want to know more about all of them. I am so invested in the story, both Deku and Class 1A's story, and the larger story regarding the world and the League of Villains.
The rewatchability of the show really gets me. I am all caught up with the manga and have seen all the episodes of the anime, and yet I still find myself enjoying older episodes. I can't wait for this series to end but I also want it to go on forever.
I watched the first few episodes, and I wasn't impressed. It looks like yet another shonen title to me, and I aged out of that demographic decades ago.
I try to avoid marketing, but I suspected it was shonen, from the title alone, before I watched the first episode. I had hoped it would have something to offer beyond the usual shonen tropes. I was wrong. No big deal; it's just not for me.
It started out really strong for the first 15 episodes or so. Then the pacing started going to crap. I lost interest when they started introducing a slew of uninteresting new characters and doing the tournament style plotline which dragged on really long. Finally stopped around episode 24 or so, couldn't get through it, even playing the show on the side while doing other things.
The fire/ice kid's story could have been told in one episode but they dragged it into, I don't remember, like 4 or 5? It was sad they took focus off the likable core group of 5-6 characters and gave the spotlight to this new boring one-dimensional kid whose only defining feature is "I hate my dad but I need his power to win," and have that plotline drag on too long. That was the biggest turnoff that comes to mind. Honestly I wasn't paying much attention by then, so I forget what other characters they introduced around that time, but they probably introduced some throwaway ones for the sake of the tournament.
Though I can agree that some of the character motivations are a bit simple, one thing to keep in mind is these are high school students and often major personal issues or goals are that "simple". Resenting a parent to the point of your own significant detriment is a lot more believable and sympathetic for a high school freshman than for an adult with a life of experiences. A possible reason that it was spread out is that they wanted to show how it impacted several characters, not just Shoto Todoroki. He had his own inner struggle, but externally Deku grappling with a deep need to help without knowing exactly how, All Might with his own relationship to the father trying to mentor both youngsters, and the effect all of this playing out has on the rest of the group.
I don't think the world building is done well and the fights aren't spectacular. The characters aren't even that interesting to me (Besides Todorki). This kinda made me drudge through seasons 1-2. Season 3 has me hooked and hyped though but I can't put my finger on why.
I felt in the exact opposite way. Fights felt spectacular and world building was done well. The characters were all really likeable and interesting for me(excluding ones used only for jokes like Minieta or Invisible girl)
The only other anime I ever watched was one punch man, so I cannot really compare it to others but I love it. It's light hearthed, has good humor and fights are so amazing. The characters are well written and I actually care for them. Also Sue is the best girl, change my mind
I could go into the details of what I think is special about this show, and what cool things it is doing.
But instead I'll just say that every episode has me hype as hell and I'm enjoying the ride.
I'd be interested in your more detailed commentary, if you want to share. It's exactly that sort of depth I think we want to see here.
I think it adds a lot that every character has a philosophy, a reason they do what they do.
The philosophies provide meaning behind character actions, and make combat a struggle for ideals rather than just another fight because 'hey, bad guys.'
For example,
All Might want's to be a pillar of society and a symbol of justice, Deku has a drive to help people and wants to follow in All Might's footsteps.
Stain believes that All Might is the ideal hero, and that modern heroes that seek compensation are corrupt.
Therefore, Stain judges Deku to be a true, ideal hero, and will refuse to kill him.
So when Stain and Deku fight, Deku struggles with categorizing a villain who idolizes his idol, and the fight is a reflection of their clash in philosophy.
The fight isn't about the battle, the fight is the story it tells, and every attack is a statement.
I'm basically badly restating the ideas in the videos by Gigguk and Mother's Basement, which I highly recommend.
Thanks for elaborating! I think Stain is an excellent villain, and as you mentioned, leads to a lot more internal struggle for the characters and us as viewers with his arguably noble ideals but less defensible means.
I'm already a subscriber to Gigguk, and can second that recommendation. Going to check out Mother's Basement.
All might is vegeta and he's my favorite VA so I love him! I really want to get his autograph one day
It has a somewhat interesting premise, but it doesn't do anything interesting with it.
The quality level of every aspect of it varies by a degree that I have not seen before. The one that changes the most is character designs; some of them look pretty awesome, but some of them are poorly thought out body horror archetypes. There are also just too many characters to keep track of them are particularly deep. But it might be good that there are so many because the main character is just so uninteresting.
I've only seen it through the anime where I assume that everything is made even worse. I'm irritated how they are constantly re-introducing the characters with on-screen titles - sure, I'm only watching this with my boyfriend, so I don't know who they are, but getting them on screen with no context is more irritating than helpful. But the worst part about the show so far is that the plot never seems to actually advance and none of the characters ever change.
But hey, given that most of these complaints are the same ones I have with pretty much every shonen anime, it might not be as bad as I am making it out to be. I find shonen anime like Naruto and One Piece to be less irritating, but honestly I think the biggest reason why that is is because when my boyfriend watches it, he is watching the dubbed version, where the voices are constantly yelling in shrill voices.
For me it's just meh. I think I watched it for a little beyond the tournament arc or whatever that was. Story gripped me in at first, but lost me at how it presented itself. Deku mumbles his ideas to himself. They need to state the same cliches over and over again. It has good art and animation, but I found the presentation to be childish.
I guess it's just riding the hype train of the superhero explosion of these days.
I watched the first couple seasons, kinda started to go downhill. Stopped watching due to that creepy ball kid constantly getting away with trying to do creepy stuff and having it treated as a normal thing. Who is a stand-in for the author, so is never going away.
I'm one of those people that has pretty high standards for anime I'll watch for more then an episode or two though.