After successfully passing his Provisional Hero License exam, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya seeks out an extracurricular internship with a professional hero agency. At the recommendation of his mentor All Might, Midoriya lands a position under All Might's former sidekick, Sir Nighteye, now a famous hero in his own right.
As Midoriya's classmates further their own abilities through various internships, up-and-coming villain Kai Chisaki utilizes his terrifying powers to gather favor in the criminal underworld. Known by the moniker Overhaul, Chisaki's ambitions collide with the League of Villains and its leader, Tomura Shigaraki.
Through his work with Sir Nighteye, Midoriya discovers Chisaki's crime syndicate and the villain's hostile relationship with a mysterious young girl named Eri. Fearing for the child's safety, Midoriya and his upperclassman Mirio Toogata must work together to put an end to Chisaki's reign of terror.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
bend_over
*Spoiler Warning* My Hero Academia is slowly but surely becoming Fairy Tail 2.0. Every time I hear something good about "My Hero Academia", it has mainly to do with its writing and how beautiful it is. There are also so many great developments from many characters, so they say, but I don't see any of this. I really don't. I'm probably being a bit too nitpicky with the show but I really wouldn't mind at all if only people would stop calling this show's writing a magnum opus when you all know that's not true. I, personally would call "My Hero Academia" a cringe show and notin a good way, either. It's a show that gets on my nerves, can't stand, and yet, I've seen all 4 seasons of this damned franchise and I will finish everything with a little hope that its writing will be a little better, but I don't think it will ever happen since you know, I'm reading the fucking manga and it's looking real bad there as well.
The third season starts with a filler and despite my hatred for fillers in general, the first episode was genuinely a good episode (as far as fillers go) but it was still a recap of the story and honestly I would have gladly done without. Then it starts with the arc of "Saving the girl from the bad guy, because we're heroes even though there are so many other people out there that need our help and we should dedicate our time to them as well but who cares about them as long some one random kid is saved and let's cliche the fuck out of it". Oh yeah, it's just happen that the girl has the power of rewind time (VERY convenient for what's going to happen later). Fortunately for everyone, she has not control over it, so our boi, Deku - was able to save her and in the meantime Mirio lost his quirk powers, a random dude dies, some chicks do nothing, random stuff happens at random, 3-5 episode fillers, a not-so-good animation is not-so-good and predominantly we get to see many bad dudes. They show up now, but not before, because why exactly? I see, because the plot didn't want them before. Oh Yeah, It's All Coming Together.
Basically the whole premise of this season is basically to save her (and give her the happy life everyone needs, lol), a kid nobody cared before, and I can't believe it took that many episodes to save her who to tell you the truth, can't give a damn about. Like, no. She's that one girl everyone wants to protect but why though? Because she's cute? Because, you know, she's a kid? Dude, if I were a hero, i'd go from town to town to look for people who need my help. I'm not gonna take days staying around her as Midoriya and others do because... reasons? In fact, I don't think I exactly know why it was so necessary to save her... no, I actually know the reason of such thing, it's because we have to make our main character somewhat revelant. Whatever happens, Deku will take care of the main villain of the arc.
What bothers me is the coincidence that both Midoriya and Mirio stumbled upon her just after Midoriya somehow got Nighteye's approval on becoming his student and before somehow after Nighteye himself apparently had a plan to bring down Chisaki and his gang that just happens, the little girl both our heroes stumbled upon, I think a day before, is in that group, too. In my entire life i've never seen a more convenient thing than this part here. Think about it. If Deku never went to Nighteye, all this would probably never happened, and thus, the girl would have suffered even more before someone really was able to save her (if not never saved), but because Midoriya is the main character, he'll save her anyway (which he did), even going up against a probably much stronger enemy but because she has the power of rewind throughout the fight she was able to repair Deku's body, so he wouldn't explode and all this make the entire fight, a complete ex machina + asspull and bullshit, too. Look, the problem here is Deku and nobody else. He's writen in such a nuance that is so repetitive, nausating and predicable.
I can predict what he'll do because he has the same personality he had at the beginning. He has been doing stuff over and over again with the same outcome that wouldn't put him in any danger. He ain't in danger and probably never will. Did you see how he beat Gentle? Did you? It was a total bullshit of a fight. Deku was down. He was annihilated by gentle and yet, he won? How that happened? He doesn't surrender. He's persistent. Yes, this is what the author has made of him. Persistent. You'd think that does mean shit, amirite? Yes, but who the fuck cares anyway, he's the protagonist, logic means shit here anyway. Both Gentle and La Brava would have won since the beginning but because he's the main character and because of his own victories he'd became a much mature person, according to the author.
Has he become one?
No and probably never will. Being a cringy kid and shooting clichés every two seconds doesn't make you one. Being over obsessed with "justice" doesn't make you one. Being the overprotective person doesn't make one.
My Hero Academia is badly written. The series has way too many characters that does not flesh out a single one. They are all here because they're told to be and when they fight, they do win but they win in "Deku style". You know, the villain has the upper hand but because of a flashback or that set character endurance they force their body to its limit and win, by one blow. Have you noticed this patern? You never see a flashy fight but rather a dull one when some people hit each other non-stop for a few seconds multiplie times and the winner is the most obvious you can think of. I tell you, on this season there should have been at least 5 deaths. Some characters have a plot armor beyond belief. They won't die no matter what. Anyways, as I said, the writing is bad, so I chosed a random scene just to prove it to you:
- Uraraka gets knocked out by a big dude.
- Asui too gets knocked out by the same big dude.
- The big dude is about to deal up to the 9th strongest hero.
- It is not so clear whether one of the strongest heroes would win against him or not.
- Uraraka sees Deku (Toga in disguise).
- Uraraka, real shit, despite I can't move and despite being almost unconscious by the enemy's power, I have to force myself moving because (this is repeated later in the episode, but this time she sees the real deku) we are taught by seniors not to give up and somehow move the villain to where Deku (Toga in disguise) had said, with Asui, in case you didn't figure that out. Asui came outta nowhere to help Uraraka and split some clichés alongside Uraraka. Did she also saw Deku? I do assume she stopped "being unconscious", by seeing him, right? Above all, how they both were able to escape from that big dude's power? Whatever that fucking thing was, it was something that made both girls lose senses. You'd think even if the bad dude were to be defeated, it'd take a minute or so for them get conscious, but nope, it only took less than 5 seconds for them completely be fine and be able to use their powers at full. Man, some of these scenes are incomprensibile.
It all goes like that. Instead of using strategies to defeating the bad dudes, they get overpowered by them, rarely goes vice versa and by the end of the fight, heroes win. Now, how come the heroes win when they're clearly not strong enough to have the better? The answer is pretty simple, they SHOULDN'T. What they should, though, is to have a proper training such as fighting with professionals, until the proper gets unconscious more and more times until the victory goes the vice versa. It's gonna take a while but because it's writing is really bad they'll face off a villain anyway and eventually win, presumably without too many consequences if not any. They obviously do it but it is very rare. Students should be pressured many times to learn the dangerous that is the outside.
Also, let's talk about Uraraka a bit since now we're here. Is there anything useful she can do without yelling "Deku" every two seconds? We all know she loves him, and i'm happy for her but she only needs to hear his name or see him fighting to make herself do something is something i'm not happy of. She should have some character development, at the very least, by the end of the story. At least I hope because as for now, she's quite literally useless. Most of the girls are, in fact. At no point any of them got their shining moment. What a shame.
Least but not last, allow me to spare two words about something that I, for the love of god don't understand. I am obviously referring to the "characters power and their name" via text that appears on everyone's appearance. And not only that, do you guys remember Hizashi? He's that one character no screen time was given, instead the author has found a clever way to making him talk as much as one can by repeating the same stuff over and over again. If it's a new power and Hizashi explains it, i'll be completely fine with that but because we're given explanation to powers we have the knowledge of already, it's making me to believe it's just added there to pad some time. Considering this is the 4th season of the franchise, I doubt it's gonna stop anytime soon but it really should. It's annoying and distracting.
My Hero Academia is highly praised and I have nothing against that but people need to know that its writing it's not pioneer and overall it'll never be. Whatever the reason you are watching this anime, I say, hats off to you on appreciating these characters and their story. I really couldn't. I tried, but I just couldn't since most of the characters are both uninteresting and annoying.
Goober-fish
Since it first began airing, “My Hero Academia” has been the unwitting punching bag for joyless old dogs like me who have lost the childlike fascination with watching cartoon characters whale on each other with little rhyme or reason. Not that My Hero Academia has ever really prided itself on intricate or brutal fights worth revisiting when compared to some of its peers, because in all honesty, as of late, this anime has lacked even that to keep me motivated to continue on. If there’s one thing that My Hero Academia’s 4th season has proven, it’s that mangaka Kohei Horikoshi has mastered the artof spinning his wheels. And that’s not to say that the production team attached to this project doesn’t share a portion of the blame, for all I know, the manga could just be THAT much better. But this score, this review, it’s not a nagging response as a disgruntled fan of the manga frustrated with the panel to frame fidelity, I don’t have that frame of reference to care all that much. I’m sure it doesn’t need to be said because the general lack of excitement for this season more or less speaks for itself, but this is the most uneven and nonessential season of the My Hero Academia anime to date.
Not counting any brief transitional arcs, Season 4 can essentially be divided into two major story arcs, the “Shie Hassaikai arc” (for brevity's sake I’ll simply refer to it as the “Overhaul arc”) as well as the “U.A. School Festival arc”. If I were to describe the essential structure of this season, it’s sort of a weird Frankenstein’s monster of the latter halves of both the Second and Third season. Cursory filler aside, the Overhaul arc doesn’t take much time to get going and after a point resigns itself as a collection of poorly strung together action sequences of varying quality. Let me just say, for as poorly handled as that License arc was in the third season as both a transition from the previous arc and as a necessary plot device, I contend the School Festival arc might be even worse.
There are plenty of fans who have dubbed this arc “filler”, which isn’t necessarily true in the literal application of the term. But the severe lack of consequence in this arc does make it feel like fluff. I’ll humor anyone who’s curious about Gentle and La Brava later.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a season of My Hero Academia without debilitating amounts of pointless character introductions, most of which you’ll probably never see again and live and die with their shallow characterization. The reverence for comic books is cool, it really is, but unlike comic books which have the benefit of recontextualization, My Hero Academia feels pointlessly overstuffed. I’m not expecting Frank Miller or Grant Morrison to write their own takes on these characters, so it just feels like Horikoshi is overpopulating this world for the sake of it (I will gladly eat my crow if more manga like Vigilantes are green-lit).
One issue I have with the way Horikoshi writes characters is the utilitarian manner in which he will introduce and then dispose of them like they never mattered all that much I.e., scapegoating. This happens a few times throughout this season, one of which is with Mirio. With the way the kid was gassed up by his peers and specifically by Nighteye for being more deserving of the torch that All Might left behind than Deku, it was a clear path to this kid’s demise.
The obvious parallel you can draw with the Overhaul arc is with the Hero Killer arc but it also heavily treads territory that the Raid arc did in Season 3. Mirio is essentially a stand-in for All Might, both of them being used in the exact same way. Have both of them fight the villain, have both of them lose their powers, have both of them reaffirm Deku’s goal as the “Number 1 Hero”. Not to diminish Mirio’s character, he’s likable enough on his own, but his lack of presence in the story up until that point only makes his story beat vastly inferior to All Might’s (and it’s already annoying enough that they were used in the same way). Nighteye is handled in a similar fashion. The show expects you to care about what ultimately ends up transpiring but barely gives you a chance to even digest his character before it happens. If nothing else, it’s pitiful.
Eri is the latest addition in a long line of prepubescent power-sources (lolis specifically) to be exploited for the protagonist’s use. You’ve seen it in Berserk. You’ve seen it in the Monogatari Series. You’ve seen it in the A Certain Series. I get it though, I get the fun hacky appeal of having a little girl be the source of immense power, it’s “ironic” if not just a bit on the nose. The issue is, compared to characters like Schierke and Shinobu, Eri’s character starts and ends with her status as a plot device. She has no personality, not much of a backstory, not much of anything really, but the story expects you to care and buy into the other characters’ investment in saving her because she’s a little girl. It’s such an easy out.
Deku in Season 4 is like that beater car you bought with your first two paychecks in high school. 6 years later and now it has a tacky spoiler, phone mount, and a full tank of gas. At this point, you can’t be bothered to change anything about it because you’re just going to get rid of it when given the chance. Deku in Season 4 is just Deku from Season 1, except now he has cup-holders. I get that the intent was to make his conflict simple and relatable for the audience by having him overcome his bullies as well as the societal role handed to him because of his shortcomings. But all of that hard work and studying is undercut by the number of plot conveniences and hand-outs hoisted upon him. For as hard as Horikoshi tries to make this kid relatable, his character arc feels as insincere as Naruto finding out he was kid Jesus.
That said, Horikoshi, please, You have A TON of characters in Class 1-A that have yet to do much of anything, stop needlessly proliferating this fucking cast like a pack of rabbits in heat and use the characters you’ve already established for crying out loud! Bakugo for instance, he had a great character arc that culminated fantastically in the previous season! He’s an afterthought in this season!
The conflict in My Hero Academia just isn’t palpable. Cutting up Deku's fingers and giving him a sunburn on his arm just isn’t good enough for me. Having All Might fall from grace is a given, but a good step in the right direction but that’s not enough to hold things over for much longer. There is no tension in this series, it’s only a step-up from shows like Fairy Tail that tout friendship and love as a badge of honor. Nothing of significant consequence happens in this show’s story, and Season 4 perhaps the worst offender of that notion to date.
In itself, the entire concept of having these kids do work-study/interning for agencies that will very likely throw them in perilous situations is just asinine to me. The series made it a point of conflict in the past to highlight the school's reckless abandon for security as a fundamental flaw in the system, so why leave these kids to handle these situations on their own when death is clearly a looming danger? I get that these kids are hot-shots with provisional licenses but why leave Mirio, Tamaki, Deku, Kirishima, etc. to their own devices when they are clearly dealing with literal Yakuza who are out for their heads at any given chance? For consistency’s sake, isn’t that an incredible oversight in terms of the school’s security policy? Does this piece of plastic essentially wipe the school’s hands clean of any responsibility if a death were to occur while a student is on assignment interning for an agency?
You know, maybe it’s just the child murder renaissance we’re living in (I’m American if you couldn’t tell), but it’s not like Horikoshi has a limited roster to choose from. It’s a simple solution and admittedly would probably only put a bandaid on this series’ several chronic ailments, but having the guts to kill a major character from 1-A can be spun in a variety of ways. Imagine the fallout and backlash this would cause for the school. Imagine how Deku would internalize this. That’s an interesting conflict to work with, and as I already hammered down on, this show is in DESPERATE need of decent conflict and tension.
Oh God, I haven’t even touched base with the villains yet.
I have my reservations about Stain, his paper-thin platitudes, and the very obvious holes in his flawed ideology, but I could buy into his persona as a delusional loon with a few screws loose. Overhaul doesn’t really have much of an excuse.
The dude comes in and kills one of Shigaraki’s goons (good, Shigaraki and the League of Villains get on my fucking nerves) and clearly carries himself with a menacing cool. Another notable aspect to his character is his overtly paradoxical ideology. So you’re telling me the guy considers Quirks a plague upon humanity (setting aside the fact that he himself heavily relies on his own Quirk) and his master plan is to create a vaccine as well as a vaccine for the vaccine...because Yakuza? Overhaul is a joke, to put it bluntly, and to further rub salt in the wound, he lets a loser like Shigaraki get the best of him.
Gentle and La Brava have been both hated and lauded for their pitiable backstories and relatability. If it wasn’t made clear by La Brava spelling it out during their fight, Gentle is essentially a “this could’ve been you” character for Deku. Gentle lacked the aptitude and ambition to make the cut as a pro-hero and spirals into depression when he is ostracized from society after making a miscalculation. Listen, I appreciate the sentiment and under the supervision of a better writer, this very well could’ve been an effective dynamic, but does anyone really expect the thematic underpinnings of these two characters’ stories to significantly alter the trajectory of the story or Deku’s character?
The story has already moved on without them like they never mattered. It’s like Horikoshi lacks the self-awareness to realize that these villains deeply undermine Deku as a character. I get such mixed messages as to what the point of these characters was because they only make Deku look like even more of a child of privilege. Was that the message he was trying to convey by introducing and disposing of these villains? That if you hit a rut in life but still have that fire in your belly to realize your dreams and “be a hero” maybe some venerable benefactor will literally drop from the heavens and bail you out? It’s depressing to think about.
Fittingly, there were plenty of power-point reminiscent montage stills of characters just doing things, really dialed back my clock to high school when I would do the same thing. I guess that was the point since they’re in high school? But hey, at least Horikoshi’s designs are perdy to look at. I haven’t fully kept up on news as far as this season’s production schedule but it’s worth noting that this season was produced in tandem with a film (that I’ve yet to see) which apparently affected which animators were available to work on the TV series. Maybe my eye isn’t trained enough to catch the subtleties in the key-frames or perhaps my lack of investment in the manga makes this a point of contention that just flew over my head, but this season seemed pretty par for the course for the previous seasons. If there’s one thing I’ll say about Horikoshi, it’s that he’s a fantastic character designer and a pretty talented artist, even if the anime doesn’t properly translate his panel-work.
Horikoshi has gone on record taking breaks for “research”, but in reality, I feel that research is really just to buy himself time to conjure more story. For lack of a better phrase, it really does just feel like he’s making shit up as he goes along or rehashing the same story with a shallow coat of paint. This season is so under-written that you could basically just read a list of a handful of notable bullet points and skip the entire thing without missing so much as a good action sequence. Perhaps I’m overthinking it, but to that end, I’d say that cutting this show slack is only doing a disservice to the countless number of well-wrought comic books and battle shonen to choose from in this modern era. Some may call this a predictable review, and to them I say, it’s only appropriate to fight fire with fire.
Johan__Liebert_
My hero academia, after having an explosion in its popularity while season 2 was airing, is arguably the most popular shounen right now that is not One Piece. And the hype is mostly deserved be it for having a well-balanced cast of characters, or for the fantastically animated and choreographed fights, the latter of which had a massive dip in quality this season. This entire season does not live up to the extreme hype perpetuated by the manga community. The animation is very stiff even relying on still frames at times; the characters feel like they haven’t progressed at all since the beginning of season3 even though some of them went through huge developments; the main antagonist, Overhaul, isn’t explored through introspection, and the potential he had is lost when reliance on flashbacks is preferred for the “justification” of his motives.
Every season of MHA can be broken down into two sections, viz. the villains attacking UA, and the villains planning on attacking UA, and this season is no different. The season can be split into two parts – Overhaul arc, and the Cultural Festival arc. Herein lies the pacing problem of the show, the splitting of a season into two works for seasonal runtime but in reality, the actual plot, the story that it set out to tell, has been lost somewhere. It has been 88 episodes since the debut of the first episode and we have seen very little plot progression. The overhaul arc was unnecessarily long, eating up 17 episodes when it could’ve been truncated to 12. The said arc, though entertaining, did little for almost all characters, except Kirishima and Mirio, and was of even less import in the big scheme of things.
For me the characters in MHA have always been the highlight. The characters are quintessential shounen characters but are imbued with subtle nuances and traits, but after witnessing them in this season I feel like they’re slowly regressing back to being just your average shounen protagonists and sidekicks. Bakugo for example, who had a change of personality in the preceding season, is more or less back to his previously angry self for no reason. Sure, there are changes to his prior disposition, but they don’t seem to follow up. Midoriya had some interesting moments in S3, for example the aftereffects of his fights with Muscular and Bakugo were enduring to watch, but this season he has reverted back to being the character who says “I want to become stronger” a lot. Kirishima and Mirio get some good character work done on them and I’m thankful for that. Kirishima’s backstory with Mina did feel like a plot device as we’ve almost never seen them interact as friends on any prior occasion, but suddenly it’s revealed that Mina was in the same middle school as Kirishima? I call BS.
Sir Nighteye, Mirio’s mentor and All Might’s former sidekick is introduced this season, who had chosen Mirio to be the successor to All Might and was against the fact that All Might had passed on One for All to Midoriya. This leads to the development of some great character dynamics between Midoriya and Nighteye, which, unfortunately were only touched upon superficially. It had potential to lay solid groundwork for Midoriya’s development, but no such task is undertaken by the author.
One unfounded complaint I’ve heard about this season is that only a few characters get the focus while the rest are discarded which is a problem only if you see it as one. Other characters do get the spotlight at various instances in the previous seasons, but the seasonal nature of the show makes it seem like characters are forgotten at times. Take the Chimera Ant Arc in Hunter x Hunter for example. In this arc two of the main protagonists are not given any screen time for 60 straight episodes and no one batted an eye.
As for the main antagonist this season, Overhaul, was neither exceptional nor bad, he was just OK. He didn’t stand out as much as Stain did, but he felt like a rehashed version of him. I liked Overhaul aka Chisaki as a character, but his motivations are baseless and his ‘means justify the end’ scream hypocrisy. He proclaims that quirks are diseases and should not be allowed to transfer on the next generation, but at the same time invents drugs to increase the potency of one’s quirk.
Speaking of antagonists, it doesn’t feel like the main antagonist of the series, Shigaraki Tomura, has done much progressing since the beginning of the series. I really hope he gets some major role in the upcoming seasons, because I’m honestly starting to get tired of him. At least he’s stopped scratching his neck and being pissed about anything and everything, which is a plus, I guess.
One of the most disappointing aspects of this season has been the lackluster animation. The fights don’t have the fluidity they possessed in the earlier seasons. For the climax of one of the biggest fights this season, Mirio vs Overhaul, we get an amazing slideshow which anyone could’ve made given they had access to the manga, photoshop and MS Powerpoint. They totally made up for it in the succeeding fight, but the stagnant animation and lack of music towards the climax of the previously mentioned fight really takes away much of the poignancy off the payoff.
The animation is by no means bad, but it’s not what I’ve come to expect form My Hero Academia. I hope they’ll fix it in the Blu-ray.
The music is great as always. I wasn’t a fan of either the first or the second opening and ending songs, but that’s just me. Rest of the music, though misused at times, was great.
For me, this season of MHA has been the weakest season yet. I’m more disappointed in the writing and pacing in this season than I am in the animation.
ziIIa
Boku no Hero Academia 4 was one of the most underwhelming of the series I’ve seen yet but also the most exciting season I’ve seen yet. The transition between Season 3 and Season 4 was mainly the cause of the first arc being underwhelming and awkward to even begin with. Despite this, the series was still able to barely push out of the boulder it trapped itself in and put momentum into it. Despite the first arc being called dragged out by many people, I would beg to differ. The first arc may not have been as straightforward as how a shounen anime should have been,I believe it was the right choice to have done it this way. The grief Midoriya and the others felt, the stress and effort they were put under when strategizing for this invasion were all build-up to the climax of the arc. They poured all their effort into strategizing for the invasion and it portrays how both sides were going to deal with the opposing parties. The determination and grit Lemillion and Deku held wouldn’t have been portrayed well enough without the so-called “unnecessary drag”. Eri wasn’t the only one suffering, everybody was. It was the right move to have portrayed that.
Putting the considerably unstable and controversial first arc aside, we reached the second arc—the School Festival Arc. Well, basically my favorite arc every anime that ever had it. However, I really liked how Boku no Hero Academia moved with this arc. Believe me or not, I’m not a big fan of battle shounen. That also goes to show that I’m not the biggest fan of Boku no Hero Academia either. However, one thing that caught my attention the most is the festival arcs. They do exceptionally well in that factor, and this School Festival arc allowed me to reassure myself with that claim.
In the Sports Festival, they were able to portray and develop the students of Class 1A. One of the notable ones would be Todoroki, his backstory heavily portrayed who he is now, and his battle with Midoriya changed him. There are a lot more I could talk about it but this is not the right review, so I’ll hold back my words and use it for a more appropriate occasion. Now back to the School Festival, I loved how this time they portrayed and developed the more underrated characters, one of them especially is Jirou—best girl. She felt unappreciated and this was the perfect time for her to shine. But most importantly, this arc’s main focus wasn’t just about having fun, it was also to make a certain girl smile again. To get her out of the self-deprecation she is in and the stress she’s put herself under, just to see Eri’s precious smile again was something that just made me go, “TAKE MY MONEY“. I’ve been there before, emotionally scarred and ended up being a self-deprecating freak. People may find her smiling again being trivial and some may not even be concerned about it, but to me, I treasure it a lot. Being able to stand up again and face humanity is a great feat.
We also had a small follow up with Todoroki and the rest about their licensing exam, which also gave us a quick outlook on what’s happening to the world. My favorite one being quirks getting more and more complex. Reason? It’s realistic, just like how humans constantly evolve, get smarter and make more complex things; Quirks constantly evolve and start to give itself more and more variety, with the result being those children. This can potentially be an arc in the future and I’m curious to see how they deal with it.
Overall, Boku no Hero Academia Season 4 has its share of flaws, one thing I think they’ll still have to work on is transitioning. However besides that, the OP and EDs are as great as ever, the characters are still as fun as ever. And most importantly, you’ll have a blast watching it!
On a side note, stay healthy, stay at home and keep watching anime!
Stark700
The annual tradition continues and that means, we have another season of hero and villains in this franchise we should all be familiar with by now: My Hero Academia. With the expanding roster, this is a franchise that has been adding its legacy to catch up to the manga at every chance it gets. But with all the chances it has cashed on, isn’t it ironic that the more we see this show, the weaker it gets? As someone who has been following this anime from the very beginning back in 2016, this season hit me like a hammer on the hand. And that’s nota pleasant feeling.
We start out with a seemingly long recap event episode because the season decided it’s suitable to retell the plot most fans are familiar with. Shounen adaptations are known for this cliché but My Hero Academia seems to let the narrative run its mouth with no shame. Nonetheless, we are soon given the circumstances of a new threat in the form of a character named Overhaul. He leads a group known as the Eight Precepts of Death and acts as one of the major antagonists this season. What he has is an ambition, a personal goal this season to wipe out individuals with quirks. This seemingly goal is driven by his deep desire to reform the world and in essence, allow him to rule with dominance. The first half of the season deals with this looming threat in society as his ideals and plans clashes with the heroes.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll realize that My Hero Academia consists of a large cast of heroes made up of unique individuals with special abilities. Among the main cast is a young boy named Deku and up to this season, he has evolved into a confident hero with an identity. He’s making a name of himself in both the public and underworld for his deeds and even earned the respect of powerful heroes such as All Might. In this season, he also catches the attention of Nighteye, an intimidating pro hero with great intelligence but also one shrouded with mystery. And as the season progresses, Deku once again gets caught up into complicated affairs with events of the dark side. We soon meet Eri, a young girl who is an absolute essential to Overhaul’s grand plans. Eri’s innocence and vulnerability shows that Overhaul is willingly to do anything to make his dream come true. Unfortunately, she becomes a trapped animal just waiting to be used like an experimental weapon. A main objective involves the heroes trying to prevent Overhaul’s plans from succeeding and also free Eri from her cage.
But how should the audience judge Eri? On the surface level, she’s a vulnerable girl with a dark past. It doesn’t take long for us to realize that she is fearful not just for society but herself. The quirk she possesses causes great psychological distress to the point that she is socially withdrawn from people. That is…until she meets Deku. Fate seems to designate him to change Eri’s future of becoming an experimental weapon. Deku’s ambition to help Eri see the light and rebuilding her life is a complicated process. It takes time, commitment, and is a personal challenge for Eri. Given her age, she’s at the stage in life where there are limitless choices. If she makes the wrong choices, she could become a person worse she is now. But of course, Deku is there to guide her to make the right choices. That’s right, this season has this theme about choices in which characters follow their paths. It’s a recycled concept since the beginning and honestly, Season 4 doesn’t step up to the plate with its storytelling. Even with returning characters such as Toga, Twice, Eijiro, All Might, Fat Gum, and others getting some occasional spotlight, the show never seems to take risks to be more different from its previous seasons. In respect, it’s easy to feel bored when watching this season with the oversaturated character cast. In some cases, it injects elements of humor with comedic episodes. These include the heroes interacting with kids or character gags such as Bakugo’s short temper. But is that what the fans really want?
Honestly, it’s an ambiguous question but after running over three seasons, My Hero Academia feels like it’s overstayed its welcome. Let’s face it, the show took its hero elements to the point where there’s not much more it can expand on. Or at least from face value, this became a season that’s hard to get excited about. There are fans that have said this season had potential to be the best one but to me, it’s far from the truth. Maybe if you’re a hardcore fan of the franchise, this could be like a Christmas present. But for most people, My Hero Academia Season 4 seems more like a show for fans to see what else is really new rather than what to get excited for. Sure, there are some new characters introduced but they don’t make a heavy impact in the show together. The biggest culprit is Eri, an underdeveloped character that needs more time to really appreciate. Likewise, you’re probably not going come out of this season with a memorable quote besides the iconic ‘Plus Ultra’.
With four seasons and a fifth one announced for future broadcasting, this is a franchise that I think people needs to start keeping their hype in check. I used to really enjoy the previous seasons but this sequel has showed me that it contains haunting weaknesses. And while I do appreciate this series for making the hero theme more popular for the anime medium, time has done its damage in the creativity realm. That is to say, you can certainly watch season 4 and it has its moments. But getting excited about it? That’s sadly a bit out of reach.
CrimsonWanderer
There it is, the fourth installment of one of the most successful battle shounen of the recent years. 4 seasons and 2 movies in the spawn of 4 years is no joke. Hero Academia had the charm of being simple and for that, I respected it. I used to be a fanboy for the first 3 seasons, thinking it was one of the best recent shounen, peaking at Stain's arc and delivering a great sendoff with AFO vs OFA, and after season 3 ended, I came to realize that it wasn't as good as I initially thought, but I still respected it for it's simplicity. Itwasn't until Season 4 came that everything fell apart and I started to realize how the small issues that were present before started to mass, draining the enjoyment and love I once had with this series. You see, there's nothing wrong on aiming for something different, the problem is, that many things that Season 4 introduced, were introduced way too late and/or felt like a spit to the face. Suddenly, the simplicity I praised on this anime, vanished, and every detail on the plot started to be spoon fed to you as if you were mentally ill to the point is obnoxious. I understand the point of adding flashbacks and monologues, that's important when it comes to the manga, because manga lacks animation, so it's understandable that they add the thought process of the characters and what are they thinking on certain scenarios, however, when it comes to anime, you can rely more on "show, don't tell" instead of relying on monologues and flashbacks to explain what's happening. We can see what's happening, we know what the characters are thinking by looking at their reaction, there's no need to keep showing the same flashbacks over and over again. You may debate whether or not the audience that this anime is aiming for needs it or not, but I refuse to think that teenagers need to be constantly told what a character is thinking to understand what's happening. Nighteye's flashbacks were exhausted to the point it was obvious what was going to happen, because, if you remember, Deku is the one narrating his own story, so we know as a fact that he's going to succeed no matter what. All emotional weight Nighteye could've had is thrown to the drain by this fact. His quirk should have been only movement prediction rather than future sight. The only way that could've worked were if Nighteye's future sight wasn't put on Deku, but rather, on another character that doesn't have plot armor and could actually had the risk of dying, like Mirio for example.
Now that I talk about it, remember when I said that this season felt like a spit to the face? Mirio, is part of this problem, not because I hate him or anything, but because it's crystal clear that he should have been the main character since day one, it shadows Deku in every way and his quirk, while it doesn't rely on random power ups, is the best when it comes to skills, it's a matter of seeing how bravely Mirio fought against Overhaul. This isn't just about Mirio, Gentle, while I hated him for being a shitty excuse of a villain, still had a better and understandable background story than Daddy Issues Shigaraki, if Gentle were a Day 1 villain, I probably wouldn't have hated him. Sadly, just like Stain, Mirio and Gentle are just disposable plot devices for Deku.
This season also fell on the same mistakes many battle shounen do (specially, recent battle shounen) and it's the poor power balance these series have. I once praised the creativity behind quirks and how I thought it was a great power system, boy I was wrong. It felt in the same problem Re:Creators had, there's barely any control to it, it was never properly explained, and, because of that, broken and overpowered quirks is a thing. Let's take Hunter x Hunter for example, it's power system is very open and wide, but it's restricted to the user and it's type and achieving incredible powers has a lot of consequences, it's only through long long training that Gon and Killua were capable of improving a lot without random power ups, not a single character in HxH felt broken and/or over powered with no reason. Ever since AFO vs OFA, Hero Academia kept adding over powered stuff for the fun of it. Deku's fight against Overhaul was extremely insulting as it was a battle of insane powers rather of skills: Overhaul transforming himself into a giant while Deku had a battery on his back that was able to restore him, making him able to use his powers to the max without breaking his bones. It was just a flashy fight of insane powers clashing with each other with absolutely no value at all, Bones then relies on adding cheap audiovisual value in an attempt to make this fight memorable, but backfires, as the whole fight isn't even tense at all, specially since we know Deku succeeds. All the budget should have gone towards Mirio's fight rather than Deku. There is this short middle arc for the ones who failed the license exam, which is one of the most ridiculous things I've seen when it comes to power balance, can someone explain me, how the heck does some kids have full control of crazy abbilities and better thought process than heroes in training?
Another big problem of this season, is that it keeps introducing more and more and more characters, which, if done right, shouldn't be a problem, however, we already have a large cast of characters, which, not even half of them are relevant and aren't really fleshed out properly, yet, this anime introduces way more characters, shadowing those that were already established, and even if they get their spotlight, it arrives way too late. If, we had a smaller cast, this could've worked way better, that way characters wouldn't be left out and development would feel rewarding. Giving several characters a tiny bit of development each time the story feels like remembering them isn't a good way to develop or even try to add depth to a character. There is a good chunk of characters that doesn't add ANYTHING to the plot, and makes me think, how the likes of Mineta or the Invisible girl approved the hero test while someone like Gentle didn't. It just doesn't make sense and it's heavily contrived in favor of shitty comic relief and wasted potential.
Talking about Comedy, while it is a very subjective topic, making a joke by explicitly making a character point it out ISN'T BY ANY MEANS FUNNY, it actually ruins the visual joke which are all lame and repetitive anyway. Recent battle shounen comedy heavily relies on doing silly faces and very predictable jokes that are often out of place.
The only thing left out to talk about is the animation, which took a massive downgrade of still frames that were already happening since Season 3. I know there was a movie in the making, but that's not excuse for doing a power point presentation. The scene I'm talking about is Mirio's fight, which entirely consisted on still frames, specially the quirkless Mirio part. Many people excuses this by saying that all they got in the manga was a black panel of Deku Narrating what happened, but that's not an excuse. David Production did a 1 minute lenght of 4 small manga panels for Vento Aureo, so why couldn't Bones do it?
If only this anime had stuck to it's main simplicity instead of aiming for a more ambitious approach, things could've gone better, what I got in return was a disjointed ambitious project filled with plot holes, plot devices, conveniences, wasted potential for ideas that could've worked since day one and many other small issues that made this season a complete disappointment.
Phasar2022
You Say Garbage My Hero Academia continues its quest to systematically murder the battle-shounen genre in its 4th installment, which promises to be more epic than any that came before it. Can it end its previous seasons' trends of never developing its secondary cast in any meaningful way, making its characters mary sues, never giving enough time to important events, and using one repeated piece of OST to cover for its lack of substance? Nope. To elaborate: The overhaul arc happened. And when it happens, oh boy does it happen with a whimper. It wasn't like the show had built up a reputation for delivering on hyped up charactersin any way, starting the trend of squandering all for one last season immediately following beating the first villain of the show in the second episode he showed up in... but nonetheless, it felt like overhaul was going to be different. It felt like he was going to pose a real threat. And the show doesn't put itself out to make you feel like anyone is legitimately threatened except for, ironically, other villains.
This kind of character wouldn't be a problem in seasons 1 or 2. Keep in mind, shounen progression usually deals with this kind of format where the enemies get progressively more and more hyped as they go on, even when the pacing stays consistant and power scaling isn't an issue. But that's what shiguraki's first appearence and stain were for. We're way past the point where villains should posing a real threat to our main characters, and we still haven't seen enough of this beyond the one time somebody killed a dude in season 3. An unbelievable butchering ang plummeting in quality in nearly all aspects of the show that was previously. Animation is the most obvious downgrade, but isn't even the worst aspect of this terrible season. The sound mixing... most people don't mention this, but it is bizarely bad. There are episodes with awkward silence and literally no background noises and music. I've never seen it this bad anywhere else.
Every character was flanderized and/or made act like a young child. The story became boring, horrendously paced, self-contradictory and hones in on borderline creepy levels on this one girl, every single character's lives now seem to revolve around her for no particular reason, and no one has any other goals, except to.. play in a band?
A joke of a season and I don't see the point to break down everything wrong with it, because that would take absurdly long and in no way be worth it.
Deku's trend of beating everybody on the first try sucks for a shounen like this, and it continues all throughout this season. It's horseshit. Every time he needs to, he has a new upgrade to perfectly deal with every new guy that shows up. And somehow it's always just through the virtue of being the most epic perfect guy ever, which I just don't buy. Deku is trash. He is always treated like he is so much better than all the other characters (hes not), and whenever there is a new villain he just happens to get a new upgrade or learn a new technique that will make it much easier to beat the villain. He always beats the villain easily and I personally just dont like his character.(also i wish he had a cooler quirk.SUPER STRENGTH??? REALLY??) If you want to watch shounen just watch naruto, its so much better.(except for all the annoying fillers).
If the show has to position itself perfectly around a character just to prove how great they are, that makes that character a mary sue. And that's what deku has become. It's asinine, and after 4 seasons I'm just sick of him being treated more importantly than everybody else. He's lost any good will as a protagonist. And his character stays totally stale during season 4.
The season's most egregious sin was once again playing you say run over an "epic" moment to give it that feel, even though the moment they played it over was mundane and empty of personal emotion for the characters involved. Every time they do this I can just picture the director, bashing his head on the table while reading the source material just wondering how he can possibly make this wet fart of a final scene have any impact at all before he has an "eureka" moment and slams it in the "add you say run" cupboard.
The only good parts of this show were the villains besides overhaul. The league of villains feels like the return of the phantom troupe, and is the group I would rather be focusing on, and Gentle Criminale is probably the only character I could see deserving a main character slot in this show, as he's actually more likable than the entire main cast as well as La Brava (but of course the anime sucks deku's dick the entire time he's onscreen regardless). Suneater and Red Riot had good episodes, but they were rare good moments in an otherwise horrible season of anime that I couldn't wait to be over with.
All of the secondary cast besides those are wasted. Everyone besides the main few are treated like sideshow acts, some characters still only get anything to do when there's nothing at stake. The characters were so wasted they even kill them off before we have a chance to care who they are.
The animation was fine despite suffering slide-show disease in a few episodes, and the music, being multiple versions of the same fucking track i've heard a billion times on "inspirational compilations on youtube", sucked balls. Make a new fucking song.
You may notice that the overall score is much lower than the other parts of the score. That's because this show rates a 0 in seasonal improvement, bringing the average down.
If nothing else, MHA 4 proves that the series has no desire to grow or improve, respect its own ideas or characters, actually bother to write real drama, or innovate in any way. And you gotta respect a show that proves itself.
2/10.
DarthInvader
*Minimum Spoiler Review* TL;DR: Same Story, Same Studio, Same kid yelling Plus Ultra 10 billion times; but makes you wonder, is the source material just shit or the director just couldn't stand up to the task? Just a trainwreck of an anime. [Story: 4/10 , Characters: 5/10, Art: 6/10, Sound: 7/10, Enjoyment: 6/10] “When you’re really scared.. When your life is really on the line… Your true colors show.” - Red Riot "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Never before did I think I would use such a quote to describe an anime series butafter finishing watching this season of BNHA, I think it fits it perfectly. I was so hyped going into this season. The plots were set, the character arcs were foreshadowed, the epic fights were pre-hyped but something just felt off from the previous seasons. When it mattered the most, nothing came together. I watched this show every week but as I watched more, slowly it felt like watching someone pretty just letting themselves go; not caring about their looks, their appearance, their weight, not even their personality. This season of BNHA is not the BNHA I fell in love with. It's like someone new came into the life and completely changed the recipe for its previous successes. Lo' behold, after some simple research, turns out there was someone, Director Masahiro Mukai. He just came in and completely changed the recipe. There is a reason they say too many cooks spoil the broth and this season of BNHA completely validates that issue.
"Do you have a plan? A goal with no plan is called a delusion." - Kai Chisaki
Let's dive into the plot. Pacing wise, it's not too bad. There weren't many flashbacks, just ones that were needed but overall a linear story that was easy to follow. The story starts off from previous season, and it was foreshadowed that we will finally get to see Lemillion and Overhaul go at it alongside Deku. They started it off well setting up the backstory of the Yakuza org and their goal/role in this hero/villain society as well as Deku & Lemillion working in the same agency as All Might's ex-sidekick. However, when the actual confrontation happened with the Yakuza, Police and League of Villain, without spoiling anything, it just became a screaming contest. Usually you would expect the plot to unfold through fights and through dialogues exchanged between the hero and the villain, but none of that happened. It was just people screaming others names for 20 mins straight. Finally they ended with that arc and we moved over to the next mini arc. Hero examination for the failed heroes. That arc could've redeemed itself from the previous pitfall but that too became this philosophical screaming bs about what it means to be a hero and how should one lead as an example to be an icon for kids. Don't get me wrong, it's a noble effort but it was just adapted really poorly plus the story was setup so poorly that it didn't deserve an arc. Lastly, the whole Gentle Criminal and Loli Cyberhacker crashes school festival arc was so cringey and just infuriating to watch. It had the potential to showcase how villains are born from failure to become heroes but the whole old man with edgy stalker loli lover trying to get a gentle hurrah of experiencing high school life just didn't sit well with me. Now it could be that the source material for this season was overall shit but if that's the case then cut it short. Don't beat a dead horse for money to produce movies. Just get on with other arcs that may be of more importance. They should've chucked them into the OVA category because the whole time it felt like watching filler episodes. Gave me serious Naruto vibes. Oh how the wannabe mighty have fallen.
"Even trash has its pride. If someone has expectations for us.. then we need to meet them." - Yu Hojo
Beside the shitty arcs and plot adaptation of this season, usually watching the characters grow is something very significant and worthwhile to watch in this anime. This season, apart from Deku and maybe Lemillion, no one really had major growth that will be tangibly relevant in the future. If anything, the only thing all the characters in this show learned was to smile more. There weren't really new cool techniques being taught or learned nor discovering how villains completely utilize their power for pure antagonizing mischiefs. The show was doing well focusing on growth of side characters and using it as a foil for Deku's growth but this season they just hard focused on Deku's growth and in the end all he learned was to flick his finger. On and also how to pop lock and groove. Disappointing. Just simply disappointing. Hopefully next season they learn that it's better to let all the classmates grow in unison than just one. Here's to hoping it was the source material's fault once again.
"My dream is not so trivial that I can just give it up when someone tells me to." - Gentle Criminal
Now usually the shining factor for any studio Bones anime is their awesometacular animation and breathtaking OST accompanying the anime. This season on the other hand had some of the most still frames used that I've ever seen. If we were to count how many still frames were used to undercut the animation budget, I'm sure, all previous seasons combined wouldn't reach this season's level. It really felt like watching something cheap than the usual polished animation I've grown accustomed to witnessing from this anime and studio. There were some epic fights that either had such godlike music but with lazy still frames or crisply animated animations with misplaced boring OST accompanying it. It seemed the directors were never on the same page and as I said earlier, having two directors definitely ruins the overall experience of the anime as a whole from the technical aspect. The OP song was alright and the ED song was bearable. The OST on the other hand is good if you just listen to it on it's own but during the anime it felt slightly mismatched. Atleast the seiyuus working on this anime kept giving their plus ultra effort to save the show. Kudos to them for sure.
"A society without cheer and humor will not have a bright future.” - Nighteye
Overall, this season of BNHA 4, just leaves a bad aftertaste in your mouth after watching it. As weeks past, I became less hype to watch the next episode. The animation had too many still frames for my expectation and liking and the direction of this anime left a lot to be desired. This isn't the BNHA I know and enjoy. It felt like I was watching a budget version of an epic show that used to always steal awards on anime award shows. It also felt like the studio just didn't get their hands on many key animators. It was definitely sad. Anyways, if you watched the other BNHA seasons, I say you should still watch this trainwreck of a season. Maybe speed through it, since the way it ends and the sequel it foreshadows, next season can be better provided they stick with the original director of the anime. Regardless, thank you for reading this review & feel free to share with me your favourite quote as well as one thing you hated in this anime. Ciao.
P.S. Thank you for reading. I hope you found this short and supaishi review helpful!
Sopseii
My hero academia, one of modern big three. I absolutely loved the first 2 seasons. S3, for me was weak and repetitive, it had some epic and good moments but as a whole it was a disappointment. I am maybe in the minority, but by season 4 MHA made a comeback. I really enjoyed this season even though it had some animation and pacing inconsistencies at the beginning. The things that made this season my favorite, or at least its better than S3 [MINOR SPOILERS] 1.The story arcs- • Overhaul arc – it is one the most serious and best arcs up until now. It had emotions, majorlosses, fights, focus in characters other than Deku and Bakugo. FOR THE FIRST TIME CLASS 1A was not the main focus for the villains and others. In short story wise it had an improvement.
•School festival arc –This is the first time I liked a calm / training arc from MHA. This arc was really good in allowing focus on other character like JIRO, ERI, etc. The performance was awesome. We had a really good calm arc.
Gentle was first introduced as a low threat funny villain, but at the during the end of the arc I felt more towards both Gentle and La Brava, wishes to see them more in the future.
2.Side character focus and development-
I liked that in the overhaul arc the usual class A vs villain formula was not used. Instead it took only few from the class, which allowed more focus and background on characters like Kirishima [which previous seasons were weak in doing]. We also got focus on two of the big 3 characters. Eri as a character grew on me with passing episodes, hope to see more involvement from her in the future.
now let me tell the problems I felt from this season.
•Pacing – pacing was definitely an issue up to 10 episodes. But later it kinda picked up.
•Animation – The major eps had nice animation, but some of the episodes had weaker animation quality compared to other seasons.
[SPOILERS]
Midoriya vs Overhaul, to me it was the best fight Midoriya has in this series. He was able to use 100 percent full cowling for this fight.
Nighteye was a character you will feel the lose of. His last scenes were touching. Mirio being out of action for a while is also a big thing
Kirishima was given good focus, now doesn’t feel like a background character anymore. Hope future season will give some focus on the rest of characters in at least class A.
Jiro is one the characters I feel like will not do good in a fighting arc except for maybe support, so the festival arc was one the arc where characters like her can get more focus. So far they have been only focusing on Midoriya and Bakugo even in the training/calm arcs. So this time was a first and is appreciated hope for similar arcs with a character focus as a calm arc.
The license arc was also pretty good, was enjoyable. We got focus on Endeavour.
[ THIS SEAON HAD THE BEST FINAL EPISODE] literally fire.
[only small spoilers ]
• Story 8.5 awesome
Story arcs in this were better than S3. More side character focus, serious fight, more mature, more risk and huge losses, better calm arcs than every season.
Overhaul arc is my favorite arc from MHA.
The festival arc was the best calm /training arc in this series yet. It had some purpose in it.
Villains were awesome. [Overhaul, Gentle]
For the first time the League of villains felt scary
• Art and animation 8.5 Pretty good
Art and animation was weakest in this season even though the major scenes had good animation, some scenes in the season felt lacking in the ‘BONES’ quality.
• Fights 8.5 awesome
Fights were awesome and more serious.
Over vs deku, Kaminari’s fights, Mirio’s, Gentle vs deku.
Last ep was fire.
• Sound 10 Outstanding
The osts are really good like always.
• Character 8.5 very Good
This season we had some improves in character focuses and development. Usually only the developed ones were developed further, rest of the cast were still blunt, just to add numbers in the classroom. But this season we got focus on others characters, which is a ‘+’ in this season.
Mirio, Eri, Kirishima, Jiro, Endeavour were focused this season. HOPE FUTURE SEASONS FOLLOW THIS TREND.
• Enjoyment 8.5 AWESOME-
[I didn’t like season 3 that much like the rest, to me it had some boring arcs at the end and beginning parts, the same training, battle, training formula was followed in which the training arcs were boring]
So This season made me love MHA again, gave me hope again. Definitely excited for season 5
• Overall 8.5
It was a comeback for mha in my opinion, at least it felt to me, made me love MHA again.
In short this season was weaker in pacing and animation, but it had better arcs, more character focuses, felt more serious, major losses, best calm arcs, best last episode, good villains etc.
AnimeBW
It’s always a weird feeling where I feel like I have to play defense for the most popular, widely beloved franchises on the market. But that’s the paradox of ubiquity: when an anime, movie franchise, TV show, book series, or whatever become so popular that pretty much everyone’s at least heard about it, it can be easy to take it for granted. They become so omnipresent that we forget what made them good in the first place, and we forget how to love them in the same way we used to. Small wonder the cry of “overrated” has become so prominent in today’s criticism; itcan be so hard sometimes to divorce the most popular stories from that popularity and approach them as if seeing them for the first time. But it behooves us to remember: things get popular for a reason. Sure, there’s plenty of garbage that amasses a following by appealing to the lowest common denominator (Twilight, the Transformers movies). But when something becomes beloved enough to rule the conversation- the MCU, Miyazaki movies, there’s a good chance it’s because it’s good enough to actually goddamn deserve it.
Which is why I now find myself here once again, feeling the need to remind today’s anime fandom that My Hero Academia is still really damn good.
Yes, it feels like 2019 was the year the anime community finally got tired of Deku and company. With stuff like Promised Neverland, Demon Slayer and Doctor Stone taking up the mantle of hype shonen series for everyone to rally around, the first truly mainstream anime success story since Attack on Titan and One Punch Man felt like it was falling by the wayside. I’ve seen so many people lately who just seem exhausted with the whole thing, with heroes and villains, with UA Academy, with All-Might and One-For-All and All-For-One. And if no other semi-serious anime analyst is gonna step up in its defense, then it might as well be me. My Hero Academia isn’t perfect, and it never was, but at its core, this is still the best vanguard modern anime could possibly ask for. It’s inspirational and emotional, genuinely hilarious with great characters, packed to the gills with stellar animation courtesy of Studio Bones, and constantly striving to be a hot-blooded shonen with something to say about the nature of heroism and its place in society. There’s a reason why this show’s first season is second only to Naruto in MAL popularity for long-running shonen action titles, why this franchise is one of the rare few to break out of the otaku dungeon and achieve mainstream success in the United States and beyond. And I will be damned if franchise fatigue makes us forget why we fell in love with it in the first place.
All that being said, I do understand the lukewarm reception this latest season has received. Especially after the crowning achievement of awesome that was season 3, season 4 feels like a step down in pretty much every way. Like all of MHA’s two-cours seasons, it’s pretty evenly split between two separate arcs, and the first one is by far the stronger of the two. The Overhaul arc sees our plucky heroes confront villains in official capacity for the first time, using their fancy new provisional licenses to team up with established hero teams and go after the dangerous, mysterious Overhaul, the League of Villains’ latest uneasy ally. It’s the darkest the show has ever gotten, bringing Deku and company up to the big leagues with a truly chilling undercurrent of menace and brutality. Overhaul’s gang are all dangerous beyond belief, and the emotional and physical trials the heroes undergo to bring them down make for some truly nail-biting moments of dread. Not to mention how the arc’s emotional core is centered around Overhaul’s daughter Eri, a victim of the madman’s abuse who Deku and Togata have an opportunity to save before the battle even starts brewing... but fail. It’s a stark look at the realities of this show’s world that are bubbling to the surface now that the light of the Symbol of Peace is no longer around to blind us to them, and it kills.
The second arc, meanwhile, has a far more laid-back goal in mind: a school festival! I honestly kind of love this idea, just for the sheer balls it takes to follow up the series’ darkest arc yet with a tried-and-true staple of anime time-wasting. Why shouldn’t My Hero Academia be able to embrace the medium’s more slice-of-life elements? Certainly its characters are strong enough to carry it. Unfortunately, this arc definitely suffers from a lack of real meat on its bones; none of the conflicts that brew throughout it have any real legs to stand on. It feels like we should’ve been spending more time on watching Jirou come out of her shell and embrace being a punk rocker, or the flamboyant pair of villains Deku encounters trying to bust the festival up, or even the follow-up to the Provisional Exam arc that sees some fascinating developments for Bakugo and Todoroki. And it can’t help feel like a lot of this arc is just killing time in between the big moments.
Actually, that’s kinda this whole season’s biggest issue: there’s too much space between the really good stuff. At its best, My Hero Academia is a series of compelling, well-produced story beats that all build on each other until climaxing in moments so utterly jaw-dropping that they become the new standard bearers of what “that kind of thing” should look like in shonen. The big moments are still there in season 4, but the space between them is wider and less interesting. The Overhaul arc is plagued by countless flashbacks that drag down the pace of what should be a tense, propulsive lair invasion. The School Festival arc is full of dead air and underbaked time-filling. And the animation across the board is far less consistent than it’s ever been, with stiffer character models, flatter direction, and an overall lack of polish. One highly emotional battle’s climax is played out entirely in still shots, for crying out loud. In previous seasons, even a lot of the chill character moments were still given flair and style; I still remember how enjoyable it was watching class 1-A just hang out in training camp last season thanks to how snappy the direction on their interactions was. That spark is missing from season 4, and even if you can’t pinpoint all the little ways things feel off, the difference is noticeable all the same.
And yet. Whenever this season actually does get to those big moments, the moments where all the frustrations and limitations fall away and the production team pushes their effort to Plus Ultra and beyond... yeah, it’s still really fucking good. Kirishima pushing his hardening to the limit to protect the heroes he looks up to, Deku’s final showdown with Overhaul, the freaky wall-twisting powers of Overhaul’s right-hand man, a final-episode Endeavor-focused smackdown that somehow manages to rival All Might vs All For One in sheer hype factor, even the freaking music-video-esque concert that caps off the festival... when this show hits its peaks, it blows everything else out of the water. The best battles of this show are some of the best battles not just of the year, but of all damn time. The best animation isn’t just above-average, it’s the new standard against which animation deserves to be judged (well, not counting Bones’ other 2019 masterpiece Mob season 2). And man, everything related to Eri’s painful escape and recovery from her abuse is just goddamn spectacular. Forget Nezuko, give me this smile to protect any day of the week.
That’s why this franchise has become the new face of modern anime for so many: at its best, few things even come close. The truly great moments might be fewer and further between this season, and the overall quality might be more uneven than ever, and Mineta still seriously needs to, like, just die already, but it’s still far from running out of steam. You can keep the cringy lameness of Doctor Stone, the confused intentions of Demon Slayer, and the insufferable stupidity of Fire Force: when all is said and done, there is still no better vanguard for the face of modern anime than My Hero Academia. And I will continue to love it as long as that star keeps shining bright.
PartyPoison109
BNHA"S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN A NUTSHELL: Mineta in episode 1: "OMG NOSEBLEED BOOBIES!" Midoriya in episode 1: "*crying* ALLL MIGHTTTT *crying*" Bakugo in episode 1: "DEKUUUUUU VIOLENCEEEEEE" Mineta 80 episodes later: "OMG NOSEBLEED BOOBIES!" Midoriya 80 episodes later: "*crying* ALLL MIGHTTTT *crying*" Bakugo 80 episodes later: "DEKUUUUUU VIOLENCEEEEEE"Almost 90 episodes in and there has been almost zero long term character development. Every character is the exact same as they were at the beginning of season 1. This seasons first half felt extremely rushed, and the only people that left the first half with any lasting consequences were characters that were only introduced like 5 episodes ago. Every single character that was introduced in s1 has plot armor. Also, over half of the enormous cast of cliché characters did NOTHING for the entire first half of this season.
After suffering through the first half I got hit with the second half of the season which is a school festival psuedo filler arc where not a single meaningful thing happens. Zero character development, zero story progression. The "bad guy" of the second half is just a guy who wants to sneak into the school festival and film a youtube video. Such a great villain concept. I am shaking in my boots at the thought of this guy filming a youtube video at the school. The fact that this arc technically isn't filler because it was actually in the manga is astounding to me. This author seriously wrote a filler arc into his manga. Wow.
BrownieFan
This series never ceases to amaze me, I don't know what's wrong with everyone, because it thought this season was awesome. Four seasons in and it does not loose impact. I've cried twice and almost cried another time during the season, this does not happen often. I'm excited for what's to come and I don't think I'll be disappointed. My only complaint would be that this season seems to lack some originality, people seemed to have enjoyed a certain finishing move Deku used halfway through the series, but it was so similar to one punch man's consecutive normal punches that the excitement at that momentturned to cringe.
In the end, though this is definately worth watching!
LegendAqua
"A world without smiles and humor... has no bright future." - Nighteye Boku no Hero Academia 4th Season leaves off from the 3rd Season and with All for One locked up, stray villains and even YAKUZA with quirks comes into the fray to take the limelight with this season, with one Kai Chisaki voiced by Kenjirou Tsuda a yakuza planning something up for the heroes using Eri voiced by Seiran Kobayashi, as Deku joins Nighteye's agency to further his quirk and finds out about Eri's situation, it's up to him and Mirio to stop Chisaki. Well this is the first half of this season summary anyways,the next arc afterwards deals with the aftermath with the Chisaki incident and in turn U.A has a cultural festival and Class 1-A thinks it's a good way for the rest of the school to unwind from all the craziness that 1-A has caused with a concert, this in turn would help with Eri's condition, all the while, Gentle Criminal voiced by Kouichi Yamadera and La Brava voiced by Yui Horie tries to sneak into U.A, with the potential of cancelling the festival altogether.
Ok let's start with Overhaul's (or Chisaki) arc. With the major focus of this focusing on Eri and Chisaki, we more or less get to see the yakuza quirk side of things and though the League of Villains are in the background, Himiko and Twice have checks on Chisaki's plans. The main goal of Mirio and Deku become sin trying to save Eri from the tormenting presences of Overhaul to the point of them raiding his compound and in a ways, with the selected heroes from Class 1-A that were chosen to be up to the task of this mission, it's their "first school approved hero mission" they have participated in, because of the entire structure of this arc, ALOT of those selected in 1-A gets their time to shine, the best being Kirishima as we get to know WHY he wants to be a hero and man his limelight was shined the most with this arc. Unfortunately this means the rest like Froppy and Uraraka gets this treatment BUT nonetheless. Of course it' not just 1-A members who gets their time to shine, as Mirio and Tamaki also gets theirs in some gratifying but also somewhat tragic ways during the sting operation but again much like Kirishima, it was executed brilliantly. Now this arc IS focused on Overhaul and his main purpose and reasoning in using Eri, but it also comes into light WHAT Eri's quirk is. Nighteyes gets some backstory and development especially due to his relationship with being ALl Might's former sidekick and with him having the quirk of "clairvoyance", makes him an interesting hero to say the least. If Eri was the goal of saving in this arc, then Nighteye is at the heart of this arc as tragic as it gets. Without spoilers, Overhauls seems to LA like a Syndrome from The Incredible BUT his methods and overall goal being the exact opposite and him using Eri somewhat gives a bit of lore and world building towards quirks as well as Overhaul isn't like the League of Villains and you can somewhat make him sympathetic as he only wants what is best for his yakuza BUT much like his endeavors and overall goal in using Eri, is misplaced in how over the top and crazed his methods are with Eri suffering as a result.
On speaking of suffering, Overhaul's arc has some tragedy befall the cast one way or another, it IS a sting operation where Yakuza with quirks fights off with Heroes so it is a given and even more so again to what Overhaul is planning, the stakes gets raised even more and by the end of it, LA will reiterate Nighteye's statement by the end of it. "A world without smiles and humor... has no bright future."
To which Gentle Criminal's arc elevates this statement that Nighteye said into fruition with the cultural festival getting setup. Gentle Criminal is an odd "villain", he may be a "one off" "villain", but if anything he's what would of happened to Deku if All Might never met him and Deku went to a dark path. Gentle Criminal "wants to be noticed" and even has Boku no hero Academia's vers. of a Youtube channel, yes if anything he's essentially a parodying a Youtuber wanting attention and him wanting his sights on U.A as "lite" as it is, becomes MUCH more when it comes to Deku wanting to make Eri smile after everything she went through in overhaul's arc. Thus as lite as it is in comparison to Overhaul's arc, it brings in a different emotional resonance and stakes to this arc.
On the character development side, we of course get them from Gentle Criminal, La Brava and oddly enough Kyoka Jiro (which was hinted back previous seasons) with her managing Class 1-A's concert and being the lead guitarist. La Brava being Gentle Criminal's sidekick, we get to see a good subversion of what is essentially Harley Quinn to Joker paradigm with La Brava. Another words, what would happen when a person loves a villain and with the side effects it has on not only herself but Gentle Criminal, their dynamic only reinforces what LA said about Gentle Criminal above and La Brava could be the standin to Deku to Gentle Criminal to All Might as well. Nonetheless Gentle Criminal's arc was a nice reprieve from not only Overhaul's arc but All for One's fight with All Might in a ways, something that LA think Deku and Class 1-A desperately needed honestly.
The animation done once again by Studio Bones was all honesty, amazing as per usual from Studio Bones, as they kept the quality of the animation consistent and what would LA say but the fights in this season being as great as ever what with Kirishima vs. Kendo Rappa and Overhaul vs. Deku were devastatingly awesome. Really not much to say with the animation, Typical Bones but that means GREAT BONES.
The voice cast is back but with some new characters means new voice actors and thus LA wil give MAJOR props to Kenjirou tsuda as Overhaul, Seiran Kobayashi as Eri, Shinchiro Miki as Nighteye, Koiuichi Yamadera as Gentle Criminal, Yui Horie as La Brava, Toshiki Masuda as Kirishima, Yuuto Uemura as Tamaki and finally Tarusuke Shingaki as Mirio. The new and old voice cast were just as amazing and obviously complimented nay resonated the animation and made it even better.
Now after Gentle Criminal's arc, we do get a small "redemption" arc towards Endeavour and this arc truly wants you to root for him as much of a horrible person he was in the previous seasons and yes on the other side, Endeavour trying to be the Symbol of Peace was awkward yet slightly endearing, look this arc tried and executed it.......alright, especially with the final scenes of this season and arc. Yes we KNOW he's done terrible and horrible stuff to Todoroki but it's essentially doing the "Tough Asshole Father" route into a Tsundere Dad in a comedic tone towards the audience with this arc, did it work?, for LA 50/100 until the finale itself which rose it to a 70/100 at best, he IS trying to be the Symbol of Peace one awkward step at a time...
This season lives off Nighteye's message of "A world without smiles and humor... has no bright future." and boy does it show, sure the impact this season wasn't the same as the 3rd Season but with different villains and new characters forming new arcs, this season brings us into a new direction for Boku no Hero Academia which LA didn't mind one way or another, like again, LA didn't mind the cultural festival's Gentle Criminal arc since Class 1-A NEEDED a break all the while Overhaul's arc gave us a different side to the villains side and the newest character of Eri also being a focal point in both arcs.
Nonetheless Boku no Hero Academia 4th Season was still a great, impactful and fun ride much like the 3rd Season with great old and new characters, more world building towards the villains and heroes of Boku no Hero Academia, great production value from Bones as usual and somewhat furthering the plot one way or another.
"A world without smiles and humor... has no bright future.", if this season actually put a smile on your face, then LA thinks this season did it's job.
animecore98
This anime is bad.If you like this anime, then i feel sorry for your entire family for your upbringing.The anime starts off well in it's first season showing a teenager aiming to be the number one Hero in a world where quirks mean everything.As the season progresses,he is still the crybaby he used to be even after gaining the quirk of his idol. As for character development, he hardly see anything in that regard with characters like Bakugo and Todoreku the worst shounen characters ever!! The only positive thing in this anime is the animation which is quite decent in compared to other animes.Apart from that,thisshow is horrible
sashimiso
I love BNHA, but damn, this season was utter garbage. I don't know if there was a lack of ambition from having worked on this series for so long, but the studio really failed in directing, pacing, and transitioning. The epic/dramatic/emotional moments totally flopped. I actually went and read the manga (I never read the manga!) for this season, just so I could see how each event should've been portrayed. The animation and directing is lazy. Flashbacks and still-frames are overused, taking away from what could've been a really cool fight. The studio probably thought each scene would be more impactful if they added an emotional OST coupledwith still-frames and slideshows. Nah, I hate to break it to them, but the reason I cried was because of the crap they produced.
Pacing? Pa a a aaaacing? pAACING? What's that? I didn't feel the weekly build-up whatsoever. In fact, I was pretty much itching for all the fights to be over so that we could get into the SoL episodes. I happened to enjoy these fillers far more than the main plot. Who knew that Bakugo playing the drums could heal my battered soul?
I didn't like the character development of Deku or our new mains, Mirio and Eri. This season did a poor job of making me feel for any of these characters.
I'll tell you right now that I couldn't give a flying rat's ass about Mirio or Eri which is a shame because they could've done a good job with these characters.
Don't get me wrong. I think BHNA is a good series, but this season was a huge disappointment.
H4nss0n
[LIGHT SPOILERS] Maybe, it's hard to tell what qualifies as a spoiler at this point. Anyways, around season 2 of MHA i started getting the sneaking suspicion that this is not a good show but i couldn’t pinpoint why. I think i get it now. After sitting with this show for another 2 seasons i think i get it. Is the hero-job pointless? No seriously. As i watch the backstories of the various villains in the show i see that none of them just randomly became villains. The usual trend is that society failed them some place along the way and this drove them towards crime.All heroes talk about their goal being creating peace in society. But if society is producing these criminals doesn't that mean that the only way to bring peace is by changing society so that it no longer does so? That isn’t what heroes do. The job of the heroes isn’t to change the way society is structured so that society no longer produces criminals, their job is to stop criminals in the act and minimise that damage that they do. Changing the way society is structured is the job that politicians among many others do.
The heroes can stop all the criminals they want but at the end of the day society will always produce another one. Thus, the heroes will never achieve their goal of bringing peace to the world. Their efforts are completely pointless. This pointlessness is a problem as it disincentives me too root for the heroes knowing that what they do will never help them achieve the goal they’ve set out for themselves. Don’t get me wrong, minimizing damage is a valuable job, but it’s not the job the heroes proclaim to be doing therefore i can’t help not feeling invested.
A show on its last legs:
Additionally it’s just clear that this show is on it’s last leg. Our new top hero, the symbol of “peace” is Todoroki’s abusive dad. Yup, that’s the best the heroes have to offer us. But it’s fine! All his past transgressions are forgiven because he defeated a nomu! Seriously, i’ve never seen something more forced than that pathetic attempt at making Endeavour the new symbol of peace. Also, since we’ve already established that the heroes will never bring about peace, the moniker “symbol of peace” just comes off as a cruel joke.
There are of course more basic critiques of the show, like how the writers don’t even bother giving any characters except the villains elaborate motivations for their actions anymore thus making empathizing with the heroes imopssible. Or how the personalities of the entire main cast has completely stagnated. Or maybe how every big fight at this point follows a predictable formula. Here’s the formula:
Hero and villain fight evenly, hero struggles and almost loses, hero remembers some random shit and gets a power up for no reason at the last moment, hero defeats the villain in a big explosion whilst screaming a corny catchphrase at the top of their lungs.
These are all critiques you’ve probably heard already though so there’s no point in me going into detail on them. The point is that this is a very bad and sloppily executed superhero show. The only character that i like at this point is hero-killer Stain (maybe), it’s not supposed to be that way.
ShaIIot
WOW! This season was SHIT. I usually like this show, but holy fuck this season was bad. -[25 Episodes of Absolutely Nothing]- There were two arks covered in this season. One was moderately interesting, the other was complete filler bullshit. Both arks were lame, played-out, and melodramatic. The interesting ark had a neato concept, but the execution was majorly lacking. The other ark was, well, not so interesting. I'll spoil it: it was a cultural festival ark. Maybe a UA festival would be interesting, right? Nah. Unlike season 2's sport festival ark, this one had almost nothing to do with quirks. Instead, this ark isdedicated to a side character who nobody cares about at all. Basically, this was a really fucking slow and boring season. From start to finish, the status quo didn't change at-fucking-all.
-[Sakuga?]-
So, how about that sakuga? Well it was pretty good- for the 4 times it actually happened. The fight scenes in this season weren't bad- they just weren't plentiful in the slightest. The rest of the art, though, was dogshit. Really. This season looked terrible. The animation quality was utter trash. There were very few good-looking scenes in this entire season. Dialogue scenes were horribly generic, with eyes following the sound of a character's voice, and everything else remaining completely motionless. Obviously, the whole budget was spent on the sakuga scenes (as well as hookers for the staff), because single other frame was 3/10 at best.
-[Characters]-
The new characters introduced this season were just okay. One was interesting, and all of the others were pointless. None of the characters will be recurring in the major story, so in reality, even the good character is worthless.
There were like, 4 instances of character growth in this entire 2-cour season, so there isn't a whole lot to talk about in this regard. The growth was mostly believable, if not a little sappy. Honestly, the longer this show goes on, the less of a fuck I give about any character who isn't All Might. Even Midoriya is getting old at this point. He's fucking static and uninteresting. Back when he was growing during the first 2.5 seasons, he was tolerable, but now he just feels like any other shounen protagonist, who only exists to spout out garbage about the power of friendship and shit.
-[Comedic Value]-
The little enjoyment I derived from this season was from watching it with my friends. It was fun to laugh at how terrible this show has become. Other than that, I barely enjoyed anything about this season. It was bad. If I hadn't already read ahead in the manga, I probably would have just dropped the show after the first arc finished.
-[Overall, Plus Ultra]-
My Hero Academia is empty now. After the fall of All Might, this show lost all of its appeal to me. All-dude was such a great character and his dynamic with Deku made the show thoroughly entertaining. Sure, I'm invested in Midoriya's character, but he can't carry a show by himself. He isn't an interesting enough character. In the seasons to come, this show is gonna get fucking dumb, so get ready for it. The author knows how fucked he is at this point, so he's just pulling things out of his ass to drag this show on as long as possible. I just hope the next season looks good, cause if not, I'm out for good.
4/10
smallasiangirl
This was so awful that I am no longer willing to review this in any intellectual manner. BNHA was absolute gunkus ballsack smegma cake tik tok reddit wojack big chungus goo goo ga ga garbage. There are no stakes, the charaters are bland and uninteresting, and the only people that can genuinely enjoy this are probably just starting out or complete beginners in anime. That, or they've been living under a rock as they are completely oblivious to actually good shows. If you want an actually good shounen with STAKES and interesting characters, please just watch Assassination Classroom. The only thing that could redeem BNHA isif everyone got merked, probably.
tynman35
What the fuck is pacing? What is non-repetitive dialogue? If I had to take a shot every time someone said "We'll save her...for sure this time", I'd have died of alcohol poisoning. This show is a far cry from what it once was. The writing formula is so offhanded. It's an endless cycle of flashbacks and needless backstory surrounding 30 seconds of actual action. It's getting old. I'll give you an example. Hazukashi. Don't know who that is? Good, you shouldn't because he had literally 37 seconds of screentime. Writers had the audacity to give him flashbacks and backstory, just to instantly get foiled by Hawks.Why bother? Why even spend ten seconds on the guy if that's all he's there to do? But wait, that's not all he's there to do. Hawks apparently heard him say one thing that kind of had something to do with the current "metahuman" Nomu problem.
Now what you're probably thinking is, "So what you're saying is that they introduced a new character and gave him 37 seconds of screentime just to flimsily further the narrative?" And the answer is yes. That's the narrative device they decided to use. This is likely the most egregiously lazy writing of any scene I have ever seen on television. It's unbelievably offhanded.
Aside from that, there were like six fights, and all but two were okay at best. They're getting in a bad habit of injecting flashbacks during their fights and it ruins the moment. The only fight in this show where interspersing flashbacks worked was Deku v Bakugou in S3. Fights are painfully short, the most offensive example being Deku v Overhaul. What a waste of potential that was. The ones before that have moments (the Suneater fight and the Red Riot-Fat Gum fight for instance), but they're marred by flashbacks that are inexplicably in the middle of each of them.
There were only two decent fights: Endeavor v High-End Nomu and Deku v Gentle. Gentle's fight in particular is fantastic because they didn't overly rush Gentle's character. He's instantly become one of my favorite characters and I hope they use him more.
It pisses me off that they brought in Nighteye just to die. Can't have anyone important dying, right? But boy did they make it feel like viewers were supposed to care when he bit it. Man, they really milked that for all it was worth. His quirk is ridiculously powerful, but nope, dies within a season. More offhanded writing.
I've heard My Hero being called the next generation's Dragon Ball. Are people really dying on that hill? That's an awful comparison, it's just a cringier knock-off.
Oh, and the disco theme is insufferable, glad they're done using that forever. Kind of a nitpick, but I hated Eri's dub voice. It was...overly precious, I guess. It was annoying, Eri's sub voice was far more bearable.
All in all, mostly bad.
