As stated in the last post, My Hero Academia is one of my favorite
anime’s from 2016. It’s a superhero comedy that follows the life of our
protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, as he tries to go from zero to number 1 hero in a
world when superhumans are everywhere. His training is going to be a heck of a
ride. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open to a typical scene, small
children fighting at a playground. What? Young boys fight a lot. It’s how we
bond. One of the boys, the green haired Izuku, stands between three bullies and
the kid that they were smacking around. He tries to dissuade the other kids
from being jerks, claiming that he’ll fight them himself if they don’t back
down, but the bullies are 100% not intimidated. Why? Well, for one thing Izuku
is shaking like a leaf in a tornado. It’s really hard to be intimidating while
shaking. And for another thing, they all have superpower, and Izuku doesn’t.
Sucky. The lead bully mocks Izuku for his lack of power, and kicks the snot out
of him.
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| Now that's the face of a hero, an Anime Hero. |
Flash forward ten years, and Izuku
is a fourteen-year-old kid living in a world of heroes and villains. Battles
between superpowered beings on city streets are so common that it’s more or
less treated like a traffic jam. Sure, people stop and stare when they see a
superpowered smack down, but the crowd is a more healthy mix of excitement and annoyance. Even when said smack down is between a giant purse
snatcher and several other heroes. Which is the scene that Izuku finds himself
witnessing. A pathetic purse snatcher, once cornered, used his power to grow
into a titanic monster. Which just drew more superheroes towards his location.
So yeah, not a great plan. The fight makes Izuku feel…exposition-ie. He
explains that this Brave New World began with a baby that glowed in the dark.
Imagine the poor papa when he found out his kid was a glow stick. Since then,
people born with these exceptional powers, known as Quirks, make up about 80%
of the world’s population. We’re never told exactly how much time has passed, but
it’s probably about 80 to 120 years in the future. It’s a rough estimate,
though, don’t quote me on it. Since there are so many superpowered beings
running around, being a professional superhero is now a thing. Their job is
basically ½ cop ½ pro-wrestler. They take out bad guys and have to look flashy
while doing it, to make sure the press keep talking about them.
After the giant purse snatcher is
taken out, Izuku starts taking note about a new hero that jumped in during the
fight, Mt. Lady. He quickly analyses her powers, how her size might affect her
popularity and the problems her size may cause, professionally. He’s a fan boy
after my own heart. He then goes to school where we get a little more
exposition. As a third-year middle school students, Izuku and his classmates
are prepping for high school entrance exams. For those who don’t know, in Japan
high school is a heck of a lot more like college here in the US of A. Got to
pass lots o’ tests to get into a good high school. All of Izuku’s class are
planning to get into high schools with decent hero programs. The top school is
known as UA High, all the top heroes in Japan are alums. Only two students in
Izuku’s class have applied for UA, Izuku and the bully from the opener, Katsuki
Bakugo. Bakugo, despite being a colossal jerk, has big dreams about become the
greatest hero in Japan. Bigger even than their equivalent of Superman, All
Might. Bakugo is rather… annoyed that Izuku also applied for the same school.
And by annoyed, I mean that he threatens Izuku’s life for daring to dream so
big. Why doesn’t the teacher stop this kind of thing? Seriously, I’m asking.
Their teacher just stands there as one student threatens to assault another.
That’s just stupid for a teacher to allow. But, then again, this is a teacher
that joined in with the other students mocked the powerless Izuku for trying to
get into the best hero school in Japan. These people suck.
Meanwhile, a slime monster robs a
convenience store. A few locals comment on the fact that the towns usual
heroes, that would handle this sort of thing, are more than likely busy with
cleaning up after the giant purse snatcher earlier. The lucky Mr. Goo might
have escaped scot-free, but for a passing convenience store patron. Said
patron, morphs into a supersized superhero, the amazing All Might. With an over
the top grin on his face, he proclaims “I am here,” and starts chasing after Mr.
Goo.
After class, Bakugo nabs “Deku’s”
hero notes and uses his explosive powers to burn it. Dick! I’ll explain the
nickname later, but when Bakugo calls him Deku, he’s basically calling Izuku a
loser. Bakugo, whom I guess is also feeling expositionie, explains his plans
for his ‘hero’ career. He believes that to be the best of the best, he has to
be the only student from their middles school to get into UA. Anyone else
getting in ruins his personal narrative. Hence why he gets so heated at Izuku
so much as dreaming about getting into UA. He doesn’t seem to get truly great
heroes are humble, just saying. Confident that he’s finally gotten Izuku to see
‘reason’ he walks off with a smug grin on his face. After Izuku recovers his
notebook from the fishpond Bakugo threw it into, we get another flashback.
Four-year-old Izuku is enamored with a YouTube video. They don’t call it
YouTube, but come on, it’s YouTube. Said video is of a disaster that occurred
several years prior and was the worlds introduction to All Might, the symbol of
peace. Despite the chaos and insanity around him, All Might has a wide grin on
his face and an odd, but confident cackle. Izuku, at the tender of age of four,
decided to model himself after this behemoth of a man. That is, until he’s
taken in for a physical.
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| Do all baby's do that? |
A doctor with incredibly crappy
bedside manner informs Izuku and his mother that he will never manifest powers.
Despite both of his parents having abilities, his mother can move small objects
with her mind and his unseen father breathes fire, and that his mother is a
fourth-generation Quirk user, Izuku is Quirkless. Doctor K-Buttkiss explains
that after Quirks became a thing, studies were done and they found a
correlation between powers and pinky toes, of all things. Basically, if you
have a Quirk, you only have one joint in your pinky. It’s basically based on
the theory that, since Quirk empowered people are a ‘new’ stage in human
evolution, their bodies are losing vestigial traits. Izuku unfortunately has
two pinky joints, meaning he’s 100% Quirkless Human. So, no powers. Sucky. Back
at home, he watches the video again and asks his mother, with tears in his
eyes, if she thinks he can still be a hero like All Might. His mother, in tears,
lets him know that she wishes things would be different. In the present, Izuku
admits that that wasn’t what he needed to hear.
While he’s walking home from school,
he runs into Mr. Goo. Mr. Goo, who’s a little freaked out about being chased
around by All Might of all people, is looking to get out of town. To do so, he
plans to pull a Bug from Men In Black,
and turn Izuku into an Edgar-suit. Gross. Izuku is saved from this grisly fate
by the timely arrival of the Mighty All Might. He uses his mighty Texas Smash
attack to turn the monster into gooey bits, traps him in an empty soda bottle,
and makes Izuku go fanboy nuts. Izuku gets a kind smile, a pat on the shoulder
and an All Might Autograph. Now, this would probably be enough for a regular
fan, but Izuku really needs some advice from his hero. All Might,
unfortunately, is in a hurry and tries to super jump away. Izuku, showing some
pretty intense agility and grip, grabs All Might’s leg. Not the smartest choice
he’s made today. All Might, being a nice guy agrees to drop Izuku off on a
nearby building. While in the air, interestingly, All Might’s mouth starts bleeding.
All-Might lands on a building and
scolds Izuku for his impulsive behavior. To be fair, I would say flying through
the air, the only thing keeping you from falling to your death is your grip on
a muscular man’s leg, is probably punishment enough. All Might prepares to leap
away, but Izuku has to ask the question that’s been burning inside for years.
If All Might thinks a Quickless person can still be a hero. And then it ends.
You damn teases!
This is a decent opening to a great
series. Granted, the info dump throughout the first episode is a little much,
but it’s really hard to explain a world like Izuku’s ‘naturally.’ Can you think
of a natural way to explain where a world of Superheroes got started? Other
than like having the show start in the middle of a history class. Yeah, me
neither. For some reason, I really enjoy Izuku. Not sure why I’d identify with
a nerdy high school student that is obsessed with superheroes, doesn’t exactly
‘fit in’ with ‘normal’ folks, and has bizarre colored hair. Must be the hair.
What? I’m a ginger. And I went through a mullet phase. Oh god… my mullet phase.
<shutter> Joking aside, Izuku is a lot of fun. He’s a hyper fanboy that,
despite being powerless, still dreams of being hero. Definitely an impractical
dream, but I give him props for it. It’s only touched on here, but, his biggest
strength is that mind of his. He’s got over a dozen journals on the subject of
heroes, and has memorized the contents. We’ll see the extent of his skills next
time. All Might is also a lot of fun. The series Mangaka (the series Author and
pretty often illustrator), Kohei Horikoshi has gone on record stating that
while the rest of the characters are of a more standard manga design, he
modeled All Might off of western superheroes. Think Superman, Batman, Captain
America, and the like. Hence his super-duper size muscles, and jovial attitude.
Which probably explains why all of his attacks are all <US State> Smash!
But it sounds cool. I personally find his smile and laugh more off putting then
anything, but hey, maybe it’s a translation thing. His bleeding mouth is a hint
of what’s to come next. It took a little time to get used to the term ‘Quirk.’
It’s not the strangest word I’ve heard to ‘name’ a superpower, but, seriously,
why not just call them powers? It’s easier. So yeah, over all, a good start.
Next time, episode 2.
Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2761062
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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