Going Nowhere PLUS ULTRA
*spoiler-free review*
This will be a review for the first half of the season.
Let's start this off by establishing one thing. There have been many shounen anime brought into the public eye which feature some kind of gimmick that covers every relevant character. For anime like Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Demon Slayer, Black Clover, it's all some interchangable word. "martial artist", "pirate", "ninja", "soul reaper", "demon slayer"...? "wizard". For My Hero Academia, it's "heroes". Now, usually the anime doesn't exactly portray the ideals of these archetypes accurately, for example the ninjas in naruto hardly ever practice stealth or espionage, the pirates in one piece rarely steal and pillage, and the martial artists in dragon ball practice... magic, apparently. ect. Additionally, many of these shounen also involve a lot of training, possibly even taking place largely in a school for becoming a ninja, sorceror, what have you.
My Hero Academia was conceptualized and introduced as a shounen that would break that mold, and really get to the core of what a "hero" is. In its first two seasons, it felt like it would really explore a world of heroes and give us a new definition of the term, introducing conflicting ideologies with professional heroism vs true heroism.
My Hero Academia has also proved it cannot deliver on any of its promises, and can't follow through on anything it introduces whatsoever. It puts itself into the world's smallest box where nothing interesting can happen, by chaining itself to the idea of a "school for heroes" which goes against its own premise of what it means to be a true hero. And the first half of this season perfectly captures this crucial failing of MHA. These heroes aren't heroes. They're glorified, superpowered gladiators.
Five seasons into an action show, usually, we'd be seeing the stakes raised to an unbelievable degree. Things are different now in the world, and our main characters must survive these changes and overcome them with grit, spit, and gusto! Some may fail, some may even come so close to death it seems hopeless, sometimes the villains seem too horrible to even overcome. But there is still hope! There is inspiration! Everything is finally coming to a head! We're challenging the entire world! Everything rides on this one moment!
Sigh...
... or we could just have ANOTHER FUCKING TOURNAMENT ARC.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! FIVE SEASONS. FIVE SEASONS IN. FIIIVE. WHO IS THE VILLAIN IN THIS SHOW? Is it us? Is it the audience, who are oppressing the author with expectations of another fucking tournament arc? Is it... the heroes themselves? Is this a statement on the human condition, that we are doomed to continually beat the shit out of each other for absolutely no reason instead of taking on the enemy right in front of our faces?!? Or is this a symptom of that, a shallow attempt to provide yet more gladatorial-style entertainment?
Do we all really get so much enjoyment out of this, have we really not progessed since pre-medieval times, just watching usually innocent people beat each other up for some tiny spark of amusement? What is the purpose? WHY ARE WE WATCHING THE STUDENTS FIGHT EACH OTHER AGAIN? Please Horikoshi, explain. I must be fucking seeing things, because I'm pretty sure this is the THIRD GODDAMN TOURNAMENT ARC IN THE ANIME.
UN FUCKING BELIEVABLE. They could have spent all this time building up the world, building up the villains, building up the heroes, to have them finally face off over something meaningful, something worth having a brawl over. The worst part of this, is that there isn't even a bad reason why they're fighting like Deku vs Bakugou in season three. THERE IS NO REASON.
"oh it's to show off all their upgraded fighting abilities." WHY CANT YOU SHOW THOSE OFF VS ACTUAL VILLAINS? WHY ARE WE WASTING TIME HERE? 10 FUCKING EPISODES OF FIGHTING AGAINST NOBODY!
"it's to show class B is just as good as class A!"
*gestures wildly to previous statement*
"well it's my hero academia, RascaI. They're not gonna stop training." WHY THE FUCK NOT? Naruto ninjas are in ninja school, you know, and they still found the fucking time to have actual story and events with consequence happen. The only time that happens in this show, it's shit like the Overhaul arc where every part of it is a letdown. Why are we still here?
"but... cool animation?" THE FANSERVICE MOVIES OF THIS SERIES HAVE BETTER ANIMATION, and actual stakes! Like... come oooon! Please!
SOMETHING PLEASE HAPPEN! This season is more than a disappointment. It's a full on disgrace. And I don't care if it gets better in the second half. My time has still been wasted. The maximum score this can reach is 50-60% now. It's the same amount of time I could watch another, complete, actually good anime.
Give me a break.
Sigh... do I have anything positive to say? Yeah, I guess the characters introduced are better than the ones in season four. If only they did anything substantial with them.
Update: It got SLIGHTLY better. The My Villain Academia was a bust except for Shigaraki's parts which were outstanding.
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