My Hero Academia

***My Hero Academia*** (Japanese: 僕のヒーローアカデミア, Hepburn: *Boku no Hīrō Akademia*) is an action, adventure, Superhero

   , drama, comedy, romance, romantic comedy, Japanese anime series by Bones.  It started out with a manga series which was written by Kohei Horikoshi, published by Shueisha, and originally released from July 7, 2014 to present and has 20 volumes in total so far.  After that came another manga series titled My Hero Academia Smash.  It was written by Kohei Horikoshi, illustrated by Hirofumi Neda, published by Shueisha, and it originally ran from November 9, 2015 to November, 2017, and it lasted for 5 volumes in total.  After that came the first season of the anime series.  It was directed by Kenji Nagasaki, written by Yosuke Kuroda, musically composed by Yuki Hayashi, and produced b Studio Bones.  It originally aired from April 3, 2016 to June 26, 2016, and it lased for 13 volumes in total.  After that came the first video game of the series, titled My Hero Academia:  Battle for All.  It was developed by Dimps, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and released in Japan on May 19, 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS.  After that came another manga series, titled My Hero Academia:  Vigilantes, which was written by Hiyuki Furuhashi, illustrated by Betten Court, published by Shueisha, and released from September, 2016 to present, and it has 5 volumes in total so far.  After that came the second season of the anime series.  It was directed by Kenji Nagasaki, written by Yosuke Kuroda, musically composed by Yuki Hayashi, and produced b Studio Bones.  It originally aired from April 1, 2017 to September 30, 2017, and it lasted for 25 episodes in total.  After that came an OVA.  It was directed by Kenji Nagasaki, written by Yosuke Kuroda, musically composed by Yuki Hayashi, and produced b Studio Bones.  It was originally released from April 4, 2017, to June 2, 2017, and it lasted for 2 episodes in total.  After that came the third season of the anime series.  It was directed by Kenji Nagasaki, written by Yosuke Kuroda, musically composed by Yuki Hayashi, and produced b Studio Bones.  It originally aired from April 7, 2018 to September 29, 2018, and it lasted for 25 episodes in total.  After that came another video game, titled My Hero One's Justice.  It was published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and originally released on August 23, 2018, on the Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC.  A fourth season of the anime series is currently in production, but a definite release date has yet to be stated.

## Plot

On an Earth-like world where people with superpowers known as "Quirks" (個性, *Kosei*) are the norm, Izuku Midoriya is a regular middle school student who has dreams of one day becoming a hero despite being bullied by his classmates for not having a Quirk. After being the only one to try and save his childhood bully Katsuki Bakugō from a Villain, the world's greatest Hero All Might bestows upon him his own quirk "One For All". The story follows Izuku's entrance into U.A. High School (雄英高校, *Yūei Kōkō*), a school that cultivates the next generation of superheroes.

## Why It Rocks

1. Beautiful art and animation. Every character looks like they originated from different works of visual media. The action scenes are a visual treat, with battles taking place in air and on ground.
2. Top-notch sound design. The music by Yuki Hayashi (*Blood Lad*, *Death Parade*, *Haikyu!!*) is delightful and the voice acting is a pleasure in all languages: Japanese, English, French, and German. Choices of voice actors are excellent, including, but not limited to, Daiki Yamashita as Izuku Midoriya (Gurio Umino from *Sailor Moon Crystal*), Nobuhiko Okamoto as Katsuki Bakugo (Rin Okumura from *Blue Exorcist*), Kaito Ishikawa as Tenya Iida (Genos from *One-Punch Man*), Yuki Kaji as Shoto Todoroki (Eren Jaeger from *Attack on Titan*), and Toshiki Masuda as Eijiro Kirishima (Shark from *Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL*). Kenta Miyake (Zodd Nosferatu from *Berserk*) sounds absolutely righteous as All Might, and Koki Uchiyama (Meruem from *Hunter X Hunter*) sounds downright frightening as Tomura Shigaraki. The intro and outro songs are masterpieces to listen to.
3. Amazing storytelling, pathos, and an interesting premise mixed very well to create a captivating story.
4. Great, lovable characters (for the most part. Look at the first bad quality).
5. All the superpowers- sorry, *Quirks*, are very fun. From explosions to super speed, from gravikinesis to both pyrokinesis ***AND*** cryokinesis in one, the list goes on.
6. Given its superhero genre, it should appeal to non-Japanese audiences who are not overly familiar with anime and manga, just like *One-Punch Man* does. Horikoshi has even stated that MHA was inspired by Marvel and DC heroes.
7. English-dubbed episodes premiere almost immediately after original Japanese episodes. In fact, Season 3 episodes air in both Japanese ***AND*** English on the exact same day at the exact same time.
8. Unusual for an action series, it's short, meaning people will watch the complete series without stopping midway. Season 1 only has 13 episodes, and Season 2 has only 25, totaling 38. Include the Season 1 recap and both specials and you get 41 episodes. Like Season 2, Season 3 is confirmed to have 25 episodes, increasing the episode count to 66 (67 if the movie is counted as one long episode). Whether this is good or bad is up to you to decide.
9. It is a mix of the Big 4's best qualities while fixing their biggest problems, not plagued by *Naruto**s annoying characters,*** **Bleach**s questionable decisions, *One Piece**s terrible pacing, or*** **Fairy Tail**s sappiness, it is more emotional than *Naruto*, has better and more memorable characters than *Bleach*, has a more compelling narrative than *One Piece*, and is more endearing than *Fairy Tail*. In short, it is the polar opposite of *Black Clover.*

## Bad Qualities

1. Some characters can get unlikable, Minoru being an example.
2. Some frightening imagery, with certain villains such as Shigaraki and Nomu looking too scary for Younger Viewers.
3. Some sexual content, like Mount Lady flaunting her butt and Minoru peeking at Momo in her Hero Costume and later, making remarks about Tsuyu's figure.

## Reception

The manga was nominated for the 8th Manga Taishō in 2015.[34] Before the anime adaptation's premiere, manga author Masashi Kishimoto praised Kōhei Horikoshi's work, believing it would be a success overseas; Horikoshi, meanwhile, has cited Kishimoto's *Naruto* series as a primary source of inspiration.[35]

Volume 1 reached the 7th place on the weekly Oricon manga chart with 71,575 copies sold.[36] It sold out almost immediately on its first printing.[37] Volume 2 reached the 6th place, with 167,531 copies[38] and, by January 18, 2015, had sold 205,179 copies.[39] As of March 2017, there were over 10 million copies of *My Hero Academia* in circulation.[40]

The story has been noted to take inspiration from elements in superhero comics, such as the aesthetics of its characters.[41]

Alex Osborn of IGN gave the anime series positive marks, saying "The first season of *My Hero Academia* delivers thirteen episodes of fantastic action, elevated by a heartfelt story that's wrapped around a core cast of memorable and relatable characters." Osborn went on to state that the villains were underdeveloped.[42]

The manga won the Sugoi Japan Award in 2017.[43] It also won the "Japan Expo Awards" in the same year.[44]

Due to the popularity of the series, characters of *My Hero Academia* were used to promote the Marvel Studios's film *Avengers: Infinity War*.[45]