Although it may seem unlikely based on some of my previous posts, I haven’t actually ever really watched an anime. Now I know what you’re thinking, this guy wrote more than 3000 words talking about his supposed ‘addiction’ to Persona, but he’s never watched an anime which Persona essentially just is but in a different medium. Yeah, it’s true (well for the most part). Unless your image of me as a complete reject wasn’t completely established yet, I recently decided to try and correct this gap in my knowledge by watching some anime. My original statement, that I’ve never watched an anime, isn’t 100% true. I have actually dipped my toe into this giant genre once before, and as you may have guessed this was originally spurred on by my obsession with Persona. As I mentioned near the end of those previous posts about the series, I had very much considered also watching the many anime adaptions of the Persona games in order to continue on my voyage and so I did.Persona 4: The Animation was my first foray into this genre as my initial obsession was with that game, but I later found myself watching all four of the Persona 3 movies as well. These gave me a good idea of some of the conventions and general style of these types of anime’s, but it was still relatively ordinary to me considering I had already spent hundreds of hours with these stories and characters, I had still yet a experience something new from within this genre.
My real first experience with an anime was far more recently, and is what this piece is actually about. I’m going to be discussing one of the most popular animes (and mangas) from the past several years, My Hero Academia. For the record I have been watching the subtitled version as I feel like its far closer to the original version than any dub could be, also I feel like most dubbed animes sound a whole lot more childish than with the original Japanese. The main plot is set in a world where 80% of the population have developed their own Superpowers known as Quirks, here it follows a boy with seemingly no powers (a Quirkless) named Izuku Midoriya as he tries to get by in a world filled with super-powered people. Even though he has no powers he has his sights on getting into UA High School, the most prestigious school for heroes in the world. This puts him into direct conflict with one of his previous childhood friends (now enemy), Katsuki Bakugo, who has an extremely powerful explosion Quirk. Midoriya aims to become the world’s greatest hero, even though he has no powers in a world filled with them. This is really only the synopsis for the first couple episodes, so in order to give a full overview of the series as a whole I need to spoil some reveals from early on. Within this world, there is a number one hero, All Might, essentially Superman but way more powerful and generally much better in every way (yes, come at me). But his powers are slowly declining after being injured in a fight years previously, meaning he can only operate as a hero for a few hours a day. He is worried that soon he will no longer be able to operate as a hero and that the world will fall into chaos.Luckily his Quirk (All for One), allows him to pass on his immense powers to another person. After a meaningful interaction with Midoriya, All Might decides that his drive to become a hero and protect people despite his large disadvantage in the form of being Quirkless makes him an ideal candidate to inherent his powers. So Midoriya trains his body to the point that it can handle All Might’s power in quite an inspiring training montage of him working out and he eventually inherits All Might’s power. At this point I was enjoying the series, especially due to some emotional moments that happen early in the series that really affected me (and that I will get to later), but I felt that it was kind of at risk of becoming generic. With Midoriya finally gaining a power and him going off to try and get into hero school I felt like it was at risk off feeling like just any other superhero series. That is until Midoriya first uses his power in the series. This occurs while he is competing in the entrance exam of UA high school, where the applicants are tasked with taking down giant robots with their Quirks in order to gather the most points. In order to protect another applicant (and his eventual love interest), Ochaco Uraraka, who has a zero gravity Quirk, Midoriya leaps into action. He channels the power into his legs to throw himself hundreds of metres up into the air and then charges it into his fist to deliver one devastating blow which destroys the robot in a single hit. This sequence looks awesome (like it would in any other power based Shonen anime), but it’s the aftermath that makes it even more amazing. The force of All Might’s power was too much for Midoriya, it has shattered the bones in both of his legs as well as his entire arm, leaving him to fall helplessly to the ground. Here the series has established the breadth of All Might’s insane power as only a fraction of it was able to destroy Midoriya’s body. Even from an outside perspective, the constant powering-up and near invincible characters that exist within the Shonen genre seemed like a big problem for example in franchises such as Naruto and Dragonball. How can a show have any stakes if the characters are constantly pulling new powers out of their ass and (usually nearer the end of the series) when they are nearly invincible. My Hero Academia subverts this from the first couple of episodes, by showing the insane power of All Might (early on his punches are so strong the wind pressure causes the weather to change) but then putting this same power in Midoriya’s body practically destroys him. There is a clear power level being established, Midoriya could conceivably be as powerful as All Might one day, but he has an incredibly long way to go till then. After he destroys his body so badly, Midoriya has to become a lot smarter with his power and use it far more sporadically in order to make his way through fights. This makes his character incredibly compelling as he does have the power to deal with almost any situation but he has to work out the smartest way to pull this off while limiting the damaged caused to himself and his surroundings. The way this power develops over the course of the series is also incredibly interesting, he develops into using each of his fingers as a weapon by shooting off the full force of All Might’s power through each one individually (almost like a gun), this still mangles his fingers in the same way it destroyed his arms/legs but it allows him to fight for longer as each finger allows a separate attack. You’d think that since this formula is so compelling (and awesome to watch when he eventually lets out his massive power) the writer (or Mangaka as there known), Kohei Horikoshi would want to keep this the same and keep this dynamic going for as long as possible but he decides to change it up quite a lot as the story progresses. Eventually, much later on in the series, Midoriya has used this incredible power so much that his body can barely withstand it anymore if he keeps going at the same rate. Because of this Midoriya has to switch up his fighting style even more, now instead of trying to use all of All Might’s power in a single burst (destroying his body in the process) he now decides to only use 5% of All Might’s power to give him increased speed and power in the form of All for One: Full Cowling, although it isn’t as powerful this is far more useful as he can use it to stay powered up continuously. The full All Might power is only saved for situations where there is no other option but to sacrifice his body in order to win, and these are the best moments in the show due to their sparseness. Midoriya is the main character in the series (and that’s why I spent so much time on him), but another huge aspect of the show is its large cast of likeable and layered characters. I already mentioned Bakugo, but he too is a very interesting character and the perfect opposition for Midoriya (or Deku as he sarcastically refers to him as). Bakugo is a hot head (both literally and figuratively due to his Quirk), at first he seems incredibly unlikeable with the horrible way that he treats Midoriya but there is something endearing about him deep down that makes him somewhat redeemable. He isn’t just the typical bully character, but is instead very intelligent and skilled, he has the same strong desire to become a hero and protect people as Midoriya does. Once they both arrive in UA it becomes apparent that it isn’t just Midoriya that Bakugo dislikes but everyone, he sees himself as so much better than everyone else that he doesn’t even have time for them (and although he’s in the wrong he is perhaps the strongest out of them all). Then his hate comes across less as an attack towards Midoriya but a general insecurity about being the best that means he has to remain mean and defensive around everyone. Bakugo’s character personifies the show’s brilliance in a way, as the typical bully/adversary character to Midoriya most writers would barely flesh him out at all and would make him wholly dislikeable but in this show he is as deep, layered and motivated as the shows protagonist. Although not all of the characters are as fleshed out or well developed as Bakugo the show does a great job giving them all there time in the spotlight and making them more relatable and deep because of this. I don’t have enough time to cover every character in the shows huge main cast with as much detail as Midoriya and Bakugo but I’ll try to at least say how each one is compelling as well as how the show achieves this. The first character I’ll mention has essentially became one of the main characters in the show, up there with Midoriya and Bakugo, and his arc highlights one of my other main loves of the series: the way it can seamlessly focus on another character and make them just as compelling (perhaps even more so) than the main protagonist. Shoto Todoroki is present throughout Season 1, but he is very much in the background. There is an element of mystery to him as he was one of the few pupils who got into UA through recommendations alone, meaning he is obviously very powerful. His Quirk has half of his body being cold and the other half of his body being hot, meaning he can essentially shoot of immense fire or ice powers at will from that side of his body. However he comes to the forefront early in Season 2 where he has to face off against Midoriya during the UA Sports Festival where the students are forced to compete in 1v1 battles to proceed further in the tournament. Here, Todoroki’s father is introduced, the number 2 hero, Endeavor. And so to is his backstory, and it is quite disturbing. Instead of Endeavor being heroic (as would be expected from the 2nd most popular hero) it is revealed that Todoroki was produced through selective breeding in order to make the most powerful hero who could one day surpass All Might. This was done with complete disregard to Todoroki’s mother (from who he inherited the ice section of his Quirk) who was physically and emotionally manipulated by Endeavor. This drove her to madness and eventually led to her forcibly burning Todoroki as he reminded her too much of Endeavor. She is obviously locked up for this, but this leaves Todoroki with a lot of hatred towards his father due to the way he treated his mother. Because of this Todoroki only uses the ice side of his Quirk out of resentment towards his father. Now until this episode we had little to no information on Todoroki, so although it is extremely compelling, I found myself wondering: why are we being told all this for such a minor character. It isn’t until the end of the fight that I realised why, upon completion of the fight (after an absolutely astonishing battle which I’ll come back to) it is revealed that Todoroki has actually won, eliminating Midoriya (the main character) early on in the tournament. This was mind-blowing to me as it completely subverts your expectations, Midoriya doesn’t even get eliminated in the final battle but instead in the semi finals. While the shock from this revelation is still settling in, the title of this episode is finally revealed, “Shoto Todoroki: Origin”, now we realise what has been happening. In the span of a single 24 minute episode, Todoroki has become one of the shows main characters and in many ways has become even more compelling than Midoriya. This is when I realised that although Midoriya is the main character, the show is truly an ensemble. I’d never seen anything like this before, of course all shows usually have an episode or two which focus on individual characters, but My Hero Academia go’s even further by essentially using this episode to graduate a minor character into one of the main cast. Todoroki is the most obvious example of this happening, but it continues to happen throughout, in varying degrees, to a variety of different characters. Ochaco Uraraka (who I’ve already mentioned) is given a similar moment during the Sports Festival where she must compete against Bakugo, who’s explosive powers are obviously far more devastating than her zero gravity Quirk. However she refuses to give up letting Bakugo severely injure her with multiple attacks in order to create the necessary debris for her to use in a counter-attack. Although this ends up not working as Bakugo manages to let off one final devastating explosion that stops her attack, her motivation and drive is shown as she continues to fight despite being almost fully immobilised. During this fight we are also shown her backstory, that she wants to become a pro hero in order to make enough money to support her parents. We also see how Midoriya inspired her to continue through his repeated fighting in the face of defeat. Although this sequence wasn’t anywhere near as large and important to the overall series as Todoroki’s, it adds so many more layers to her character. However these aren’t just limited to the main cast or supporting characters, there are characters who show up for only an episode or two but in that short time receive more development than most side characters in other shows. For example, during that same Sports Festival arc Midoriya has to go up against a new character named Hitoshi Shinso. Although we know Midoriya has an immense power, Shinso becomes much more intimidating when it’s revealed that his power is akin to mind control. He takes control of Midoriya and practically forces him to forfeit by attempting to make him walk out of bonds. This shows that how strong someone is isn’t necessarily the end-all, be-all. Midoriya could have been easily taken out by Shinso’s mind control power despite his insane power. However part of me wanted Shinso to win, as you are shown a small portion of his backstory where he is mocked for having a power more akin to a villain despite wanting to become a hero. Obviously Midoriya was going to win (even that isn’t a definite as I hadn’t got to the Todoroki fight yet), but part of me really felt for Shinso despite his character literally not being explored except for a couple of scenes. The show mainly focuses on the characters from Class 1-A (Midoriya’s class), with the other classes from UA usually getting the short end of the straw, but there have even been times where these characters have been allowed to shine in a similar way. In Season 3, when a group of villains attack the students during a trainingcamp, two students from Class 1-B really stood out. When a villain called Mustard knocks out a majority of the students with his sleeping gas (including many of Class 1-A), the students Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu and Itsuka Kendo are the last line of defence against this villain. This confrontation is one of the tensest battles in the show to date, mainly because since these characters are so minor they genuinely could be about to be killed off.Mustard’s gas is merely a defensive power rather than an attacking one so he has instead brought a literal gun with him in order to fight off the students. Tetsutetsu’s power allows him to harden his skin into metal (much like Colossus) and Kendo has the ability to enlarge both of her hands into a giant size, in other words they aren’t exactly the best suited to take on an armed villain while also trying to avoid his incapacitating sleeping gas Quirk. Although Tetsutetsu can solidify his skin into metal,when he does actually try to attack Mustard he is met with a barrage of bullets. These are noticeably painful and although the first few ping off him it becomes noticeable that his metal skin is becoming worn and cracking under the immense force from the blasts. Neither of them can take on Mustard directly, due to his firearm, so they must instead use the gas surrounding them as cover to hide their attacks from him. Mustard has the upper hand throughout, and eventually manages to immobilize Tetsutetsu with repeated shots. This scene becomes quite horrific as although it is a superhero story, what’s really happening is a villain repeatedly shooting a young man. His metal begins to crack under the force and just when he finally gives up revealing his flesh underneath, Kendo jumps from the gas knocking Mustard backwards with her enlarged fist. This gives Tetsutetsu enough time to deliver one last punch, so powerful that it shatters Mustard’s mask and his face in general. Neither of these characters are given much build-up in the lead up to this fight (no backstory or flashbacks like with other characters), yet putting them in such a tense situation where they prevail against all odds really got me to care about these two characters. They could never be focused on again in the series (even though this is doubtful based on this great moment) and I would care about them just as much as some of the other characters which we see weekly, simply due to the superb execution in this scene. I may have spent too much time on this one point, about how the show expertly handles different characters and gets you to care about them but I feel this is a key aspect of what makes it so great. As of the most recent episode (S3, Ep 18) the show is still doing this in a fantastic way. In the current arc all of the heroes in Class 1-A are trying to get their provisional hero license so they can operate as heroes without technically breaking the law (without the license they would be vigilantes). I won’t get into all the details but essentially the students are in a sort of dodgeball scenario where they must get out other applicants in the exam by tagging them with balls. In this scenario there have been multiple large character moments much like the ones I have been describing.Denki Kaminari is a Class 1-A student who hasn’t been given much development throughout the series, so far he has been more of a comic relief character. His Quirk is the ability to shoot out electricity, however he can only do it in short bursts as if he lets off a large volt he will be let in a moronic state where he becomes an idiot for a short stretch of time. However when he and Bakugo come across another applicant who can manipulate flesh (and has turned many of their fellow classmates into little flesh balls), he has to step up the plate. Bakugo attacks straight ahead and ends up getting morphed into a little ball as well. Kaminari cannot use a large blast of electricity as it may damage his teammates so he must rely on his intuition to win. Here it is revealed that he has been working on improving his powers by visiting the workshop (run by Hatsume, a character who also steals the spotlight despite merely showing up in a few episodes). He throws a projectile at the other applicant which sticks to him, it appears that Kaminari has done something wrong as the projectile has no effect. However it is then revealed that this projectile is conductive and that any electricity will be drawn towards it, meaning Kaminari can aim a large blast of electricity but that it will only injure the other applicant. He fries the other applicant with his electricity, freeing Bakugo and his fellow students in the process while delivering a nice monologue to the over-confident applicant. This hero moment cements his character as another one of the series best, yet it’s not even the only example of this in the same 24 minute episode. Later on another character named Yugo Aoyama has a similarly impactful hero moment. His Quirk allows him to shoot a navel-laser (Yes a laser that shoots out of the bellybutton), which isn’t necessarily the most useful Quirk. However he somehow manages to use it in a sacrificial way. In the last few minutes of the ‘dodgeball’ stage of the exam only a few more spots are remaining. Aoyama realises that he likely isn’t going to pass in these last few minutes with his lower powered Quirk, so he decided to fire it up into the air in order to attract in other desperate enemies (who really need a target to pass). He hopes that while he attracts the others in, some of his fellow classmates may be able to pass by catching the enemies while they are distracted. Up to this point his character has been relatively one note with him simply being the flamboyant or fashionable one who always wants to be the centre of attention. In a way he kind of was in the end as his signal worked, managing to attract in many other enemies. He was willing to sacrifice his chance at becoming a hero in the hopes that his friends and fellow students may succeed in his place. This, much like Kaminari or Tetsutetsu/Kendo from Class 1-B, adds a whole new dimension to this character. We know very little about him or his motivations, but now we know that he truly cares about his fellow class mates and has quite a selfless and caring side to him when it comes to them. Both Kaminari and Aoyama were almost completely unimportant before this episode, yet now I actually care about them and if they succeed in the future. The show pulled off the same thing with Todoroki, Shinso, Tetsutetsu and Kendo and it is the only example of this that I have ever seen in television (let alone anime). This is what makes My Hero Academia and its characters special: they are all truly layered and important, even if we don’t know it yet. I probably shouldn’t have left this so late into the piece, but there is one aspect of My Hero Academia which I love above everything else (including the subversive way it handles plot and characters). This aspect is the strong emotional resonance that many moments throughout the show have had with me. There are almost too many to mention (especially in such a long piece) but I feel like I have to highlight a few of the most affecting ones.Earlier I mentioned there being an emotional moment early on that got to me. This occurs in Episode 2 of the series, when a Sludge villain kidnaps and tries to possess Bakugo. With All Might being injured there is no one who can possibly save Bakugo, so Midoriya runs into the fray in order to attempt to save him, despite him having no power at the time. Although its one of the less emotional ones, it’s just so inspiring. Midoriya is willing to sacrifice himself to save Bakugo, this is so powerful that it inspires All Might, who can barely maintain his powered form, to jump in and save them both. He destroys the monster in one hit; this hit is so powerful that it creates a huge gust of wind which literally causes it to rain due to the wind pressure. This moment really connected with me as it both showed Midoriya’s strong motivations as well as All Might’s insane level of power in one single scene. To be fair there aren’t a lot of these moments in Season 1 (well at least compared to the later seasons), but there is one other extremely epic scene which stands out. This takes place near the end of Season 1 where All Might has to face off against a Nomu, a monster that has designed to be resistant to his powers, in order to protect the UA students. He eventually realises that the Nomu has a shock absorbance power which is making All Might’s attacks futile. All Might knows that even though he is absorbing all of the attacks that there must be some limit to it, so he gives repeated punches to the Nomu, smashing it over and over again. Over time All Might finally releases a full 100% of his power, this creates a small explosion upon contact, which propels the Nomu through the roof and up into the atmosphere, passing through multiple clouds on the way up. This shows the full scale and extent of All Might’s power in such a fascinating way, he delivers one last final blow in order to protect his students. The emotional moments in Season 1 are relatively tame compared to some of the ones in Season 2, if you can believe it. The first major one that I have already mentioned is the fight between Midoriya and Todoroki during the UA Sports Festival. As I’ve already mentioned Todoroki has a severe grudge against his father, Endeavor, and therefore he refuses to use the fire part of his Quirk, which he inherited from his father, in order to spite him. Midoriya sees this and becomes angry; he sees Todoroki refusing to use all of his power and thinks that he is underestimating him. He wants them to have a fair fight so that the winner will truly know who is more powerful. Midoriya tries to goad Todoroki into using his fire side by telling him that the power is now his own, not his fathers. He tries to get a reaction out of Todoroki by insulting him and using his vast power to shatter Todoroki’s ice attacks. He is trying to back Todoroki into a corner where he is forced to accept the power as his own and use it in order to win. This shows Midoriya’s pure hero side shining through. Even though he is putting himself at a disadvantage by doing this he feels the need to help his opponent come to terms with his own powers and inadequacies, in order to make Todoroki a better hero. The fight itself is absolutely stunning. Todoroki throws up walls of ice against Midoriya, and each time Midoriya sacrifices a finger (by channelling All Might’s power into it) to completely destroy them. Todoroki thinks he can simply just tire Midoriya out by making him use all of his fingers, but even after Midoriya uses every single finger he begins using the same ones again, causing permanent damage to his body. Midoriya is sacrificing his own body as well as his chances at winning in order to make Todoroki embrace his full power. This comes to an incredible climax, where Midoriya finally almost beats Todoroki forcing him to use his fire power. Both of them are now content, with Midoriya ready to finally see the true winner and Todoroki having finally come to terms with his power they are ready to fight. This comes together in one last beautiful clash. Midoriya launches himself across the battlefield channelling All Might’s power into his fist for one final punch, at the same time Todoroki uses both his fire and ice attacks in unison surrounding himself in a large fiery explosion and he begins to glow almost white with the intense heat. The judges realise that both of them are at risk of seriously injuring the other so a teacher with a Cement creating Quirk tries to put up a wall between them. Both Midoriya and Todoroki hit this wall at the same time causing a huge, beautiful explosion that almost fills the whole arena. Apart from this sequence being absolutely breath-taking, the cherry on top does not arrive until the smoke clears and we realise that Todoroki has won. Despite this obviously being a large defeat for Midoriya, this interaction actually brought him and Todoroki closer together as they now feel a much closer connection to each other as they both respect each other. Todoroki respects Midoriya for sacrificing the match to help him realise his true potential and Midoriya respects Todoroki for finally coming to terms with his powers. This conflict is just so emotional to ponder, while also being beautiful to watch: the pure artistry on display in this sequence is something to behold. Could you believe that the show has another scene that almost rivals this interaction? Because it does and this scene occurred during Season 3. Although I examined the Midoriya and Todoroki fight in a huge amount of detail, and it is probably the best scene overall both in terms of its emotional significance as well as the amazing action happening on screen, there is still another scene that I would have to say is my favourite. This occurs early in Season 3 when a group of villains attack the students while at a training camp, this is the same attack in which Tetsutetsu and Kendo fought against Mustard (Jesus, that was a while ago). During this arc Midoriya meets a young boy named Kota who hates heroes because his parents were heroes who were killed in the line of duty. Midoriya tries to comfort Kota, but he doesn’t want anything to do with him as he is a hero. However when the villains attack, Midoriya realises that Kota is missing and that he could run into the path of a villain. Kota ends up being incredibly unlucky and runs into Muscular, a blood thirsty villain who actually killed his parents. Muscular’s Quirk allows him to enlarge his muscles to an insane degree essentially turning him into a huge hulking monstrosity. Midoriya arrives just in time to save Kota and he faces off against Muscular. Midoriya tries to use Full Cowling (only 5% of All Might’s power) to try and quickly incapacitate Muscular however he is just too strong and Midoriya is forced to use 100% of the All for One power in order to win. Throughout the show this final attack has been absolutely devastating to almost every opponent from the giant robot from his first exam to Todoroki during the sports festival. However the series does what it does best, and subverts your expectations even more. Muscular shakes off the attack with little to no damage. Midoriya’s arm is still completely shattered yet he has barely even scratched his enemy; he is completely outclassed against Muscular. Muscular attacks with violent delight in Midoriya’s pain sending him flying away, this leaves Kota in full view of Muscular who is ready to end his life. This is when Midoriya’s heroic qualities begin to shine through yet again. Despite his body being partially broken he jumps back into the fray to shield Kota from Muscular’s attack. Midoriya may be a young child but here you see his raw, powerful emotion as he screams at Muscular vowing that he will never hurt Kota, even as Muscular begins to force himself down on Midoriya beginning to suffocate him, Midoriya continues to scream showing that he will not give up. It’s not until he is almost fully engulfed that he eventually breaks down beginning to cry in pain beneath the hulking mass of Muscular. The screen cuts to black and we don’t know what has become of Midoriya, until a splash of water hits the screen. Muscular turns to see a weeping Kota, who has finally revealed that he has a Water based Quirk (much like his parents). He has been hiding this the whole time due to his hate towards heroes, but he has been so completely shocked and amazed my Midoriya’s efforts to protect him that he has completely changed his mind. It could even be assumed that his intense, passionate urge to protect Midoriya has caused this Quirk to develop. Midoriya’s heroic actions inspired Kota so much that he was willing to risk his life to try and stop Midoriya’s defeat. You may think this is the most poignant and emotional that a scene could possibly get, but somehow it gets even better. Muscular is surprised by this sudden attack from Kota, giving Midoriya enough time to plunge his fist deep into Muscular’s stomach. While he has Muscular pinned with one hand, Midoriya channels more power than he could ever imagine into his other hand and hits him with a “1,000,000% Smash”. The sheer idea that Midoriya at 100% could barely scratch Muscular, so much so that he had to dig deep down inside of himself and use “1,000,000%” of his power is insane. Obviously this number isn’t exact, as that kind of power would likely surpass All Might, it shows Midoriya’s desperation in this fight as he gathers all the power he possibly can and delivers one final catastrophic blow. This statement that he’s delivering one million percent of his power is just so epic and mind-blowing that it made me giddy when I first saw it, this is by far the most hype moment I have seen in any medium (TV show or movie) in the last couple of years. This confrontation, even more so than Midoriya vs Todoroki, is an absolutely perfect balance of the emotions behind the fight and the sheer awesomeness of what’s actually occurring on screen. In my mind it has defined Midoriya (or Deku – his hero name) as one of the greatest heroes of all time. The astonishing level of power he displays while also giving his all to protect someone is far more heroic than anything I’ve ever seen Superman do. Much like this scene cemented Midoriya as one of the greatest heroes of all time, it has also cemented My Hero Academia as one of my favourite shows of all time as well. Now if you’ve read my previous pieces then you know I do have a tendency to get obsessed with some things for a period of time, but in writing this piece I feel I can now say, without hyperbole, that My Hero Academia is quickly becoming one of my favourite shows of all time.It just kept hitting me with interesting concept after interesting concept, all while subverting my expectations in the process. Midoriya’s power is what drew me in at first, the sheer brilliance of a power that cannot be overused or solely depended upon because it hurts the user. Then it was the amazing way it handled characters, how it seemed to fluently introduce characters and in a matter of scenes convert them into main characters with just as compelling motivations and an ideology as Midoriya. Finally it was the absolutely riveting emotions that the show stirred within me during its most climatic scenes, whether this was the fantastic fight between Midoriya and Todoroki or the astonishing fight with Muscular where I went from deep sadness to near childlike giddiness in a matter of moments. I began watching this series in the hopes that it would give me more of an insight into anime and why it was so popular, but the show expanded beyond that delivering an experience that I’ve not been able to find in most other movies or television shows in recent years. This is a show that I would recommend to anyone, even if I have spoiled a lot of its greatest strengths in this piece, some of them just cannot be conveyed in words. It’s achievements need to be seen to be believed.
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authorSo this is weird. I’ve made a website, I’m not expecting anyone to read it (actually I’d rather they didn’t.) Basically I’ve been struggling to write creative things recently, every idea I come up with, no matter how much I think I believe in it, leads me nowhere. I guess you could call it writer’s block, but it’s more so that I tend to overthink and second-guess myself down to the smallest details, this means it takes me forever to make anything and once I have I’m incredibly demotivated to continue it. So, after being inspired by an Australian writer, Gabriel Bergmoser, who’s blog and podcasts I’ve been reading and listening to for the past few years I decided this would be an interesting experiment to try out. Basically I have no idea what I’m going to write, it’s unlikely to be creative or short stories, more-so this kind of string-of-consciousness opinion piece based on the things I’m thinking about at the moment. From films to television or maybe books and music. Anyway I hope you find some of this stuff interesting. Let’s hope I don’t say anything too incriminating considering my name is plastered all over this. Granted, this is something I will probably only update about four times in my life, unless I really enjoy it. It’s more so to help me be more creative and actually produce something for once.
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January 2021
CategoriesNot really sure? Opinions on the blog, mainly about entertainment. I'll also be posting some fiction or short stories eventually for your feedback and enjoyment.
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