My Hero Academia Season 1 (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Today on Anime Saturday, I take a look at Season 1 of My Hero Academia. Let’s begin.

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/My Hero Academia is an action anime adapted from the 2014 manga created by Kohei Horikoshi. It tells the story of Izuku Midoriya -- nicknamed Deku -- who lives in a world where almost everyone has a unique ability called a Quirk, and some make a living as superheroes. As one of the rare ones who was born quirkless, he stumbled upon his all-time favorite hero All-Might who sees something special within him and passes his quirk down to him just in time for him to take his exam for entry into UA High School. There he meets friends, deals with rivals, experiences first-hand the seriousness and severity of superhero life, and begins to learn what it truly means to be a hero./

(Oh my goodness scene)

Readers, it should come to no surprise to you that I went into this anime coming off of the tails of season 1 of One Punch Man.

As a matter of fact, my friend and podcasting partner for The Weeb and the Normie suggested that this series should be the main focus for the first episode because I enjoyed One Punch Man as much as I did.

So we watched the first five episodes and discussed my thoughts. Link in the description below if you wanna check it out.

Soon we just finished off the first season just by hanging out, and for the majority of it, I liked what I saw.

I say the majority because there was of course some things about it that rubbed me the wrong way, but a lot of the positive stuff balanced it out.

/Things like Deku’s personality, how they handled his budding romance with Ochaco. How the school operates and how his classmates work together to deal with dangerous threats. All of that was handled in a way that helped me factor in the good more than the bad/

Though I am still gonna talk about the bad.

But for now, let’s talk about one of the things I was very impressed with: Deku

One of the things I really enjoy about Deku is that he’s not Naruto.

What I mean by that, is that there’s a formula a lot of protags in Shonen anime in the end of the last generation to the beginning of this current one follow that require them to be either cocky, bratty or obnoxious

Only for there to be one or multiple in-universe reasons as to why they’re like that in order for us to sympathize with them better, while still wanting them to overcome obstacles and persevere.

Deku doesn’t follow that formula. And I feel that a lot of the reasons why its refreshing to see how he operates over the course of this season is because he starts off quirkless.

/He doesn’t lash out at society because he was delivered the short end of the stick. He finds other means to pursue his goals even if it’s gonna be tough as balls considering his circumstances. Add that with his naturally big heart, the fact that he’s so in tune with his emotions and isn’t afraid to display them on some fragile masculinity bullshit, and you’re genuinely happy for Deku when things start going his way./

Before this, I have never really seen a male protagonist in a Shonen anime like him before.

I think the closest I’ve seen come to is Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but it’s still debatable whether or not Eva is Shonen or Seinen.

But if you know of any shonen anime that have protagonists in them that are like Deku, please feel free to leave them in the comment section so I can check them out later.

Then of course there’s the supporting cast. AKA the teachers and the rest of Deku’s classmates.

/All Might really needs no explanation. Shota Aizawa aka Eraser Head always knows how to straddle that line between hilarious and badass. Nezu is the best principal EVER. Momo’s great, Froppy’s great, Kyoka’s great, THESE TWO ARE BOYFRIENDS AND NOTHING YOU CAN TELL ME CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE/

But I’d have to say my favorite friendship-slash-relationship Deku develops over the course of season 1 are the ones he forms between Ochaco and Tenya.

/There’s no doubt that Ochaco is Deku’s love interest in this series, but its handled so well in this season compared to other anime I’ve seen. The friendship between the two and Deku’s attraction to her buds naturally and they both enjoy each others company, outside of what drove him to use his newly acquired quirk during his entrance exam to UA, its never a damsel in distress situation; Ochaco’s had Deku’s back just as much as Deku had hers. And most importantly, Ochaco is allowed to be her own character and not just exist to be a plot device in Deku’s development./

And while he doesn’t necessarily have a best friend at UA per se, the closest he’s come to one is through Tenya.

Also known as that one kid in class that always reminds the teacher that they forgot to collect last night’s homework.

/Like, I could already see something about the way he operated during the skirmish exercise they were part of earlier. But the moment Deku nominated Tenya as class representative -- because clearly HE saw something there too -- I knew the two of them were gonna be tight. And considering how his family background molded his “teachers pet” mentality, and the fact that both he and Deku have so much respect for each other to the point where they both genuinely want the best for each other, this has to be one of the healthiest peer relationships Deku has had since we were initially introduced to him./

Yes. Even better than Bakugo. Because fuck Bakugo.

Now you can argue that rival characters in anime are antagonistic by nature, and you’d be right.

Because there are in fact rival characters in Shonen anime...and then there’s Bakugo.

He isn’t a rival character, he’s a foil. The purpose of foils are to contrast with other characters -- usually the protagonist -- in order to shine a brighter light on why we enjoy the protagonist to begin with.

Can the rival trope and the foil trope be combined with each other? Yes.

But it’s the fact that they’re combined so frequently in fiction that makes us believe that the two are usually unanimous with each other, and Bakugo is the perfect example of just ONE of these entities acting on its own.

/Because when it comes to qualities Bakugo has that differentiate from the ones that Deku has, it’s completely night and day/

Usually rivals can grow to be likeable and gain a sense of respect for the protagonist with proper character development and the like, even when the foil and rival tropes are combined. Vegeta is pretty much the Shonen posterboy of the combination of these two tropes.

But in Bakugo’s case, he made it extremely hard for me to give a damn about him throughout the entire season from just one scene in the first episode of the anime alone, and it was THIS one

(Kill Yourself scene)

Yeah, that immediately put him on my shit list.

/Not to mention the actual reason why Bakugo hates Deku, being that he takes actions of kindness from individuals that he sees are lesser than him as an act of humiliation. All it took to make Bakugo realize he was gonna make Deku’s life a living hell throughout their entire childhood was preschool Deku asking preschool Bakugo if he was alright after taking a stumble and offer to help him up. That was enough for Bakugo to paint a target on Deku’s back all throughout their childhood, just rubbing salt in the wound that he was quirkless./

At the time.

Because once Deku got One For All, Bakugo was just out for blood.

His ego is so fragile and his personality so stubborn that he refuses to get out of his own head, and it makes him insufferable to me.

/So much that whenever Bakugo confronted Deku about his new quirk over the course of season 1 -- especially knowing how Bakugo operates and why he singled Deku out growing up in the first place -- that I just wished that he just wrote him off once he got One For All. Just completely pay Bakugo no nevermind and kept letting him think that he was hiding these quirks all of those years until his own fragility and ego drive himself crazy, because NOTHING BAKUGO DID BEFORE OR DURING THE EVENTS OF THE FIRST SEASON IS ENOUGH FOR HIM TO RECEIVE A PROPER EXPLANATION REGARDING HOW DEKU GOT HIS QUIRK./

/He doesn’t deserve Deku constantly trying to mend whatever relationship they have (insert appropriate scene here). He doesn’t deserve any of Deku’s praises regarding his quirk (I think you’re amazing scene). And the fact that Deku still does all of this despite Bakugo deserving NONE OF IT says more about Deku’s character than Bakugo, and only helps reinforce that big heart of his that I mentioned he has earlier in the video. Just like a FOIL is supposed to do, not a rival./

If ANYONE deserves to be Deku’s rival, it’s THIS dude (picture of Shoto). But that’s not until season 2.

But I’m not gonna let one angry-ass boy spoil my entire perception of the first season of a superhero anime that I thought was pretty good. It subverted a lot of tropes, went in a lot of directions that I appreciated, and gave me my very first anime ship, which is an accomplishment in itself.

Right now you can stream My Hero Academia on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu, and either own or rent them digitally via YouTube, Google, Amazon Prime, and Vudu

But if you’re already caught up on the previous seasons, you can tune in for the simulcast premiere of My Hero Academia season 4 on both Crunchyroll and Funimation on October 12, 2019

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So with that being said Readers, your homework assignment for the day. Write in the comment section what you thought of My Hero Academia: Season 1 if you’ve seen it.

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But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed.