Back to FrostLich's Profile FrostLich's Profile

This review contains slight spoilers for previous seasons.

--

I look at numbers of MHA and see big sales and high MAL scores. I read what people say about MHA and it's mostly negative stuff. It's really weird. And the stuff they say is really weird.

The thing that has been bothering me all these years when MHA was airing is that people seemingly don't even understand what is the MIGHT of this show is. People need high-speed plot, hype moments, stylish, absurd and BIZARRE moments and crazy powers. Which are not a whole lot in MHA.
And the plot isn't even the central element here.

The point is ... - all these things are just a facade. People who only need this facade can enjoy shallow shows like Black Clover, Fairy Tail, etc. And I think this lack of facade is what makes people not like or even drop MHA, makes them say - "hey, it's just another Naruto rip-off" without looking closer.

But MHA has always had the strongest fundamental element possible for a literary fiction. And it's the character writing and themes. These two are the thing that completely separates MHA from Black Clover, Bleach and other low-tier shounens that rely on facade to arouse emotions. MHA is different. There was a lot more thought put into its themes than any of those shows I mentioned.

And it still great in that department up to this day. The latest episode that depicts the change of "symbols" is a clear example. You wouldn't get such a theme in Black Clover or Bleach or Fairy Tail. There would be a blank space. You wouldn't get a small detail like Deku saying farewell to his mother when he's on the brink of death, you wouldn't get such theme as having sharp, but indecisive mind that fails you, you wouldn't get a theme of how superheroes influence society and what it means to be a symbol to people around in different times, etc. You wouldn't get any of those and of such a high insight in the psychology of characters. I didn't even think abouth some of them before watching MHA. I compliment Horikoshi for delivering them at the level that high and deep.

--

Another strong point that is connected to the first one is practical battles. By practical I mean fights that rely not only on your power levels. For instance, fights in Dragon Ball Z only had one factor that decided the outcome of a fight - your power level. The same happen in Bleach, Fairy Tail, etc.
But practical fights are the fights where your thinking is necessary and where you positioning and timing are important. I first noticed that when the fight between All-Might and Nomu was decided by a single moment when Deku managed to distract Nomu's attention for a second, thus allowing All-Might to deliver a critical blow. That little psychology trick and that small moment played a crucial part in the fight. And that's what great about these fights - every detail matters, every thought you come up with can win you a whole fight.

This creates even more character depth by providing an immersion not only during the dramatical parts, but during battles as well. You can see the thought process behind every step (of lack of it if there's a total chaos around), you can undestand the rules and you can FEEL the stakes. And thus you can feel these characters. You don't need extreme power level to be useful and relevant. Momo gathering her last strength and attaching the tracking device to Nomu CHANGED the game completely - thanks to her "little" contribuion it became even possible to track down villains.
And yet she still blamed herself for being useless and not having done enough. To which All-Might replied: "That's what a true hero should feel".

Midoriya coming up with a plan that first came to his mind and might not be that effective - which he completely realizes, yet he still has courage to execute it because no plan would be even worse. Because even a second of advantage can be victorious in MHA (unlike DBZ). Just like in real life.

And due to this you really perceive the experience our hero gain. You FEEL their growth. You feel how characters who went through serious stuff (like one of the first ones in Kamino) are now different from other characters in their calss who are still inexperienced almost regular high-schoolers.
Every arc is an episode from characters' life, which brings them closer to becoming true heroes - not only physically (quirk-wise), but more importantly - mentally. It's completely natural that Bakugo and Todoroki would fail hero exam in Season 3 because of their personalities (in other shows they would certainly pass based solely on their power and skill, but being cool and strong isn't enough to be a hero).

Yes, not every character is developed in a serious way. But that's how life works. Not everyone is super interesting or have some impossible goal and an incredible journey of achieving it.
This is again very practical and realistic. Not everything goes the way you like it. And yet there may be some pleasant surprises on your way.

--

All in all, people should pay more attention to fundamentals. Character writing is what classic literature was based on. And it's indeed the most powerful thing you can find in fiction. Imaganary worlds' purpose (like that of MHA) is just to give us a setting where we can observe humans placed in unsual circuramstances. These shows are still about humans and the deeper these humans are depicted the more I value these shows.

Let's not look at facade.

Warning. Non-english native review incoming.
This mini-review will be a bit messy as I had watched Abyss two months ago but have decided to write some kind of reaction just recently. Finally, a show with good writing. The concept is something I always come up with when I think about fantasy setting and plots. So I was involved on personal level. This awesome setting give birth to a number of themes that each character will represent. At first the main heroine's self-destructive attemps of going deep in the Abyss were non-believable for me. But as the show went on we learnt more about her character and ... how she was born and raised so her attitude became more and more natural. The way the show made me change my mind was one of the greatest things of watching the Abyss. So to everyone who finds this as bothersome as I did - don't be in hurry to drop the series.
Now about negatives.
The thing I found strange is how easy our heroes advanced through levels of Abyss (although in the last episodes they were met with challenge at last). The lack of details considering the environment and inhabitats of different levels wasn't to my liking. In general, the progression through levels was somewhat rushed.
All in all, show is good but nothing extraordinary there. The drama in the last episodes was good. The mature things sure attracted some audience but that's it. It's only the beginning of the story though. I hope we get much larger-scoped scenarios on different levels of the Abyss as the ones we saw were qiute short and didn't use a lot of cast. They were quite local stories. This is not something you would expect from the setting like this. Otherwise it's a great show and a solid 8/10.