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MHA is undeniably the most popular newcomer in Jump right now. Having read 183 chapters of the manga and also caught up on the anime, I’m still at a loss as to what it is about this series that's generating so much hype. Unless this is your first shonen, I advice that you dismiss any claim that it “deconstructs” or “subverts” anything. It’s a shonen to a T, which I don't have a problem with at all if the execution is good. But it's not.


Story:
First chapter opens with our protagonist, Izuku Midoriya (As called Deku), who's born into a world where majority have super ... powers, dubbed "quirks". In this world one can become a super hero, which has been his dream since he was little. But sadly, he wasn’t part of that majority and is picked on for being "quirkless". One day, he runs into his idol, All Might (The greatest hero in all Japan), who initially tells Deku to give up on his dream of becoming a hero. But upon witnessing a selfless act by Deku not long afterwards, he acknowledges him and tells him the one thing he's always wanted to hear his whole life, that he too, can become a hero. And thus Deku's journey to become the greatest hero begins, end chapter. You are given the impression that this is an underdog story about Deku's struggle to achieve his dream despite being at a disadvantage (Think Rock Lee from Naruto). But this is completely thrown out in the second chapter as Deku is conveniently handed down the strongest quirk (One for All) in the whole series, and then it's not long before his classmates acknowledge him and he's also able to compete with a kid who's been sparring with the second strongest hero his whole life.

Anyway, the story then becomes about Deku trying to master his newly gained powers and become the greatest hero. How does he do this? By going to hero school, where it seems like the students are being trained to become athletes rather than heroes. For example, the entrance exam consist of them just destroying robots to earn points like a video-game. What does this have to do with heroism? It doesn't, and one of the teachers even calls out the exam for being irrational. This was also the case later on when they must take an exam in order to obtain a "hero license" (This is needed in order to take on villains legally). I want you to take into account that the villains they may come across may be seriously dangerous individuals (As shown in the next arc right after), but what does the exam consist of? Playing glorified dodgeball. And at the end of the day, failing doesn't really seem to matter in the long run. Like with the entrance exam, Deku fails to destroy any robots, earning him zero points and ultimately fails the exam. But it doesn't matter, because there was apparently a way to earn extra points that no one knew about and he gets into U.A anyway. Same with the hero license, if anyone failed the exam, they could just take it again in three months, and if that doesn't work out, they still have 2nd & 3rd year to try again. Throw in some villain attacks here, there, in-between and you have the story of MHA.


Characters:
Deku, is an odd case for me. He want to be a hero, but aside from being quirkless he already has the qualities of one from the get go; he's brave, self-sacrificing & inspires others. So his "journey" pretty much amounts to leveling up One for All. I've also heard how 'different' Deku is from the "typical shonen protagonist" but he is just a wimpy high schooler like Kenichi, Ippo & Tsuna, how original.

As for the rest of the cast, their designs are great and most have likeable personalities, but that's all there is to them. Few characters like All Might, Bakugo, & Todoroki for example, get fleshed out along with any screentime. The majority are stale, underused and only get 1 minute of fame. Plus, when they do get their moment of screentime, it more often involves them derailing rather than progressing. Momo for example, is presented as a confident individual. She apparently loses her self-confidence at some point in the series, which is not only brought up but also resolved that same chapter. Same with Iida, who is presented as a stickler for rules and morals, his brother is attacked and so, he sets out to take down the villain that did it. Once the arc is over, he reverts back to how he always was, and hasn't had much of a presence in the series ever since. Granted, this is a long running series and is subject to change. But as of now, I don't understand where the praise for how the characters are handled comes from. Naruto introduced 9 characters during the Chunin Exam each with their own distinct personality, and along with the main 3 (That's 12 characters), expanded on their goals, hopes, abilities & heritage (Ok, 11, cause Tenten is no more relevant than that one dude in 1-A who talks to animals). One Piece dedicates an arc to each member of the Straw Hats. Even Black Clover, another really average shonen, does more with the members of the Black Bull than MHA does with class 1-A, and so, I can't help but feel like all the praise the series gets for its characters is misplaced.


Villains:
The main villains are known as the "League of Villains" led by Shigaraki. Every last one of them is shallow (Except maybe Jin). We know next to nothing about their motives, ideals, and their achievements feel very unearned. Then there are the other villains like Stain & Overhaul,

*This bit is going to contain spoilers*

Stain is introduced with his goal being to "purge" the world of "fake" heroes. He believes that a hero should be self sacrificing and prioritizes saving people who can't save themselves, like All Might. This would have made more sense if the setting of the story actually supported it. A lot of heroes may be shown having the dream of fame & money, but none of them put that ahead of saving lives. When Dabi attacks the students in a classroom during the Training Camp Vlad wasted no time jumping in the way of the students protecting them and then detaining Dabi in seconds. Eraserhead ended up brutally beaten up by the villains but still didn't stop trying to protect the kids at every point of the way during the USJ arc. Mount Lady & every hero involved in the raid prioritized rescuing the students and other citizens. Gran Torino doesn't even consider himself a 'hero' but still takes part in villain raids and protecting citizens. Heck, Iida's brother is shown saving lives in the story and when Iida confronts Stain and asks him why he attacked his brother, Stain answers with "because he was weak", which just makes him appear as a mad man itching to kill rather than creating a better society like he says. What's even more laughable is the fact that the series tries to justify him by saying the crime rate have decreased thanks to him, even though his actions should lead to the opposite. I previously said that the League of Villains achievements feel unearned and this is one of the reasons why, as Stain's actions somehow lead to a upraise of villains, who seek out Shigaraki, basically handing him a bunch of allies he never did anything to merit.

Overhaul is introduced talking to Shigaraki and telling him his goal to eliminate all quirks as he sees them as a disease. To do so he creates bullets that can erase quirks, yet also creates a serum that restore them back. We later get a flashback explaining how he was saved by the Yakuza and wants to raise them to the top of the market, as thanks for saving him. To do this he plans to sell the bullets to the villains and serum to heroes. Makes sense so far right? You'd think maybe he was just trying to persuade Shigaraki to buy his bullets but nope, instead we get another flashback on how he's seen quirks as an abnormality that must be eradicated since he was little and he will rid the world of them, which is only contradicted by his creation of serum and doesn't fall in line with his plan to "reinstate" the Yakuza. Also, Overhaul is also suppose to be a capable fighter according to Rappa, yet he, along with three of his underlings, get utterly destroyed for 10 minutes by Lemillion. I initially chose to give Overhaul the benefit of the doubt here as Lemillion's quirk could be seen as a counter to his, but even after Lemillion lost his quirk Overhaul, along with Chrono, were still struggling for 5 minutes straight, Overhaul even gets his right arm broken (Makes you wonder how he lasted 10 minutes in the first place if Lemillion's punches can shatter bones). It isn't until after he fuses with one of his subordinates and powers up that he's able to pose somewhat of a threat. And once again after the arc is over, the League of Villains swoop in and take everything Overhaul's worked for as their own.

*Spoilers end here*

Long story short, Stain & Overhaul feel like they are nothing more than plot devices who only exist to make Shigaraki better.


Setting:
Not much to say, it's basically our world but with superpowers thrown in. Sadly, a concept this simple is still greatly underutilized as U.A and the other hero schools are never explored, classes and training sessions are either skipped entirely or immediately interrupted by villains, school events are clumsy brought up right before they begin with no build up or foreshadowing, and besides U.A, it doesn't really seem like Japan is affected much by the huge villain attacks.


Action:
This is of course, a battle shonen, so one can expect a lot of fights. The first, being between Deku and his rival, Bakugo. It had a lot of dramatic weight to it as their relationship had been built up as a rocky one due to Bakugo seeing Deku as inferior in every way possible, and has done so since they were little. Deku's intelligence comes to play here as you see him constantly analyzing and making use of the knowledge he's acquired in his notebook. In terms of choreography, you have dynamic panels consisting with Deku using martial art grapples and Bakugo's fighting style being flexible with his quirk. There are a few fights like this, emphasis on "few". Majority of them aren't that action packed: they consist of characters mostly talking than actually fighting, they also lack build-up and don't have much going in terms of choreography as scenes mostly consist of characters spamming the same again over and over again. Deku vs Todoroki comes to mind as an example of this. This also brings me to my next issue, being that most characters don't use their powers or skills in creative or interesting ways. Overhaul for example is able to disassemble and then reassemble anything he makes physical contact with either back to it's original form or to something new entirely, yet 90% of the fight consists of his spamming the same spikes attack over and over again. This applies to Deku too as later on, he kinda just stops using martial art techniques and his fighting style becomes quite plain and straightforward. One of the villains even calls him out on this, and when none of his attacks were working he didn't think up a plan or come up with a way he could be flexible with his skillset (Like Naruto or Luffy would, and they're suppose to be the dumb ones unlike Deku), he instead received a deus ex machina to resolve the fight.


Art:
If there's one thing I'm mostly positive on, it's the artstyle. As previously mentioned I think the character designs are great, even for the grunts like Nomu. The scenes pack a lot of expressions and raw emotions that simple scene feel impactful. Only down side would be that later on, actions scene get really messy sometimes, making it a little difficult to understand what is going on.


All in all:
I actually do enjoy the series, for what it is. Be it the anime or the manga, it's entertaining. I do however, find the praises extremely overblown, the show doesn't do anything that older shonen series haven't done before. Granted, generic isn't bad if the execution is good, but I don't believe MHA does that well either. Out of all the newer Jump series, I would recommend reading Promised Neverland & Kimetsu no Yaiba over Black Clover & My Hero Academia, as those are actually good and try to be much more than just a downgraded Naruto.