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“This is the story of how I became the greatest hero.”

And so it comes to an end one of the greatest shounen ever. At least that's what I would like to say, but now, after it ended, I'm not so sure. It certainly was one of the most popular, to the point it became a cultural phenomenon that transcended manga and anime, like Dragon Ball and Naruto before it. But how good was it after all?

Horikoshi's work is the manga version of a western comic book. And yet it was unrestricted by canon, by the weight of a hundred years of previous stories and expectations: ... it was free to be whatever it wanted to be, to kill any character the story needed to die, to end whenever the author wanted. These are the shackles of mainstream comics: to be eternal and unchanging, to sell the same story over and over. And these shackles are absent here, giving this story potential.

That is, if Horikoshi actually committed to his ideas. From the get-go, the concept of the story changed from “Deku will become a hero despite being quirkless through his own efforts” to “Deku is given a handout by the greatest hero and inherits the most powerful quirk in the world, because there can't be quirkless heroes”. The story then proceeds to contradict itself at this point many times — quirkless heroes pop into the story in crucial moments, proving it *is* actually something possible. And Deku has no agency in his own story; his power-ups are not earned, but given.
Horikoshi then promoted popularity polls for his characters, and (in my opinion) he changed the very core of the story to accommodate these results. The most beloved characters were moved to the center of the plot, while the unpopular characters were sidelined. This is not how one is supposed to write a story. There is a quote by George R.R. Martin that is very fitting here: “Art is not a democracy. People don’t get to vote on how it ends.” And it's basically what happened here.
Another instance where the author doesn't commit is killing his characters. Numerous times, when some character is on the verge of death, Horikoshi regrets it and brings the character back for no reason, in detriment of the story, and in some cases to never be used again anyway. Refusing to kill your characters lowers the stakes considerably. The potential to be free of this classic comic book flaw is wasted if you refuse to kill them anyway.
At the end of the story, it is obvious to the reader that Horikoshi is burned out. His chapters become shorter and shorter, and it's clear he is beelining to the end. It is understandable, given it's his first long-running manga, and it's also a weekly one at that. But the ending is mild at best, and that's just unfortunate.

Some other observations and opinions:
• The story could've greatly benefited from a time skip.
• The author has a strange obsession with drawing fingers that creeps its way into the story and becomes more and more prevalent. This manga could just be called Fingers.
• None of the villains motivations really make any sense, except Dabi and Stain.
• Despite being a shounen with a ton of teenage characters, Horikoshi can explore the world and themes much more with the pro heroes and villains than he can with the students.
• Mineta must be one of the worst characters ever in shounen. He is a pervert, but that in itself is not a problem; the problem is being a pervert is his entire character. There is nothing more to him. And it doesn't stop there, he doesn't simply have a bad (or absent) personality, every single aspect of this character is lame: his power, design, costume, everything.
• All Might is the heart of this story and is present in almost all of its best moments. His absence is sorely missed. Curiously, All Might's design is one of the few instances where Horikoshi actually drew a line in the sand and refused to alter it, and look how that turned out. Imagine if he did that more.
• The art, like in most manga, improves over time, and becomes much more detailed.
• The character design ranges from great (All Might, Uraraka, Jiro) to very bad (Mineta, those meme anthropomorphic characters). The female characters usually have very good design, which is a shame because they are all wasted at the end of the day. They never really get a chance to shine, their characters are sidelined by the author and never get closure. Uraraka's arc and her relationship with Deku are abandoned and forgotten.
• Deku really gets the short end of the stick in the end. Even his quote about becoming the greatest hero ends up being misleading.

So, after this rant, you can only expect me to conclude “Yeah, it's terrible” at this point. But no, this is not a bad manga overall. It's a solid shounen, with classic tropes that work well. And, like a good comic book, it has good action, memorable heroic moments, and great one-liners. It's very popular for a reason. I only listed the reasons that, in my opinion, sadly kept it from being great. I rate it disappointing out of 10.

A young man trains to become a ninja in a secret clan hidden in the mountains of Japan. The clan turns out to be evil, and the young man considers running away with a female colleague. The organization then kills his love interest, giving him cause for revenge. Thus, the protagonist has to use his skills against his malevolent mentors.

This is the premise of a 2009 movie called Ninja Assassin, but it can also work for this anime. The movie, at least, was somewhat entertaining, despite not being memorable. Ninja Kamui can only manage that for the first few episodes, and that is because of ... the well-made fight scenes alone. The plot is as generic as they come, the basic revenge story we've all seen before (and done better) a thousand times. It doesn't take long before the animation quality — the only thing this anime has going for it — starts to fade. Then the anime decides to introduce CGI mecha fights, and not even the action is good anymore. By this point, any goodwill from the first few episodes is gone, but it keeps getting worse.

The characters are bland, boring caricatures that you'll forget in a few moments. There isn't a single interesting character in the whole cast. The anime then tries to use these cardboard characters in dramatic moments, and it feels cheap and unearned.

Even the soundtrack is mostly forgettable, there are a couple of decent tracks in there, but that's it.

I recommend this anime to anyone suffering from insomnia. If you want to watch a bloody revenge story with ninjas, go watch Ninja Assassin instead.

So, finally this manga has come to an end. If you are not acquainted with it, this is a slice-of-life romcom that follows the daily lives of middle school students Takagi and Nishikata. Takagi is a master at teasing and pranking Nishikata, who always plans to beat her at her own game but ends up outwitted and embarrassed himself. Then repeat next chapter. It's episodic, so you can even read the chapters out of order, it won't make any difference. This manga has become very recognizable over its long run, and maybe even inspired other stories like Nagatoro.

Despite their constant antics, Takagi and Nishikata have ... a close friendship and unsaid feelings for each other. This is what can be concluded in chapter 1, and this is where any development stops, which is my only criticism of this manga. There is very little progression, for hundreds of chapters. They are still funny and endearing, despite that. And it does have an ending.

The art is good, clean and clear, and characters are drawn very consistently.

I recommend this to anyone who wants to read a simple, wholesome and cute story. Even a single chapter can make your day a little better and lighter.
And if you like this, I especially recommend its adaptation. In my opinion, the anime greatly outshines its manga counterpart: it rearranges some chapters to be more chronological, so it has better build-up, and genuinely heartwarming, beautiful moments sadly missing in the source material.

On the day of the Final Judgment, when we all stand before God Almighty, He will show all mankind this anime on a big screen. Every human who ever lived will be there to see it. In eternity, where there is no time, all of those who did not watch this will assimilate it fully in what seems like an instant. Then the screaming will begin. Pleading and begging, the human souls will desperately try to justify the existence of this atrocity and will fail. The ground will split open and we will fall into the dark abyss, rejected and forsaken by God.
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I started watching ... this thinking it would be an isekai-type anime. "What would life be like if you turned into a dog, retaining your memories of human life, and got adopted by your hot classmate crush?" doesn't sound so bad, right? Well... let's just say, if you like anime for the plot, better look elsewhere. Here, we only have "plot". Even the characters themselves have zero depth, they only exist to be lewded by the dog protagonist. If these people actually existed in real life, they would be in padded cells.

The episodes only have 12 minutes each, not counting the OP and ED which take a large chunk out of that — and are bad and annoying.

I can't even recommend this to ecchi lovers, but only a particular branch of that group: those who are into zoophilia/bestiality. If you are in this category, this anime is made for you. Then again, you might wanna read the manga instead, since the anime is apparently tamer in that regard: some scenes are cut or skipped entirely. For everyone else — the functional members of society — avoid this.