Dec 1, 2023
Plot:
The MHA plot is a mess; it is too repetitive; could be rearranged in any order and nothing would change; introduces concepts extremely late in the series just to have issue resolved chapters later and never brought up again; and it thinks it is deeper than it is. In regards to repetitiveness I will describe some plot points in order to express how this is: exam, students battle students, students & heroes battle villains, students battle students, students mentor under heroes, exam, students & heroes battle villains, students & heroes battle villains, exam / students battle students, students mentor under heroes… you get the
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point. I have consumed the series multiple times and I had to look up the arcs just to remember them because of how much they meld together from being so similar. With them all being so similar, and having little to no effect on the story as a whole, they can be rearranged in any order and nothing would change. Multiple times there is an arc where the students leave the school and then return to the school, after a world changing event has occurred, and seemingly nothing has changed. If you are going to have them return to the school why not just do multiple school arcs back to back and leave everything until later? Close to the end of the series an extremely heavy plot point is introduced; is then resolved by an extremely minor character, who has said next to nothing most of the series, and has yet to be brought up again. Recently in the manga racism was a plot point; it came out of seemingly nowhere and became a sub plot that is so random, unjustified, handled terrible and honestly tasteless. An event occurs that changes the world and this causes people to become racist, for some reason, and as to emotionally manipulate the reader and make the series seem deeper it is brought up for a few chapters and then forgotten. A few dozen chapters later it is brought up again out of nowhere and then two characters who had no 0 prejudice against them thought out the entire series act like they too have been targets of racism and then seemingly end racism. Bringing racism so late into your series about high schoolers that can shoot lasers out of their bellybuttons is so tasteless to me; if you want to make your series have mature themes that is fine but doing it so haphazardly just seems lazy and like you are trying too hard. Black Clover does something similar where it is a goofy series that deals with classism but there are a few differences: classism in Black Clover has been featured since chapter 1, it effects the main character and there is a gradual shift over time. In MHA racism comes out of nowhere 100’s of chapters into the series, it doesn’t effect the main character at all, and it is essentially “solved” randomly by a minor character. Regardless of how poorly written the plot is, the use of racism to make the series seem “deeper” and more “mature” just throws me the wrong way.
Characters:
MHA has too many characters that are uninteresting, add nothing to the story, have no effect on the world or plot, and nothing would change if they were removed. Many have done very little, or next to nothing, which makes their existence questionable. The main class has 21 characters including their teacher; several have powers that are useless even at the start of the show; many have 1 trait or running gag that is either unfunny, cliche, or becomes over used; they are given 0 character development; and we are not given a reason to care about them. On top of that there are other classes within the main school; and later on multiple different schools are introduced. Now this example alone already includes dozens of characters and this isn’t even taking into consideration characters from other arcs like when: they shadow heroes, which happens twice, and those hero's sidekicks; large battle arcs, which alone introduce dozens of more characters; the members of the 3 villain organizations; parents of students; police officers; and civilians. I will give an example of a character that will express what I mean. There is a 2nd year student from one of the other schools whose power grants her the ability to make her head, body and limbs retract into themselves, similar to a turtle. There is no world, let alone one where people have the powers of gods, that she is able to do anything remarkable. She is introduced, uses her power once in an extremely specific situation that shows it off. The rest of the series she is left to walk while her classmate, who can create earthquakes fights someone who can make more muscle mass and jump from skyscraper to skyscraper. She is one of dozens of characters that is introduced for seemingly no reason, has a power that doesn't even let her compete in their world, and is discarded later never to be seen or mentioned again.
Horikoshi doesn't know what do to with his characters. Later in the series a minor character, who has said next to nothing throughout the entire manga, is given entire chapters worth of focus and plot resolution. The character has had no arc and has had no relevance making it unjustified, when they are given their own subplot at the end of the series, which results in most of their screen time thought out the entire manga. Characters are given backstories immediately before dying, are given extensive development to become a minor character that does little to nothing later on, or are given too much screen time and 0 reason for the reader to care about them.
Art
The art used to be average, clean lines, nothing special, good shading, easy to understand the fight choreography, slightly average character designs in my opinion and I hate almost all of the outfits. In the more recent chapters the art has become so confusing, has so much going on, features blurry scribbles, and is just filled with so much messy stuff that it is often impossible to tell what is even happening. There are these massive set pieces that are relegated to single panels with all of the main content being one corner super far away. The massive drop in art quality has been often been a topic within the subreddit even with die hard fans saying they are beyond unimpressed. I can see what Horikoshi is going for, and within the muddled mess there is something there, but the end result is just not good.
Enjoyment:
MHA started with a lot of potential but as time went on the fact is that "better" series have come out which have set the bar higher. JJK, Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, Kaiju No. 8, Spy x Family, Undead Unluck are all shorter than MHA, have done more, and are just better. When I was less into anime & manga right around when the anime came I did like it a lot and would give it around an 8/10. Up until the end of the raid arc in the manga and the drug arc in the anime is when I realized I not only wasn’t enjoying the series anymore but I just wasn’t a fan for the most part. At this point I had now seen a few 100 anime and read a few dozen manga and I realized that MHA doesn’t even stand a candle to other anime I consider an 8/10 let alone 10/10 series. This is also when the anime and manga were entering “darker” arcs which Horikoshi excites extremely poorly in my opinion and when I realized that MHA is truly a 1/10 series is when they introduced the theme of racism.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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