Boku no Hero Academia - Anime

Good long running anime are becoming hard to come by, but luckily enough there still exists those few that have enough potential to stand with heavy weights such as One Piece and Naruto. Of course they are but fresh little baby anime still in their prepubescent stage, not quite fully grown, so it’s understandable when you come across a few hiccups here and there.

The anime I speak of is Boku no Hero Academia, an awesome adventure shounen manga that has recently been made into an anime. One could argue maybe even too recently as the manga holds not as much plot revealed as any anime would need to be considered as ‘long-running’. In fact this might even be why the season itself is shorter than what veterans would expect from an anime with such potential. Still one can’t deny that it’s good, though its general plot may seem as if it draws on previous work. But shouldn’t that be okay, after all inspiration is born from something already there (arguably) so it would be inevitable that the story would seem familiar as it follows a formula that is already known to get in the views.

In any case, the hero-based story follows young Izuku Midoriya, a normal middle school student with dreams of one day becoming a great hero like his idol, the symbol of peace, All Might. However, in a world where superpowers are the norm and are gifted to many people as they reach puberty, we see that our unfortunate lead is not one with the supposed genetic marker that would allow such gifts to be bestowed on him. Crushed by this reality at a young age we see a resilient little boy power through such a depressing situation and become someone who is almost always documenting every hero he encounters or has an interest in, which in his case tends to be all of them, an obsession that will serve him well in future.

It is while he is documenting such a hero that he falls into a very unlucky predicament that allows him to actually meet his idol in person. But things don’t go as planned and secrets are quickly revealed as young Midoriya discovers his hero might not be as invincible as he portrays himself to be. Still those revelations don’t phase our lead, it also becomes an historical meeting as our ‘quirk-less’ young boy is given the opportunity to become what he has always dreamed about, along with the encouragement and support of his ultimate role model who bestows on him something impossible.

Having received the ultimate gift we see as Midoriya now has a chance to attend a place that is meant to guarantee his rise to heroics, the legendary UA, where heroes are taught from young on how exactly to be heroes. Gathering with other young potential candidates who show great promise, Midoriya begins his high school life living up to his dreams as he learns that having a ‘quirk’ is harder than it looks, especially when it’s borrowed.

Like all coming of age stories and adventure manga that promise a fulfilling and eventful journey, Boku no Hero Academia, shows great promise in what it can and will offer its audience if we stick with it long enough. No doubt fans of Naruto will find this interesting, though maybe a bit ‘re-hashed’ if you think too much on how it all plays out, but meh…. Still worth a shot I think.