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The Spring 2016 Anime Preview Guide
My Hero Academia

How would you rate episode 1 of
My Hero Academia ?
Community score: 4.2



What is this?

Some time ago, humans began developing superpowers, and now roughly 80% of society has some kind of special ability, called a “quirk.” Izuku Midoriya, or “Deku,” is a quirkless kid in a world dominated by them – so naturally he's obsessed, a fanboy genetically relegated to the sidelines, watching the world's most popular heroes take down the endless tide of people who just can't control their quirks. He's taking exhaustive notes, determined to become a hero anyway – much to the consternation of his classmates, who bully him over his lack of superpowers. All of this changes when Deku is attacked in a tunnel by a particularly gooey supervillain and gets saved by All Might, the world's #1 hero whose physical stature is matched only by his toothy grin and giant blonde hair. Determined not to let this chance meeting go to waste, Deku decides he won't let All Might go until he answers some of his questions – it's a fateful meeting that will change Deku's life forever. My Hero Academia is based on a manga and can be found streaming on Funimation, Sundays at 5:00 AM EST.

How was the first episode?

Jacob Hope Chapman

Rating:

This season, Studio BONES and Shonen Jump have combined forces to prove that, just like its young hero, a show doesn't need to be unique to still be special. From its character designs to its music to its schoolyard triumphs of the human spirit, My Hero Academia screams WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP in every way imaginable. Broad as that sounds, there's just no better descriptor; if you've seen Hunter x Hunter or Magi, you already know exactly how this story will sound, smell, and feel. For westerners seeking out a new One Punch Man or Tiger and Bunny, you might want to tweak your expectations in a more Naruto direction. Like those three previous Jump examples, you could basically use My Hero Academia's first episode to explain the WSJ formula to people, beat for beat, line for line, pitch-perfect-posterboy.

Of course, what sets Academia apart from its most obvious relatives is the lavish and exuberant presentation a studio like BONES can offer the material above the standards of a Toei or Pierrot. The raucous comedy and action of this quirky superhero world is so handsomely realized, it almost feels like it's a cut above the needs of the material. (Poor Deku's character design screams more low-rent kids' show than mainstream action adventure, unfortunately.) Darker shades of drama have already begun to leak into the show through its "men are not created equal" theme, but once again the tone is so exaggerated and family-friendly, with giant globulous tears and overactive swelling strings in the background, that the experience jumps immediately into the Cartoon Network part of your brain instead of the Adult Swim part. Basically, if this show hits as big as Funimation would like, merchandise from My Hero Academia is more likely to flood the local Target than the local Hot Topic.

This is a family show, not an otaku show. But it's a family show with fantastic production values, a standout aesthetic (though not a standout premise), and a warm sense of conviction that reminded me more of the powerhouse One Piece than any of Weekly Shonen Jump's lesser experiments, which is always a good thing. It's no wonder this has taken off so hard in Japan, and I wouldn't be remotely surprised if it became a megahit over here as well. My Hero Academia is definitely worth watching, but it's also so attuned to the familiar formula of its host genre that there's not much to say about it yet. If you already love the Shonen Jump formula, this is probably going to be one of the most visually outstanding options out there, and if its popularity is anything to go by, the story may hold some exciting surprises for us in the near future too.


Theron Martin

Rating: 4

Has Funimation ever promoted a new series as hard and heavy as they are for this newest Weekly Shonen Jump adaptation? Given the blazing success of One Punch Man, though, it's not hard to understand why they would see this as a near-guaranteed smash hit in the West. After all, it has almost everything going for it that OPM did: lots of conventional super-heroes, plenty of action, a distinctive artistic style, and a central character who's easy to root for, even if he does start at the utterly opposite end of the hero spectrum from Saitama.

And based on the first episode, I think it will be the hit that Funimation is hoping for, even if it is a much more conventional angle on super-heroism than OPM took. I won't go as far as saying that it does everything right, but it punches plenty enough of the right buttons. Probably most importantly, it efficiently and effectively lays out the classic underdog story: the boy who wants to succeed, who aspires to be great and heroic, but peculiarly lacks the powers which almost everyone else around him has. The way he's bullied for it fills him with doubts but does not ultimately deter him, which I find far more convincing than those protagonists who just blindly bull their way forward with unshakable confidence. Unlike so many of those with powers (Quirks) around him, he has the spirit of a true hero which will sustain him until such time as he actually can be heroic. One of the great lines in the episode is a response he mutters to a bully who told him to jump out a window and hope for reincarnation if he really wants powers: that if he had done it then the bully would have instigated a suicide, and that would be a huge black mark on the record of someone who wants to be the world's top hero.

The artistic style used for the series is, frankly, not a style that I am a fan of. It has a lot of color and energy, but too much of the time it looks too rough, simplistic, and unrefined. However, I can't dispute the quality of the animation effort or the action choreography, and it does at least partly capture the American comic book aesthetic that it was aiming for; its mix of classic shonen action flair and comic book sensibilities reminds me of the Marvel Mangaverse project carried out about a decade ago, where Marvel super-heroes were depicted manga-style. The production aspect which worked most strongly for me was the musical score; its mix of dramatic orchestration, more playful or somber piano numbers, and mixed instrumentation for everyday scenes perfectly captures and sets the tone for each scene, bringing out the full measure of the content. The sense of timing on the writing couldn't better, either, as it never lets scenes needlessly drag out (looking at you, The Lost Village) and covers everything that a first episode should.

This one does not feel like it is ever going to capture the subversive angle which made OPM so great, but it should be fun in its own way. Thumbs-up from me.


Nick Creamer

Rating: 4.5

My Hero Academia debuts with some pretty heavy expectations. The manga is likely Shonen Jump's biggest rising star, and the anime looks to be a marquee show for Bones. Its director Kenji Nagasaki has won acclaim for the recent Gundam Build Fighters, and its animation director Yoshihiko Umakoshi is a great force with a distinctive visual style. Great hopes are riding on the anime's success.

Fortunately, when the stakes are at their highest, heroes never let people down. My Hero Academia's first episode is an energetic and engaging spectacle, a fast-paced introduction to a world of hopes and heroism. Its protagonist Midoriya's love of heroes comes through not just in his own fervent fanboyism, but in the entire show's overall tone. My Hero Academia absolutely nails why people love heroes - it is imbued with a sense of exuberant fun, centered on a character it's impossible not to root for, and unerringly committed to the ideal of anyone being able to become something great.

In an era of One Punch Mans and Concrete Revolutios, it's actually pretty refreshing to see a show that legitimately embraces the positive spirit of superheroes - in a way, that places My Hero Academia thematically closer to many idol shows than more self-scouring superhero narratives. But it's not just my appreciation of the show's energy and positive tone that makes this first episode great.

For one thing, the show is just a high-caliber production in all respects. The episode begins and ends with fight sequences that demonstrate not just strong animation, but a brilliant eye for fight composition. As opposed to focusing on easily parsable fight choreography, the show emphasizes dramatic perspective shifts and lots of fun close-ups, mirroring a comic book more than an action movie. And the energy of these fight scenes also transfers to the everyday scenes, with the show's somewhat dorky sense of humor often being sold through wild drawings and over-the-top expressions. Not all of the jokes worked, and the rush to get through Midoriya's motivations perhaps slightly shortchanged his character, but the overall balance was quite strong. There's an energy in everything here, and a welcome edge of silliness that gives characters like All Might an immediate appeal.

Both Midoriya and the world he lives in also invite more exploration. Midoriya is an unusual shonen lead - he's more the reserved, note-taking type, and given that he starts off with no Quirk at all, he's clearly not one to take power for granted. And little details like the ways superheroes are framed as tabloid celebrities here imply there's plenty of conflict to be mined from engaging with the ways superpowers have changed this world. Finally, the show's musical score is equally noteworthy, a very diverse collection of tracks adding alternately silly or cathartic energy to the show's variant moods.

Having read several volumes of the manga, I'm already looking forward to seeing some upcoming highlights brought to life. The show's already made some judicious cuts to get the story moving, so I've got reasonable confidence Nagasaki will continue to make the most of the material. My Hero Academia is pure fun from top to bottom, and that's a great place to be.


Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 3

I have to admit that I'm pleased and a little surprised that the first episode of My Hero Academia only covers half of the manga's first chapter. It's a long first chapter, and things don't get really exciting until the second half, so it was a risk for the anime to take this tack, but I think that it'll pay off in the long run. This episode handles the more set-up like aspects of the story – introducing protagonist Izuku “Deku” Midoriya and his burning desire to be a hero despite the fact that he's part of the 20% of the population lacking in “quirks,” or superpowers. Izuku isn't inherently likable, but he is admirable in that plucky shounen hero way; he's determined and he's working hard towards his dream despite the fact that people keep telling him that it's an impossible one. This seems to be setting up the fact that Izuku is actually plenty heroic despite not having any powers because he simply doesn't let himself give up, no matter what others say or do to him. That's practically a superpower in itself when you're in middle school (albeit the part that in the US is high school, the 9th grade), so there's a clear statement being made.

This episode also introduces us to Izuku's likely foil figure, his childhood acquaintance Katsuki, whom Izuku still calls “Kacchan” for reasons I can't quite grasp – possibly it's habit, but maybe it's that hope that he has shining through again; if he's friendly to his bully, maybe the bully will back off. And Katsuki is a bully, and a nasty one at that. The irony, of course, is that he wants to be a hero, but he clearly doesn't really understand what that means. His goal is to be the best hero, which in his mind equates with the strongest, and he'll take down anyone who might get in his way...a philosophy that's at odds with the definition of hero. Not that Katsuki is aware of that, and given that he seems to in the game for the fame and glory, we could be looking at the evolution of a supervillain in contrast to Izuku's superhero.

The visuals of My Hero Academia definitely lean more towards American superhero comics than manga, with skintight bodysuits, the occasional “boom!” written out in English, and the biggest hero of them all looking kind of like the spawn of Booster Gold and Captain America, and yes, I know that those are from two different publishers. He's All Might, presumably a play on “all right” and “all mighty,” and he is the epitome of what it means to be a hero: big, strong, and happy to help. He speaks in a mix of English and Japanese and takes the time to pay attention to Izuku after rescuing him even though we know that something's on the verge of going wrong, as evidenced by the blood he drools and his muttered “shit.” Obviously this is foreshadowing, and we won't really know what's up until episode two, but it works with Izuku's craving to be validated by his personal hero and with the contrast being set up between the two boys.

Even though the action hasn't really started yet, this episode has a lot of appeal. Izuku's watery-eyed character design helps his ambition to stand out in that he is one of the least heroic looking characters in the show and the hero/villain trajectories he and Katsuki are set upon make for an interesting foundation to build upon. His determination and intelligence, to say nothing of the way the world appears to be against him, make him sympathetic enough to bear with the lack of the major plot point from chapter one of the manga, and the bright, bold color scheme and animation keep things visually interesting. It may not be the most exciting episode, but it is definitely one that shows the potential of the overall story.


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