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REVIEW: My Hero Academia - Volume 22




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FireballDragon



Joined: 17 Nov 2014
Posts: 683
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:51 pm Reply with quote
Not-so-friendly-reminder that Monoma's insecure ass can go get lacerated.
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Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 9:45 pm Reply with quote
I didn't like this arc very much. The fights had no sense of momentum, since the panels were full of exposition and characters blabbering on about their quirks and spelling out their strategies to their rivals in true shounen fashion. Every single movement and decision the students made had to be thoroughly explained, as if we couldn't figure out what they were doing or what the stakes and consequences were.

I also just don't care for Class B. Horikoshi tried to create conflict between certain characters, but most of it felt very superficial or downright contrived. The pipeline setting got boring pretty fast too.

I just miss the times when the stuff that happened at the school was actually fun and engaging. To me it feels like Horikoshi isn't exploiting the potential of his colourful setting and side characters.
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harminia



Joined: 24 Aug 2015
Posts: 1997
Location: australia
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:21 pm Reply with quote
FireballDragon wrote:
Not-so-friendly-reminder that Monoma's insecure ass can go get lacerated.


The only ass that's gonna get lacerated here is yours

signed
Monoma fan who only liked this arc because it focused on other characters for once (but mostly because of monoma)
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 10:24 pm Reply with quote
Everlasting Coconut wrote:
I didn't like this arc very much. The fights had no sense of momentum, since the panels were full of exposition and characters blabbering on about their quirks and spelling out their strategies to their rivals in true shounen fashion. Every single movement and decision the students made had to be thoroughly explained, as if we couldn't figure out what they were doing or what the stakes and consequences were.

I also just don't care for Class B. Horikoshi tried to create conflict between certain characters, but most of it felt very superficial or downright contrived. The pipeline setting got boring pretty fast too.

I just miss the times when the stuff that happened at the school was actually fun and engaging. To me it feels like Horikoshi isn't exploiting the potential of his colourful setting and side characters.


Ah reminds me of World Trigger, where every move is analyzed & scrutinized to the finest detail by multiple color commentators and viewing audience. How fun. Laughing
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micah007



Joined: 25 Jan 2017
Posts: 205
PostPosted: Wed Apr 08, 2020 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Strong volume. I did enjoy the focus on combat tactics by the students in order to triumph in their respective battles, that made all the scrimmages thoroughly engaging not to mention watching how everyone has matured in emotion, power, and intellect from the series start until now particularly Bakugo who continues to show notable improvement as an organic leader. I particularly enjoyed the dialogue and heavier exposition from Class-B which was needed since in my recollection this is the first time outside of the training camp that Class-B has taken a notable spotlight in the story. With most of their quirks being unknown I relished any additional information that could be given. I also appreciate Horikoshi's handling of Class-B by portraying them as competent characters and not poor mans versions of Class-A.
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MoonStar9



Joined: 01 Aug 2017
Posts: 24
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Quite a raving review for what I consider to be MHA at its absolute worst. I'm surprised, I have to say.

First off, I must mention how overdone and uninspired yet another tournament-style arc is. I understand this is a Shonen-targeted manga and fights are a staple so the readers don't get bored but what is this, the fourth? Fifth? We're less than 200 chapters in by this volume and Horikoshi is already so strapped for ideas that he's defaulted back to yet another tournament-style arc. One with the least amounts of stakes at that. An non-televised tournament with no winners and no licenses gained. An arc that leaves readers desperate to return to the main plot.

Secondly, the structure of the exercise is messy and nonsensical. The aim of the game is to capture and incarcerate your foe. Simply restraining them isn't enough to pass. What is the point of this simulation? When have Heroes ever incarcerated Villains? They are not the police. They subdue Villains and wait for the police to arrive with Quirk-suppressing devices to safely incarcerate them. This bizarre stipulation teaches the Heroes-in-training nothing that will come of use to them and is added solely to restrict characters like Todoroki, Momo, Mineta, and Sero who excel at subduing their opponents, while also giving a severe advantage to characters like Ida, Midoriya, and Bakugo who can zip back and forth from the jail to the skirmishes.

Each battle in this arc is incredibly poorly-written. I could not believe how progressively worse they became. I had issues with the first battle involving Tsuyu's Team. I didn't expect it to be the best one of the lot. Shinsou is introduced as a participant on both teams as a Hero Course-hopeful. Aizawa, the man who worships logic and rationality, decides the best way to incorporate this odd student to the already even-numbered exercise would be to divide them into five battles of four members with Shinsou as an extra participant of one battle per class. Meaning Shinsou would be giving one group a clear 5 v 4 advantage in both battles he participates in. Aizawa explains away this obvious advantage as actually being a disadvantage because Shinsou doesn't have the experience. In what world is a boy who has the ability to control people's actions with his voice a disadvantage? Moreover, Shinsou is the reason Tsuyu's Team wins! He was no liability whatsoever! Aizawa gives them an unfair advantage and to absolutely nobody's surprise they win because of it!

The next battle involves Momo's team which is comprised of Tokoyami, Aoyama, and Hagakure. Momo being the brains of the operation decides its best for Tokoyami to send out Dark Shadow to wander around aimlessly in search of their opponents and then have him take them out. To nobody's surprise Dark Shadow serves as nothing more than a beacon indicating to Class B where Momo's Team is. They are ambushed as a result and Momo is taken out of the fight quickly, but not before throwing a lucky bag of goodies to Tokoyami consisting of, among other things, night vision goggles so he can locate their opponents and presumably take them all out himself. Why doesn't Momo simply create those night vision goggles to locate Class B at the very start of the match, you ask? Why, indeed. Why didn't she simply send out Hagakure, the literal invisible girl, with a radio to covertly locate their opponents and report back, you ask? Why, indeed. A series of chapters marred by plot-induced stupidity of the most intelligent student of them all. What a disappointment.

I won't harp too much on Ida's sudden off-panel power boost in a series about superheroes-in-training but seeing Todoroki who was shown to be both incredibly skilled and intelligent fumble his way through his battle was disheartening to say the least. His pinpoint, powerful, and precise abilities have all degraded to just spamming attacks that do nothing. Another disappointment.

I flat-out hated Bakugo's battle. Hated it! Never have I seen a character be given such preferential treatment by an author. Introduces the last of the recommended students only for her to serve as fodder to feed Bakugo's ego. Defeating the whole team in under 5 minutes which has somebody who competed alongside the likes of Todoroki, Momo, Juzo, and Inasa to secure a place at UA has to be the biggest letdown in this manga yet.

I was certain there was no way I could possibly be disappointed any further than I already had been over course of this volume's content. Enter Midoriya. *sigh* He has the most powerful Quirk in the entire series. A power that his predecessor All Might used to defeat the biggest bad of the series twice, and you go and you add more? Why?! Are Shonen authors just incapable of writing stories without unnecessary powercreep? One For All is more powerful with Midoriya that it was with All Might. Without fully mastering it he can already throw buildings and kick himself off the air. Why would you add more to that?! The only way you do this is if you intend to give the Villains huge unearned leaps in power also. I should not have to explain why this is a bad idea.

To conclude, this was a series of poorly-written chapters with nothing going for them outside of the art. I shan't be looking forward to it animated.
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Kisuke525



Joined: 05 Nov 2019
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:46 pm Reply with quote
MoonStar9 wrote:
Quite a raving review for what I consider to be MHA at its absolute worst. I'm surprised, I have to say.


Yeah I was also surprised to see this volume getting any kind of love. Reading it in the magazine was honestly even worse, imagine this volume being spread out over a couple months. But I will say you are not alone in disliking it because many people consider this to be the worst arc in the series so far. Luckily the series has been a lot better in the recent chapters being released in the magazine, but for some reason I just can't seem to care about the series like I used to. Maybe it's starting to get repetitive? I do kind of feel like the series is starting to overstay its welcome.

If you're looking for a new shonen battle series to read I HIGHLY recommend checking out Chainsaw Man for something a bit more different from the usual, it's a fantastic series. Jujutsu Kaisen is also really damn good if you're looking for something a bit more traditional, it takes a little bit to get going, but once it does it's pretty great.
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BaronViolet



Joined: 27 May 2018
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:51 pm Reply with quote
I must strongly disagree with all of you. This arc is meant to show how far class A has come and hi e class B their time to shine. Only petty one from class B is monoma. The rest of class B are cool but are a little jealous and want to prove they are just as good as Class A but they are not pricks about. It was fun seeing new quirks and the fights were very good and strategic. Also the arc showed how far Bakugo has grown as a character. And this arc introduced the big twist with Deku and one 4 all and the return of Shinsho and the hint of Oroboro. This is not the worse arc. Remedial course is the worse, only good things from that arc are the Bakugo moment and Endeavor development. Hirokoshi is getting enough grief from the twitter pricks he does not need anymore. This is not a perfect arc and it is flawed but it us not the worse arc unless you think character development is a bad thing now.
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Kisuke525



Joined: 05 Nov 2019
Posts: 191
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:19 pm Reply with quote
BaronViolet wrote:
I must strongly disagree with all of you. This arc is meant to show how far class A has come and hi e class B their time to shine. Only petty one from class B is monoma. The rest of class B are cool but are a little jealous and want to prove they are just as good as Class A but they are not pricks about. It was fun seeing new quirks and the fights were very good and strategic. Also the arc showed how far Bakugo has grown as a character. And this arc introduced the big twist with Deku and one 4 all and the return of Shinsho and the hint of Oroboro. This is not the worse arc. Remedial course is the worse, only good things from that arc are the Bakugo moment and Endeavor development. Hirokoshi is getting enough grief from the twitter pricks he does not need anymore. This is not a perfect arc and it is flawed but it us not the worse arc unless you think character development is a bad thing now.


Yeah... I don't need someone telling me how I should feel about an arc. I'm not yelling at Horikoshi saying his series is garbage I'm just giving my opinion on a random forum about an arc I thought was pretty mediocre. If you liked the arc good for you, I didn't. From what I saw from people online and the opinions of my friends this arc wasn't liked by many, but that dosen't mean the arc is objectively bad since some people do like it. Yeah the people on Twitter going after Horikoshi are annoying as hell, but I'm not one them. I'm just a guy who didn't care for an arc in a series that I used to love but am now getting a bit tired of.
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Kuzu



Joined: 13 Sep 2019
Posts: 144
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:09 pm Reply with quote
This arc was pretty divisive when it was in the manga, and I'm sure a similar reaction is going to occur when the Anime returns next year and covers it.

How much you like this arc hinges on one thing: How invested are you in Class B. If you like them, then this arc is a good showcase of their abilities and establishing why they are not inferior to Class A. On the other hand, if you don't care about them, then this arc can come off as a waste of time while you wait to get back to the main plot. And then you got this arc's most controversial element with Deku gaining six more additional powers on top of the one he already had. What doesn't help is that this arc is sandwiched between what are generally considered two of the manga's best arcs. So it's very uneven overall.



Personally speaking, I liked it. I don't really care all that much about Class B (And Tokage got straight up robbed to wank Bakugo) but it was great to see a host of new power ups introduced. And while I'm questionable of Deku's new power set, I'm at least willing to see where it goes and later manga arcs do kind of clarify spoiler[the powers he gains are more utility based than anything really powerful, so his super strength is still his primary power]
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