By now you’ve probably heard of it. My Hero Academia is a cult Shonen manga serial, a smash-hit anime series, and has even had a recent Fortnite crossover. But for those of you sitting on the outside looking in, wondering what the hell all the fuss is about… what actually is it?
Kicking off in 2014, Kōhei Horikoshi’s superhero epic is (as of right now) up to its 37th volume. The premise is simple: one day, people start being born with superpowers. Jump forward in time, and we have our protagonist (Izuku Midoriya), a kid born without powers, but with an inherent desire to help people.
And it just so happens that the world’s greatest hero, All Might (think Superman meets Goku in Super Saiyan form), is looking for someone to pass his powers on to. He picks Izuku (obviously).
My Hero Academia
Where it gets interesting is in its surprisingly strong character development and world-building. Izuku ends up heading to U.A. High School, where students with powers (they’re referred to as “quirks”) attend. It’s basically like the X-Men if everyone actually wanted to have powers, and if the public adored mutants. As the series has developed, plot lines have taken the traditional Shonen-style storytelling beats (characters work hard, gain powers, and have huge battles – rinse, repeat) and subverted expectations time and time again. Honestly, it’s currently sitting somewhere closer to Berserk – not in terms of gore and trauma, but in terms of its art style, and its willingness to smash everything to pieces for the sake of making things interesting.
Izuku and his classmates are a wonderful, nuanced bunch of heroes, and watching them slowly figure out how to save lives and do good is what propels the story forward, but honestly, every aspect of My Hero Academia over-delivers. There are genuine mysteries threaded throughout the saga – what is the nature of All Might’s power? Who is the mysterious new foe with designs on world domination? It’s compelling, addictive, and will likely be wrapping up over the next year or so – which means it’ll be a manageable, and infinitely bingeable, manga series to dive into.
You can read the utterly gorgeous physical manga volumes 1-20 in a really nifty, well-presented box set, out now. You can also sign up for the Shonen Jump app, and read individual issues (and back issues) each week.
The anime adaptation of My Hero Academia is shockingly good. Produced by Bones (the studio behind Fullmetal Alchemist and Space Dandy), it’s got some of the best fight animation I’ve seen in a Shonen anime to date. The soundtrack gives Cowboy Bebop a run for its money – and if you’re doing what I did (watching and reading in tandem), I highly recommend listening to the various OSTs whilst doing your read-through.
I’ve always been an advocate for watching anime with the Japanese dialogue and English subs on, and whilst I still maintain this is a must, the English cast of My Hero Academia does a great job. Having said that, the Japanese All Might is uniquely wonderful. There’s a dynamism to the anime that the manga can’t always capture – because we’re dealing with superheroes, there’s a lot of fighting, and Bones have done a great job of capturing the movement and kineticism of our heroes’ jumping, flying and crashing through buildings.
The best place to watch the series is over on Crunchyroll. The app is fantastically streamlined and easy to use, and you can get a 14-day free trial, just to see if it’s something you’ll regularly use (spoiler alert: I didn’t think I needed an anime streamer, but I use it religiously now). There are plenty of other great shows on Crunchyroll, but it’s where I go for my weekly fix of My Hero Academia – the brand new sixth season has been dropping a new ep every week.
If you’re now a fan of the show and are looking to have something physical in your house to fawn over, there’s an array of incredible collectibles available now. If you’re not looking to break the bank on a super-expensive statue, the My Hero Academia: The Amazing Heroes series is a wonderful and affordable alternative – I got sent the Kirishima Eijiro, Izuku Midoriya, Hawks, All Might and Lemillion figures, and they’re both surprisingly large and incredibly detailed.
Each one comes in three or four pieces, which are then assembled and slipped onto a stand. I cannot stress enough just how bougie and sleek these models are. It’s like they stepped out of the story and into a glass cabinet, which they will never escape because I put a lock on the door. MUA A A A! …Also, you can check out the full range of My Hero Academia collectibles right here.
Oh! And there was a killer My Hero Academia crossover in Fortnite recently. The collaboration saw All Might becoming a playable character, allowing you to switch between his superhero form and his emaciated, non-superpowered form. Izuku Midoriya, Bakugo and Uraraka (the three main characters as far as the students are concerned) were also made playable. The collab has wrapped up, but if you missed out on grabbing the skins, they’ll almost certainly do the rounds again soon.
So there you have it! Now is the perfect time to dive in. Whether you’re a reader, a watcher or a player (or all three), you owe it to yourself to give My Hero Academia a shot. I promise you it’ll be worth it.
Product provided by Crunchyroll.
