God damn, Horikoshi is good.
It’s hard to say which is more impressive – the titanic showdown episodes of Boku no Hero Academia, or the reflective ones in-between. They both make their case in profound fashion, and both make a major impact (just a different sort). This is something the heavy-hitters of elemental shounen – Hunter X Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin (especially the Kyoto Arc), et al – seem to have in common. Shounen who are only adept at one or the other can be very good series indeed, but unless they can excel at both (and very, very few can) I don’t think they can be considered great.
For whatever reason, the hospital scenes in this section of the story are ones that stayed with me quite distinctly – among all the moments in the manga I remember them among the most clearly. I think it’s because seeing the three kids bandaged and patched together, the hero artifice all stripped away in exchange for simple hospital gowns, really accentuated just how absurdly young and vulnerable they are. The contrast with their freakish strength in battle is almost comically absurd, yet it isn’t remotely funny – more like tragic. These are the real Deku, Tenya and Shouto – not the overpowered figures in spandex and jet packs. Scratch any hero and they bleed just like anyone else, and the future facing these boys is one that’s surely drenched in blood.
I just can’t help but admire the elegance with which Horikoshi-sensei patches together all of this – the hero’s journey, the web of villainy, the sly twist on superhero comics through the lens of media obsession. This is the real education our young heroes are receiving – not what they learn in the classroom or the arena, but from events like the visit from the Hosu chief of police (wan!). He tells the boys the hard truth – by fighting and capturing Stain in unauthorized fashion they’ve violated the rules, and called down harsh punishment on themselves. But then he tells them effectively that he’s willing to whitewash it – to let the public believe Endeavor was the real hero and spare the boys any legal sanction. Effectively, they can choose public adulation and be stripped of their right to be heroes – or they can choose relative anonymity and let someone else take the credit.
It’s easy to dismiss the chief – and the system – as unfair and corrupt. And while that’s not totally wrong, it’s worth considering just how anyone is supposed to try and fight off chaos in a world where so many – even children as young as these three – are capable of wreaking ridiculous havoc. The system as it exists in Boku no Hero Academia is deeply flawed, trying to turn heroism into something mundane and bureaucratic and reducing it into just another media circus and money grab. The problem is, I’m not sure I can think of one that’s any better.
This conundrum is what gives rise to the likes of Stain, and what makes him so insidiously dangerous. What makes Stain’s ideas so hard to dismiss is that there’s truth at their core (even Iida admits this). And what makes Stain himself such a threat is captured by Gran Torino – charisma. He’s the perfect spokesman for those disillusioned romantics who hate what happens when heroism collides headlong with reality. Gran Torino drops quite a few Easter eggs in this conversation with All Might (oh, how I love that ringtone) – talking of Toshinori’s predecessor (Shimura) and of the man who killed him and “put that hole” in All Might’s stomach. The man he says may be on the move again – All For One.
There’s great irony in the way the Stain aftermath is playing out. Because this is age of Youtube, someone has naturally captured Stain’s unbelievably GAR defiance against Endeavor and it’s gone viral – the authorities unable to keep a lid on it. This galls Shigaraki to no end, because not only has Stain not been forgotten but he’s the headline story, with the noumu barely getting a mention. But in point of fact, this is working to the League of Villains’ advantage because the media is portraying them as an extension of Stain’s ideology – which could hardly be less true from Shigaraki’s perspective. But is it possible that Shigaraki’s unseen boss and mentor has foreseen this, and was thinking several moves ahead?
It’s interesting that Bones has chosen this point to insert an original story – an episode detailing the internship experiences of the other students of Class 1-A (especially Froppy, perhaps), and also interesting that they’ve come right out and announced it. Horikoshi himself has sometimes inserted sidebar chapters, providing a much-needed break from the intensity of the main story. I think it’s just that much more evidence that the production committee is taking extreme care with this adaptation, thinking long-term – and I (all?) for one am glad of it. I’d like the Boku no Hero anime to be around for a long time, and I think as long as the manga is ongoing, the anime will be right behind it.
GC
August 5, 2017 at 1:28 pmI think what the Chief of Police said was just BS. Why would anyone want to be a hero if they have to get crushed like that? If you follow that line of thinking and see someone choking don’t help them because you don’t have permission? Or don’t pull someone from a car thats on fire because you did not fill out a request prior to the accident?
Guardian Enzo
August 5, 2017 at 1:52 pmI get that, sure. But think about it from the perspective of anyone trying to maintain some semblance of order in a society with a bunch of people with freakish powers running around, half of whom want to use them for misconduct and the other half are tempted by vigilantism. There are no easy fixes here – that’s all I’m saying.
Clarste
August 5, 2017 at 4:42 pmThe point isn’t about not fighting back, it’s about not using the lethal force inherent to quirks. You don’t bring a gun to stop a slap fight, and the usage of quirks is regulated to same way a gun is.
leongsh
August 5, 2017 at 2:12 pmThe anime is in the weekly Top 10 anime TV ratings as it is broadcast during the kids/teenagers time slot in Japan. As long as there is enough story, it will continue to be done. My expectations of it to go darker after Midoriya lamented much earlier about not recognising and saying something to Iida about his revenge drive that cuased potentially Iida to be taken down in a more complete way did not pan out. I suppose it can’t since it is in that time slot. That said, the core story is still excellent in providing counter-points like Stain’s. Keeping myself away from the manga so that the anime can continue to delight me. In one of the earlier episodes when Midoriya faced off against Todoroki at the school fest, I was hoping for a team up of Midoriya and Todoroki – the previous episode met it. They do compliment each other quite well.
Based on the preview, next episode is an anime original. I am definitely curious to know what happened elsewhere in the others’ internship.
BigFire
August 5, 2017 at 8:37 pmDeleted
Guardian Enzo
August 5, 2017 at 9:37 pmDid you seriously just reply to a comment where someone just said “Keeping myself away from the manga so that the anime can continue to delight me” with manga spoilers?
sonicsenryaku
August 5, 2017 at 5:04 pmI for one anticipated an anime original episode highlighting the internships as it made so much narrative sense. Im really glad bones took the initiative to actually make next week’s episode happen. If the anime does get a season 3, I hope this becomes a thing were bones proactively add to the material of the manga that wasnt around in the main story; this is what it essentially means to adapt
blargnobia
August 5, 2017 at 10:10 pmI’m kind of looking forward to next week’s episode. The dangers of internet populism and disenfranchisement is interesting and depressingly relevant, but I just want to see Best Jeanist’s Don Quixote-esque quest to civilize (well, prep-ify) Katsuki. I’m sure it will go swimmingly. /sarcasm
Yann
August 5, 2017 at 11:44 pmSo… I’m the only one who thinks that “All for one” as the nemesis of “One for all” is brilliant?
LGrey
August 6, 2017 at 3:24 amNo. It’s so simple that we should have seen it coming, but we didn’t. That’s why we found it brilliant! 😀
BTW, anyone knows when/ if the OST coming out for sale?
KayDat
August 7, 2017 at 2:27 am“All great heroes have stories from their school yard days”… so now we have Exit Sign Iida and Hand Crusher Todoroki. Who’s next? =]
son goku
August 17, 2017 at 10:36 amThank you for your post is awesome, keep working