We’re in the midst of a sort of sea change for Boku no Hero Academia, one that divided the manga readers to a not inconsiderable degree. It’s more than the close of a really heavy and serious (though not the series’ best IMO) arc and the start of some lighter material, though that’s certainly part of it. It’s also a (to me) perceptible change in Horikoshi-sensei’s approach, and – probably most importantly – a transition among the cast. Characters who were rarely or never seen start to come into prominence, and some of the central figures slide into the background.
In that light, this mini-arc is a sort of transition within a transition. “Win Those Kids’ Hearts” might be seen as a side story and to an extent it is, but more structurally than thematically. Seen from the benefit of distance, I now realize Horikoshi was using it to gently ease the story into its new phase, and introduce some of the ideas that would become important later on. It may not represent the most riveting section of the story (at least for me) but there’s more to it than it seems at first.
There are basically two parallel events playing out here. Gang Orca is putting the remedial students – Shoto and Bakugo with the mixed bag of mostly Shiketsu kids – through a remedial exercise designed to show them what they’re missing as heroes. And up in the bleachers, Endeavor and All Might are having by far the lengthiest conversation they’ve been shown having since the start of the series. And if anyone is symbolic of a changing of the guard in HeroAca, it’s All Might and Endeavor.
Dealing with a busload of early elementary-school kids is not going to be easy for anybody. Add in that the ones doing the dealing are teens and the kids are problem students, and you have a recipe for disaster. Orca knows this of course, but given why it was that most of these students failed the provisional license exam it’s a perfectly logical challenge to set before them. And they suck, basically. Shoto tries to talk to the kids the way he would to any adult – logic and reason. Inasa seems to have the best approach – genki hero fanboying – but the limits of this are soon apparent. Camie – who everyone can’t stop referring to as an airhead – mostly stands by and observes the others flailing and failing.
Then we have Kacchan, whose interaction with the children is certainly the most revealing. Obviously he’s terrible – his idea is to beat the crap out of them to bring them into line, basically. But it says a lot that his defense of this is to say “That’s how I was raised”. Yeah – and we can all see how that worked out. Given that these kids are all quirk users themselves, there are no easy answers that present themselves to the quartet – though again, the supposedly dim-witted Camie seems to be making the most sense.
As for Endeavor and Toshinori, this is clearly not an easy conversation for either of them. These are two men that obviously aren’t comfortable in each other’s presence, and between whom no affection exists. All Might is the fallen legend, Endeavor the one who aspires to succeed him and knows he can’t. This is another scenario with no easy answers. Endeavor can never step into All Might’s shoes, it’s that simple – he doesn’t have that quality to him. And Toshinori can say nothing to make Endeavor feel better about that, even if he wanted to. But the fact is the world still needs a #1 hero, and whatever Toshinori feels about Endeavor, he’s the man who’s inherited the mantle. All Might’s most obvious legacy is Deku, but Endeavor is a part of his legacy too – and in its way, just as important and fraught with difficulty.
Kurik
February 3, 2020 at 9:37 amI am very curious to see how this is all resolved for the trials as I can’t think of a way, myself, for them to get those kids under control. I loved the conversation between Endeavor and All Might as they were truly open and honest with each other and that surprised me especially from Endeavor admitting he knew he was never going to get to the top spot on his own. This does feel like a filler episode and easily the weakest episode I have seen in a long long time but still serviceable as usual.
Guardian Enzo
February 3, 2020 at 10:12 amAs I said, there’s a changing of the guard happening here in both the narrative and symbolic sense. All Might’s presence is so massive that no one person can fill it, but Endeavor is next in line. This is certainly the first time we’ve seen him be remotely vulnerable.
Patchy
February 5, 2020 at 12:00 amPoor Horikishi can’t move a finger without creating a rift in the fanbase and most of the time is the fanbase being inflexible or not putting enough faith in his writting and his style of playing the long game. Sadly, sometimes it even involves death treaths and I’m talking more about the “familiar abuse apologist” of some time ago than the “WW2 apologist” that recently happened.
I didn’t like Endeavor until this part in the manga, he always was like a caricature but then, his character arc really started with this conversation and it became one of my favorite characters. He’s so flawed, he’s not really likable but he’s sympathetic and his struggles are so well written that i buy into the drama.
Scampi
February 5, 2020 at 1:21 amThere wouldn’t be such uproar if Japanese politic nobles stop perpetuating “nothing happened, no war crime was committed” stance, because the general assumption in Asia is that the Japanese refuse to recognize WWII war crimes. It’s easy to jump to the assumption that Hori is one of them. And, let’s be plain about it, it’s very true that a large number of Japanese people believed those crimes were made up and call stories like these https://foxtalk.tistory.com/98 “fake propoganda.”
Patchy
February 7, 2020 at 1:37 amSure, that’s a problematic stance from the politicians. But bullying an author that, even assuming he did pick the name with knowledge of its meaning, was unambiguously portraying it as really, really bad kinda irks me when the rationale is “apologist”. Still didn’t mean to bring this into Enzo’s comments, I’m sorry.
Scampi
February 8, 2020 at 1:56 amIt’s kind of interesting because Genta’s (Deadman Wonderland) portrayal was met with general approval instead, because the kid was a victim of human experimentation and named as such by his mother, and the pronunciation isn’t the exact same. Anime’s global spread is a good thing, but sometimes things just blow up due to cultural differences, like Islamic sound files in Noragami OST. I think after all the big and small frictions these years manga/anime publishers really should watch out for topics that are sensitive and be ready to caution writers when approaching these subjects. Not saying they can’t write them, but just know what they’re dealing with. I’m sorry if I was strong with my comment too, just want to point out that there’s this war-denial stereotype due to the Japanese government, and Hori took the full force of that. On the other hand, the continuing ordeal with Mineta and Endeavor left me with the impression that both Hori and his editor are on the obtuse side with sensitive topics and I really wish Jump can send in an editor who can rein him in.
Guardian Enzo
February 5, 2020 at 7:36 amIt’s all stupid. And I certainly agree that the country’s refusal (for which Abe is the poster boy) to own what happened is a big part of the problem. In this specific instance I certainly don’t think Horikoshi should have been forced to apologize.
It makes you wonder if Togashi would have gotten away with the stuff he wrote in HxH if he’d come along 15 years later with it. And it helps explain why so many mangaka choose to remain anonymous and hide behind a Pixiv drawing and a nom de plume. I don’t like that generally, but I understand it.
Shiemi
February 9, 2020 at 1:04 amHi guys, I just want to put in my two cents here. I feel like a lot of people in the West don’t understand the impact that Japan had on Asian countries during WWII, and think Asian fans are “overreacting” and Horikoshi shouldn’t have been made to apologise, but honestly, it’s double standards. Or maybe just different standards from different experiences. When a setting that was kind of similar (?) to the Jewish camps appeared in Attack on Titan, I wasn’t offended at all, and didn’t understand why Enzo and some Western anime commentators seemed to make such a big deal out of it. After all, Attack on Titan was NOT glorifying the actions of the people who were running those camps. In fact, the story clearly condemns the people who are running the camps. So I don’t see any reason anyone should be offended. And over here in Boku Aca, you guys seem to be making the same argument. “Horikoshi shouldn’t have been made to apologise for it!” Really? Japanese propaganda goes deep, and most Japanese people don’t know the atrocities that Japanese soldiers committed just a little more than half a decade ago. However, those war atrocities were absolutely brutal and very real. And the people of those countries who were victims to those inhumane experiments remember. And any quick search of “human experimentation” “Japan” and “WWII” would show you, guess what? “Maruta.” I don’t buy it for one second that Horikoshi didn’t know about this.