My Hero Academiaas a premise is simple, but delves into deep themes the more you go further into it. While it does have a bunch of classic archetypes and even some tropes, such as the underdog in Izuku and the mentor in All Might,My Hero Academiais first and foremost a love letter Manga to western comics, as Kohei Horikoshi would have you believe. To a certain extent however, this is true in how he writes his characters, the references, but also the world and society that it is built upon. Despite the fact that its society of heroes makes it a fantastical and action-packed life for many to witness, it has its glaring flaws in not just how the system itself works but also with how the public view heroes in a simultaneously admiring and harshly critical light.
How is it like this, though?My Hero Academia’ssociety is certainly normal, with a few mixtures of glaring societal weaknesses, but nothing to warrant saying the public’s conflicting view on heroes, correct? Well, the society itself has always made its flaws clear from thevery beginning of the seriesin its first chapter. Even so, the treatment of the Quirkless is only one of various flaws with the world ofMy Hero Academia,and it still warrants a bit of discussion and explanation as to which flaws of this society are the biggest and widest-reaching.
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Binary Classifications, And Steep Hills.
One thing that Hero Society itself has a horrible tendency to support and encourage, is the classification of common criminals as Villains, used like an entire umbrella term as opposed to acknowledging that the criminals themselves have varied, complicated reasons at times. There is also the issue of how it classifies those with Quirks to have more potential and therefore more value compared to Quirkless individuals.
In fact, this is the main conflict that Izuku Midoriya suffered through most of his childhood ever since the first episode of the anime. This issuenever really goes awayor is directly addressed as part of the narrative, but It’s nevertheless an important flaw to address.
The bigger issue becomes when how steep the hill is once you are either labeled a Villain or evenattemptto save people without a Hero License. In the case of Gentle, his reckless, albeit well-intentioned act of heroism resulted in complications that socially destroyed his life, even being abandoned by his own family as he was simply labeled a miscreant at times. Thisled him to become his ‘villainous’ persona, which really is a matter of just trying to find a way to validate his existence along with La Brava’s help. The prejudice, labels and harsh consequences over reckless acts of heroism become problematic despite not having affected our Izuku ever since becoming the 9th wielder of One For All; because they are societal problems that have produced consequences for every individual.
The Fragile Image Of Heroism
Needless to say, it is mentioned many times in the dialogue and story ofMy Hero Academiafor a reason. Despite everybody’s admiration of hero’s, wanting it as a career and even wanting to become heroes for glory or fame; the image of heroism is not only needed to maintain semblance of order and hope for every civilian, but it is also impossibly fragile if the recent seasons have proved anything. The retirement of All Might and the resurgence of All For One havestruck a blow in the societies' faithin heroism, slowly turning uneasy and even unsteady due to the lack of security with having the symbol of peace becoming nothing more than a retired man. However, even before All Might’s retirement, the society itself is critical at times of every misstep or failure the hero happen to make when it happens. When USJ was invaded and penetrated U.A.’s defenses, a lot of the public felt uneasy that they needed to push forward the Sports Festival to ease the concerns of the civilians.
My Hero Academiahas brought these issues to a head in the latest season, particularly after the war between Heroes and Villains, which ended up with severe casualties on both sides. However, the Heroes not only lost many of their heroes, but also in the security and faith of their civilians. Even some of the individuals who became heroes started wavering in their conviction at first, and with the possible collapse of Hero Society a big threat in the future, it’s no surprise. Despite that, this clear lack of faith andeventual decline in the ideals of heroismand the capability of the heroes to actively save and rescue people is only the symptom of what happens when the image of heroism is as fragile as it is in the show.
Many characters begin to waver, and not only that, but what used to be minor inconveniences and simply matters of being powerless now could further devolve into more severe prejudice and a loss of trust between the system and its people. Despite the dark turn that is fast approaching, and the many fans that have been anticipating and dreading such a shift as well because of what it means for the show,My Hero Academiaset up these symptoms, this catastrophe and possible collapse of society by planting the seeds of doubt in the minds of the audience. Slowly, the weaknesses in the system begin to form cracks that are too long-reaching to ignore, which has manifested in these massive flaws in Hero Society. As a result, it becomes plain to see thatMy Hero Academiawill be heading into darker times ahead.
