While everyone else in the AniTube community is busy bickering and arguing about whether or not My Hero Academia is a great shounen that is either the second coming of Hunter x Hunter or the outright plagiarism of Boruto's Dad, I thought I would approach this series from a lens that is a lot closer to home for me.
While I may have grown up with anime like Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Yu-Gi-Oh and other childhood classics, it was only in my teenage years that I would really get into anime. As such, most of my childhood years until that point were actually made up of collecting superhero comic books and watching their respective animated adaptations which were massive hits in both the 90s and early 2000s. To this very day, I still think I tend know more about how the Western comic book industry works and the lore of the companies respective universes more than I do about anime, gaming, and many other hobbies of mine with music being the only obvious exception.
So, after hours of research and reflecting on my own time as a former comic book fan, I decided to make this short video of my own list of theories as to why My Hero Academia has become one of the most popular shounen to date since the end of the Big Three and other long running shounen franchises.
1. Timing
I'm sure you're all familiar with the old saying that timing is everything right? Well, in the case of My Hero Academia, that saying couldn't be any more true. The manga only started publication in July of 2014 and it's popularity skyrocketed with it's subsequent anime adaptation that began airing in August of 2016. As you can already tell, all of this was already happening well over half a decade into the current superhero boom in the West thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and, of course, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy.
I get the strange feeling that My Hero Academia might not be anywhere near as popular or successful as it is now if it had come out before the age of the MCU or shortly after during it's twilight moments. I say this based on the fact that, even though it is pretty strong as a shounen anime, it still tends to be compared to Naruto a lot and, considering the size and dedication of the Naruto fan base, and, of course, the fact that it has to compete with the likes of the highly regarded Hunter x Hunter, it might have been dismissed as just another battle shounen series trying to imitate what has already come before.
This would be unfortunate if that were the case since it has clearly proven itself in many departments that, despite it's similarities and expected tropes of shounen stories, it is more than worthy and deserving of it's fame and impact not only in anime, but, for the superhero genre as a whole.
2. Release Schedule
Unlike the majority of long running shounens which tend to have sub par animation (with the exception of important episodes), filler episodes, filler arcs, and other tedious things that we have come to expect from these anime adaptations, My Hero Academia, on the other hand, likes to do things a little differently. Firstly, instead of airing episodes continuously once a week which results in filler arcs, Studio Bones decided to air a certain number of of episodes at a time. This serves two purposes.
One reason is that it gives the manga a chance to catch up and provide more material for the animation team to produce in time for the airing of the next season. The second reason is because it allows the team at Studio Bones to produce an adaptation that is of the highest quality in terms of animation and directing.
As much as I hate to say this, one of the main reasons most fans of Western forms of entertainment cannot get into anime is because the art styles of a lot of shows are extremely over simplified in their animated form mainly due to budgeting and the fact that they have to put out an episode before the allocated time slot on local Japanese television. Shows like Naruto in particular are no stranger to this. Sure, there are some exceptions here and there, but, for the most part, this is the kind of thing I tend to hear among my comic book loving friends and it's not hard to understand why they feel this way. I mean, even the worst art in an average comic can often be more detailed than an average anime adaptation of a long running manga (unless it's Jojo's, Dragon Ball, and a handful of others).
3. Continuity Without The Clutter
One of the greatest things about not just My Hero Academia, but, about anime in general is that most shows have only one universe and one continuity (with a few exceptions like the Fate and Gundam franchises). While American superhero comics do share one universe on a technical level, the various timelines tend to become extremely cluttered over time due to several factors. Though the main reason this happens is because American comic books employ many writers each with their own writing styles and interpretations of the characters, lore, and timelines of the various universes created by each company. Even with interlinking events that send ripple effects across said universes, a book written by someone like Jeph Loeb is not the same as a book written by somebody like Ron Marz.
Also, taking the writers out of the equation and solely focusing on the characters, a Batman book is a lot different in tone to say a Superman book or a Green Lantern book. By having too many writers work on one universe, you wind up with many timeline and continuity errors which every so many years needs to be corrected with some kind of apocalyptic event to kill off several characters or worlds like DC's Crisis events or Marvel's Secret Wars events among others.
This often makes it difficult for people to get into comic books considering their decades and history of lore and while the cartoon adaptations I mentioned earlier in the video definitely do a fantastic job at giving newcomers a basic summary of the most important events and characters in said universes, a newcomer will still have to dive through piles of books to get even a basic understanding of the lore of each individual universe and character.
This would require the newcomer to read tens of, or possibly, hundreds of solo books of each hero that makes up a giant super team in order to even relate to the characters on some level at all since most team based books expect you to just know everything from the start (unless it's something like X-Men or Fantastic Four in which case you can just jump in as these books were team based stories from the beginning).
My Hero Academia has all the characters, both established and new, upcoming ones gathered into one book and one show and it doesn't require any kind of research and homework to jump in and enjoy it. Plus the fact that most manga are written and illustrated by the same author during the course of their publication, which means that you will usually have writing that is a lot tighter and more consistent than their Western counterparts. Also, since the art never actually changes, this means that you will never be forced to skip a chapter of the manga unlike comic books where fans can skip a run on a book if they aren't a fan of the artist working on their favourite book/s and then just look up a summary online or read a massive encyclopedia that drops every five years or so.
4. Power Scales
Now, power scaling is nothing new to the world of shounen anime. I mean, it's practically one of the core elements of these stories. However, while power scaling does exist somewhere within the realm of superhero comics, they are pretty much irrelevant at this stage of the game.
This is mostly due to the fact that any character in these universes is subject to either having their powers amped up to ridiculous levels for the sake of the plot or having them dumbed down if they happen to break the suspension of disbelief as time passes and the industry gets older. Another thing that tends to determine this factor is a character's popularity, which is pretty strange when you consider that's not how any kind of literary writing works.
Anyways, it would appear that the more popular a character or set of characters becomes during a particular era of comic book history, the more powerful they become and the less popular they are the more watered down their powers become.
In My Hero Academia, this isn't the case at all. Instead, everybody's quirks are pretty much set and established in terms of power. Though, it's not just raw power that determines a quirk in MHA's universe. You could be born with a pretty much objectively useless quirk, but, it's how one trains and how one makes use of it that can make it a valuable asset in certain situations. Also, unlike it's Western counterparts where there is no set number one strongest hero and number one strongest villain in order to size and scale who would actually win a battle and determine what level of danger they pose to the characters, My Hero Academia actually makes use of a number one strongest hero in the form of All Might just so that you, the viewer, can determine whether a villain is fighting with their quirks or their minds in order to bring All Might, his allies, and his students down.
Let's use a character like Batman for example. In his own books, Batman's ability to win over his enemies usually feels right and makes him look even more badass than what he already is. This is because, even though he does have some variety of superpowered villains, his rogues gallery doesn't really consist of god level powered beings which, realistically speaking, he shouldn't win against no matter how much he plans or what kind of tech he has at his disposal. Instead, the villains from his rogues gallery who do have some kind of genetic or mystical advantage over him, tend to pose about as much of a threat as monster does to a warrior or adventurer in a high fantasy story which makes it plausible, most of the time, as to why a person with no powers like Batman could win in a fight against them. It's also because these kinds of battles fit the overall tone and themes of Batman's books.
However, the 'because I'm Batman' meme tends to take hold whenever he teams up with either individual members or the entire Justice League. In order to not make Batman feel like a third wheel or useless extra baggage that needs constant protection all the time, Batman's ability to fight other DC villains, who technically far outclass him and most of his own rogues gallery in both mental and physical prowess, gets amped up to such ridiculous levels that he is even able to beat characters that give the likes of Superman a run for their money. Not only that, but, this kind of writing often allows for some of the biggest ass pulls I have ever witnessed in the history of fiction. Like the time he killed Darkseid and became a literal fucking deity! That's like, Kirito levels of bullshittery. Is bullshittery even a word? Who cares? Fuck it.
Basically, the main reason Batman can beat anybody is because of his sheer amount of popularity and reliability as a human character. That's it.
In My Hero Academia, we do not see any such thing. At least, not from what I've seen. All Might may be the most powerful character in the entire story (at least before he lost his powers that is), but, what he had in strength, other heroes and villains had to make up for with brains and ingenuity by finding new ways to use and implement their quirks. Either that or if they have a natural talent for something else that doesn't even require a quirk at all, like being good at strategy, emotional manipulation, having good intuition, being able to naturally predict movements in a fight, or something to that degree, it can all be used to make what could be technically weaker powers more useful and stronger when applied correctly. Sure, All For One might be able to go toe to toe with All Might in a physical fight to a certain point, but, he prefers to break All Might on a psychological and spiritual level more since he knows he can only last so long against him with his own powers if he faces him head on with sheer brute force.
Tactics like this also pretty much apply to just about any character who isn't All Might or somebody who is closer to his level of power and skill.
5. Art
Okay, so, this one I wasn't able to confirm 100%, but, I'm going to do my best to explain why I believe Kohei Horikoshi's art attracts so many comic book fans to the manga and the anime.
Judging from the man's line work, his choice of colour palette and colouring style on the individual manga volumes, and the extremely exaggerated angles and anatomy of his characters, I would say that aside from the artists who created shounen manga he admired growing up, Joe Madureira, one of the West's most renowned and respected comic book artists definitely had an impact on his work.
Almost everything from the way he structures his panels, the flow of them, and his use of very dramatic poses, bold, thick line work and harsh shading all screams Joe Madureira in both style and flair. Each page of the manga is packed with as much energy and adrenaline as it's animated counterpart and draws your eyes in from the very first page.
Of course Madureira isn't the only possible influence as there are many others that can be seen. So far, the only one he has really confirmed as a major influence on his work is the art of Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy and who kids from my generation might recognize for the art style of the Disney film Atlantis.
Then of course, some people theorize John Byrne's art on Superman could be another key influence, especially for the design of All Might albeit mixed with some elements of Goku so naturally Akira Toriyama's work on Dragon Ball would be thrown in with this as well.
There are many possibilities and we can only wait until Horikoshi reveals and confirms more in interviews. However, I'd like to believe that I've read enough comic books to know certain styles and influences when I see them.
6. Writing
The final reason behind My Hero Academia's success is it's writing. Everything from it's characters, themes, world building, and tone brings about all the best elements that we love not only from Western superhero comic books, but, from shounen anime in general. It manages to be lighthearted and serious enough to make it fun. Plus it actually has heroes doing the things superheroes should be doing in the genre.
That is unlike modern day Marvel and DC who have pretty much turned once iconic characters and their books into slice of life 'comedies' that spew forth shitty extremist political propaganda that nobody wants to see or hear about in fiction that is supposed to be teaching us good values that just about every human being on the planet can at least agree with on some level for the past seven or so years. But, there are plenty of YouTube channels who discuss this particular can of worms in more detail for you to check out, so, I'm just gonna leave things at that concerning that issue.
The characters, while still standard shounen tropes on the surface, are taken and often subverted to your expectations to keep the story more or less unpredictable and even if you can somehow predict what is going to happen, it still manages to keep your attention and allow you to experience all the other awesome things that build up to that point.
The characters are mostly all likeable because, despite their extraordinary powers and abilities, they are still human and are very relatable in a variety of ways. Not only that, but, any flaws they may posses are immediately recognizable and they often get a chance of redemption and growth as they develop over the course of the story.
Speaking of development, most battle shounen stories tend to only have the main protagonist experience any kind of growth both in terms of their abilities and personality. However, as the tournament arc of this series showed, Kohei Horikoshi allowed most of the cast a chance to develop further and he continues to do with each subsequent arc that has followed. Each arc is short sweet and to the point, just like it's fight scenes which are very creative and don't last any longer than they need to instead of drawing them out for as long as possible or inserting unnecessary side quests.
As for the actual world, while it a somewhat pseudo realistic interpretation and outlook of what a world where everyone is super would be like, it is still one that feels believable, alive, and unique from both a shounen anime perspective and a superhero comic perspective. The world kind of feels like if you took Naruto and combined it with the gripping and compelling themes, storytelling, and and great character writing of the original 80s and 90s run of the X-Men comic books and the timeless aspects of Spider-Man's story that teach people about the importance of accountability, responsibility, and self-improvement. Which is something that is sorely needed more than ever in today's society.
This, ladies and gentlemen, are my theories as to why My Hero Academia is as successful as it is.
