Boku no Hero Academia | The Start of it all

The premise is rather simple and classic for a battle shounen. It takes place in an academy setting with the main character trying to become a hero after being inspired by All Might (his idol hero) and others who vowed to protect their world from villains. Up to this point, there has been all sorts of battle shounen series adapted by Shounen Jump so it was time for superheroes to step up to the plate.

The main character, Izuku Midoriya is a young boy who is born without powers. As such, he is mocked by peers, especially a childhood bully named Bakugo. As evidenced from many flashbacks, he is mocked because of how useless he is while the most of his class all developed powers (or otherwise known as “Quirks”) It goes far to the point where he is even nicked named “Deku” for being useless. Although the initial story establishes Deku as a weakling, this changes after he meets All Might, a superhero who is famous in their world.

A general idea about the show is that Deku is constantly trying to prove himself and to others. Early episodes shows that he is fearlessly loyal to his friends and those he wishes to protect. This also includes Bakugo because Deku always wanted to surpass him after seeing how cool he is. Meanwhile, it’s evident that Deku has potential to become a powerful hero himself. All Might gives him the opportunity by letting Deku borrow his Quirk.

After training and determination, Deku establishes himself as a newcomer to keep an eye on while Bakugo grows more jealous of his rival’s abilities. That’s also one of the interesting aspects of the show – the character relationships. Deku develops many relationships throughout the series. These include the rivalry between himself and Bakugo, the student-master relationship with All Might, and various friendships at school. Through these relationships, we see how Deku brings the best and worst out of characters. And believe me, there’s quite a lot of characters with their colorful personalities in this series.

As for the character casting, the show does a neat job at characterizing most of them. Each of them has a different personality, a different Quirk, and unique persona that makes them individually talented. Some of the more prominent characters such as Iida, Uaraka, Todoroki all get their screen time that will be memorable for fans. In the meantime, it’s important to visualize that each character also has a reason to become a hero. So in retrospect, the characters aren’t there just to push Deku’s story but also have story themselves. The downside is that the characterization is condensed for this adaptation as result of the minimal episode figures.

Adapted by studio Bones, the show creatively designs its characters that matches a fair amount of consistency. Let’s face it, Kouhei Horikoshi is an underrated mangaka and his previous works weren’t considered major successes. Here, we got this show that has superheroes, action, and it just seems like every shounen fan’s wet dream. The character designs, while looks generic, is also creatively attractive. Every character has their own unique appearance and those who are heroes are equipped with a stylistic costume.

Ah Yuuki Hayashi. I was ecstatic after seeing his name appear as the music director as his work on Haikyuu!! Is nothing short of wonderful. Indeed, the music and soundtrack of the show is a solid demonstration of his talent in this show. It is crisp, intense, and cinematic all the same time. For a battle shounen series like this, it’s important to capture every important scene and the music delivered just that – making them relevant. The OP and ED theme songs are also creatively crafted with flamboyant choreography and style.