Fair enough. Baku-death was at most a One Piece death, though. We KNEW he was coming back, Hori just wasn't the most brilliant writer here. I do agree with the 3rd point, and I believe that the other side of it (everyone getting to shine a bit) was also poorly done.
My Hero Academia II - A true Hero
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I don't know if I agree with part of that last point. Maybe it's casue I'm comparing it to most other Shonen out there but I think one of the positives of this arc has been the fact that Hori has given all the Class 1A kids a moment to shine and has done it well. Sato, Sero and Ojiro are currently the only three students to have not done anything important but given the fact everyone else has, it's only a matter of time.
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It doesn't matter if there's a small 'spotlight moment' if there's no work done to build up to have those moments mean anything. Something I often see talked about with regards to NARUTO is how people wish there was more focus on the Konoha 11, but the thing about those characters is that they would have required a ton of work to be done to flesh them out more and have them fit in with the grand narrative Kishimoto was already trying to tell. Hell, I think that they took up too much panel time in the comic as it was, and I think the same could be said for Deku's classmates within the context of the comic now focusing on this grand narrative.
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@black-leg-jex said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
students to have not done anything important
I think Shoji actually harmed things (as societal status) than helped.
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@JulieYBM said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
Something I often see talked about with regards to NARUTO is how people wish there was more focus on the Konoha 11, but the thing about those characters is that they would have required a ton of work to be done to flesh them out more and have them fit in with the grand narrative Kishimoto was already trying to tell.
I don't deny it probably would've been a lot a work, but, you know, he's the author. It's his job to make his story interesting. And when you introduce all these diverse characters with their own unique histories and do the bare minimum with them (for the most part) it comes off as pretty disappointing.
Hell, I think that they took up too much panel time in the comic as it was, and I think the same could be said for Deku's classmates within the context of the comic now focusing on this grand narrative.
I personally preferred the light-hearted classroom stuff that focused on characters over the "grand narrative" that all action shonen series apparently need to have, but to each their own.
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@Nobodyman said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
I personally preferred the light-hearted classroom stuff that focused on characters over the "grand narrative" that all action shonen series apparently need to have, but to each their own.
Imagine if the kids faced increasing stakes as they progress in academia instead of jumping right in top 1% super hero stuff.
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I think that's my biggest complaint about MHA. This entire story happened in the space of a single year, which is insane. It doesn't really feel like an academia focused story when we won't see even a 3rd of their academia life. I think the series would've benefited from shorter stories and pacing it out to go over all three years instead of all at once.
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i'm certainly not going to complain about MHA's time passing in an One Piece forum.
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@black-leg-jex said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
I think that's my biggest complaint about MHA. This entire story happened in the space of a single year, which is insane. It doesn't really feel like an academia focused story when we won't see even a 3rd of their academia life. I think the series would've benefited from shorter stories and pacing it out to go over all three years instead of all at once.
Pretty much this. We knew the kids would get to the high-level, but shouldn't it have waited until their senior year? Even if there were time-skips, it would have made more sense.
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I've already trained my brain to believe the series ended after the Kamino ward raid arc. If I'm in an especially good mood, I'll include the provisional license exam. Everything past that I barely acknowledge and I really only keep hearing about what's going on from friends who are still reading.
Vigilantes is the real series anyway.
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I liked the license exam because it A. Featured the kids from the other school, and B. Felt like an actual step in the hero process that comes from, well, schooling.
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Yeah, the license exam is a decent arc. For me, I think MHA went downhill around the villain arc but I don't agree with the wider opinion that it remained that low. I think it's gotten better since then and the current arc is pretty good. Not as good as some of the classic stuff like Kamino Ward or Sports Festival arcs but better than the Yakuza arc. Probably on par with the summer holiday arc.
I think the biggest issue is really just Horii wanting to end the series soon, as it's gone on way longer than he planned, but also him not having enough time to actually set-up all the narrative plot points he needs. Spinner is the perfect example of this as the discirmination plotline makes sense for his character and what drove him to be a villain but it pretty much came up for the first time in this final arc and then kinda got wrapped up immediately. Stain is another example, it feels like there needed to be something around the fact that most of the league joined Shigaraki because they looked up to Stain, and didn't know that Stain hated Shigaraki. When Stain broke out of prison and chose not to go with OFA, it felt like the perfect opportunity to address this plot point but it didn't happen and Stain ended up just being used as an All Might pick-me up.
It's felt like ever since this final saga started, Horii just cut out any plotpoint not related to Deku and Shigaraki in order to streamline the series and it's disappointing (but I understand that it's burnout).
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@Nobodyman said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
@JulieYBM said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
Something I often see talked about with regards to NARUTO is how people wish there was more focus on the Konoha 11, but the thing about those characters is that they would have required a ton of work to be done to flesh them out more and have them fit in with the grand narrative Kishimoto was already trying to tell.
I don't deny it probably would've been a lot a work, but, you know, he's the author. It's his job to make his story interesting. And when you introduce all these diverse characters with their own unique histories and do the bare minimum with them (for the most part) it comes off as pretty disappointing.
Hell, I think that they took up too much panel time in the comic as it was, and I think the same could be said for Deku's classmates within the context of the comic now focusing on this grand narrative.
I personally preferred the light-hearted classroom stuff that focused on characters over the "grand narrative" that all action shonen series apparently need to have, but to each their own.
I actually agree, I would have preferred the classroom stuff, and the individual storylines with Class 1A, over this endless war with AfO.
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I whish the main trio had stayed Deku, Urara and Iida. Todoroki's family took over too much of the manga for my liking.
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@El-Matematico said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
I whish the main trio had stayed Deku, Urara and Iida. Todoroki's family took over too much of the manga for my liking.
THIS. Todoroki and his family are a good side-story, but it took up way too much.
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I was genuinely surprised how happy I was seeing Bakugo return. I'm glad he's changed for the better as a character. Maybe not as much as others would prefer, but it's a start.
More movie character panels? With dialogue? Koichi's getting snubbed so hard. Give me something, anything, Horikoshi. -
My waning interest in the manga can be broken down into three steps.
- The Overhaul Arc
- Deku getting multiple quirks
- Sudden cut to edgy loner Deku
My main problem with the story is how it grew too big for its own good. The story became too grandiose, tried to make parallels to real life problems like racism, got too many characters that didn't matter. It should've constrained itself to the academy. Another thing is that Deku's character was most interesting when he was the underdog with a mismatching quirk who tried to catch up to everyone else. Once he caught up and surpassed them there wasn't anything interesting about him left.
But all things considered I still like the story and I have a lot of respect for the author. There are missteps but Horikoshi is avoiding the worst pitfalls that Bleach and Naruto ran into. The main class and villains are getting time to shine, the villains have stayed consistent throughout and while the pace is rushed I greatly prefer having a story that's actually moving along rather than dragging. Now we're getting to spend time on the fights that actually matter. Not to mention when everything aligns and we get a good story beat, it's still really damn good.
It's been a very interesting story to follow. Having grown up with the big three this was the first "next gen" shonen that I read, now being a bit older and seeing it in a different light. It's crazy that it's been running for nine years. It's gonna feel weird when it ends.
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I stopped being invested/serious about the story once Deku got his six paths awakening and now has access to everything. That was during the class matches? thingy and was around the exact moment I knew this was going down the Naruto route. Which is to say, extremely predictable and safe with any care given to power scaling and in-world logic abandoned.
I mean, being given the #1 power is the biggest clue on where the story will go but it is really unfortunate that batman-brain protagonist has superman powers and just punches his way throughout everything. Horikoshi tried to mitigate that by having him give % to his power output (to prevent his body from breaking down) but that would have overstayed and eventually didn't matter. Now he has an arsenal of powers at mastery level (most of which he didn't develop at the Academia) and is pretty much the strongest while also staying a Mary Sue. It's just..not that fun even if I personally loved early Deku. I still like his character but he's never going to make my list or any list for that matter.
Other than that....the class was not as fleshed out as it could be. I like a few of them but then some of the other class members are way cooler than the main class members and you get the pro heroes, the 3rd years, the not pro heroes but important civilians, the overseas heroes, the normal heroes. I respect that the OG class members get their screentime and development in the final war but say for the few I care about, I couldn't be bothered with the rest.
The villains cast boils down to 3-4 person you are invested in and then everyone else are either characters that appeared out of nowhere or undeveloped, one-liner characters. More time was needed in the oven.
Endeavour's whole arc was great but dragged on for a little too long and got a bit murky near the end. I still genuinely have no idea what the messaging and the main theme of this series is because many were introduced and were loosely explored or propped up to be more important than it is without proper buildup or development given to them.I wish this stayed light-hearted and more slice of life for a few years before it went balls crazy on this final arc. I just want more Academia importance in a series called Hero Academia.
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As excellent as characters like Endeavor and Hawks are, and they're some of Horikoshi's best work, they've definitely overshadowed important classmates like Iida and Uraraka. Many prominent classmates have felt extremely static over the past 200 chapters and it's felt like a real let down, particularly after such endearing introductions. Momo got half a beat in the previous war, and poor Tsuyu's gotten basically no spotlight.
The pacing has definitely struggled since the start of the hospital raid too. Since the current arc is already so jam-packed with callbacks and character nods, I can't decide if the previous one was overstuffed or if it was necessary to balance them. The between stuff was definitely rushed. Two cool fights, but rushed character beats that really disconnected us from Deku.
I think that's my main critique- Bakugo might be more popular but we've always had a fondness for Deku. It's been so long since we saw his charms and quirks of character that he just feels like a chess piece. I think I would've split his fight between all these additional fights, or added additional moments between that kept our focus on him. Deku and Tomura have been deadlocked and waiting for the last six months.
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Hori said anyone that's not the big three of popularity polls or a pro-hero has to beg for crumbles of panel time.
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@pariston_hill
I suspected as much but at least he is honest. Multiple cancellations has made him afraid of displeasing his audience. -
I advocate every manga to run like chainsaw man from now on. once every 2 weeks and a break when they are close to burning out.
i have a lot to say about how JUMP and big magazines have dogshit culture but that's really Japan as a whole. This is a topic spoken to death already but nothing will really change unless someone or enough manga artists fucking dies from overwork as per Japan's traditional of being forced to change only when it becomes embarrassing for them.That one time I binged Bakuman and walked away still having no idea what the actual hell makes a good editor except for that one guy in a magazine that is pretty much propagated to paint the magazine in a good light. It's like an entire echo chamber of people who is good at repeating and rehashing a formula that has worked before and that's their entire mantra. And I get the feeling that there is no way in hell that story risks are shared equally, that is to say the author shoulder most if not of all the consequences. You can also feel the passive aggressiveness sipping through near the end of the series. Near the later arcs, the authors were pretty much their own editors.
I'm not saying editors are not necessary and I'm sure they have helped propelled a series to massive success but I'm also certain that not all of them are that competent.
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I personally think Jump+ is the way forward. It gives the creators a lot more freedom in how they make their manga and the pace they release it at.
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Fuck, that just isn't okay. I keep wondering how many awesome manga lost the chance to flourish because of this shitty work culture.
Whatever Horikoshi does after MHA, I hope he gets a good vaction and if he makes another work, that he can do it at a schedule that suits him.
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Horikoshi shines in character design so I hope he goes the Toriyama route personally and lends his talent to other projects in other industries (with the occasional One Shot if he feels like it)
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Still a little confused about what's happening with Bakugo, but whatever.
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@Satsuki glad to see Iām not the only one
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Body explding instead of only hand.
body hurt but is faster.
Smiling through the pain.
Looks like second user?
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Yeah basically. He's blowing up the sweat all over his body, one droplet after another, to propel himslef forward at incredible speed.
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Looks like we'll eventually cut to the National Takoba Arena's battle. Similar to Aoyama and Hagakure's battle, I think it's a little too late to focus on that. The most powerful Tartarus Escapees haven't been used to their fullest potential.
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@Nectar said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
The most powerful Tartarus Escapees haven't been used to their fullest potential.
Those losers are worse that movie only characters, because Hori loves the later and ignores the former.
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@Nectar said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
Looks like we'll eventually cut to the National Takoba Arena's battle. Similar to Aoyama and Hagakure's battle, I think it's a little too late to focus on that. The most powerful Tartarus Escapees haven't been used to their fullest potential.
It does feel a bit too late for sure but hopefully something from it plays a big role in this final battle. Out of all the battles that got set-up, this arena was absolutely the least important one as it got none of the Leage of Villain members sent to it, and all the Class A students there are some of of the least important ones. But Hori has been pretty good at making everything be relevant so hopefully we see what his plan is soon.
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I have to think Horikoshi has at least some plan for it since it's rather conspicuous to leave a single random battle going after basically everything else has been wrapped up. It'll probably be important-ish in some way. Whether the execution is good remains to be seen.
For some reason Bakugo grinning madly while he tumbles along the ground is super funny to me.
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@Jabberwok said in My Hero Academia II - A true Hero:
For some reason Bakugo grinning madly while he tumbles along the ground is super funny to me.
It felt very One Piece to me. Liked that a lot!
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History Lesson
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Horikoshi adding "making sex workers suffer for my plot" to his list of 'fucking up important issues', I see.
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Not a fan of competent babies. Are we to believe the twins grew up without an adult guardian of any kind?
I did like people gaining meta abilities before the Glowing Baby. I felt sad AFO killed them. Seems like they were on their way to becoming the Charles Xavier of that world.
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I also liked that meta abilities were around before the glowing baby. I don't know if it was the intent, but it comments on the idea that we only notice and talk about things when it happens in a first world country or to someone important, rather than actually acknowledging the real first (either because no one discovered it or no one took it seriously because of where it was from).
It is a bit weird that AFO is super competent as a baby and presumably raised both himself and his twin. I know he's strong but come on.
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That was pushing it, but it's nice to at last get a little background on AFO. Still a piece of shit with nothing to empathize with.
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Liked the inclusion of womb nutrient theft to explain the physical difference between the brothers.
Creepy, but something that can happen IRL. -
@MDL As messed up as that is, he still didn't go to the extremes that Rusty Venture did.
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Decided to get caught up on 30 chapters since i can't bother to read this series weekly anymore ... and i just find it funny that Deku and Shigaraki are still just floating around there at the same spot in the current chapter.
Bakugo coming back feels better than i thought it would (even though Edgeshot survived ... of course.).I think i'm coming back in another 6 month or so, looks like this'll still take a while ...
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Horikoshi really does go hard with his art. Is this implicit confirmation that AFO gave Shiggy his decay quirk?
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@Jabberwok
Different style so I think not.
Having that be would be horrible...and totally within Hori's realm. -
I really liked the chapter. I had to look at the last chapter and an old chapter (The fandom wiki page said Yoichi's family name was Shigaraki, when did that happen again?), but this is what I gathered:
Kudo, the guy who got Yoichi out of the room and believed to have some resemblance to Bakugo even though All For One thought he killed his family line.
(Chapter 310)
He triggers All For One and begins the war:
(Chapter 407)
One For All activates:
(Chapter 310)
(Chapter 408)
All For One brutally murders his brother and his eyes meet with Kudo which is what spurred this flashback in the first place while also telling us how the whole thing started.
(Chapter 408)
All For One has Yoichi's hand and can't sense the quirk he gave him anymore because it already moved on to Kudo.
Kudo confirmed to have a second factor, "some kinda unformed dud"
Interesting thing... It's established that All For One's eyes never had shine, and as he and Kudo are looking at their own hand, there's something symbolic about seeing the hand in the reflection while talking about Yoichi's will.
Also symbolic: "Your eyes are the mirror to your soul"
The main theme of My Hero Academia is hands.
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I guess OFA transferred to Kudo through blood entering his mouth from Yoichi's explosion? Also, if AFO attacked and killed most of the OFA Users, how did the dying Users have time to transfer the quirk? For someone wanting OFA, AFO did a sloppy job trying to get it.
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We know from All Might -> Deku that they can be transfered and activated before the previous user dies, so I think the most likely explanation is that the previous user found a point to pass it on before AFO showed up, just in case.