Lets start the new year off on a positive note. I was seeing really good press for this show before my laptop went down and since I had time to kill when it went down, I decided to check it out. Man, this thing was right up my alley. At first I was afraid this was gonna be show one of those shows that was all hype and no substance like Attack on Titan. I got so engrossed with this thing. Normally I'd give a recommendation at the end of the review but before I go into detail I'll just say this: Give it a watch, you'll probably like it.
I've seen two other superhero anime, those two being Tiger & Bunny and One-Punch Man. This one differs from the other two in that superpowers are incredibly common in this world, roughly 80% of the human population has some sort of special ability (known as Quirks). Naturally, powers being that common leads to villains misusing their powers and heroes rising up to stop them. The show centers around Izuku Midoriya, a boy who grew up idolizing heroes and wanted to become one himself. Sadly, he was born without a Quirk which is almost unheard of at this point. That all changes when he runs into his hero All Might. After seeing Izuku's drive to become a hero and seeing his heroic nature, he decides to pass his Quirk One For All on to him so Izuku can achieve his dream. From there the show follows Izuku's life at U.A.
Before I get to the characters and other stuff, I want to talk about the Quirks themselves. I love how the show handles them. They're all unique and memorable. Some of them are extremely powerful but they also have some interesting downsides. There are a ton of Quirks so I'll just talk about some of my favorites. Tokoyami's Dark Shadow gets stronger in darkness and weaker in the light. There is a guy in the festival arc whose body can turn to metal and his downside is that he has to eat a lot of iron or the metal gets weaker. My favorite downside is Denki's. He can generate massive amounts of electricity but if he generates too much, his brain short-circuits and he becomes an idiot for a while. Heck, even though Midoriya has One For All, he can't bring out his full power without shattering his bones on impact. They go into so much detail about how the Quirks work that they actually manage to make characters who would normally be outright broken appear on the same level as everyone else. Whether is a flaw in the Quirk or the person using it, everyone has a weak-point no matter how powerful they are. Considering its in a genre known for being all about broken protagonists just wrecking every opponent, that is an amazing feat.
The characters are fine and enjoyable, I have no complaints about most of them so far. My favorite character is probably Deku since I tend to enjoy that type of character a lot. He is definitely my kind of protagonist. Todoroki is definitely a close second. Erasure Head is probably my favorite of the teachers since he is tough but also knows when to cut someone some slack. His Quirk is also really interesting along with how he fights. With that being said, there is one character that annoys me: Bakugo. Characters like Bakugo are normally fine with me but if this wasn't a show about kids learning to be heroes, I'd be treating Bakugo like a villain. His personality doesn't read like someone who would be a hero in any other context. He classmates even joked about him sounding like a villain at one point. Its an odd thing for me to harp on but he just feels out of place compared to everyone else. With that being said, he doesn't actually make me angry, just annoyed at him when he shoots his mouth off. I know he'll probably get better down the road so I won't hold him against the show itself.
I love that Izuku still has to think strategically even though All For One is technically the strongest Quirk in the show right now. Its sort of refreshing to see that level of power have that big of a downside for him. He is able to come up with so many work-arounds like focusing the power into his fingertips so he can stay in the fight. The dude even has detailed notebooks filled with info on the other students/teachers and their Quirks. He can figure out how an opponent's Quirk works and adapts pretty fast. That resourcefulness and level of analysis is something you'd expect from an admitted superhero fanboy who grew up idolizing heroes without a Quirk of his own. Seeing him train and learn to make One For All his own while learning to control it has been great.
What more can I say? Its a show that has definitely gone beyond my expectations and has a ton of charm to it. I highly recommend it to any of my readers who are fans of anime, tokusatsu, and superheroes in general. There is so much thought put into the show that I can honestly say it deserves every single bit of praise I've seen it get. Its a fantastic show and I can't recommend it enough. This is without a doubt the best show I saw in 2017. Thats pretty much all I've got to say so I'll leave you all with this: Go beyond...PLUS ULTRA!!!
Well... later parts of the manga went down the drain.
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