These three episodes are about Gentle Criminal. Sure, there’s 1A meeting Eri and some random people fretting about where Midoriya is, but really – this is Gentle time.
My fellow writer Lenlo has been saying for quite a while that Gentle is his favorite villain in MHA, and I’m seeing why. This was not the typical good guy vs bad guy arc. This wasn’t even the modern sympathetic villain vs flawed hero. This was….I’m actually not sure who to root for here.
Gentle and La Brava are a bit of an odd Bonnie and Clyde (let’s not get into age differences) hikikomori-turned-villains. Their respective stories are case studies in the failures of hero society: Gentle was well-meaning but caused harm and La Brava was ostracized with nothing left to lose. While Stain represented a rallying cry and the League of Villains are the general adversaries, Gentle and La Brava….are personal villains. Gentle especially – he’s Midoriya if he doesn’t meet All-Might. It’s….very disconcerting to see played out, actually. Seeing Midoriya’s alternative path is very uncomfortable.
I think what makes this especially tough to watch is that La Brava and Gentle compliment each other so well – they’re each other’s salvation. Villainy gave them a goal, gave them a way to exist in society – something they didn’t have otherwise. This is an argument against heroes more potent than Stain – in a super world, where do the outcasts fit in? I won’t get into how that mirrors contemporary Japanese society at large, but man – this is a bit heavy for a fun and games arc.
Also, Gentle putting on eyeliner was not okay – those are not the feels I came here for today.
When Midoriya says he’s the most difficult opponent he’s fought so far – I 100% agree. That was the toughest fight I’ve seen – not because I thought Midoriya might lose, but because I was afraid he would win. In a lot of ways, this arc had parallels to HxH – Gentle’s quirk is very similar to Hisoka’s, and the entire fight reminded me of King vs Netero – albeit at a smaller scale. That’s what gave this such potency – this fight was over cancelling a school festival vs a Youtube video. How trivial. But for the participants, it was life and death.
I’m sure I could comment on Midoriya’s improved battle experience, blah blah, the beauty pagent – but I’m really just stuck on the tragedy of Gentle.
Hats off to MHA, this is a top-grade arc – Gold Tips Imperial grade for sure.
I honestly don’t get why this arc is supposed to be so brilliant (sorry Lenlo!). Yes, Gentle is different from most villains in MHA in being a largely sympathetic character who doesn’t really have any sinister intentions but merely wants to achieve his “dream” when the orthodox way of doing so was denied him. And I can see how he represents an alternative path for Midoriya, and how even in a society of superheroes some people are bound to be left out.
But on the other hand, tragic backstories and sympathetic villains are a dime a dozen in shounen manga, so this is hardly revolutionary. And his character is a bit too simplistic to be truly compelling as an agent of social criticism. I mean, sure, it sucks that he couldn’t make his dream come true, but is that really society’s fault? If he couldn’t even graduate a (supposedly) mediocre hero school – and completely misjudged a situation where someone was in danger – isn’t it fair to say that he just wasn’t qualified to be a hero? Besides, it’s not like becoming a hero is the only path to societal success: having to give up on your dream sucks, but there are plenty of other ways to use his quirk, and honestly, setting your expectations to a reasonable level is a normal part of growing up.
And his larger significance for hero society aside, I honestly couldn’t care less about the whole school festival. I can see that it’s important for the students to get a break, and for Eri to regain some sense of normalcy in her life, but it is such an overused plot element in anime that I just can’t bring myself to care. So Gentle making the invasion of the festival his central aim reduces my interest in him even further. Instead of a compelling character, it makes him feel like a cartoonish villain of the sort that you see in children’s series. I think I saw him (and La Brava) being compared to Team Rocket somewhere, and it’s honestly a good comparison. Some will like that kind of extravagance and plain silliness, but for me, it makes it really difficult to take him seriously.
But maybe I just need a break from MHA. Bakugo’s mini-arc aside, I haven’t been enjoying the series much ever since the big clash with AFO, so maybe I’d be better off giving it another chance in a few years, when I’ll hopefully be able to look at the series again with fresh eyes and renewed enthusiasm.
I guess the difference is that I quite enjoy the smaller down to earth stuff after the big bombastic event that was Overhauls arc.
Especially because I love Gentle both for his personality and place in the story, but because of his representation of the Silver Age of american comics and everything that comes with it. Like I am a decent comic book nerd, so all these little references like Gentle or Stain and how the relate to comic books are always treats to me.
Like for instance you say Gentle is a cartoonish villain… and yeah thats exactly what he is. He is the embodiment of a time in American Comics when Lex Luthor stole 40 cakes. He is supposed to be goofy and silly, using that sillyness as a shield while commenting society. Because typically comedy has been a pretty safe way to do just that. Whether it be because people don’t take it seriously enough to try and curtail it but also because making people laugh helps get it stuck in their heads.
tl;dr you arnt supposed to take Gentle seriously. Its a light hearted arc with a lighthearted villain that begins the slow introduction criticizing and commenting on Hero Society, in this case, the idea of where do the outcasts go in a Hero society? Inevitably, they become villains, because there is no where else for them to go in such a polarized society.
I’ve never really managed to get into comics (even though I have read quite a bit of manga), so maybe that is indeed why I couldn’t connect to Gentle as much (aside from the obvious personal preferences).
I do agree that comedy can be a great way to do social criticism, though. But in my view the social critique here was a bit lacking in sharpness. The idea that the sharp dichotomy between heroes and villains pushes those who are different from the norm towards villainy is an interesting one, but if that was the author’s intention, I don’t think the series substantiates it very well: Gentle is arguably more a reflection of the problems with meritocracy (in that it creates a sharp dividing line between the “competent” and the “incompetent”, who have no one to blame but their own abilities and nothing left to do but to give up on their dreams) than of whatever problems a hero society may struggle with. There are many interesting questions to ask here (does a hero society lead to ideological dogmatism? does it protect the status quo? does it oppress and exclude those who, for whatever reason, can’t meet the social norms of their society? and does it elevate heroes to such a degree that all other occupations inevitably have a much lower status?), but Gentle’s arc only vaguely gestures at these issues and doesn’t give us a very convincing reason to think that MHA’s society does indeed have these problems. For example, for meritocracy in hero selection to be a problem (rather than a tragic but necessary feature of any well-functioning society), there should also be a lack of attractive alternatives, and a social safety net for outcasts, say, but we have no reason to think that MHA’s society is defective in either of those respects.
Long story short: I wasn’t that impressed by the social criticism of this arc. It’s interesting in theory, but rather poorly worked out: “Joker” has arguably explored similar themes in much more depth recently, for example (though I wasn’t a huge fan of that either). But as always, the biggest differences are probably due to personal preference: I simply didn’t like Gentle’s character – and the overall arc in which he features – that much, and the social criticism would have to be very poignant to salvage the arc for me in spite of those complaints – and that may be a bit too much to ask of a battle shounen.
Well if its any consolation, it looks like we are going to get my 2nd favorite arc this season as well in the last 2 episodes, though its more of a mini-arc since its so short.
Will be curious how that does for ya, since its a more serious one, even if its quick.
I’ll be looking forward to that then! I also heard there’s an Endeavor arc coming soon, and I’m quite interested in that. I have a weak spot for unsympathetic characters being shown to be more complex than they initially seemed.
Next arc is the Endeavor arc. There is a second one but it comes later. Both are very good.
Yeah, I kind of figured as much when I saw the next episode preview. 🙂 Hopefully that’ll allow the season to end on a high note.