My Hero Academia is the forerunner of modern shounen – the descendant, if you will, of Bleach, HxH, One Piece, and Fairy Tale. With 2 movies, 4 seasons, infinite merch and cosplay, MHA is a force to be reckoned with. With that in mind, Season 4 proved to be a transitional season, with our lead Midoriya moving forward in the world of heroes and All-Might fading, set against a backdrop of a world trying to cope.
(I’m also part of the movement to make 50 the new average score, not 70.)
My grading criteria: each show has 50 points to earn and 50 points to lose. Points are earned by going above and beyond, showing me something I hadn’t seen before or making me feel something unexpected – generally something that makes me applaud. Points are lost when I feel a part of the show was below average or less than acceptable in terms of animation, storyline, etc. Let’s take a look!
Positives
Where did MHA score points?
| Provisional hero course (+5) | I felt an overlooked, but rather nice part of the season was the provisional hero course. In addition to spawning the idea for the choreography seen at the Cultural Festival, the high schoolers vs kids made for a nice highlight of a very real problem facing the MHA world. Well done with finding a resolution not overly contrived. |
| Endeavor (+5) | This entire season’s handling of Endeavor, from his chat with All Might to trying to repair his family, has been masterful. From what could have been a very one dimensional, abusive father figure has become a thoughtful look into a flawed, powerful man who is aware of his weaknesses but striving to be strong and fix what he has broken. |
| “His Start” (+20) | The Last 2 episodes. Wow – what was that? Probably one of the best pair of episodes I have seen in anime. “His Start” especially stood out as exceptional in a series that has given us plenty of exceptional episodes. Hats off to MHA on this. |
| Kirishima (+5) | An excellent job on the origin story for a side character (opinions vary) in an otherwise average arc. |
Good: +35%
Neutral
What parts of MHA were neither good enough to win points, but not bad enough to be penalized?
| Eri Arc | Eri – I feel like Eri was quite a good character in terms of personality, but she just seems way too overpowered with potential. I don’t know – I think her emotional impact on the show as a whole was pretty good, but could have been more. The entire Yakuza arc wasn’t outstanding for me, but also wasn’t a complete wash. |
| Gentle Arc | I feel pretty mixed on Gentle. I think he had potential to be a great commentary on how society treats those who don’t make the cut. I think the silliness of his character got in the way of some real heartwarming potential he had with La Brava or the chance to say something interesting, like Stain did (In Stain’s case: intense passion, even contrary to the norm, can be recognized). Still not a bad character by any means, and definitely unique, so we’ll give this a neutral. |
| Juno’s Song | Juno’s Song – This to me was a very passable effort. Class 1A’s performance was a big moment and I think Juno’s song was adequate. Did it blow me away as the best song ever? No. But it also didn’t detract from the overall impact of the moment. |
| Cultural Fair | This came and went and was passable. I guess from all the build up with Gentle and protecting it, I guess I expected a bit more? |
Negatives
What missed the mark?
| Direction and Pacing (-2) | Early on, especially with the introduction to Nighteye’s agency, there were some episodes with spotty pacing. Plus the whole tickling thing, was, uh, out of place to say the least. Not dealbreakers, but noticeable early on. |
| Comparisons to Previous Seasons (-3) | In a vacuum, this season of MHA was two decent arcs that didn’t exactly tie together tail-ended by an amazing pair of episodes. However, MHA doesn’t exist in a vacuum – this is season 4 of a franchise show. A few points have to be lost here, based on the impact of the season as a whole. Was it a good season? Of course. Was it as amazing as we’ve come to expect? Just not quite. |
Bad: -5%
Final Thoughts
My Hero Academia had some growing pains this season. With the absence of All Might and class 1A (most of them anyways) advancing in the professional world of heroes, Season 4 felt a bit disjointed at times but finally founds its feet in the end. While the Yakuza arc didn’t always hit the right notes, I think in the long run this season is a good setup for what I’m assuming is to come. We should also remember that a movie came out during this season, which gets a slight pass from me as far as the staff’s efforts. I can’t say enough good things about the final two episodes – this hype train is still going strong. Plus Ultra!
Total: 80/100
(REALLY GOOD)
88% if using 70 as average
Explanation of the maths: if 70% used as the average for a show, then it is to 100% as 50 is to 100% for the new scale. In this case, MHA lost 20 points, out of the 50 it would have taken to get to average. In the 70% average system, with 30 points to get to average, MHA would have lost 20/50 or 2/5 of 30 – 12 all together. Therefore, MHA would be 88% on a scale with 70 as average.
…I may have done this wrong on past posts.
Honestly the best thing about mha is that it shows how you should handle a popular IP.
Other than that gentle was a very wasted opportunity. His character was stuck between being a villain of the week type and someone trying to use unconventional means to get a legitimate message out. That was dissapointing for me but maybe the expectations were too high on my part since mha is a shonen after all.
Other than that id agree with you more or less. I don’t give them a pass because they were making a movie. The TV show is the real foundation while the movies are tacked on so prioritizing then doesnt make sense to me from a creative standpoint (although I’m sure it makes financial sense). Lastly the concert I thought was good. Better than I expected.
I fully agree with MHA is a properly managed goldmine. To me it’s Marvel vs DC’s handling – Marvel just keeps turning in winners.
Gentle has more depth than you realise so no he was not a fucking waste.
*Sigh* My comment was eaten by the internet, so let’s see if this one gets posted.
As someone who has been reading the manga since the start, here are my thoughts.
The Eri and Festival arcs are easily the weakest points in the story. To provide some context, around this time something (I don’t know what) happened in HIrokoshi’s life that distracted him from his work. Chapters would be published that were half as long as previous ones, or the last few pages were clearly unfinished. Chapter 128 is a good example. It starts off with his normal art style, but by the end of it you see missing backgrounds, characters look like pencil sketches, faces are missing, etc. Quality got back to normal for the Mansion Invasion section, then fell back until the hero popularity poll chapter was published. Even to us manga readers, the festival arc seemed like filler to get Hirokoshi over whatever real-life hurdle he was dealing with at the start of the Eri arc.
Next season should be lit. In my opinion, the story picks back up where season 3 left off. If they pace things the way I expect, the last half of season 5 should be my favorite arc so far: My Villain Academia.
Given the timing, I also wonder if there will be season of MHA Vigilantes. The events of that side-story start to be referenced at what should be the end of upcoming season 5.
Personally, as a manga reader, the Culture Festival is one of my top 3 arcs in the whole series. I love it, I love Gentle he is one of my favorite villains and while yes there were some art issues because of Golden Week and life stuff, emotionally its still only topped by My Villain Academia and the Hero Rankings arc we saw as the finale. Though the current arc is lookin to change that >.>
To clarify, I didn’t dislike Gentle. Without spoiling the anime-only people, if you were to take a step back and look at season 3 and the material that will follow His Start (aka last 2 episodes of season 4, including the post-credits scene), this season was largely filler.
Now, what do I mean by that? There is a natural progression of the story between All Might’s Retirement and both Endeavor being #1 and Izuku’s dream. The story behind the conflict between One for All and All for One continues flawlessly, and the Eri arc and Festival arc seem like they interrupt the main plot. I wasn’t trying to imply they were bad, but they do distract from the overall conflict that Izuku and Shigaraki inherited. Because of the art issues and life stuff, these two arcs to me felt like Hirokoshi was trying to buy himself time. That’s why I called these arcs filler.
I wouldn’t say filler, but I would say transitional. I think they do a good job (at least as an anime-only viewer) of conveying the sense of change and uncertainty that’s befallen the super society. Growing pains if you will into a post-All Might world.
As Amun said, I think they worked as transitional arcs. As after this season Hori really started to focus a lot more on the world outside of UA. I honestly don’t think we get arcs like My Villain Academia without stuff like the Culture Festival and Gentle, because of the groundwork they lay for things like “society” and “outcasts”