With a My Hero Academia season 2 review!
So my wife and I blazed through season 2 of MHA in only a week or two.
While being twice the length of the first season, it seemed to go by super quickly.
It consisted of three arcs:
- The UA Sports Festival
- Hero Killer: Stain
- Semester 1 finals
That should tell you something about the kind of Shonen that MHA is.
In 25 episodes it got through 3 different story arcs.
For any of Shonen, like Naruto, each one of those arcs would probably have been at least 1 season.
So it has a pretty quick pace anyway.
Yet it still hits all the same marks that those shows do, just quicker.
It develops the other characters in the class a lot, as we finally get the know some of the “lesser” characters in depth, so that the “main” cast doubles in size at the minimum.
The Sports Festival is basically a tournament arc, and comes to a pretty satisfactory conclusion.
I’ve read about how some people think that MHA is subverting the Shonen genre of anime.
But like Scott Frerichs (one of the main people from Team Four Star, the guys who make Dragon Ball Z Abridged) said, it’s not subverting Shonen, it’s just really good Shonen!
The Hero Killer: Stain arc has some really powerful moments, and we get our first proper power up of Deku.
It also shows how changing the way you think can help to prevent you from injuring yourself.
The final arc is a lot more light hearted, and helps to round out the season pretty well.
It also helps to show the progress people made from the Sports Festival already.
So all in all, it’s a packed seasons, but a damn good one…
And now for the SPOILERS!
!!!SPOILER WARNING!!!
I can’t believe they killed off Deku at the end, what kind of show would do that?!
OK, that doesn’t happen, but hopefully if you don’t want spoilers you’ll finally take the hint and stop reading.
For real now.
The Sports Festival arc was pretty intense, and it really did show off a lot of Class 1A in a lot more light.
The addition of Class 1B and Shinso into the mix also went to show how impressive UA really is.
This arc was mostly about Todoroki, the only background character to really stand out in season 1.
But it did a lot for more than just him.
It also started the “Midoryia saves everyone from themselves” thing that most Shonen do.
Everyone is a bad guy in Naruto because they’re lonely, which Naruto understands because of “the swing” and because of that he gets through to them and turns them around.
Goku’s kind hearted nature and strength breaks through to even the coldest of hearts and they become friends after the battle, etc.
So we learn that the Sports Festival is basically the new Olympics, as the old Olympics became a little obsolete because of Quirks.
It’s held yearly so the students can show off their abilities so the hero agencies can look for potential new recruits.
So it’s important to make a good first impression!
All Might tells Deku it’s his chance to tell the world “I AM HERE!”
So whole of the first year classes, from all of the different courses, not just the hero course we focus on, are competing.
There’s a chance that if you were in one of the other courses, if you did well enough you could be moved into the hero course.
Which would mean if you don’t do well and you’re in the hero course, you could be kicked out!
The first contest is a marathon race around the stadium.
It’s of course more complicated than that, as the giant robots, pit traps, and a mine field are all in the way.
Todoroki keeps his lead until the mines, where Bakugo catches up.
But with some luck and planning, Deku wins without even using his quirk!
With only the top 42 people advancing to the second round, the contest is… a Cavalry Battle!
It’s a teamwork based thing, where everyone has to work together or you fall over.
The twist is that this game is for points, and the more points you have at the end then the more likely you’ll go through to the final round!
Depending on what position you took in the marathon you have points assigned to you.
The 42nd placed person has 5 points, and the next person has 5 more points, all the way up to second place.
First place on the other hand has 10…000,000 points! Ten Million!
The team you make then combines their point total.
The aim of the game is to capture the other teams headband, which has the groups combined point total on it.
Deku has a tough time finding members as he is the main target with ten million points.
He’s been Todoroki’s target for this contest, because Deku has ties to All Might, and he doesn’t like that… though we’re not sure why yet.
He eventually finds a team and lets us learn more about another Class 1A student, who has stood out, mostly because he has a friggin birds head!
That character is Tokoyami and his Dark Shadow quirk.
It’s an intense match, and comes down to the wire.
Todoroki’s team wins, but Deku manages to scrap through with a funky new use for his quirk that doesn’t break anything!
Next up is the actual Tournament part of this arc.
Head to head battles with the top 16 students.
Deku wins his first match, and faces Todoroki in the second round.
It’s an impressive fight, with Deku having to break every finger in his right hand, his left arm, and then the fingers in his right hand AGAIN!
Through it all Todoroki is only using his ice powers, because he hates his Dad, the 2nd Ranked hero Endeavour!
But Deku manages to break through to Todoroki that it’s not his Dads power to use fire, the fire he uses is his own!
So there’s a massive explosion as the judge intervenes because Deku is going to kill himself.
Deku loses, what a twist for the main character to lose his first tournament!!!
Oh… wait… no it’s not.
Anyway, we have a great match between Bakugo and Ochaco where Bakugo just manages to win.
We finally get to the final where it’s Bakugo vs Todoroki.
Bakugo wants Todoroki not to hold back and use his fire power.
But Todoroki isn’t so sure anymore and loses because of it.
Infuriating Bakugo in the process, so much so that he doesn’t want the victory to count.
With that the festival is over, and we learn of a new villian, the Hero Killer: Stain… who just took out Iida’s older brother!
After the festival everyone has to choose their hero name because they’re going out on work placement.
Deku, although he came 4th in the tournament doesn’t get anyone, until the last minute.
Gran Torino, All Mights old teacher, takes in Deku, and helps him realise that he’s been thinking about his quirk all wrong.
Instead of summoning it when he needs it, like a special power, it should be something that’s always on, through all of his body.
This is a massive improvement and power boost for Deku.
Which is helpful when the League of Villains attacks the same city the Hero Killer is in.
They attack because they want Stain to join them, but as they didn’t have the same reasons for being “bad guys” Stain wanted nothing to do with them.
Iida is in the same city, hoping to confront him… and he just so happens to find the Hero Killer.
Deku realises something might be wrong when Iida isn’t with the hero he’s meant to be shadowing.
He manages to find Iida in time, as Stain has him paralysed and is about to land a killing blow on him.
Deku then sends his location to everyone in Class 1A.
This lets Todoroki, who is now friends with him, get there just in time to save everyone.
The fight is intense, and Deku and Todoroki prove to Stain that they are real heroes, unlike Iida who gave in to his hatred and rage.
Eventually they all team up and take him down!
But Stain gives an impassioned speech before being captured by the real “Heroes” which starts a movement in the villain world.
This leads All Might to explain his past, and that there is a big bad guy of the world.
He goes by the name All for One.
He has the ability to steal others quirks and use them, or to give them to someone else.
He’s the one who made the Nomu’s.
It turns out that All Might’s injuries were from his fight with All for One, because that’s what his quirk One for All was made to do, take the bad guy down.
And leads us into the last arc… the Semester Finals arc.
With the finals coming up, everyone studies, because there’s a summer camp coming up in the holidays and if you fail you don’t get to go.
Instead of fighting robots for the practical exam, the class will take on the teachers!
They get paired into teams to test their teamwork and planning skills.
They’re then pitted against teachers that will put them to the test.
Deku and Bakugo are teamed up to take on All Might!
We get some good development from a bunch of the class in this part.
We also learn what the Principles quirk is… It turns out he’s actually an animal that’s been tested on to be super smart!
Which is… a little disappointing.
Ochaco learns that she might have a crush on Deku, but that her placement was super helpful as now she knows kung fu.
2 teams fail and 1 team barely passes, and we’re up to the main event.
Deku and Bakugo haven’t spoken and don’t have a plan against the Number 1 Hero!
They fight each other before All Might makes himself known.
There are 3 ways to pass this test, you escape the arena, you knock out the teacher, or you handcuff the teacher.
Bakugo wants to take out All Might, while Deku wants to run.
Can they work together?!
Sort of…
Ann it looks like All Might is going to kill Bakugo, Deku rushes in as he always does, even though All Might damaged Dekus back with his last attack.
Deku punches All Might right in the face with as much power as he can muster, and it takes All Might down to a knee.
Deku scoops up Bakugo and they manage to escape!
With the results in, they learn that even if you failed you still go on the trip!
Yay!
We then get a chilling meeting between Deku and the leader of the League of Villains: Tomura Shigaraki, in the main section of a mall!
It’s a pretty intense scene, and is going to lead into a big shift in season 3.
Plus we finally see Shigaraki’s face, which doesn’t seem like that huge a deal, but it was for some reason.
And with that, the season comes to an end.
There were plenty of heart felt and heart hurting moments this season.
The Deku/Todoroki fight was amazing… and Todoroki’s backstory is just heartbreaking.
His father is a total douche, but we then find out why he’s the number 2 hero, cause he’s damn good.
Seeing Deku make progress was really kool as well, to see him actually be useful for more than 1 shot is great.
We also learn about Bakugo’s backstory, and how he too idolises All Might, he just doesn’t show it anymore.
I can’t wait to start Season 3, and I can’t wait for October when Season 4 starts, but there’s a movie we have to watch before then!
All in all, you should totally watch My Hero Academia, as it’s sooooo good!