This character is our hero-in-the-making: Izuku Midoriya who shows us that you don’t need to have superpowers to be a hero. You just have to have the heart and the desire to always help those in need in order to become or to be a hero.
Disclaimer: Featured image for this post is from Deviantart.
This will be the final part to the 14 Reasons Why Fans Love My Hero Academia (MHA) / Boku No Hero Academia (BnHA) series. And today, we’ll be covering the final two reasons:
- Reason #13: Logical Story Flow and Buildup
- Reason #14: Learning, Not Always Winning
To give a final recap of all the reasons before this post that we’ve covered, here they are right below:
Note: You can actually click on the links to get to the respective posts!
- Shounen Trope Killer
- Inspirational Quotes
- Motivational Moments
- Epic Soundtrack/Music
- Multi-Dimensional & Simultaneously Developing Villains
- Rising Stakes as the Series Progresses
- Comedy
- Characters & Relationships
- No Insane Power Boosts
- Cool Powers & Costume Designs
- No Over-Dramatic Sob Stories
- No Chosen One Syndrome
Let’s jump right in!
13) Logical Story Flow & Buildup
Image from Deviantart
The MHA / BnHA storyline seems like it has been meticulously planned and carefully thought out. One can tell when carefully noticing and watching the pace and sequence of the series. It’s as if creator Kohei Horikoshi had a game plan on how he would write and draw the series even before putting pen (or pencil!) to paper. Of course, sometimes a story deviates from the author’s outline; however, for the most part, there are no gaping plot holes so far in the MHA / BnHA universe (that I’ve noticed).
Image from the Boku No Hero Academia Fandom page
Horikoshi has us start the series with Izuku Midoriya. Midoriya is a middle school student who is the only one in his entire class to be without a quirk. In spite that, he still has a dream to become a hero one day…somehow.
We see he has self-esteem issues, but is extremely kind, adorable, and dorky. Moreover, he’s a humble (and nerdy) fan boy who is still willing to learn and take notes on other Pro-Heroes, even if he doesn’t have the capabilities to become one. This way he can still admire them and keep his dreams to one day become a hero alive. This hopeful attitude is what makes the audience connect with him. Who doesn’t want to be a hero? Plus, we’re just like him–quirk-less, too.
He then gets to coincidentally meet his idol through a lucky strike of fate and then asks the question that has been bugging him for all of his adolescent life:
without a quirk, is it still possible to be a hero?
His idol breaks Midoriya’s heart by telling him, “no,” it’s not possible. However, All Might has a secret though and that’s that he is now growing weaker due to the battle he had had years before with a great villain. Because he is weakened, he believes he has no energy left to battle the villain (Sludge Monster) who has now captured a boy (Katsuki Bakugou) and is making it hard for the other Pro-Heroes to successfully save the boy.
And then our main character does something no one saw coming.
This boy who has just had his heart broken, dreams crushed, and no quirks whatsoever, jumps into the fray in a crazy, selfless, and suicidal attempt to save his bully.
Image from Wattpad
This character is our hero-in-the-making: Izuku Midoriya who shows us that you don’t need to have superpowers to be a hero. You just have to have the heart and the desire to always help those in need in order to become or to be a hero.
And he turns the table on everything we ever believed about heroes, as the audience: he inspires his own hero, his idol, the Number One Pro-Hero.
All Might then summons the remainder of his energy and steps in to save both Midoriya and Bakugou.
This is how Midoriya’s hero story is born. And from here, All Might takes Midoriya under his wing to train him for ten months. He guides Midoriya in his quest to pass the Entrance Exam to enroll in U.A. High, a prestigious, famous school for aspiring Pro-Heroes. All Might does so by revealing that his quirk is transferrable. Called One For All, All Might tells Midoriya that in order to handle such an immense power, one that famously birthed All Might’s title as The Symbol of Peace, Midoriya needs to both mentally and most importantly, physically prepare his body for that inheritance.
The Entrance Exam rolls around and Midoriya fails due to not acquiring any points and meanwhile, destroys his body (his limbs) in the process of saving a fellow candidate, Ochaco Uraraka.
However, his endeavor is not for naught.
His selfless (and desperate) act inspires the judges of the Exam and motivates Uraraka, to offer some of her own points to squeeze him through to pass the Exam. All Might is the one who ends up welcoming Midoriya into U.A., his dream school, as his former mentor. He also reveals his position as the new faculty member at U.A. as well.
Image from the Boku No Hero Academia Fandom page
We then witness Midoriya and the students of Class 1A undergo the Quirk Assessments showing their quirk rankings relative to each other over a series of different tests. The students also demonstrate their strengths, weaknesses, and quirks in the following Battle Trial Arc. After that, they are introduced to the villains of the story with the Attack on the U.S.J. Arc.
In Season 2, Horikoshi next broadens the cast of characters and his fictional hero universe by showing the other courses taught at U.A. via the Sports Festival. The creator then establishes the Professional Hero career with the idea of Hero Agencies and Sidekicks by having the students take on internships in the following arc. This is also where Midoriya meets his mentor’s former mentor: Gran Torino and learns to no longer destroy his body anymore. He is taught how to control his power and learns how to use only 5% as well as to employ his legs for attacks (Shoot Style and Full Cowling) because his arms can’t handle the immense trauma of his power anymore. The Final Exams soon follow and that arc transitions the story to the Summer Training Camp.
The Camp opens up Season 3. Up to this point, the good guys have been winning and there have been numerous happy endings and close calls; thus, this arc was a unique, different, exciting, and well-delivered one since it hands the bad guys their first win and the good guys their first serious, shocking, soul-crushing defeat: the kidnapping of Bakugou–a fan favorite as well as a huge, tangible presence in Class 1A.
Image from Wattpad
Due to Bakugou’s abduction (and eventual rescue), the students are next introduced to dorm life to protect and ensure their safety from the repeated interactions with the League of Villains. They then tackle the task of passing the Provisional Hero License Exam, an obstacle that second years usually face. Most of the students pass, but this experience exacerbates the tense relationship Midoriya has with his bully and childhood friend which leads to an epic battle that allows them to display to us and to each other how far they’ve come from the Battle Trials. This is where we see Midoriya show off his ability to manage 8% of One For All’s power.
Next, Class 1A meets the three senior students who hold the title of The Big Three. These characters are not introduced on a whim as their roles are essential in the next arc of the fourth season. Midoriya, Kirishima, Asui, and Uraraka take on work studies and get to fight alongside these talented prodigies.
Image from Reddit
Midoriya, after getting to meet All Might’s mentor, now has a chance to team up with both of All Might’s would-have-been successor (Togata Mirio) and his former side kick (Night Eye). Moreover, during this arc, Midoriya learns that All Might’s life is in danger–that he will die a gruesome death in the future. He also has an internal and mental crisis as he wonders if Mirio would have been a better successor than he would be if Mirio actually was the one to receive All Might’s One for All power. This is because he considers that Mirio is indeed incredibly charming, stronger, and more talented than Midoriya is (and has a cool quirk!). Midoriya then questions his own worth as well as All Might’s ultimate decision. In addition, Midoriya has to deal with Night Eye’s rift with All Might and his disappointment in All Might’s decision to hand his power to Midoriya and not the talented Mirio.
However, Midoriya and Night Eye both connect over their mutual fanboy respect for All Might. They then work to pursue Kai Chisaki to save a young girl named Eri. Midoriya fails to save her with Mirio and they both feel emotionally responsible for that mishap. He and Night Eye’s team later join forces with other Pro-Heroes to infiltrate Chisaki’s hideout. Midoriya later battes Chiseki for Eri’s freedom. With Eri’s help, he is finally and surprisingly able to use One For All at 100%–which is such an exciting moment for him and for us to witness his full potential and capabilities after waiting FOUR seasons!
Just look at the order of the list and buildup of the story to see just how far we’ve come and grown with Midoriya:
- Izuku “Deku” Midoriya is a quirkless middle school student trying to get into U.A. High
- He encounters All Might, his childhood idol, after being attack by the Sludge Monster
- He asks All Might if he too can be a hero even without a quirk and is disappointed by All Might’s answer: no
- He inspires a weakened All Might to be a better hero by attempting to save Katsuki Bakugou from the Sludge Monster
- All Might takes Midoriya under his wing and trains him for 10 months to later wield One For All and help get him through U.A.’s Entrance Exam
- Midoriya passes the Entrance Exam
- Quirk Assessments – Midoriya uses his fingers to tap into One For All’s power
- Battle Trials – Midoriya uses his arm for the power
- Sports Festival – Midoriya uses his power only when he needs it and does it one finger at a time
- Internships – he meets All Might’s former mentor: Gran Torino, starts to channel 5% of his power throughout his body and develops Shooting Style and Full Cowling
- Final Exams – further develops relationship with Bakugou
- Summer Training Camp – handles first defeat with League of Villains
- Provisional Hero License Exam – passes and can officially work with Pro-Heroes to battle villains legally
- Meets the Big Three
- Work Studies – has the opportunity to work alongside All Might’s former sidekick: Night Eye and would-have-been successor: Togata Mirio to save Eri from Kai Chisaki
All these developments makes sense due to their logical order and sequential progress that’s simple and linear.
14) Learning is More Important than Winning
Image from Fandom
Kohei Horikoshi does a good job at stressing that our little fledging heroes are just that–little baby fledgings. They’re students. They’re not professionals yet. And there is (and should be) a vast difference between their capabilities and those of the Professional Heroes, especially the Pro-Heroes who are in the Top 10 rankings for their society.
No matter how talented these students are, even if they made it into the most prestigious hero school in all of Japan, they still have a lot of learning, growth, experience, lessons, and development that they need to personally undergo to even reach All Might’s, Endeavor’s, or even Mirio’s level.
And that is the right mindset to have for writing a coming-of-age type of story.
It was mentioned before in this series of posts that it is such a relief that as the main character, Midoriya breaks Shounen tradition by not winning all the time. Horikoshi should truly be appreciated for breaking that illogical trend because learning is more important than winning.
We learn more when we lose than when we win.
There is always at least one valuable lesson from every dark moment and bad experience we have to overcome.
From a logical standpoint, Midoriya, as a student, should not be able to win against Pro-Heroes. This makes the story realistic and believable.
Image from Facebook
Midoriya sometimes doesn’t win even against students seen by his match against Shoto Todoroki in the Battle Tournament phase of the Sports Festival. This is reasonable considering that Todoroki has had his quirk his entire life and was trained by the Number Two Pro-Hero. Todoroki also has an awesome quirk that he hadn’t been able to maximize to its full potential until that match.
In addition, Midoriya doesn’t half-ass or try to weasel a win through like other Shounen characters. Although it’s nice to see our main character beat someone and take a victory lap, we want to grow with him and learn too. Horikoshi understands that although losing might be disheartening, the wait and the payoff for the eventual win in the future is more meaningful when we lose, learn, and work harder to ensure that future and eventual victory.
That’s when the triumph tastes better and feels even better when we’ve been beat down so many times, so hard, but still manage to finally pull a win.
Another example of a logical loss was when Bakugou and Midoriya had to face off against All Might in the Final Exam. Again, from a logical standpoint, should two teenage first year high school students be able to win against a man who is the Number One Hero; is The Symbol of Peace; wields superhuman strength via One For All; and has countless years of experience and battle wisdom under his belt? That’s not likely. It would be impossible and most certainly, would be hard to believe.
Image from Steam Community
Horikoshi knows that. And he doesn’t pull something from thin air to give Midoriya such a useless, undeserving win. Horikoshi doesn’t try to pull a surprise that would leave his audience in state of suspended disbelief. Midoriya needs to learn. And Horikoshi understands and knows that. And indeed, Midoriya does learn.
He learns that he needs to…
- Work together with Bakugou to pass the Exam, and
- Not to put All Might on a pedestal in order to find a way out from continuing a battle he knows he cannot win.
In a way, Midoriya does “win” though because he passes the Exam by learning to work with someone who is incredibly hard to get along with: his own bully. He is the one who hauls out an unconscious Bakugou from the battlefield, out of All Might’s clutches to pass the Final Exam. He was also able to smile in the face of defeat and horrible odds too, as All Might points out. And in that moment, we as an audience still root and feel the immense emotion from Midoriya and Bakugou’s win-loss.
Image from the Boku No Hero Academia Fandom page
Another great example of this win-loss method that Horikoshi employs is when Midoriya fights against Nighteye to win his approval and invitation to work at his hero agency for the Work Studies program. Our protagonist cannot possibly win against a well-seasoned hero, specifically one who was the Great All Might’s former side kick and who possesses the ability to see the future for one hour after physically touching his opponent.
Midoriya, again, doesn’t squeeze a win out with a surprise, B.S. move. He instead wins the only way he can, by way that is true to his nature and character: showing his dorky fan boy respect for All Might. As he fights Night Eye, he bounces around the room as fast as he can with his Full Cowling move, trying to find Night Eye’s blind spot. Meanwhile, he does his absolute best to avoid stepping on or harming ANY of the All Might accessories, merchandise, and posters that Night Eye has on display around and all over his office.
This mutual worshipping and respect for all things All Might impresses Night Eye and wins his favor. He ends up welcoming Midoriya to his team and agency.
See? Midoriya can’t realistically win against someone like Night Eye physically or experience-wise. It wouldn’t be believable. However, he does win with emotion and heart–the only credible way he can win against someone of Night Eye’s stature. Most importantly, it’s a victory that’s true to Midoriya’s character, heart, personality, and nature.
If it doesn’t make sense to win, the characters in MHA / BnHA find an alternative way to win using a method that is true to them. This way the characters don’t manage a cheesy, shocking, B.S., unbelievable triumph that is un-cathartic, illogical, and unreasonable just for the sake of winning.
Their victory is in the lessons they learn because that is consequentially what helps them grow as heroes and is used in future battles with the experience they’ve gain in that temporary loss.
That’s it! We made it to the end! Here’s a look at our final, complete, and comprehensive list:
- Shounen Trope Killer
- The main character is not always the winner
- There are other “main” characters
- There are no useless characters
- There’s a spotlight for the supporting cast of characters
- The main character is not an idiot
- Inspirational Quotes
- Motivational Moments
- Epic Soundtrack/Music
- Multi-Dimensional & Simultaneously Developing Villains
- Rising Stakes as the Series Progresses
- Comedy
- Characters & Relationships
- No Insane Power Boosts
- Cool Powers & Costume Designs
- No Over-Dramatic Sob Stories
- No Chosen One Syndrome
- Logical Story Flow & Buildup
- Learning, Not Always Winning
Thank you for following and reading this series! I truly appreciate your time and dedication to keeping up with these posts. If there are additional reasons that you’d like to add to this list, please comment below. Feel free to also share your thoughts about my list and tell me what’s your own list of reasons for following and adoring MHA/BnHA! If you like my content and would like to read more, please check out the tabs at the top on the menu bar up above for more topics that may interest you. Again, thank you for reading (: