The Arc that broke MHA

EDIT: I want to say it clearly - I specifically avoided speculating on Horikoshis health and the involvement of his editors because while some signs are there, we simply don't know anything yet. You are free to discuss it obviously, but in a video like this, which can easily and quickly spread its information, I didnt want to accidentally propagate false or incomplete assumptions about real people. This is about the observable, structural changes and tendencies of the media product, not about judging and analyzing the people behind it. It is a willful omission on my part. Want to see ALL videos early? Support me on patreon for exclusive access! www.patreon.com/oceaniz

The fact that this entire series takes in place in one year of the students school highlights how badly Horikoshi paces the story. By now, Class A should be seniors and it would show that they're finally ready to become heroes. Instead of freshman who just keep getting lucky or sporadically power boosted

I wish Horikoshi, after AM lost his quirk, had the power to just say “f%#$ it, I’m taking a few months off to rest and plan the rest of the series, see you all next year.” Would probably have helped a bunch with the pacing and overall structure.

Horikoshi really exhibited his love for american comics and Star Wars movies. By replicating all their flaws

A problem i always had with Mha is how fast deku got a handle with ofa and his classmates weren't even growing at the same pace as him. The kids who've had their quirks their entire lives suck at using their quirks more than the guy who's had his for only a few months

By the way, I cannot BELIEVE we skipped over the students reaction and “recovery period” after the war arc. We NEEDED to have a bit of time with the students together or something. Or hell! Midnights funeral! God damn man.

I think the largest problem the show and maybe even shonen at large is their inability to go through with serious consequence and that just gets worse as mha continues. Once u start bringing dead characters back it’s the point of no return

My biggest problem with the series is that timeline is crunched into a single year there isnt enough slice of life or time spent actually living in the world the manga creates. Its the reason i like the fanfics that give the world and characters the depth it both needs and deserves.

No one's gonna mention the one-shot he made before MHA? It's basically the same premise (no-quirk guy wants to be a hero in a hero society), but the main character never gets a quirk. He works together with others to be just as useful as other people in society and its a really touching and fun story that highlights how disability makes you no less ambitious and no less of a person. I feel like MHA held this theme early on and came close to expanding on it, but lost its way and became a generic super-hero comic.

I think Horikoshi lowkey forgot that Chisaki losing his hands didn't make him quirkless genetically, and that's the only reason AFO didn't take Overhaul.

I think it's insane that despite being 300+ chapters long when you compare it to the things it's ran alongside like KNY, CSM, and JJK it genuinely feels like barely anything has really happened simply because of how abhorrent the pacing is

The explosion of the mansion is literally that one simpsons joke where the nuclear facility staff almost dies because of a bunch of escalating safety measures having been cut, only for the show to transition to a guy saying „I won‘t bore you with the details of our miraculous escape“.

There's something sad about the rushed ending, Dabi. His greatest pain was that the world did not care about his suffering and endeavour. And in the end, despite the excellent execution of his revelation, it failed because in addition to endeavour and his family, nobody cares. The audience doesn't care too much about it because they need endeavour, Deku and Shoto's friend are too busy to care. In the end, Dabi's desire to hold ENDEAVOR accountable for his actions (other than self-imposed guilt, the lowest of punishments honestly) mattered to no one.

I honestly feel Hori wants to just end it because he grew burned out. It sucks that has to be this way, because MHA was my favorite out of the new gens. There could be loads of reason why it's this way ( mangeka work schedule, mental exhaustion, health concerns, etc). We really don't know what's going on behind the scenes. At the end of the day, it's Hori decision and I have to just to respect it. I hate it, but we can't force a man who doesn't want to continue.

Dr. Garaki: "Wait so... AFO, why did you groom and raise Tomura into the next you?" AFO: "We do a little trolling ;)"

I was kinda hoping we'd get Class 1A going from Year 1 students all the way to Year 3, mastering their powers and getting a lot of character growth and development while the villains slowly attain power and become a legitmate threat, and just take out the pro heroes slowly while the students improve. Certainly would've made the final battle more interesting with everyone at their peak against the villains at their peak with the stakes escalated with almost all the pro heroes getting killed or taken out.

I feel like Horikoshi’s story got way too big too early on for him to handle. Higher ups pressuring him to keep on going so they can make more of a profit from merchandise, movies, and volume sales

This sure sounds a whole lot like what happened to Game of Thrones. "We need the story to end immediately, so no more slow complex story-telling, just speedrun it"

I will say... Horikoshi sure loves Star Wars. He is a huge fan. So much so, he repeats its problems! Sequels about the perishing of the old guard and the new generation continuing better, different than before? Only to be followed by "Somehow, Palpatine/AFO returned". Truly, a loyal fan.

I think I can safely add this series to my mental list of "The Fanfiction will outlive the actual story." And honestly? I'm not even mad. The world of My Hero Academia is so easy to access from a ground level that making fan OC creations became even easier than it usually is for these sorts of stories. The setting is inherently interesting from the word GO. A world that's so damn obsessed with superheroes that it's FULLY willing to paper over the cracks in the pavement that people can slip through can create any number of fan-driven scenarios. Who would we be if we were in this story? Would we love superheroes like the general populace or would the broken nature of turning good deeds into a business model and popularity contest disgust us? The characters with their distinct and strong personalities ARE THERE. The setting with themes that make us stop and think IS THERE. The sheer open-ended nature of quirks basically being ANYTHING we can imagine IS THERE. But it began to crumble under the weight of making this world make sense in a narrative that satisfies over time. The idea you touched on with passing the torch being dropped in order to make the Evil Business Potato Man be the main antagonist again "because reasons" crystalizes this issue in my mind. My Hero Academia can't do everything it wants to do because it never had the space needed to BREATHE. Interesting plot points being dropped left and right in order to accelerate the main cast to something resembling an ending. Lingering stories that could invest us if we learned more? Best case scenario is just shoving them into Vigilantes and hoping people stop complaining to us. I'm going to bring up the big one. One Piece. Yes, it's going on and on AND ON and is only RECENTLY setting up the grand finale for a story that's run since the damn 90's but it had something critical. The time needed to FULLY flesh out characters. Is it perfect? Of course not. A story running that long will have lots of loose plot devices and arcs that are either hastily tied together or set aside. But the sheer LENGTH of the story means that even the wackiest and loosest written characters were given time to show why they became the people they were. How time would change them and let them grow as people in a way that makes sense. My Hero Academia seems to be SCREAMING out for more time to develop what it has already but isn't being listened to. The world of One Piece is wide and varied with a LOT of different elements to explore. The world of My Hero Academia is wide and varied with a LOT of different elements to explore. One was given the time in the oven needed to have even the most insane elements make sense over time. Or at the very least be coherent. One was not given that same luxury. To quote Benny from Fallout New Vegas: "The game was rigged from the start."