Anime Hater vs My Hero Academia (Season 1)

Hey guys, welcome to the unique Ganiming series ‘’Anime Hater vs Anime’’. This is a series where I will be watching anime for the very first time and reviewing every series I see. I will be reviewing from the perspective of someone who NEVER liked anime. Sit back, get your popcorn out, and get ready to embark on this exciting new adventure with me! Only time will tell if I shall stay known as an anime hater 😉

Today I will be reviewing the first anime I’ve ever seen – My Hero Academia, recommended by a good friend of mine. If you have a request on which anime to review next, let me know in the comments below, or visit our contact page!

PS: Spoilers ahead, make sure you watch the anime first if you want to go in it totally blind!

My Hero Academia Review

The Intro

My Hero Academia belongs to the Shonen genre of anime, which is usually aimed at boys and features a male protagonist who goes on a journey to become stronger. From the first episode, I could tell that was true of this anime. The story takes place in a world where a large portion of the population has a superpower (referred to as ‘Quirks’ in the series). Our protagonist is a boy named Izuku Midoriya, whose biggest dream is to become the greatest superhero who ever lived! But there’s a catch – Izuku was born without a Quirk.

I really disliked Izuku in the first couple of episodes. I realize he is supposed to be a very young boy, who keeps getting his dreams shattered by everyone – nobody believes he can be a superhero. But there were quite a lot of scenes where he was crying his eyes out, which got annoying really quick. This persisted through the first 3 episodes, but then he got himself together a bit and I kind of liked him from that point on.

The first episode was basically meant to set things up. It showed us what it’s like to be a hero in the My Hero Academia universe, with a scene where some of the heroes stop a huge villain. We also got to see Izuku’s life in school, where he keeps getting bullied by another kid in his class – Katsuki Bakugo (Kacchan – who actually is my favorite character in this show), for not having a Quirk. I immediately got the sense of him being Izuku’s main rival later on in the show, and maybe even a possible main villain of the show. The episode ended with Izuku being saved by his idol All Might.

My Hero Academia Season 1

After All Might saw the potential of a great hero in Izuku, he decided to train him and pass his powers on to him. After 10 months of hard training, he finally got to the entrance exams to the country’s most prestigious superhero academy: U.A. High School for superheroes. Izuku really showcased his newfound power ‘One for All’ in the entrance exams, which got him accepted to the school. But his power comes with a price – every time he uses it, his body starts breaking down. It kind of made sense, he suddenly got this enormous strength, which his body is not prepared to handle until he learns how to properly control it.

The next few episodes are following the classes of future heroes. We got to meet one of my favorite characters so far, Eraserhead. His power to erase Quirks seem fun and I really like his practical approach to teaching.

Later on, the characters participated in an exercise, where they were divided into groups of heroes and villains – and naturally, Izuku faced off against Kacchan. We got to see how Kacchans pride was actually his weakness and caused him to lose the exercise. It was also apparent that he does not view Izuku as someone to be made fun of but as a rival.

The final few episodes were quite fun. A saving exercise turned bad as a ton of villains attacked the students and teachers for a chance of killing All Might. I got to see Eraserhead in action, but sadly he was brutally beaten. I really hope to see him heal up and back in action soon. Students and All Might eventually fended off the villains and all was well, but I got teased by not knowing who the actual villain behind the attack was.

Final Thoughts

I’m going to be honest, I kind of liked the first season. I’m still not a fan of the Japanese anime style of animations, and this anime doesn’t really have ground-breaking animations. But I did like the plot so far, the characters were mostly quite likable, apart from Izuku in the first episodes. I also liked the choice of music, it kind of always felt right to the situation. There were also some B.S. situations, in which Izuku should NOT have survived, but hey it’s anime so I didn’t expect it to be realistic.

The idea of a young kid with no superpowers trying to make it as a superhero was interesting to me from the very start. I was a bit disappointed when All Might gave him his power because I thought it would be more interesting if he had absolutely zero powers. But the direction the creators took was fun as well.

I wanted to turn my computer off and never come back to the show after the first episode, And I wouldn’t have gotten to the end if Izuku wouldn’t pull his shit together. But I’m glad I pushed through the beginning. I will definitely watch the next seasons when I have the time for it.

My rating for the show is 7.0. It was a fun anime but wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The rating will also serve as a great reference point for other animes I watch. You can check out the ranking ladder right here!