Deku

Warning: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Final Season, now streaming on Crunchyroll. Some sections are more spoilery than others, so I’ll try to label when I’m diving into the thick of things for those who might just want my general thoughts on the season as well as the series at large.

This coming April will mark 10 years since the TV anime adaptation of My Hero Academia began at Bones Studio C, the same production house that gave us Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Soul Eater, and Ouran High School Host Club. And nearly just in time for that anniversary, the series has concluded its eighth and final season – the shortest, in fact, at 11 episodes. 11 episodes of dazzling spectacle, heartbreaking sacrifices, and monumental strides for its world and characters, and not a single week passed that the gravity of it all did not bring me to tears.

When it started, I was in my senior year of High School. I loved all the characters, I loved the animation, and I had a crush on Deku, because he was (and still is) adorable and ideal boyfriend material. Now I’m approaching my 30s, and despite the uncertainty of the future, for which this series’ text aptly latched onto as it progressed, I’m living my best life. While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that My Hero Academia contributed to the heights of my life at this juncture, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that its whimsy has helped lift me along the way. It is a story that found me at the right time and grew with me, becoming more resonant than I ever expected.

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Save for a rant-filled, canceled post from this past summer, I have never formally written on the topic of My Hero Academia. That might seem sacrilegious given my prior reputation as a Studio Bones devotee, but it never felt like there was anything to be said that hadn’t already been said.

It’s a super fun show given greater clout by its colorful cast and a uniquely relatable protagonist who goes through quite a lot of punishment to become the hero he wants to be. It has also been well-produced, taking year-long breaks in-between seasons to ensure a sustainable level of quality between arcs.

After a somewhat underwhelming third season (to me at least), the fourth season has been stellar so far, and high on hype from the last arc, I think everyone had high expectations for the new film, Heroes Rising. And to make a great year even better, those expectations were most certainly met.

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