By now, My Hero Academia fans watched six entire seasons' worth of material, and it's clear that this shonen anime has two kinds of seasons: setup and payoff. When My Hero Academia sets up its characters and plot threads, the story tends to drag and feels predictable. This was what held back Seasons 1, 2, and 5 which, in hindsight, were setups for Seasons 3, 4, and 6, respectively. Fortunately, seasons like the recent sixth one are worth the often meandering setup, with explosive payoffs in terms of action, drama, and Quirks.
Fans may agree that Season 5 was one of My Hero Academia's weakest outings yet and had too few plot twists, but fortunately, patient fans were rewarded with Season 6's nonstop battles, personal revelations, and intriguing character arcs from beginning to end. Remarkably, while Season 6 is comprised mostly of payoffs for what Season 5 laid the groundwork for, it also serves as setup for the upcoming Season 7, which will continue the war against the Paranormal Liberation Front. The key is that Season 6 has a robust plot of cool payoff moments that simultaneously sets up future developments. This is a fine balance that Season 5 or any of the previous seasons never achieved.
My Hero Academia Season 6 Launched the War Fans Have Been Waiting For
The Heroes and Villains’ Decisive Battle Was Better Than Fans Expected
My Hero Academia already had a few major battles between the heroes and villains. Notable clashes include All Might's team fighting the League of Villains in Kamino Ward, and the Shie Hassaikai raid where Izuku Midoriya defeated Overhaul with the aid of Eri's remarkable Rewind Quirk. But these were merely petty scuffles compared to the grand melee of Season 6. The battle for Jaku General Hospital alone is worth the constant buildup of Season 5. As promised, My Hero Academia Season 6 gathers all the Pro Heroes and nearly every hero student to confront Tomura's and Re-Destro's combined forces. The heroes' mission: capture Dr. Garaki and stop Tomura Shigaraki from realizing his potential as All For One's successor and the next Symbol of Evil.
What follows is a hard-hitting battle that delivers on all fronts. A stunning variety of Quirks are used, with some Quirks are making their battlefield debut. Some examples include the intense melee power of Mirko's Rabbit, and Hawks' Fierce Wings. Tomura Shigaraki even partly succeeds in becoming the next All For One, and he uses a variety of deadly Quirks to threaten the heroes in new ways. To make matters worse, he did all this while using his original Quirk's, Decay, recent awakening. Tomura is now a one-man army thanks to Dr. Garaki's dark science, making him a more credible threat than ever as the anime's stakes continue to rise. The best the Heroes can do is force Tomura to awaken from his medical tank early, so that he's prematurely unleashed and not fully at 100% power.
The great battle for Jaku General Hospital also delivers on a personal level, not just a shonen action level. To begin with, the #2 hero Hawks shows a brutal new side of himself, using his Fierce Wings Quirk to not just betray, but outright kill his "ally" Twice, who trusted Hawks as a fellow Paranormal Liberation Front member. Curiously, the bloody duel between Hawks and Twice partially flipped the accepted moral depictions of heroes and villains common in superhero fiction. The ostensibly heroic Hawks was now the vicious traitor, while the villainous Twice was the sympathetic underdog whom My Hero Academia fans might be rooting for deep down. The deconstruction of the simplistic binary between good and evil is a recurring theme in My Hero Academia's later arcs, and it begins with a tragic bang in Season 6.
This massive war's physical and emotional impact continues to take its toll on everyone, with several notable character injuries and even deaths. Mirko pushed herself to the extreme to take down Tomura, but sustained major injuries and lost limbs along the way. These will have any fan both admiring the rabbit-themed hero's strength, while also fearing for her life. Season 6 also boldly started killing off named Pro Heroes, with X-Less losing his life to Tomura Shigaraki as the latter awakens in the hospital's lab. Fans may not know X-Less very well, but it's still shocking to see a villain kill off a Pro Hero so easily and casually. Most of all, Season 6 kills off the beloved R-rated hero Midnight. Her demise is a heart-wrenching blow that left Classes 1-A and 1-B in tears, and fans just might cry along with them.
These made the war feel more real for characters and viewers alike, making it horribly clear that this is a proper war, and not just some heroic raid or "cops and robbers" scenario. Worse, the darkness will continue even after the battle for Jaku City concludes. What's also interesting about the great Jaku battle is that the result are ambiguous. The heroes fail to score a decisive victory, but they also didn't leave the bloody battlefield empty-handed. Both sides suffered serious losses, so there's no telling how the second battle will play out. This feels realistic, and it keeps many plot threads dangling because relatively little was settled in the fight. War is a messy affair, and My Hero Academia Season 6 made this vividly clear.
The Villains’ Jail Break Is a Cool but Slightly Development
All For One and Tomura Shigaraki’s Fight for Villainous Leadership Muddies Things a Bit
Not long after the great battle of Jaku General Hospital, the villains find a way to tilt the scales in their favor despite their heavy casualties. The maximum security prison Tartarus, which was once considered impossible to escape from, becomes the site of a major villain victory as a mass breakout unfolds. Tomura personally oversaw the breakout, slaughtering the prison's defenses as countless convicts escaped into free air, including familiar faces like Muscular and brand-new ones like Lady Nagant. Naturally, in a high-stakes war like this one, both sides will seize any advantage or resource they can find to get the edge. It just so happened that the villains did it first. This boosted the season's tension effectively, and helped prove that absolutely nothing can be taken for granted -- not even the security of the supposedly ultimate prison for super-powered villains. The prison breakout paid off in a few special ways, including setting up rematches between Izuku Midoriya (aka Deku) and Muscular, then his deadly first encounter with Lady Nagant. Both are key fights in his Dark Deku phase. The breakout also brought back the overall supervillain All For One to the scene, which is the most terrifying development.
However, it's also a bit confusing for the plot, since it's now unclear whether it's Tomura or All For One is the real supervillain who the heroes have to focus their energies on. Figuring out who is really in control of Tomura's body can be a bit confusing. Perhaps Tomura and All For One wrestling over the position as the Symbol of Evil is this season's point, since they are both selfish and ruthless monsters who want to destroy the world for their respective selfish reasons. However, this also cheapened Tomura's rise to power, since he's supposed to be All For One's successor, not his sidekick or partner. Tomura squabbling with All For One for agency instead of forging his own evil path rendered him a lackey rather than his own supervillain. Additionally, this even cheapened All Might's swan song victory over All For One back in the Kamino Ward, since everything (including his biggest triumph) was part of the villain's masterplan. Granted, it does make sense that an evil mastermind like All For One would have contingencies for his contingencies, but his planned comeback and jailbreak still tainted All Might's last hurrah. Ideally, My Hero Academia Season 7 will clear things up.
Dark Deku Humanized Izuku Midoriya Like Never Before
My Hero Academia Season 6 Deconstructed Izuku Midoriya's Hero Complex
In earlier seasons, My Hero Academia made One For All a physical burden for Midoriya, since the Quirk could easily break his bones and scar his arms as he trained with its enormous power. He took these in stride, and carried on doing his best to live up to All Might's example. It's because of this that Deku was branded as something of a "Mary Sue" (i.e. an unbelievably perfect and skilled character) by My Hero Academia's biggest detractors. It was only in Season 6 when the narrative showed how much of a personal burden this legendary Quirk was. Midoriya isn't just a kid with a power he could barely control; he was also a kid with a destiny he couldn't even handle. It was incredibly easy for Midoriya to agree when All Might asked him to succeed him as the next Symbol of Peace. But as the anme progressed and as war broke out on all fronts, the emotional and mental toll of succeeding the greatest hero to ever live was too great for Midoriya. This is a vital development for My Hero Academia, and one that feels overdue.
Midoriya is a sensitive young man who is determined to protect and cheer up everyone, but he's also willing to take this mission to a self-destructive extreme. Previously, Midoriya was an inspiring hero and big brother for Eri during the Shie Hassaikai raid. But now, in the face of war and with casualties mounting, Midoriya showed a new scary side. During this arc, Midoriya ran off to face Tomura and the other major villains alone, understandably unwilling to expose his classmates and other heroes to more danger. He thinks he's being noble, but he's actually being selfish. Worse, he unintentionally insulted his classmates by all but saying that they were too weak to help him. Midoriya always had a habit of taking all the burden for himself because of his hero complex, but Dark Deku pushed his good if twisted intentions to their worst extremes. Being the Symbol of Peace isn't worth it if Midoriya discards everyone in his life and pushes himself to the breaking point. In retrospect, this makes All Might less of a hero than ever, since he burdened an innocent teenager with immense power and responsibility that he wasn't fully prepared for on any level.
The short but essential Dark Deku Arc showed Midoriya fighting both Muscular and Lady Nagant and almost losing himself to the darkness in the process, until Class 1-A caught up to him. It's a touching moment when Midoriya's classmates make a heartfelt appeal to him, pleading with him to let them fight by his side. Even Katsuki Bakugo, Midoriya's shonen-style rival and lifelong bully, sincerely apologized to help end Dark Deku and reinforce the power of friendship. After a bloodless scuffle, Midoriya concedes and snaps out of his Dark Deku mode for good. He always needed that kind of emotional support from the rest of his class, and now it's here, making Class 1-A more united than ever.
My Hero Academia Season 6 Gave the Heroes Some of Their Best Character & Emotional Development Yet
Ochaco Uraraka and the Todoroki Family Were the Biggest Standouts
To round things out on a character level, My Hero Academia Seaosn 6 also expanded the personal arcs for Ochaco Uraraka and the entire Todoroki family, with mixed to positive results. One example is when Class 1-A returned to the UA school campus, only for the refugees to push Midoriya away. They were afraid that Midoriya, who's a prime target for the villains, will attract disaster to the school. It then fell to Ochaco to change everyone's minds with nothing but her words. On the plus side, it's inspiring to see heroes fighting with their hearts, since there's more to being a hero than fists and Quirks. It also gave Ochaco a moment to shine, which was overdue for her. But then again, it was also somewhat predictable. It was obvious that Midoriya would return to school at some point, and be rejected by frightened refugees. It was also somewhat obvious that Ochaco, easily Class 1-A's kindest student and Midoriya's love interest, would be the one to appeal to the crowd's goodwill.
Meanwhile, the villain Dabi publicly outed himself as Toya Todoroki, the firstborn son of Enji and Rei Todoroki who was thought to be dead. He relished this moment, tarnishing the image of all Pro Heroes by revealing that a villain is the son of the current Number One Hero. Worse, he exposed Endeavor's history of being an abusive father and husband. Dabi's announcement had the intended effect on the Japanese populace (i.e. further shattering their faith in the heroes), but it had the biggest impact on the Todorokis themselves. Endeavor was now forced to take the next step in his long and difficult redemption. Once more, some characters and even fans are divided on whether or not Endeavor even deserves a second chance at all. For what it's worth, the Todorokis are more united than ever before, with the common goal of bringing Toya back now that they know he's alive. This fueled the character arcs for not just Endeavor, but also Rei, Shoto, Natsuo, and Fuyumi. Seeing a broken family comes back together after so many years of misery could even inspire some viewers. In some ways, Dabi's dramatic reveal may feel like a distraction or a side show in light of Dark Deku's rampage and Tomura's rise to power. However, My Hero Academia isn't just about destiny and superhero action -- it's about the people who are impacted by war, loss, Quirks, and much more.My Hero Academia needs a robust humanitarian side to make all this action worth it in the end, and Season 6 delivers, even if it is a bit messy and overstuffed at times.
My Hero Academia is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
