My Hero Academia Season 4 - I'm a Bit Conflicted About This Show.

I have been pretty upfront about not being nearly as big of a fan as My Hero Academia as other people, but that isn't to say I don't enjoy the show. There is a lot of good about it, each season I have enjoyed at least to some degree, and I'm glad to see the show sticking around. All that being said, I feel the same things that annoy me about many other Shonen are still present here. This review will be written under the assumption you have already seen the previous seasons, so I'm not going into many plot details about the world and how it works.

If I can get into what is probably the biggest issue I have with My Hero it's that the side characters are consistently outshining the main cast. It's not that I don't want the other characters to shine, but when I'm constantly being reminding everything going on outside of the main hero's story is more interesting than the thing that is the focus, it kind of makes the main plot feel like it's dragging. If I could highlight the best moment of the entire season, it's Red Riot Unbreakable. Kirishima really had been an underneath hero this entire show. He clearly didn't have the power of the main cast, never had a lot of time dedicated to him, and really did feel like he was going to fall to the side despite being good friends with Bakugo. That said, even in the early days of the show he never felt like he was someone who would just bow out of the fight.

So when you finally start to see him shine, it feels genuine. The feelings if inferiority to those around him, his fears that come with fighting against so many people that much stronger than him, and than finally his push into Red Riot Unbreakable is such a strong foundation for his character. Follow that up with, once again, being thrust against someone far more powerful than anything he'd faced up until now, you get a wonderful moment and a fantastic fight. And mind you, nothing presented here makes you feel like the students are so much stronger than the actual professional hero's. And I actually really appreciate that about the show, and it doesn't feel like it does in Naruto where everyone outside a couple of people they want to focus on were just disposable. Moments like this really are why I feel My Hero Academia is such a praised show.

That said, you know what the next best moment of the season was? The finale that had nothing to do with Deku or Bakugo. And now we are starting to kind of see my running issue. I could go on listing all my favorite moments from the show, but even if I were to go with the entire run of the show and not just this season, almost none of them would have to do with Deku, Bakugo, or Uraka. These three characters have been some of the most highlighted and featured, and I just don't care that much about any of them. The Deku and Bakugo relationship I think falls flat because the idea that Deku looks to Bakugo as a friend is almost entirely unbelievable considering their history. And honestly, even their powers and motivations are some of the least interesting of the show. (Not Uraka, I actually kind of like her and they've done some fun things with her power).

There have been so many interesting characters with fun and unique powers in this show that just don't get the attention I feel they should, and I care more about all of them then the core group. The only real exception to this has been Todoroki, and I'm very interested to see what they do with him come season five considering the finale with Endeavor.

This isn't to say I don't like Deku, or that he's a bad leading character. I like how he struggles using the power gifted to him by All-Might, his body just wasn't able to keep up with it at first. I like that he's having to find ways to overcome his limitations, especially since it gives the show an excuse to bring in Hatsume from time to time, cause I just love whenever she's on-screen. The idea here is fascinating, but the actual character feels a bit meh. This is mostly highlighted by everyone else just being more interesting to see on screen than him.

The highlights of this show are the great moments that aren't really related to Deku. While I was behind him at first, by season two I started to check out on him. What does keep me interested in the show there are great bits of character building outside the main cast. The show does a great job at building it's world and making it feel lively, and like it doesn't just exist around the main character and his story. The problem is that this starts to feel like it comes at the expense of the main story. It's not as bad, but it's essentially my main problem with Naruto (The show, for the record, is a lot better than Naruto). If they could keep the main cast as fascinating and interesting as the side cast, I would have no trouble ranking the show way higher than I do, but the main focus of the show just doesn't hold me like all the other aspects too it.

My Hero Academia is a good show, and one that is worth watching. The fights are great, the characters are fun, and while I feel the villains (Outside of Stain, who was leagues above everyone else in the show) are almost all pretty boring and the plot is a bit lacking, it's worth giving a watch.