This will be an in depth review so if you're looking for something to really read have fun with this. If you react to words like slugs to salt, please don't leave a frothing swan song about how many words there are before dying.

Soundtrack 5/7, perfect score

The music I listen to while reading is awesome.



Jokes aside…

Boku no Hero no Academia is going to be THE shonen manga to read along with One Piece (and not so much Fairy Tail). To those familiar with manga you'll understand that there is a stylistic flare that sets the mainstream shonen manga appart from others, and this is the oudou(king’s road). There’s several things that are seen as part of this oudou but it pretty much boils down to ‘hero heads out into some big world with some great power because he wants to change it’. The other thing that has always have to be true is that the main character must be a character that is fundamentally hopeful and good. To name some of these manga they’d be ‘One Piece’, ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘Naruto’, ‘Ruroni Kenshin’, ‘Bleach’, ‘HunterxHunter’...even ‘Bakuman’ might fit in here. As many of the great juggernauts of the shonen genre are either ending or becoming pretty bad or both(Bleach lol) I was actually wondering when Jump would come up with another BIG NAME to really get behind… or they’d just have to stand behind One Piece for the remaining ten years of its run.

That’s when Boku no Hero no Academia hit. I followed this manga since from about its ninth chapter and I kinda knew immediately that it might be huge, but with only a handful of chapters out I just had my fingers crossed and prayed that it would be good.

Art 10/10

The art was amazing right off the bat, with some visuals borrowed from American comics, and you can definitely see the influence on poses like the one deku makes in page 5 of chapter nine where his pose definitely seems a little familiar (*coughcough* spiderman *cough*) This is great because while Japanese manga depends a lot on background lines, explosion effects, and clever panelling to convey a sense of movement, American comics are very good at making pictures seem dynamic with only people in it. This was one of the few manga that really concentrated on visuals that were clean and dynamic with other front runners being One Punch Man(which is just kinda a comedy), and Shokugeki no Soma(dem sweet sweet doujin art foodgasms). The costume designs are also a treat with clothing that fits the personality and powers of each character immensely well, and some are just a treat to look at. Some are also little love letters to hero genres like Rikudou Satou seeming a little oddly like Kinnikuman, All Might being very obviously a lesser Superman, and just the simple abundance of leotards. Also grapes, cause grapes need a callout.
All this ends with a good artstyle where you can very obviously ‘feel’ the action intuitively, and the punches really have some weight behind them.

Story 9/10

The story is good, although there’s still not enough out there to really give it any arousing standing ovations yet… althought it deserves lots of clapping still. As a warning there will be very slight spoilers throughout this segment so if you don’t want any please skip to the next. The thing is the manga has just been slowly upping the tension without hardly ANY let since day 1… so we’ll have to see how it’ll all explode to really see if the mangaka can pull through or not.
The manga hits the spots it wants to effectively, but has yet to really hit the deep hits like *One Piece spoiler* when Ace and Whitebeard died, and it lacks the straightforward ‘-dattebayo’ speeches that the pre-timeskip naruto did well.
The story executes shonen tropes beautifully; the entrance exam, the strengthening of the main character, the introduction of the baddies, all these are done well. This isn’t to say the story is complacent as it keeps you on your feet, and it doesn’t let the plot get bogged down; burning through arcs at a breakneck pace. Each arc is only about 10 chapters long, and each one only leads to greater power, greater stakes, greater something. If one thing gets resolved two things take its place. My hands are tied as I can’t really spoil much here, but I’m really wondering how everything is going to be resolved for the first overarching arc… or even when this overarching arc will finish.( Anyone who wants to talk about it PM me?)


Characters 9/10

The first chapter alone is better for characterization than what a ton of manga have been able to pull off in their entire run, and does a very good job of making Deku relatable. What I really like is how the mangaka thought through the motivations of several characters, and made them real people. This is no small feat considering the sheer quantity of characters the mangaka is juggling. I think that this is acutally the first shonen manga that really does this well. If there is a gripe I have with it it’s that Todoroki’s background was taken care of a little too fast… but I’m thinking that there might be reasons as to why this was rushed.
The thing I really like is Bakugou… while he seemed to have triggered some bad memories of having been bullied in middle school for many dear readers leading to lots of initial hate they missed the point ENTIRELY. Bakugou is a rival character that’s hardly ever been seen. I’d say that the only ones that come close is Green in a lot of pokemon fan stuff (Read any translation of Festival of Champions if you can find) and maybe Vegeta, and perhaps pre-emo Sasuke.
Every character has a voice and personality, and you can see through the small omake pages that the writer really likes a lot of them. There’s lots of love there.


Enjoyment 10/10

What’s there to say? It’s a very fun manga that has messages but isn’t bogged down too much by what it has to say. The pacing’s fast, but good, and the resolutions are sometimes thrilling. The manga is easy on the eyes, and the plot is not convoluted or overtly contrived. The characters are easy to understand and like, and it even has some comedy.

Overall 10/10

If you like mainstream shonen you’ll love this one.