My Mid-Season Academia

We are halfway through season five of My Hero Academia and things are heating up, in the show, the manga, and with the newest movie trailer drop! That begs the question: how are we feeling about it?

I am feeling- ways...If you have tuned into Rantt at all, our whole opening segment consists of James and I combing through the finer details of both the show and the manga right now. But don't worry, this is not that, AND this is spoiler free zone, so we will not be discussing the manga today. No, today we will be discussing the highs and lows of season five so far, what I think will happen next, and my first impressions of the newest movie trailer, just like we did at the beginning of the season. With that being clarified, let's discuss the "ways" I'm feeling.

Shall we start on my high note and work our way down? Yes? Let's then! The big high note for me this season is how talented Studio Bones [the studio responsible for the anime, as well as all the movies] is at bringing Kohei Horikoshi's [the author of My Hero Academia] art to life. They really do make a tremendous effort in bringing our favorite scenes from the manga and keeping it ridiculously close to the original work while still taking our breath away with their animation, which you don't find so well balanced very often. I would say a great reason to that is because of how amazing Horikoshi's art is from the jump. He really gives them something incredible to work WITH rather than something to work AROUND. In that sense the animation studio and original creator are a wonder duo themselves.

...Did you feel my lingering "but"? Because here it is- BUT, that is where this dynamic duo ends. There seems to be some sort of tension this season. Not that anything has been said by Horikoshi or by Bones, but fans can feel the shift this season. Up until now, Bones has done an incredible job of creating an anime that sticks almost 98% to its original adaptation. That is not a real percentage, I just pulled that out of my butt, but you get what I mean. They add a couple things here and there as mostly filler pieces, but they almost NEVER cut anything or change anything. It has been utterly beautiful to see as a fan of the original work. Which is why it leaves such a sour taste in my mouth that they decided to diverge from the original scripting quite a few times already this season. We are five seasons in and you decide to change things now? No. That doesn't jive right with me.

What jives less, is what fans theorize the reason is- it's too gay? The only dialogue changes that have been made have strictly been between Katsuki Bakugo [Kacchan] and Izuku Midoriya [Deku], our two [male] lead protagonists. More then that, they added an entire scene and dialogue (something they have never done outside of filler episodes) with Ochaco Uraraka, who is a current love interest for Midoriya. Though Horikoshi has not stated any characters sexuality in the series, and only one couple in the series is currently canon (and they are only side characters), due to fans heavily leaning into the theory of Bakugo and Midoriya ending up together, the studio has decided to try and clear up that image by changing the characters interactions together. Again this is only a fan theory, with NO physical supporting evidence. But I have to say, even when I try to take an unbias stance, when you see the dialogues side by side, it's hard to say they're wrong. I don't tolerate homophobia in real life, I sure as hell am not going to tolerate it in a fictional world either. With June being Pride month, I am hoping that they will at least make a statement regarding the allegations, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Regardless of where you stand on the "bakudeku" movement, this is a problem that all fans should be worried about. The dialogue change, CHANGES (shocking, I know) the intention of the scenes, even for a platonic relationship between the two heroes. It has been clear for a long time to manga readers, and should hopefully be more clear to anime fans by now, if it wasn't before, that Bakugo and Midoriya's relationship is the center of the story here. All Might himself has said that these two are who will replace him. Yes, Midoriya is his successor as the Symbol of Peace, but he has named Bakugo his Symbol of Victory. Only together do they create the Symbol of Hope for this world that is slowly undergoing a complete societal collapse. Not only that but we are currently in Bakugo's redemption arc. It should be a solid rule of thumb: don't mess with a good redemption arc. Yet here we are...messing with it. People can't see growth if you don't show it. The whole situation is more than upsetting to say the least, making it my lowest of low notes.

With all of that being said, what's next? Well, thankfully I don't think we will need to watch anymore botched scenes for a while. If they continue to follow the manga's storyline, we will be switching tracks probably by this Saturday's episode, or next week. I said no spoilers, so I won't say where the train is leading but I will say buckle up, because we aren't actually on a train, but a rollercoaster, we are nearing the peak, and it's all down hill from here baby!

But for now, let's jump off that ride and jump onto the next one, which happens to be called: World Heroes' Mission! UGH! I CAN'T WAIT! It really does look so good. I am so confused by so many different aspects of this trailer. I thought us finally getting more dialogue would help, but it doesn't. That is perfectly fine though since we will all get to see it this fall! It's official release in Japan is set for August 6th, and I don't think we will have to wait much longer to get it over here. I have to admit that it does feel a bit all over the place at the moment, not to mention a bit of a stretch for the universe, but I'm still excited and think you should be too!

A lot is happening in their hero based society, similarly to how there is a lot happening here in our society as well. Things can be scary and uncertain at times, let the nerdy things teach us something about what it means to actually be a hero. Let's do our best and go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!

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Thank you for tuning into this installment of Nerdom. I know we have been talking about My Hero Academia A LOT lately, but it's because of how relevant I find it and I'm a sucker for heroes who give me hope on my darker days. I hope they inspire you a little bit too. With that, let's all finish out our weeks strong! I will be back on Sunday with Rantt and The Mess, so be sure to join! Until then, stay safe, stay nerdy, and stay messy heroes!