Hey, new page, awesome.
Okay, after sleeping on MHA for a while, I finally decided to give it a go, and it is awesome. I can't really sell it without going into spoilers.
But here's what I can say. When I first started watching anime, I was about 13, and Naruto was my gateway like it was for many others. I soon found the manga, and followed it for a good 10 years before I dropped it. Why? Well....it was a catastrophic failures of storytelling for many, many reasons. But it kind of set the standards to my young mind of atleast a little bit of what I was looking for.
I empathized with a character who felt he was alone in the world. I liked the idea of fighting back against your limitations. I liked audaciousness, but only if it was supplamented with cleverness of how something is made to work. I think a rival/foil/whathaveyou character is one of the best tropes a narrative work can make use of. This is hardly new though. You've seen these recurring tropes and themes in many shonen works.
My Hero Academia feels like the author 'gets' those themes in a way that often other writers miss. He understands that a rival needs to be a compelling character, and that working against limitations is hard as shit, and that the most satisfying fights are ones that involve actual intelligence in making use of limited resources.
MHA feels like the defintive modern shonen, a collection of best hits that the author has studied from other writers and transformed into his own narrative. I also get the feeling he's well read, not just in manga, but in american comics, which he references often. This means he also sees the limitations of his medium, and is actively pushing against them by breaking tired and outdated traditions by having female characters fight on the same terms as men. That might not be important for everyone, but it is for me.
I would praise the story itself a lot more, but the truth is, I'm only about halfway through it. I like to finish or atleast catch up to the latest chapter before defintively saying "This character is good, that plotline is good". But I will say that thus far, I am impressed. Nearly all the side characters are either interesting, charming, funny or cool. And while it has a cartoonishness to it, I've learned to really love the art. A guy whose superpower seems to be that hes' covered in hands shouldn't be creepy...but he kinda is. That might just be me though.
MHA. If you haven't tried it, you should. Don't just read the first chapter, read the first 10 maybe and you'll have an idea of what your in for.
Okay, after sleeping on MHA for a while, I finally decided to give it a go, and it is awesome. I can't really sell it without going into spoilers.
But here's what I can say. When I first started watching anime, I was about 13, and Naruto was my gateway like it was for many others. I soon found the manga, and followed it for a good 10 years before I dropped it. Why? Well....it was a catastrophic failures of storytelling for many, many reasons. But it kind of set the standards to my young mind of atleast a little bit of what I was looking for.
I empathized with a character who felt he was alone in the world. I liked the idea of fighting back against your limitations. I liked audaciousness, but only if it was supplamented with cleverness of how something is made to work. I think a rival/foil/whathaveyou character is one of the best tropes a narrative work can make use of. This is hardly new though. You've seen these recurring tropes and themes in many shonen works.
My Hero Academia feels like the author 'gets' those themes in a way that often other writers miss. He understands that a rival needs to be a compelling character, and that working against limitations is hard as shit, and that the most satisfying fights are ones that involve actual intelligence in making use of limited resources.
MHA feels like the defintive modern shonen, a collection of best hits that the author has studied from other writers and transformed into his own narrative. I also get the feeling he's well read, not just in manga, but in american comics, which he references often. This means he also sees the limitations of his medium, and is actively pushing against them by breaking tired and outdated traditions by having female characters fight on the same terms as men. That might not be important for everyone, but it is for me.
I would praise the story itself a lot more, but the truth is, I'm only about halfway through it. I like to finish or atleast catch up to the latest chapter before defintively saying "This character is good, that plotline is good". But I will say that thus far, I am impressed. Nearly all the side characters are either interesting, charming, funny or cool. And while it has a cartoonishness to it, I've learned to really love the art. A guy whose superpower seems to be that hes' covered in hands shouldn't be creepy...but he kinda is. That might just be me though.
MHA. If you haven't tried it, you should. Don't just read the first chapter, read the first 10 maybe and you'll have an idea of what your in for.