In a world where being a superhero is the new nine to five job, society creates a damaging and idealistic standard for people, especially youth, ultimately resulting in the uprise of villains. On planet Earth, the evolution of humans changes drastically, giving people various abilities or physical changes known as “quirks.” During the discovery of quirks, those with ill-intentions had spread chaos and crime amongst civilization before vigilantes took the front lines and assembled a new division of law enforcement under the government. The Pro Heroes Association. Hero training academies were built to raise young kids to protect those in need and stop crime, while others lurked in the shadows and hid from the new world order.
Kohei Horikoshi’s award winning manga series, My Hero Academia, exhibits a calm and orderly yet corrupt and fragile society in its world building that shapes every character in it’s story to a T. The good guys, bad guys, and everyone in between illustrate it perfectly.
Despite the revolution against criminals, the opposing side being red caped heroes, it’s not enough to keep them at bay. That is, until All Might makes his big break. Muscular, tall and a reassuring smile in the face of danger is the emotional pillar that keeps society from crumbling. Five years prior to the setting of the story, Toshinori Yagi, only known as his hero name, All Might to everyone aside from his inner circle, fought one of the biggest battles of all time against All For One, the most powerful villain in the series. All Might had saved hundreds of lives single handedly, and was crowned the Symbol of Peace by the world.
The Symbol of Peace inspires the hopes and dreams of every child, every adult, and the entire population itself. It’s quite a large responsibility, and for some time in the manga, no one has been proven capable of executing the job that comes with the glory like All Might. However, the Symbol of Peace is interpreted in different ways, the ideals of a true hero vary between individuals greatly, and this is where My Hero Academia’s utopia begins to darken.
Two opposing ideas of what it means to be a hero are vouched for by Midoriya Izuku and Bakugou Katsuki, both childhood friends and rivals. Both boys are students of UA, the high school with the most prestigious hero training course. Protected by an enormous tall gate and containing its own stadium for school events, the school only accepts the best of the best. Midoriya and Bakugou pass the practical and written entrance exam and make it into their dream school, beginning their journey to become the greatest heroes.
Both want to be number one, the new Symbol of Peace, but both see the title in their own ways. That entirely has to do with how they were treated and raised by society. Midoriya Izuku (called “Deku” as an insult by Bakugou since kindergarten) was born quirkless. When eighty percent of the world had some sort of ability, he was part of the few twenty percent that had none. For that, Midoriya was looked down on by others as a lost cause or a sob story, as well as bullied by Bakugou. Despite every sign saying “failure,” Midoriya still wanted to become a hero, he studied professionals on the street when crowds gathered around battles between good and bad, and wrote notes in his collection of notebooks he’s filled with skills and tips he’s observed throughout the years. He was saved by All Might when he was attacked by a deformed sludge villain on his way home from school. Meeting his idol, he clings to him with everything he has, trying to bump into him every chance he gets, which is very difficult considering All Might doesn’t stick around in public when he’s not on the job.
All Might sees Midoriya’s pure heart and struggle when he asks him in tears if he, too, can be a hero despite being quirkless. The Symbol of Peace is reminded of his younger self looking at him, and agrees to train him all summer so he can succeed in his UA entrance exams.
The school is the best path to greatness amongst kids. The morning of the exam, All Might passes the torch to Midoriya by giving him his power, a secret no one knows All Might can do, since quirks are only inheritable by genes. Midoriya goes on to pursue his dream at UA, abiding by All Might’s philosophy of saving people with a smile. Midoriya interprets that as saving everyone no matter how difficult the feat. And he would be wrong.
On the other side of the spectrum, Bakugou Katsuki is born with it all. The perfect quirk, an intelligent mind and incredible skill. He’s naturally good at everything he does aside from one: people and communication.
Bakugou got his quirk about the same time most kids did, in kindergarten. From the moment he discovers it in the classroom, he’s surrounded by classmates and teachers telling him he was so lucky, so amazing and destined for glory. It all sounds nice, but this is exactly where society fails him and groom him to be an abrasive, explosive and cold bully he grows up to be. None of his actions can be justified, but the cause of his behaviour and mentality can be better understood by looking at his upbringing.
Bakugou develops an inferiority complex at the age of four, with everyone telling him he’s bound to succeed in life and born with all the tools to do so, he feels immense pressure to meet expectations set by others and becomes his own worst enemy as well as strictest critic. There’s no room for failure, everything must be one hundred and ten percent. And despite telling himself that he’s the best because of his top grades and perfect ability, he feels weak. Unable to deal with them, he projects his feelings onto the quirkless “Deku,” seeing him as all the weakness and failure in himself and goes on to bully him for it every time they’re together.
Society helps his inferiority complex grow, from his teachers, to parents, to actual licenced heroes. Bakugou is attacked by the same sludge villain as Midoriya shortly after the first attack, and although he holds out much longer than his childhood friend, he comes close to death. Midoriya is on the street and sees it happen. Bakugou uses his quirk to try to break free but only makes matters worse. That’s when the quirkless, weak Midoriya runs to help him, with no chance of success. It enrages and embarrasses Bakugou to be saved by someone so weak, and he interprets Midoriya’s pure intentions as being looked down on. Eventually, All Might comes to save the day, but the damage has been done.
The first thing Bakugou hears after he’s rescued, still on the scene of the crime, is about how great his quirk is by a minor hero who had helped save him, and said he should become his sidekick in the future. No "hey are you okay? Hurt? Gee, that must've been real traumatizing, being a child and almost being murdered." Which speaks volumes about the lack of care for mental health in the world. Later on when he’s rescued after being kidnapped by a bunch of villains during the training camp arc, he’s even told by is mother that none of it would’ve happened if he hadn’t been weak. It's played off as a joke, but that is definitely not getting Mrs. Bakugou a World's Best Mom mug anytime soon.
Bakugou is once again told by society that above all, his quirk is what matters. Failure is not an option, and his fight to accomplish his dream of being the number one hero is all or nothing. This leads towards his emotional breakdown at UA when he’s put into a school filled with people with amazing powers like him, and realizes he’s not that special at all. Growing up around people weaker than him had deceived him into thinking he was the strongest, but UA is a harsh wake up call, and it's too much for him to handle. Bakugou can’t comprehend a small fry like Deku getting into the best hero school, can’t comprehend them being on the same level. Instead of seeing Midoriya as stronger he sees himself as weaker.
“Stop talking, I will win. That’s… what heroes do.”
Bakugou sees All Might as a hero who never loses, and he can’t allow himself to lose either, not if he’s going to be the best. And just like Midoriya, he, too, is wrong.
The difference between the two teens: Midoriya wants to be All Might, while Bakugou wants to surpass him. But neither are prepared to do so since they both have the wrong view on what a hero is. Told by All Might, a hero is someone who meddles even when its not their problem. Even when there’s nothing to gain. A hero stops villains and saves people, but is not invincible. They do what they can, and can’t reach everybody all the time. That’s just how the world works. Even All Might, the Symbol of Peace can’t be there all the time like society preaches. That’s what makes it so fragile, they’re naive. They blindly believe that no matter what, a hero will save them, the bad guy will be taken down. But that’s not always the case, and that’s exactly the point the villains in the series try to make.
The League of Villains, led by Shigaraki Tomura, supervised and funded by All For One, All Might’s arch nemesis, challenge society’s ideals. Shigaraki, the main antagonist, for a while seemed like a mindless criminal looking to start trouble for the fun of it. And other villains tell him so, disgusted by his absent-minded motives since they all have strong ideologies for being villains themselves. But as Shigaraki moves in on the Symbol of Peace and his successor, Midoriya, he realizes why he hates hero society so much. The smile on All Might’s face, and the smiles of citizens as they go about their day. The smiles he sees as oblivious and naive. Living everyday so sure that they’ll wake up the next absolutely fine. It angers him because for Shigaraki Tomura, that wasn’t a reality.
As a child, when in need, full of hope that a hero would save him, he was left abandoned at an accident. All Might never came, no one did, and the perfect dream society sold him was proven false. Heroes don’t always save the day. It was All For One who had found him, took him under his wing and manipulated him, grooming him to become the villain he is at present. Shigaraki is disgusted with the vision society has of a Symbol of Peace and wants to destroy it, show them his reality. All For One sits back and provides him with all the tools necessary, anything he asks for and tells him to get back on his feet and start again every time he fails. He’ll always give him what he needs for his plans no matter how many times they come undone. Shigaraki sees All For One as his own symbol and becomes close to him after being raised by him.
Shigaraki puts together a team of fellow villains who each have their own ideologies, but generally follow “Hero Killer” Stain’s, a villain known for killing heroes who are corrupt and in the business for unconventional values, not true heroes. The League launch many attacks against the students of UA, the new generation of heroes and their new hero course teacher, All Might. They fail at the goal of killing All Might but succeed on their third attack in kidnapping Bakugou with the intention of making him join them. Fortunately, Bakugou refuses and fights against them before being rescued by his classmates.
The League, however, fail in killing the successor of All Might, Midoriya. They are cornered by heroes but saved by All For One and manage to escape while the strongest villain is imprisoned. But before that, he fights All Might for the second time, resulting in the reveal of the Symbol’s secret: his strong muscle form is a fake, and his power is dying, has been for years, even more so after he passed part of it on to Midoriya. Society was woken up to reality, their Symbol of Peace was not invincible, and was immediately sent into retirement after he winning the battle just by a hair.
One of the biggest flaws with society in My Hero Academia is discrimination. Not between skin colour, religion, or gender, but between quirks. Its written all over the series no matter where you look. The quirkless Midoriya is a destined failure, Bakugou with a powerful quirk is born for victory, and other characters with quirks seen as scary or suspicious, but completely out of their control, are painted as villains from birth. It’s a cruel unspoken rule that everyone obliged to. Shinsou, a student at UA with the quirk of mind control was told by his peers that his power was perfect for criminal activities, and people stayed clear of him, building up an evil reputation for him without getting to know him. Gang Orca, a pro hero is used in the provisional hero licence exam to play a fake villain because he looks most like one, and despite him saving countless lives, is still feared.
Quirk discrimination also puts those with particular quirks at a social disadvantage. While some people like All Might, the power of super strength, durability, stamina and speed can easily make it in the hero world, others don’t have as flashy quirks. There are three types of quirks: emitter, mutant and transformation. Emitter quirks emit some force or substance, and do not change the demeanour of the user. Mutants quirks are physically visible at all times and cannot be turned off. Finally, there’s transformation quirks, in which a user transforms to use their quirk. Transformation users may or may not have strange physical features. As you can imagine, mutant users are seen as undesirable due to their appearance and emitters are favoritized. Paying attention to the series, you’ll notice that all villains have been deformed in some way. From the Sludge Villain to the small-time petty criminals to the League of Villains. All deformed.
Aside from appearances, quirks can range from invincibility to a power as weak and useless as an extra finger, it creates a hierarchy amongst humans. It goes to say, if you have a weak quirk, that’s all you are. Weak. Which was Midoriya’s case until inheriting All Might’s, who he himself said that he couldn’t be a hero without a quirk.
“Without power, can one become a hero? No, I should think not. If you desire to help people, becoming a police officer is always an option. Those villain custody officers are often mocked but… that too is admirable work! It's not wrong to dream. However… you need to be realistic, kid.”
Middle schoolers would go on to take part in the physical UA entrance exam where they must defeat robots to earn enough points to pass. Kids with combat quirks did well, while Shinsou, with a remarkable mind control quirk, was unfit for the situation, failed, only making it into the regular program and not the hero course. Meanwhile, weak kids with quirks such as Mineta, who has sticky grape-like balls on his head, managed to pass. Deku said it best, all people are not created equal, a sad theme in the show that is an echo of our world. However, even though some pro and upcoming heroes are treated poorly, those on the heroes' side don’t see the worst of quirk society, it's those who are villains.
In addition to discrimination, quirks themselves can ruin lives. Twice, a member of the League of Villains possesses the quirk of clones, he splits in two and so on, making as many as he pleases. However, Twice’s clones turned on each other, killed each other and attempted to kill him, all claiming that they were the real deal. This resulted in Twice developing a personality disorder that disrupted his entire lifestyle, being the only version of himself to survive and still unsure if he is the real him or just a clone. He hears voices in his head because of it, and feels like he’s going to split down the middle if he doesn’t wear a mask at all times. He struggles because of his quirk every day.
Other quirks such as six-year-old Eri’s or twenty-year-old Chisaki’s are both a danger from the get-go. Though Chisaki, a villain and Yakuza leader, doesn’t display much trouble or shame with his own quirk (and uses it to get rid of other’s), it’s a destructive one no matter how you look at it. The power to deconstruct and reconstruct matter down to the atom for both living and non-living things. Turning a person into pile of rubble in mere seconds. If he had not chosen to be a villain, he would be deemed one by society anyway. It's the same case for Shigaraki, who’s quirk is to decay anyone or anything into a pile of ash and loses his entire family as a child because of it. Young Eri struggles all the same with her quirk to reverse things back to their previous state. Being too young to control such a strong power, she’s capable of reversing someone back to before their existence, ultimately killing them.
Quirks themselves can become a burden if they are not dealt with carefully, and society will only accept the best. They’ll only accept those who look like heroes, and have powerful but non “villainous” or undesirable quirks. There are outcasts on both sides and as a result, the world misses out on the potential of remarkable heroes and breed revenge-driven villains.
The Symbol of Peace that outlines all of society should not be diminished, but marketed the right way. Until the world of My Hero Academia acknowledge its flaws within their own way of judgement, the battle between “good” and “evil” will only continue its cycle it has looped on since the beginning of evolutionary quirks.
A society of discrimination and unrealistic ideals is not the “Plus Ultra” way, but one of villains killing heroes and spreading crime is not either. The Symbol of Peace should not be a single figure, but resonated in every individual for the greatest chance of true peace in a society of heroes.
Hey! This is the first essay I'm uploading so let me know what you think!
Chanelle