My Hero Academia Star Justin Briner Explains How Season 4 Pushes Izuku's Story Forward

My Hero Academia's story began with a tease that by the end of it all, Izuku Midoriya will be the [...]

My Hero Academia's story began with a tease that by the end of it all, Izuku Midoriya will be the world's number one hero. Fans have watched the seeds of this potential future be planted across three seasons as Midoriya has worked his way beyond Quirkless weakling to a provisionally licensed hero at the end of Season 3. With the fourth season of the series gearing up to premiere later this Fall, Midoriya's going to grow even more.

Justin Briner, who provides the voice for Izuku Midoriya in the English dub of the series, spoke to ComicBook.com about how much Midoriya will be growing in the next season of the series and teased a whole host of new challenges that test his hero mettle.

Briner explained how Midoriya's feeling about himself going into the fourth season, "[H]e's learned so much and grown so much over the past three seasons. He's gained his confidence, he's sort of gained footing, he's more sure of himself and he's more confident in his own skin now." But the fourth season will be testing this confidence in new ways as it's "going to test sort of his mettle and his heroism in that way, like it's asking him to be a true hero in these circumstances."

The fourth season seems to be taking him outside of school too, "It's not like he's going to class, he's got to pass a test or an exam, or get along with some folks, this is really going to test his tenacity, and his own verve. So yeah, it's really exciting." The fourth season of the series will be adapting the Shie Hassakai arc of the original manga, so this makes sense.

This arc will be following Midoriya and the others on their first full Internships as licensed heroes, meaning the challenges will be more intense than ever. As Briner explained further the stakes will be higher for Midoriya as the content of the series will be maturing alongside the burgeoning hero, "...[I]n a sense, season four is...like jarring the anime into growing up a little bit more. You can hear it in your voice actually. I don't know if this was intentional, but it's a little lower than it has been, and I think we're all growing up with Deku. The show's growing up with Deku, so it's exploring tones that are maybe a bit more grown up..."

My Hero Academia is gearing up for an even bigger end of 2019 with both a fourth season of the anime and second big anime film. Fans will finally see more of Midoriya and the other heroes when the fourth season of the anime premieres October 12th in Japan. Funimation has confirmed they will be streaming the series upon release, but has not confirmed the release date for the English SimulDub of the series as of this writing.

0comments