My Hero Academia is now powering through its final season, and that means it’s the perfect time to get back into the anime if you have fallen off the wagon. Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia was a pretty huge franchise when the anime adaptation first launched nearly a decade ago. But like any long running series, there has been a notable drop in interest from that very hot debut. For one reason or another, it really seems like the current state of the My Hero Academia has been pale in comparison to the response it had when it was all at its peak.
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It’s not for a lack of trying, however, as that’s just a natural thing that happens in the world of entertainment. The anime world moves quickly with a ton of new anime shows making their debut every few months, and that means there are a ton of new shows that are fighting for fan attention all the time. That’s even harder with the successes of juggernauts like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba that have popped up in the last few years too. But now is the right time to help bring My Hero Academia to an end.
What Happened With My Hero Academia’s Anime?
To explain how we got here, it’s necessary to go back through My Hero Academia‘s anime run so far. It’s no secret that the franchise is no longer at the heights it used to be, and that’s unfortunately likely do to the string of weaker seasons that had aired during its midseason. The series got off to an incredibly strong start as the first season’s single cour of episodes was one of the first real Shonen Jump franchises to benefit from a seasonal style release schedule compared to needing to drop new episodes on a weekly basis.
This was especially great for the first two seasons as the creative staff at studio Bones was able to take several months to craft a new batch of episodes, and they exploded with a few key scenes that helped to bring My Hero Academia to a whole new audience. It got to the point where it felt reliable to fans that there would be at least one big moment that made a season stand out. It’s like the series was always building to a climax of an arc, and that climax was under more of a microscope than anything else. The double edged nature of this was that if that climax was met with apathy, then fans could feasibly knock the entire season down a few points on a whole.
This was the case beginning with My Hero Academia Season 4. The first half ended with the explosive finale for the Shie Hassaikai arc as Deku used 100% One For All, but then followed it up with the divisive Culture Festival. This was a much needed arc that helped to set up the future of the franchise and some of its biggest moments yet to come in this final season, but back then it was received pretty harshly from those who didn’t feel like its climax was as action packed as everything that came before. Then came My Hero Academia Season 5 and 6 as the real divide started setting in fully.
My Hero Academia is not a perfect anime by any means. There were some rough seas during the fifth and sixth seasons. Several of these arcs lacked the staying power of the first few seasons, and then one absolutely underserved. The Meta Liberation Army arc (otherwise known as My Hero Academia) was trimmed down for the anime, and even sped through compared to the manga’s version of the events. It was a shame, but that’s where the anime started to lose a lot of those loyal fans.
Why Jump Back Into My Hero Academia Now?
But why come back to My Hero Academia now that it’s ended? First, it’s to finally help finish the anime that you might have started years ago. Yes, there is quite a lot to catch up depending on where you dropped the series but there’s a lot of incentive to do so. The energy of those first few seasons has been present in Season 7 and what has been seen with Season 8 thus far. There have been key scenes animated with the same amount of care and love as those earliest seasons, and Season 8 in particular is really going all out for its bigger moments.
My Hero Academia has always been an anime that explodes with its climaxes. Its arcs would build up to one key moment, and the anime would do its best to make sure those moments fire off on all cylinders. That’s what happens this time around as now that the anime is in its final climax, it’s making good on all of its promise from the years so far. It’s a climax of all of the other climaxes in the series, and thus what is on screen is fully reflective of all of those years of investment put into making the anime come to life.
There’s no need to worry about whether or not jumping in late in the game is a bad thing. It’s time to jump into the anime and see how this long journey is going to end regardless of whether or not you actually have been around the entire time. It’s really going to go all out as it gets ready for the end, so make sure you’re checking out My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON with Crunchyroll or Hulu.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
