My Hero Academia has brought Season 7 of the anime to an end, and it was the best season of the series in years. Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia manga officially ended its run within the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine earlier this Summer, and with it fans got to see how the series all came to an end. But for fans of the anime, the beginning of the end started with the premiere of Season 7 earlier this Summer instead. It’s been a strong season of episodes given the material it’s been able to adapt, and it’s gotten that notable fan interest back as it all readies for that grand finale next.
My Hero Academia will be coming to an overall end with Season 8 of the anime, currently scheduled to make its premiere some time next year. Hype for the series is now at a fever pitch as anime fans eagerly anticipate the end, and that’s a much different kind of vibe for the series that it had going into Season 7. Before this season, the interest in My Hero Academia was waning in the faces of new action contenders like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba or Jujutsu Kaisen releasing in the meantime.
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What Happened to the My Hero Academia Anime?
The perspective for My Hero Academia’s anime began to shift following the end of the third season. The series was at its highest peak yet as All Might and All For One had their massive clash, and it was setting up a new era for the series as Izuku Midoriya and Tomura Shigaraki were supposedly going to be taking up the fight left over from their respective predecessors. It was a bright future ahead for the series, and fervor for My Hero Academia as a franchise was at an all time high.
The third season of the anime is when the former Funimation began to release SimulDub episodes of My Hero Academia around the same time as the Japanese language versions released, and thus every My Hero Academia fan was able to get in on the conversation. And with everything that had been happening around that time (with the Hero License Exam leading to a fight between Deku and Bakugo at the end of the season too), there was quite a lot that fans wanted to discuss every week. Then a shift started to happen with Season 4 and beyond.
My Hero Academia Season 4 started to build the set up towards the finale we’re enjoying now. The Shie Hassaikai arc resulted in Deku getting to use One For All at 100% full power, and that was a memorable episode, but fans weren’t really interested in the path leading there. Even more so for what followed with the events of the Culture Festival arc, which ended with a much smaller scale fight between Deku and Gentle Criminal. It’s managed to pay off in Season 7, but back then it wasn’t the kind of climax fans were hoping to get after everything in Season 3.
This was then followed by even more set up in the seasons that followed. Season 5 spent quite a bit of time with the Hero License Exam and expanded the roster in huge ways, and then showcased more of the Todoroki Family drama. The cracks started to show with the divisive response to the anime’s take on the Meta Liberation Army arc, or better known by fans as the “My Villain Academia” saga. Condensing this fan favorite arc into a few episodes in between some of the other Season 5 events, it just didn’t feel as big as fans thought it would be for the anime.
It started to brew a mistrust that continued in the next season. Fans were wary watching Season 6 of the series as Shigaraki used his first slate of skills with All For One’s power, and the series ended on a cliffhanger that bigger events would be coming next. But once again, given some of the big moments from Kohei Horikoshi’s manga fans had been waiting to see animated, they were a bit let down by what was actually shown in Season 6. While it’s not like My Hero Academia has ever looked bad, it’s been two full seasons at that point without any of the grand showcase scenes that drew fans into the first four.
How My Hero Academia Season 7 Fixes Things
My Hero Academia Season 7 began this incredible turnaround to witness. Because Season 6 ended in a place of transition, Season 7 got to be as big as it was right from its premiere. Not only was it able to start off with the debut of Star and Stripe (and thus got to show off a whole new season of animation work with the fight that ensued), but it also got to adapt the material the series has been building towards. But while fans didn’t like a lot of that build up, Season 7 has showcased that it’s all been worth it.
Because fans might not have responded well to the Culture Festival or Hero License Exam arcs, but it’s all starting to pay off as these separate elements have been coming together in big ways. Gentle Criminal returned to save the heroes in one of the biggest turning points in the war in Season 7 overall, and we’ve seen the Ketsubutsu and Shiketsu High School students helping out in key rescues and in the fight against All For One. The anime is naturally reaching its climax and the anime is finally getting to bear fruit on all of those planted seeds as result.
This impeding ending is bringing all the lapsed fans back into the weekly watches, and helping matters is the fact that each episode this season has had something huge to show off. Whether it be a grand moment like when Deku started fighting against Shigaraki for the first real time (which offers one of the best animated sequences in the show’s history), or more emotional climaxes like between Ochaco Uraraka and Himiko Toga, each episode has had something huge go down as it’s clear that this is all heading towards that grand finale.
It’s that certainty that fans have been able to enjoy as My Hero Academia comes to an end, and it’s made the anime exciting again. It’s the most exciting the anime’s been in ages, and now it’s time to be ready for the final episode when it premieres next year. The beginning of the end is usually bittersweet, but Season 7 has been nothing but sweet.
