My Hero Academia Fumbled One of Its Most Promising Arcs For Izuku

My Hero Academia fumbled one of the most promising arcs it had building for its main hero Izuku Midoriya – and we're definitely not the only ones who think so. As My Hero Academia's manga series continues moving towards its imminent conclusion, more and more fans are debating the merits of the series and what kind of landing it seems to be headed for. There's been a lot of criticism of the pacing and redundancies in the latter story arcs of the manga – but also of how mangaka Kohei Horikoshi may have lost focus in some key areas – including this one: 

The secret of Izuku Midoriya's ultimate heroic power, One For All, and his connection to All Might, the greatest pro hero in Japan, was the core of My Hero Academia's mythos at the beginning. "Deku" was a powerless boy in a world of people born with superpowers (quirks) and it was his spirit of heroism that made All Might choose Izuku as the successor he passed OFA to. Over the course of MHA's storyline, Izuku and All Might (and select few others) knowing the truth about OFA was a key point of tension between Deku and his friends. 

Deku's secret with OFA was also a major threat to the larger public and hero society, that would be shaken to the core in finding out its greatest champion was actually a powerless loser-type – and that the only deterrent to the greatest evil Japan had ever known (All For One) rested in the hands of an equally powerless boy. It was an original twist on the often derivative structure of My Hero Academia's superhero fantasy – but alas, not so much anymore: 

Part of My Hero Academia's Final War Arc was a sub-arc that saw Deku go "dark" as he struck out on his own to catch All For One without endangering his friends. The fallout of that arc saw Izuku's secret finally revealed amongst his friends and colleagues – but we never got to see much of the reaction to that secret coming to light; the OFA secret being revealed was merely a flashback, used to explain why Izuku's Class 1-A crew finally gets the inspiration to step their own respective games up, in order to be truly allies equal to Deku's resolve. 

While the big friendship bonding was nice to see, the lack of any real attention on Izuku keeping OFA a secret and no real scenes of interaction between Deku and his friends on the subject, has been a noticeable absence (amongst several). It causes fans to look back at Horikoshi's work as a whole with increasing criticism and doubt about whether it is a work of cohesive vision and pointed purpose. 

MORE: My Hero Academia creator Has Sober Message About Series' End

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