At multiple points throughout the series, heroes are faced with villains who have perfectly reasonable explanations for why they turned to crime: they were rejected by society, they were left poor and with nothing, they were treated as less than for being true to themselves. This isn’t all that surprising given that there’s a tangible link between poverty and violent crime in the real world.Īnd here lies the crux of the issue: when framed in this way, the question of who the villains really are becomes pretty clear, and it’s not our antagonists. That, combined with their powers, allows them to move away from society and take what they feel they need or deserve. Pretty much every villain in MHA is someone from the margins who is dissatisfied with the status quo. Because of this, we’re able to see a more honest portrayal of what a society with superpowered people would look like under the continued conditions of capitalism, nothing really changes. Most people have some sort of quirk–the term the anime uses to refer to superpowers–and many have extremely powerful ones. Comparing that to being black or trans, for example, is a problem because it reinforces the idea that marginalized people are inherently dangerous to themselves and others, especially since most of these comics do little to nothing to address real-life issues of privilege in regards to their largely white, cis, male characters. There’s no way to get around the fact that Cyclops is a man who can laser you into dust if he’s not wearing sunglasses. While it’s true that these characters have no power over the abilities they were born with, they are still inherently dangerous. While hero/mage/biotic stories all share the notion of being oppressed for something that you were born with that you had no control over, these things are a false equivalency compared to being from an oppressed racial group/gender identity/sexuality. The thing with this though, is it’s a faulty and dangerous comparison. This is generally used by creators to draw parallels to real life marginalized people. This inversion is important because it highlights a major flaw present in both superhero fiction, science fiction, and fantasy: people with powers are depicted as being a marginalized group. In this world, it’s exceptional to be ordinary. While Peter Parker is 1 in a million in relation to the general population, Deku and crew are 4 out of 5. The most novel part of MHA’s take on super heroes is that they’re the norm, both in that they exist culturally and that 80% of the world’s population has some kind of superpower. We have long been enamored with superheroes, and services like Funimation, Crunchyroll–and even Hulu and Netflix–have made it easier than ever for Americans to access anime, giving MHA another hungry audience. Avengers: Endgame took top spot as the world’s highest grossing film just last year, netting over $800 million in domestic box offices alone. The success of My Hero Academia in the West, particularly the United States, is not surprising, given our cultural love of super heroes.
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