My Hero Academia Season 7: Peak Fiction

Key Takeaways

• My Hero Academia season 7 is the biggest and best season, despite being shorter than most seasons.
• Season 7 presents efficient storytelling with solid momentum and balance.
• This season goes beyond previous seasons, reaching new heights and exploring its themes seriously and emotionally.

The following contains minor spoilers for Season 7 of My Hero Academia, currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

My Hero Academia Season 7 was four episodes shorter than every season since the first, but you might not have noticed considering the sheer amount of joy and heartbreak delivered across 21 episodes. it is without a doubt biggest The season isn't over yet, but after spending half a year immersed in beautiful artwork and a serious, moving script, this is by far the best work. best also.

Naomi Nakayama, who served as director in 2016 orangeHe took on the role of series director alongside chief director Kenji Nagasaki, who helmed the show's first three seasons. She took the captain's chair at key moments, and by all accounts she knocked it out of the park, showing an eye for spectacle early on as she storyboarded the first two episodes.

A premiere with little time to waste

Last season fans were left with a cliffhanger. Tomura Shigaraki became omnipotent in three days, and America's top professional heroes, Stars and Stripes, came to Japan's aid. Although in retrospect it feels like a very minor part of the story, it was a fascinating hook. By the end of the premiere, Stars and Stripes had already been interrupted by Shigaraki, who attempted to steal their special skills. Season 7 has a strong momentum as the story nears its conclusion.

It's a cleverly constructed battle and an emotional one, with neither side guaranteed to emerge victorious, but it buys the heroes enough time to prepare for the final attack. Before we can resign ourselves to what feels like inevitable training between battles, UA's traitor is revealed, shattering preconceptions and raising tensions once again. Soon the war will begin that will mark the rest of the season, and the series for that matter.

My Hero Academia The Beginning of the Last War

The heroes disperse across the country and engage in cooperative operations to apprehend the villains one by one. Shoto faces Toya in Kamino Ward, where All Might's career ended. Endeavor teams up with the Hawks against All For One in the skies above the remains of Gunga Villa. An all-star team gathers to defeat Shigaraki at the UA Academy, which has been converted into an aerial fortress designed to take him down. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

It feels like the good guys finally have the upper hand for once, and it feels glorious, even if it doesn't last long. It becomes a tug-of-war, with unforeseen complications arising quickly and frequently, with ripple effects increasingly affecting the battle taking place miles away. Season 7 is very effective at balancing the larger goals of the narrative with the individual roles the supporting cast play in establishing those milestones.

How Season 7 Overcomes Its Shortcomings

Of course, the above is not accurate news. What captivated many people My Hero Academia First it was Deku. His despair at his capriciousness, his courage nonetheless, and his joy at discovering that he can do it. yet Be a hero. Since then, the series has continued to handle the backstories of its larger cast with equal or even higher quality writing and presentation. So it's no surprise that viewers still fall in love with the character even late in the game.

By that token, it's business as usual for animation, but what's less pleasant are the commonly cited complaints about the adaptation. This continues similarly here (at least initially). Despite the strong narrative thrust, some of the exposition can feel redundant and flashback-y, even more so. This isn't a new problem so much as a familiar one that gets in the way of truly powerful storytelling.

All For One, “Extras”, and Deku's Tribe

After 8 years and 7 seasons, My Hero Academia It was both a celebration and critique of superheroes. Society's flaws are steadily revealed through increasingly sympathetic villains, challenging heroes to interrogate their own complicity and rise up to become the heroes they claim to be. The countless themes at its core are all front and center, as the story wears prouder on its sleeve than ever before.

This is a story about social collapse, and how the mere fear of it robs people of their ability to think about the future. All For One explicitly states this as his goal. He wants to become a powerful terrorist living rent-free inside everyone's heads in order to literally steal the future. Meanwhile, he rejects the next generation of Class 1As, who represent the very future he wants to eliminate, labeling them as nothing more than 'extras'.

But the key lesson of Season 7 is that there's no “extra,” and that's made glaringly obvious by Deku's relative absence. “Relative” is the key word. He's still there, still an active member of the conflict, and his final rematch with Shigaraki is great, but the story consciously and cleverly leaves him out to emphasize everyone else. The idea that “anyone can be a hero” is nothing new to the superhero genre, but this story delivers that message much more heartily than most.

My Hero Academia has reached new heights

Late in season 7 (probably around episode 154) something beautiful happens. The aforementioned flaws, often cited by the show's detractors, all seem to disappear as the pace picks up, emotions run high, and the animation becomes much more difficult than before. It made me root for more and cry more than any show in a while.

From the fun of unexpected returning characters to long-awaited showdowns, this season not only matched the heights of previous seasons, but surpassed them. The first half is good, but it's a bit shocking how much higher they've gone each week. We've shaken up the formula to keep you from getting worn out by such a long battle, constantly raising the bar and raising the stakes.

This show deserves more praise than ever

It's a phenomenal climax that builds on eight years of excellent television trying to adapt a long-running boy without filler and without compromising too much on quality. Your mileage may vary depending on the consistency of the animation, but there's no denying that what Studio Bones has achieved with this adaptation is impressive. With the landscape of the shonen genre changing, it can't be underestimated how much more difficult this season is. because It took eight years to get there.

My Hero Academia Season 7 is an incredible piece of TV animation, and its plot and execution deserve just as much praise as the animation itself. Do a jujutsuShibuya incident. It's a testament to Kohei Horikoshi's writing, Studio Bones' artistry, and the timeless appeal of shonen that such serious stories can stand out even as superheroes become more saturated than ever. In a year full of great shows, this season alone could be nominated for Animation of the Year.