The path the franchise of “My Hero Academia” seems to be taking is not exactly ideal. As I was writing in my review of the fourth season, “Kenji Nagasaki introduces new characters (villains, heroes and others) almost constantly, to the point that some have to die if he is to keep the story compact and coherent, something that does actually happen in this season”. This tendency continues in the fifth even more intently, with Nagasaki introducing a whole new army of super villains, with the plethora of new individuals essentially having taken the place of the intricacy of the first seasons. Let us take things from the beginning, though.
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In a distinct sign that context has given its place to impression, the season falls head-on in the action almost immediately, with class A-1 receiving “real-life” training against other heroes posing as villains, before they get into a tournament of sorts against Class B. As the fights continue, the aftermath of Endeavor’s fight with Nomu, the roots of One for All and the people who had the power before Midoriya, and Hawks new role as a double agent are also presented, adding a bit of “substance” in the action-oriented story. The battles between the students are, however, quite entertaining, also due to the growth the majority of them is showing, while the competition is quite intent. At the same time, the almost pedantic path the series is taking is quite evident here, with the battles being as tame as possible, essentially addressing kids, an approach that definitely harms the overall quality of the title.
The middle part of the season, which focuses more on the family drama that unfolds within the Todoroki family, is a bit more intriguing, even if Endeavor’s metastrophe is not exactly justified. The last part focuses on yet another group of supervillains, the Meta-Liberation Army, and their clash with the League of Villains, while also shedding more light in the past of the concept of people having super powers, and Shigaraki’s reasons for becoming who he is, with the latter probably being the most interesting aspect of the whole season, particularly because it combines drama with intense violence. This whole last part is actually much better than the first one, as Nagasaki seems to have no issue with having the villains become rather hurt, even though he missed the opportunity to finally have a character actually die. Furthermore, the slapstick comedy is much more toned down in this part, while the fact that Bakugo’s ridiculously loud voice is nowhere to be found is definitely a tick in the pros column. Lastly, the appearance of Dr. Ujiko and the depiction of the future plans of the “bad guys” adds another layer of interest.
The action scenes are quite good as usual, while the difference in style between those among the heroes and those among the villains is definitely beneficial, providing a much needed differentiality between the two, with the first being more cheerful and funny and the latter dramatic and brutal. The animation of Bones, as usually, finds its apogee here, while the tremendous amount of work character designers Hitomi Odashima and Yoshihiko Umakoshi had to do definitely benefits the narrative, even if the amount of characters is exuberant. The constant presentation of the names of the heroes, along with their powers, on the other hand, emerges as rather annoying very quickly, particularly because it is accompanied by yet another loud voice.
Season 5 of “My Hero Academia” continues on the same path of the previous ones, but the fact is that the quality is much lower than the first two seasons, even more so since this particular one functions more as a preparationatory for the 6th one, where the big clash is about to happen. The fact that the comments about the press and the concept of the hero in the modern day are nowhere to be found also hurts the series, which unfortunately, at the moment, seems to address children and those who are stuck with the title due to the previous seasons.
