Go Beyond, Plus Ultra: My Hero Academia's Fandom
In July of 2014, Kohei Horikoshi released his first issue of the manga,
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| Boku no Hīrō Akademia 1st volume manga cover |
To be able to discuss the fandom, it’s important we
understand the overall plotline of the series. My Hero Academia is set
in a modern society where 80% of the population possesses an “uncanny ability”
or superpower. This power is called a “quirk” and our protagonist, 14-year-old
Izuku Midoriya, does not have one. Relentlessly bullied during the majority
of his adolescent years for being quirkless, Izuku is ready to give up his
dream of becoming a hero and attending the prestigious hero high school, “U.A.” in
his home country, Japan. It is only after he runs into Japan’s #1 Hero, All Might, and saves his childhood best friend turned bully, Katsuki Bakugou, during a villain attack that Izuku is given a quirk. All
Might, Izuku’s idol and favorite hero, sees heroic potential in Izuku, gives him
the power of his transferable quirk, and begins training Izuku to become his
successor and attend U.A. in the spring. Now that Izuku (also referred to as
“Deku,” his Hero Name) has a quirk called “One For All,” he must pursue his
dream and learn to work alongside his powerful Class 1-A schoolmates while also
battling villains along his journey to become the future #1 Hero.
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| My Hero Academia 1st anime season poster |
My Hero Academia is
a Shonen anime – which means it falls into the common storytelling category of
a young, male protagonist going on adventures and facing action and peril along
the way; similar to popular series like Naruto, One Piece, and Hunter
x Hunter. Its largest appeal is its wide cast of colorful characters,
students with unique powers coupled with cool character designs
and personalities that clash. There is an ample selection of characters for
fans to choose as their favorites as there are over 100 with speaking roles.
Many fans are also drawn to the action and fighting aspect of the series since
a significant portion of the story revolves around characters learning to
improve their quirks and leveling up during fights against villains. MHA
is intended for a teenage audience, but its age-range also reaches twenty-something
adults due to its mix of darker themes as well as typical high-school
shenanigans. Often, the series involves heavier, story-driven plotlines and
takes breaks in between plotlines to give the audience that episodic, slice-of-life feel with the characters we’ve learned to love.
MHA’s fans are
passionate and creative. You can find them on almost every corner of the
internet as the series is one of the most popular shows right now. Above, are examples of the fandom’s power and massive impact which could be found in
Twitter’s trending tags during the 2020 U.S. Presidential election in November where
the name “Dabi,” a character from the series, was trending
alongside tags like “Biden 264” after a big plot moment in the most recent
manga chapter was revealed.
Twitter is a great platform for MHA “stan”
accounts to thrive. Fans create Twitter accounts to discuss all things My
Hero Academia with each other. A great example of this is a random tweet
from the account @omgkirishima, “being a kirishima stan is just losing ur mind
over hair...” shown below. Often, fans make their usernames have something to do with a
character from a show. The context behind this tweet is the fan constantly
thinking about the character, Kirishima, and his hair because he frequently
wears it in different styles.
Other than stan accounts, Twitter hosts MHA
fan artists who create art of the characters from the series and share it with
each other. Tumblr is also a great platform for artists to showcase their art
of their favorite characters.
Here are two pieces of art from the artist, @hawberries, on Twitter. On the left is Deku with his “Dekusquad” – four of the characters closest to him in the series. On the right is the secondary character of the series, Bakugou, with his “Bakusquad” – his own four closest friends. Deku and Bakugou are rival characters, and they have different dynamics with their individual friend groups. Fans fondly use the “squad” terms and depict these combinations often in fanart and fanfiction.
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| khvydraws' Shoto Todoroki |
The art on the left is Shoto Todoroki, a character with a complex backstory. He is a major character and classmates of Deku’s. His quirk is half-hot and half-cold. Todoroki is arguably one of the fan favorite characters of the series. This angsty art by khyvdraws on Tumblr (with 13k notes) depicts the scar on his left eye – given to him during his rough childhood – bursting into flame to showcase the flame side of his quirk and his complicated emotions toward the power. Todoroki's character development is one many fans have been eying since his introduction and he is truly a character seen all over the internet.
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| huntrydraws' Shouta Aizawa |
On the right is art of another fan favorite character in the series, Shouta Aizawa, a pro-hero/teacher at U.A. He is Class 1-A’s homeroom teacher. Aizawa is a sleep-deprived, surly man who often has to wrangle his high-maintence students using his quirk. He has the ability to temporarily erase the quirk of anyone he looks at for as long as he is able to go without blinking. His popularity derives from a combination of his stern nature, badass fighting skills, and his under-the-surface affection for his class. In this art by huntrydraws on Tumblr (with 4.4k notes), he is using his capture weapon, a scarf he can bend at will, and hangs in a pose similar to that of Spider-Man. Aizawa's hero name is "Eraser Head," as depicted in the artwork.
Also on YouTube, some fans often make compilation
videos using clips from the show. Below, are popular videos by user “Everything In a
nutshell” including ones titled, “Every time Izuku breaks his bones” and “Every
time Kirishima says ‘so manly.’” There is even a 21 minute video called
“Bakugou yelling and screaming for 21 minutes” with 882k views. Fans love
to see out of context clips from the show to remember their favorite moments.
Many of these videos are inside jokes amongst the fandom and have hundreds of
thousands to millions of views.
You can also find a variety of MHA character
analysis videos on YouTube with a lot of views. Fans love to dig deep into
the mechanics of a character and dissect their arc throughout the current events
of the series and predict their future decisions. Below is a thumbnail of an analysis video for the
villain, Himiko Toga by Meti『Not
The Bad Guy』.
MHA fans also love cosplay. Because there are so many characters to choose from, fans are often spoiled with different costume designs to mimic. Conventions are often flooded with MHA fans. Here’s a video by Cosplay Counselor (who is dressed as student, Momo Yaoyorozu) on YouTube showcasing the MHA cosplays at Anime Expo 2019.
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| isisnotisa's Best Jeanist |
On the left is a cosplay of the pro Hero, Best Jeanist, by Tumblr user isaisnotisa (with 695 notes). Best Jeanist’s quirk is the
ability to control and manipulate denim and he utilizes it to capture villains.
He is not a major character, but fans will cosplay pretty much any character in
the series.
Reddit is a great place for fans to share their
theories about the series going forward. The MHA subreddit has 685k
“Heroes enrolled” currently. An example of fans sharing theories lies in a post
by Efrain_Easy on August 13th, 2018 – a long time ago since major
events have taken place.
“Give me some crazy MHA fan theories.
The crazier the better.”
A reply to this request is from EmptyNessAI down below. They
share some of their theories which include students working with the villains' side and having secret identities.
On the website Tvtropes.org, categories of “Fandom
Specific Plot” are listed. These are tropes many fans find interest in and are
popular across the fandom when making Alternative Universes (AU’s) in
fanfiction/fanart. Some examples are:
“A popular fanfiction idea is to give Midoriya a
seemingly weak or extremely subtle Quirk that could easily be mistaken for
Quirklessness, such as the ability to see and interact with ghosts, or the
ability to delete ten grams of matter at a time.”
“A popular Alternate Universe is the idea that
Midoriya would become a Villain rather than a Hero, inheriting All For One and
often becoming a superior, if not someone competing with Shigaraki for
dominance over the League of Villains. Often, he becomes Bakugo and Todoroki's
Nemesis.”
“A trend in fanfiction is the idea of Hisashi
Midoriya, Izuku's father, being a Villain, expanding why he hasn't shown up or
take an active role in being a father figure to Izuku for years.”
There are also over 160k works using MHA’s world on the popular fanfiction website, Archive of Our Own. Fanfiction is a large aspect of the community and the statistics just show how dedicated fans are to the universe of My Hero Academia.
As the school motto of the hero school, U.A., states, “Go Beyond, Plus Ultra!”
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| Class 1-A Class Photo |
Update after episode one of season five aired on Saturday! Here is the tag trending on Twitter and an example of a tweet by a fan. People are very excited to see their favorite heroes again :)
Works
Cited
“Bakusquad.” Shipping Wiki,
shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Bakusquad#:~:text=Bakusquad%20is%20the%20friendship%20between,the%20My%20Hero%20Academia%20fandom.
“Dekusquad.” Shipping Wiki,
shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Dekusquad#:~:text=DekuSquad%20is%20the%20friendship%20between,the%20My%20Hero%20Academia%20fandom.
Efrain_Easy. “Give
me some crazy MHA fan theories.” Reddit, 13 August. 2018, https://www.reddit.com/r/BokuNoHeroAcademia/comments/96vveq/give_me_some_crazy_mha_fan_theories/
Accessed 24 March. 2021.
EmptyNessAI. Comment on
“Give
me some crazy MHA fan theories.” Reddit, 13 August. 2018, https://www.reddit.com/r/BokuNoHeroAcademia/comments/96vveq/give_me_some_crazy_mha_fan_theories/
Accessed 24 March. 2021.
huntydraws. "Your friendly neighborhood
hero” huntybutts. 21 April 2018, 7:16 PM, https://huntydraws.tumblr.com/post/173172766295/your-friendly-neighborhood-hero
isaisnotisa. " The Fiber Hero, Best Jeanist” Isa is
an Isa. 8 Oct 2018, 8:24 AM, https://isaisnotisa.tumblr.com/post/178851973452/the-fiber-hero-best-jeanist-check-out-my-other
khyvdraws. "forgot to share this here!
june was emotional support todoroki month” ★ YOUR
MOVES ARE WEAK ★, 3 July 2020, 6:01 PM, https://khyvadraws.tumblr.com/post/622670116586471424/forgot-to-share-this-here-june-was-emotional
Peters, Megan. “My Hero
Academia Is One of the Most Popular Shows in America Right Now, Says New
Report.” Anime, Comicbook.com, 28 July 2020,
comicbook.com/anime/news/my-hero-academia-anime-pandemic-quarantine-tv-shows-popular/.
Valentine, Evan. “My Hero
Academia's Big Dabi Reveal Out Trends The 2020 Election.” Anime,
Comicbook.com, 7 Nov. 2020,
comicbook.com/anime/news/my-hero-academia-dabi-reveal-bigger-than-2020-election/.
Valentine, Evan. “My Hero
Academia: Dabi Spoilers Trend Globally After Surfacing Online.” Anime,
Comicbook.com, 5 Nov. 2020,
comicbook.com/anime/news/my-hero-academia-dabi-spoilers-trending-identity-reveal/#10.
“Class 1-A.” My Hero
Academia Wiki, myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/Class_1-A#Gallery.
“Kohei Horikoshi.” My Hero
Academia Wiki, myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/Kohei_Horikoshi.
“List of Characters.” My
Hero Academia Wiki, myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Characters.
“My Hero Academia Cosplay invades Anime Expo
2019” YouTube, uploaded by Cosplay Counselor., 7 Nov 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r91AxxqIls
“My Hero Academia (Anime).”
My Hero Academia Wiki,
myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/My_Hero_Academia_(Anime).
“My Hero Academia (Manga).”
My Hero Academia Wiki,
myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/My_Hero_Academia_(Manga).
“My Hero Academia / Fandom
Specific Plot.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FandomSpecificPlot/MyHeroAcademia.
“Villain Deku.” Villains Fanon Wiki,
villainsfanon.fandom.com/wiki/Villain_Deku.
“VILLAIN DEKU - The Other Side - BNHA Animatic”
YouTube, uploaded by Mushie R., 30 Nov 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDBhuT1grEY&list=PL1WyfjoXr59MnbPRkVVyUsjHfzq_6Suy4&index=55
@Bella_07111. “Good morning to the people who
still can not function bc of dabi’s reveal 😀🤝” Twitter, 5 Nov. 2020,
11:56 a.m.,
https://twitter.com/Bella_07111/status/1324395118195953669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1324395118195953669%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fanime%2Fnews%2Fmy-hero-academia-dabi-spoilers-trending-identity-reveal%2F
@hawberries.
“[bnha] y'know, these guys” Twitter, 15 June. 2020, 3:11 a.m., https://twitter.com/hawberries_/status/1272064089703895040
@omgkirishima. “being a kirishima stan is just
losing ur mind over hair...” Twitter, 3 March. 2021, 8:34 p.m., https://twitter.com/omgkirishima/status/1374157569401360387
@tanijrou.
“dabi🤝destiel trending higher than the US election.” Twitter,
6 Nov. 2020, 12:05 a.m., https://twitter.com/tanijrou/status/1324578629809045504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1324578629809045504%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcomicbook.com%2Fanime%2Fnews%2Fmy-hero-academia-dabi-reveal-bigger-than-2020-election%2F
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