Review of My Hero Academia Season 6

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW „My Hero Academia“ is now a seven year old show. After 6 seasons and 3 movies i can confidently say that this has become one of my favourite shounen ever, despite it´s flaws. This season exceeded my expectations for the series immensely and can even compete with the glorious season two. Story – 9/10 This arc is essentially the conclusion to a massive build-up since season 4 ,but essentially has elements in it that have been introduced from season one. The world of heroes we have become so accustomed to is in severe danger and decay. This show gave us what the previousseasons always missed: A sense of urgency. With this arc being the result of a seven year long build-up, it really upped the stakes on pretty much everything. We leave the fun and comedic school-life behind and face opponents who exceed everything the show has seen before. The tone is also incredibly dark, a big departure from the first few seasons. Although they also had their serious moments, they never quite commited to them fully. But here, the harsh reality gets put right in the centre of the narrative.
The pacing is also really good for a war arc of this size. A lot of war arcs tend to fail the right pacing, making them feel slow and drawn-out (“Hunter x Hunter” did this sometimes, but “Naruto” is especially guilty of that). Here, the author figured out, that a war-arc doesn´t have to be hundreds of episodes long. It delivered amazing moments and fights in the span of it´s run without overstaying it´s welcome. But the thing that makes this season truly special is not the war itself, but the consequences after it ended. We got some of the shows most emotional and heartbreaking episodes and moments in the span of the final few episodes. I think the long build-up of 5 seasons made these moments so special to the viewer.
The only thing that i´d criticise is that this show still follows the shounen formula a bit to tight. A lot of the little problems in this show are problems that most shounen are guilty of: Characters don´t die, even after insane attacks, inner monologues interrupt the flow of actions and power levels are all over the place. But that still did not take away much of the enjoyment.

Art – 8/10

This season confirmed that My Hero Academia is one of the most consistently well animated shows in modern times. This show doesn´t have the flashy CGI of “Chainsaw Man”, the smooth hand-to-hand combat of “Jujutsu Kaisen” or the unique art style of “Demon Slayer” but it has proved many times that it can go toe-to-toe with them in specific scenes. I´d probably compare the quality to something like Black Clover although it is 1) more consistent and 2) not as as experimental. The character designs are what drives the show. Whether or not you like the weird looking outfits and characters, you cannot deny that every single characters is incredibly memorable just from the looks. The insane diversity in designs is some of the best in the genre and i can´t really think of another shounen except “One Piece” that reaches this kind of recognition.

Sound – 8/10

So, the first opening i thought was okay. The quality of the OPs varies from season to season with some absolute bangers being followed by standard shounen stuff. But the second OP, which is OP 11, i´d say is one of the best shounen openings ever. It matches the season perfectly and establishes the scenario and the characters perfectly. It´s melancholic vibe helps supporting the more dramatic direction this show took and i really hope they keep it up in season 7.

Characters – 9/10

The amount of characters who play a lead role in this season is crazy. Basically, every single character that we have seen so far over the past seven years is in this season. It is absolutely insane and I can imagine how hard it must have been to write all of their parts. But what is crazy is, that the author still introduces new characters and have them fill important roles of the story, like Lady Nagant for example.
But the absolute best thing in this season was the development of our main character Izuku
Midorya. I already liked him in the previous seasons, but now i´d probably say that he is my favorite shounen protagonist all together. He really does go through the five stages of grief in this season. The roller coaster of emotions is all packed together in the final few episodes. But everyone around him also got better. Best Jeanist is finally fulfilling his role as the third strongest hero and gets a lot of screen time. Endeavors characters is developed further than ever and Shigaraki and All for One are scarier than ever before. Even Katsuki Bakugo got his moments in the spotlight, delivering one of the most emotional speeches in shounen history. I am really excited where everything goes next.

Enjoyment – 9/10

After this season i can comfortably put My Hero Academia up as a top-5 shounen. This arc was everything I wanted and more. I am so glad that this show is still doing well after 7 years of runtime, so let´s hope that this quality keeps up as long as possible. This is a MUST-watch and i genuinely think that you need to see this if you consider yourself a fan of fighting-shounen.

- Marco_Yooo

FINAL SCORE - 9/10