This video needs a second part now that the series has ended in that absolutely nothing whopper of an ending. All the cries for change, all the themes, and absolutely nothing has changed.
Midoriya is arguably the most brainwashed character in the series, actually. Despite being set up for perfect perspective he ultimately displays absolutely none of it, and then actively perpetuates their backwards ass society without so much as a statement of critique or critical thinking. He’s much like Hawks in that regard. ‘Let’s forgive all the hero abusers and completely ignore the fact that the governing body up until this point and the worship of heroes caused the problem by oppressing the disabled and disadvantaged and double down on how great heroes are.’ Yeah okay, nut jobs.
I love how the whole 'I was quirkless' never ever mattered a bit. Bro jumped from being a pariah to the top of society, and never even thought about it at all.
First of all, great video man really enjoyed it. I do kinda disagree with your evaluation of Izuku tho. While it's true that many of his actions and his backstory would indicate an anarchistic view, I think he isn't. Let me explain. He is essentially the most influenced by that days propaganda, his worship of All Might and other heroes, is essentially a result of him accepting the propaganda even though he is a victim of the society it creates. The only way someone could seem so unfazed by such a difficult past was if they really thought that was their position in the world. We see time and time again that he holds no grudge to Bakugo or any other oppressors, and he still idolized Bakugo who was his chief tormentor. Why? Because Bakugo had so much potential to be a Hero. He wanted to be like Bakugo, because he didn't want to be a lower class citizen. When he had his confrontations with Bakugo, it wasn't ever revengeful, more trying to tell Bakugo that he's in the same social class as him now. With helping Shoto, his final words might have been that it's Shoto's quirk and not Endeavor's, and he might have told Endeavor that Shoto was not him, but he didn't ever address that quirk marriages were wrong, and he only ever told Todoroki to use his quirk because it was insulting the rest of the students who were giving it their all(literally same reason Bakugo was mad). In his further interactions with Todoroki and Endeavor, he never really seems to care about what happened. In the case of him disobeying orders, it was always to save someone, which while technically illegal, it was in perfect alignment with the ideals that All Might represented during his time as the no.1 hero. Saving people, and caring about the individual are more important than anything else to him. However, he is definitely the perfect hero that the hero commission would want, self-sacrificial, doesn't question how society is structured, and is overeager to save lives. If he was anarchistic in his viewpoints, then he would be so much more sympathetic to the views of people like Redestro. I do think that if he were to get a wake-up call and accept that the treatment he received as a child was wrong, and come to the natural conclusion that the hero society he had worshipped had ruined so many lives, then it is likely that he would shift into being an anarchist, as his past experiences justify it. However, 16 years of conditioning that hero society was amazing, meeting the literal symbol of the society he lived in and then becoming the successor of that, are all going to make that shift in mindset incredibly difficult.
The alternative to thinking "that was their position in the world" is realizing that it's just the opinions of others. Deku is compassionate and understanding of other viewpoints because people have told him all his life something that he knows deep in his soul is wrong; "You can't be a hero."
This is an amazing video and really hits the mark, don’t know why this doesn’t have more views. I still enjoy watching BNHA, but yikes does it have (IMO) some bad subtext at times. I was getting a general copaganda-ish feel as I was watching the show, since heroes are effectively law enforcement and the series kinda glorifies them, and I was gonna do a script about it, but I guess you beat me to the punch xD
Thank you : D I think MHA is still evolving and there are a ton of tendencies that I struggle to stomach a lot of the time but I do honestly believe that MHA will address the glorification of Heroes at some point I'd say go ahead with the script though - We need more voices on TH-cam with this sort of thing. With any luck you'll be far more coherent than I was here : D
On one hand, I see where you're coming from, on the other, idk how you can have a fun superhero show without that to a degree. It comes with the genre. The only things that don't have it are depressing grimdark bullshit like that boys
My Hero Academia is shallow but enjoyable. It throws in themes without being aware of them. It just devolves into a basic "good" vs "evil" story although it could be a story about fascism vs rebellion. But nope make the opposing side evil for evils sake to not scare away the audience for beating up homeless people, children and disabled people. (One of the evil guys is a trans woman that couldn't have gender affirming care because she isn't a hero) If you think about it for two seconds the world falls apart.
That took a while to finish. Yeah, Izuku doesn't tend to listen to orders but not once did he ever stop and say they were cumbersome or dumb. He never comments on it. Honestly, what would be a huge character development for Izuku would be, rather than six quirks, to disagree with All Might. Izuku having different points of view or idealogy than other heroes like Knight Eye, and villains like stain and shiguraki, don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. But we never see Izuku challenge All Might or his believes. Instead Izuku adopts them. Sure you can see he's going down a different path than all might since he's using support gear when all might never did, but during the gentle arc, All Might pointed out that he did use support gear once and Izuku started scouring the internet for pics and information and soon after gains support gear from hatsume. Yes I know he was getting support gear already, but All Might had to justify it to Izuku in a sort of way, to make him feel alright with using support gear. Izuku hangs on all might's every word.
I do agree he's not fully reached the point yet, but I do think at the rate he's going he will reach that point eventually. What I theorize is that Izuku will come across more and more instances of Hero society being fucked that he simply can't go along with All Mights beleif system. I think that will be a big character moment for him if he does finally do that
@@QosmicVoid From the looks of it, its seems more like the villains are the personifications of whats wrong with society but never fullys comes into contact with Izuku or the class 1a students.
@@QosmicVoidyeah it has its flaws ,but I like most of your talking points and and I’ll be waiting for that updated and remake 2024 vers of this bnha subject ,to see how much has change from than to now.
@@QosmicVoid My issues mainly with it are the vague definitions of fascism. There are a few actual frameworks on it, like Umberto Eco's 14 points of fascism, or the other one from Georgi Dimitrov. I just think they're in the late-stage capitalist version of liberal democracies. Especially now.
Interesting. Didn't want to call him out since I didn't know what his politics are. The thumbnail amused me to no end though. Thanks for letting me know
I don't see Midoria as an anarchist, if you extended his goals intellectually he'd reach there, but he's a character; as such, I see him much more as a fallacious argument for working for change from the inside... He's painted to be completely agreeable, and relatable, he dislikes all of society that you do, all of society that has oppressed you. Though he thinks he needs to work entirely within the oppressive system to make change...
Hey, I'm new and I found this video just by typing "the politics of my hero academia" because when I started to think about the show more I found somethings pretty uncomfortable such as it similarity to Ayn Rand's philosophy or how the female characters are designed especially since a lot are aged to be 16-17 yet their designs are over sexaulized and their quirks of often more so. I shared this with a lefty discord because it might get you more views
Thank you! I seriously appreciate you sharing the video around : D It’s an understandable concern to have with MHA. There are undeniably a fair few elements of it that can be heavily interpreted in that direction. Quirks create an inherent inequality that leads to ideologies like Ayn Rands becoming very appealing, though from what I’ve been hearing from the manga as of late, I’ve only become more certain that what I said here was right. It’s a pretty complicated topic that I’d need to make a whole other video to get into, but the inherent inequalities of the system, and how those affect people, have become more and more prominent in MHA, and are being directly criticised for perpetuating the cycle of Villainy. A lot of what we were taught about regarding MHA’s systems, and how they were portrayed as valid or just things are now being put under a microscope and being analysed, and I think that’s a part of the story in all honesty - To show that the system and the ideologies are there and are the norm, but that doesn’t make them good, or acceptable, or should just be accepted. As MHA goes on I’m certain we’re going to see more deconstruction of MHA’s society. The sexualisation aspect is quite creepy but to be honest when you watch as much anime as I have you sort of just get used to it. It’s not something I should just let pass but to be honest as far as MHA goes it’s comparatively better than a lot of other anime. Not that it’s good, mind, but it wasn’t really something I felt was worth bringing up - Not when there are plenty of other anime I can give shit for that. Hard to get worked up when you’ve watched something like Rouge Hero which was... Nightmarishly bad with this. Thanks again for sharing the video - I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate you doing that
@@QosmicVoid I have thought about the show more since my first viewing of this video and I actually like it more. Izuku becoming some form of revolutionary and challenging his society is an arc that would be bad ass.
@@QosmicVoid regarding the sexuality aspect, I think a lot of it just has to do with it being a society where you have to sell and brand yourself. The girls gotta use sexuality to do it, which is gross as hell and might not even be tackled as a negative thing, but is interesting nonetheless. There’s also the fact that a lot of ppl perceive characters like Mt. Lady or Midnight, or Ubawami was useless and bad for using their sexuality to get ahead. But, at least for the first 2 (Ubawami hasn’t shown to be incompetent tho) are incredibly talented and get shit done, and are both “bros”. They also don’t seem to care as much about whether someone is trans, at lease as long as u have the money for sex reassignment. Which ties into the branding thing
13:03 At least you acknowledge you can’t just ban away methods for defense, for people will seek them regardless. Although doing so reluctantly may speak on your character.
Hey I don't know if you know this but a TH-camr by the name of Captain rose did a break down on you video. He talks about some of your claims about the mha universe and I think he did a good job. I think you should watch it and talk about it in a vid.
Rather than MHA arguing that All Might was a harmful short term faux-solution, Instead it's arguing that true peace is impossible, and that All Might, and MHA's status quo is the best possible solution. Which is probably the number one fucking argument deployed in defense of capitalism.
On the subject of one for all and all mights views, I think it's more that if it is passed to someone it's like a kingmaker, this person is chosen by another force and is thus the hero because of someone else deciding it. If you believe that such power can be born or at least honed naturally then you're more likely to be inspired.
I feel like in that context, it would have made more sense for him to have lied and said "Hey, this was my Quirk - It was pretty weak but i kept training with it" if that was his logic, but i see your argument.
@@QosmicVoid I readily admit it isn't the best plan but also part of it is that he apparently also tried to be super evasive about what his quirk even was. But yeah your point is fair too, that's just my interpretation of the whole thing anyhow
@@Darkstar1484 I never understood why he was evasive with it to be honest. It would have made more sense to just say "Here is my Quirk - It's super strength" wouldn't it? I generally have a lot of issues with how All Might actually conducts himself, but I can't tell if it's bad writing or if he was intentionally made to be kind of terrible with choices like this your interpretation is also fair. Death of the Author and all
@@QosmicVoid my guess is that mos t physical enhancer quirks have different aspects to them. Muscular created more sinew and muscle tissue faster/stronger/tougher as a kind of gradual windup, death arms is also a physical powerhouse. in essence there would probably be questions about its exact mechanics. Hell him being evasive might be that it's super strength but not going any further
@@Darkstar1484 Hm, possibly. But it doesn't seem like it would be hard to lie about the functionality of the quirk either, it's not like they would have any method of testing if thats true or not
Good video, but i don't think you get some points. Yes, heroes are law enforcements and the show glorify them, but i don't think that is a fascist idea. It's more about having a simbol of pure goodness to inspire people to be better. All might doens't have a political agenda or any other interest despite saving as many people as possible, that is why he is portrayed as the ultimate simbol of what it means to be a hero. In other hand, we have dozens of heroes that are selfish and the show always portray them as a problem. Villains in this world hate the heroes because they act like the society is good while it is unqueal and many people suffer, but choose violent methods to show their points. Both sides are wrong, and Midoriya is the revolutionary element: he doens't care about people origin or beliefs, he only care's about making everyone happy and protect both sides. He is the symbol of what people need to be if they want to create a better society.
I strongly disagree on the view of izuku being even remotely close to a socialist ideology. He reveres the system, even if he's one of the subhumans. The story could have him try to be a hero without superpowers, but refuses it outright. Izuku was not born to be a ubermensch, but his faithfulnes has brought him the prize of being amidst the elite. His virtue is not being trully heroic, his virtue is to be faithful to the fascist ideology that holds the system, even against his own self interest. Without power, Izuku is doomed to a life of mysery so MHA outright denies the possbility of our hero to rebel. The story even goes as far as to absolutely villify shadow archetypes that mirror the hero in some way but decided to rebel. Stain shares Izuku's view on heroism, but not for a moment is there space to redeem Stain, or even take him seriously, his suposed followers are just a bunch of opportunistc idiots. Gentle is a simpathetic guy who just wants some spotlight and who can't use his quirk cause he failed hero studies, well it's prison time for you, young man, Izuku absolutely approves, or simply doesn't care. You mentioned him disobeying orders, but, that's something done for dramatic tension, as a way to point out how right was One For All for giving him access to the upper class. He doesn't follow orders, because he is already an example of true heroism, he doesn't care about popularity, because he will get it regardless with his selfless heroic deeds. He is the ubermensch, by virtue of believing not in himself, but in the system, and the system returns the favor. Another point I disagree with is izuku being anti-violence, he pretty much resorts to violence as the first alternative for everything, which is something I find absolutely off character. Of course, he doesn't kill people, only the violence of villains has consecuences, after all, his violence only saves, doesn't harm. The subtext is alarmingly one sided if you look at it. He could have been that protagonist we were expecting, the one who does the right thing even if it's out of the ordinary because he is an outsider. But the narrative is pushing him into being something else, he was quirkless, but he's been fixed, recuperated, now he's one of us. Other than that, absolutely have a like for the video, you beautiful human being.
Izuku doesn’t immediately resort to violence. It’s just that a lot of villains are violent. Unless ur saying that he shouldn’t be defending himself or others, he hasn’t started a single fight besides the Gentle one. And in that case he was trying to get into the school so he was defending it. Izuku cannot function in the society w/o working in it. He can’t achieve his dreams. The point is that, despite the violence, the ppl working in society who wields power are heroes and the ones outside of it are villains and vigilantes. They do point this out at one point. The idea is just exploring whether the idea of heroism can even exist or flourish in a society like the one in MHA
@@ma.2089 Well, it's a shonen, there has to be violence, but, I think it could make Izuku a better character if he actually tried to reason with the bad guys. Yeah they can be like "never!" but at least he did try to redeem them, failed, fought and it was lots of fun for the viewer. I just think there's no space for redemption in MHA, and that makes the text not so nuanced. In honesty I'm trying to move away from the death of the author view and try to analize the text as it's conveyed, and, I find it to be quite mild/conservative when it comes to social commentary.
[This comment is for my own purposes of making a playlist, and is not at all judgement of quality. It is not to be taken seriously, as I'm just leaving notes to myself for a project that stimulates me, nothing more.] Considered outdated (or soon to be by a possible remake or something of the sort) by the creator within comments, specifically in his comment to Barakon.
Hi, I don’t know about the manga because i only watch the anime but for me, all evidence pointed that MHA was a full right wing anime. The society who was presented is really a mixte beetwen Japan and USA, 2 very capitalist country. But in the anime, the systeme was never questionned. All might who is the ultimate protector of this systeme is praised by everybody and one time in season 3, when Deku pointed the fact that Momo could create endless costume and clothes for everyone she said « yes but it would distupt the economy » and nobody questionned that. Its true that there is Stain who as some far left/anarchist gimmick but his point of view about money and his speachs are very dull because it’s not true far left ideology, all I see is a right winger who tries to make a far left speach and ideology. I really think it fit the personality of Horikoshi, the creator of the manga, who in his interview is a big fan of the US and American superheros
And don’t let me started on Endevor who has his big redemption moment real fast and how the women who was beaten by him said « Oh you know, he brings me flower sometime so, its all good » it disgust me. All i see is someone who sais « domestical violence... its not that baaad » 😷😷
@@uehgjur Firstly, A show taking place in a right wing society does not make it a right wing manga. If you want to argue that, you would have to argue to me Fullmetal Alchemist is a fascist anime because it's society is explicitly and directly analogous to Nazi Germany right down to the word "fuhrer". Politics runs deeper than aesthetics, and so does media. As for domestic abuse, I'm certainly no fan of it either. We've yet to see how that develops though. I didn't mention it as a mark against MHA because I don't know the conclusion of that particular sub-arc.
QuirkQuartz Yeah but in FMA they show the atrocities of the fascist systeme, in MHA, they never show anyharm that the system is doing. Even Stain, the big anarchist figure, don’t want to free the oppressed, he just have a philosophical grudge that for hero to be a glorious personne, they need to refuse any money. FMA, Psycho-Pass, One piece even SNK with his auth-left discours critique how the powerfull and the privileged controll the world but MHA dosn’t ( yet... But honestly i lost faith between the 3th season and even more after the 4th bc the show isnt going in that way) Btw i like to see that type of content on TH-cam. Plz continue your work
@@uehgjur I would disagree. MHA has not shown these systems being as harmful as they are as of yet - but the more of Hero society we see, the more clear it becomes that it's a broken system - Hawks being a good indicator of this. The biggest issue MHA faces right now is similar in issue to how people defend the police - That there are good people within the system, but it's the system itself which is broken. While I've lost faith in MHA for various other reasons in the manga, this is not one of them. There are developments in the manga that begin to directly critique Heroes and their abilities and effectiveness. to get into it would probably require another whole video but it is my belief that the show will head in that direction based on what I've seen developing in the manga. I thank you though, and I do intend to keep making content like this. I have plenty of shows that I want to talk about and plenty of subjects i want to talk about.
@@uehgjur redemption? There’s no redemption for endeavor. That’s a pretty bad take. Literally none of them have forgiven him. Believe it or not, ppl can appreciate others trying to change. They might never forgive him, and there’s no way for him to redeem himself (he wants to atone), but that doesn’t mean shit. Victims forgive for their OWN sake, and if she wants to appreciate him trying, that’s enough. The culture of a society that demonizes and refuses to help ppl with certain quirks who behave dangerously or help ppl with mental illness, a society that shares the same ideas of the bystander effect that won’t help struggling ppl, etc. are all negative things that have been shown in the series. It’s pretty blatant. Not sure what other negative effects u want?
Something I thought when you mentioned how they get paid, i thought of sumo wrestling. Because in the first rank of professional sumo division 6 you only get around $380 a month, in division 5 it's around $440, 4's $550, 3 is $825, and only in division 2 do you make $11,000 and having a lot of your expenses paid. And because of that many that reach division 2 just do the bare minimum to stay in it because trying to do better can cause injuries which will surely hurt or end your career. So I can imagine something similar in the hero world where many great talent just leave because they can't support molding their body and time to a craft that can't keep them afloat, and just inspires people to be either lazy or ruthless. Either do everything you can to get attention on you or just getting by and leaving people disappointed. I know there was one sumo wrestler that was seen as "the bad boy" of sumo asahoryu because he often did the things traditional sumo disallowed like showing great emotions like raising your fist in the air. They want sumo wrestlers to be the stoic representation of japan. Keeping up the dignity of sumo wrestling traditions.
Thank you - And I do have a few ideas for stuff i wanna cover. I'll be going over star wars next, possibly followed by Attack On Titan, and after that who knows
Shigaraki and all for one aren't leftist/socialist at all... What they are is perfect beat for beat strawmen to represent the "enemies of society" they are what authoritarians strive to paint leftists as.
A very interesting analysis! I can't say I agree with all of the criticism or the conclusions you've drawn but I really see where you're coming from. Actually, might a more in-depth vid on the topic!
So yes it has these, now what is trying to be promoted as the one and only best form of politics? There is always an agenda, right? Did i hear that right? You classify yourself as an anarchist or did i mis hear that? Answered at the end, good luck with that.
You deserve more views, MHA is REALLY problematic. I actually thing the Japanese government gave this show more exposure than It would have get by itself to reinforce their nationalistic ideas
MHA got exposure simply cuz it’s inspired by western comics, hence it came over to the west. Nothing to do with the Japanese government, especially since it at one point critiques it (sadly in a way that wasn’t the greatest and therefore caused a lot of controversy) by highlighting real life Japanese war crimes. As for nationalism, it’s more about the faults of the system. Especially for a series that talks a lot about individuality and how Japanese collectivism and a desire for less diversity unless it can help other people has made their society one that alienates and ostracizes people for being different and tries to clamp down on individuality as best as it can, as well as creating complacency. Hell, it spends time trying to advocate for ppl to be heroes on their own, and that real heroism isn’t based in capitalism. The only Japanese governmental thing they do is rewarding the heroes with money (or making them pay for damages) and forcing a child into heroism by leveraging the chance to give them a financially stable future.
All of my comments aside, I like your death of the author approach. Also in a lot of ways, much like Trump helped catalyze the BLM movement. MHA''s popularity, basic pulpy writing(not bad, problematic pulp is problematic pulp & I have my guilty pleasure for the mcu), and obvious fascist subtext may serve to be far more of a Reefer Madness, than it resembles Reagan's Crack campaign. Or at the very least end up convincing more people to not buy into the "change it from the inside" dogma, and instead start getting involved in resistance/progressive groups, and taking democratic direct action.
But yeah most "well made" fascist propaganda accurately portrays the problem, but then uses that to argue for "best we got","blame the other", "lesser of two evils", and "ends justifies the means" mentalities. The reason it can be a good thing; however, in cases like yours is that no one gets their entire world view from these shows, and most people will recognize the problem, look elsewhere for solutions, and then come about to seeing how the real world mirrors and utilizes these same fascist narratives/techniques....
You're welcome to take that interpretation away if you like. I did use death of the Author in this video since it's an inevitable fact of entertainment media - People will take whatever interpretation they like. However, I feel it's an immense disservice to art in general to boil it down to it's absolute surface value. Izuku begins this very show by being the social runt of the litter, until risen up by All Might and overcoming the social hierarchy placed against him. I feel to deny the political implications of that is to be willfully blind. But again, you're welcome to take whatever meaning from MHA you like.
Even small things can show deeper fundamental ideas that shape them. Simple shallow thing can still connect to aspects of a culture that spawned it or that it managed to deeply reach
Shelly's Frankenstein was just a monster book. It's not that deep. Seriously though, if you look at art up only to its surface, then you are engaging in anti-intellectualism.
This video needs a second part now that the series has ended in that absolutely nothing whopper of an ending. All the cries for change, all the themes, and absolutely nothing has changed.
I have been tempted beyond words, believe me.
Midoriya is arguably the most brainwashed character in the series, actually. Despite being set up for perfect perspective he ultimately displays absolutely none of it, and then actively perpetuates their backwards ass society without so much as a statement of critique or critical thinking. He’s much like Hawks in that regard.
‘Let’s forgive all the hero abusers and completely ignore the fact that the governing body up until this point and the worship of heroes caused the problem by oppressing the disabled and disadvantaged and double down on how great heroes are.’ Yeah okay, nut jobs.
I love how the whole 'I was quirkless' never ever mattered a bit. Bro jumped from being a pariah to the top of society, and never even thought about it at all.
Good video so far(15:54), kinda funny how the boys and MHA are practically the same society put painted in completely different lights...
It's almost like they're both set in real life fascist societies. :)
First of all, great video man really enjoyed it.
I do kinda disagree with your evaluation of Izuku tho. While it's true that many of his actions and his backstory would indicate an anarchistic view, I think he isn't. Let me explain.
He is essentially the most influenced by that days propaganda, his worship of All Might and other heroes, is essentially a result of him accepting the propaganda even though he is a victim of the society it creates. The only way someone could seem so unfazed by such a difficult past was if they really thought that was their position in the world.
We see time and time again that he holds no grudge to Bakugo or any other oppressors, and he still idolized Bakugo who was his chief tormentor. Why? Because Bakugo had so much potential to be a Hero. He wanted to be like Bakugo, because he didn't want to be a lower class citizen. When he had his confrontations with Bakugo, it wasn't ever revengeful, more trying to tell Bakugo that he's in the same social class as him now.
With helping Shoto, his final words might have been that it's Shoto's quirk and not Endeavor's, and he might have told Endeavor that Shoto was not him, but he didn't ever address that quirk marriages were wrong, and he only ever told Todoroki to use his quirk because it was insulting the rest of the students who were giving it their all(literally same reason Bakugo was mad). In his further interactions with Todoroki and Endeavor, he never really seems to care about what happened.
In the case of him disobeying orders, it was always to save someone, which while technically illegal, it was in perfect alignment with the ideals that All Might represented during his time as the no.1 hero.
Saving people, and caring about the individual are more important than anything else to him. However, he is definitely the perfect hero that the hero commission would want, self-sacrificial, doesn't question how society is structured, and is overeager to save lives. If he was anarchistic in his viewpoints, then he would be so much more sympathetic to the views of people like Redestro.
I do think that if he were to get a wake-up call and accept that the treatment he received as a child was wrong, and come to the natural conclusion that the hero society he had worshipped had ruined so many lives, then it is likely that he would shift into being an anarchist, as his past experiences justify it. However, 16 years of conditioning that hero society was amazing, meeting the literal symbol of the society he lived in and then becoming the successor of that, are all going to make that shift in mindset incredibly difficult.
The alternative to thinking "that was their position in the world" is realizing that it's just the opinions of others. Deku is compassionate and understanding of other viewpoints because people have told him all his life something that he knows deep in his soul is wrong; "You can't be a hero."
This is an amazing video and really hits the mark, don’t know why this doesn’t have more views. I still enjoy watching BNHA, but yikes does it have (IMO) some bad subtext at times. I was getting a general copaganda-ish feel as I was watching the show, since heroes are effectively law enforcement and the series kinda glorifies them, and I was gonna do a script about it, but I guess you beat me to the punch xD
Thank you : D I think MHA is still evolving and there are a ton of tendencies that I struggle to stomach a lot of the time but I do honestly believe that MHA will address the glorification of Heroes at some point
I'd say go ahead with the script though - We need more voices on TH-cam with this sort of thing. With any luck you'll be far more coherent than I was here : D
On one hand, I see where you're coming from, on the other, idk how you can have a fun superhero show without that to a degree. It comes with the genre. The only things that don't have it are depressing grimdark bullshit like that boys
the boys*
@@QosmicVoid Do you plan to make another video on the series in the future?
My Hero Academia is shallow but enjoyable. It throws in themes without being aware of them.
It just devolves into a basic "good" vs "evil" story although it could be a story about fascism vs rebellion. But nope make the opposing side evil for evils sake to not scare away the audience for beating up homeless people, children and disabled people. (One of the evil guys is a trans woman that couldn't have gender affirming care because she isn't a hero)
If you think about it for two seconds the world falls apart.
That took a while to finish. Yeah, Izuku doesn't tend to listen to orders but not once did he ever stop and say they were cumbersome or dumb. He never comments on it. Honestly, what would be a huge character development for Izuku would be, rather than six quirks, to disagree with All Might. Izuku having different points of view or idealogy than other heroes like Knight Eye, and villains like stain and shiguraki, don't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. But we never see Izuku challenge All Might or his believes. Instead Izuku adopts them. Sure you can see he's going down a different path than all might since he's using support gear when all might never did, but during the gentle arc, All Might pointed out that he did use support gear once and Izuku started scouring the internet for pics and information and soon after gains support gear from hatsume. Yes I know he was getting support gear already, but All Might had to justify it to Izuku in a sort of way, to make him feel alright with using support gear. Izuku hangs on all might's every word.
I do agree he's not fully reached the point yet, but I do think at the rate he's going he will reach that point eventually. What I theorize is that Izuku will come across more and more instances of Hero society being fucked that he simply can't go along with All Mights beleif system. I think that will be a big character moment for him if he does finally do that
@@QosmicVoid From the looks of it, its seems more like the villains are the personifications of whats wrong with society but never fullys comes into contact with Izuku or the class 1a students.
@@QosmicVoidyeeeeah...about that...
@@Argosaxelcaos I assure you I’m quite angry about it
I find it interesting how many anti-government themes there are in MHA, from both the heroes side and the villain side without coming off as biased.
20:36 anarchy being used to refer to chaos & violence like that is outright defamatory & you know it.
I despise this video the more time goes on. I'm fully considering outright deleting and remaking it.
@@QosmicVoidyeah it has its flaws ,but I like most of your talking points and and I’ll be waiting for that updated and remake 2024 vers of this bnha subject ,to see how much has change from than to now.
You should delete all your videos and then not remake them @@QosmicVoid
@@QosmicVoid My issues mainly with it are the vague definitions of fascism. There are a few actual frameworks on it, like Umberto Eco's 14 points of fascism, or the other one from Georgi Dimitrov. I just think they're in the late-stage capitalist version of liberal democracies. Especially now.
did I open a word doc and start taking notes? absolutely, oops. thank you for making this video! subscribed, notifs on! it was a good find :)
Ey, thank you! Really happy to hear you enjoyed this : D
It was a mother's basement video he is a leftist I believe and I think he was just memeing
Interesting. Didn't want to call him out since I didn't know what his politics are. The thumbnail amused me to no end though. Thanks for letting me know
I don't see Midoria as an anarchist, if you extended his goals intellectually he'd reach there, but he's a character; as such, I see him much more as a fallacious argument for working for change from the inside... He's painted to be completely agreeable, and relatable, he dislikes all of society that you do, all of society that has oppressed you. Though he thinks he needs to work entirely within the oppressive system to make change...
A reformist? I guess this makes sense, but needs more consciousness for him.
Hey, I'm new and I found this video just by typing "the politics of my hero academia" because when I started to think about the show more I found somethings pretty uncomfortable such as it similarity to Ayn Rand's philosophy or how the female characters are designed especially since a lot are aged to be 16-17 yet their designs are over sexaulized and their quirks of often more so. I shared this with a lefty discord because it might get you more views
Thank you! I seriously appreciate you sharing the video around : D
It’s an understandable concern to have with MHA. There are undeniably a fair few elements of it that can be heavily interpreted in that direction. Quirks create an inherent inequality that leads to ideologies like Ayn Rands becoming very appealing, though from what I’ve been hearing from the manga as of late, I’ve only become more certain that what I said here was right. It’s a pretty complicated topic that I’d need to make a whole other video to get into, but the inherent inequalities of the system, and how those affect people, have become more and more prominent in MHA, and are being directly criticised for perpetuating the cycle of Villainy.
A lot of what we were taught about regarding MHA’s systems, and how they were portrayed as valid or just things are now being put under a microscope and being analysed, and I think that’s a part of the story in all honesty - To show that the system and the ideologies are there and are the norm, but that doesn’t make them good, or acceptable, or should just be accepted. As MHA goes on I’m certain we’re going to see more deconstruction of MHA’s society.
The sexualisation aspect is quite creepy but to be honest when you watch as much anime as I have you sort of just get used to it. It’s not something I should just let pass but to be honest as far as MHA goes it’s comparatively better than a lot of other anime. Not that it’s good, mind, but it wasn’t really something I felt was worth bringing up - Not when there are plenty of other anime I can give shit for that. Hard to get worked up when you’ve watched something like Rouge Hero which was... Nightmarishly bad with this.
Thanks again for sharing the video - I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate you doing that
@@QosmicVoid I have thought about the show more since my first viewing of this video and I actually like it more. Izuku becoming some form of revolutionary and challenging his society is an arc that would be bad ass.
@@QosmicVoid regarding the sexuality aspect, I think a lot of it just has to do with it being a society where you have to sell and brand yourself. The girls gotta use sexuality to do it, which is gross as hell and might not even be tackled as a negative thing, but is interesting nonetheless. There’s also the fact that a lot of ppl perceive characters like Mt. Lady or Midnight, or Ubawami was useless and bad for using their sexuality to get ahead. But, at least for the first 2 (Ubawami hasn’t shown to be incompetent tho) are incredibly talented and get shit done, and are both “bros”. They also don’t seem to care as much about whether someone is trans, at lease as long as u have the money for sex reassignment. Which ties into the branding thing
Saved for later, ill get to the video eventually.
13:03 At least you acknowledge you can’t just ban away methods for defense, for people will seek them regardless.
Although doing so reluctantly may speak on your character.
Hey I don't know if you know this but a TH-camr by the name of Captain rose did a break down on you video. He talks about some of your claims about the mha universe and I think he did a good job. I think you should watch it and talk about it in a vid.
All Might's fall is clearly being painted as "tragic" and his symbolic nature is at best painted as "a necessary evil"...
Rather than MHA arguing that All Might was a harmful short term faux-solution, Instead it's arguing that true peace is impossible, and that All Might, and MHA's status quo is the best possible solution. Which is probably the number one fucking argument deployed in defense of capitalism.
On the subject of one for all and all mights views, I think it's more that if it is passed to someone it's like a kingmaker, this person is chosen by another force and is thus the hero because of someone else deciding it. If you believe that such power can be born or at least honed naturally then you're more likely to be inspired.
I feel like in that context, it would have made more sense for him to have lied and said "Hey, this was my Quirk - It was pretty weak but i kept training with it" if that was his logic, but i see your argument.
@@QosmicVoid I readily admit it isn't the best plan but also part of it is that he apparently also tried to be super evasive about what his quirk even was. But yeah your point is fair too, that's just my interpretation of the whole thing anyhow
@@Darkstar1484 I never understood why he was evasive with it to be honest. It would have made more sense to just say "Here is my Quirk - It's super strength" wouldn't it? I generally have a lot of issues with how All Might actually conducts himself, but I can't tell if it's bad writing or if he was intentionally made to be kind of terrible with choices like this
your interpretation is also fair. Death of the Author and all
@@QosmicVoid my guess is that mos t physical enhancer quirks have different aspects to them. Muscular created more sinew and muscle tissue faster/stronger/tougher as a kind of gradual windup, death arms is also a physical powerhouse. in essence there would probably be questions about its exact mechanics. Hell him being evasive might be that it's super strength but not going any further
@@Darkstar1484 Hm, possibly. But it doesn't seem like it would be hard to lie about the functionality of the quirk either, it's not like they would have any method of testing if thats true or not
Good video, but i don't think you get some points. Yes, heroes are law enforcements and the show glorify them, but i don't think that is a fascist idea.
It's more about having a simbol of pure goodness to inspire people to be better. All might doens't have a political agenda or any other interest despite saving as many people as possible, that is why he is portrayed as the ultimate simbol of what it means to be a hero.
In other hand, we have dozens of heroes that are selfish and the show always portray them as a problem. Villains in this world hate the heroes because they act like the society is good while it is unqueal and many people suffer, but choose violent methods to show their points.
Both sides are wrong, and Midoriya is the revolutionary element: he doens't care about people origin or beliefs, he only care's about making everyone happy and protect both sides. He is the symbol of what people need to be if they want to create a better society.
I strongly disagree on the view of izuku being even remotely close to a socialist ideology. He reveres the system, even if he's one of the subhumans. The story could have him try to be a hero without superpowers, but refuses it outright. Izuku was not born to be a ubermensch, but his faithfulnes has brought him the prize of being amidst the elite.
His virtue is not being trully heroic, his virtue is to be faithful to the fascist ideology that holds the system, even against his own self interest. Without power, Izuku is doomed to a life of mysery so MHA outright denies the possbility of our hero to rebel. The story even goes as far as to absolutely villify shadow archetypes that mirror the hero in some way but decided to rebel. Stain shares Izuku's view on heroism, but not for a moment is there space to redeem Stain, or even take him seriously, his suposed followers are just a bunch of opportunistc idiots. Gentle is a simpathetic guy who just wants some spotlight and who can't use his quirk cause he failed hero studies, well it's prison time for you, young man, Izuku absolutely approves, or simply doesn't care.
You mentioned him disobeying orders, but, that's something done for dramatic tension, as a way to point out how right was One For All for giving him access to the upper class. He doesn't follow orders, because he is already an example of true heroism, he doesn't care about popularity, because he will get it regardless with his selfless heroic deeds. He is the ubermensch, by virtue of believing not in himself, but in the system, and the system returns the favor.
Another point I disagree with is izuku being anti-violence, he pretty much resorts to violence as the first alternative for everything, which is something I find absolutely off character. Of course, he doesn't kill people, only the violence of villains has consecuences, after all, his violence only saves, doesn't harm. The subtext is alarmingly one sided if you look at it.
He could have been that protagonist we were expecting, the one who does the right thing even if it's out of the ordinary because he is an outsider. But the narrative is pushing him into being something else, he was quirkless, but he's been fixed, recuperated, now he's one of us.
Other than that, absolutely have a like for the video, you beautiful human being.
Izuku doesn’t immediately resort to violence. It’s just that a lot of villains are violent. Unless ur saying that he shouldn’t be defending himself or others, he hasn’t started a single fight besides the Gentle one. And in that case he was trying to get into the school so he was defending it.
Izuku cannot function in the society w/o working in it. He can’t achieve his dreams. The point is that, despite the violence, the ppl working in society who wields power are heroes and the ones outside of it are villains and vigilantes. They do point this out at one point. The idea is just exploring whether the idea of heroism can even exist or flourish in a society like the one in MHA
@@ma.2089 Well, it's a shonen, there has to be violence, but, I think it could make Izuku a better character if he actually tried to reason with the bad guys. Yeah they can be like "never!" but at least he did try to redeem them, failed, fought and it was lots of fun for the viewer. I just think there's no space for redemption in MHA, and that makes the text not so nuanced.
In honesty I'm trying to move away from the death of the author view and try to analize the text as it's conveyed, and, I find it to be quite mild/conservative when it comes to social commentary.
[This comment is for my own purposes of making a playlist, and is not at all judgement of quality. It is not to be taken seriously, as I'm just leaving notes to myself for a project that stimulates me, nothing more.]
Considered outdated (or soon to be by a possible remake or something of the sort) by the creator within comments, specifically in his comment to Barakon.
Hi, I don’t know about the manga because i only watch the anime but for me, all evidence pointed that MHA was a full right wing anime.
The society who was presented is really a mixte beetwen Japan and USA, 2 very capitalist country. But in the anime, the systeme was never questionned. All might who is the ultimate protector of this systeme is praised by everybody and one time in season 3, when Deku pointed the fact that Momo could create endless costume and clothes for everyone she said « yes but it would distupt the economy » and nobody questionned that.
Its true that there is Stain who as some far left/anarchist gimmick but his point of view about money and his speachs are very dull because it’s not true far left ideology, all I see is a right winger who tries to make a far left speach and ideology. I really think it fit the personality of Horikoshi, the creator of the manga, who in his interview is a big fan of the US and American superheros
And don’t let me started on Endevor who has his big redemption moment real fast and how the women who was beaten by him said « Oh you know, he brings me flower sometime so, its all good » it disgust me. All i see is someone who sais « domestical violence... its not that baaad » 😷😷
@@uehgjur Firstly, A show taking place in a right wing society does not make it a right wing manga. If you want to argue that, you would have to argue to me Fullmetal Alchemist is a fascist anime because it's society is explicitly and directly analogous to Nazi Germany right down to the word "fuhrer". Politics runs deeper than aesthetics, and so does media.
As for domestic abuse, I'm certainly no fan of it either. We've yet to see how that develops though. I didn't mention it as a mark against MHA because I don't know the conclusion of that particular sub-arc.
QuirkQuartz Yeah but in FMA they show the atrocities of the fascist systeme, in MHA, they never show anyharm that the system is doing. Even Stain, the big anarchist figure, don’t want to free the oppressed, he just have a philosophical grudge that for hero to be a glorious personne, they need to refuse any money.
FMA, Psycho-Pass, One piece even SNK with his auth-left discours critique how the powerfull and the privileged controll the world but MHA dosn’t ( yet... But honestly i lost faith between the 3th season and even more after the 4th bc the show isnt going in that way)
Btw i like to see that type of content on TH-cam. Plz continue your work
@@uehgjur I would disagree. MHA has not shown these systems being as harmful as they are as of yet - but the more of Hero society we see, the more clear it becomes that it's a broken system - Hawks being a good indicator of this.
The biggest issue MHA faces right now is similar in issue to how people defend the police - That there are good people within the system, but it's the system itself which is broken.
While I've lost faith in MHA for various other reasons in the manga, this is not one of them. There are developments in the manga that begin to directly critique Heroes and their abilities and effectiveness. to get into it would probably require another whole video but it is my belief that the show will head in that direction based on what I've seen developing in the manga.
I thank you though, and I do intend to keep making content like this. I have plenty of shows that I want to talk about and plenty of subjects i want to talk about.
@@uehgjur redemption? There’s no redemption for endeavor. That’s a pretty bad take. Literally none of them have forgiven him. Believe it or not, ppl can appreciate others trying to change. They might never forgive him, and there’s no way for him to redeem himself (he wants to atone), but that doesn’t mean shit. Victims forgive for their OWN sake, and if she wants to appreciate him trying, that’s enough.
The culture of a society that demonizes and refuses to help ppl with certain quirks who behave dangerously or help ppl with mental illness, a society that shares the same ideas of the bystander effect that won’t help struggling ppl, etc. are all negative things that have been shown in the series. It’s pretty blatant. Not sure what other negative effects u want?
Something I thought when you mentioned how they get paid, i thought of sumo wrestling. Because in the first rank of professional sumo division 6 you only get around $380 a month, in division 5 it's around $440, 4's $550, 3 is $825, and only in division 2 do you make $11,000 and having a lot of your expenses paid. And because of that many that reach division 2 just do the bare minimum to stay in it because trying to do better can cause injuries which will surely hurt or end your career. So I can imagine something similar in the hero world where many great talent just leave because they can't support molding their body and time to a craft that can't keep them afloat, and just inspires people to be either lazy or ruthless. Either do everything you can to get attention on you or just getting by and leaving people disappointed. I know there was one sumo wrestler that was seen as "the bad boy" of sumo asahoryu because he often did the things traditional sumo disallowed like showing great emotions like raising your fist in the air. They want sumo wrestlers to be the stoic representation of japan. Keeping up the dignity of sumo wrestling traditions.
Interesting vid hope to see more of you
Thank you - And I do have a few ideas for stuff i wanna cover. I'll be going over star wars next, possibly followed by Attack On Titan, and after that who knows
Good luck with that :) I am looking forward to it
4:40 pot calling the kettle black.
Not hearing an argument, hahaaaaa~
@@QosmicVoid you call others insane while saying a super hero anime says we need to overthrow the bourgeoisie.
@@sebastienholmes548 I did? Thats news to me ‘-‘
@@QosmicVoid it was a joke, doesn't change the fact you're insane.
@@sebastienholmes548 The right is getting better at comedy and it’s making lefties nervous, apparently.
Shigaraki is a straw man... He's supposed to "represent" what midorya would be if he tried to fight back against the system from the outside.
Shigaraki and all for one aren't leftist/socialist at all... What they are is perfect beat for beat strawmen to represent the "enemies of society" they are what authoritarians strive to paint leftists as.
ohhh! new creator! -shares with everyone-
A very interesting analysis! I can't say I agree with all of the criticism or the conclusions you've drawn but I really see where you're coming from. Actually, might a more in-depth vid on the topic!
Also izumina best ship
Based and breadpilled
It should be canon
They would fit so well together
If system works, why change it?
So yes it has these, now what is trying to be promoted as the one and only best form of politics? There is always an agenda, right? Did i hear that right? You classify yourself as an anarchist or did i mis hear that? Answered at the end, good luck with that.
You deserve more views, MHA is REALLY problematic. I actually thing the Japanese government gave this show more exposure than It would have get by itself to reinforce their nationalistic ideas
MHA got exposure simply cuz it’s inspired by western comics, hence it came over to the west. Nothing to do with the Japanese government, especially since it at one point critiques it (sadly in a way that wasn’t the greatest and therefore caused a lot of controversy) by highlighting real life Japanese war crimes.
As for nationalism, it’s more about the faults of the system. Especially for a series that talks a lot about individuality and how Japanese collectivism and a desire for less diversity unless it can help other people has made their society one that alienates and ostracizes people for being different and tries to clamp down on individuality as best as it can, as well as creating complacency. Hell, it spends time trying to advocate for ppl to be heroes on their own, and that real heroism isn’t based in capitalism. The only Japanese governmental thing they do is rewarding the heroes with money (or making them pay for damages) and forcing a child into heroism by leveraging the chance to give them a financially stable future.
All of my comments aside, I like your death of the author approach. Also in a lot of ways, much like Trump helped catalyze the BLM movement. MHA''s popularity, basic pulpy writing(not bad, problematic pulp is problematic pulp & I have my guilty pleasure for the mcu), and obvious fascist subtext may serve to be far more of a Reefer Madness, than it resembles Reagan's Crack campaign. Or at the very least end up convincing more people to not buy into the "change it from the inside" dogma, and instead start getting involved in resistance/progressive groups, and taking democratic direct action.
Love this video 💙
But yeah most "well made" fascist propaganda accurately portrays the problem, but then uses that to argue for "best we got","blame the other", "lesser of two evils", and "ends justifies the means" mentalities. The reason it can be a good thing; however, in cases like yours is that no one gets their entire world view from these shows, and most people will recognize the problem, look elsewhere for solutions, and then come about to seeing how the real world mirrors and utilizes these same fascist narratives/techniques....
You're an anarchist? I was in the third grade once, too. Dont worry. You'll get past it.
Clearly.
@QosmicVoid It's fine, that guy's probably a Lassallean anyways lol
the only politics it has is lowering the age of consent
It's a show about a superhero school with cute waifus. It's not that deep dude
You're welcome to take that interpretation away if you like. I did use death of the Author in this video since it's an inevitable fact of entertainment media - People will take whatever interpretation they like. However, I feel it's an immense disservice to art in general to boil it down to it's absolute surface value.
Izuku begins this very show by being the social runt of the litter, until risen up by All Might and overcoming the social hierarchy placed against him. I feel to deny the political implications of that is to be willfully blind. But again, you're welcome to take whatever meaning from MHA you like.
Even small things can show deeper fundamental ideas that shape them. Simple shallow thing can still connect to aspects of a culture that spawned it or that it managed to deeply reach
Shelly's Frankenstein was just a monster book. It's not that deep.
Seriously though, if you look at art up only to its surface, then you are engaging in anti-intellectualism.