First Impressions – Boku no Hero Academia 2nd season

All might is finally back!!

Welcome to one of many first impressions on Metanorn! If you saw and loved the first season of Boku no Hero Academia I’m sure you are just as excited as I am to see this series back again and this time we’re getting twenty-four episodes instead of twelve.

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 Well, here we are again in the world of heroes. It’s time to show up and show out as our young freshmen students must show what they’re made of as they fight in the 127th annual Hunger Games! Uh…I mean Chuunin Exams! No wait, that’s not it…uh MMA tournament? Whatever–you know what I mean.

Who shall live, winning eternal fame and glory? And who shall die, suffering unending humiliation and dishonor? It’s all up next! Same Might-time, same Might-channel!

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The heroes return!

Deku looking awesome in this shot.

The journey of Deku becoming the greatest hero in history continues! I loved that we jump right back into the story without spending too long recapping what happened last season unless you count All Might’s letter he sent to his previous teacher? I won’t talk about that character much because we will be learning all about him soon. So what is next for the superpowered students of UA? How about a sports festival where you get to compete against other students with no restrictions on using your powers? Sounds great! This is about the time where we get to see all of the unique powers from this series because there are a lot. While we have a good idea as to what the next few episodes will cover we learned that Uraraka decided to become a hero for the money which yeah ill admit it sounds super selfish of her when you compare her to someone like Deku who wants to help people and save the world from evil, but her reasoning isn’t all that bad because she wants to support her parents construction company. I imagine having her set of anti-gravity powers it would make that line of work super easy! Just as Iida said her parents could technically sell all the heavy duty construction equipment used for moving heavy objects and let Uraraka simply use her powers instead to cut all kinds of costs, but of course her parents don’t really want her to do that instead they prefer her to find her own reasons for becoming a hero. I’d love to see why all the characters wanted to become heroes, but I think we do get some of those reveals sprinkled in here and there during the big sports festival coming up.

Not the face id ever consider for a “hero” if Tomura Shigara was a good guy.

Besides reveals on why Uraraka became a hero we got a bit of info on the big bad villain who invaded the school last season Tomura Shigara with the unique power to disintegrate anything he touches? With that quark it sorta explains why he might have became a villain? That kind of dangerous ability honestly doesn’t have much use in actual hero work, but I suppose it depends on how that power is used? I could see it being a huge help n a natural disaster or used to sneak into enemy base? That said I guess some teachers would have be terrified of trying to work with a student like Tomura if he could kill them with a single touch! Which as All Might said if somebody took the time and got to him early and taught him how to properly use that power then maybe he wouldn’t be a villain today? Who knows! Then again I think Tomura has some deep psychological issues as well so he probably needs more than a kind hearted teacher to get him through that.

 Sports festival is about to begin

You hyped for the sports festival?!

Well, it’s been a  year since this awesome series debuted. And what a debut it was, being one of the major hits of its season, it was majorly hyped by not only all of its many manga fans, but also the PR machine on this franchise went all out. It never quite got to the height of popularity enjoyed by it’s Shonen Jump megaseries brethren, and has not made such a splash in the West either among casual viewers, but it has become a major hit among already established fans. This was my most anticipated series of the season. I loved the first season, and I was excited to see where this series would go next. The first episode is rather slow to start. The majority of it is recap (which is strange since they created a pre-episode specifically to cover what happened last season), but in a way I don’t mind. I enjoy the build that the series has. Being an anime-only fan, I didn’t have a “pacing issue” with last season like some fans of the manga did.

All might being 2cute

This is a series that gives you time to breath when you need it, but also knows when to ramp things up into high gear. And most of all, it’s a series that knows how to develop its characters in amazing ways, even in a very short period of time. Izuku, the very heart of the series, his father–son/older brother–younger brother relationship with All Might ( who interestingly, we get a real name for in this first episode) is one of the best mentor/mentee relationship I’ve seen in any series period, not simply shounen and not simply in anime. And this is not even counting other amazing characters like Bakugo, Iida, Ochaco, and the many others just waiting to be explored. So what did we get in this newest episode of the start of the season? Well other than recap, we got mostly set up. We see a glimpse of All Might’s own mentor, who I’m going to guess is the person that he received “One for All” from. It’s nice to have All Might’s real name revealed which I honestly thought would stay a mystery in the series.  While teacher like Aizawa are okay using their real names as well as their hero names, All Might’s “real life” has pretty much been kept a mystery even from his fellow heroes for obvious reasons. I was honestly a little surprised to see that he had a Japanese name since his entire being seemed to be steeped in an American background and the blond hair-blue eye combination is usually indicative of a foreigner in anime. But I’m guessing we’ll get to see more on that front at a later time. We get an idea of some of the relationships that will form out of class 1-A, and we also get a glimpse of new student characters that I’m guessing are from class 1-B, who we have yet to meet.

Classroom fun.

We also get an idea as to the current situation involving the League of Villains incident of last season’s climax.  Unsurprisingly, Shigaraki and Kurogiri are fake names and while we do get in essence as to who they are in terms of personality, we still don’t know who they are, what their  next plan is, and who is behind their schemes. I like that the teachers are actually active in this school and aren’t simply non-existent beings like in many a school anime series. Also, I like how they are taking this seriously and want to protect their students rather than the usual shonen constant of teachers using everything as an impromptu learning experience and just throwing their students into danger. Aizawa maybe the only exception as after only a day or two after his horrific injuries in the line of duty, he allowed to come back to the classroom! I’m sure there were substitutes who could have made the announcement for the sports festival, idiot! Get back to bed!

Rivals or friends? Find out soon!

Yes, the sports festival is about to begin and it will be an event of olympic proportions. And it’s a time for all of our kids to show off their powers. I will be interested in seeing how this plays out and how Izuku, who is running out of time, what with All Might’s powers being halved again, will show out, and show the world what he’s made of! His first hurdle though seems to be the child of Fire and Ice, Todoroki, who we’ve seen is extremely smart and can be both heroic and dark in one dangerous combination. He seems to be figuring out the connection between Izuku and All Might and it is because of that connection that he decides he wants to fight our little nerdy MC. And to be honest, I don’t even think winning is his overall plan or goal. You can tell there is a lot of wheels and gears turning in his head, and there is a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Extra Heroes

Oh hey its a Yuri on Ice cameo!

Tooru wants to stand out? Why not wear a body suit?!

Damn Bakugou back at it again with the screaming!

Mina Ashido needs moar love <3

Loli Uraraka is soooo cute!

Dark Uraraka is something special.

End Thoughts

I’m so happy to have one of my favorite series back in my life even though I read the manga weekly, but having the voices, music and animation working together to create such a fun experience is a bonus! Then again this episode was a bit of a recap and build up towards the big sports festival arc, but honestly that is where things start to get really good and it’s where a lot of character development happens. Aside from that All Might is losing more and more time when All For One is activated which means Deku really has to step up his game if he is to succeed All Might in the future! Anyway I hope you enjoyed this first episode! I’m certainly excited to see what other arcs from the manga get animated and which ones get avoided.

Well, I’m really excited for what is to come. I’m wondering how Boku no Hero will handle the traditional student tournament arc. As long as the fights are succinct and cut and dry and doesn’t extend for episodes on end, I think this might be very enjoyable to watch.  The two best scenes in the episode though, are both of Deku, one where we see a future shot of him facing his enemies with the “fearless smile” of his predecessor and his body alight with his own version of One for All. The other being All Might telling him that his own days are numbered and that Deku will have to stand up and show out. Show the world that he is the next Symbol of Peace and the next inheritor of the title of “greatest superhero”. I love how the power flowed into All Might’s eye and came out of Izuku’s showing the connection between the two. I’m also interested in what the villains have in store and what plan they will hatch next.

Here’s to a new season of Boku no Hero Academia. Let’s hope it’s awesome!