Featured TV on DVD Review: My Hero Academia: Season Two, Volume One
April 2, 2018
My Hero Academia: Season Two, Volume One - Buy from Amazon: Blu-ray Combo Pack or Limited Edition Combo Pack
My Hero Academia is one of the biggest new Anime TV shows from the past several years. Not only is it one of the most viewed shows, its reviews for the first season were among the best on My Anime List. Is this hype? Does the second season start on a softer note? Or does the show maintain its impressive run into the first part of season two?
The show takes place in an alternate world where about 80% of the population has some kind of super power, called quirks. The most famous of these super heroes is All Might, who is also the hero most idolized by Izuku Midoriya, a.k.a. Deku. Deku is one of the unlucky ones, as he doesn’t have a quirk. He still wants to be a hero and whenever there is a battle he races to it to take notes. This annoys his classmate, Katsuki Bakugo, whose quirk allows him to sweat nitroglycerin and use that to create explosions. Bakugo hates Deku, to the point where calling him a personal bully doesn’t go far enough. Despite not having any powers, Deku still thinks he can be a hero. He even gets to meet his idol, All Might. It is then that his dreams are crushed. However, it is then that something happens. Bakugo is attacked by a powerful super villain and all of the super heroes can’t save him, but quirkless Deku charges in and saves the day. When that happens, All Might decides Deku can be a hero after all and we learn the secret of All Might’s power. ... It can be passed down from person to person. In fact, All Might is the eighth person to possess this power. There is just one problem, Deku isn’t strong enough to control the power and using it causes his bones to break. Worse still, All Might was seriously injured in a battle and is slowly dying. He can only use his powers a few hours a day and might not have long enough to train Deku.
In the first season, we also meet some of Deku’s new classmates at U.A. Highschool, including Ochaco Uraraka, who can float things; Shoto Todoroki, who has ice powers; Tsuyu Asui, who has frog-like powers; and Tenya Iida, who can talk with his hands. Okay, that’s not accurate. Tenya Iida is from an important family and his older brother is a well-liked hero. In order to live up to his family name, he’s become really serious. Overly serious. This manifests in him talking with his hands and his over exaggerated hand gestures are a great source of comedy in this season. At the end of the first season, the class is at a training facility when they are attacked by a super villain, Tomura Shigaraki, and his minions. The only two teachers there, Shota Aizawa and Thirteen, who are not the best combatants, so the students have to get involved.
Season two starts just days after the attack when their homeroom teacher, Shota Aizawa, who is still recovering from his injuries, tells them their fight is not over. The annual Sports Festival is about to begin. ... Normally a sports festival would be meaningless compared to a villain attack. However, U.A. Highschool is the premium hero academy in all of Japan, perhaps the world. Everyone is interested in seeing the next generation of heroes perform. In fact, doing well here can get you hired at some of the top hero organizations in the world. It has overtaken the Olympics in importance. There are three stages to the competition. First an obstacle course, then a cavalry fight, then a one-on-one tournament. In a mediocre Shonen* series, this season would just be a series of action scenes with little to no regard for characters. Is that the case here?
* Shonen is the term used to describe Manga and Anime aimed at young boys.
Fortunately, My Hero Academia is not a mediocre Shonen series. It is one of the best in the history of the genre. It actually creates characters that are broad archetypes in the beginning, but who we see grow and who we learn a lot about. Ochaco starts out as little more than the Moe* girl, but very quickly in the second season, she shows her competitive streak and we soon learn why she’s that way. Todoroki gets the most character development, but that’s clearly in spoiler territory. Improved character development is one of the biggest improvements from the first season, but it is not the only part of the show that got better. The action and the animation also improved. Thanks to better than expected ratings, the second season got a better timeslot and a boost in resources and it shows. There are two or three fight scenes in the tournament that could arguably be called the best action scenes of the year.
* Moe is the term used to describe cute and endearing character, usually girls.
On the other hand... So far, there have been three arcs for the show. Season one was the U.A. Beginnings, while Season two was divided between the Sports Festival Arc, as seen here, and the Hero Killer Arc, which will be released in Volume Two. There are many who think this arc is the weakest. I can see where they are coming from. After all, this arc does have the least amount of danger and therefore the least amount of tension. That said, as I mentioned above, it also moves the supporting characters along in ways that we simply didn’t see in the first season and I think that more than compensates for the lack of mortal danger.
The first extra is Episode 13.5. This takes a bit of explaining. My Hero Academia started with a 13-episode first season that turned out to be a bigger hit than anticipated, so season two had a better time slot on a bigger network. Because of this, there was a full episode produced to help new viewers catch up. Each episode also has a short Inside the Episode featurette, which highlights a charity that they support. There is also an interview with Yoshihiko Umakoshi from Anime Expo 2017. He does the character design and is the animation director for the show. There is also the usual promos and clean openings / closings that most Anime titles get.
There is also a limited edition release that is about $20 more and contains several physical extras, like a keychain, collector cards, artbook, etc. It’s worth the extra money, if you collect stuff like this.
If you are a fan of Anime, then you’ve likely you have already pre-ordered My Hero Academia: Season Two, Volume One. If you are new to Anime and like action-oriented super hero movies, then I think this is a good Anime to start with. The Blu-ray Combo Pack has more extras than most similar releases have, while the Limited Edition Combo Pack has plenty of physical extras as well.
The Show
The Extras
The Verdict
Filed under: Video Review