Friday, July 12, 2019

[Manga Book Review] My Hero Academia Volumes 16-19 by Kohei Horikoshi




I recently watched the current available seasons of an anime titled My Hero Academia, a show  I have easily fallen in love with. It probably won't be until Autumn until the next season, so until then I want to try to read all of the manga that has been published and the chapters that haven't been bound yet into volumes. I have officially read all of the volumes published at the moment. I do plan on continuing to read the individual chapters on the VIZ app (If you're interested in reading this
series and cannot find it anywhere, a VIZ subscription is like $2 or $3 and it's totally worth it) since I have a subscription but this is where my reviews will end for now. I do plan on continuing my reviews of the volumes, and once more are published I'll definitely re-read them and review them but until then this is the end! I highly recommend reading the manga or watching the show and then coming back so we can talk about the brilliance of this story. To avoid spoiling anyone, I am going to always have this opening in each post along with in future posts I'll have a link to previous reviews. Please understand that once I am deep into the series, there may be spoilers. It's hard to review these manga volumes without talking about specifics of what is happening.


My Hero Academia Volumes 1-3 Review
My Hero Academia Volumes 4-6 Review 
My Hero Academia Volumes 7-9 Review 
My Hero Academia Volumes 10-12 Review


* * * 

My Hero Academia Vol. 16
Kohei Horikoshi 
⭐⭐⭐⭐

The raid on the Yakuza base is so intense!! The mood and atmosphere between the story arc that was covered in the last season and this one is so different. We have seemed to temporarily left the school setting of UA and have entered the setting of how it is to be a pro hero on a daily basis. 
I'm so proud of the amount of progress Tamaki seems to have done on himself. His friendship with Mirio is beautiful and I love the way he got his hero name. I relate a lot to Tamaki because we both deal with anxiety and self doubt. I am hoping we get to see more of their friendship not only with each other but with the third member of the Big Three, Nejire Hado. 

Kirishima is breaking my heart. Oh my goodness, he is another character with a lot of self doubt even though they are so strong and capable. I love both of Tamaki and Kirishima so much. I wouldn't have thought to pair them together as a hero duo, but Tamaki would be such a good mentor to Kiri, they have more in common than I originally thought they would. Kirishima's backstory alone had be so emotional for him. I love that he things of his best friend's, Bakugou, opinion about him to give him some confidence. Bakugou is not nice to a lot of people, but to see him give Kirishima confidence was really sweet. I think their friendship is one of my favorite things about the series and I'm excited to see their friendship grow.

The action is still hard to follow, but almost ten fold. I think because we have reached content that hasn't been animated yet (or at least, hasn't come out yet) so it's hard to fill in the blanks from the show. It's really hard to figure out what's happening. It's almost like the action panels are the comic equivalent of shaky camera work in movies/tv. It makes it hard to follow who is hurt or who is winning. Which is a bummer. 

I love seeing Deku and Eraserhead working together! Eraserhead is my favorite pro hero so it's great to see him mentoring Deku after All Might's retirement. I do not doubt that we will have more moments of Toshinori mentoring Izuku but on the streets or on a mission I am happy Deku has Eraserhead mentor him. 

My Hero Academia Vol. 17
Kohei Horikoshi
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This volume is super intense and suspenseful. I think it's the first in a while, maybe the first period, where I feel a real danger and fear for our heroes. I think it's because Overhaul is by far the more terrifying villain we've had up to this point. From his overall cold and calculated personality, his incredibly powerful and scary quirk. 

Damn, this volume's content is dripping with heavy and heartbreaking moments. What LeMillion goes through, and how he continues to fight and be a hero despite going through so much pain. The similarities between him and Deku are striking. Especially with their passion and determination to continue fighting despite the pain or damage they will experience. It makes sense why LeMillion was a candidate for One for All. 

Honestly, I think this volume is such an amazing payoff of these kids working so hard at UA learning to be heroes. Before, a lot of the villain fights weren't missions but random attacks. So they had to think in the moment before they really got to learn how to be heroes and improve their quirks. Now, to see these students working together in a real hero mission situation and putting their all into it makes me so excited to see them grow as heroes. 

I love Eri so much, and I want to know more about her quirk but also her life. She's so scared and little and my heart breaks for her! 

Also, seeing more of Toga and Twice was great because we got to know them more as villains. I'm not particularly attached to any villains and I don't think I have a "favorite" but I find them interesting and they bring a lot of mischief to the story which always makes it more exciting. I think that's why Overhaul is so terrifying. He doesn't seem like a mischievous villain up to no good. He feels like he's at a different level of villainy. Both versions of villains are bad, and will kill who they have to, but Overhaul's overall vibe feels more dangerous. 

My Hero Academia Vol. 18
Kohei Horikoshi 
⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first half of Volume 18 is the direct aftermath of the Yakuza raid that happened in the last two volumes. Where the raid was high stakes, adrenaline pumping intensity. And now we are crashing from all of the intense emotions and dealing with injuries, casualties, and heartbreak. It' a lot and honestly this volume shows that season four is really going to hurt. 

Mirio is such an amazing character I'm falling in love with more and more. I think Deku is going to learn a lot from him in terms of what it is like to be an inspiring hero. Like I said earlier, I am not surprised that Mirio was a candidate to be the next All Might and I can understand Sir Nighteye's push to want Mirio to receive One For All. 

In the second half of this volume there is a tone shift and the rest of the volume is incredibly lighthearted and funny. The rest of the chapters revolve around Todoroki, Bakugou, and the other students from other schools who didn't receive their provisional licenses. I think this lighthearted content is something that was definitely needed after everything that just happened. 

Seeing how bad these students are with these kids is hilarious, but not exactly surprising. The way they win over the kid's hearts was super cute as well. I am not the biggest fan of kids, so I definitely had the same annoyance while reading that Bakugou seemed to. I think often Bakugou says things that I feel like I'd want to say if put in the same situations, but I probably wouldn't say them. 

I think seeing Endeavor ask Toshinori advice about being the new Symbol of Peace was honestly kind of sweet. Endeavor has been the #2 hero for so long and now that he's been bumped up to the #1 hero that takes a lot of pressure and responsibility. He didn't exactly have much time to prepare, it just kind of happened. He also seems to want to do better for Todoroki, which is a good thing. I wouldn't blame Todoroki if he never forgave his father after the things he has done, but if Endeavor is going to try to be a better person and hero than that's good for everyone.

 My Hero Academia Vol. 19
Kohei Horikoshi 
⭐⭐⭐
 The school festival is such a cute story arc! All the kids getting together to make an amazing performance for everyone. I love that each student has happily signed up for something. Even in the end Bakugou got into it, and I love that he is a drummer! It fits him perfectly. 

Seeing Mirio and Izuku show Eri around  U.A. was so cute.  I love how sweet they are with her. I hope we continue to see Mirio and Izuku together. They make such a good friendship pairing and I can only imagine what Mirio can still teach  Izuku. The fact that Mirio has been stripped of his quirk and although I can imagine somewhere deep down he is heartbroken about this, he isn't showing it. It doesn't feel fake either, he seems like the kind of the guy that rolls with the punches and plans on being a great hero with or without his quirk. Which is something  Izuku can greatly relate to. 

I am happy to see Toshinori mentoring Izuku about One For All again. It's been a while since he's been able to give Izuku some mentoring on using One For All and overall just improving to become the next All Might. I really love their teacher/student moments together. 

I have to admit that the villains introduced in this volume, Gentle Criminal & La Brava, are not my favorites. They're definitely less intimidating after we just had such  a big fight with Overhaul, but I find them super annoying too. I totally agree that not all of the villains are going to be these big baddies, and sometimes goofy villains are a nice change of pace for the heroes to use their quirks and grow without being in some serious damage, but these two just felt out of place. Maybe if we get to know them more I'll warm up to them but currently they feel like more annoying versions of Jesse & James from Pokémon's Team Rocket. 

There we have it! For now I am all caught up with the published volumes. I am excited to continue with the individual chapters but I will keep reviewing the volumes as they are published! 

Thank you for reading!

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