I’m not just saying that because it’s popular, or because other people like it. This anime (and the manga by extension) is legit. Scarily so. It’s not hard to see the machinery behind it, and its attempts at emotional torque -- but the execution here is generally at such a high level, it almost always works. I’ve gotten the chills. I’ve stifled the gasps. And I’m about two steps short of starting a tally of how many times I tear up. It’s getting pretty high up there.
Am I being emotionally manipulated? Probably. Am I an easy mark for this sort of thing? Probably. But until proven otherwise, I’m happy to say that, well, I’m happy with My Hero Academia. There are plenty of viable reasons to point to -- to identify as successes -- with the chief one being the horrifically-lovable cast. Certainly, All Might is among them.
But here’s the thing. The deeper I go with the anime, the more I realize something. I like All Might not because he’s Not-Quite-Anime Superman. I like him because the more I think about him, the more I suspect he’s actually the worst…which is why he’s the best.
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