My Hero Academia is a smash hit action anime that immediately became one of the most popular series in the medium. Currently in the midst of its 5th season, the show is still immensely popular but has begun to make some questionable decisions when it comes to pacing out their version of fan-favorite manga moments.
Shonen anime, the subgenre which describes many of the biggest anime series of the past decades including Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, and of course My Hero Academia, has a few endemic problems throughout. MHA is a standout example that has earned the praise it gets, but as it goes on, it has proven that it is also susceptible to the same folly.
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Adapting an ongoing work can be extremely difficult. Like most long-running series, My Hero Academia episodes adapt chapters of the manga series with long breaks to allow the manga to catch up. Most anime series have the issue of overreaching the source material to pad episodes and keep fans engaged, leading to the dreaded filler.
Filler is the colloquial term for episodes with no bearing on the overall narrative, typically created by the showrunners rather than adapted from the original work. In the hallowed halls of shonen anime, My Hero Academia is one of the most restrained series, having a shockingly low amount of filler. In fact, in over one hundred episodes, the series has only had 3 to 5 filler episodes, which is a very respectable run so far. Surprisingly, as the show has gone on, the series has actually begun to cultivate a bit of the opposite problem.
While TV is typically broken down into seasons, anime has the additional categorization method of story arcs. Arcs are usually unofficial, often measured or debated by fans, but are clear to veteran viewers of the genre. Typically an arc centers around a single event or threat to be conquered. The My Hero Academia anime has covered around 17 arcs at its present release. One season typically covers multiple arcs, usually two or three. The biggest changeover is the length of an episode versus the length of a chapter. An episode will typically cover more ground and therefore, the series anime adaptation reduces the number of entries to each arc. The series has typically covered an arc in about half the episodes as they did chapters in the manga, but that ratio has shifted over the years.
This is not necessarily a problem, it is reminiscent of watching a show based on a novel, fans can choose to read the work to gain a deeper understanding of the canon. The issue comes when the changes mess with the effect of specific elements of the source material. Shrinking down the runtime of story arcs can have the negative effect of rushing the best moments without room to breathe. Fans who are watching after having read the manga will be disappointed by a lesser version, while fans who do not follow the manga might not get the impact of big scenes if they feel rushed.
Patience is a huge issue in the anime world, if fans think an arc is taking too long, they might get turned off and jump ship and a series with too much backlog can have a hard time drawing a new audience. With that in mind, very long-running arcs get cut down to keep things moving. For example, fans have complained about the Provisional Hero License Exam arc because it was another example of a training-based tournament arc. Despite complaints, that arc ran twice as long in the manga and stoked no complaints from that medium. Fans just tend to be more forgiving of longer arcs in manga format.
This issue has come to a head most of all in the 5th season, which is currently airing. The anime showrunners made the controversial decision to switch the order of the arcs set to occur in the current season, which had the unintended side effect of allowing fans to see exactly how many episodes each arc would take up. This season consists of 4 main arcs; the Pro Hero arc which begun at the end of season 4, the Joint Training arc which consisted of 10 episodes, the Endeavor Agency Arc which has so far consisted of 6, and the Meta Liberation Army arc which has been teased but not begun.
In the manga, the Endeavor Agency arc and the Meta Liberation Army arc are reversed, and the latter is twice as long as the former. Given the knowledge of how many episodes will be in the season, fans can guess that the Meta Liberation Army arc will be reduced from 23 chapters to 7 episodes, a staggering cut.
Shifting arcs around is one thing, its controversial as it changes the meaning of Endeavor's training and keeps the show focused on training for a longer stretch, but not necessarily bad. The upcoming Meta Liberation Army arc is important as it shifts the focus to the villain team to follow their plans and set up for the big battles down the line.
Choosing to put this very different arc at the end, rather than using it to break up the more similar arcs creates a less engaging flow and hurts the pacing. Much worse is the idea of shrinking this novel arc to less than one third of its original length, which could rob some necessary exposition of its time to breathe. On top of the exposition, switching the focus to the villains for a full arc is a bold and unique choice. MHA's multiple factions of enemies which have internal conflicts and divergent goals is one of the most fascinating things about its structure, and it would be a shame to deflate that fun by cutting it short.
Ultimately, My Hero Academia is packed to the brim with great material, and the show's biggest problem is figuring out how to pace out one hit after another. The show will doubtlessly continue to be great, but the choices made in changing mediums could weaken the impact of otherwise great material.
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