A Defense of My Hero Academia's Fights

my hero academia's fights are boring this is a phrase that is very commonly used to describe one of the mainly perceived flaws of Kohei horikoshi super hero Shonen hell even people who like my hero seem to sometimes resort to this phrase yes this is a sister project to my last video which you should watch if you haven't yet it's good essentially just like with the black clover has bad characteristic this is an argument that is quite often presented as a criticism of both the my hero manga and the anime and just like last time I mostly disagree with it and would like to use this video to explain my position on it however because MHA has been in a spotlight for a bit longer this argument has evolved and splintered into multiple sub arguments but I would like to look at one by one so instead of going through characters this time we go through complaints you could call this a defense of my hero academia's fights manga spoilers you [ __ ] goblins now as I just said this complaint can be broken down into multiple smaller issues people see with it so let's just start with the most common one a very common part of the criticism against fights in the series is that the combat choreography and structure are uninteresting and way too straightforward this complaint started getting really popular around the time the all my adverse is all for one fight aired in the anime and is usually the biggest issue people find and bring up with the fights of the series even many youtubers jumped onto that bandwagon the most part the action and the fights is just and quite often this complaint is a symptom of what I like to call anime only syndrome because you see all might vs. all for one is pretty much the last fight in the series to feature this one track style of fighting I agree that up to that point many of the fights do have a pretty simple structure and not too many use any sophisticated strategy but past this fight that absolutely does change deku versus buck go around to everyone vs. overhaul deku versus gentle a versus B these fights already show off much more complicated and strategized combat scenarios than any before that point in fact the only times it goes back to more simple structures is during Killa chimas and endeavors fights and those have explanations that we can now talk about so now we know that horikoshi can write choreographed action later in the series we can start thinking about why he chose to write most fights early on in such a simple way while I of course cannot look into Horus brain that's creepy I can think of two possible explanations / interpretations one most of the fights that we see at the start are between or with inexperienced children while they are heroes in training they most likely wouldn't have the experience and the forethought yet to really create elaborate multi-layered strategies at least at the start so the fights starting off simple and then becoming more and more complex as a series goes on could be a method of showing the character's progression as heroes in fact the only time a student fight before the all-4-one arc features rather complex choreography is the stain fight in which an incredibly agile and experienced opponent forces the kids to grow and adapt in a struggle for survival past that point the students do begin fighting in more interesting in complex ways an exception would be Kirishima fights in the overall arc where his straightforward thinking about manliness and toughness informed that simpler structure so it still makes sense for his character to be fighting in such a way and especially with his quirk in power while the student fights are simple due to their inexperience the pro hero fights might be structured like that for another more interpretive reason when Almighty loses his power after his fight against all-4-one he essentially book ends the old era of heroes and in a way he does so in a mechanical way as well as most fights that come after immediately begin becoming more complex in a way the end of all might also ends an era where heroes fought simply evil villains in simply righteous straightforward ways this change heralds a shift in the way the future will play out were both fights and the morals of either side begin becoming more complicated and nuanced essentially the end of all might can also be seen as the end of simple heroism this is solidified by how the previous big bad all-4-one was pretty much just a force of nature type evil with barely any personality or nuance where as his successor shigaraki is a way more complicated character another reflection of this is how almighty is a very straightforward good guy hero whereas Deku is a way more layered and complex person with anxieties and desires this would also explain why endeavors fight in the pro hero arc goes back to a more simple structure endeavor is the last bastion of the old era of simple heroism a member of the old guard so essentially I get what his complaint comes from and I have completely understand why it might bug some people but I do think it is important to acknowledge that a it gets better later on the story and B it has quite a few possible reasons to be the exact way it is this is another one that I do understand why it might annoy people the fights are indeed incredibly short compared to what we are generally used to from battle Shonen and that can feel a bit jarring especially if MHA is the first modern Shonen you consume after only having watched slash read the older generations however I do disagree with the idea that enjoyment of a fight is directly tied to its length in fact in my opinion most fights in Shonen are way too long when I want to watch something like Goku vs. freezer or naruto vs sasuke i essentially need to go and watch highlights of it since the immense length of the fights distributes the actual good and great moments quite far apart generally long fights tend to have this up-and-down of stretches of time with middling action or monologues in MHA the fights are so condensed that the entirety of the short duration is filled with quick and meaningful action that keeps the quality and intensity high without overstaying it's welcome additionally the short durations of the fights adds a degree of and bear with me here realism yes I know preaching realism in a show about superheroes might be ill-fated but hear me out okay if you run out of the house right [ __ ] now and pick a fight with the first dude you find on the street what do you think how long will either of you last how many punches can you tank spoiler alert not many in fact a real-life fight will most likely not last past a few minutes since there is only so much the human body can take and while trying to pedantically apply real-life stamina to fictional super-powered characters might not be the most sensible thing to do fact no matter is that most characters in my hero are still human super jacked humans for sure but unless they have got a quirk that directly influences their durability they are not much sturdier than normal people the fast nature of the fights underlines this these aren't drawn out episode long struggles but rather they are short immensely intense bursts of violence where every punch matters which is again something I found lacking in older series many more classic Shonen will have loads of what I like to call empty action where a character is just throw a whole bunch of attacks and punches that don't really matter or do anything spectacular to look at sure but this never really changes anything within the fights narrative and ends up feeling pointless because of it in Maj however due to how short the fights are every hit and every attack has to matter they are all calculated intent moves even punch rushes like all mites against nomu have a clear purpose and more often than not these attacks have obvious and visible consequences which in turn makes these punches and attacks feel like they have immense impact and actually hurt the opponent this in turn makes the fight and its progression a lot more meaningful in my opinion at least so while I get how and why you would prefer to longer fights of old it is valuable to recognize that these shorter encounters have a distinct purpose and distinct advantages [Applause] now we enter the realm of complaints I don't understand the idea here is that the fights are boring because there are no stakes present meaning that the outcome of the fight is meaningless and doesn't change anything this is pure nonsense and here is why yes no fight in MHA has so far had the apocalyptic stakes that other Shonen have on occasion but guess what end of the world isn't the only way to induce stakes into a fight a character in mhm a losing a fight might not mean much on a global scale yet but to them it might mean a hell of a lot horikoshi does a fantastic job of giving these characters motivations desires flaws and weaknesses and these aspects naturally create personal and organic stakes when clashed with another character Decco losing to the rocky didn't mean the end of the world but it had serious emotional consequences for both characters and that my friends is what we call stakes I'd even go so far and argue that these stakes are way more effective than most traditionally grand scale disaster scenarios I don't care about the end of the world because for my dumb dweeb doodoo brain that is just way too big of a calamity to properly comprehend but the character going through anxiety about their own abilities and others expectations of them and having to face it in order to achieve their dreams that is something I can relate to and understand both on a cognitive and emotional level and it immediately becomes more meaningful than exploding planets additionally the manga is despite Twitter galaxies brains claiming otherwise still not that far in we are still relative to the presumed length of the finished series at the early stages having huge calamitous stakes like this would really butcher the potential for progression because if you destroy or almost destroy the world in Chapter 100 what do you do in Chapter 600 there is however a subsection of this complaint that I feel I need to mention namely a subsection that says that the stakes present in the show are actually too focused on the personal and emotional scale and too confined to the school setting the complaint here is that there aren't enough villain centric or calamity centric arcs and it makes it more feel like fun school time than a battle Shonen that is a complaint I totally get it's one percent legit it is true that while the personal stakes work they are very very prevalent in the series and basically eclipsed any and all real world stakes we have only had three real disaster stakes so far and if you feel that it is too little that is fair I also hope that we get more villain centric arcs in the future one could argue that since the series is called my hero academia that the intense focus on school and personal drama over more direct and violent stakes would be more appropriate but if that is something that turns you off I don't have any beef with that but to say that the show as a whole has no stakes and that action doesn't matter at all is just downright disrespectful and borders on ignorance it baffles me that this is such a common complaint [Applause] and now we reach my favorite one the fights in mhm a run purely on hype the idea of this very specific complaint presented by a very vocal minority is that the fights are boring and disingenuous because they have nothing going for them besides hype which is also the only reason the series is undeservedly so popular now to this complaint I have this to say what the [ __ ] kind of complaint is that the first time I saw it I thought people were trolling but no some are actually serious so let's [ __ ] look at this shall we so what the hell does hype even mean in this context well according to this argument any and all circumstances that builds up the fight and creates this tension and anticipation around it would be considered hype since that's what is present in all fights and that hype would be detrimental to the integrity of the fight which might be the stupidest thing I've heard all week and I use Twitter first of all no there is far more behind fights and MHA than just hype as we discussed just a second ago horikoshi imbues --is characters with loads of motivations and conflict in order to make these clashes mean something and you're telling me this is just hype no the funny thing is these aspects produce hype because the viewer / reader now has an interest and an emotional hook in the fight a backstory and context do not equal height they produce it they give us the hype but they are entirely separate things that take a lot of effort planning and talent to properly write so not only is hype not the solitary aspects of these fights its presence is a good [ __ ] thing and now it gets really juicy when you are watching goku vs freezer or luffy vs Lucci or whatever mediocre fight you arbitrarily called the best fight ever do you want to know what feeling was most likely present than you [ __ ] height because battle Shonen have always relied on hype to get its audience invested sure most good fights have more going on but they almost always try to appeal by the way of hype moments hype action or high build up and that height never stopped you from appreciating some more understated themes of those fights right it was a good addition to make you feel more invested and excited so to take one of the hallmarks of Shonen and saying that MHA doing that is a bad thing is absolutely inconceivable to me there are plenty of issues with my hero academia it is far from perfect you could choose any number of those to voice your criticism about the show and that's fine no one is forcing you to like it I love the show but if you don't that's fine I don't have an issue with that I mean the first two complaints I talked about in this very video are still valid complaints even if I you know explain them away with interpretations you can still dislike to show for those reasons and I don't have any issue with that but holy [ __ ] stop making [ __ ] up to be [ __ ] angry about we have now reached a paradoxical point where a series has gotten so popular that now people are literally inventing reasons to be mad about it is [ __ ] pitiful you want to complain complain about an actual issue complain about some of the progression complain about the school focus complain about the choreography in the earlier pipes complain about anything but bring up that it's only popular because of hype and I will find your address come to where you live and respectfully [ __ ] tell you to your [ __ ] face that I disagree because it's to complain in my opinion and should have got so angry I'm sorry I still love you but please use your brain in conclusion the fights are good the fights are not for everyone but they work and have some exceptional writing behind them at best at times it is fine to not like them but I think it's important to understand that many of the perceived flaws are conscious and thematically functional decisions on the author's part disagreeing with those decisions and thinking of them as not as functional or not as effective is fine pointing out issues with the fights and being unsatisfied with saundra directions they take is fine saying that they are all objectively dull and boring is just a statement I can overall not agree with and the hype argument obviously is just garbage please never use that I just gave you a bunch of things you can use instead please just slander like that don't use the hype argument but yeah that's it thanks for watching we have had amazing growth these last few days this channel literally jumped from 70 subs to 1000 subs in a week so obviously there's a whole bunch of new boys and girls here to properly celebrate both the 1k subs and then you guys here I'd like you all to drop some questions in the comments since I kind of want to make a quick Q&A as a 1k sub special later on the next week or so alternatively you can also ask me on twitter at ocean is 96 why you should also follow me for more frequent updates on the channel and my work thank you all take care happy new year you

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 35,898

Keywords: My Hero Academia, MHA, BNHA, Boku no Hero Academia, Oceaniz, Oceaniz96, Fights, Anime, Hype, Manga, Horikoshi

Id: 7Hl3w-Zd5hM

Length: 20min 9sec (1209 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 30 2018