The Society of My Hero Academia

[Music] world-building it's one of the most consistently misunderstood terms in fictional writing to many this term only encompasses the description and showcase of location on an entirely fictional map which is a pretty reductive understanding of the term while that is one part of the concept there is much more that goes into it well building isn't just about knowing what is where on the map but it's about the sense of convincing setting and space it's not just about knowing where each my ballsack Ville is and how it looks but about making you the reader believe that eat my ballsack Ville or EMB vie for my fellow cool kids actually could exist and this is achieved by establishing history infrastructure legality social political and economic structures and just general logical causal relationships in the place this might all sound very pseudo complex but essentially well building refers to all the writing that is done in order to make a fictional space feel convincing and believable like to place with a consistent logic structure and history this is also why world building even applies to stories that take place in our own actual world for example we can speak about world building in Harry Potter even if technically only takes place in just England here the world building is less about creating new locations and more about showing how the system of wizardry integrates itself convincingly into the UK of the 1990s notice how I keep using the word convincing instead of realistic that's because world building does not have to be realistic in order to be good which is not a common misconception that even I believed at some point essentially if the world has sense of logic behind its elements and how they interact it has a high chance of succeeding in its world building and lastly good world building can and should happen mostly in the background a sign of an author knowing how to build a setting well is if the world naturally develops connects and explains itself without the need for too much heavy exposition that was very theoretical I'm aware so let's get there are many stories we could look at for world building but one recent example that really excels at it is my hero academia but oceans I hear you say ma che is just set in modern Japan surely that means it can't have good world building well refer to the intro world building isn't about making new maps and places but about making the fictitious spaces the story takes place in feel convincing and sensible so whether or not a story makes up its own universe or borers ours well building can still happen and happen well in the case of Haraka it's all about one concept quirks and how they integrate and interact when dropped into a modern setting more importantly here akka puts most of its world building focus into one specific aspect society as funny as the jokes may seem society is a pretty integral part of any world building the moment you have more than two characters present in your fictional world voila they live in a society and depending on the priorities of the story an author may need to flesh out the societal aspects of its world pretty heavily these aspects will obviously differ from story to story but one thing that stays consistent is the societal structures are complex webs of causality psychology and politics as such they not only require significant effort to build convincingly but also a sizeable knowledge of history and sociology to pull off well Andy Rocca does exactly that in a lesser story about superpowers quirks would just sort of exist with modern life going on as usual and to be completely fair you'd be forgiven for thinking that hero akka is that lesser story based on its early chapters as life seems relatively unchanged at first however soon enough Kohi horikoshi begins peeling away the layers of his world bit by bit revealing the ways which quirks have integrated and in some cases destabilized society when quirks first emerged modern society basically crumbled apart the very idea of what being human actually means dissolved as the populace was split between the newly empowered and powerless violent protests shook global structures to their very core government organs failed while criminal syndicates rose up giving the disenfranchised the place to belong while most of this was resolved eventually both by the homogenization of the super-powered and the rise of governmental structures to support them this transitionary period left behind enormous scars with for example scientific progress being halted almost completely for an unspecified period of time this backstory for the world's lore is relatively simple but incredibly effective in establishing the massive effect quirks had on society considering how much unrest a real world suffers based on minuscule differences relatively something as drastic as supernatural abilities causing lasting global instability is pretty convincing the great thing here is that horikoshi essentially just plopped the concept of quirks into his world and then allowed society to do react in an organic natural way that makes sense both for the story and for the world this can also be seen in how multifaceted this issue seems to have been while governments were overwhelmed many distinct and conflicting viewpoints about quirks crystallized between the extremist philosophy of destro the charitable thievery of og hajima or the cold opportunistic reign of all-4-one the story create his impression that the conflict of quirks was something that affected people from all walks of life giving it the wide and varied effect that such a large societal shift would reasonably have but this is only the beginning the catalyzing period of much of harakas world building because as these events all lay in the past the series mostly focuses on their consequences and this is another point in which it truly excels as events as large as global upheaval are shown to rightfully have a multitude of consequences of all possible kinds first off many societal and governmental infrastructure are changed and adjusted to accommodate for quirks they are now registered and catalogued by specified agencies with a mandatory general quirk counseling organized for preschoolers to get a good understanding of quirks and their meaning the word itself quirk is also a consequence of the original conflict as they first appeared they were first known as meta abilities but they were gradually renamed into quirks as a manager make him seem more pleasing and friendly overall the world has taken great steps to adapt to this new phenomenon but not all of it is positive purists group developed uncertainty about the quirks origin led to fanaticism and the overzealous focus on quirk counseling led to an overall decrease in social and emotional support and education for the youth in short the world's changes an adjustment brought along both great opportunities but also crafted deficits and detriments again this is a very convincing and reasonable cause-and-effect relationship that aligns well with how society would probably reasonably react okay but so what it's commencing it's reasonable but how does this societal world-building benefit this story the brilliance of this world building is that it is both built by it also reinforcement of a core central theme of my hero academia as a whole inequality from the very start we are told that this world is one of hardship and disproportionate strife what seems like a pseudo poetic intro line is actually a summary of what this series is pretty much about inequality is baked into the very basics of Heroica and more importantly into its world building due to the emergence of quirks dreams can become reality but not for everyone because quirks come in all different types versions and abilities they present an additional oranjee when being born and what you end up getting can be incredibly influential over the rest of your life an aspect of your birth that you have no control over yet will have incredible ramifications for the life you lead maybe you are born with a boring uninteresting quirk and just live your life as a regular citizen or maybe you are born with a flashy strong ability that makes you popular and a top pick for celebrity status but conversely perhaps you're born with an ability that is seen as inherent villainous and suffer from people expecting you to turn on society any minute now maybe you're born as a mutant type and suffer at the hands of purists and supremacist groups decrying you as a monster or more tragically your ability and your natural drive to use and explore it involve socially unacceptable or even illegal activities causing you to be shunned by society for just existing or what if your power catalyzes your pre-existing mental health conditions to spiral out of control perhaps your power directly harms you throwing you into an agonizing existence or maybe the great power you're born with condemns you to a life of living up to that power merely a tool for your family and friends to rub up against greatness or maybe your quirk manifests as a deadly unstoppable disaster that tears your life asunder this complex spectrum of consequences forms naturally from the simple integration of superpowers they are a natural effect caused by society responding to a large-scale change that ultimately causes both good and bad but just like a real society the bad is hidden swept under the rug and ignored by the larger population when they see a kid on the street ravaged by its own quirk they walk on thinking that in this super human society someone will surely be able to help but no one does when a teenage girl commits a crime while seeking understanding of her quirk because she simply wasn't educated enough on that quirk and on its ramifications everyone gasps and is shook but then moves on with their day society is suffering but it chooses to pretend it doesn't in order to maintain a fragile sense of balance and direction paying off the status quo with the suffering of the marginalized because of this every single character in my hero academia suffers from the consequences of the deeply systemic power inequality inherent to their new perception of humanity and its evolution and it is this inequality that binds them in their positions and bubbles of struggle and all of this every single bit of it is an expertly crafted and common indicated result of the societal world building horikoshi has employed and continues to employ in conclusion my academia doesn't build dozens of fictional countries or cultures what it does do however is craft maintain and develop a multitude of convincing social structures that center around and reinforce the core themes with a narrative thanks wrists the story retains a thematic consistency that is built on human actions and struggles all of which are depicted with a considerable understanding of real-world social causalities every piece of social world building in this story interacts with one another and creates a complex web that is incredibly reminiscent of real-life social structures in the end we all really do live in a society thank you all for watching I hope you enjoyed this video if you want to see more of it subscribe support me all that jazz thanks also to my patrons you can support me there as well and yeah see you next time love you all bye bye you

Channel: Oceaniz

Views: 66,603

Rating: 4.9480519 out of 5

Keywords: My Hero Academia, Boku no Hero Academia, MHA, BNHA, HeroAca, Society, Worldbuilding, Shigaraki, Overhaul, Deku, All Might, Writing, Analysis, Anime, Manga, Oceaniz, Oceaniz96

Id: wF8m4EAnwXU

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Spatterx23]

Mha's worldbuilding is underrated imo

[u/whatsupxx]

Fantastic video tbh.

[u/NinjaristicNinja]

How about another joke All Might?

[u/HokageEzio]

We live in a society.