Blair Loveday
The first half of My Hero Academia: Season 5 was a nice change of pace with some great side action as Class-1A did some sweet battles with Class 1-B.
What was really interesting was some of the insight we got into the All For One quirk. This really built up for a potential banger of a second half of the season. In many ways it delivers.
This season starts all over the place.
We get some intrigue with Hawks being undercover with a group of the League of Villains. It turns out there are some heroes working for the bad guys with the plan to unleash their powers. As this builds up, we get a story with Todoroki and Endeavour’s family.
Turns out that Endeavour is more of a dick than we realised. There is also an episode in there that acts as a prequel to My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission.
But the season starts getting really good really fast. There is an episode called My Villain Academia which jumps back a couple of months and follows the villains. We get some interesting context for Shigaraki and how he became the twisted mastermind we have come to know and hate. From here we get a bunch of time with the villains which is dark but interesting to follow.
I really don’t want to spoil the story too much here because at this point the show keeps getting better and better.
Over the years My Hero Academia has gotten so much better at building its characters and lore and this season is no exception. The build up to the climax may take some time, but it is worth it. It’s especially good that as they build Endeavor’s character they are happy to emphasise how flawed he is, while still allowing him to become a little bit sympathetic.
The real only unfortunate thing about the half of the season is the pacing.
I kind of wish they crammed the earlier episodes into less time and gave the last episodes a lot more time. The one that ties into the movie was really unnecessary and just throws the tone off a bit. From the episode before My Villain Academia it gets so good, but it took 5 episodes to get to that stage.
The collectors edition comes with a slick box to house both Part 1 and Part 2 in it.
They know the best part of the season since it is branded with a My Villain Academia logo. With the villains on one side and the heroes on the other side, even I am surprised how much I am talking about the box. Inside it is a small but very nice hardcover artbook. This makes a really nice set on your Blu-Ray shelf. It also comes with a cool My Villain Academia patch and an Ochako acrylic keychain. The Blu-Ray also includes a special feature where we get the voices of the villains talking about the show for a change.
On the whole, it is far from the best season but man am I amped for Season 6 now.
The high’s are so damn high, and some of the character development is excellent, but some of that filler is a bit too bland and on the whole the pacing can just be a bit off.
The Limited Edition itself though is top notch and well worth looking at.
