Boku no Hero Academia Episode 1: [Izuku Midoriya: Origin][First Impressions]

THE TIME HAS COME!
BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA IS HERE GUYS!
GOSH I’M SO EXCITED! 
I WOKE UP AT 10 AM TO SEE THIS ( on a Sunday morning, which is what my parents called a “miracle”)

So what is Boku no Hero Academia or My Hero Academia about ?

Well, it’s about Midoriya Izuku, a regular guy. But not the regular guy of every shounen anime who says ” I’m just a regular High School Student” and then discovers that he’s the descendant/son of who the hell you want, has magical powers and has to save the world. No, Midoriya’s problem is that he is normal in a world where unreal became real. Indeed, a few years ago some abnormal abilities called “quirks” started spreading across the world and 80% of the population now has a quirk. So Midoriya is one of the unlucky 20% to be quirkless, different from the rest of the population. Not having a quirk doesn’t stop you from being happy but Midoriya has a dream: He wants to become a Hero. However, without a quirk, it’s quite complicated. So this story is the story of my son Midoriya who wants to become a hero despite having special powers.

The first episode opens up with young Midoriya protecting another kid from Bakugou the bully and his sidekicks. The fight is unequal since Bakugou and his sucker gang have quirks and not Midoriya, so of course, Midoriya gets wrecked. It’s right after that we learn the whole stuff about quirks becoming a normal thing in this world. Due to this phenomenon, the criminality has improved and to conter this, a whole new profession was developed in order to protect people: Heroes. Now, they are paid by the government, super famous and so on. It’s the dream job for Midoriya who truly wants to save and protect people. He’s been into that Hero stuff since his childhood after watching a clip showing All Might, the most powerful hero, saving 100 persons from an accident. Midoriya had all the All Might Merch and was a real Hero Otaku, which he still is now. However, like it was mentioned before Midoriya does not have a quirk. Usually a quirk is developed when its owner is around 4 years old but for Midoriya, that moment did not happen. The doctor said it quite brutally: “You better forget all of this”. You do not have a quirk so sorry kiddo but being a hero is impossible for you.

Right after that announcement Midoriya is really depressed and watches his favorite All Might video again. His mother arrives and Midoriya asks her while crying: “Can I be a Hero too?”.
Instead of reassuring her son, his mom apologizes, telling him that she’s so sorry, which implies that she does not believe that he can become a Hero.

Man, that scene… seeing my son Midoriya in tears, asking that, just got me soo bad… it was a pretty emotional scene in the manga but seeing it animated was just too much.

So things are quite tough for the Midoriya boy but he didn’t forget his dream and he’s still aiming at becoming a Hero. He takes lots of notes about them, follows the news and studies hard to enter the Yuuei Academy, a public high school forming heroes which has an exam success rate of 0,2%. Midoriya is currently still a student in a crappy middle school but does not lose hope even if all his classmates who have quirks are making fun of him rather than encouraging him or praising him for his courage. And that’s where my favorite character enters:

BAKUGOU KATSUKI

alias

KACCHAN

BAKUGOU MY BOY!
LOOK AT HIS FACE!
HE’S SHOUTING: LATER SUCKERS! 

WHAT A SHITLORD!
I LOVE HIM TO DEATH. 

I don’t care about the haters, Kacchan is awesome. In fact, every morning, I’m drinking the hater’s tears who cried because they can’t be as awesome as he is. So you’re probably here wondering why I like this douchebag… Shhhhh… Just wait and see.

BAKUGOU IS THE BEST!

So Bakugou is a dick to Midoriya but it’s easy to understand that Bakugou is actually a dick to everyone. He wants to enter the Yuuei Academy too and apparently he has great chances to succeed. He thinks he’s the best and hates Midoriya more than anyone else, especially for being this persistant and not losing the sight of his dream despite being quirkless. Where everyone sees Midoriya just as an hopeless dreamer, I’m sure that Bakugou fears him. Bakugou is afraid that Midoriya can outdone him and that’s why he’s so mean to him. I said mean but he’s actually fucking horrible with him let’s say…

But you know, Midoriya, or Deku as Bakugou calls him, is awesome too ( like everybody in this show) and even if his mother doesn’t trust him, all his classmates are making fun of him every day and his childhood friend being the king of assholes, MIDORIYA IS STILL HANGING TO HIS DREAM! He’ll pass the entrance exam of that school and become a hero even without a quirk. That’s some good hero for you!

So one day, Deku is saved from a Super villain by All Might, his favorite hero of all time. He follows him to a rooftop because he wants to ask him a question. After hesitating a bit, he finally asks his idol: ” Can I  be a Hero without a quirk?”.

Charibo’s Thoughts:

Well it was worth waking up at 10 AM

I initially discovered Boku no hero Academia in the Jump that one of my relatives brought me back from Japan (I’m such a weeb). Although I couldn’t understand what the hell was going on, since I can’t read Japanese properly and because it was the chapter 65 of the manga, I thought it looked really cool. That’s also when I fell in love with Bakugou… Don’t judge me, I’m sure you will like him in the end, eventually… So I decided to check out the manga and boy, I wasn’t disappointed. Boku no Hero Academia is awesome, full of amazing characters, nice fights and really funny to read. So of course I was hype as hell for the anime adaptation.

So this first episode? It was really good. The animation is great but I still have a little problem with the characters in the background whose faces are not drawn sometimes. But the details on the faces and the expressions are faithful to the manga and Bones did a great job here capturing the art style of the original material. I particularly like the Onomatopeias in a comic book style, it quite fits the atmosphere.

Overall I’m not disappointed at all with the direction. That scene with Midoriya crying was really intense and well directed. Being able to move me to the tears at episode 1 is quite and achievement.  The whole episode was faithful to the first chapter and that’s a good thing. 

For the moment the soundtrack is great. I’ve heard it’s made by the same composer who did the Haikyuu!! soundtrack, which is amazing, it’s getting me even more hyped to see the fights! I have no problems with the Voice Actors’s cast for the moment, I was afraid of how my Baekugou might sound but he’s fine. Deku’s voice actor did a great job in my opinion so I have no complains on this side.
The Opening is great too. I won’t say amazing because … I don’t know… It got me hyped for the episode, I probably won’t skip it but I won’t try to sing along or download the song. I really like the end where they jump in the sky and stuff, typical OP I know, but me liking this kind of stuff.

My only concern is the same as all the manga readers.. This episode adapted lets say the 2/3 of the first chapter. With this anime being 13 episodes long I’m really wondering where they are going to stop, what the rhythm of the episodes is going to be. I hope they won’t rush the whole thing to provide us a “grand finale” that would be such a waste of potential. And this show has a lot to offer…

GOSH I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE NEXT EPISODES!
I hope you’ll enjoy this as much as I do!

Will I watch this? :  Of course

Will I review this?: Why are you even asking?