This weekend the martyrdom called the fifth season of My Hero Academia is finally over … and before this is misunderstood: the author of this beloved text loves My Hero Academia and there is even a video in Spaghetti Code where we speak wonders of his protagonist (see below).
That said, the fifth season is precisely a disastrous way to show all the benefits and all the achievements that Kohei Horikoshi has achieved as an author, but it is also an example of how an anime can completely change the vision of a story with just driving poorly the original material.
What did the fifth season of My Hero Academia adapt?
This season ran roughly from chapter 194, which is when Class A and B clash and Shinzo intends to enter the hero course and ended in a mix of chapters 258 and 254, which marks the beginning of the heroes’ war. against the Paranormal Liberation Front.
Well, this seems like something perfectly adaptable within a 25-part anime. That is to say. We have approximately 50 manga chapters to put into 25 weekly anime pieces. Which, on average, would give us two pieces of the sleeve for each. But but…
In the beginning, we have a filler chapter that, in my opinion, seemed a preparation because the events that occur from this moment on are key to the emotional development of the characters of My Hero Academia, in addition to confirming Horikoshi as a mangaka that he dispenses with senseless action to give little words to everything he had been forging.
Especially, the backstories of the Todoroki family, as well as Shigaraki, Dabi, and of course Midoriya and their relationship with All For One, have an important development and weight throughout these 50 manga chapters; but this happened disastrously in the anime, and instead of having a leisurely pace throughout the entire season, Bones decided that the Class A and Class B fights would take 11 chapters of the total.
This left us with only 14 chapters to see, at the same time, the merger between the Detnerat company and the Association of Villains; the traumas of Shoto and his brothers, as well as Endeavor’s vindication campaign; the history of the origin of Shigaraki; the restructuring of the Heroes Association; the mission secret Detnerat for the release of the superpowers; the new secrets of All For One and One For All and the prelude to the greatest battle to date.
Sounds like a lot, right? Well, it is. It is too much information and not only is it a lot, but all of it is valuable. If during all these years the My Hero Academia manga has been gaining a reputation beyond being one more prototypical shonen, it is exactly through these steps that its mangaka took, to give us an interesting story beyond their fights.
How to adapt a manga the bad way
We already know how the landfill is handled in this industry. It’s a strategy to get more profitable content from successful franchises. However, this system has changed a lot in today’s industry.
With the new way of working of the studios in seasonal programs, the animes have the possibility of adapting in a much better way to the original material, either in short and finished sleeves, such as Kimetsu no Yaiba, or in current works and with a possible promising future, like JuJutsu Kaisen.
However, it seems that the fifth season of My Hero Academia was designed to be filled to the sea … but this is no longer possible. Having programs running for years on a regular basis is virtually impossible for any current franchise, and for good reason. Just look at everything Toei Animation has done over the decades to understand why it is necessary for both mangakas and animators to have a less demanding work environment.
It is not understandable why the most important parts of this season and these arcs had to be compressed so much, much less why use three chapters simply as filler when the story demanded another way of being produced. It may come directly from the greater influence that Toho had within the fifth season, or that it was simply an error in the planning, or directly the director did not see it prudent to pay attention to everything that in the manga has such a great weight.
And it will be serene, what is a fact is that we will enter the sixth season with little context of many things that are not only decisive but also mark the course of the final future of the entire manga, which at this moment is in a climactic point … even bigger than it was a year ago.
It seems even repetitive to say it, a hateful cliché, but if this is how anime production will continue to be, with films and promotional receiving more attention than the core of the story itself, it is time to reject anime again and return to manga … just because, the manga is better (for now).
