Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

Synopsis: Written and drawn by Kohei Horikoshi, the main series follows Izuku Midoriya—nicknamed Deku—and his dream to become a hero someday. In a world where 80% of the superhuman society had powers—dubbed Quirks in this series—the dream to become a superhero became way more common. Sadly enough, Deku fell into the 20% category, effectively making him average—or Quirkless. After a fateful encounter with the number one hero All Might though, Deku’s fate changes forever.

On October 9, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia Volume 25: “Tomura Shigaraki: Origin”. I had such a great time reading this manga book after catching up with Tower of God Webtoon, that I decided to binge-read the rest of My Hero Academia’s latest chapters currently out after this manga book. With 288 chapters total out at time of this review’s publication—meaning I had 42 manga chapters to read—the reading challenge didn’t take too long.

I want to do some “house cleaning” before reading One Piece manga next. You read that correctly. My next biggest reading challenge is reading One Piece on November 1st, 2020 after taking care of the “house cleaning”. The next My Hero Academia chapter is coming on November 1st as well. Why is the wait so long?

Now that I put in my two cents about my plans for reading One Piece and My Hero Academia, let’s dive into the manga review:

Volume 25 completed building Tomura Shigaraki as the series’ primary antagonist—the true successor to All For One. The starting flashback chapter resolved the cliffhanger from Volume 24 by completing Shigaraki’s background, and how he came to meet All For One on that fateful day out on the streets.

Reading how Shigarakai—and how he was remembering this background too—was well-written, showing us readers that Horikoshi has a strong knack for writing dark themes—the gray and black color scheme added so much tension into the beginning scenes—and blending it bluntly into the narrative drove home how much passion Horikoshi put into his villains.

Kicking off Volume 25 with Shigaraki accidentally killing his dog, sister, mom, and grandma with his Quirk made me feel sympathy for him, and then he intentionally murdered his father, giving into the darkness brewing inside him. The shift from accidental to intentional undercut that sympathy with serious doubt.

Like, “Did Shigaraki plan to kill his whole family subconsciously?”

I was immersed with the Shigaraki’s character transformation, his tragically explored background, and the origin behind all those hands attached to his body. Kohei Horikoshi has a real obsession with drawing hands for some reason, so seeing how he beautifully adds it into this character—and making it symbolic—was a stroke of genius.

The villains are stronger than ever—having merged the League of Villains group and Meta Liberation Army into the Paranormal Liberation Front under Tomura Shigaraki’s leadership—and they are also ready for their next move against the heroes! My jaw dropped when Tomura Shigaraki created this huge new villain group. Infinity War time!

The second part of this volume book focused on Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugou—in addition to a few lighthearted Christmas / New Year’s Eve chapters—that balanced out the darkness in the first part. How Kohei Horikoshi managed to create such a balance between the dark and light made the scenes both dynamic and fast paced—there were so many things happening for both heroes and villains.

Overall, my love for My Hero Academia manga series reignited—similar to how my love for Tower of God got reignited right when I caught up with all 485 episodes (ugh!). I would also highly recommend purchasing Volume 25—which was recently released on October 6, 2020—if you’re looking for a fantastic manga read.

Side-note: I will not be writing manga arc reviews for the 41 chapters I read—sticking to the Volume manga reviews for consistency—so I will see y’all next time when Volume 26: “The High, Deep Blue Sky” gets released or My Hero Academia Season 5 drops Spring 2021. Whichever comes first.

Thanks for reading this manga review! Let’s keep it reading! PLUS ULTRA!

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