Post — Aaron Ngo

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

On July 29, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 11—the most emotional manga book yet. This particular volume yanked on the reader’s heartstrings and kept going until they snapped, especially mine when I played the OST music that went along with all those powerful scenes.

I’d highly recommend either playing the My Hero Academia OST music while reading the manga or watch the anime scenes on YouTube for a better reading experience. I did this frequently whenever I read manga like Haikyuu!!, My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, and The Promised Neverland.

Also, if you are behind on the series at this point, consider this a warning—there will be Major Spoiler Content following the synopsis paragraph.

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.

The story picks up where we left off in Volume 10: “All For One”, wasting no time getting us readers back into the epic battle between All Might and All For One. Honestly, the build-up to this inevitable confrontation was well-earned and at the same time, an inconvenience because All Might was only trying to save Bakugo and All For One was getting in his way. Luckily, five U.A. students—Deku, Yaoyorozu, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Iida—were hiding out behind the scenes.

The tension went from 0 to 110 when you hit that first page. The Pro Heroes were trying to save Bakugo from the villains, Bakugo was trying to save himself from the villains—a 6-on-1 fight—without getting in All Might’s way, and the villains were trying to escape with Bakugo—forcibly—without getting captured by the other Pro Heroes.

The fight scene between the number 1 hero and the number 1 villain was on a world-shaking scale—a true battle among Gods. All Might’s fighting style and personality are shown in a different light during this fight, as he’s pushed to the limits—and pushed beyond even that—against his arch-nemesis.

Regarding the artwork and structure of the manga scenes in this volume, I’ve noticed they’re layering differently whenever All Might has fight scenes. The change is subtle and easy-to-miss though, so let me explain further. Instead of the symmetrical grid-like squares we usually see in manga action sequences, the cells are styled diagonally or slanted, or they don’t even have borders at all; the characters would just burst—or SMASH—their way into the white space, the next cell, or whatever came next. Honestly, the fight got chaotic in a such a satisfying way. While this isn’t unique to manga itself, Kohei Horikoshi just made it unique for All Might’s amazing fight scenes.

This battle between the embodiments of good and evil covered the first half of Volume 11 while the second half dealt with the fallout. U.A. High School needed to deal with these villain attacks and their course of action regarding Bakugo’s kidnapping, while the students are trying to regain some normalcy in their own way.

Bakugo had some decent character development in this volume as well. His fight scene against six villains was impressive, his ability to work with the others’ rescue mission showed him softening up—particularly to his one “friend” Kirishima—and most importantly, the All Might smile he had on his face while everyone else cowered in fear watching All Might fight against All For One. This volume also put more focus on his admiration and respect for All Might, thanking him and telling him it’s okay that he keeps secrets from him regarding Deku.

The most unexpected character to get character development in this volume though, was Izuku Midoriya’s mother. She had more screen time in this volume more than all her previous appearances combined. When All Might visits Izuku Midoriya’s house—the first of many house visits—to update the parents on their plan to have the students move to U.A. dorms for their own protection, we finally hear her opinions on the constant villain attacks, her son’s constant injuries, and All Might himself.

Inko Midoriya and All Might show great respect for each other during this scene, with All Might even comparing Inko to his own mentor. Inko Midoriya respects All Might to tell him her honest feelings but also encouraging him to stay alive for Deku’s sake. This scene is particularly potent due to All Might saying he needed to live in order to “raise” Midoriya earlier in the manga, which spoke volumes to their parent-child bond.

The other parents of Class 1-A—like Katsuki Bakugo’s, Kyoka Jiro’s, etc.—were also given some screen time too, and they also voiced their opinions / concerns about what’s been going on at U.A. and the villain attacks. This led to lighthearted scenes, and a closer look at the other students’ homelife.

The volume’s second half continued the lightheartedness, guiding us through U.A. dorm life with the students organizing a fun “best room” contest. Seeing Class 1-A interact with each other and reestablishing their class dynamics moving forward was a good way to conclude Volume 11. The entire volume was a rollercoaster of emotions.

Overall, the volume started epically intense and ended somewhat lighthearted with the students back at school, about to kick off another story arc. This was an amazing volume, and definitely one of my favorite manga books to read. I cried the most reading these chapters, so I really do mean it when I say, “I highly recommend this manga series for those into the superhero genre”. Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading to the next volume! Say it with me now: PLUS ULTRA!

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