My Hero Academia Volume 12: “The Test” (Chapters 100 through 108) Manga Review
Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.
On July 30, 2020, I started reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 12 and finished on July 31, 2020. If you would like to catch up on my previous volume reviews before diving into this one, the link to them all is here. Otherwise, there will be 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.
Volume 12: “Test” leans heavier on the lighter side of things, given what we experienced in Volume 11. The students are back in school and adjusting to dorm life, but they also have to pick up on their training to prepare for the Hero Provisional License Exam! For that exam, they will need to resume the Quirk training they started during the “Forest Camp Training Arc”. They will also need to create “Ultimate Moves” as part of their school and training regimen. The students are pumped and excited to get stronger!
Mei Hatsume—a passionate student from the Support Course—makes her return in this volume as an ally to Deku and friends, helping them out with upgrading their costumes and equipment to strengthen their Quirks. These scenes were lighthearted and showed the fun aspects of the Support Course, showing how amazing Hatsume is with creating gear and support items. Her return to the volume also brought up an important point about being heroes.
There was an unspoken hero network being created, as these aren’t ordinary students who will never see each other post-graduation. They will definitely meet up again as Pro Heroes—future co-workers so to speak. Their friendships and bonds will likely develop to future working relationships that will surely help them down the line as they work harder to become Pro Heroes. Mei Hatsume is the most prominent example, as her amazing ability and great passion to create support items will give her a huge presence in the next generation of heroes.
Eraser Head even makes a comment regarding this future when he touched upon the growing dynamics between Deku and Bakugo, and how their passionate drive to become heroes inspired the rest of Class 1-A to work together—despite getting separated from each other—during the Provisional License Exam. Also regarding this exam, there were over 1,500 participants with only 100 allowed to pass the first round.
It’s easy to overlook that there are other hero schools aside from U.A. This volume started focusing on the students, their schools, and the teachers like Ms. Joke, who has an interesting history with Eraser Head. The world-building felt larger as a result, as we were given glimpses into the new students’ Quirks and their opinions on Class 1-A.
Overall, My Hero Academia’s Volume 12 was an exceptional manga book. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next in manga format. Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading!