Post — Aaron Ngo

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

On August 1, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 13. This was another excellent volume dedicated to My Hero Academia’s superpowered society going through a major change—with both the heroes and the villains—in light of All Might’s forced retirement. While writing this review, I realized there was a lot more going on than I realized.

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 13 kicked off the Hero Provisional License Exam’s second round: a rescue mission where the students will lose points—starting at 100—and whoever drops below 50 points automatically fails. The readers were also given context—through a committee meeting days prior to the exam—about how the exam has been tweaked to give it more emphasis on teamwork, knowing this is an important skill in hero work.

This lesson was seen most especially during the tense interaction between Shoto Todoroki and Inasa Yoarashi—a hyperactive first-year Shiketsu High School student with a Wind Quirk—in the middle of taking the exam. Yoarashi has a deep hatred for Endeavor, projecting that negativity onto Todoroki due to them sharing the same hateful eyes. Yoarashi’s interaction with Todoroki back during U.A.’s entrance exam was also the reason he transferred to Shiketsu High School.

This encounter—and how Todoroki forgot he meet Yoarashi at the U.A. entrance exam—made Todoroki realize how much he acted like his father during the “U.A. Sports Festival Arc” and the earlier arcs. This was excellent character development for Shoto Todoroki and a worthwhile payoff, showing the readers how much Todoroki changed from who he used to be and how far he still has to go to become a Pro Hero. Even Todoroki reflected on how he improved and what he still needed to work on moving forward.

Of course, Todoroki and Yoarashi both lost points for this conflict of interest in the middle of the mock rescue mission, but they ended up working together in the end to defeat Gang Orca—the number 10 hero pretending to be the villain for the exam—with a creative fire-wind tornado combo attack.

The design and purpose behind the exam’s point system were sort of contradicting, as we saw instances where Bakugo lost points for his awful behavior, but his team—consisting of Denki Kaminari and Eijiro Kirishima—was the only one exploring the area trying to find and recue more hurt civilians while everyone else went “hero time” against the villains. The point system punished wrongdoing, but it didn’t reward “right” either.

This contradiction in the point system was most apparent when Deku lost points for hesitating while out in the field, but All Might was drawn to Deku back in Volume 1 for moving without thinking—like a true hero—toward a crisis. It begs a few questions like, “How do you grade someone on becoming a hero? Can you train someone to be a hero, or do you need an innate heroic spirit? And then the most important question that embodies all the other questions I asked: What makes a hero?”

The first half of Volume 13 was indeed a lot.

The second half showed us what the impact of All Might’s retirement on the villains’ side—like the League of Villains growing in numbers—in addition to All Might visiting All For One in prison. The ending to this volume was the best part, as it gave us more insight into Bakugo’s character development, his deep admiration for All Might, and the complex relationship he shares with Deku.

While a strong character most of the time, this was the first time we see Bakugo’s vulnerable side and the hurt he had been carrying since he was kidnapped. Essentially, Bakugo blamed himself for All Might’s retirement and grew anxious over keeping All Might’s secret—Deku having his Quirk—to himself. For the first time, Deku—and the readers—began to truly understand Bakugo’s true feelings.

Overall, what a fantastic volume with an effective cliffhanger ending. I highly recommend giving the volume manga books a chance, especially if you’ve been watching the anime. Experiencing this hero story will be worth your time. Trust me!

Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading!

Say it with me now: PLUS ULTRA!

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