My Hero Academia Volume 9: “My Hero” (Chapters 72 through 80) Manga Review
Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.
On July 28, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 9. This volume kicked off the “Forest Training Camp Arc”, which was where season 3 of the anime also began.
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 9: “My Hero” was the most intense volume yet. The students were pushed to their limits—especially the ones who had failed their final exams in the previous volume—during training sessions to develop their Quirks. After everything they’ve been through so far in this series, the teachers at U.A. decided to jumpstart the students’ training so they’ll be better prepared for future villain attacks.
Some students—like Izuku Midoriya and Tenya Iida—worked on physical training to strengthen their Quirks while others—Denki Kaminari and Shoto Todoroki—were doing endurance exercises to boost their Quirks’ duration and / or time limits.
We were also introduced to new characters like The Wild, Wild Pussycats and their young ward Kota. Kota is different from the other characters introduced so far due to his negative outlook on heroes and villains—the superpowered society in general. Of course, our main protagonist Deku is sympathetic and tries to reach out to the young lad clearly in pain.
Of course, the artwork by Kohei Horikoshi must be addressed. The darker tones and backgrounds were utilized more effectively in this volume, given the dark tone that took place at the volume’s halfway point. Deku’s One For All fight scenes were also drawn with more emotional impact, as the stakes in this volume kept raising for the hero to near impossible standards.
Overall, this volume had a fun start that left us on a tragic cliffhanger. There were a lot of action sequences and fight scenes that I opted not to discuss, but I would recommend reading this volume if you’re curious enough to know what happens next. Thanks for reading my manga review! Let’s keep it reading!