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 August 8, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 22. Like in the previous volume, we were treated to more joint battle training matches between Class 1-A and Class 1-B.

This volume also had shorter chapter pages similar to the previous volume, which enhanced the pacing of the fight scenes playing out between the two classes. Picking up where we left off with Momo Yaoyorozu and Itsuka Kendo, this battle confirmed that Class 1-B hadn’t been skimping out on their training off-screen and can fight toe-to-toe with Class 1-A. Yaoyorozu displayed great strategic planning like what she did with Shoto Todoroki during the “Final Exams Arc”, but Class 1-B’s Itsuka Kendo proved to be her equal when she managed to secure victory in the round.

The third battle featuring Shoto Todoroki and Tenya Iida was pretty outstanding for their characters. Todoroki battled against Tetsutetsu—who has a Quirk like Kirishima but Steel Hardening—who was able to push past his ice and fire. This one-on-one match also challenged Todoroki’s internal conflict regarding his father Endeavor and reaching that level of firepower. Their battle was also just really fun to read. Iida was given some panels too—after being neglected for the past couple volumes—to reflect on his progress as his brother’s hero successor during this third match.

A new character from Class 1-B—Juzo Honenuki—was featured during this battle too, showing how well he functioned as a leader to his classmates in addition to the great usage of his softening Quirk. Class 1-B might actually deserve a spin-off based on their well-received performance. I thought Class 1-B should’ve won this particular match, but it was declared a tie. The “both sides getting knocked out” part was hard to believe due to how well Class 1-B—Juzo Honeuki specifically—was doing against Class 1-A.

Once this third match settled, the next one—featuring Katsuki Bakugo—was my absolute favorite. Bakugo was another character from Class 1-A who hadn’t been featured for a while, so watching him actually team-up with Jiro, Sato, and Sero was an awesome payoff to his character development.

Monoma’s self-aware, “You mean he got character development?” freak out was incredibly beautiful. Even though Bakugo was still reluctant to rely on others, he was still willing to do so in order to achieve victory, which is a stark contrast to his old self back during the “U.A. Sports Festival Arc”. Katsuki Bakugo and Kyoka Jiro teaming up was the last thing I expected, but now I want more.

The final match-up with Izuku Midoriya and Hitoshi Shinso appeared ready to go underway, but then One For All started to go out of control in the middle of the training match. The unexpected scenario was unsettling and chaotic, with only Ochaco Uraraka being the only one to jump in to help Midoriya. When Shinso used his brainwashing to keep Midoriya under control, the boy was sent back to the dream world. The cliffhanger moment hints at a new upgrade—or more story expansion—for One For All.

Overall, Volume 22 had a fast pace from start to finish with enjoyable character moments from both classes. While there was an imbalance between the matches from the controversial “Who should’ve won?” with Shoto and Iida’s match to the absolute favorite Bakugo match-up, I still left the volume on a positive note.

There were also fun mini-comics from authors—like Betten Court—in the ending pages, so that was pretty cool. I’m excited to see what happens next in Volume 23: “Our Brawl”. Thanks for reading this manga review, everyone! Plus Ultra!

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