My Hero Academia Volume 16: “Red Riot” (Chapters 138 through 147) Manga Review
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 4, 2020, I started reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 16 and finished the manga book on August 5. While this volume continued falling into the anime chase sequence trope—losing party members one by one to “hold off enemies”—similar to Naruto’s “Sasuke Retrieval Arc”, I still found the backstories on Red Riot and Sunmaker intimately necessary, giving them the breathing room to become fleshed-out characters in their own right.
Kirishima (Red Riot) and Tamaki Amajika (Sunmaker)—again, similar to the “Sasuke Retrieval Arc”—were also given amazing fight scenes alongside their backstories to tackle their insecurities as heroes. Both characters are similar but also vastly different. Kirishima is a rookie hero trying to prove himself despite his “boring” Quirk while Tamaki is already on par with Pro Heroes, but he struggles under pressure due to his awkward anti-social behavior.
Tamaki Amajika had an interesting background regarding his un-hero-like Quirk—taking on the form of whatever he eats—and his friendship with Mirio Togata, which gave him the courage to take initiative and stay behind, letting everyone else go ahead to complete the raid mission and rescue Eri in spite of what would initially hold him back.
Tamaki’s fight and backstory were covered in the first half while the second half covered Kirishima’s fight and backstory in addition to the origin behind “Red Riot”, the namesake of this volume. Despite Kirishima having upgraded his Quirk and being acknowledged in the news for it in the earlier volumes, Kirishima’s spirit nearly broke—ridden with intense fear—when villain Kendo Rappa delivered serious damage to his “Red Riot Unbreakable” Ultimate Move in one hit.
The ending flashback to Kirishima’s story though, reminded him that it’s okay for heroes to be afraid as long as they forge ahead to protect people anyway, which was Kirishima’s idea of chivalry and his way to achieving victory—and earning the villain Kendo Rappa’s respect—in the battle.
However, Kohei Horikoshi didn’t give the same respect to the female characters—Ochako Uraraka, Tsuyu Asui, Nejire Hado, and Ryuko—who were forced to stay outside to fend off enemies. Out of the two hero work studies introduced for the side-characters, Ryuko’s was the one who drew the short straw. As an anime watcher, I can already tell you this problem wasn’t fixed or addressed. They’re basically non-existent for the rest of the arc.
Overall, I still had a good time with Volume 16: “Red Riot” even though it showed signs of dragging the arc on with the “Chase Sequence Trope” of leaving people behind to hold off enemies designated to slow down the heroes. The character development and fight scenes mostly made up for it. Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading! Say it with me now: PLUS ULTRA!