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So to start out MHA is a good series, with a lot of great things going on. The most important metric is if it's interesting and it's certainly that.
Good things: Midoriya is a good main character. A main character can make or break a series. For example, I think Hitman Reborn has a ton of good stuff in it, but I'd never recommend it cause I hate Tsuna so much that it sours the series for me. Midoriya is a good and likable character, but at times he's too perfect. It's realistic that his confidence has grown through experience, but he hasn't had a real personal crisis to test him yet. He's had the issues controlling his powers and it seems like with the new quirks activating that seems like it will come again, but I'm waiting on the things that will test him in a new way. Midoriya is over relied on or over utilized. Yes, he's the main character but the rest of the cast is so big and ripe with potential that he could be given a back seat at times.
The rest of the cast is really good for the most part. Outside of Mineta all the characters are pretty easy to like. But it makes you want more for them, which is a weakness I'll get into later. The world has slowly been expanding showing us more pros. Horikoshi I feel started hitting his stride in the Overhaul arc, you see do more interesting things with the art and start putting his stylistic touch on panels. So I'm hoping as the story continues that confidence will continue to extend to how the supporting cast is utilized.
The powers are interesting. I'm really looking forward to seeing a few things 1. These new hybrid and advanced powers the younger generation have. This will be a big factor with midoriya having 6 quicks. 2. The import of quirk boosters from the US. Not sure if this will happen, but I think it will. 3. The hero teams forming and the subsequent power interactions and how that will change the dynamic of the hero world and villain world. 4. The government org and their involvement in everything. We haven't gotten much from them yet, but their involvement has gradually grown.
The story overall is solid. It has a lot of potential in how it can develop. So with all these pieces available I want to see exactly where Horikoshi takes it. Obviously theres going to be the League of Villains clash, but I don't see the progression being so linear to that point. At least in my opinion it doesn't need to. Things make sense as well there's no out there leaps yet. I actually really like One for All giving Midoriya more quirks, because I had been asking myself all the previous owner probably weren't quickless, so what happened to their quicks when it was passed down. So the story is over 200 chapters in and still has lots of potential, so it's easy to see why people are so excited about it.
The bad: My biggest complaint as I was reading the series and the thing I felt holding it back from really being great is it feels shallow. If I had to guess this istdogg2k problem with the series. The storylines could go deeper, you could dive deeper into all the cast, you could dive deeper into the world, basically everything you could go deeper, but we start at or just below the surface and don't fully tap into it. I felt in the overhaul arc we started getting more depth. The school festival was fun, but I felt it was also a missed opportunity. It seemed like Jiro was going to get love. It would have been a nice arc to really explore the side characters outside of Bakugo and Todoroki and Kirishima.
Even in the overhaul arc, which Kirishima got development and spotlight, but Tsuya and Urakara didn't which was a huge missed opportunity. Both are great, but got overlooked. So it's just missed opportunities. And it happens a lot with the character interactions going back to being shallow. They're all resolved too easily, there was a part where they moved into the dorm and Tsuya excused herself then later says she wants to apologize for something she said and reset the relationship, but there was no indication it was needed or a big deal outside of a off hand panel. It's shallow interactions that are said to be meaningful that hurt the series a bit. So it's something that could be fixed easily enough to really bring out the series potential, who knows if it will.
The pace I feel most people probably see the series pace as a strength, because it's fast. This could be a bias since I was reading it in chunks rather than week to week. I see it as a weaker element due to the reason above. To keep the pace up things are glossed over, situations aren't explored, tension between character relationships aren't built, teenage relationship aren't this cheery and simple, students aren't really failing or struggling. When you push the pace the way it is the small things that can really help round out and elevate the series lost of don't hit.
Villains: I think we can and should get a lot more here. Where are the super villains outside of All for One and now the rise of Tomaru? I get All Might was taking out a bunch of them before his injury, but more should have risen up. There should be bigger more established villains. Stain inspired a new class of villains, but where are all the OG villains that rivaled heroes? Right now the latest Nomu have been bigger threats than a lot of villains. I like Toga, I want to see more of Dabi, but the villains should show much more going forward is my hope. I'd like to see what happens to kids that get expelled or high potential ones that don't want to be heroes turn to villainy. It's just weak dynamic of the story so far.
Overall: it's a fun and interesting series with a ton of potential that can be tapped into to make it really great. I'm optimistic Hirokoshi will start doing so as he gains experience and confidence as a mangaka and the series being so popular should allow him to take more risks.
I respect this review - very well articulated and great points made.
Completely agree that the pacing has prevented a certain level of depth in the series. Personally, I've started / stopped reading One Piece at least 4 times because I wasn't a fan of how there were a ton of chapters that just seemed to drag on forever without meaningful developments. I think MHA's pacing is the inverse of that, where there are probably too many developments meaningful for the macro story that occur in quick succession, to the point where we lose out on opportunities to develop characters in a more intimate way. That said, I'm personally more willing to make that trade-off than the other way around, but my hunch is that the "perfect" pace lies somewhere between OP and MHA.
On the villain side, I think you bring up an interesting point re: where the other immensely strong villains are, but I'm not sure if that isn't explained by All For One's existence. It seems to me that All For One was to villains as All Might was to heroes, except instead of using his power to the benefit of everyone he used his power to consolidate everyone else's power. We saw in the dream sequence how he basically acted as a "quirk broker" if you will, which, combined with his own power, would provide him the means to control pretty much all major crime in Japan, if not on a wider scale. AFO doesn't seem like the type to "co-exist" with another large player ala the Yonkou - his power was near absolute and thus he likely remained at the top of the food chain and stockpiled the strongest quirks. While we do know there are other heavy hitters out there that worked under AFO (e.g. Gigantomachia) I DO wonder if there are other powerful actors waiting in the shadows similar to Overhaul or if there will even be a foreign threat looking to fill the power vacuum left by AFO.
Overall agree with most of your view here. I think the series has room for improvement but there's also a TON of potential here, so excited to see where Horikoshi takes it.
