I thought I’d write a post on this, elaborating a bit on some of the things I’ve said previously. These are just my opinions and interpretations, and people are free to disagree with them as is their wont.
Fiction does not exist in a vacuum and neither do authors exist in vacuums. I understand that some people don’t like discussing the author when they are discussing a particular work which is fine. But to thus imply that there is no authorial intent, whether conscious or unconscious, is patently absurd. We can agree or disagree on what that authorial intent is but to say it doesn’t exist is, well, frankly dumb.
I’ve talked about some of these things in other posts, such as my problems with Izuku’s storyline and I don’t really like to repeat myself. To recap briefly: I think he’s a total author’s pet and I don’t get the feeling that he is essential to his own storyline, seeing as he would’ve already died multiple times if things hadn’t conveniently worked out for him.1
The First Chapter
Izuku’s lack of agency: being a hero is supposedly what he wants the most in the world but he doesn’t do anything to achieve this aside from sitting on his arse and writing notes — with Horikoshi implying that this is as legit as building muscle memory and experience. It isn’t until he gets the promise of a reward, permission from authority, and the aforementioned reward dropped into his lap that he starts working for this dream. By weight-lifting and cardio, and for a long time after that he still half-arses it. But more on this in a bit.
Through the magical powers of osmosis or whatever that wish-fulfilment main characters often have, he also gets all the skills needed for heroics like hand-to-hand combat despite us never seeing him train how to fight. In his little training montage, we see everything else but this. The only skill he does not immediately get is how to control One for All but I’ll elaborate in a bit on why this too comes off as a cheap trick.
As an aside, contrast this with Dragon Ball where the main character had been training in martial arts since he could walk. Or contrast this with Naruto, where the main characters were all training to be shinobis from a young age. Or Bleach where the main character was constantly getting into fights and, if I recall correctly, was at least rudimentarily trained in some kind of martial arts? Or Haikyuu!! where Hinata was established as athletic from the first panel he was in.
What is the subliminal message that this sends to the average reader? That you don’t have to work at all for what you want, you will still get everything you want and need because you’re “worthy of it”. Providence — or the god from the machine in this case — will provide for you if you just wait around long enough.
And sure, Izuku does rush in to save Katsuki but had All Might not been there to bust him out, he would’ve died alongside him. This scene doesn’t matter from Izuku’s point of view anyway because as far as he was aware he was never going to meet All Might and he was never going to get a quirk.
I would’ve been fine with this had Izuku actually worked hard for what he wanted with what he had. But he didn’t.
This is why I always want to tell the kid to shut up when he starts bleating “how he has to work so much harder than anyone else!” Like uh huh, because you worked so hard the first fourteen years of your life — oops, you didn’t. Or when he whines how he’s “nowhere near close enough”, considering that for someone who was never even established as athletic Horikoshi makes him mature in hours when he needs to.
For example, Katsuki worked his entire life for his style, which Izuku copies in a matter of hours. This, too, would’ve been somewhat fine if Izuku had at least been established as athletic. But he wasn’t.
Here’s how Izuku’s story would have played out in reality: he might’ve gone to the entrance exam and predictably would’ve never passed since he didn’t put any effort into actually passing it. He would’ve gone into some menial labour, all the while dreaming of the day when he “makes it big” without ever taking a single concrete step towards his goal and waiting for the day when people will see him for “who he really is inside”. He would’ve collected all the trivia on the thing he wants to do like a person who knows all about musical instruments but has never played a single one himself — or a person who knows all about sports and its rules but has never played a day in his life.
The issue here isn’t Izuku’s character on his own; his character design is cute and he isn’t that offensive as an author’s pet unlike some other Gary Stus I could mention. The issue here is how Horikoshi wrote him, either consciously or unconsciously.
Permission From Authority
The fact that Izuku doesn’t start doing anything about his dream until he essentially gets permission from All Might ties back into his lack of agency. The true geniuses, the people who change the world, the ones who are truly blessed by providence, don’t wait around for authority to tell them what they can do and when they can do it.
Here’s a saying:
God helps those who help themselves.
— Ancient Greek proverb
As an aside, I think the reason why Izuku wants to save others is because he either couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything to save himself. So he shifted the locus of control from himself to the external world. This is fine but, as you can read for yourself, I wish it’d been tweaked better.
All Might
I have a lot of problems with All Might, the main problem being what a terrible and neglectful teacher he is. From the first half of the manga, I got this uncomfortable feeling that he was grooming Izuku — and by that I mean there was some definite taking advantage of the starry-eyed kid, not a prudish euphemism for rape and sexual exploitation.
You see, before the entrance exam All Might says this to Izuku:
What happens in the entrance exam? Izuku breaks the bones in his arm and his leg while he’s high up in the air, and if Uraraka hadn’t been there to slap him gravityless he would’ve splattered to death on the tarmac.
All Might truly couldn’t take thirty seconds to tell the kid that if he uses One for All, he’ll likely break his bones?2
Of course, you could make the argument that was just an entrance exam, as if they’d let kids die there! Fine, I concede this. But if things hadn’t played out exactly as they did, and how very con~ve~nient~ly they did play out, Izuku would’ve never passed the entrance exam.
So apparently not only All Might couldn’t take thirty seconds to warn Izuku what kind of a kickback he could be expecting, but he also brushes it off as a joke when Izuku asks him about it.
He also enables Izuku every single time when he uses One for All and breaks his bones. The only time he actually punishes Izuku for this behaviour is, incidentally, the only time Izuku didn’t break any bones or fight.
These are the reasons why I want to write All Might as a villain. I also want to write the reason why he gave One for All to Izuku of all people to be because he thought the power would die with him. Would certainly explain why he half-arses his own power heir’s training.
Also, his only advice to Izuku on how to control One for All is: “use your imagination!” This is especially obnoxious in a manga that keeps telling us that quirks “are just another function of the body”. You don’t train your muscles with your fucking imagination — but this is from the same author who implied that writing notes is as legit as building experience and muscle memory. Should really make being an athlete or a soldier a lot easier if that’s the case. With advice like this, Izuku predictably keeps on the fine tradition of sitting on his arse until Torino beats it out of him.
As a final note: I don’t think All Might is evil — at least not by the traditional definition of the word. I do, however, consider him a terrible teacher.
Symbol of Peace
All Might says that without him this society of superhumans would fall to evil. Which would mean that he isn’t a very effective symbol or any symbol at all. True ideals and true symbols live on long after the person originating them is gone — just look at Jesus as an example and he was as fictional as All Might. What All Might is basically doing is handholding the entire society because apparently they just can’t make do without him.
Never mind that they probably did just fine when All Might must’ve had his rehabilitation period after each surgery? (Ooh, but rehabilitation doesn’t exist in this manga. Silly me.) Considering that no one knows that All Might was hospitalised, he must’ve had a period when he disappeared from the public eye? Or at least wasn’t doing hero work? Did society fall to evil during this absence? Of course it didn’t.
Just compare the first chapters of the manga to the ones after All Might’s so-called retirement. There is no difference between these two states. The only notable change is the blatant power creep and that villains are also attacking each other instead of just civilians.
Here’s a fun story, you can make of it what you will: I tried to write about the realities of a high-crime society in chapter twelve of Incandescent Snow from Akika’s point of view. Then I realised I hadn’t been doing this from the beginning and the reason why I hadn’t been doing it was because Horikoshi hadn’t been doing it. Well, he does live in Japan which has like the lowest rate of crime in the world — aside from maybe Iceland. He probably doesn’t know and can’t fathom what a high-crime society looks like.
It’s not even about the daily murders, the assaults, or the rapes. It’s about all the little conveniences of everyday life that people in high-trust societies don’t think about and take for granted. A high-crime society does not look like Japan with villains artificially slapped over it.
Also, there is something deeply creepy about the idea that the peace of a society is wholly dependent on a single person who is a human like any other. Not to mention that said human is, basically, an embodiment of America and I know exactly what America did to Japan during and after WWII and what the American state is. Trust me on this, the American state is the furthest thing from a symbol of peace. I don’t know if this was deliberate on Horikoshi’s part but it does come off as a very unfortunate choice. (This is not a criticism of the American people, by the way, and I hope people understand that.)
Which brings me to another point: the heroes.
You see, the heroes are essentially just the gatekeepers of the status quo. When they battle villains, they are just dealing with the symptoms, not the roots of why those villains emerge in the first place. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like Stain: I think he’s an idiot in a lot of ways which have nothing to do with him killing heroes. Well, sort of.
As an aside, I kind of think that Boku no Hero Academia could’ve been a lot more interesting if the main antagonist had been the Liberation Army instead of Shigaraki and All for One. I think it would’ve made for a more interesting and deeper story, with heroes being the gatekeepers of the status quo and the Liberation Army being the ones fighting for actual change in society. Whether that change is good or bad is up to the writer and the audience to decide.
The purpose of the state shouldn’t be to breed a dependent class of cattle. Its purpose should be to help each person become the master of their own fate.3
One for All
So, how is Izuku breaking his bones a cheap trick? Well, first of all Horikoshi probably realised that this:
does not make for a very interesting read.
But first, let’s start with All Might. He tells Izuku:
because apparently Horikoshi sometimes remembers to pretend that there should be actual consequences in this thing. But this doesn’t make that much sense because All Might’s real form looks like this:
As you can see, he doesn’t look all that much sturdier than Izuku. He is also missing a stomach and his respiratory system was almost destroyed. He is also constantly spitting up blood which is used as a comic relief instead of as an actual symptom of his condition. Despite all this, he still has no trouble puffing himself up into his muscle form, and I’d be interested to know how that actually works.
Also, if using a hundred per cent of One for All breaks Izuku’s bones in the limb, why won’t concentrating that entire power in just his fingertip make that finger go splatters? Or why won’t his limbs blow off when he uses the power multiple times with the same finger or arm in the Sports Festival Arc?
Does Izuku suffer any actual consequences from subjecting his bones to repeated trauma? As far as I can see, no. He’s kissed all better each time, there are no rehabilitation periods or any harmful after-effects. Sure the doctor in Katnapping Arc says that a few more times will snap his ligaments and he might lose the use of his arms but.
Note: says. This is just more telling and no actual showing, and personally I’m more interested in what authors show me because I’m hardly ever impressed with what they tell me. I mean, the kid doesn’t even have any trouble holding a freaking pen.
It’s all very sanitised; Izuku, All Might, Todoroki, Eri, and the whole world of Boku no Hero Academia all included. (Which isn’t all that unexpected in a manga aimed at twelve-year-old boys, mind.) Besides, since I have absolutely no trust in Horikoshi as an author, even if he did make Izuku lose the use of his arms, I have this feeling it would be yet another instance of telling the readers how Izuku is so coooool~. He wins even when he loses!
I despise lip service even if Katsuki likes drinking it.
But let’s talk about the way Horikoshi is constantly validating Izuku’s self-harm.
Sure, various characters call Izuku out on it but at the same time Horikoshi uses them to validate him. All Might calls Izuku cool when he breaks his finger in case the reader is too stupid to catch it on their own; not to mention how he enables it. Mineta calls Izuku cool when he does the same thing in case the reader is too stupid to catch it on their own. Even Aizawa calls Izuku cool in not so many words during the Sports Festival Arc. When Izuku is breaking himself apart in his fight against Todoroki, Aizawa kindly ponders on his resolve and what drives him so the reader may catch yet another hint about how so very cool Izuku is.
You mean the same resolve that had him working so hard when he was quirkless and weaker than the entire world? Or the same resolve that had him train One for All in the about two months before this festival so he wouldn’t have to break his bones? Am I really supposed to buy the lip service at this conjunction?
The way Horikoshi uses this repeated self-harm to invoke the readers’ sympathy and make their impressionable little hearts flutter with “so coooool~!” is… pretty gross, to be frank. It’s the same as telling kids: “Hey! Self-harm is cool!” This almost fetishisation of it comes off as a weird sort of acrotomophilia, and I really really do not want to know about the authors’ fetishes when I’m reading their stories, okay?
As an aside, I read The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren a couple of years ago. The story was fine — I have a soft spot for stories about brothers — but I found the ending absolutely hilarious. The message of it was basically: “Remember, kids, if life doesn’t work out the way you want kill yourself.”
Anyhow, even from a simple practical point of view, this is insane. What does Izuku actually think he can do if he breaks his own body beyond repair at fifteen years old? How many people does he think he can save — and remember, that’s his whole raison d’être — if he breaks his body while trying to save someone? Exactly one — or more likely, zero. He’ll be dead, the person he was trying to save will be dead, and no one will be happy.
“To rush into the thick of battle and to be slain it it,” says a Prince of Mito, “is easy enough, and the merest churl is equal to the task; but,” he continues, “it is true courage to live when it is right to live, and to die only when it is right to die.”
Furthermore, the only time this was absolutely necessary was in his fight against the muscle villain in the Katnapping Arc lest he’d die — and all right, I’ll concede the USJ Arc as well. At other times, it’s not necessary. Not to mention he had five weeks then about two months to learn how to control One for All but this genius who matures in hours when he needs to can’t manage it?
Really?
I mean, R E A L L Y?
Also, the way Izuku subjects himself to repeated trauma for no particular, necessary reason is a sign of a regressive psychoclass. Personally, I find it creepy and gross, and I would really appreciate it if Horikoshi stopped validating it as cool. And he does that, don’t try to deny it.
There are also the issues of Todoroki and Eri but I’m too tired to address these.
All of this would’ve been fine, or at least I wouldn’t have cared if any of this had been actually addressed in the story or done deliberately. But they aren’t and they weren’t.
Hence, you know, the complete lack of trust in Horikoshi as an author. So far he has not written a single thing that has impressed me — well, aside from Katsuki but I have this constant low-key anxiety that he’ll totally ruin his character — and it is very obvious that the guy is a novice. Not that there is anything wrong with being a novice since everyone has to start from somewhere but he really could’ve used a proper editor. This would’ve allowed him to avoid things like “As you know, Bob” or the time warps in the Hosu Arc and Katnapping Arc.
As a final note: for some reason there’s been a slew of popular stories with main characters who have no agency or autonomy whatsoever in recent years.
1 I mean, yeah, he’s fictional but you really shouldn’t get the feeling that the only reason why this particular character is surviving is the author’s intervention, ha ha.
2 Forget thirty seconds, All Might had six months to tell Izuku what would likely happen when he uses one for all the first time.
3 As I said already about Harry Potter, the fact that quirks and magic are congenital but the characters aren’t legally allowed to use them espouses some deeply sick control in these stories. Imagine if the state prohibited the use of your eyes because that’s the level of control we’re talking about here.
Hiraeth 