My Hero Academia Season 7: Peak Fiction

Key things

• My Hero Academia Season 7 is the biggest and best yet, despite being shorter than most.
• Series 7 features effective storytelling with a strong sense of dynamism and balance.
• The season reaches new heights, surpasses previous ones, and explores its themes seriously and emotionally.

The following contains minor spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 7, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

My Hero Academia Season 7 was four episodes shorter than every season since the first, but given the sheer amount of joy and heartbreak conveyed in its 21 episodes, you might not have noticed. It is without a doubt greatest and after spending half a year soaking up his beautiful artwork and earnest, emotionally charged script, this is by far the best best also.

Naomi Nakayama, who previously directed the 2016 films Orangetook on the role of series director alongside lead director Kenji Nagasaki, who helmed the show's first three seasons. She took the captain's chair at a critical moment and seemed to knock it out of the park, showing an eye for spectacle early on as she scripted the first two episodes.

Premiere with Barely Time to Waste

Last season left fans with a cliffhanger. Tomura Shigaraki reaches full power in three days, and America's #1 pro hero, Star and Stripe, has come to Japan to help. It was an enticing hook, albeit one that in retrospect feels like such a minor part of the story. By the end of the premiere, Star and Stripe has already been captured by Shigaraki, who is determined to steal her joke. Season 7 has a strong sense of momentum – as expected from a story so close to the end.

It's a cleverly constructed battle, and an emotional one at that, so neither side is necessarily victorious, but it gives the heroes plenty of time to prepare for their final assault. Before one can come to terms with what seems like an inevitable training arc between battles, the revelation of a traitor on the UA shatters preconceptions and reignites the tension. Soon after comes the war that the rest of the season — and the series — will chronicle.

The beginning of the final war of My Hero Academia

The heroes are spread across the country in a coordinated operation to take down the villains one by one. Shoto confronts Toye in Kamino Ward, where All Might's career ended. Endeavor teams up with the Hawks against All For One in the skies over the ruins of Gunga Villa. An all-star team is assembled to defeat Shigaraki at UA Academy, which has been transformed into an aerial fortress designed to take him down. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The good guys finally seem to have the upper hand for once, and that feels great, even if it won't last long. It becomes a drag, quickly and often with unpredictable complications with domino effects that increasingly affect battles that take place miles away. Season 7 is incredibly effective at balancing the larger goals of its narrative with the individual roles the supporting cast plays in building those milestones.

How season 7 rises above its flaws

Of course, the above is not exactly new. Which attracted many people My Hero Academia there was Deku to begin with; his despair at being quirky, his bravery in spite of it, and his elation at learning that he can still to become a hero. Since then, the series has consistently handled the stories of its larger cast members with writing and presentation of equal or even greater quality. So it's no surprise that audiences are falling in love with the characters even this late in the game.

It's anime-as-usual in that respect, but what's less flattering are the commonly cited gripes about the adaptation that similarly persist here (at least at the beginning). Even with a strong narrative momentum, some exposition can seem redundant, and flashbacks even more so. It's not so much new issues as it is familiar issues that hold back really strong storytelling.

All For One, “Extras” and the lack of Deku

During eight years and seven seasons, My Hero Academia was equal parts celebration and critique of superheroes. The flaws of her society were constantly exposed through increasingly empathetic villains who challenged the heroes to interrogate their complicity, rise above and be the heroes they claim to be. All the myriad themes that feed into this core are front and center as the story wears its heart on its sleeve more proudly than ever.

This is a story about societal collapse and how the mere fear of it robs people of their ability to think about the future. All For One explicitly states this as its goal; he wants to be an all-powerful terror living rent-free in everyone's head—literally stealing the future. All the while, he dismisses Class 1A – the next generation that represents the very future he wishes to extinguish – and dismisses them as nothing more than “extras”.

Still, the main lesson of Season 7 is that there are no “extras”, something blindingly obvious due to Deku's relative absence. “Relative” is the key word – he's still there, still an active member of the conflict, and his eventual revenge against Shigaraki is excellent, but the story consciously and cleverly sidelines him to highlight everyone else. The idea that “anyone can be a hero” isn't new to the superhero genre, but this story delivers that message with a lot more heart than most.

My Hero Academia reaches new heights

Something beautiful happens in the second half of season 7 – probably around episode 154. Those aforementioned flaws, so commonly cited by the show's detractors, seem to disappear as the pace picks up, the emotions increase, and the animation is even tougher than before . I found myself being forced to cheer and tear up more than any show in a while.

From the joy of unexpected returning characters to the long-awaited showdown, this season not only matched the heights of the previous ones, but even surpassed them. As good as the first half is, it's a little shocking how it's been climbing week by week. He consistently raised the bar, raised the stakes, and at the same time shook up the formula so that he wouldn't be exhausted in such a long battle.

This show deserves praise more than ever

It's a phenomenal culmination, built on eight years of excellent television that sought to adapt long-running shōnen without filler and without too much compromise in quality. Your mileage may vary on the consistency of the anime, but there's no denying that what Studio Bones has accomplished with this adaptation is impressive. At a time when the landscape of the shōnen genre is changing, it cannot be understated how much harder hitting this season's because it took eight years to get there.

My Hero Academia Season 7 is an amazing piece of television anime whose construction and execution deserve to be praised as much as Jujutsu KaisenThe Shibuya incident. It's a testament to Kohei Horikoshi's writing, Studio Bones' art, and the timeless appeal of shōnen that such a serious story can rise above even when superheroes are more saturated than ever. In a year full of great shows, this season alone could warrant a nomination for Anime of the Year.