Was I Wrong about the My Hero Academia Ending?

Article at a glance:

• The final arcs of My Hero Academia aren’t bad because they lack cool moments — they’re bad because they traded structure and meaning for empty spectacle.
• What used to be a story about limits, consequences, and the cost of heroism turned into a power fantasy where nothing really matters anymore.
• The Vigilante and Final Arcs had all the potential to explore the fall of Hero Society, but instead, they skimmed the surface and left the world, and the message, hollow.

Sooo… to my surprise, from what I’ve seen, a lot of people are enjoying the MHA final season anime. And you know what? Good for them. They’re having fun; they shouldn’t care about what I think. Who am I to interrupt their fun, right? That said, though, it did make me wonder if I was too harsh on the My Hero Academia final arc and the ending when it came out last year or so. So against my better judgment, I decided to re-read the whole MHA after the War arc. I knew well enough how much suffering that would cause, and yet, I marched on. FOR CONTENT.

And what was the conclusion I came to? I won’t waste your time. I’ll just say it: no, I wasn’t wrong. I still despise everything in MHA after the War arc. Outside of JJK and Oshi no Ko, the MHA ending is the biggest letdown I’ve experienced in recent memory. And re-reading all that and seeing all the wasted potential just drove me up a wall. “Painful” doesn’t begin to describe how much of a letdown the last few arcs of MHA were for me.

But once again, I have to preface this by saying: these are just my thoughts and opinions. I am about to go over why I, Okami, the author at Anime Ignite, did not like the My Hero Academia ending and the final arcs. You are not me, you don’t have to agree, I just ask you to be civil and at least hear me out. So let’s get started.

The Vigilante Arc

This is probably where things really fell apart for the first time. Sure, the war arc is where the downfall in writing quality started, but the Vigilante Arc cemented it. Here’s the thing: I don’t even dislike the Vigilante arc or anything. It has a lot of cool moments. I loved the way Deku was drawn in this arc. A kind of corrupted version of what he wanted to be. But man, this arc really does take away all the depth from the plot.

This arc could’ve showcased the widespread effects of Hero society’s collapse. It could’ve focused more on the destruction and civil unrest caused by the War and the distrust in the system produced by Dabi’s revelation. But we only get pieces of that. This is also where Deku starts getting some absurd plot armor. Earlier, his powers came at a price, but now, he basically has everything. And he can use his Quirks without any drawback whatsoever.

This arc also starts a very annoying trend of ending chapters on completely random cliffhangers that don’t really matter in the next chapter. I don’t know why, but it just becomes a thing from here on. And then I really dislike the transition of Shigaraki into All For One 2.0

The Final Arc

See, now this is where I lose respect for even the spectacle part. This arc makes no sense when viewed from even a slightly critical lens. I still despise Shigaraki becoming All For One 2.0 because it put such a weird gap in his consistent character arc. Sure, he comes back, but he shouldn’t have gone away to begin with. Why did they choose UA as the battleground for the fight, knowing full well that the families of their students were on the campus? Why even bring back Deku to UA at all?

I know Deku vs. his class was an emotionally charged moment in the previous arc, but damn it, man, the motivations of either side made no sense lol. See in the previous arcs, MHA had a very understandable setup and pay-off writing structure. Every power-up came at a cost, and it took work to get stronger. In the final arcs, it feels like power-ups are just handed over without any drawback. There are no consequences. Like, no one really dies on the Hero side. Even Hawkes, who lost his feathers, got them supplemented with mechanical ones, for example.

Once again, I am not denying that there are some cool moments in the final arc, too. But it is disappointing to see the decrease in the writing quality as a long-term reader. But this isn’t even the worst part of it.

The Ending

If JJK and Oshi no Ko didn’t already own the title for the stupidest manga endings ever, I could’ve made a strong case for the My Hero Academia ending. Deku basically loses everything he fought for. You just have to feel bad for the guy. He’s basically working an office job now. All Might left him, his friends moved on, heck, nothing even came out of the romance subplot between him and Ochako, despite Ochako accepting her love for Deku being such a big character moment for her.

How is it that Deku almost never spoke with his friends in all these years after the timeskip? Like, did they forget my man still exists or something? And most importantly, the ending undermines the series’ message. The message of the series was “you don’t need powers to be a hero,” so seeing Deku, of all people, give up on the Hero life till All Might gives him some new gear is just heartbreaking.

That is all for now

I hope I made my case for why I don’t like the final arcs and the ending of My Hero Academia clear. Of course, I don’t expect the average watcher to pick up on all this as long as the show remains entertaining. But to me, these last arcs are an exercise in frustration because of how much wasted potential they have. But let me know what you guys think in the comments. I will take my leave here. See ya!

Also, check out my thoughts on This Monster Wants to Eat Me here!