Horikoshi Critical - Blog Posts

Hi chat, bnha chapter 431 wasnt fake and leakers are saying that we should respect horikoshi-sensei for 431 while they are the ones who put them on Twitter when it wasnt even published💀 What a fckn irony.

Note: yeah we should respect horikoshi sensei for creating this story btw but I thought he was someone who thought about his characters well. He always tried to make his art and story better in each chapter, thats why I felt so bad while seeing the chapter 431. I expected something better than this (its not about ship btw dont try to make this into a ship war).

This is Horikoshi's note, Im gonna continue from chapter 429.

Also I need to ask someone who knows english better than me, what does he mean by "I turn off the cameras and free..." sentence?

The only good thing horikoshi has ever done for momo

Let's talk about Spacetoons Mineta...

Spacetoons is an arabic channel that semi-recently dubbed MHA. Some may call it "Arabic 4kids," but as someone who watched a substantial amount of shows in a 4Kids dub. (namely SonicX), that's not a fair comparison. The only 4 kids dub I actually enjoyed was that of "Kirby: Right back at ya"

Anyway, the BokuNometaAcademia sub brought to my attention the way that Mineta is written here. I have always hated how Hori used Mineta to live out his weird fantasies. The inclusion of Mineta's "comedy" turned a lot of people, me included off and honestly, why wouldn't it.

Spacetoons is more child-tuned so they did a lot of censorship, for example, look what they did to Momo

(They also greatly improved her character)

You may be asking, "What did they do with Mineta?" Valid question considering 70% of his character is horny jokes. Well, the completely removed the perv aspect and made him a loveable kid who wants to fight his insecurities and be great hero.....

I have always said it, Mineta holds some great potential. His moment during the USJ arc was a great stepping stone for some great character growth. The idea of a coward pushing to become a true hero is so different from the norm, but as we know, when it comes to MHA, potential don' get used.

From what I hear from spacetooneta, he is actually really likeable. He is so different from Canoneta that people mistaken him for a girl. The scenes where he is being pervy are either edited out completely or altered convincingly.

They changed the scene from season 3's filler episode so that the context is as follows:

Kaminari and Mineta want to goof off at the pool

Mineta has overheard that the girls have booked the pool too

They convince Izuku to come w/them so that they can get there before the girls

Izuku invites Tenya and the others and Tenya makes them train instead of goofing off

The girls are here, goofing off while they have to train

The most nuts part is that viewers of that dub absolutely LOVE HIM. He suprassed Bakugou in popularity even. This shows that Hori could have made one of the most loveable characters in Shounen. Think about it, his design is already cute, just slap a cute personality on and everyone would love him. But no, he had to be a creepy perv.

Canon Mineta sucks man

hey! I came across your post about how horikoshi pretty much vindicated/validated the way different factions of the bnha fandom sexualize the teen characters, but I'm not sure if it'd be okay for me to rb. I ship characters from this manga because I like to explore the potential duos and relationship dynamics we could have gotten -my fav being a non-canon mlm pairing, but my blog is sfw. I do not ship bkdk or tgchk, either. So yeah, just making sure if you'd be okay with me interacting, given the disclaimer you wrote at the beginning of that post.

Awee yay my second ask, and now suddenly I feel famous lol!

Thanks for reaching out and acknowledging by boundaries. To answer your question you’re free to reblog my post regardless of who you ship. You don’t seem to violate any of my personal boundaries afterall. Don’t let me dictate who you can or cannot ship especially if it makes you happy and you seem self aware.

If you were a bkdk fan in particular I don’t think I’d have an issue with it, just as long as you A. acknowledge the ship itself is inherently toxic, B. not a proshipper, C. you’re okay with ppl disliking it (does not count if they’re attacking you directly and you’re innocent), and D. you condemn the toxic shippers.

That’s rare to come across, and to anyone else who’s reading this…particularly bkdk stans, if you do not tick all the requirements then that means the shoe fits and I want nothing to do with yall.

Fyi I’m not really a shipper in general, just someone who prefers written analysis of plots, arcs and sometimes pre-established couples that actually work. Once in a while there are one or two ships I’d obsess over, but even then I’m a tunnel vision type of fan so you won’t see me glazing every fancontent of them, I’m just here picking and choosing before going back to my small curated cave.

I hope I don’t come across as snobby or this stuck up “I’m better than you lust driven obsessed shipers” type of fan. I’m sorry if I do, sometimes my wording can come across as blunt or odd….But on the other hand I don’t find myself gravitating to shippers because the census create unnecessary discourses from their rose tinted glasses and they’re just not someone I’d turn to have a proper discussion with. They’re often delusional and feed of breadcrumbs, and its even worse when they’re a fujoshi shipper who ship (pale skinned) men but I’m getting too ahead of myself.

Once again you’re free to ship whoever you like if it makes you happy, I can’t stop you and you shouldn’t let me stop you. But I’m thankful you’ve reached out for clarification!

So what broke you on MHA? Was there a turning point for you?

OMG MY FIRST ASK!? Never thought I’d see the day someone would use my ask button to the point I completely forgot its existence. But thank you!

Now to answer your question….hm. It’s been such a while since I’ve actually immersed myself with MHA, but let me give you a little backstory of how I got into it.

Around 2019 I believe, or maybe late 2018. I was 16yrs old and a friend of mine recommended it. I was immediately hooked, and that’s saying something because usually it’s hard for me to get into a show without loosing interest. I’m talking about hyperfixtating and obsession, not a one time thing or immediate drop.

My first favourite character? Fukimage Tokoyami. Then it was swapped for Hero Killer: Stain. Then I considered favouring Spinner before it was officially last swapped for Hitoshi Shinsou.

Pinpoint of when I began to lose interest? Sometime after the sports festival arc. It was still there, but my main driving force was because of Shinsou. Like I previously mentioned its been a while since I’ve actually immersed myself with MHA so I apologise I can’t give a detailed analysis of why this episode was the nail in the coffin.

Even when I first started watching the series I could already see the flaws and was highly critical, but I bared through it in hopes it couldve gotten better.

Also, I’m someone who’s a tunnel vision fan. Not the bias type fan, but I hardly interact with the fandom unless its to look at certain fanart or fanfiction or they’re likeminded people.

Imagine my surprise and disbelief when I decided to go out of my bubble and see everyone worship the ground b*kugo walked on. Honestly for a moment I thought I was going insane or was being too harsh on him, until I decided to download tumblr and found the critical tags

Sidenote I once did have a tumblr account that was active in the 2019-21 mha critical accounts before I decided to delete it.

Then I dropped it around late 2020- early 2021. Just didn’t feel like torturing myself with a show that disrespects its characters, and the overall census of the fandom lacking critical thinking skills. And also 16yr old me was just salty Horikoshi wasnt paying attention to Hitoshi but I digress that doesnt count lol.

Then sometime around 2023-24 the final war arc began gaining attraction. At first I ignored it cause I was just a tired hater, but then I just kept on seeing it everywhere and decided you know what let me check it out and see how far Horikoshi fell off.

And boy was that arc a cluster fuck within itself. Too many things going on at once. This arc and that arc and that character and this one and that. I was just hating the entire time.

But it was only after the dust settled, the episodes were animated and the manga finally finished did I decide to rise from the ashes and rejoin the tags under a new account that I originally used for Demon Slayer fan content.

While I can’t give you a dissect analysis on an episode or a character because that would require me to go back and watch the episode and truthfully I don’t wanna torture myself again…I can lay out the things that I never liked about MHA.

In no particular order

•The world-building. Not utilized in the grand scheme of things, and it being focused on Japan is not an excuse. This is not your average story where only a certain group of people hold powers and those powers are God like. These are your everyday people, born or not born with a Quirk thats unique and tailored to them. So many opportunities, gone and wasted.

•Addressing controversial topics (Lack of better word). Horikoshi would highlight it….and then forget it the next day. An opportunity to touch the darker side of Quirk society, or have a talk about the philosophy of it.

•Too many characters. You want to have a large cast fine, but if you’re going to do that please understand your limits and what you can handle. If you know you can’t write for every single characters then establish that, make it known that x character is a one off character, a side character or a plot device etc- As long as they all help contribute to the story in some way instead of leaving them to rott then suddenly remembering they exist and you try to make them have this important arc as if I should care when you never even bothered to make us care for them.

Or just reduce the cast, simple as that. Seriously, 20 entire classmates? Horikoshi, please take a page out of Danganronpa when it comes to handling a large cast. (Fyi: Im also critical of Danganronpa but I know when to give credit when due)

To be fair Horikoshi couldnt even handle his main characters properly.

•Tell don’t show. This is quite common in the Anime Industry, and for what reason I have no idea. Never liked this type of narrative storytelling, but I’m able to suck it up just as long as you know how to make it work. Horikoshi just did the most with it, and especially with too many flashback scene it just turned me off if anything.

•Lack of consequences. It took me a very long time for me to tolerate asshole characters turned good, and you can thank bakugo for that. Before I always had my foot on their neck everytime, and you could not convince me to even shed fake tears for them. Bakugo is coddled by both writers and his insufferable fans, so their love for him only fuled my dislike for him.

But aside from bully archetype characters there’s also plot type of consequences, and I can see Horikoshi lacks the nuances to delve or stick to the door he opened. The supposed high stakes are illusions, and that is best seen with the war arc. Like you knew all the heros and students were going to survive, except maybe like 1 or 2 no one should honestly cares about yet apparently everyone held a pity party for midnight lol.

•The disrespect of the Female Cast. Horikoshi had the perfect opportunity to address the sexism the female cast wouldve faced. He barely brushed it and he was only using his jerk off right hand to create these characters designs and story. He’s a disgusting pervert

•Favouritsm. Horikoshi favours Aizawa, Hitoshi, Mineta and Bakugo. 2 of them are confirmed to be his self inserts and that speaks for everything in itself.

• I may add more bullets in the future when I remember my other reasons as to why I dislike MHA. But this is about it really.

Thanks for the ask, and my first one! Honoured to answer your question.

I have a theory when it comes to the emasculation & sexualisation of Izuku and rampant sexualisation of the underaged characters in MHA, and why fans and outsiders see it as such.

Before you continue reading I just want to let you know this is not a safe space for proshitters & self identified fujoshis (you know who you are. If the shoe doesn’t fit then you can interact). If you are a proshipper or a self identified fujoshis then its best for both our sakes you block me. If I find you in my likes or mentions I will hide your comment and block you.

I’m also not a fan of toga x oochako, and Im saying this because I mentioned it briefly but its not the worst ship for me to block you (bkdk will always take that spot).

Anyways here’s a rundown list based on what I’ve observed [Mentions of Homophobia, Misogyny & Sexualisation of underaged characters down below. Read at your own risk]:

1.1 Horikoshi’s bias: Any watcher with critical thinking skills are able to see Horikoshi has a clear bias towards characters like bakugo, aizawa, shinso and mineta and he confirmed it himself. From the beginning to the very end of the manga Horikoshi has failed to respect Midoriya’s autonomy as a character, and any time we ever got close to introspection its immediately shut out in favour of the same popular characters over and over again.

1.2:Horikoshi has repeatedly sexualised his underaged characters and seems to show no guilt or remorse over such actions, even in his confessions. This was no accident, and any attempt to address this in a critical light in the manga was a failure, just like all the controversial topics he tried to address in the series (mutant arc -I personally don’t like how others see it as a racism allegory as a Black person, but thats another topic for another day-, eugenic marriage, trafficking etc.)

It also doesn’t help Japan has a rampant pedophilia & SA problem, and the reason you don’t see it on the news is because of shame culture + language barrier + their good PR Team. Anybody who tries to tell you it doesn’t exist are all liars, and anybody who tries to justify it with it being part of their culture is a racist.

2.From a dudebros perspective: We all know dudebros are obsessed with masculinity and powerscaling, but in some cases they are fine with fictional male characters crying, even male characters who don’t fit the traditional masculine role. But Midoriya isn’t the traditional masculine role character and he cries alot. Along the way they mustve subconsciously picked up the writers mistreatment of Midoriya, and so to them it’s like why should they respect a character who acts like a crybabying bitch?

And then they see how “close” bakugo & midoriya are. Dudebros as a collective are homophobic, so at first they would deny it, but then slowly but surely theyd pick up on how weird it is for midoriya and bakugo to be this obsessed with each other. Pair that up with the delusional fujoshis who seem to be fucking *everywhere* they’re going to call Midoriya a gay bitch for being steamrolled by “the goat” Bakugo.

Then there’s the sexualisation part. No words are needed to be said. Dudebros as a collective have little to no morals, especially the misogynistic. They don’t care if the character is 14yr old they’re going to wank their dick off to it regardless and thats the unfortunate truth.

But I feel the other reason why they feel so comfortable wanking off freely is because Horikoshi basically gave them the greenlight to do so. He shamelessly sexualised his characters without attempting to address it in a critical light.

3.From a fandom gay (especially fujoshis) perspective: It’s inevitable that the fandom gays will always find a way to ship 2 male characters, even if the creator clearly states their relationship is platonic, that’s just how it is for the better or worse.

To some credit, I can see why the fujoshis are obsessed with bkdk to the point of it being the #1 ship in MHA (never to the point of peak delusional though). Horikoshi doesn’t know when to put Bakugo to the side for once, or make Bakugo have his own arc without Midoriya being tied into it. It also doesn’t help Horikoshi mishandled Midoriya’s bullied past so the fujoshis are going to either dismiss that entirely or stupidly justify it in the worst way possible. Everyday its parallel this rival that.

I also personally believe Horikoshi baited BKDK content for some extra cash because he realised thats what the fans are into and also realised how stupid it is to trick them, like dangling a carrot infront of a donkey but that’s just my conspiracy theory.

If its one thing fujoshis love is pushing heteronormative roles onto their “gay” favourites and having internalised misogyny, morals be damned. Midoriya is seen as emotional, Bakugo is seen as aggressive. What does that equal to them? Top & Bottom, Alpha & Omega, Dominant & Submissive.

Fujoshis & Proshitters arent going away anytime soon, but because Horikoshi did nothing to shoo away the allegations until the very end of the chapter the fujoshis felt very entitled to act out. If you call them out you’re homophobic, but they would have zero problem dragging Oochako by the mud for daring to get in the way of the ship, and when that arc of her & Toga came out these same ppl who also tried to say Oochako is a love interest repackeged her into being Toga’s love interest under the guise of “girl power & lets go lesbians”.

(Personally as a Lesbian Feminist I am offended by this take but once again I digress)

Once again Horikoshi sexualised his underaged female cast, and while the fandom gays try to play the moral highground holding Horikoshi accountable I personally believe are just as hypocritical. The proshippers mustve subconsciously seen the sexualisation as a greenlight to go full haywire.

~~

TLDR; Horikoshi’s ass writing gave the watchers the greenlight to disrespect Midoriya as this bitch. A crybaby ass bitch from the dudebros and a crybaby bottom bitch from the fujoshis point of view. An ultimate bitch.

These fans will always exist but this reputation is the most prominent I’ve ever seen. In my humble opinion no fandom can ever be compared to MHA and its sheer audacity. Horikoshi & his overall fans don’t actually like Midorya and it’s disheartening to watch.

Oh goodness gracious

Tumblr please understand that just because I post critics of bnha does not mean I want to see posts about the show UNLESS its about slandering them.

I switch to For You for one second thinking I was going to get a fresh feed of media I genuinely care about. But no its flooded with shows I’ve slandered being praised one way or another.

Quite frankly idgaf about the general census fandoms portrayal about the show. Not the inside jokes, fanart, fanfic, headcanons, fanon portrayal, ships or controversial discourses surrounding themes like (allegations for) marginalised identities & oppression because who are we kidding thinking Horikoshi did a great job at it when he himself never even faced such things.

For example there’s no point of me caring about ships like togachoko when the canon itself couldn’t even handle it right. Because from what I could tell it didn’t know if it wanted to be portrayed as positive or toxic. Don’t care about its fandom discourses like if Oochako is suffering from comphet, if Oochako deserved Toga from Izuku, if Oochako’s bisexual, if this and thats the fourth.

And I’m saying this as a (Asexual) Lesbian who does genuinely care about representation. Same thing can be said for other aspects but I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and possibly alienate myself.

If you genuinely believe Horikoshi did a good job at portraying lesbians like that then 🤷‍♀️ All I’m saying is theres no point emotionally exhausting yourself in those fandom discourse if the creator themselves has shown time again to fumble even their own canon representation. You honestly deserve better than that.

Heck, I don’t even want to see fanart /fanon from my supposed favourite character Hitoshi Shinsou. Only canon screencap/manga panels and slander off him. Miserable fucker is not even getting a smile from me.

And I also do not care to emotionally invest myself with the canon anymore. Cba to care about the vigilante, movies, sideplots or whatever. Don’t want to actively see that unless its just canon posting without any bias comments.

The only thing I want to see from the mha tags is criticism, slander, and better reimagines.

Yes ik I sound miserable. No I would not go out of my way to deliberately shit in the fandoms tags and ruin it for everyone. Yes I get some ppl are emotionally invested in this series. No I don’t want to see any positive praises on my feed especially if its bias driven.

I’ve got to start actively cultivating my feed. I didn’t want to block bnha / mha tags because thats just doing too much. But now you leave me no choice Tumblr

((Tbh this can be said for other shows I once used to be a fan of that I’ve grown to hate. i.e Miraculous, Doctor Who))

Back again posting once in a full blue moon.

I’ll admit I am a fan of Hitoshi Shinsou. Always had been since the age of 16 (moreso crush; I shipped my OC with him), and now 5 years later after the series has ended my interest in mha has decided to resurface for whatever reason.

And I’m deciding why not reprise my OC and make a story of her journey with Hitoshi being the Deuteragonist + Love interest.

Obviously my crush on him is long dead, but for the story I’m making for my OC, think of it like a pay off for old time sake. Healing my inner teenager who was so critical of MHA that I ended up hating it and forgetting about it 2 years after I fell inlove with. Tbh I still don’t like MHA but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The following statement can be applied to any characters I favour:

I’ve always been okay with people hating on characters I favour, to the point I go out of my way to read critical rants of them. Sometimes I would find myself disagreeing, only if it’s from a narrative standpoint.

Take Muzan Kibutsuji from Demon Slayer for example. He is a character created to be hated, and heck even I was his biggest hater from the get-go before I eventually favoured him for reasons. When I see everyone slandering him I’d find myself joining in. Watching Muzans stans unironically babying him (especially on tiktok) annoys me to the point I reply to them with some reality check comments.

And where I’d disagree are the parts where fans, or rather outsiders, talk about how Muzan is an anti-climatic coward villain with weak powers who’d get nerfed by [insert overpowered villain].

It’s not exactly critical if that was the author’s intention all along. The episodes spell it out for you that Muzan is written to be an anticlimactic narcissistic coward, and compared to some villains I don’t think its fair to underestimate his powers.

What I’m trying to say is, reading critical rants of Hitoshi as a fan is refreshing for multitude reasons.

Again like I previously mentioned I’m okay with people hating on characters I favour, and when I read critical points of them it helps me keep an open mind and not allow my emotions develop a (parasocial) bias with them.

More importantly in my future fic it helps me keep my characterisation of him as canon as possible; he will be going through a character growth arc, and it will involve the story holding his asshole tendency’s accountable but giving him room to improve and grow. He will not lose his fundamentals and do this whole 180, he will still be a smug ass at times.

Secondly I’m not a fan of the dadzawa relationship in canon and fanon, and especially not a fan of how I last remembered the fandom portraying him as this kicked puppy that was trampled on in the past and follows midoriya / denki / neito around with heart eyes or is this attractive edgelord whos into 2020 grunge aesthetic and listens to soundcloud emo trap music. That will not be happening in my fic, he can kiss his pseudo-dad goodbye because he will be the one to help report him in the end (spoilers).

And I’m not saying this out of stingyness or thinking Im this hitoshi-bible enthusiast, but I genuinely do not get the appeal of shinsou x midoriya / denki / neito / bakugo.

Whos bright idea was it to ship shinsou with bakugo? Thats a recipe for disaster, theyll end up physically and mentally abusing each other what a horrible pairing.

I see Midoriya needing to be shipped with someone with a sweet caring heart who doesn’t dump their traumatic luggage on him (Oochako, no offense to midoriya x todoroki fans). Midoriya doesn’t need to deal with a smug winger who doesn’t know how to friend.

Denki doesn’t seem like the type of person Hitoshi would willingly befriend, especially because of his association with mineta (hitoshi canonically believes mineta should be expelled, read the link). The way how I see Hitoshis friendship with Denki is close approximately slight co-hersion. You’re friends because youre classmates, hes a friendly nice dude and you feel a little coerced, and its not like you’re in the right place to judge because you don’t know what its like to have friends and people will see you as a charity case.

If the two were not in close proximity Hitoshi wouldve avoided denki like the plague. Canon and fanon will not fool me otherwise.

And with Neito, aside from their quirk discrimination what exactly do they have in common? Ill leave that to your imagination but what I can think of as someone who is a genuine fan of Neito and side characters generally speaking is…nothing.

I understand there’s not much to work to go with his canon character but unless you’re able to give a reasonable in universe explanation as to why you want to portray him as such, 99% it just falls flat because of how blown out of proportion his portrayal gets. You can just tell the fanon version is done from an emotional bias point.

And if youre atleast able to admit that then fair enough, but the mha fandom does this thing where they like to cosplay as media intellects. Its sad to watch.

And if it’s one thing I find myself disagreeing with few of the critical rants about him (no hate or shade) is that how he seems to be completely remorseless of the actions he did. Or being completely self centred.

I’m only saying this because I just found out on his wiki synopsis he was shown to feel guilty over calling Oijiro a monkey or brainwashing him. (https://myheroacademia.fandom.com/wiki/My_Hero_Academia:_School_Briefs_IV)

And a summary of his further thoughts (https://notebook-13.tumblr.com/post/629545863925137408/oooo-what-do-the-light-novels-sayshow-about/amp)

Personally I see Hitoshi as someone who has a tunnel vision worldview, has an asshole skin with some insecurities on the inside. A little nudge of kindness and someone to challenge him he’ll soon come around to change, albiet slowly.

I’m able to empathise with where he’s coming from, as in how his canon character wouldve come to be like the whole primary & secondary influence and whatnot.

Yeah he’s a winger who threw a little tantrum who used his quirk with not so good intentions, and I won’t deny any of that. But unlike *some* characters it’s not like he really felt like he had any choice during that time, but it looks like his apparent guilt was there to chew him up. He cannot be compared to someone like bakugo whatsoever.

As for Aizawa I do see where everyones coming from, but the difference is Aizawa is a seasoned adult while Hitoshi is an unseasoned teenager. Tbh Hitoshi deserved a better mentor who wasn’t training him out of projected feelings covered up by logic, but that could be said for every other character.

And where MHA fails in having characters challenge him, my story will be there to pick up the pieces.

I rarely post in these tags but tell me why those orange green heart broccoli explosion emoji combo whiners are trying to infiltrate the bnha critical tags just because their mid ship wasn’t confirmed official.

What actually made you believe bakugo and midoriya was ever going to get together? Like I need you to be serious for a second. Did it seriously take you this long, 8 entire damn years for you to finally get your wakeup call???

Like gtfo out of the tags with your delusional ao3 “”queerbaiting”” ass. I’m trying to see well informed written analysis and learn from Horikoshis mistakes on how not to fail as a writing enthusiast.

Go create your own tags or something like anyone gives a damn about your inherent power imbalance ship.

This but with MHA.

"i like how almost everyone said "fuck the canon" and rewrote the story to their liking (me being one of them)"

Submitted by @chimera-that-does-stuff

No me e visto aun el final de My hero academia, pero si es tan malo como se dice, entonces eso significa que...