My Hero Academia Season 7 is now under wraps and with that comes a review. This season undoubtedly had its peaks and valleys and no, I’m not talking about some less detailed artwork that some random person online decided to compare the manga with. As the final battles occurred and moving pieces were everywhere, keeping a consistent pacing was undoubtedly tricky. But is that good enough of an excuse?
My Hero Academia excels in its world-building and developing characters, especially villains, that many fans enjoy watching. So many people have different favorite characters (except Mineta) and that’s just a testament to the universe that series creator Kohei Horikoshi wrote. Unfortunately, we started to see the other side of that double-edged sword during Season 7 in some capacity.
Creating war arcs in action stories and maintaining the focus on what matters most is challenging, without a doubt. That being said, My Hero Academia Season 7 fell victim to the downside of this task in one simple word—pacing. When I’m on the edge of my seat the moment Deku joins the fight against Shigaraki, I don’t care about what else is happening now. The main hero and the main villain are now facing each other. Yet, we’re drawn to just about everyone else as well because the story tries to give side characters a final “hoorah!” before it all ends.
At no point in time did I ever think, even when reading the manga, “What are the heroes from Shiketsu High doing right about now?” But low and behold, they showed up in a critical moment where some fans might have even thought All For One killed Hawks. Then the whole Fumikage meme-face happened it just took away everything from what could’ve been a defining moment during the war. Yes, I understand that the writing was to set up for Toga to take out Hawks for what he did to Twice—I get it.
The production for the series is what it is. Many moments looked incredible and others felt extremely flat. It all depends if you’re a viewer looking at the glass half full or half empty. But for Naomi Nakayama to work as the season’s director for the first time in the series’ long run, along with storyboarding a handful of the episodes as well, it’s a big job to handle with a time frame that wouldn’t be considered the greatest. So I give production a double thumbs up for the job they did. Some shots even looked cinematic.
The truth of the matter is that the anime production did spike when it mattered most. Even the short-lived fight between Shigaraki and Star and Stripe looked spectacular. So when you have a war arc with major fights, we want the animation and composition to look great as well, which, for the most part, they were. Whether it was the fights around the Todoroki family, Ochako and Toga, All Might and All For One, or Deku and Shigaraki, there were plenty of thrilling moments worth watching in My Hero Academia Season 7.
Although, I just couldn’t care less about a lot of the fights happening in Season 7 and that sucks to say for what’s supposed to be the war that ends it all. The anime does its damnest to make the source material better and, a lot of times, it succeeded. Gentle Criminal and Lady Nagant joining the fight were much better in the anime than in the manga as well. The voice cast and the music brought life to those moments and nobody can argue otherwise.
But in the scope of the writing, there’s not much you can do other than be faithful to the source material at this point. I was more so waiting for Shoji’s fight against Spinner and the heteromorphs to end rather than begin. I honestly couldn’t care less either about whatever vitriol All For One was spewing at a certain point, who talked (basically) more than any other character this season. There were just so many factors (side fights, unimportant corny dialogue, etc.) that took away from the most important fights sometimes and I found myself having a “well, what’s next on the agenda for today” attitude after watching a handful of the episodes.
However, My Hero Academia Season 7 without a doubt belongs in the conversation with other great seasons such as 3, 4, and 6. Its valleys definitely weren’t as drastic as its peaks. Some anime reach a certain point where you can tell that the production team really is trying to make this as best as they can and that’s what I felt watching My Hero Academia Season 7.
All in all, it was another solid season. Sometimes I looked at this one with a “not the best, not the worst” attitude, but I came around at the end because who couldn’t? The season needed to end with a bang and that’s exactly what it did. Sad to say, though, like I said in my reviews for The Elusive Samurai, Wistoria: Wand and Sword, and Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master, solid production can only take a story so far. If the original script itself doesn’t live up to the standard then it puts a cap on how great a series can possibly be.
Ultimately, I think that’s what happened with My Hero Academia Season 7 in some ways. Fortunately for us as fans, the staff and cast went plus ultra when it came to delivering a memorable season for one of the best battle-action anime of the past decade.
If this review was any sort of convincing then be sure to vote for the final episode of My Hero Academia Season 7 in our weekly poll!
The next and final season of the series will begin airing in 2025.
Screenshots from Crunchyroll
©K. Horikoshi / Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project
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