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my thoughts on canon Douma

(will have manga spoilers!)

Douma is one of those guys I feel like a lot of people misunderstand. And to be honest, I don’t fault either the people for not looking deeply enough nor Gotouge for writing him “weirdly,” he’s written just fine, but he’s genuinely so different and uncanny that it’s hard to nail his character down. He’s not someone you’re really supposed to relate to, where his lack of humanity is his core characteristic and the most intriguing parts of his character is just how distanced he is from the concept of having personhood.

This being said, he kinda suffers from the same problems as Muzan where the fact that he’s placed in a story full of fighting and action did him a huge disservice. Any interesting mentalities or thought processes he could have sparked are overshadowed by blood and gore and flashy colors.

He’s also not given nearly enough time to properly establish his role as an influential, scarily competent cult leader. In the narrative, he’s painted as this positive, airheaded guy who’s a little fucked up sometimes, which completely skips over exploring how he acts in front of his followers, or just people he generally wants to keep up appearances for. Does he act more mature? Does he try to fit the image of the savior in his followers’ minds? Does he not try to change his persona at all? What does he actually say? What does he actually do? You might point out that Kotoha shows an example of how he treats followers, maybe a little warmly, maybe with a little pity, but the fact most of her story was revealed through exposition and through his POV alone can give him grounds to skew it in order to fit his own philosophies (and we already know he’s a bit of an unreliable narrator so).

The above point is definitely a problem that could have been fixed had he had a whole arc dedicated to himself while in his Savior persona, with more people to tell Kotoha’s story in a different point of view, but I digress.

I do think his role serving as a foil to Shinobu, Kanao, and Inosuke was nicely executed. But, it did feel half baked since it was all shoved into the Infinity Fortress arc with barely any build up. Well, hmm, Shinobu is fine? It’s Kanao and Inosuke I have more issues with, which I’ll explain more in their specific analysis posts.

(Ooh, I kinda want to touch on the discussion on if Douma is misogynistic or not, but I’m not sure if people would be more interested in me just analyzing the canon content alone and giving a solid yes or no answer, or if they want to hear my personal interpretation which can branch from canon quite a bit. In any case, it’ll be its own separate post.)

@lavender-rosa

also @keniaku bc its your babygirl

he doesn't even understand the concept. he's like a dog he saw it elicited a positive response and therefore copied it exactly. doesn't mean he doesn't have that sentiment though

Zenitsu The Scream

the important thing to know about a gender swapped mob psycho is that nothing actually changes at all

Did you ever share your thoughts on Shoji and his mini arc with Spinner? What were your thoughts on how that was handled when it came to quirk discrimination?

I'm not sure I did, but I think it was really badly done. Hori should never touch a plotline that parallels with complex IRL problems like racial discrimination without much more research and sensitivity.

To say that discrimination will end if the victims keep turning the other cheek and strive to become cool based on the oppressor's standards is just an absurd way to "solve" discrimination.

Also, the ending where Shoji travelled the country and got awards somehow stopped discrimination was laughable. Look at any minority in the world - racial, sexual, disabilities, whatever - having a celebrity can be helpful of course, but will never solve the overall issue without proactive policies that bring real change over time.

(and I liked Shoji and was looking forward to his highlight, but the plotline was way too halfbaked).

An Easy Fix for Zoe

The writers have made a big deal about how French the show is and how only French writers could write it even though it does nothing to really route the viewer in France outside of the general setting. There's no cultural exchange going on here. In fact, the show will straight up ignore things like French laws in order to make a plot work! Everything I've learned about France has come from research done for writing fanfic and not anything from the actual show.

Wouldn't it have been cool if that's why they introduced Zoe, though? If they brought on a foreign character specifically so that they could slip in little facts about French culture? I would have loved that and totally forgiven them for how much of a Mary Sue she is.

lurker here, I just gotta ask, since ua is a point of extreme criticism in your bnha stories, what are your full opinions on both aizawa and nedzu (ik they're not the only 2, but their actions are a lot more influential at how ua runs things) since I believe those two are the reasons why ua is why it is in both canon and fanon stuff ive seen?

Isn't that a loaded question?

To get this out of the way I do not think Aizawa is a bad hero. He is shown to be a skilled combatant, has mastery over his quirk, and generally knows what he is doing on the field.

However, he is a dogshit teacher.

He routinely ignores his class in favor of sleep, he can't recognize signs of abuse and bullying among his students, he expels entire classrooms of students (more on that later), he shows at least an extent of favoritism because if we are to believe his expulsion record then why else is Bakugou and Mineta still enrolled, his logical ruses are pointless at best and cause trust issues at worth, and to be honest his teaching methods are shit judging by his admittance that Vlad King is a better teacher during the Joint-Training Arc.

Back to the expulsion point, is Aizawa aware that by his expulsion of entire classrooms of students he is effectively ruining their lives?

Japan places high values on education as both a country and a society. It is one of the most influential factors in a citizen's life as it affects both employment and socioeconomic growth.

Upon expelling a student, Aizawa has effectively left a black mark on their record. From a normal school, this could put them a minimum wage job for the rest of their life. From an elite hero school, this could make them jobless for the rest of their life. The idea that Aizawa expelled them only to re-enroll them later and for them to be grateful for it is either a disgustingly ignorant or intentionally malicious choice on Horikoshi's part.

While Aizawa may eventually remove that mark, he is still controlling students through fear by threatening them with essentially poverty.

That isn't even taking into account how many current or former students of him have mutant quirks, have darker skin, are LGBTQIA+ in some way, or other factors that would feed into societal discrimination.

Once again, he essentially threatens them with death for what? Not understanding what they're getting into when it comes to training to be a hero? No one knows what they are getting into becoming a hero or the sacrifices they'll have to make from physical strain, social exposure, and mental exhaustion.

He ultimately suffers from what most BNHA characters suffer from, misunderstanding what makes certain tropes work. He is supposed to be another closed off but secretly caring anime teacher, but what makes those characters work is the fact they aren't teaching in a classroom but rather outside of one in non-school circumstances.

As for Nezu, it is more complicated because we don't see as much as him or know as much about him as we do with Aizawa. What we do know is that he doesn't like humans and judging by UA and his actions as a principal he really seems hellbent on destroying the hero career and the humans within his care (the robots for the simulations and entrance exam, having teachers go all out for final exams, the crowding them all into dorms, the shit security towards the beginning). For him it is more a question of how he can be the principal.

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.

MHA is like those webtoons where the kids are always fighting and it's just like "where are the adults??" (like Weak Hero) except the adults are right there and just doing basically nothing.