glitch-man

[glitch-man]

My Hero Academia

I have a lot of problems with this Anime/Manga. I used to be a big fan of it back in like 2016-2017 when it was getting really popular and the anime was in its first two seasons. But now I have so many problems with it, and that's not to say that it's the worst anime/manga around or anything. I just have a lot of frustration with it that I need to vent I guess. There are going to a lot of Manga spoilers, so you might not want to read this if you aren't caught up or anime only.

A starting point is a little difficult to really come up with so I'm going to start with the main character Deku.

Deku is not the best protagonist. Personality wise I think he's fine at least, heck I'd even say I like him personality wise. It's just that he is not well utilized by the story. His arc in the manga just seems to be gaining confidence and getting better with his powers. That's not a terrible arc in it of itself, but I don't think MHA does a particularly great job of it. In the whole of it it feels like the only real reason he isn't confident at the start of the story is because he doesn't have a quirk. And once he gets One for All the main reason he isn't confident is because he can't use it properly. This again really isn't a bad thing in it of itself. Yet, when put together it makes him feel way flatter than he should be. It makes it feel like his only real flaw is that he can't use his power properly. He doesn't have any other problems in regards to his attitude or personality. The immediate impulse for a lot of people would to make him darker/edgier, but he doesn't really need to be morally grey to be interesting he needs a flaw that is meaningfully shown. For example he feels like he isn't enough and in spite of having one of the most powerful quirks and the mentorship of his idol he still feels insecure and not enough or a flaw that is sort of shown he has, but it isn't meaningfully expanded upon until the Dark Hero Arc (and even then the quality of it there is arguable) he's overly self sacrificing to the point of pushing people away and hurting himself and others due to it. These aren't amazing suggestions honestly, they are just some examples of ideas of flaws that could be used to give him a greater level of depth. But also it mildly implies that being quirkless is his main problem and that is not great honestly.

And quirklessness in the context of MHA is not handled well. There are 3 types of discrimination in the world of MHA. The first that is shown is being quirkless, the second is having a villainous quirk, and the last is having some amount of inhuman appearance. The way these are shown in the narrative all have their own problems, but let's start with quirklessness. This is set up extensively in the first chapter, it is the initial conflict of the series. And it factors into the plot so little. There are three characters in the manga that were born quirkless, and all of these characters in some way get a quirk. There are characters that lose their quirk, but most of those are characters in spinoff material or literally just lost their quirk like with the last 20 chapters. Ragdoll being the only character that lost their quirk and has had a genuine emotional reaction to it (Also Mirio, but he got his power back). She is obviously upset because she essentially has become disabled, being unable to do something she was previously able to do losing her job and passion in the process. Which is upsetting in context, but being quirkless is only really shown in the narrative as a bad thing that people want to avoid and is tragic when it happens. In the world of MHA it is around 10 to 20 percent of the global population, for reference 10 percent of the real world population is left handed.

Why is all of this a problem? The story spends so much of the first few chapters on Deku being quirkless, and it is in effect a large bit of wordbuilding that goes unused for most of the story and the affect on the story is minimal. There is no scene in the manga where quirkless characters are discriminated against other than Deku. Deku doesn't see someone discriminated against for being quirkless and get mad about it. There is also theme that hero society is corrupted and flawed and quirklessness is never highlighted in regards to its flaws. Either for how they get treated or how the destruction of hero society would effect quirkless people. This doesn't have to be the biggest deal because this is a superhero story that has superhero main characters, it wouldn't be great if was just ignored all together, but the fact that two other forms of discrimination are highlighted as a bad thing and a core reason as to why 'hero society' is flawed. Yet is so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And you can look at it as a superhero version of a disability and it cares so little about that. And I am not trying to say that MHA is problematic because of it and the people that created it and enjoy it are bad people. I'm just pointing out a problem I noticed.

But more about 'Hero Society' and the main antagonist Shigaraki. I don't really like Shigaraki all that much. He has some good things about him, like his power is interesting and his backstory is really good, but as a character in the narrative he doesn't really feel like he does anything. Shigaraki has very little agency in the narrative IMO. He mostly gets directed to go do things by other people or he does stuff that doesn't really feel motivated by anything in specific. This problem comes to a comedic crescendo when (spoiler) All for One implants a part of his consciousness into Shigaraki and effectively takes over his mind and body literally taking all of Shigaraki's agency away. Part of the reason Shigaraki's actions don't really feel motivated is because his stated motive is "the end of hero society" and like that is such a vague goal. The reason it is so vague is because MHA does a terrible job of showing all the corruption and problems inherent to it. He is being presented as being correct about the flaws, but misguided in his methods. But outside of backstory the only time before the final saga, which starts around 300 chapters in, the only meaningful time we are shown any of the problems that affect people are Deku being discriminated against for being quirkless (which as I said before doesn't really matter) and Shinso being disliked for his Villainous quirk. All of the other times are backstory (Which FYI is mostly just Shigaraki's backstory) and lip service that we are told instead of being shown. The only morally corrupt we get shown is Endeavor, who gets a lot of his absolute worst traits retconned a once he starts getting developed and also he gets a redemption arc. And then we are shown it so much more once we get into the final arc and at that point it feels hollow. This overall makes me not really like Shigaraki, he feels directionless and like he just kinda does things for the sake of it. Also he just feels overpowered at this point in the manga to a negative degree. And the whole "All for One takes over Shigaraki's mind" thing is terrible, confusing, and I hate it. All for One is a weaker antagonist, he has more agency but his motive is far more boring.

On the topic of Shigaraki getting his mind taken over let's talk about Star and Stripe real quick. She feels like such a utilitarian character to me. She exists to weaken Shigaraki and explain why the other countries of the world aren't helping Japan. I like her design, her power, her personality, but regardless she feels like she exists for a very utilitarian purpose.

Next up let's talk about Ida and Uraraka. They feel way underutilized as characters. Both get a decent amount of focus early on, and then drop off in terms of importance after the Hero Killer Stain arc. Ida only really gets focus in all of the various exam/training/mock battle arcs which IMO are too plentiful in the story and make the pace drag more than it should and take focus away from other parts of the story. Uraraka is similar, but she also got to fight Toga in the current arc. Both just get set up as really important characters before all of their focus and importance going to other characters, like Todoroki, Bakugo, Endeavor, and Hawks. Obviously both still get focus and are highlighted in arcs, but most of he big moments and narrative tension go to other characters. Honestly I like both of them, but it is a little annoying that they feel like they have been pushed to the background. Uraraka gets it worse because she just gets demoted to Deku's love interest for most of the story before her weirdly, I guess romantic is the word I'd use, fight with Toga. They get underdeveloped and underdelivered.

Toga is a character that is also underdeveloped and then she has all of her backstory dropped on you in a strange sympathy play. I don't hate the idea of her backstory as a way, but again it's just kind of dropped on you at a bad time. Plus her morality of being a literal murderer makes it kind of less sympathetic. The intensity of it all compared to the relative mundane nature of it makes it just not hit properly. It feels like her backstory of people not liking her because of her quirk and such is fine, but it is dropped at a bad point in the story and isn't properly presented.

This is similar to Spinner's backstory just getting dropped on us along with the discrimination of people with non-human appearances being poorly shown. We are told this is a problem, we are not shown it. The one exception being the one time the character 'Ordinary Woman' is discriminated against. She doesn't even have a full name.

Todoroki is overall one of the better executed characters in the story, but I am not the biggest fan of how the story centralizes on his family drama to the disservice of other aspects of the story.

Yuga is in theory a character I really like. But the execution on him is kind of bad. He is mostly a joke character with some moments of depth and bravery. But he is suddenly revealed to be a traitor with like one scene of build up like 100 chapters earlier. The traitor subplot being ignored and barely acknowledged for hundreds of chapters and then it is suddenly brought back up and ends almost as quickly. He needed more development before the reveal and more focus on the traitor subplot.

And then we have Bakugo. I don't really like him either. Not because he bullied Midroiya, but he just doesn't do anything all that interesting in the narrative. He does have some good hidden depths, him being uncorruptible and inspired by All-Might like Deku, he's far smarter than he seems, and he seems to respect Uraraka due to her performance in the tournament arc (at least as much as he can). And I will admit I am probably forgetting a lot of things about him to. But, I do think that overall he just doesn't do enough in the narrative to make me really like him as a character. He's like Shigaraki, there is a lot to him that is good, but the sum of those aspects doesn't feel greater than the whole.

There are obviously other things, the female cast is not the best written, Mineta, the fan service-y design of some of the characters, The terrible, terrible pacing of the last 100 chapters of the manga. At the least the pacing in the Final War arc. There are so many little problems that don't feel like they are that bad on their own and show up early on, but then they get worse and more problems show up later and suddenly all of these problems mix together and it just is frustrating.

#my hero academia #boku no hero academia #izuku midoriya - criticism #ragdoll - criticism #hot take ragdoll is actually really hot #especially when she is in her office worker clothes #rant post #anime #deku - criticism #shigaraki tomura - criticism #all for one #star and stripe #iida tenya #ochako uraraka - criticism #spinner - criticism #bakugou katsuki - criticism #shouto todoroki - criticism #enji todoroki - criticism #endeavor - criticism #yuga aoyama - criticism

[glitch-man]

Gamers, I'm going to level with you all

I just really need to get this off my chest honestly, but I kind of despise reading about other autistic people's experiences on social media. The reason is that it just makes me feel utterly miserable reading about all of the horrible things that have happened to these people and makes me feel so lost and hopeless, like I'm destined to be miserable for the rest of my life. Maybe it's just what I've seen personally and it's not the totality of it all, but so much of it give the air of "The world is a cruel uncaring place that has mistreated me my entire life. I feel lonely but I prefer the isolation to interacting with neurotypicals." And I just don't really relate and hearing about those experiences just hurts me. Not only because it makes me feels utterly hopeless, but it makes me feel so dissimilar to people that I feel I should relate to.

I mean I feel lonely too, but I haven't really felt that mistreated in my life. I don't feel an overwhelming distrust towards neurotypicals, though that is probably a luxury many others aren't privy to. But it's like there is this disconnect between me and others. It's probably due to me being a straight cis man (gasp) and them being a part of other minority groups that get them treated worse. That's probably the disconnect.

Honestly the people I relate with most are depressed 20-somethings guys with no longer term goals that spend their time playing video games watching anime and jacking off. People that don't really have people's sympathies and are mostly forgotten about. This is for the reason that there is a decent amount of overlap with some less than desirable groups of people, but it is far from a circle. But it feels like the people I should be relating to feel so different from me and like we are so different from one another and that the people I find more relatable are people that I feel I shouldn't find relatable. That in some way that makes me lesser. It just serves to make me feel even more isolated from the world around me than I already am. It also doesn't help that these types of people are also predisposed to doomerism too.

I'm not like what I think I should be. And I fit far more into another group of people that I feel like people expressly don't want to sympathize with. I even feel this when it comes to media representation, the characters that are explicitly canonically autistic don't feel representative of me. But characters like Mob from Mob Psycho 100 (he's just like fr fr) who is pretty autistic, but not canonically so, or Denji from Chainsaw Man who isn't even close to autistic I feel more represented by.

I guess I also just take bleak hopelessness to heart and it really effects me in a negative way. I just want to be happy and to make some friends right now.

#rant post #personal rant #rant #personal #sex mention? #sex ment tw #masturbation mention #am i tagging this right #? #men #men? #I hope this makes sense #is this an autism thing? #autism #autistic adult

[glitch-man]

If there is one thing that just makes me MAD it is when people start to argue about which representational system is objectively better. Like no, none of them are better their representational the only thing that makes them better is that someone understands them. Like neither Celsius nor Fahrenheit are better than one another, any reason other than "more people use Celsius" is justification. I'm just sick of the these arguments so much. They don't matter, just use the one you understand the most.

[glitch-man]

[glitch-man]

I really am the kinda guy who would get hit by a car smh smh

[glitch-man]

Sex as a cultural concept frustrates me. I want a vacation from it being in my life for like a month Jimmy Crimmy. I'm so damn tired. It feels like everything is about sex so often and if you spend any amount of time online it is near impossible to avoid. And like you can either be positive or negative about it, what if I don't want to be positive or negative about.

I'm positive about it like 15% of the time, the other 85% of the time it's a nightmare. I don't want to be uniformly negative either and shitty all the time about. I am just going insane and have very big problem with my sexuality.

#This is not an asexual thing #I am not asexual

[glitch-man]

#RuningAsIntended^Woman-42

[glitch-man]

It’s so fucked up how tiktok culture has made clout-poisoned people turn the public into content, every day I see people minding their business have their entire faces put online for thousands of likes, a couple kissing on the train, a lady dancing across a cross walk, a guy nodding his head to the music at a club, a lady buying a banana at the store, ring camera footage of the neighbors kids being stupid. Just let people live jfc

#I fear this a lot #social anxiety is a big problem for me #and the idea of being made fun of on the internet for just existing #terrifying hate it #Doubly hate the idea of being a meme #No #Please No #I just want to be in public #and not feel like everyone is looking at me and thinking I'm cringe

[glitch-man]

You ever just watch a movie you thought was okay, then immediately watch its much worse sequel and feel like you miss the other movie because it was so much better than the second movie gaining an appreciation for the first one. Bonus points if the second movie has a different main character. Even more bonus points if you can tell they were meant to be the main character from the first, but the actor turned down the role.

#Speed #Speed 2:Cruise Control #This is about speed #it can be about other things too #But it is specifically about the speed movies #I dont even like Keanu in Speed #But still better than the other guy in the second one

[glitch-man]

One of the things I want most in this world is to be able to not care about other people's opinions on things that aren't a big deal. Especially if said person is an expresses their opinion like an obnoxious asshole (Which is honestly most people on social media let's not lie).

#If you think you you don't you do #and if you are proud that you do #I hope you never find happiness in your life

[glitch-man]

Me: I refer to everyone as guys

Woman: So that means you fuck guys?

I chuckle

Me: That implies I've had sex

The sheer force of my bitchless energy blast everyone in a 50 foot radius through 4 feet of concrete as I ascend into the heavens

#meme #shit meme #shitpost #comedy #i am bitchless #sorry if this wasn't funny

[glitch-man]

A Nejiron appears in your room and demands Gatorade bread. What do you do?

#Let him suffer #nobody gets my fucking gatorade #get your own fucking electrolytes

[glitch-man]

Also considering: Ice Cream

Currently considering: women

#women are pretty #ice cream is tasty #such is life

[glitch-man]

Currently considering: women

#they are very pretty

[glitch-man]

That feeling when you're in a bad mood and you try to make yourself feel better by doing something you like, but instead you still feel bad and it influences your perception of the thing, making you question if you actually like that thing or are just lying to yourself that you like it making you feel worse because now you are doubting everything you ever knew

#autism #is this an autism thing? #is it a depression thing? #Or is this a me thing? #help #autistic problems

[glitch-man]

[glitch-man]