Today, I watched the most American thing ever -- and strangely enough, it was made by the Japanese.
Of course, there's a lot more going on here than a tag line that makes bald eagles cry tears of red, white, and blue. This is about a great hero's last hurrah -- a teacher's sacrifice for his pupil. And it reduced me to ugly, snotty sobs.
Welcome, readers, to the magic of My Hero Academia, in which a superficially silly premise - a world in which almost everyone has superpowers thanks to a mega-dose of handwavium - manages to work by being absolutely sincere in its appreciation for the Western comic books that appear to be its inspiration. Marvel and DC may have lost their way in recent years trying to duplicate Alan Moore's Watchmen (or Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but Kohei Horikoshi? He still believes in heroes, and if his storytelling is any indication, he wants you to believe in them too.
One of the major complaints raised by #Comicsgate regarding today's Western comics is that they lack genuine human emotion. This is not true of My Hero Academia. Everyone in Horikoshi's story has a relatable motivation, whether it be Midoriya and Bakugo's deep admiration for All Might (which they express in very different ways, obviously), Ochaco's desire to help her struggling parents, or Iida's worship of his pro-hero older brother.
Even more importantly, My Hero Academia has a moral center. The only reason Midoriya, the principal protagonist, has superpowers at all is that he earned them by working hard and demonstrating a capacity for selflessness. (Incidentally, this also happens to be true for the aforementioned All Might.) And his genetically gifted classmates? In a way, they have to earn their power too. After a devastating loss in UA's sports festival, Ochaco realizes she has to seek mentors beyond her comfort zone who will teach her ordinary combat skills she doesn't have. When Iida's brother is permanently crippled by a big bad, he learns a lesson in prudence when his quest for vengeance nearly ends in disaster. And even Bakugo - rage-filled Bakugo - passes his own test when he refuses to be tempted by the League of Villains. The message is clear: to be a hero means setting aside pride and selfishness.
I really can't put into words how refreshing My Hero Academia is -- although Richard Meyer's "clean feeling" definitely captures the basics. If you're tired of an American pop culture that seems to have given itself over to cynicism and rarefied political obsessions, maybe this weeb stuff can be your antidote.
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