It’s been a long road in My Hero Academia from the debut episode “Izuku Midoriya: Origin” to Season 8. Fans have watched Izuku Midoriya come so far as the mighty hero Deku, to the point they’re watching him fight the ultimate villains to save Japan from doom. As viewers watch Deku’s climactic duel unfold, they may also be hit with a startling realization: Deku has only recently finished his first year of school at UA.
Incredibly, the entire saga of My Hero Academia, from Deku getting into UA to his mastery of One For All’s many Quirks, took place in just one year’s time. That’s a rather rushed and cramped time frame for Deku to go from zero to hero with One For All’s power, and it even set up My Hero Academia to deal with some awkward issues. By no means does this expedited time frame totally ruin the anime, but it also created some avoidable bumps in the road, and it was also a missed opportunity to employ one of the fandom’s favorite tropes.
Deku Outclassed the Pro Heroes Too Soon
When a shonen action anime introduces viewers to a teenage hero with vast potential, fans expect that character to eventually eclipse their older, more experienced allies as the glorious protagonist. No protagonist can be second-best forever, but then again, as seen in My Hero Academia, it’s still baffling to see the young protagonist overtake seasoned veterans like that. For contrast, the Naruto anime showed Naruto Uzumaki training for years like everyone before becoming a ninja, and he needed roughly three more years before he became the unstoppable juggernaut who was ready to face Madara Uchiha or Kaguya Otsutsuki. Monkey D. Luffy trained for years with his Devil Fruit before he even set sail, to name two examples. However, anime such as My Hero Academia, Bleach, and Demon Slayer are too generous with how quickly and how far their zero-to-hero stars can go.
In a startlingly short time, Bleach’s Ichigo Kurosaki could outclass half the Gotei 13’s Captains, and Demon Slayer’s Tanjiro Kamado started facing and even defeating members of the Upper Moons in just a few months’ time. As for My Hero Academia’s Deku, he did get some plot armor and “cheat” power with One For All, but even so, it’s astonishing in a bad way how he went from a clumsy UA student to the unstoppable badass he is now. Seasoned pro heroes, some of whom are old enough to be Deku’s parents, can only watch in tense hope as a 16-year-old charges in to take down Tomura Shigaraki. Endeavor, for example, is the new #1 pro hero and has been fighting crime as a pro since before Deku was born, but that means little now that Deku is the plot armor hero who can and must save the day.
This is a case of too much of a good thing. No one expected Deku to stand in the shadow of adult pro heroes right to the end, since that would deeply cut into his image as the amazing shonen star who will defeat the final villain. The real problem, one that even the early episodes allowed to exist, was the pacing for all this. It’s simply bizarre and even unfair for Deku to go from a Quirkless teen to a master of One For All in just one year’s time.
In that aggressively tight time frame, Deku became someone who can all but invalidate the top-ranked pros by being the only one who can defeat Tomura and possibly All For One as well. It’s as though the superior experience those pro heroes worked so hard to get now counts for very little. All it means now is that Endeavor is tough and skilled enough to at least survive to watch Deku finish the fight that he never could. Something similar could be said about he UA “big three” students, who couldn’t even defeat Tomura as a team with Bakugo, let alone solo.
The Rest of Deku’s School Career Now Means Very Little
Deku looks forward with resolve while wearing a yellow coat in the My Hero Academia anime.Image via Studio Bones
Another issue with Deku’s rapid growth in just one year, aside from accidentally undercutting every character with far more experience than him, is that Deku’s school life now feels skewed. True, My Hero Academia was clearly never designed to be a typical coming-of-age high school anime where graduation is the endgame goal. That being said, there is a reason why students at schools like UA and Shiketsu need three years of training and education to become pro heroes, not just one.
Even the most talented or accomplished students, from Mirio Togata to Shoto and Momo, aren’t ready to go pro after just one year. Some students may be far ahead of the curve with Quirks or brainpowers that compete with most pro heroes’ own, but experience and training still count for a lot. Even Shoto, Momo, Bakugo, and Fumikage had to graduate before going pro, no matter how ahead of the learning curve they were.
As the manga’s final chapters already showed, Deku did his education at UA and presumably graduated with everyone else, but unlike his classmates, Deku didn’t have a whole lot left to do. Deku had, at most, the last few embers of One For All, a theory supported by how All Might used One For All’s embers to perform the United States of Smash.
Deku was Quirkless once again, having burned through all of his power in year one alone, and that makes for a wonky narrative. Two of Deku’s three years at UA feel unaccounted for, while it would have been smoother to have Deku make his way through all three years at UA before gaining enough power and skill to defeat the mighty Tomura. The anime’s earlier arcs moved at such a pace, it seemed My Hero Academia had little choice but to complete Deku’s arc in his first school year alone, which is a shame.
In theory, bonus material for My Hero Academia, such as manga one-shot chapters or even an OVA or a fifth movie, could potentially show what Deku and his classmates are up to in their second and third years. That would mean much for plenty of class 1-A, not to mention class 1-B, but that won’t do Deku any good. No matter what might come next, such as another powerful villain’s rise to power or a huge natural disaster, it could never top what Deku experienced in his overstuffed first year in his awkwardly paced hero’s journey.
Even as a pro hero with his own power suit, Deku cannot fight anything or anyone who can rival what Deku experienced in that rushed first year of his UA career. Deku’s arc burned the candles at both ends, going too big too soon, to the point fans might wonder if Deku should even bother finishing his education at UA.
Deku’s Rushed Plot Meant the Entire Anime’s Plot Was Rushed, Too
Deku uses 100% full cowl with Eri during his fight against Overhaul – My Hero Academia Season 4Image via Bones
Since the story of My Hero Academia is the story of Deku himself, the pacing of one will dictate the pacing of the other. Neither Deku nor the original story can seriously extend before or after the other’s own chronology of events, with the main exception being the My Hero Academia: Vigilantes spinoff series. Thus, since Deku’s own arc was so recklessly rushed in his first year of school alone, that meant everything else had to go at the same pace.
Since the anime had so many episodes, and since viewers cared more about fights than the pacing of school semesters, that didn’t seem like a problem at the time. Now that the anime is almost over, however, My Hero Academia fans may look back and see how reckless the pacing really is.
The entire story of My Hero Academia covers plenty of ground on an awesome scale, too big a scale for Deku’s first year at UA alone. At first, Japanese society was stable and happy under All Might’s protection as heroes reigned uncontested, only for heroes to begin to stumble and fall as the villains rose to power and the heroes suffered losses. Then, the Paranormal Liberation Front took shape, and hordes of society’s outcasts rose up, throwing Japan into anarchy and destruction as vengeful citizens took to the streets. One year feels like too tight a time frame for that. Instead, My Hero Academia may have benefited from a time skip to handle this.
With a one- or two-year time skip, My Hero Academia could both give Deku his full high school experience and give the overall plot more room to breathe, granting better pacing to both. Major events such as All Might’s final fight against All For One in Kamino Ward or Eri’s rescue could have marked good points for a few short time skips. Perhaps rescuing Eri could have waited until Deku’s second year at school, and awakening One For All’s extra Quirks and using them could have taken place in year three. Thus, each year at UA would have felt more distinct and better balanced for Deku, all while anime fans enjoy time skipping as one of their favorite tropes.