This week, this Nicks have a look at the hot new (3-year old) shounen anime that's sweeping the world - Boku no Hero Academia! They'll talk about the strengths and weaknesses of ensemble shows, what the superhero craze looks like reflected through and Japanese mirror and whether or not anyone axtually likes Mineta!

Click here for more information on the Livestream for the Cure!

Fandom Facts

“My Hero Academia … follows Izuku Midoriya, a boy born without superpowers (called quirks) in a world where they have become commonplace, but who still dreams of becoming a hero himself. He is scouted by the world's greatest hero, who shares his quirk with Izuku after recognizing his potential, and later enrolls him in a high school for heroes in training.”

• The BNHA subreddit is pretty popular: Within the first three months of the subreddit’s creation, it went from almost 300 000th to somewhere in the 15 000’s (and is now ~1400th most popular subreddit).
• Someone did a fan survey with general interests in the anime on the subreddit (circa 2018). Of the over 400 responses, here are some interesting bits:
• Best aspect of BNHA: The characters (53%), the overall concept (28%)
• 11% dislike generally shonen (the remainder are either indifferent or like shonen)
• 47% have read the manga in its entirety
• 7% dropped the show completely; 5.8% strongly disliked it or hated it
• There was also this fan survey which was more about the characters which had some demographics (and a thousand responses)!
• Predominantly male (76.4%), with some female representation (20.6%)
• Overwhelmingly young: 85%+ under 24 (20-24: 42.7%; 17-19: 33.2%)
• Favourite character: Izuku Midoriya (39.2%), Katsuki Bakugou (21.5%), Toshinori Yagi (18.8%)
• Main weakness of the show: Too many characters (46.5%), some characters have limited development (33.6%)
• Interest in BNHA is definitely on the rise, and it’s the most popular it’s been … ever (which isn’t surprising, since it’s still coming out).
• BUT while it is popular, it hasn’t surpassed Naruto (too big to show) or One Piece (on the decline), even if it is overcoming series like Bleach and Fairy Tale.
• According to Fandometrics, BNHA was the #1 Anime and Manga fandom, and #5 fandom overall for 2018.

First Impressions

Z:

Before I started watching the series I figured that it was just another shonen series that G was really into because he’s a fan of superhero stuff. Admittedly, even watching through the first episode or two I wasn’t quite convinced that it was anything more than just another Dragon Ball, another sprawling shonen series poised to seize the world’s imagination the way that Naruto or One Piece did. But then, I think it was something said during Deku’s initial training (or maybe just the quirkiness of seeing all the Star Wars references in place names -- neat, but...why!?) or maybe his heroism in trying to save Bakugo from the sludge villain, after that bit of the show demonstrated its heart I was in for the long haul.

T:

Beyond know that it is popular, and seeing it crop up in spots like the Anime Feminist, I didn’t think much of it other than that it might be the next Fairy Tale / Bleach / Naruto / Dragonball Z / Shonen show. G heavily recommended it and I watched the first season, and while there were still heavy shonen tones, I got a better appreciation of it, and liked the vibe (X-men, but anime) and that it wasn’t all