if there's one thing i've always loved and appreciated in media, its stories that are focused as much on the characters as they are on the plot. when i mention this to other people, they tell me that that's a standard in stories, and even if it is, i don't think any other story has managed to accomplish this as well as my hero academia.
if you ask me, the reason my hero academia is so popular is exactly because of this; it has a lot of characters, and over the course of 41 volumes/7 (almost 8) seasons, it develops almost every character and their bonds with one another. similarly to ensemble stars, it's the kinda media that has someone for everyone.

you'd have to experience the show in its entirety post-2020 heroaca craze to fully understand why it remains as popular as it is and, of course, why i cherish this show so much. although its fanbase can be terrible sometimes, my hero academia is honestly my favorite anime of all time and one of the few pieces of media i find complete comfort in, alongside subarashiki hibi. my hero academia fosters a sense of community in its viewers through building bonds between its characters and getting you fully immersed in the lives of the characters in a way a lot of anime fails to do. its scenes of fighting are well balanced with scenes of mundane everyday life, such as deciding what to do for ua's culture festival or bakugo and todoroki having to take supplemental classes to get their hero licenses. as well, it gives you six or seven seasons to really grow attached to characters before ultimately killing them off, and even then, official art and callbacks within the show to deceased characters continues.
for me, when i see the students of class 1-a or the members of the league of villains, it feels as if i'm seeing old friends of mine if that makes sense. it's hard for me to come across media that gives me that feeling, which is what i love so much about my hero.

i'm not the type of person to ignore the faults of media, even if it is my favorite show. my hero academia messes up a lot, beyond the usual things anime does like sexualizing underage girls (though there's a lot of that, too). my issues with my hero academia mostly boil down to its mistreatment of female characters.
my hero academia really, really does not care about its female characters unless they have something to do with a man. the only time any female character had an arc that passed the bechdel test was the togachako arc during the war. otherwise, the show only uses its female characters to further uplift their male counterparts. which is disgusting. on top of that, mirko's entire inclusion is to fufill horikoshi's amputee fetish, which isn't bad in itself i guess, but i just hate the fact that all her possible character development, backstory, etc was thrown out to instead let her constantly be losing her arms and legs.
the female characters rarely get much development or have personalities of their own; when i look at chainsaw man or the persona series, each female character has extremely varying personalities. instead, in my hero, every female character is either emo (jirou) or a super girly girl (everyone else). it's very one note. the male characters have tons of different personalities, just look at todoroki, deku, and bakugo. but when you look at, for example, toga, ochako, and momo, there's not much variation.
however, i don't think everything is horikoshi's fault; his female character designs vary and despite how he constantly gives every female character huge boobs, their body sizes outside of that are very diverse within the manga. keyword: within the manga. because, unfortunately, the anime completely removes all of this diversity in favor of making every female character super duper skinny. this is my other issue with the treatment of female characters in my hero. i really appreciate their varied body types in the manga, but it doesn't translate into the anime and thus, it doesn't translate into any of the official merchandise, either, which is very upsetting.

i am unfortunately more or less anime-only, just because i like watching mha in the background while i do other things. most of all, i really like rewatching specific seasons/arcs in the background. due to my being a shigaraki riako, i mostly prefer to watch arcs that focus on the league of villains rather than class 1-a...

my villain academia

i freaking love season 5, specifically the latter half of season 5. the paranormal liberation front arc is easily the best arc in the entire anime. it has all the core members of the league of villains still alive and focuses completely on them and their own backstories and character development. i really, really enjoyed how this arc further explored the relationship between twice and toga, who are two of my favorite members of the league aside from tomura and spinner. everyone beside compress got their time to shine, which i'm okay with because compress got his moment during the summer training arc... sigh, it's just such an incredibly beautiful arc. the growth of tomura's character throughout season 5-6 and his speech after taking over the meta liberation army is just amazing. this arc completely focuses on the villains which is what i love to see.
my favorite moment of the entire arc is obviously tomura's awakening... but it's also the whole plf speech and when he falls down onto the floor after while he's backstage. that scene is so cute!!! and when he throws up during the initial fight between the members of the meta liberation army and and league.. it's just really adorable. i love tomura in this season so, so , so , so soooo much!!!!

heroes vs villains

this arc comes riiight after my villain academia, and is my second favorite. honestly, mha peaks with season 5 and 6. heroes vs. villains follows, well... the heroes of mha versus the league of villains/paranormal liberation front. i really like tomura's arc within this story arc, in which he realizes all for one never had his best intentions at heart, and i also like how much this arc emphasizes the inequality between heroes and villains.
when hawks kills twice, toga asks if twice wasn't human to hawks, since pro-heroes are supposed to save humans. i think this is a good summary of how much this arc dives into the injustices villains face within hero media and, in the real world, the injustices marginalized groups face when villainized by authorities. think of police brutality, for example. i hope it's not insensitive to compare my hero academia to real world issues, i just find that this arc has a lot of political undertones.
the reason why this arc is only my second favorite, though, is the heroes' anticlimatic victory. i don't like how they just... win. it would have been much more interesting to see what would have happened had the heroes lost.
outside of its real world parallels, i find that the star of this arc is undoubtedly dabi. although he's my least favorite of the league, this was the arc that made me stop hating him. his anger towards his father is so raw and i found myself crying while watching it because i've experienced the same anger so, so, so many times.