Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

Deku Feels More Real

I'm sure this anime will give me more to talk about in the future but for now, let's discuss Deku.

Deku amongst his peers, stands out like a sore thumb, while he's definitely heroic, he cries frequently, he felt out of his depth especially early on, he's constantly injuring himself just even trying to use his quirk and finally, he can't really get serious.
Goku has his Super Saiyan look, Luffy has Haki, Naruto has Kurama, even Gon has that stupid muscular form with mile long hair, Deku can get serious but always looks like he's forcing it, it never seems natural.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing, Deku feels more real as a character as a result and really, this is probably how a child would learn about controlling their own super powers, Deku's inherited quirk is stupidly overpowered so having him learn quite a hard way of mastering it was the best way and suits his less masculine persona.
Yeah Deku is the least masculine of all the shonen protagonists, even more so than Ash Ketchum which is quite an achievement.
Any wonder that many fans suspect that Deku was meant to be a female character.

All Might Shows A Dark Reality

One thing I do appreciate about My Hero Academia is the hidden depths the story has on how heroes operate and All Might is the one to introduce that.

When we meet All Might, the man behind it, he's a skinny weak man past his prime and slowly dying from an injury sustained long ago, he talks up justice and being a hero as a show for the media and will actively do hero work but is getting weaker by the day.
As much as it pained Deku to see his hero tell him the harsh reality of hero work, it was for his own good, as it created a much better narrative for his development unlike Naruto who was given a head start with the Shadow Clone Jutsu.
He's no Master Roshi, Silvers Raleigh, Jiraiya or Genkai but All Might's world is much more cruel especially as quirks are way more balanced as a power compared to Saiyans, Ninjitsu, Devil Fruit and Spirit Power.
If Quirks were written like the powers I mentioned, My Hero Academia would fail miserably as an anime, yes One For All is ridiculously OP but having Deku learn to control it with serious injury or worse as a consequence for failing gives him a target to work towards and All Might has already proved as early as episode 2 that you need a healthy body to handle it.

I Really Don't Like Bakugo

So the big foreshadowing from a couple of days ago is that I'm finally watching My Hero Academia, my review is arriving on the final day of Advent, in the meantime let's talk Bakugo.

Katsuki Bakugo is a hero really full of himself being intelligent and powerful but has a stick up his ass about Deku, utterly paranoid about losing to him and has the worst temper in anime history, Basically he's the poorest imitation of the edgy anti hero.
I knew he was bad going into this series but my god! He's such an entitled little shit, he's supposed to be in the same group of people as Hiei and Vegeta but doesn't deserve to even be in the same room as them, they had actual character development, the whole point of their arcs especially Vegeta, whose personality is more similar to Bakugo is accepting that he's been surpassed and setting aside pride for the greater good.
While Bakugo does eventually stop being a prick, it took way too long when it should've been resolved by the 8th episode of season 1 when he actually realizes he's not the best hero in class and Deku had defeated him with a quirk he couldn't control yet.
So were stuck instead with seasons of Bakugo being the most insufferable ass hat ever put to paper.
Someone explain why he's so popular?

Re-Destro is Just Anime Dr Doofenshmirtz

A fun one now, take a good look at Anime villain Re-Destro below.

Long pointy nose, long face shape, same hairstyle, it's Dr Doofenshmirtz in anime form.
The creators of My Hero Academia made a villain that is basically a buff Doofenshmirtz, and yes Phineas and Ferb was dubbed in Japanese so the inspiration is possible.
Think this is a coincidence? His quirk is turning his stress into raw physical power, I'm just going to do this next quote in my best Doof impression.
"I used the stressbuffinator to turn all my tragic backstories and stress into pure muscle mass, you see whenever I went to the beach, all the muscle dudes always kicked sand in my face, have you ever had sand kicked in your face? It gets everywhere, you still find it several days later in your pants, now that I'm buff I can finally kick sand in their face, as the dominant muscle guy I can take over the TRI-STATE AREA!"
Something along those lines, the real voice actor probably has something better.
And yes Doofenshmirtz actor Dan Povenmire is aware of this character.