Potential Spoilers
Minor spoilers from Season 1.
Mentions of Season 2 with no context.
Gently explained character personalities if that counts as spoiling.
The Buildup
This show highlights the benefits of being a strong devout follower of improvement, and incredibly hypes up the audience (it had definitely hyped me up) with Midoriya's efforts. Emphasized by All Might's admiration, the fact that Midoriya was able to perfectly clear the beach alone truly built the character whom wants to move forward despite being told that he cannot. Instead of sitting back in admiration, he chases his dreams to become higher than those he admires because it sets him further in his goal to become a hero. Midoriya as a character motivates the idea of improving by visualizing the power of aspiration as he eliminates his obstacles; he moves forward and trains himself despite being ridiculed by his classmates and Bakugo, who he looked up to, in the first half of Season 1. Furthermore, Midoriya successfully demonstrates his purpose of being a hero: to help others, especially during the entrance exam, and especially during the attack of the villains.
The buildup of Midoriya's character in this show is very consistent and while it may be slightly cliche, it doesn't get old, not to mention how Midoriya doesn't have those cringy motivational scenes like many other main characters from other anime who have similar goals.
Ratings if I were to be honest:
Characters: 10/10
Midoriya's character is especially well done, and the same can be said for the secondary characters such as Bakugo, Ochaco, Iida, and Todoroki. As far as the characters with a significant impact to the story, their development is spot-on in my opinion. Even side characters have consistent and lovable personalities.
Story: 9/10
The story accompanies the other aspects of the show with a decent storyline. The main character has a goal to achieve that he cannot naturally complete like his peers, but continues to try and gets closer to succeeding. The main character also somehow moves forward despite the drawbacks. I think this is slightly cliche, but original stories tend to be harder to come by with the more shows and stories that come out each year, so the rating doesn't lose more than one point. I think the key to having a good story isn't about originality, but the execution of the story. Midoriya succeeds a lot by chance, again like most other characters, but he acknowledges that and takes it as his own responsibility to improve despite the positive outcomes (Shown in Season 2, you'll know what I mean when I say this). So his advancement isn't just pure nonsense, but it's explained throughout. Also, he doesn't randomly control his powers one time but then fails the other times. For example, he throws with the power of one finger, but still breaks his finger, and his perfect punch was luck, but the circumstances were well explained later.
Voice Acting: 10/10
I really love how the voices easily match the speaker's personality. Bakugo has an aggressive way of speaking, emphasizing superiority and arrogance, whereas Midoriya speaks lightly with a slight submission, emphasizing caution and awkwardness.
Art/Design: 10/10
The art is fairly high quality and consistent, there are rarely any misplaced details or disproportion.
In Conclusion
Altogether, I know that, even without reading the manga, this anime is definitely going far. Season 2 is already very promising, and I look forward to seeing the rest of this anime through.
