For My Hero Academia, Season 6 is nothing short of a triumph. Two new story arcs, Paranormal Liberation War and Dark Hero, are introduced after a dull fifth season. These storylines sometimes even surpass the best parts of the entire program thanks to their amazing action animation and poignant character moments that highlight how far these young heroes have come. All of this is accomplished while also adding to the anime’s rich worldbuilding and narrative, delivering the promise of a world full of heroes and the effects it would have on society. This is the pinnacle of My Hero Academia.
My Hero Academia, which is based on Kōhei Horikoshi’s best-selling manga, has always prospered when it presents Horikoshi’s distinct take on American superhero comic books and illustrates the various ways that society would be affected, both big and small, if 80% of the people had superpowers. Ideas of heroes as smug celebrities who prioritize sponsors over helping people (without the depravity of The Boys) and a society that views them as either idols or ordinary law enforcement officials have long simmered beneath the surface, but season 6 explodes every story point and topic.
Season 6 essentially delivered two big stories with different tones that succeed in equal measure: an all-out assault on the League of Villains and the Meta Liberation Army, and the aftermath of that battle as superhero society crumbles and peoples’ faith in heroes disappears. The season 6 premiere promised an Avengers: Endgame-style team-up of every single hero we’ve seen (and some we haven’t).
Some of the best action My Hero Academia has ever offered may be found in the opening half.
With breathtaking visual compositions and fluid fight scenes that showcase a wide range of powers, the first half of the 25-episode season of My Hero Academia features some of the best action the show has ever produced. Whether it’s Shigaraki giving his best Tetsuo impression in Akira or Dabi and Todoroki putting on a new take on Zuko versus Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender, these scenes are sure to impress. The fact that the well-known song “You Say Run” is back along with a few familiar faces serves to emphasize how far the plot and the characters have traveled since 2016, which only heightens the impact of the deaths.
With vicious deaths and irreversible harm done to our heroes and the world they live in, this is the darkest My Hero Academia has ever been. Season 6 expertly handles those intense moments. At least twice or three times during the season, we have scenes with the emotional payoff of All Might’s last stand, with massive ramifications like Dab’s revelation to the public. These scenes succeed because the plot has spent more than 100 episodes building up to this point. It becomes evident that there is no going back to the previous state of affairs by the time we hear Eve’s Bokurano, the second opening theme of the season.