The U.A. Sports Festival begins in My Hero Academia Season 2, Part 1. Looking to distance itself from standard anime tournament arcs, My Hero Academia’s opening half of it’s sophomore season provides character development, story background, and tons of screen time on both main and secondary characters from within the large roster of the series.

My Hero Academia is a 2016 shounen anime series, it is produced by Studio Bones and licensed by Funimation. Season Two is currently available on DVD & Blu-Ray in English, as is season one. Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll & Funimation Now. Season one currently airs on Toonami on Adult Swim.

Editor’s Note: A review copy of My Hero Academia Season 2, Part 1 was provided by Funimation in support of this review.

The U.A. Sports Festival begins!

After gaining his quick from All Might & dealing with the League of Villains’ act on U.A, Izuku and his friends have very little time to rest as they must deal with preparations & training for the upcoming Sports Festival event. Consisting of several games leading to a one-on-one tournament style battle to the finals, the U.A Students of Class A meet their competition; the lower level classes looking to prove themselves after learning of Class A getting into an actual clash with real villains.

Shoto’s past and more explored in season two.

THE GOOD: Coming off a strong freshmen season, My Hero Academia season 2 wants to keep it’s quality in the fans good graces and I can say with confidence that it absolutely does. In a very character development season we get such a great look at who this large cast of characters are as people that it wouldn’t at all be shocking to hear that one of the newly introduced characters had become a fan favorite. Action is so good that it’s actually kind of amazing that Bones manages to one-up it in the following Hero Killer Stain arc.

Shoto vs Izuku.

With all the beautiful art and animation going on in the subsequent tournament battle episodes one has to wonder just what the overall budget Bones had planned out for the entire season. The quality, especially during Shoto vs Izuku & Uraraka vs Bakugo just to name a couple are small samples of Bones’ willingness to go the distance with this series; overall presentation and production and the OST fills the battles with emotion and adrenaline.

THE BAD: Nothing in particular.

The rarely faltering My Hero Academia continues to shine bright.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: With complete and total focus, drive, direction, and a no nonsense run, My Hero Academia’s longer order of episodes for season two is well deserved. Featuring a near flawless amount of development and screen time for such a huge roster, there’s no reason to doubt this shounen’s quick rise to fame. Otaku Dome gives My Hero Academia Season 2, Part 1 a 00 out of 100.