With season 4 closed Midoriya Izuku and the the rest of Class 1-A finish their latest heroes in training adventure. This time they tackle the Chinese mafia and have a school festival. Izuku also meets number one hero student of UA Mirio “Lemillion” Togata and a girl who can erase quirks.

My Hero Academia is a 2016 shounen anime series, it is produced by Bones and licensed by Funimation. It is currently available for streaming and home media in English.

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for My Hero Academia season 4 may be present within this review. 

Season four of My Hero Academia contains two canonical arcs; the Shie Hassaikai and school festival arcs. The former follows a villain named Overhaul who has a quirk that allows him to disassemble and reassemble anything he chooses in anyway he chooses. The second involves a school festival being planned by Class 1-A in an effort to renew their reputation after having recently been viewed in horrible light due to their consistent appearances within dangerous situations with pro heroes. Thus affecting the school’s reputation as a whole. A villain by the name of Gentle Criminal and his partner La Brava who had been gaining fame online plan to use the festival to become famous villains.

THE GOOD: In the first episode of season four a reported is scouting UA for the next All Might after theorizing that his successor is a student there. He eventually learns that this person is in fact Midoriya but keeps it a secret. Following the filler episode, a villain by the name of Overhaul meets up with the League of Villains for an alliance after tricking Twice. After offering the League an opportunity to work for him and his group Shie Hassaikai. Tomura disagrees and a battle ensues resulting in the death of Magne and Mr. Compress suffering a major injury. Overhaul and his group leaves giving Tomura time to reconsider. During this time Midoriya and Class 1-A are taking hero work studies all except Bakugo, Shoto, and surprisingly Inasa Yoarashi who are forced to take provisional classes. In hero work studies the students work alongside pro heroes learn to adapt to perfecting the use of their powers within real-world danger. Midoriya attempts to team up with Torino, but he’s too busy instead suggesting he team up with All Might’s former sidekick turned pro hero Sir Nighteye. Midoriya meets UA’s top three heroes including Togata, Tamaki Amajiki, and Nejire Hado. Togata challenges and effortlessly beats the class in a one vs group fight. Midoriya & Togata bond over their love for All Might and similar inspirations for heroism. Togata reveals that he is being taught under Sir Nighteye getting a meeting between him and Midoriya.

Upon seeing Nighteye, Midoriya is met with instant hostility. Due to Togata having originally being planned as the successor for One For All ultimately being usurped by Midoriya. This along with Nighteye’s vision of All Might’s impending death caused a rift between the two with the duo going their separate ways. Nighteye challenges Midoriya to grab his stamp in order to be approved to join his work study. Midoriya fails, but gets the work study anyways by slightly impressing Nighteye. Nighteye also states that this is to further prove that Mirio Togata is the true heir of One For All. While out in public for their work studies Mirio in his Lemillion gear and Midoriya as Deku patrol the city and encounter a girl with a horn on her head. Midoriya takes note of the girl’s fear and opts to protect as Overhaul appears filling Midoriya and the girl with terror. Under Togata’s guidance he and Midoriya let the girl go with Overhaul instantly regretting their decision. Nighteye reveals that he is apart of a team of pro heroes currently investigating Overhaul & Shie Hassaikai who is using the horned girl Eri’s quirk to develop quirk erasing bullets. Having feel they failed as heroes upon their initial meeting Togata and Midoriya swear to save Eri at all cost. Overhaul is unveiled to have purposely injured the original leader of Shie when he disagreed with his methods promising to return him to health upon his goals having been reached.

The other students of Class 1-A also doing their work studies get involved with a raid on the Shie Hassaikai headquarters which was unveiled when Nighteye tailed a member of the group buying a toy for Eri. The Big 3 and a pro hero named Fat Gum among others also join. Fat Gum being Red Riot’s pro hero for his work study bonds with Riot who was starting to lose confidence in his abilities. As the raid begins the heroes are forced to split up with much of the battle taking place outside of the HQ, Fat Gum & Red Riot are split up from the group and encounter Kendo Rappa & Tengai Keiji. They battle in a two on two fight and Red is easily overpowered by Kendo’s powerful arms who’s also being backed up by Tengai’s shield quirk. As Fat Gum takes most of the punishment he’s secretly absorbing each blow and storing it for an all-out attack. Red remembers his past with Mina Ashido and his failure to aide their classmates in a villain attack pre-UA while she took action. Resolving to never stand by again Red recovers and takes a barrage of Kendo’s attacks giving Fat the time he needs to unleash his counterattack before going unconscious. Meanwhile the League of Villains who earlier decided to join Shie are actually plotting to destroy them from within and during the raid they sabotage the group by insulting Irinka; a member of Shie who could merge his mind and body with nearly anything including walls and separated the raid group doing so.  

Nighteye and Midoriya reach Overhaul who’s holding Eri hostage while planning his escape. Nighteye faces off against him but is gravely injured in the battle. Nighteye notes that he foresaw a vision where Midoriya is killed by Overhaul in their battle. Overhaul was in a fight with Lemillion who separated from the group earlier reaching him first. Lemillion also lost his power from one of the bullets while protecting Eri, but fought until he suffered a severe injury from Overhaul. Midoriya was tasked with getting Lemillion & Eri to safety, but with Nighteye incapacitated he’s forced to fight Overhaul himself. Midoriya struggles to keep up with Overhaul’s power, but resolves to save Eri and the two escape outside after the heroes from the front of HQ attempt to lend a hand. Overhaul relentlessly pursuits Midoriya and Eri who uses Eri’s quirk to momentarily unlick One For All’s full 100% power defeating Overhaul after gaining a hang of it. The pro heroes arrest the Shie Hassaikai members except for Overhaul who was taken by the League of Villains where Tomura decays a badly beaten Overhaul’s arms and steals the quirk erasing bullets. Overhaul screams terror realizing he can’t heal Shie’s leader. Eri is placed in the care of UA under Aizawa & the Big 3’s watch. Nighteye is recovering from his wounds, but ultimately succumbs to his injuries dying happy to know that his visions can in fact be changed. 

Eri is recovering from a fever due to her powers and is being watched over by UA. Meanwhile Class 1-A has been receiving resentment from other students due to their consistent involvement in pro hero/villain danger. The class decide to hold a school festival to recover their reputation as well as boost the overall reputation of UA. Each student takes on different tasks such as decorations, designs, and talents including a musical performance by those who are trained to play instruments. Initially refusing to join Bakugo, who’s a known skilled drummer decides to help out with the festival mainly to show off. As preparations for the festival are underway new villains have been making the waves online by the name of Gentle Criminal and La Brava. There online presence slowly gained prominence on social media. Gentle was once trained to be a hero, but failed and became a regular citizen. He met up with a classmate who became a pro hero and didn’t even recognize Gentle causing him to become a villain. As a villain Gentle was ignored before he partnered up with La Brava who fell in love with him during his first attempts to gain fame and used her tech skills to increase their awareness online.

The UA students attend Nighteye’s funeral and Eri wakes up but she hasn’t stabilized. Eri asks to see Togata and Midoriya and says she felt guilty over all the trouble she caused, but Midoriya attempts to reassure her trying to make her smile. Midoriya plans to use the festival to get Eri to smile. Meanwhile Bakugo and the others training under their provisional classes must learn to win the hearts of the younger students, eventually winning them over by combining their quirks to create a makeshift theme park for them. With the finishing preparations for the festival underway Midoriya runs one last quick errand before encountering Gentle & La Brava. Initially disguised Midoriya finds them out and learns of their plans to use the school festival to become famous villains. Midoriya chases after them and is nearly beaten by Gentle when La Brava activates her quirk to give him a power boost. But he’s able to subdue them in time for pro heroes to arrive. Gentle takes the fall for La Brava who impresses the pro heroes with her tech skills. Midoriya is nearly late for the festival but makes it in time. Togata is by Eri’s side as she begins to enjoy herself and finally smiles following the musical performance by Class 1-A. The class regain the respect of the other students when the festival ends. During the Japanese Hero Billboard conference Endeavor is revealed as the number one hero along with Hawks as the number two. The citizens are noticeably wary of Endeavor being number one due to his questionable history as a hero. It is revealed that Hawks is possibly aligned with the League of Villains after meeting with Dabi. A high-end Nomu attacks the city and nearly kills Endeavour as Hawks saves nearby citizens. Endeavour with Hawks’ support is able to defeat it and gains the admiration of the people after nearly giving his life to protect them like All Might. Midoriya has a dream of the past One For All owners including All For One’s brother. They shake hands and he awakes to his arm glowing.

The fourth season of My Hero Academia is a high octane of animation quality (a Bones trademark), voice acting, and music. The source material is done an incredible amount of service in animated form which rivals the biggest of budgets. Ace character development and growth along with excellent world building continues the stellar portfolio the franchise has become known for.

THE BAD: Outside of some animation problems here & there and some censorship you’d be hard pressed finding much issues with season four of My Hero Academia. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: My Hero Academia’s more often than not unmatched quality continues to put it’s anime adaptation several steps above other shounen. With a rare ability to develop an entire cast of characters the series almost never misses it’s stride and continues to ride on high. Otaku Dome gives My Hero Academia season 4 a 90 out of 100.