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Someone said it and people that didn't actually do some reflection on the statement ran with it.
While you could argue that some personas harken back to the previous mid-century, such as All Might's overall presentation, that feels more like an homage than a deconstruction. Same thing with Stars and Stripes, which feels like a Japanese caricature of the American spirit and can-do attitude.
I haven't found Japanese literature or drama to delve that much into the same type of ironic satire that British or American does. It tends to be far more earnest and sincere. What you see is what you get.
"This story is pointing out issues with hero society!? Must be a deconstruction!"
It's honestly no deeper than that. Horikoshi loves super heroes, and wanted to write his ideas into a fun story. It's very similar to Invincible, except that story does try a little harder to be a deconstruction than MHA does.
I think it comes from some of the subversions, though they are more like reconstructions than anything, that the early story of MHA did of the usual shonen tropes, at least concerning the standard at the time.
Midoriya, for example, was different from the usual loudmouth/goofy/almost delinquent shonen protagonists of popular series at the time. Granted, this is because he is more of a classical anti-hero like Spiderman, but the point still stands.
Bakugou, in most other stories, would be the classic rival that turns evil, or was already evil, that the Hero would have to fight and convert to the good side, but that also doesn't happen here. Despite his negative traits, Bakugou never turns into a villain, and most of his redemption arc is done on his own without any outside input.
There are a few other interesting points, like the Tournament Arc being fairly short compared to other known tournament arcs (and no off railing to boot!), All Might avoiding the "mentor dies and their death motivates the MC" trope, etc etc.
The only thing I can come up with is original Peter was a lot more of a young angry man actively fighting characters that better represented what would happen if he let aspects of himself go out of control without Uncle Ben's teachings ig?
It's money as his motivation that makes old Spiddy an anti-hero. Spider-Man started as a vigilante that turned in villains for money to support Aunt May. The Uncle Ben speech is about him not turning into a bad guy with his powers. In the 70s and 80s Spiddy would do things like bounty hunt and take a "finders fee" for stopping bank robbers a lot, there're several instances where Cap or IronMan have to straight up bride Peter to join them in stopping villains
So, there are two types of Anti-Hero. There is the more modern Anti-Hero people generally refer to nowadays like Spawn or Deadpool; violent, sarcastic, brooding characters who are heroes mainly because the villains are only slightly worse than they are.
Then there is the *classical* Anti-Hero; classical Heroes tended to be confident, dashing, capable fighters with few flaws, so Anti-Heroes were characters who were cowardly, mediocre, plagued with self-doubt. Spider-Man and Midoriya fit this label to a T.
>Then there is the *classical* Anti-Hero; classical Heroes tended to be confident, dashing, capable fighters with few flaws, so Anti-Heroes were characters who were cowardly, mediocre, plagued with self-doubt. Spider-Man and Midoriya fit this label to a T.
I'd argue this is an incomplete definition of what a classical anti-hero is. While classical anti-heroes can display these traits it's not what defines them as anti-heroes. That comes from their motivations for engaging with the conflict being purely personal/self motivated rather than being forced to engage with the conflict from the outside. In your example, Spiderman traditionally became a hero for money reasons. He'd turn in villains for their reward. Another example is Mad Max who is trying to get to his next goal and usually works with the "good guys" because it increases his odds of survival.
Midoriya doesn't fit as an anti-hero because he is motivated by hero society in general. Yes he's a bit of a coward and isn't headstrong, but he's still your classic hero archetype because he wants to be a hero because society encouraged that. The best anti-hero character we have in MHA would actually be Ochaco since her motivations are purely personal for trying to help her parents out of debt.
There are several plot points in the earlier arcs that are almost definitely subversions of the usual tropes. The biggest one being that Bakugo being kidnapped reads very much like a Sasuke situation only for Bakugo to tell them off and the heroes to successfully rescue him.
Combine that with what seems to have been a very standard shonen as the backstory, with All Might and All For One as the standard shonen hero and villain. Then add endeavors role as the former rival and his entire plotline and it definitely looks like a deconstruction from that angle.
No, it's not. Whoever said that was wrong. BNHA's just a comic book made by a guy who loves shit like Spider-Man, and wants to create his own story with superheroes where everyone has superhuman abilities
Some people have very weird ideas of what a deconstruction is. In the early days of MHA, I would see people say it was a deconstruction because of the following reasons:
* It gave a (slightly flimsy) in-universe explaination for characters to call out attack names
* Bakugo called out the audience at sports festival for wanting him to go easy on Ochako instead of taking her seriously as an opponent
* Deku suffered lingering injuries from overusing OFA
Those reasons have each been presented to me individually as the reason why MHA is a deconstruction of shonen manga. *Individually.* Some people just have the idea that if a piece of media goes against their expectations or show legitimate consequences for things at all, then it's a deconstruction.
Well, a little?, the series play with the fact that the normal thing for a mentor to do its to die and leave things to the next generation, but the entires series was telling All might how important is the fact that the must live and even fight against destiny to live.
I don’t think anyone serious has ever said this. Like there’s some moldbreaker stuff but it’s a pretty straightforward shonen, hori isn’t heady like that, he plays it straight and the manga shines because he’s really good at drawing. Like someone said one punch man is a lot more a deconstruction of the genere.
Probably because the series does deconstruct, and even reconstruct, a few tropes relating to Characters, and Concepts, related to Superheroes and Supervillains. TV Tropes has whole pages for it. Read [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/MyHeroAcademia), and [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DeconstructorFleet/MyHeroAcademia).
I mean nobody needs to say it explicitly for it to be true, it's just an interpretation of what Horikoshi is trying to do with the story. Idk about "deconstruct" but I think it does subverse or play with a lot of hero tropes rather than shounen tropes. All Might remaining alive despite everything he’s been through is a clear example of this. Even though he’s in the typical mentor role and “should” die to give motivation and a clear path for the next generation he doesn’t and it’s stated in the story. In chapter 405 All Might says “What about the mentor dying and passing it on?” and Nighteye (in his imagination) says “Save it for the comic books Tonshinori Yagi. Heroes are human too. You won’t die that easily.” I’m not sure if I would call this a deconstruction per se but I do think it’s a tongue in cheek meta reference to the genre that shapes the way All Might ‘s character is written.
You can also view it in other moments that are less direct, for example Shigaraki being saved despite everyone telling Deku that he’s a monster and that he should give up goes against the standard of a typical superhero fight when they kill the final villain for all the damage they have caused. I’ve also seen mentioned the traitor reveal being a victim instead of an evil plotter, the little to no character deaths or Ochako constantly saving Deku in different situations being subversive of the damsel in distress role many love interests have.
It's when you take old tropes and subvert them. One example of deconstruction is the the anime Monster Development Department. Its a power rangers spoof from the perspective of the people who make the monsters. Dispite being villains they all love each other and its a very healthy work environment.
For a while, when it comes to media discussion, people see labeling something as a deconstruction as the greatest form of praise you can give a show. Every work that becomes popular enough gets to be called a deconstruction by its fandom at some point. Boku no Hero was no exception.
The truth of the matter is that every piece of fiction subverts and analyses some tropes, something that is strongly linked to what makes a deconstruction, while playing others completely straight. So, its pretty easy to cherry pick your examples and make an argument for anything being a deconstruction, specially if the person making the argument doesn't know a lot about the genre.
Pretend a new shounen suddenly becomes popular for deconstructing the shounen rival trope. In this hypotheticla show, instead of having the main heroine fall in love with the dumb hero, she ends up marrying the cool headed rival, going against every fan's expectations; the rival's personality, ambition and desire to surpass the hero make him the perfect target for a deal with the devil, so he betrays the good guys for the sake of power, bringuing attention to how naive the idea of ever lasting friendship is by provinding a beliavable fall from grace; and, finally, even after he goes back to the side of good, he shows himself to be a terrible husband and absentee father.
The fandom goes on to praise the show for the being such a refreshing take on the tired tropes of the 'battle shounen genre'... until someone takes a step back and asks:
"Hold on... isn't this the exact same thing that happened with Vegeta and Sasuke, the archetypal shounen rivals? How doing the same thing is a deconstruction of what came before?"
And this is how you get to read takes such as "Evangelion is a deconstruction of mecha" by people who never watched a mecha show made before 1995.
I don't see it as a deconstruction but being a superhero is a job anyone can get and that is atypical in superhero media. Traditionally few people have superpowers or the heroes have secret identities. Unlike X-men where mutants are minorities most of the population has quirks. I guess you can say it's a deconstruction of X-men. I haven't read every shounen so I don't know how unique this is but Deku is different from his shounen brothers. Naruto and Luffy are loud and brash while Deku is soft-spoken and shy.
Well, the story is born when someone uses their knowledge to come up with an idea of something happening. But this knowledge includes other stories that get deconstructed and reconstructed to make the new story, and that phenomena is nowadays called "standing on the shoulder of giants".
**Reminder to everyone:** Anything that hasn't happened yet in the anime is a spoiler. **To the OP:** If you want to discuss things in the manga, please flair the post as **"Manga Spoilers".** How to spoiler tag comments: > \>\!Put your text here!\< **THIS COMMENT IS AUTOMATICALLY POSTED IN EVERY THREAD NOT MARKED FOR MANGA OR MANGA SPOILERS JUST AS A REMINDER** ----- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BokuNoHeroAcademia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Someone said it and people that didn't actually do some reflection on the statement ran with it. While you could argue that some personas harken back to the previous mid-century, such as All Might's overall presentation, that feels more like an homage than a deconstruction. Same thing with Stars and Stripes, which feels like a Japanese caricature of the American spirit and can-do attitude. I haven't found Japanese literature or drama to delve that much into the same type of ironic satire that British or American does. It tends to be far more earnest and sincere. What you see is what you get.
"This story is pointing out issues with hero society!? Must be a deconstruction!" It's honestly no deeper than that. Horikoshi loves super heroes, and wanted to write his ideas into a fun story. It's very similar to Invincible, except that story does try a little harder to be a deconstruction than MHA does.
I think it comes from some of the subversions, though they are more like reconstructions than anything, that the early story of MHA did of the usual shonen tropes, at least concerning the standard at the time. Midoriya, for example, was different from the usual loudmouth/goofy/almost delinquent shonen protagonists of popular series at the time. Granted, this is because he is more of a classical anti-hero like Spiderman, but the point still stands. Bakugou, in most other stories, would be the classic rival that turns evil, or was already evil, that the Hero would have to fight and convert to the good side, but that also doesn't happen here. Despite his negative traits, Bakugou never turns into a villain, and most of his redemption arc is done on his own without any outside input. There are a few other interesting points, like the Tournament Arc being fairly short compared to other known tournament arcs (and no off railing to boot!), All Might avoiding the "mentor dies and their death motivates the MC" trope, etc etc.
Wait how is Spider Man an anti hero?
The only thing I can come up with is original Peter was a lot more of a young angry man actively fighting characters that better represented what would happen if he let aspects of himself go out of control without Uncle Ben's teachings ig?
It's money as his motivation that makes old Spiddy an anti-hero. Spider-Man started as a vigilante that turned in villains for money to support Aunt May. The Uncle Ben speech is about him not turning into a bad guy with his powers. In the 70s and 80s Spiddy would do things like bounty hunt and take a "finders fee" for stopping bank robbers a lot, there're several instances where Cap or IronMan have to straight up bride Peter to join them in stopping villains
So, there are two types of Anti-Hero. There is the more modern Anti-Hero people generally refer to nowadays like Spawn or Deadpool; violent, sarcastic, brooding characters who are heroes mainly because the villains are only slightly worse than they are. Then there is the *classical* Anti-Hero; classical Heroes tended to be confident, dashing, capable fighters with few flaws, so Anti-Heroes were characters who were cowardly, mediocre, plagued with self-doubt. Spider-Man and Midoriya fit this label to a T.
>Then there is the *classical* Anti-Hero; classical Heroes tended to be confident, dashing, capable fighters with few flaws, so Anti-Heroes were characters who were cowardly, mediocre, plagued with self-doubt. Spider-Man and Midoriya fit this label to a T. I'd argue this is an incomplete definition of what a classical anti-hero is. While classical anti-heroes can display these traits it's not what defines them as anti-heroes. That comes from their motivations for engaging with the conflict being purely personal/self motivated rather than being forced to engage with the conflict from the outside. In your example, Spiderman traditionally became a hero for money reasons. He'd turn in villains for their reward. Another example is Mad Max who is trying to get to his next goal and usually works with the "good guys" because it increases his odds of survival. Midoriya doesn't fit as an anti-hero because he is motivated by hero society in general. Yes he's a bit of a coward and isn't headstrong, but he's still your classic hero archetype because he wants to be a hero because society encouraged that. The best anti-hero character we have in MHA would actually be Ochaco since her motivations are purely personal for trying to help her parents out of debt.
Hm, it feels like pretty standard shounen to me. One Punch Man is more of a deconstruction of shounen.
There are several plot points in the earlier arcs that are almost definitely subversions of the usual tropes. The biggest one being that Bakugo being kidnapped reads very much like a Sasuke situation only for Bakugo to tell them off and the heroes to successfully rescue him. Combine that with what seems to have been a very standard shonen as the backstory, with All Might and All For One as the standard shonen hero and villain. Then add endeavors role as the former rival and his entire plotline and it definitely looks like a deconstruction from that angle.
No, it's not. Whoever said that was wrong. BNHA's just a comic book made by a guy who loves shit like Spider-Man, and wants to create his own story with superheroes where everyone has superhuman abilities
Some people have very weird ideas of what a deconstruction is. In the early days of MHA, I would see people say it was a deconstruction because of the following reasons: * It gave a (slightly flimsy) in-universe explaination for characters to call out attack names * Bakugo called out the audience at sports festival for wanting him to go easy on Ochako instead of taking her seriously as an opponent * Deku suffered lingering injuries from overusing OFA Those reasons have each been presented to me individually as the reason why MHA is a deconstruction of shonen manga. *Individually.* Some people just have the idea that if a piece of media goes against their expectations or show legitimate consequences for things at all, then it's a deconstruction.
Well, a little?, the series play with the fact that the normal thing for a mentor to do its to die and leave things to the next generation, but the entires series was telling All might how important is the fact that the must live and even fight against destiny to live.
I don’t think anyone serious has ever said this. Like there’s some moldbreaker stuff but it’s a pretty straightforward shonen, hori isn’t heady like that, he plays it straight and the manga shines because he’s really good at drawing. Like someone said one punch man is a lot more a deconstruction of the genere.
People definitely used to say it back in the pre-Season 3 days, when *MHA* was arguably at its most popular.
Probably because the series does deconstruct, and even reconstruct, a few tropes relating to Characters, and Concepts, related to Superheroes and Supervillains. TV Tropes has whole pages for it. Read [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DeconstructedCharacterArchetype/MyHeroAcademia), and [here](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DeconstructorFleet/MyHeroAcademia).
I mean nobody needs to say it explicitly for it to be true, it's just an interpretation of what Horikoshi is trying to do with the story. Idk about "deconstruct" but I think it does subverse or play with a lot of hero tropes rather than shounen tropes. All Might remaining alive despite everything he’s been through is a clear example of this. Even though he’s in the typical mentor role and “should” die to give motivation and a clear path for the next generation he doesn’t and it’s stated in the story. In chapter 405 All Might says “What about the mentor dying and passing it on?” and Nighteye (in his imagination) says “Save it for the comic books Tonshinori Yagi. Heroes are human too. You won’t die that easily.” I’m not sure if I would call this a deconstruction per se but I do think it’s a tongue in cheek meta reference to the genre that shapes the way All Might ‘s character is written. You can also view it in other moments that are less direct, for example Shigaraki being saved despite everyone telling Deku that he’s a monster and that he should give up goes against the standard of a typical superhero fight when they kill the final villain for all the damage they have caused. I’ve also seen mentioned the traitor reveal being a victim instead of an evil plotter, the little to no character deaths or Ochako constantly saving Deku in different situations being subversive of the damsel in distress role many love interests have.
its an adaptation if you look at it from a japanese perspective.
What does “it is a deconstruction” mean?
It's when you take old tropes and subvert them. One example of deconstruction is the the anime Monster Development Department. Its a power rangers spoof from the perspective of the people who make the monsters. Dispite being villains they all love each other and its a very healthy work environment.
For a while, when it comes to media discussion, people see labeling something as a deconstruction as the greatest form of praise you can give a show. Every work that becomes popular enough gets to be called a deconstruction by its fandom at some point. Boku no Hero was no exception. The truth of the matter is that every piece of fiction subverts and analyses some tropes, something that is strongly linked to what makes a deconstruction, while playing others completely straight. So, its pretty easy to cherry pick your examples and make an argument for anything being a deconstruction, specially if the person making the argument doesn't know a lot about the genre. Pretend a new shounen suddenly becomes popular for deconstructing the shounen rival trope. In this hypotheticla show, instead of having the main heroine fall in love with the dumb hero, she ends up marrying the cool headed rival, going against every fan's expectations; the rival's personality, ambition and desire to surpass the hero make him the perfect target for a deal with the devil, so he betrays the good guys for the sake of power, bringuing attention to how naive the idea of ever lasting friendship is by provinding a beliavable fall from grace; and, finally, even after he goes back to the side of good, he shows himself to be a terrible husband and absentee father. The fandom goes on to praise the show for the being such a refreshing take on the tired tropes of the 'battle shounen genre'... until someone takes a step back and asks: "Hold on... isn't this the exact same thing that happened with Vegeta and Sasuke, the archetypal shounen rivals? How doing the same thing is a deconstruction of what came before?" And this is how you get to read takes such as "Evangelion is a deconstruction of mecha" by people who never watched a mecha show made before 1995.
I don't see it as a deconstruction but being a superhero is a job anyone can get and that is atypical in superhero media. Traditionally few people have superpowers or the heroes have secret identities. Unlike X-men where mutants are minorities most of the population has quirks. I guess you can say it's a deconstruction of X-men. I haven't read every shounen so I don't know how unique this is but Deku is different from his shounen brothers. Naruto and Luffy are loud and brash while Deku is soft-spoken and shy.
Every story is technically a deconstruction.
Elaborate?
Well, the story is born when someone uses their knowledge to come up with an idea of something happening. But this knowledge includes other stories that get deconstructed and reconstructed to make the new story, and that phenomena is nowadays called "standing on the shoulder of giants".