My Hero Academia Season 4

My Hero Academia Season 4

My Hero Academia season 4 anime series cover art
My Hero Academia season 4

Season Overview

My Hero Academia season 4 (僕のヒーローアカデミア 4thシーズン) is probably my favorite season of the series so far. Just to get this out of the way from the start, I think it was basically on par with the seasons which came before it overall, but it still included a fair amount of improvements.

There were two main arcs covered in this season, with the first being the Shie Hassaikai arc and the second being the school festival arc. And you probably don’t need me to tell you that the Shie Hassaikai arc was the superior of the two.

In fact, it’s that first arc that makes me rank this season of My Hero Academia above its predecessors. The school festival arc wasn’t really bad — because thankfully we didn’t spend much time watching the school festival itself — but it was definitely the cool-down arc after the big fight in the previous arc.

The Shie Hassaikai arc involves a raid on the headquarters of the yakuza group known as Shie Hassaikai. This group is currently being led by Overhaul — a man who believes it’s time for the yakuza to come out of the shadows and take over the role of the “villains.”

I do want to make a distinction here that there are villains and there are yakuza. The villains are those who oppose the pro heroes, like Shigaraki and All-for-One. Yakuza are simply organized crime families that don’t necessarily oppose the pro heroes in the same way true villains do.

The school festival arc is exactly what it sounds like. U.A. puts on a school festival, which is surprisingly normal when compared to the sports festival. This festival is meant for the non-hero class students to be able to shine since they don’t really participate in the sports festival.

New Characters

I don’t actually remember if Overhaul and Eri were introduced in season 4 or season 3. I know that Overhaul was at least shown in season 3, but I think he wasn’t properly introduced until season 4. And now that I think about it Eri was definitely introduced this season because the first OP of this season is the first time we saw her.

These are the two major new characters of the first arc. As previously mentioned, Overhaul is the new antagonist, and honestly, he’s the best antagonist the series has had so far. I know a lot of people probably like All-for-One and Shigaraki, but Overhaul is just such a better villain and overall character than either of them.

Overhaul from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Overhaul

Looking at the previous villains in the series, the only one who really had any sort of half-decent background was Stain. Overhaul is actually a developed character with his own personal reasons for doing things and acting the way he does. His quirk is also just a better version of Shigaraki’s quirk.

Eri is a child whom Overhaul is exploiting to create drugs that both enhance quirks and remove quirks. I won’t get into exactly what her quirk is (yet) because that’s spoiler territory, but just know it’s pretty powerful. She’s also the reason Deku & co. get involved with Shie Hassaikai.

The second half of the season introduces a few new characters, but it’s unclear exactly how important some of them are. On the villain side, we have Gentle Criminal and La Brava. They basically seemed like filler villains though and had no impact on the overall story, so I doubt we’ll see them again.

The new hero who’s introduced is Hawks — a highly popular pro hero whose goal is to help Endeavor become the true #1 hero. Hawks has large wings on his back which he can use to fly, and he can also freely control each individual feather which makes up those wings.

Effects on the Future

This is the section that will be including major spoilers for the series. Skip down to the conclusion if you haven’t watched season 4 yet and don’t want it to be spoiled.

There are probably four major developments in this season which will have lasting effects on the series. In the first arc, we have Eri’s rescue, Mirio’s lost quirk, and Sir Nighteye’s death. Then in (or after) the second arc, we have Endeavor’s teaming up with Hawks and rise to the level of All Might.

Endeavor from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Endeavor

Eri’s rescue from Shie Hassaikai is important because of the nature of her quirk. Her quirk allows her to revert anything (organic only, I think) back to a previous state. So if someone breaks an arm, Eri can touch them and revert their body back to a state before their arm was broken.

This is extra important when we also consider the fact that Mirio lost his quirk. I think in the future we’ll see Eri able to restore Mirio’s quirk, and possibly restore the quirk of the Wild, Wild Pussycats member whose quirk was stolen by All-for-One. Really, Eri is a game-changer, and Mirio is going to be the guinea pig.

Then, of course, we have Sir Nighteye’s death. I’m not sure exactly what effect this is going to have going forward, but he was a pretty important character. Not only was he All Might’s former sidekick, but he was also the pro hero who Mirio and Deku were interning with. It seems obvious this is going to have an effect of some sort going forward, though.

And lastly we have Endeavor teaming up with Hawks and rising to All Might’s level. Endeavor isn’t quite at the level of All Might yet. But his fight against the Nomu at the end of the season definitely went a long way in showing the civilians that he’s serious about taking over as the symbol of peace.

Conclusion

Overall I gave My Hero Academia season 4 a 7/10. I think it was a good season, and I do believe that’s a fair score. All the fanboys (and girls) will probably say I’m rating it too low, but I’m also taking into consideration things like the fact that the biggest fight of the season was a slideshow, not animation.

And there are a lot of haters who will say I’ve rated this series too highly. But to them I say, I understand that this series is overrated, but it is still a good series regardless. It has its problems, yes, but it’s generally good and enjoyable even if I think most of the characters are extremely boring.

If you enjoyed this review or found it to be helpful in any way, let me know by clicking the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of Season 5 is available now.

Leave a Comment