Debuting just three years ago, My Hero Academia has swiftly become one of the headline manga of Shounen Jump, a rip-roaring adventure elevated by strong art, charming characters, and consistent mastery of battle story fundamentals. Quickly snapped up for adaptation, the anime was announced as a BONES show directed by Kenji Nagasaki. Nagasaki's prior claim to fame was directing Gundam Build Fighters, a generally acclaimed series suffused with exactly the kind of youthful energy something like My Hero Academia needed. Between these strong credentials and the strength of the source material, it seemed like the stars were aligning for a knockout shounen anime.

Unfortunately, the show we actually received wasn't quite the one some might have hoped for. There are limitations plaguing My Hero Academia, issues that prevent it from being its own best possible self. But before I get to that, I should start with some of the many things the show does right.

My Hero Academia takes a very obvious premise and runs with it. In the spirit of Naruto's “what if we lived in a ninja world” and One Piece's “what if we lived in a pirate world,” My Hero Academia posits the superhero world - a world where the discovery of “Quirks” has led to the vast majority of people being born with some kind of compelling superpower. Some people can make their skin as hard as rock, others can change size or levitate objects, and still others can set stuff on fire with a moody glance. It's a wild superhero world out there.

As My Hero Academia begins, we're introduced to Izuku Midoriya, a boy whose passion for superheroes is somewhat tempered by the cruel fact that he was born without a Quirk. But this is My Hero Academia, not My Underwhelming Academia, so a chance meeting with top superhero All Might ends up giving Midoriya a chance to truly become the hero he'd dreamed of being. And thus Midoriya's adventure begins, as he trains for exams, battles classmates, and generally lives the prospective superhero life.

As a polished articulation of a classic shounen adventure template, My Hero Academia shines. Midoriya is a very likable character, and he's joined by a rich cast of teachers and classmates who all add their own personality to the group. There's a sense of positivity and joy in My Hero Academia's cast that can't be understated; these kids are ambitious and occasionally headstrong, but outside of Midoriya's childhood bully Bakugo, nearly all of them are ultimately very good kids. They like each other, support each other, and make plans based on their collective strengths. It's hard not to root for this cast of characters.

Of course, the fact that everyone here has super cool powers also helps. A big part of My Hero Academia's appeal is just learning the various abilities of Midoriya's classmates, and then seeing the variety of ways that they apply them to battle situations. Midoriya's own power is particularly well-chosen - he has the ability to summon incredible strength, but can barely control it, and thus generally ends up destroying his own body every time he uses it. This double-edged power means Midoriya constantly has to rely on his real advantage - his years of studying superheroes, which have lent him the ability to make clever tactical decisions based on the tools at hand. Midoriya's imbalanced talents make for consistently engaging fight scenes all through the second half.

Beyond its grasp of action show fundamentals, My Hero Academia's general philosophy is also extremely refreshing. It's great to see a show fully embrace the gleeful, positive side of superheroes, full of characters who are constantly articulating through their actions what heroism really means. My Hero Academia understands that heroism is in many ways performative, and that its true goal is to make someone an inspiration to others. A message like that is eternally relevant.

All of those strengths make My Hero Academia an inherently compelling ride. Unfortunately, all of those strengths are also somewhat dulled by the show's greatest flaw - its glacial pacing. My Hero Academia is paced like it's frightened of running out of source material right out of the gate, and basically every element of the story suffers for it. Many episodes felt like they were just adapting a single chapter of the manga, a quantity of narrative material that really shouldn't take more than half an episode. By consequence, it takes nearly forever for anything to happen - the show is full of repeated, unnecessary flashbacks, long pans that kill dramatic tension, and sequences where single-panel gags are stretched out over far too many seconds of screen time.

In addition to generally hurting the energy of the production, the show's slow pacing also means My Hero Academia doesn't really go anywhere. Characters are debuted and battles are fought, but by the end of the season, it feels like we're still in the story's introduction. The poor pacing hurts My Hero Academia's tension, humor, and even its overall narrative structure. Along with the pacing, My Hero Academia also rarely takes advantage of its medium to pull off great animation highlights. The production generally plays it extremely safe, sticking close to the original panels and almost never decompressing with added motion or fight sequences. My Hero Academia often feels too literally like a manga in motion - plenty of single climactic punches, but little of the dynamic back-and-forth that can make anime fight scenes so rewarding.

That said, the rest of the production is a clear demonstration of shounen adaptation done right. The anime's visual style nicely matches the professional gloss of the manga, and there are plenty of dynamic or dramatic angles to enjoy. Nagasaki is clearly accustomed to drawing energy out of this kind of earnest, passionate material - he's hampered by the constraints of the pacing, but still manages to make the big climactic moments shine.

My Hero Academia's score is also excellent. Yuuki Hayashi also worked with Nagasaki on Gundam Build Fighters, and his eclectic mix of rousing songs gives My Hero Academia a strong sense of energy even when scenes are starting to drag. Hayasaki has a strong grasp of both clear melody and the opportunities afforded by diverse instrumentation - he also provided the excellent music for Kiznaiver, and I look forward to hearing more of his work in the future. The show's dub, on the other hand, I had a few more reservations with - not only do a fair number of the show's copious background characters come across as pretty stiff, but the script lacks the iconic punchiness of the original, with a number of scenes coming across as weirdly overwrought in dialogue. Still, the leads are generally well-cast, so if you don't mind a somewhat labored take on the material, it's a reasonable dub.

Funimation pulled out all the stops for their special edition release. The show comes in a sturdy chipboard case that contains the show in separate DVD and bluray cases, along with a hard-backed art book. That art book is dedicated to character art for all the show's major characters, including the students of class 1-A, their teachers, and all this season's relevant villains. Along with the blurays and art book, the collection also comes with a “student notebook,” which is essentially just a small blank notebook emblazoned with My Hero Academia signage. It's not really a meaningful extra, but it's a cute inclusion nonetheless. And when you open the DVD case, you'll find a rubber Deku keychain, perfect for all those who believe in the heroic spirit.

The extras continue on the actual discs themselves. First up, there's an interview from Anime Expo 2016 with director Kenji Nagasaki and producer Wakana Okamura. Interspersed with clips from the show and footage of the two of them simply enjoying the convention, the two discuss topics like the process of working with the original mangaka, the mentality they approached the work with, and their episode-to-episode priorities. It's frankly a pretty fluffy interview in terms of both questions and answers, interspersed with softball questions like “how did you create a work with such a range of emotions” and “when did you realize you were working on something special,” but it's still a nice inclusion.

Next up, there's a class roll call, which is essentially just an announcer introducing all the main class members and highlighting their quirks. This one is basically just a clever promotional tool, and not really useful for anyone who's actually watched the show. After that, the extras turn to AnimeFest 2016, which offers both an interview with animation director Ayana Nishino and a video detailing show staff in the process of drawing the various characters. This interview is definitely more substantive than the first, and offers more personal information, like Nishino's path to becoming an animator, as well as the day-to-day schedule of an animation director. Most importantly, we learn that Tsuyu is Nishino's own favorite character.

Jumping back to Anime Expo 2016, the third and final bluray disc contains three more features: a My Hero Academia panel, an interview with Chris Sabat and Justin Briner, and an interview with studio BONES president Masahiko Minami. The panel starts with Minami as well, as he discusses his excitement regarding the My Hero Academia anime and the circumstances of its creation, as well as stuff like his personal fondness for Deku's arc. The panel then goes on to introduce Okamura and Nagasaki, as well Sabat, Briner, and Clifford Chapin, the english voices of All Might, Deku, and Bakugo respectively, for a Q&A session. Of all these interviews, I'd say I most enjoyed the one-on-one with Minami, whose faith in the show came through clearly in his determination to make it a long-running property, and whose fondness for Deku was personally expressed through him admitting that even though he works in animation, he's not a particularly great artist.

Overall, My Hero Academia is an easy recommendation that nonetheless makes me pine for the version of this show that could have been. The problems are clear and solutions obvious - speed up the pacing and let some talented animators occasionally cut loose with flourishes on the original material. I'm frustrated that this anime couldn't quite live up to its own potential, but still happy with the show we received. On top of that, Funimation's collection is as premium as they come, offering a wealth of extras in both physical and digital varieties. If you're at all a fan of My Hero Academia, this collection is an easy recommendation.