My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia in Japanese) is a manga (with an anime adaptation and a video game) about a high-school for superheroes. It's written and illustrated by Kouhei Horikoshi, and it's been published from 2014 in Weekly Shonen Jump.

In a World where 80% of people have some kind of superpower (or "Quirk" as they call it in-universe), Izuku "Deku" Midoriya is one of the 20% who does not. Even so, he dreams of being a hero, idolizing the mighty Toshinori "All Might" Yagi and planning to apply to the prestigious U.A. High School, where all the best heroes went to school (although being "Quirkless" will put him at a disadvantage). One day, he encounters All Might and impresses him with his strength of character — and while All Might admits that being a hero without a Quirk is basically impossible, he then says he might be able to fix that. . . via making Izuku his successor and giving him access to his own Quirk, the One for All, which has been passed on from one hero to another for several generations (in All Might's own case, he got it from his late mentor and predecessor Nana Shimura).

From then on Izuku's life changes and he's able to go to the UA Highschool to become worthy of his new position, and soon learns how hard a true hero's life can be. He's not the only one, though, as many youngsters who have their own Quirks join him: the list includes Izuku's once-friend and later bully Katsuki Bakugou, the sweet Nice Girl Ochako Uraraka, the energetic and duty-bound Tenya Iida, the ultra-powerful but deeply hurt Shouto Todoroki, the refined and calm Momo Yaoyorozu, the blunt and mature Tsuyu Asui, the very perverted Minoru Mineta, the cheerful Mina Ashido, etc. All of these youngsters and many more are the hope of UA Highschool, and soon they'll see that having powerful and well-trained Quirks is NOT enough to be real heroes, and that the path to heroism will bring them both joys and misfortunes. And logically, the plot also shows people who have decided to use their Quirks for NOT good and/or downright EVIL things: the biggest examples of this are the League of Villains, led first by All-Might's arch enemy Shiragaki aka All for One, and later by the deeply angry and conflicted Tomura Shiragaki.

Tropes used in My Hero Academia include:

• All of the Other Reindeer: Izuku got looked down on by his classmates, and ESPECIALLY Katsuki, for being Quirkless. Even his very kind mother Inko initially reacted to the "diagnosis" with pity, rather than supporting his dream of becoming a hero from the very start.
• Awesomeness By Analysis: Izuku is utterly obsessed with heroes, filling notebook after notebook with what he's learned about them. Even without tapping his power, he's a strong strategist.
• Break the Haughty: As the plot advances, the ultra-arrogant and sometimes even cruel Jerkass Katsuki gets knocked down some pegs.
  • Shouto's abusive father Enji Todoroki aka Endeavor, even more so. Especially because, despite this being a very fantastic series, his breaking process comes off as quite realistic in comparison: the family that he shattered with his horrible behavior (his wife Rei and his kids Shouto, Natsuo and Fuyumi) takes a long time to somewhat accept his sincere remorse, and it's still clear that those who acknlowledge said remorse don't fully forgive him. And even more so... his eldest son, Touya, turns out to have become Dabi, one of the most infamous members of the League of Villains, and it's Endeavor's own fault.
• Career-Ending Injury: This is actually a very real danger that all heroes face.
  • Sometimes Stain the Hero-Killer deliberately spares the life of his victims. On such occasions he sees to it that they can't be a pro-hero any more For example, Tenya Iida's beloved brother Tensei.
  • The reason why All Might passed the One for All to Izuku is that he got one years ago; as said below, he can't fully use them or he'll either be severely injured or even die.
• Crime of Self Defense: After Stain is defeated, the students involved are told that they broke the law. The cop telling them however, says that he is perfectly willing to keep how what really happened a secret and let someone else allowed to take credit to take the credit.
• Eagleland: All Might, Type 1. The man is heroic to a fault, boisterous and friendly to all he aids, and calls his attacks names from American geography. "TEXAS SMASH!"
• Extraordinarily Empowered Girl: Several: Ochako, Momo, Tsuyu, etc.
  • Izuku is definitely a Rare Male Example
• Fille Fatalons: Kuin Hachisuka wields dangerous and very long nails, usable as deadly weapons, as part of her Queen Bee quirk especially when boosted with Trigger..
• Hour of Power: Well, three hours (per day) and falling, but All Might's powers are on a timer since sustaining an injury some time ago. Using them any longer risks injuring or killing him.
• I Resemble That Remark: When Tsuyu comments that Katsuki is always angry, Katsuki...gets really angry.

Tsuyu: ... [Katsuki] Bakugo's always angry, so he'll never be that popular. Katsuki: WHAT DID YOU SAY?! I'LL KICK YOUR ASS! Tsuyu: See?

• Kneel Before Frodo: All Might does this to Inko when he promises to make Izuku a hero.
• Male Gaze: Nemuri/Midnight get a lot of focus in her erogenous zone more than once. To be fair, a good part of her heroine shtick relays on her being a Ms. Fanservice and she used to be even more fanservicy in her past.
• Power Incontinence: Until he learns control, Izuku's super-strength destroys whatever part of his body he empowers.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: U.A.'s motto is "Plus Ultra", or "Go Beyond".
• Selfish Good: Tenya's biggest character flaw is this. i.e, in the Entrance Exam for UA Highschool he abandons a trapped Uraraka to keep going foward and be able to get more points for the exam, in the Sports Tournament arc he sides with Todoroki because he sees Midoriya as a rival in these circumstances, and later in the series he alsolutely loses it in rage when his beloved brother is crippled by Stain... to the point that the frigging culprit calls him out of it.
• Stepford Smiler: All Might is known for smiling broadly, under all circumstances, but his smile (and his heroic demeanor in general) is in part driven by the world's need for a symbol of peace.
• Super-Hero School: U.A. is one of the most prestigious, although given that 80% of people in the world have Quirks, most schools devote at least some time to handling and training Quirks.
• To Be a Master: While Izuku usually states his dream is to simply be a hero, on at least one occasion he states he wants to be the best hero. Katsuki also wants to be the best hero... and is utterly consumed by the thought that some of his classmates might be better.
• Training From Hell: All Might developed a ten-month training regimen and diet to prepare Izuku's body to receive All Might's power. It was grueling enough on its own, consisting of clearing garbage (like tires, refrigerators, and other heavy detritus) from a beach with alternating muscle groups, but then Izuku added his own studying on top of it, and nearly destroyed himself. (Fortunately, All Might caught on in time and reined him in.)
• Twenty Minutes Into the Future: Zigzagged. The story takes place decades, maybe even over a century, in the future from now. But technology is largely the same because most of that time society spending it's efforts to adjust to the emergence of quirks. And that was not an environment optimal for technological innovations. One person said that if it wasn't for quirks humans would have been on the planet Mars by now.
• World of Ham: Comes of being a world with heavy influence from superhero comics. All Might and Present Mic stand out, but on the student side, Tenya and Katsuki give them a run for their money when the adrenaline starts running.