These girls deserve all the hype.
Summary:
- Shounen authors are often criticized for their portrayal of female characters.
- One of the authors that you cannot criticize for that, however, is Kohei Horikoshi.
- His portrayal of female characters is not only solid, but shows actual development.
- Some characters had ups and downs during the run, but redeemed themselves in crucial moments.
- There are lots of things that deserve criticism in MHA, but girls are not one of them.
The recent developments in the plot of Jujutsu Kaisen once again sparked the discussion about authors of shounen manga handling female characters. Quite often female characters are used as simple eye candy and have neither agency nor purpose aside from being hot and diluting the male party that happens on the pages of the manga. One of the authors who, as people believe, was able to break the curse, was Fujimoto with his Chainsaw Man — and those who dived into his earlier works remark on how fondly he deals with female characters (he even has a story called Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome which is surprisingly wholesome, although in Fujimoto's way).
But one of the authors who's also featured in the tiny list of shounen writers who can write decent female characters is Kohei Horikoshi, one who made My Hero Academia (Boku No Hero Academia), and in his manga female characters were even developed further as the story progressed.
There's bound to be some development
One of the first girls we meet is Ochako Uraraka, and she is a badass from the start. Her fight in the tournament with Bakugo? Marvelous. Sure, she had some questionable moments during certain arcs, sometimes almost reverting to being just a potential love interest for Deku, but then redeemed herself in a fight with Toga and Twice, where she was giving her all despite her injuries and had a lot of wonderfully written inner monologues that let us peek into her mind and establish her as a pretty thought-through character.
Himiko Toga herself — she's amazing. Due to the blatant usage of cheap yandere tropes, some have written her off as a character with no depth, but at the same fight with Ochako, you can see what path she traveled to become who she is and attain the skills she possessed. For a person who has been introduced as a knock-off of Yuno Gasai, Toga showed a pretty staggering development.
Not just an eye candy
Mirko is no exception: at first you think that she's just an eye candy with admirable thighs, but as the story develops, so does she. You realize that she's one of the top heroes for a reason: it's not just her legs that are powerful, she has tactical skills that help her navigate the brutal world of heroism. Sure, a pair of thick thighs really helped, but hey, she fought Shigaraki even without them, showing no mercy even while bleeding to death and using whatever she could reach quite creatively to achieve her goal.
Another hero that definitely was brushed off as a fanservice one, Mountain Lady, played a huge part in both wars and showed off a significant character depth compared to how she was written in the beginning. And we're not talking only about her destructive power: the way she uses it requires quite a lot of understanding of her own abilities and the landscape that she fights in. She's not just a placeholder and an excuse for Horikoshi to write a hot girl in a skin-tight suit: no, she's useful, and she's in the right place at the right time.
Lady Nagant played a huge role in stopping Shigaraki, and while her screen time was small, the impact was enormous. The same could be said about La Brava, who helped keep the UA afloat during the whole mess.
Quirky girls with quirky quirks
Let's get back to the UA girls and mention Kyoka Jiro, who went from being that stereotypical music nerd to being someone not only reliable and approachable, but actually capable of standing by the professional heroes' and fighting among them. She was the one who helped Hawks destroy AFO's life support mask, and one of the motivations for her to keep fighting was the bond she created with her classmates during all these non-battle arcs.
Momo, just as much as Ochako, faced some weird moments, but she was able to shine during the first war, creatively utilizing her skill. Her creativity probably peaked in the fight for UA when she added mini-guns to her usual get-up. She's one of those characters who was able to break the fanservice chains and grow into someone who can be considered a proper hero, skilled and capable of quickly assessing what happens.
And we cannot miss Mei Hatsume: without her, the manga would have ended much sooner. Yes, her obsession with inventions feels a bit creepy, especially considering how in-depth her knowledge of the quirks that her devices enhance or subdue is, but during the run of the manga, you start understanding that this type of mindset is exactly what's needed in these dire times for the characters that we're following. She's a perfect supporting character, and, as much as her devices, she enhances the general outlook of the main cast.
The power of love goes hand in hand with the power of pain
Let's not forget the way Horikoshi writes about people who have been wronged — the women of the Todoroki family. Rei's pain, Fuyumi's determination — these broken girls were perfectly developed during the run, and their stories culminated in the battle against Touya. The portrayal of their grief and regrets is tangible, it makes you feel things you probably shouldn't feel in battle shounen — but you do.
So while there are many things that you can criticize MHA for, female characters are not one of them.