My Hero Academia Season 8 Course-Corrects Horikoshi’s Biggest Misstep, Closing One Era and Igniting the Next
Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia may dominate anime and manga, but a growing chorus of fans says a string of glaring missteps is souring the ride. As the series juggles explosive battles and a sprawling cast, critics argue the balance is slipping—and it’s costing the show its edge.
My Hero Academia is one of those mega-popular shows that somehow took years to figure out what it actually wanted to be. Kohei Horikoshi built a world bursting with flashy fights and a huge, likable cast, but the show kept swerving between vibes. Now, with the Final War arc in Season 8, it finally picks a lane: the world of heroes is not fair, and that darkness matters.
The long detour to a theme
From the jump, the anime and manga tried to juggle too much. You could feel the push and pull every season: big spectacle one minute, soul-searching the next, with whiplash in between. Fans have called out those stumbles for years, because the show never truly committed to a single identity that set it apart.
- Coming-of-age school story at U.A.
- Full-throttle shonen battle series
- A wink-and-nudge satire of hero culture
That constant experimentation wrecked the balance the narrative needed. One season felt disconnected from the next, and the pacing jumped from adrenaline to introspection without much glue. The turning point comes when the story stops drifting and locks onto one core idea in the Final War arc: the dark underbelly of a society built on quirks and hero worship. Suddenly, the threads from earlier seasons click together. For some fans, that retroactively makes the last seven seasons feel worth the ride. Others think the show burned too much momentum getting here, and the reputation took a hit along the way. Both takes make sense.
Season 8 gets grim (and it works)
Season 8 is the first time the anime refuses to look away from the bleak stuff the earlier seasons teased but rarely centered. The Final War arc drags those long-running shadows into the spotlight and lets them breathe. The clever move: it spends real time in the villains' point of view, muddying the moral lines and shining a light on a world where heroes dominate the narrative and not always for the better.
Because of that, the clashes mean more than they ever have. They are not just good guys vs. bad guys; they are symbols smashing into each other, each punch and sacrifice carrying the weight of justice, corruption, and everything in between.
'Who truly deserves to be called a "hero"?'
Season 8 might be the most crucial stretch of the entire anime precisely because it raises the stakes and finally commits to that bigger idea. If the upcoming episodes keep that focus, the show may stick the landing it has been searching for.
Where things stand
The series is still My Hero Academia at heart, but this arc gives it the spine it was missing. Leaning hard into an unfair world through the villains' perspective and the rot inside hero society is the right call, even if it took a while to get here. I am curious where you land: overdue course correction, or too little too late?
My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
IMDb: 8.2
MyAnimeList: 7.83