Summary

Season 5 of My Hero Academia is infamous for switching the order of major story arcs, creating confusion among fans.
The anime altered the Meta Liberation Army Arc significantly, cutting scenes and rushing its plot.
Flashbacks and unnecessary filler scenes were added to pad time in certain arcs, which had an impact on the pacing of the story.

My Hero Academia is, without a doubt, one of the biggest and most recognizable shōnen action series of the modern era. While Kohei Horikoshi’s original manga was already a masterpiece, the worldwide popularity of this franchise can be partially attributed to Bones’ excellent animated adaptation.

This anime is extremely successful thanks to its incredible animation, its movie-like cinematography and its high-quality voice acting, but, curiously enough, it’s not a one-to-one adaptation of its source material. While it's way more faithful than most old-school shōnen anime, there are still some glaring differences between the My Hero Academia anime and the My Hero Academia manga, and the following eight are the most notorious ones so far.

The Order Of Some Arcs

The Endeavor Agency Arc And My Villain Academia Were Switched Around

Season 5 of My Hero Academia is infamous among fans for doing something completely unprecedented: it changed around the order of two major story arcs. In the original manga, the Meta Liberation Army Arc (AKA My Villain Academia) came right before the Endeavor Agency Arc, so readers could witness how the League of Villains got stronger first and how their alliance with the Meta Liberation Army impacted hero society from the shadows second.

For some reason, the anime decided to switch the order of these arcs, with the Endeavor Agency Arc being aired first and the Meta Liberation Army Arc airing second instead. As a result, it has this weird out-of-order narrative in which Re-Destro is presented as this mysterious figure and viewers finally get to find out who he is at the end of the season. It was an interesting change of pace, to say the least, but it made the story feel unnecessarily confusing, not to mention that it spoiled that the League of Villains had gotten stronger before it even happened.

My Villain Academia Is Missing Some Scenes

The Most Egregious Change Of Season 5

But that was not the only big change that Season 5 of the anime made, because the contents of the Meta Liberation Army Arc were also altered significantly. Not only does its plot feel incredibly rushed, which lessened the impact it had on the overall narrative, but some important scenes were cut entirely.

For starters, Spinner had a much bigger role in the original manga, and most of his best scenes were omitted from the anime (Granted, some of them were adapted later, in Seasons 6 and 7, but it was already too late). On the other hand, Re-Destro’s role as the CEO of Detnerat was much more prominent in the manga, where he originally starred in a commercial that was supposed to showcase how he was seen by the public eye. This worked brilliantly because it took place before his true evil nature was revealed to the reader, but sadly it was completely cut from the anime (which had already spoiled that he’s a villain by switching the order of the arcs anyway).

Unnecessary Flashbacks

Sometimes The Anime Needs To Add Stuff To Pad Time

The anime adaptation of the Endeavor Agency Arc was not polarizing just because it was placed before the Meta Liberation Army Arc instead of after it, but also because it was plagued with unnecessary flashback sequences that felt like they were added solely to pad time. Needless to say, most of these were nowhere to be seen in the original manga.

Seasons 5 and 6 are filled to the brim with flashback sequences that, while sometimes they work well, can completely ruin the otherwise fast pacing of their arcs. The Joint Training Arc, which saw the long-awaited return of many prominent characters from Class 1-A and Class 1-B, was also brought down by this polarizing issue. Fortunately, Season 7 had very few flashbacks in it, so it seems like Bones has finally learned its lesson and stopped doing this.

The Provisional Hero License Exam Arc Is Slightly Longer In The Anime

The Adaptation Added Some Filler Episodes That Elevated The Narrative

Unlike most old-school shōnen anime, My Hero Academia fortunately has little-to-no filler episodes. But, curiously enough, the very few it has actually work in favor of the narrative by showing viewers important events that were never seen in the original manga. The Provisional Hero License Exam Arc especially benefitted from this more than any other arc.

Shoto Todoroki’s brief encounter with the Seijin High School students and Momo Yayaorozu’s confrontation with Saiko Intelli were 100% anime-original, and they were brilliant ways of showing how some of the other Class 1-A members struggled to pass this life-changing exam. But this is not even the only time the anime added important scenes of stuff that were unseen in the source material, as Episode 32 depicted Tsuyu Asui’s internship with Selkie, something that she only mentioned in passing in the manga.

The Manga Is Creepier

Its Disturbing Art Doesn’t Translate Well To The Anime

Despite being a cheerful superhero story, My Hero Academia can be surprisingly dark and disturbing at times. This is especially evident in the original manga, where author Kohei Horikoshi’s art occasionally excels at being extremely shocking and grotesque. It should be no surprise that he has already claimed that he wants to draw a horror manga in the near future.

Certain scenes that were absolutely bone-chilling in the manga – like Shigaraki’s smile at the mall or All for One breaking out from inside Shigaraki’s face – do look creepy in the anime, but they certainly don’t pack the same punch. Their manga counterparts were elevated by the combination of Horikoshi’s extremely detailed art and their black-and-white coloring, whereas in the anime those same scenes look a lot more streamlined and colorful, possibly because of television guidelines, budget issues and/or censorship.

Censorship

The Anime Is A Lot Less Violent

Due to restrictions imposed by Japanese television guidelines, it’s common for animated adaptations of shōnen manga to be heavily censored: It happened to Dragon Ball, it happened to One Piece and, of course, it happened to My Hero Academia on more than one occasion.

The original manga doesn’t shy away from showing as much uncensored violence as this story needs (which doesn’t even qualify as gore), but the anime usually tones it down significantly, and it unfortunately lessens the impact of these scenes. Some prominent examples include: Overhaul temporarily killing Rappa, Re-Destro cutting off his own legs, Mirko’s final stand against the Five Nomu, the gruesome death of Tenko Shimura’s family and many more.

Minor Design Changes

The Anime Often Alters The Character’s Designs (Especially Women’s)

There’s no denying that My Hero Academia features some of the most distinctive, creative and complex character designs in the action shōnen genre, and this sentiment applies to both its heroes and villains. However, the medium of manga often allows authors to implement more complex designs (since they’re just depicted in static illustrations) while anime - which features animated movement – is on a completely different level.

Because of this unfortunate reality, the My Hero Academia anime was forced to tone down some of the most complicated character designs for the sake of its animators, with some prominent examples being Vigilante Deku, Hawks, Shigaraki, All for One, Inasa Yoarashi, Re-Destro and Armored All Might. It’s also worth pointing out that the anime has significantly altered the proportions of some of its female characters, which were a tad more realistic in the manga, and this bizarre change has received heavy negative criticism from female audiences.

Connection With My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Manga Readers Enjoyed A Certain Plot Twist A Lot More

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is a spin-off manga that was being serialized at the same time as the main My Hero Academia manga, and while both stories largely remained unconnected to each other, there was one significant plot development that could be enjoyed and comprehended better by those that were actively reading the spin-off.

The moment in which it was revealed that Kurogiri is a Nomu made with the remains of Oboro Shirakumo, Eraser Head and Present Mic’s childhood friend, was definitely quite shocking, but Vigilantes readers found it especially heartbreaking because they got to meet Shirakumo firsthand in a long and tragic flashback arc. Sadly, anime-only fans never got to experience that shock, and they never will, because the Kurogiri reveal was already adapted in season 6, whereas the Vigilantes anime began airing in early 2025, and its Oboro Shirakumo flashback won’t be adapted for a few more years.

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