The Beauty and the Beast
I have never expected that knowing about the author’s story would ever affect my perception of something that he/she creates. I know that many of you would say that this is a no brainer, but it’s just the first time I see through a writer’s eyes. In this post, I will talk about how I felt about Overhaul’s arc from a slightly different perspective that someone else might have already seen the same way I do. For those of you who don’t know Kohei's story, a while ago when I first started watching Boku no Hero, I was really into this anime that I started searching for interviews with Kohei Horikoshi, but I was disappointed to find only one interview, which was partially subtitled into English. Thank goodness this part was about his beginnings, and how he came up with the idea that saved not only his career but also his life. Before Boku No Hero, Horikoshi sensei suffered from depression for two years that almost lead him to give up Manga, and if I remember correctly he was on the verge of suicide. He said that he was a great fan of the American comic books, and Batman was his favorite superhero; he even had a whole section designated for action figures from Nolan’s trilogy. Back in June, when I finally decided to catch up to the manga, I started reading Overhaul’s arc, and this when it occurred to me, and my mind started making connections; ultimately this arc became my favorite in the entire manga. Besides the cool look of Overhaul, which to me is one of the best concepts he has ever come up with in his manga, what he stands for in my eyes is just beyond the idea of a mob boss who wants to revive the yakuza and rid the world of the filth that is quirks. Basing his concept on plague doctors aligns perfectly with his germophobia, as well as alluding to the time of plague which hit England during the dark ages. This connotation of death and how he is completely in control of Eri’s feelings and fears made me see this arc as a way of catharsis that spreads awareness about people who suffer from clinical depression, drawing, of course, on his personal experience. The way Overhaul is always lurking at the back of Eri’s mind, the way he is depicted as a crow both prove my hypothesis. In one scene in episode 11, Overhaul addresses Eri in front of Midoriya saying, “It’s easier to be hurt yourself than to have others get hurt for you, huh?” I felt like Kohei doesn’t just use him to be the cause of her anxiety and her constant fear of causing harm to people who try to help her, but he also uses Overhaul perfectly to verbalize how Eri feels deep inside, without being able to utter the words. Eri is a girl who doesn’t know the meaning of happiness, she surrenders to him, only because she feels that no-one is going to help her, and that’s how Mirio states it during his fight against Overhaul. All of this is supported by many panels in which Kohei shows Overhaul as the death that lingers in Eri’s mind, refusing to let her go. When Eri finally meets Midoriya and Mirio, she gets a touch of love and safety which causes her to think about Midoriya’s soft embrace. It is as though Kohei is trying to say that it could only take a warm hug and a sense of security to make those who are clinically depressed feel better. That is why at the end of the arc when Eri feels safe again, she unleashes her powers to help Midoriya, not fully in control, yet Midoriya’s words might have given her some confidence to be in control when he says that her quirk is a blessing, not a curse, which causes her to cry. This is the first arc that we see Kohei go deep to explore some of the most crucial problems of this age, which makes this manga for me very outstanding among all other manga, not only shounen.
