Alright, let’s analyze it on a more specific prospective.
80% of the population have achieved superpower via birth. 20% is factually disabled in this society by lacking, again said superpowers, and face discrimination and mockery.
The Main Character belongs to this category of people, at least at first, and has been bullied and abused all his life over it, authority figures turning a blind eye to it.
Emblematic that one time he was mocked over it with the always charming phrase “Why don’t you go jump off the roof and kill yourself, maybe you’ll get a Quirk in your next life.”
So, oppressed minorities, ones that are so due to birth defects, and who are excluded by the workforce or a safe school environment due to their condition, in a eugenic society that rewards those who, by birth, have achieved the strongest Quirks, or have been given the opportunity to master them.
I feel enough people have focused on how fucked that up is.
No, let’s focus instead on my sworn enemy.
So, the BNHA world is a world filled with people with various degrees of superpower. This has lead to a time of strife back in the days, allowing the rise of satanic figure AFO and his messianic, Cain-like brother OFA, and shit like that.
By the time the series take place, in the 23rd-24th century, things have gotten back into a semblance of “Normality.”
By turning Superheroes into Cops.
The State, once they realize that powers are here to state, set up a system that heavily favours them.
1) You cannot use a superpower in public unless the state gives you a permit for it, under no circumstance. This especially applies to cases of self defense or defense of others. That’d be Vigilantism, and Vigilantism is a crime, as they specifically say during the Stain Arc, where both Midoryia and Todoroki, interns under two pro heroes, use their Quirks to protect two people and themselves from a serial killer. You CANNOT use your powers to save anyone or protect yourself unless the state allows you to do it. This means that you cannot protect yourself in case of a mugging, for starters, or in case someone were to, say, fight back against their r*pist by using their powers, they’d be judged guilty by the system for it.
2) This is SPECIFICALLY so the state, again, can get the MONOPOLY ON SUPER VIOLENCE. It’s the state who decides who gets to use their powers, and it’s the state who decide how they do it. This is enforced via a serieses of Military Academies, mostly private or state high school, specifically designed to mold 14 to 18 years old into future Soldiers for the Cause, military academies leading to a specific, high risk job which highly publicized among preteen and middle school kids with spots, cartoons, merchandise, everything to be sold to the kids so they get processed in those nice academies bigger than an entire city founded by so much government money that will then, in turn, allow their underage child soldiers to intern under one or more top hero during their years there, unpaid, and without adult supervision from the institute..
3) This leads us to the Capitalism. UA alone should, if Aizawa doesn’t snap and mass expels everyone in his class again, graduate 40+ heroes every year. this not counting eventual General Studies students switching courses, and all the other military academies out there. This creates a Market Oversaturation, forcing superheroes to work under a more experienced veteran as a sidekick to earn a living, and creates a competitive and toxic market. Because that’s what this is. Capitalism applied to superheroics. It’s heroes having to sell their images to products, to produce merchandise after merchandise and have it sell, to every day look at the popularity charts and BEG whatever deity out there that they did not get another dive, that they will have enough money to feed their family this month.
4) Agencies are forced to take either government jobs, or find other ways to finance themselves. An example is the agency Momo goes to for her first internship, more a joke than an actual commentary on society, (Because of course Momo gets treated as a joke), where she is conscripted into doing TV commercial by her pro hero. Another pro hero, Mt. Lady, instead uses her interns as slaves to do most if not all of her work for her. This makes superheroing a Business, as exemplified by the existence of a Business Class in UA, an highly competitive one of many corporations of heroes, where the “weaker” and “less interesting” ones are set aside, or outshined by other heroes.
5) This is an unsustainable and broken system. Heroism is seen as a gateway to fame and money, but also fucks you over pretty easily given the dangerous work conditions. Female Heroes have to be on point at all times in order not to fall in popularity, heroes have to have flashy quirks that easily catch the attention not to be reduced to underground ones, people must have safe, good powers, so not to accidentally kill anyone and be labeled a monster by society and her clear cut view of heroes and villains, but they must ALSO have a power so not to be met with Pity or Mockery for their existence, and to top it all off there is a dying maniac sprinting around the country on a limited time limit stealing everyone’s job trying to be the Symbol of Peace.
6) You can’t have a system of endless competition between everyone involved, and then have Goku go around, free of charge, and do most of the work for everyone. Had All Might been at his Full Might, he would have destroyed the superhero economy, already greatly flawed as it is, by doing everything he could to fuck it, without even realizing it. Because who the hell needs a very minimum of 40+ new heroes EVERY YEAR in ONE COUNTRY when the symbol of peace is there, acting as deterrent? What happens to all those young, impressionable teens who just want to be heroes?
7) As I said before? They become sidekicks. They become wage slaves, unpaid interns to some flashy hero, or are forced into other... less savory sides of the job. After all, their Pro Hero might make or break their career, so who are they to talk back to them? As they are forced to do things they normally wouldn’t do? For a chance at helping people? For a chance at giving their loved ones a better life?
8) And all of this? Is played completely straight from episode 2 onward. Much like in Naruto, much like in RWBY the status quo is not to be challenged, society, this society of heroes and capitalism, is not to be challenged. The ones who do so are villains, they are terrorists who kidnap little girls with insane powers to torture a “cure” out of her, they are Serial Killers murdering frauds and legit heroes alike under a misguided view of the world, they are not to be listened to, or to be treated seriously. Why should you? They are evil. They decided to be evil. Society, the government, your employer are telling you they are evil.
9) And evil people have no rights. No, all they have, is a containment cell in Tartarus, strapped to a table, and forced to be tortured psychologically for the rest of their lives, alone, barely sentient. No Lawyer, no Process, no Pity.
10) As a rule, I LOATHE Superhero Decostructions such as “The Boys” (Comic Books, not sure about the show didn’t watch it) or anything else Garth Ennis or Frank Miller ever wrote in their entire life, ESPECIALLY Holy Terror, but BNHA?
BNHA is the universe of a superhero deconstruction... but played like a legit superhero universe.
PS: DON’T GET ME STARTED ON QUIRK MARRIAGES LIKE WHAT THE FUCK.
