Ask from Anonymous (that I accidentally posted early, thus the reformat, sorry!):
Some months ago I saw someone saying how amputee representation in mha is awful. I was busy back then so it kinda slipped my mind, until 2 days ago. And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. There are many things that I criticize about mha but it seems like I've been so focused on other things I missed how mha treats amputee representation. Since I agree with many of your takes, I wanted to know your opinion about this.
Now I haven't finished mha yet I'm still at season 5, so I haven't seen everything. I did spoil myself tho so kind of know what happens in later seasons.
Hi, thanks for the ask. Sorry it took me a while to answer, this post turned out very long.
Mutilation and limb loss is exceedingly common in Mha. When talking about amputees I will include characters that lose limbs or facial features, but also characters that lose physical quirk factors or lose limbs in ways that wouldn't be possible in real life. I chose to exclude amputations on characters with established, inherent regenerative or growth abilities like Shoji or the Noumu.
Also disclaimer that while I am physically disabled, I am not an amputee. Please take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Mha contains a lot of disabled characters and amputees make up more than half of them. Generally, it's good to represent a demographic with many characters, but Mha also steps into several pitfalls common to amputee protrayal in sci-fi/fantasy media.
The main manga contains 14 characters who experience one or multiple amputations, 13 of which spend considerable time living as amputees and 10-11 of which remain disabled for the rest of their lives. You can already see the issues here.
I made an excel table to give everyone an overview. It also functions as a decent TLDR:
Most characters lose their limbs/ facial features in active combat. Others choose to amputate their own limbs to prevent (a from their perspective) worse disability or death, like Aizawa and Re-Destro. Others have that choice taken from them.
Oddly, characters that lose human extremities only experience above-the-elbow and below-knee amputations respectively.
A surprising amount of characters either do not use or abandon prosthetics. Dabi was on death's door and Tartarus reduces prisoners quality of life as much a possible, so I doubt they offered any to Overhaul. But Endeavour, Giran and Tomura (post-vat) ostensibly had the means to acquire prostheses yet chose not to.
This might not be what Horikoshi intended to portray but complex prostheses often come with a high learning curve. Some can be uncomfortable or painful to wear. Having some amputees use none is actually realistic.
Of characters that do use prostheses, those with lower limb amputations use myoelectric* and mechanical legs while those with upper limb amputations use cosmetic fingers and multi-articulated myoelectric hands.
*type of prosthesis with sensors in its socket that converts muscle movement in the residual limb to according movement in the prosthesis.
Bnha is a high tech fantasy dystopia, a setting that often comes with unrealistic depictions of prostheses and their users.
For example even the destitute League can afford a myoelectric prosthesis for Compress. Present day myoelectric hands can grip, point, turn, flex, flip you off and even hold an egg without breaking it. The way Compress uses his prosthesis isn't inherently misleading. Its movements in the anime are just far more fluent and precise than anything available to amputees today.
Compress however struggles maintaining it while on the run. His arm does look a little cruder than current models but most myoelectric prostheses (especially ones without protective cover) are easily damaged and not waterproof. Once the League gains access to the MLA's funds he upgrades it to a version that can store and release his marbles.
Though, even when supplied by a company specializing in support items, prostheses are not perfect. When Re-Destro fights Dark Shadow, his new legs break under the strain.
On the hero side, Miruko loses three of her limbs but she's arguably one of the characters least affected by their disability. Like Compress, she uses a myoelectric upper limb prosthesis, albeit a much sturdier model designed for combat.
For her missing leg, she wears a running blade which is a type of prosthesis that's fitted for running and flexibility with high shock absorbtion. I do like that even the No. 5 Hero doesn't have access to Winter Soldier level prostheses and uses comparatively low-tech but effective aides.
Peg legs are another prosthesis type included in Mha. Ectoplasm is a minor side character but also a cliché for lower limb amputees. However the story doesn't draw much attention to him. He loses his legs before the start of the manga and you only notice his disability by paying attention to his gait or the few panels that show his prostheses. Unlike other stereotypical protrayals, his disability doesn't define him. He's just the kids' slightly intimidating math teacher.
Hawks installs prosthetic feathers into his remaining wings. They allow him to keep working as a hero but, like Re-Destro's legs, they're not a perfect fix: He can fly but he's much slower than he used to be. When Afo mocks him for it, he crudely jokes about them being the same.
Hawks' quirk manifests through additional limbs. For him losing/damaging them is synonymous with losing/damaging his Quirk. For non-heteromorph characters, losing the quirk is treated as more impactful than the correlating limb.
E.g. Aizawa remains a critical part of the Hero forces, but after losing an eye, he needs the support of a student to keep using his quirk.
Despite the heavier focus on Erasure, Aizawa is the only amputee character Mha shows to have an extensive recovery period. He implies that he struggles to adjust to his disability (it's unclear whether he refers to pain, struggling with his prosthesis or both) and suffers significant loss of mobility.
It's never explicitly mentioned but he appears even more tired than before his injury.
Aizawa stands out in that he actively chooses and accepts his disability. He cuts off his leg and remains disabled in favor of taking advantage of a 6 year old girl and her quirk (again).
Both Overhaul and Hawks (at least before Afo takes his quirk entirely) lose their limbs/part of their limbs after killing a member of the League.
Overhaul is the character most severely affected by his limb loss. Without his quirk (and Eri) he lost his means of producing quirk erasing drugs and, most importantly, waking the Shie Hassakai's old boss from the coma he forced him into. He's resigned, desolate and full of guilt. Not for what he did to Eri, but for irreversibly damaging and failing the only person he cares about.
As he doesn't receive prosthetics, he needs Nagant's help escape Tartarus. Their dynamic arguably characterizes him as helpless and dependent. He still negotiates with her to take him to his old boss in exchange for information on her target, Izuku.
Although he loses his arms and quirk as a punishment, his disability doesn't change what he did to others. The narrative stresses that to atone, he needs to be sorry for hurting Eri, too.
Hawks, who also loses his quirk entirely by the end of the manga, does stick to his goal of creating a world in which Heroes have more time. He turn to the political and organizational side of Heroics.
Enji becoming disabled and losing an arm at the end of the series is often interpreted as part of his "punishment" too. Just like with Hawks and Overhaul, this framing is problematic.
The idea of disability as a consequence of personal failures is a pervasive and harmful stereotype. By blaming disabled people for their own disabilities, ableists justify abuse, discrimination, and withholding of accessibility and support.
The number of amputees and other disabled people in Mha alleviates some of the issues within individual portrayals though.
On their own, characters like Overhaul, Endeavor and Hawks reinforce the notion of disability as a punishment. But Mha has enough counter examples to show that disability happens to good and bad people, Heroes and villains alike.
Overhaul on his own would send the message that it's impossible to thrive after amputation. Someone like Miruko or Compress disproves that.
Miruko (or hell, even Afo) on the other hand could be read as inspiration porn, but is contrasted by other Heroes either requiring extensive support or choosing to leave the Hero profession entirely.
None of the above characters are reduced to their amputation. Except for Overhaul whose dreams relied on the use of his quirk, amputees keep pursuing their goals either through changing their approach, assistive technology or support from others. All of them keep their established personalities, lowercase q quirks and personal struggles.
Others treat amputees with the same respect as their able-bodied and otherwise disabled peers. Only villain-framed characters like Tomura and Afo mock others for their disabilities.
Even when Twice dramatically bemoans that Giran won't be able to smoke his cigars anymore - it doesn't evoke pity, at least to me. Giran is covered in blood but keeps a grin on his face after withstanding several days of torture to protect the League. The entire scene frames him as extremely fucking cool.
There is however one scene in which a prison guard refers to Afo as "decrepit" in a way that definitely comes across as pitying.
Overall, Mha doesn't mention the emotional toll that comes with readjusting your life after limb loss. Next to Aizawa, Overhaul might be the only exception, though Tomura and Compress did take his hands with the express purpose of causing him as much psychological pain as possible.
Although characters use different types of prostheses congruent with their own needs and current medical advancement, many of them function more like natural limbs than pieces of technology that malfunction or need repairs. This can give abled and disabled people alike unrealistic expectations and diminish the severity of losing a limb.
However Mha's biggest issue are characters being "cured" of their acquired disability. This trope is heavily associated with the idea that disabled lives are not worth living, and abled people trying to remove disabled people and the challenges they present.
Most disabilities, whether acquired or congenital, are permanent. Focusing on a "cure" distracts from efforts to materially improve quality of life of disabled people.
To be honest I spent a long time worrying whether to even include Edgeshot. He technically loses all of his limbs and is clearly affected by it. It just happens in a way that is ridiculous and impossible in real life.
Mha establishes early on that certain Quirk factors can regenerate. Shoji or Hawks are examples of that. Edgeshot's entire body(?) is his quirk factor. Characters like him and Hawks show clear limits to how much damage their Quirks can repair. At some point, Edgeshot receives treatment that, I assume, stimulates the regeneration of his Quirk. I honestly don't know how the amputee community feels about regenerative powers in general. I don't think I'm qualified to form an opinion on this.
After losing part of his left hand, Tomura initially wears what looks like a cosmetic prosthesis. It's strapped to the remaining part of his hand with little belts and the prosthetic fingers never actually change position. He still uses the prosthesis to scratch his neck and move Father(?) away from his face. The anime chooses to animate it as fully articulated. I just doubt this was Horkikoshi's original intention since the prosthesis' design and presentation are completely different from the usual portrayal of myoelectric prostheses.
Somewhere in between Tomura agreeing to the afo-ization procedure and being set up in the vat the doctor exchanges his previous prosthetic with a protective brace. Neither Tomura nor Afo bother replacing it with a functional prosthetic.
Tomura's situation is Weird because even though he gains nearly infinite regeneration powers after leaving the vat, Horikoshi lets him keep his disability. He doesn't even forget about it. After the PLF war he replaces his damaged, melted brace with a new one. Then he suddenly experiences a quirk singularity and starts regrowing his fingers. Sure, Horikoshi frames it as something horrifying, violating(?) happening to Tomura, but it doesn't change it being part of the aforementioned trope.
Afo rewinding his body to its abled form during the final war isn't even the main problem. At first, he presents it as the ultimate ace of his sleeve. Then, it turns out to be an elaborate plan to dispose of his disabled body and replace it with Tomura's.
He doesn't technically "cure" himself but he is framed as a parasite taking advantage of someone with a (more) abled body. Mha includes about two dozen disabled characters, many of which are multiply disabled as well. Though, Afo might be the the most severely impacted of them. He's also the only one actively seeking a "cure" .
Afo did set the plan to take over Nana's grandson in motion over a decade before becoming disabled, which muddies the situation. Despite being dependent on life support he is actually driven by the prospect of gaining a body capable of containing more quirks*. The optics still aren't great though.
*based on the quirk singularity theory that asserts that bodies become more resilient to stronger quirks with every generation. Tomura proves it true
This leaves Izuku. Tenko disintegrating his arms only for him to regain them moments later is. not an impressive writing choice. It's not just ableist but also stupid.
Eri rewinding Izuku is at best a grossly clumsy attempt at giving her a moment during the final war arc and at worst a cop-out turning a life-long disability into cheap shock value.
Izuku isn't the first character to lose one or more limbs on an active battlefield by far. Mha having several amputees, including two others with bilateral above-the-elbow amputations, makes the scene look worse: What's good enough for the brash, dark skinned woman clearly isn't good enough for the cutesy, light-skinned male protagonist.
Mha establishes time and time again that being an amputee is not a death sentence. You may struggle and have an extensive recovery period or new limits but people will care about you all the same and - obbligatory addition since this is Mha - you can even stay a hero.
But I guess Horikoshi needed a functional protagonist for his manga's epic boss fight.
//
All of this leaves me... mostly annoyed. Horikoshi shows that he isn't incapable of putting thought into his amputee characters. There are issues, but in my opinion they pale in comparison to a quarter of all amputees being magically "cured".
All instances of this problematic trope occur in the final 100 chapters. You could try to attribute those to the general deteriorating writing quality at that point, but even then, I don't think Horikoshi ever actively intended to contribute to disability representation in media.
Mha's greatest strength in terms of representation is a strength in numbers. Horikoshi is a decent enough writer and does enough research to write a few okay-ish amputee characters. But he's not socially aware enough to actually think about the implications of what he writes.
