This time a more serious ask about the MHA anime. What do you think about the pace of the anime? I hear a number of people talk about it being slow [only like one person justifies their argument] but I really can't find anything that could be cut and meet a good end at ep 13 without being a cliffhanger. personally i never found any issues with pacing and while they could have done it faster im certain they weren't planing for season 2 right out the gate. what are your thoughts?
Hey! A slow anime pacing you say.
Honestly this topic has been discussed multiple times during the anime’s run, at least on reddit (and maybe 4chan), for every episode discussion the fanbase is split between the series being “slow” or “just right”.
I guess in the end it’s all a matter of preference. If you’re asking for my personal opinion, I’m in the “just right” side of the argument. We gotta consider these things too, like you mentioned:
It didn’t seem like they were planning on a Season 2
The reason for that is they made the anime when it only has like, 4 volumes out (need citation lul). But I remember there’s only a few chapters out when they made the announcement, it’s a risky move to “plan ahead” for a Season 2
So they made enough for one season with as much content as they could while having a good pacing and no filler episodes.
I personally loved the way Studio BONES handled the anime. For those who haven’t read the manga yet, BONES did an almost 1:1 per panel, it is absolutely amazing to me. All the flashback scenes that made the anime feel slow is part of the manga. I think the main difference is when we read manga, we can just breeze by those flashback panels since we’ve already read it maybe like a few minutes ago. But with the anime, since they can’t put the scenes simultaneously on the screen, you are “forced” to watch the flashback scenes, which can make it feel pretty slow. But like I said, BONES adapted the manga 1:1, flashback panels included and I liked it very much.
I also liked the little fillers that BONES added to the anime! There are a lot. Like the extended fight between All Might and Noumu, Ojiro, Tokoyami and Kouda’s fights in USJ, to give examples.
That said, there are still rooms for improvement. The flashbacks/previews at the start/end of the episode is of course not part of the 1:1 adaptation, which made it also feel like the episode dragged on. Some previews at the start of the episode takes like 2-3 minutes, so those are extra time that could’ve been, you know, the actual episode.
Maybe in one episode they could’ve added the omake about Mt. Lady too (it will only probably take like 3 minutes long).
And I was really, really hoping they were going to end season 1 at the exact ending of Chapter 21 which would have been awesome (and suffering), but as mentioned above they were probably not sure about a Season 2 so that bit was not animated.
