Slight spoilers to the My Hero Academia manga
There is a lot of content out there for My Hero Academia and some of it can be pretty overwhelming. Some of the storylines are beyond stressful, breaking characters in the most heartbreaking ways, as illustrated in, say, the cover reveal to volume 33.
Boy, My Hero Academia sure is fun!
If you’re looking for some My Hero Academia content that’s so low stakes that the most stressful bit is “can the kids make a batch of soba that pleases a grumpy-faced old man,” then My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions is the book for you.
What is My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions?
Team-Up Missions is a side manga created by Yoko Akiyama, who also works as one of Kohei Horikoshi’s assistants in the main series. The stories focus on all the students in the series, from Class 1-A to the schools outside of UA, as they are assigned various missions that’ll get them closer to becoming full-fledged heroes.
You can check out my review of the first volume here.
What’s nice about this series is that you don’t have to read things in order, you can just grab a book and go!
The synopsis of volume two is as follows:
Whether it’s Deku descending into the abyss with Tokoyami or an amusement park adventure with Todoroki, Bakugo, and others, you never know what’s next. Then, a bonus story about Deku and Bakugo’s encounter with a villain before the events of the main series!
Characters who are usually in the background get the chance to shine
My favorite thing about Team-Up Missions is that it’s a chance to see characters in the spotlight who are usually regulated to being in the background. My Hero Academia has a stacked lineup, but it definitely has its series leads who you’ll see more of compared to the likes of, say, Ojiro, students from Class 1-B, and the kids from Shiketsu High school.
The second volume is a good showing of that as many of its chapters don’t even have Deku present. Sure, Todoroki is there, but he gets to work with Kaminari, Inasa, and Seiji, a pretty random team-up that has UA and Shiketsu working together. There’s also an entire chapter dedicated to Ojiro and how he deals with the assumption of being “too plain.”
I love the big characters like Todoroki, but oh my god, a chance to see Ojiro for more than two seconds? Bless.
There are team-ups and low stakes you didn’t realize you needed to see
Along with having background characters be the center of attention, the team-ups they’re a part of are a lot of fun. There’s really no other way to describe it, especially when the missions include “save a struggling amusement park” or “one time All Might went on Present Mic’s radio show.”
Some of the missions play into the character’s strengths, like team goth kids (Tokoyami and Kuroiro) working with Deku to face “The Edgelord Hero: Odd-Eye.” Other missions feel like a chance for the kids to be silly, like the teacups I reference in my headline.
Nothing ever gets too serious. That doesn’t mean you don’t get meaningful moments, there just isn’t the added stress that the series constantly has going on. There’s no All For One or Shigaraki, no League of Villains or crumbling hero society, it really is just a bunch of kids working to become heroes in creative ways.
Because yes, the patience and precision of making the perfect soba is a good hero skill.
The Bakugo and Deku side story
With this volume of Team-Up Missions comes a bonus story that focuses on Bakugo and Deku from their middle school days. This truly is a rush of nostalgia, complete with a featured image that looks like something out of a shoujo manga.
It’s been a long time since we’ve seen the side of Bakugo that picked on Deku and did his best to stop his dreams of becoming of hero. What this side story does, though, is show what fans already know: Bakugo was able to see Deku’s potential from the start.
It’s also a good reminder of how far these two have come.
All and all, Team-Up Missions is just a nice, comfortable way to enjoy My Hero Academia. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to how heavy the series can get and a chance to see other characters be the focus of the story.
You can check out a preview of the manga here.
(Image: Yoko Akiyama, Kohei Horikoshi/SHUEISHA Inc.)
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Published: Feb 4, 2022 08:58 am