Against the backdrop of the war between heroes and villains, author Kohei Horikoshi delivers a strong current message to his readers. Even in a “just” world like that of My Hero Academia, the phenomenon of racism is rampant in society. Can manga help alleviate social and racial discrimination?
The world created by the Japanese mangaka is a world of superpowers and heroes who are always ready help others. But even in such a context, the population still seems to feel from Racial discrimination, especially towards those who have a mutated quirk, or towards those who were born without quirk.
In the course of our work we have seen several Racism Phenomena. From the beginning we know that the protagonist Izuku Midoriya, one of the rare unborn children with no uniqueness, was mocked by his companions. From this derives his nickname Deku, which Bakugo ascribes to him.
But not only that, that is what viewers discovered over the course of the fifth season of the anime series crackhead he became a villain in the service of Tomura Shigaraki precisely because of the social marginalization he was exposed to on a daily basis. Even the theory of the high school traitor Yuei, which is topical in the final chapters of the manga, seems to find an explanation in racism.
It therefore seems clear that the My Hero Academia society, although dominated by the goodness of the heroes, is a society based almost on racism. And finally, Shigaraki is not entirely wrong: the heroes are not apart from the good guys. The villain, for example, has them Creature Rejection Clan, a sect that hated people believed to be monstrous and used violence against them. In this case, it was the Union of Villains that was on the right.
People with a Mutated quirk they are still seen as something alien, something different and something to be kept at a distance. An example of this can be seen in the story of Shoji from 1-A. Growing up in a city where social discrimination was rampant, he was mocked for his looks. To this day he wears a mask in order not to be seen on his face, which is considered hideous and terrifying.
Will society, both real and heroes, ever be able to overcome racial discrimination? And will My Hero Academia play a role in this? We leave you to the crossover artwork between My Hero Academia and Spider-Man and the Christmas cheer in the Horikoshi sketch.
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