“Always be conscious of who you are. That’s the key to improvement.” —Aizawa Sensei 

 “What is a hero?” In a world where eighty percent of the population have manifested abilities known as Quirks and where heroes and villains duke it out daily, what exactly makes a hero? Are heroes defined by their ability to emit explosions from their hands? Or their ability to toss super-sticky grape colored balls from their hair? Or do their beliefs characterize them? Through acidic blood, explosive sweat and lots and lots of tears, My Hero Academia has always put its character’s beliefs to the test, but volume 9 sees Class A confronting both the upper limits of their powers as well as a much more sinister league of internal obstacles skulking within the shadows.

Battle scars still fresh from their punishing practical exams, Midoriya and friends are finally free for the summer, right? Wrong. Rather than beaches and bikinis the likes of which match only Mineta’s drooling daydreams, the class is divided into teams for new tests. Despite all of our heroes’ battles, lessons and tireless training to become harder, better, faster, stronger, their Quirks haven't followed suit nor caught up to my datedly daft musical reference. What does this all mean? A manga montage of Quirk training of course! Their training all culminating in a true test of heroic courage—wandering unsupervised in a dark and spooky forest.

When I went to summer camp, I too was sent into the wilderness at night but—rather than team up with a friend—I fell into a moonlit pit of poison oak. Here the heroes face their own toxic jungle of sorts, fraught with challenges and new foes posing a greater threat than a generous amount of pus and scratching. 

Midoriya has always questioned his abilities and always doubted his capacity to become a hero, but this time his doubts have become more clouded, more complicated. Kota, a kid with a really cool hat, or really cool horns, represents this quirky quagmire. Having tragically lost his parents in the perennial struggle between good and evil, Kota forces Deku to answer the question: Is all the sacrifice worth it? Is it worth it to train to better kill one another? What are we fighting for and why keep fighting? While heroic words are certainly powerful, actions with those words define true heroism, and Deku yet again becomes my personal hero in easily one of the most hyped moments within the entire series thus far (yes, it involves blood and lots and lots of tears). 

The story is grimmer this time around, but still relaxes for moments of fun with the Wild, Wild Pussycats' the super sentai-esque poses and the ever-combustible Bakugo's attempt at cooking. While we’ve all read those training arcs from other series that take multiple volumes to complete, this arc is blisteringly fast. Even without the consistently detailed, gorgeous rendering of each punch-packed panel, My Hero Academia is about the escalation of stakes and volume nine proves yet again that Horikoshi Sensei is a master of shonen progression. While all of the battles have unrelenting momentum and fury—it's the emotional weight, not the all mighty powers of our heroes, that effortlessly escalates and grows with the characters. Everyone is challenged and gets their time to develop. Even though this is a training exercise, it's definitely do-or-die for the heroes as well as the new gallery of dastardly villains. 

My Hero Academia Vol. 9 by Kohei Horikoshi is available here. 

And don't forget, you can read the spin-off series, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes for FREE right here!

by Hayden Robel