"Unlimited stance" sounds so fucking cool, and this just proves my theory from last chapter.

This is set-up for the events for after Ragnarok I presume, so this manga won't just end after the tournament. I wonder if the strongest gods and the strongest humans have to team up to kill the primordial god once it gets revived in the (presumably) final fight of the manga? That would be extremely dope. Also, Thor's back!!! I don't think we've seen him for literal years.

As of completion:

This is an incredible 9/10 manga. This is the ANTITHESIS of it's main series. It actually has phenomenal writing, excellent fleshed out SMALL cast of characters that get equal time to develop, an gripping story with actual stakes and tension unlike it's main series MHA, and the twists and turns this manga has makes for some of the most hype moments in all of anime/manga history. This is a must-read.

As of chapter 420:

*Sigh*..... This manga is disappointing. For context, I've been keeping up with MHA since the anime released in 2016. I was a fairly big fan of this for a while. I fell off at the Eri arc's end and binged the rest a few years later (around the double raid arc to just before the beginning of the final arc) and I digged it as I loved the Dark Deku arc. Until I didn't. This manga is far, FAR too safe. It cannot commit to its setting nor have consequences befitting its plot of literal child soldiers. This manga has no stakes, no tension, and an extremely bloated character list that prevents anyone from having any development or impact on the story besides a very small few. Not to mention the extreme convenience of quirks. Any character that gets hurt or killed could be brought to life or healed by some random bullshit quirk and it completely robs the manga and anime of ANY tension because you know that everything will be okay in the end. The anime also censors a lot and that's really cringe plus it's "animated" horribly for a yearly anime.

Due to these reasons, I cannot recommend this manga/anime to anyone who's even slightly experienced with properly written anime/manga. This is perfect for beginners, and the tournament arc is the best tournament arc in Anime/manga history in my opinion, but the flaws of this manga are so deep that once you consume actual good writing, MHA falls apart and you start to notice all the bullshit in it.
3/10. The art is some of manga's best and is the only positive thing this manga provides outside of two, actually great, arcs.

I DO however, recommend the spin-off "Vigilantes". THAT manga actually has phenomenal writing and stakes and tension, and is an incredible manga that does everything MHA is attempting to be, but magnitudes better.

Taking one for the team

https://i.postimg.cc/brFmKJHt/i.png

https://i.postimg.cc/RVLhTVkC/i.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/sDN1v07s/i.png
Ngl I had to do a double take when I saw this...

These two could single handedly save Japan's birthrate crisis.

https://i.postimg.cc/R0XNYgGN/i.png
God I love this manga. As Bruce says, it's batshit insane, I love it and the art.
Also, is that a Tokyo Ghoul reference with him being wrapped in the hair sniffing it?

Don't even bother with the character development this far in, there's no point there's too many characters for this shallow ass attempt at making actual three dimensional characters than the 2D gag useless characters you've already made.

As of chapter 109:

This is yet another 6/10 romcom. It's quite novel since the main romance is between a very short (and voluptuous) cheerful college girl and a very tall and ripped College dude who's quite shy when it comes to love. The characters are barely developed outside of the main two, this is more of a very meme focused manga. There's only 3-4 locations the manga takes place in, and the story? What story? It's nothing but the dullest slice of life plot ever. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, and they talk about it with their friends. That's it. Outside of the sometimes funny jokes, this manga is the most inconsequential romcom I've ever read. There's decent romance, but it takes far too long to get anywhere.

Only read this if you like Tall vs short romances.

As of chapter 28:

This is a very wholesome, softcore, only yuri erotica. The story literally just exists so that the main girl can sleep with as much women as possible, but it works for what it is. This manga knows what it is, it's a very cute, wholesome as fuck erotica that actually makes me just want to hug them more than anything. This is softcore, this manga is mostly sex and fluff, but no genitals are shown. Erotica are usually very messed up, but this is such an great injection of dopamine and cuteness that I do recommend this to everyone that isn't afraid of 2D nudity, but don't expect it to be any more than what it is.

You're spot on I'd say.
Funny thing is, I'm literally reading the Sonic the Hedgehog comic by Archie comics and its mandatory spin-offs. I've been reading it for over a month and a half since It's extremely long since It ran from 1993 all the way to 2016, each issue is like, 3-4 manga chapters long AND it has far more dialogue than manga does. I have no idea why Western comics have so much dialogue, especially since there's barely any actual story in Sonic. It took me 45 days to catch up to one piece from chapter 1 to whatever chapter released 11 months ago when I started it. I'm only about halfway through reading Archie Sonic and its mandatory spin-offs. Western comics aren't my thing, I'm a Sonic fan but the comic is so bad so far (issue 155 of 290 not counting spinoffs) so far because of how childish it is, like yeah, I get it, it's a comic aimed towards early teens to little kids, but like, so is Naruto!! Characters don't die or get maimed despite fighting a literal war as child soliders (just like Naruto) against Robotnik for over 11 years in universe. The "Mobians" (Anthropomorphic animals like Sonic and Tails) had most of their capable fighter adult population killed by the previous war against the "Overlanders" (name for humans on "Mobius", the planet the comic is set on), and as soon as that war ended, Robotnik (Eggman) betrayed the Mobian king who he had worked for since he was exiled by his people and decided to fight for the Mobians, and unleashed an army of robots to take over the world which led to even more death and destruction, but my issue is that we don't see any grimy details or gore befitting such a scenario of literal war like Naruto. I get that it's a kids comic, but it's so dumb to make your setting so dark if you won't commit to the setting itself, Sonic in the early issues is more of a comedy than an actual story about child soldiers fighting a war for most of their lives until the later issue, which, even then from what I've read, never fully get "Dark" enough to warrant its setting, JUST like MHA. Robotnik is a proper comic villain, someone who's so evil that he even hates music and flowers, so there's no sympathy for him, even in his young years.
Basically, you're correct. Horikoshi wants to make this comic something it can't be simply because of the consequences of such a setting would have on the story by default that HE wrote, but won't commit to because he wants it to be a happy, hope filled adventure (?), I'm NGL I don't even understand the message or point of MHA at all. What's it trying to say?! The dissonance between his script and his world is so unbelievably wide that I cannot get invested in a story that won't fit it's setting or world. It's like if Hitler was in My Little pony. It makes no sense.

Oh also, I'm a massive Dragon Ball fan, Vegeta had his soul redeemed by King Enma, literally the only reason was because Vegeta is so powerful that it would be dumb to send and erase his soul in hell because the threat level is so big in DB nowadays (And in the buu saga) that otherworld and other transcendent realms were being threatened by destruction so they allowed Vegeta to live so that he could protect them against villains. Though his actual character has also been redeemed, particularly in the Granolah arc.

I agree with most of what you said. Though I viewed Naruto a different way. I know Talk no Jutsu is a meme, but most of the Villains in Naruto were victims of circumstance. A lot of them weren't really evil, they were just trying to do what they thought was best for the world. They all grew up as child soldiers or victims of war, since Naruto was made to be an Anti-war piece of media, it perfectly shows how soldiers are groomed and manipulated by those in higher powers, a parallel to our own world. I think this quote from Grand Theft Auto 4 sums it up well, where the protagonist, Niko Bellic, was a Serbian child soldier who was betrayed by his own people: "War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other". Madara wanted peace and a world where people could be happy, even if it was just an illusion. Sure forcing that onto people isn't good, but he had good intentions and wasn't really trying to hurt anyone. Madara groomed Obito, who would groom the Akatsuki. In the end, could you really call people who wanted to make the world a better place "evil"?. I think that moral ambiguity is what makes Naruto so special, and is a reason why the TNJ works in that. Because it's not the fighting that stops people, it's the words of reason. They've been fighting all their lives and each time they fight against the opposite side further proves to them that their way is right because in their eyes they are the good guys. It's not until someone tries to talk to them, a non-combative method that doesn't prove them right because they aren't being treated as the bad guys, that they begin to see reason. Naruto is a world full of child soldiers and adult soldiers who are expected to die in battle and kill themselves when captured. Nobody tries talking until Naruto does, so no wonder it's so effective. So while they may have done a lot of messed up things, I can't really blame them because that's just how that world works. Heck, the "good guys" in Naruto have done a hell of a load of killing and messed up things too, barely anyone in that story is on the "good" side until the 4th war. So I don't see why we should use our own real world societal morals for a world that operates differently like Naruto does, I find it unfair. In Naruto, the behind the scenes manipulation worked because of the way the world works, in MHA, it doesn't. Naruto had foreshadowing, MHA doesn't. I'm not trying to be a nerd, that's just how I viewed the manga. The anime will be different because of censorship though so idk.

Boring

Oh, I completely forgot about those characters... Imagine giving development to your bloated character list, that'd make them actually important!!!

I.... I'm not sure how to feel about this. On one hand, I absolutely despise that Shigaraki didn't fall into the abyss by himself, because it cheapens the emotional impact. On the other, I do like stories that have been planned since the start, but this has had no foreshadowing I'm pretty sure, so it seems like a retcon.

I like that Deku lost his arms, but we all fucking know he's gonna get them back. Not only because in the incredibly smart and totally not tension ridding flashforward to when Deku is the "greatest hero in the world" he's fine, and because Horikoshi can't fucking kill off or maim characters permanently (at least he can't kill off enough since most people should be dead in this war!!), but because we all know that some shit ass convenient quirk is gonna heal him up or replace his arms. Just like it will Bakugo's heart, and Jiro's ear, remember that? The tiniest fucking injury from battling the world's most powerful man with a billion quirks as a 16 year old girl??!?!?.

God this manga makes me angry. Fucking consequences NEED to exist or there is ZERO TENSION OR STAKES. I know everybody will live, I know anybody injured will be right as rain tomorrow, I know the world ravaged by war where the heroes are universally hated by the citizens who are forced to live in bunkers protected by the few heroes who haven't retired as well as literal inexperienced children and the murdering brutal villains rule the world will be completely fixed tomorrow and a statue of Deku will be erected in his honour. Because this manga taught me that I don't need to worry about anything, because everything will be conveniently okay because Horikoshi can't write any stakes, tension or consequence in his beautiful looking but horribly written manga.
Cover is dope tho, I do praise what's praiseworthy.

https://i.postimg.cc/K8cRYrfN/i.png
I finally get to use that meme lol. Anyway, I'm happy for you if things are going well. Wishing you the best!

https://i.postimg.cc/nzpKtnDj/i.png

Peak fiction.
Peak dicktion?