My Hero Academia's Villain Academia Arc Empowered its Foes

Few series are bold enough to have an entire arc where the villains are cast in the role of protagonist, but My Hero Academia managed to pull it off in an incredibly exciting way. The arc was definitely a risk, as Japanese fans had indicated that they didn't much care for a focus on the villains, but the resulting arc is up there with the series' best.

The Villain Academia arc of My Hero Academia focuses on Shigaraki and the League of Villains, as Shigaraki prepares to really step up and take All for One's place as the symbol of fear and destruction. While it's not really "training" in a conventional sense, the arc is in effect a training arc, in that half the League manages to develop or enhance their powers in a major way. It also puts an interesting conflict at center stage by pitting the largely aimless League against the ideologically motivated Meta Liberation Army, giving two very different types of villains.

Unfortunately, relatively few of these new villains will get to have much impact on the story.

The Villain Academia Arc Gives My Hero's Villains Depth

The My Villain Academia arc is absolutely critical in establishing the villains as anything other than destructive forces. Up to this point, Shigaraki has been a fairly flat character; he wants to destroy, and he hates All Might, but there's no real reason why given. It's clear that he was raised to be this way by All for One, but that alone isn't a character motivation, especially when Shigaraki and All for One's relationship can be rather strained. Many of the other league members are in the same boat, so an arc focusing on these characters and providing them a measure of depth was a fantastic idea.

Shigaraki's development is particularly important, as we get flashbacks to his childhood and explanation as to his start of darkness. Shigaraki's situation is a tragic one, as his Quirk manifests spontaneously, causing him to kill first his dog, then his sister, and mother, all by accident, but finally striking out on purpose with the intent of killing his father. Given his treatment by his father, it's almost understandable that a child might make such a move.

Toga and Twice are similarly given a chance to reveal their origins and how that's impacted their characters. For Toga, it showcases how a certain Quirk can shape one's personality; Toga's Quirk has to do with blood, so she became obsessed with blood so she could use it more often. Twice's origin reveals how he came to have a fractured personality, and in the opposite of Toga, explains why he doesn't like to use his Quirk on himself. All of these origins add a level of depth and complexity to the characters that they were previously lacking, making it possible to even want to root for them in this arc.

Of course, the introduction of an entirely new faction of villains is a major element of this arc, and it helps to explain how the League of Villains so rapidly becomes a nationwide threat. As an ideologically driven group, the Meta Liberation Army is very interesting; of course there would be people arguing for the free use of Quirks, and in some ways it mirrors the controversies over mutants in Marvel's X-Men. With a wealthy and charismatic leader, it's understandable how the group was able to get established, and his ties back to the history of Quirks make Re-Destro a perfect villain.

Unfortunately, while the Meta Liberation Army ends up joining forces with the League of Villains, many of the newly introduced characters are immediately put to the side and aren't really used much after this. Several of the villains are arrested in the wake of the Paranormal Liberation War, the very next arc, meaning they get almost no screentime or development. The only one of the Meta Liberation Army characters who receives a long-term role in the series is Skeptic, who manages to make it all the way to the final battle, but he's not really a combatant to start with.

There's certainly more that could've been done here; some friction between the members of the League and the MLA after joining forces, for example, would've been more than warranted, given they were just trying to kill each other only a few days earlier. Instead the transfer of power is exceptionally peaceful for two villain groups, and everyone just goes along with Shigaraki as their new leader. However, it is known that the arcs focusing on villains (like the Forest Training Camp arc) performed poorly sales-wise in Japan, and it seems like this arc may have been cut short as a result.

My Villain Academia is an Exciting Challenge for the Series' Villains

Despite the unrealized potential that the arc had, what fans did get is an incredibly exciting series of battles that pushed the villains to their limits, causing them to improve in ways that usually only heroes get to do. It added a lot of depth to the main villains, like Shigaraki and Toga, by revealing their pasts and motivations, which was much needed for those characters to become more than flat, unchanging enemies.

The My Villain Academia arc also sets the stage perfectly for what is arguably the best arc in the entire series, the Paranormal Liberation War. While it may not have been appreciated in Japan at the time, this arc is chock-full of great character moments and amazing action scenes, and enriches the story in a way that makes everything which comes after it better. In retrospect, the My Villain Academia arc is an incredibly important turning point for My Hero Academia's villains, and both an enjoyable and crucial part of the story.