My Hero Academia: The Modern Romanticism
By Madison Jackson and Benjamin Keller
My Hero Academia is the story of Izuku Midoriya, a boy who is trying to become the world’s greatest hero in a world full of heroes. But you might wonder from reading the title: “What does a Japanese cartoon about super powered teenagers screaming and crying have to with Romanticism?” Well I’m glad I’m pretending you asked!
To understand how an anime is related to the Romantic movement, we will first have to take a look at what Romanticism really is. Romanticism was a literary movement that began in the late 18th century that showed emphasis on the imagination, individuality, nature, and creating meaning through strong emotions. This movement included many renowned authors such as John Keats, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, and Mary Shelley. The works of these authors as well as the works of many others defined the Romantic Era.
However, since Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often considered to be the pinnacle of Romantic novels, we shall use it as our frame of reference. By analyzing the aspects of Frankenstein that make it so essential to the Romantic movement, we can begin to see the relationship develop between My Hero Academia and Romanticism.
Frankenstein is the story of Victor My-Last-Name-Is-The-Title-Of-The-Book. He is an ego-maniacal would be doctor who, aiming to create life, accidentally creates a monster instead. Long story short, lots of people die at the hands of the unloved monster. This novel embodies Romanticism in many key ways. Imagination plays a key role in Frankenstein. This is what allows Victor to design the monster in the beginning. The novel also has a focus on individuality. The monster has a strong sense of individuality that comes from his identity as a misunderstood and unloved monster. Frankenstein, like all Romantic novels, has a great focus on emotions. This can be seen in the excruciating misery of both the monster and Victor himself. When exploring the novel, we see that Frankenstein is the manifestation of Romanticism in every aspect.
Frankenstein has been rightly hailed as the quintessential big ‘R’ Romantic novel of all time, consider how the ideas in this early 19th Century classic: strong emotion, imagination, individuality, and sublime beauty are related to the most awarded anime of 2017.
“Wait! Strong emotion? Imagination? Individuality? Beautiful?” That’s My Hero Academia to a T! Each of these ideas are core elements in Anime, especially My Hero Academia. If we compare the central ideas of Frankenstein to My Hero Academia we can quickly see how it is undoubtedly a work of Romanticism.
Romanticism emphasized intense emotion as an authentic source of experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as apprehension, horror, terror, and awe. In both Frankenstein and My Hero Academia: characters are completely driven by their emotions. They draw meaning from their passions. The passion, drive, and emotional decisions of the characters propel the plot forward even more than the intellectual ones. Victor Frankenstein works so hard to create his monster that he becomes emaciated. He does not do this out of a sense of duty to the scientific community but out of the sociopathic drive to be worshiped. Due to this obsession his whole life crumbles around him. The rest of his life he is utterly controlled by the memory of his monster. On the other hand, Midoriya is constantly running into danger to save others. He constantly endangers himself and breaks his body out of the sense of unconditional hospitality. It was this altruism that sent him to his rescue attempt of Bakugou from a huge slime monster (no, that is not a euphemism for a politician). From this action the rest of the story unfolds. However, it’s not just the protagonists: even the side characters are driven primarily by their unbridled passions. Henry Clerval, best friend and narrative foil to Victor Frankenstein, is obsessed with things of the romantic realm such as the arts and literature. Bakugou (the main rival of Midoriya) has an unquenchable, rage-induced thirst for victory. His barbaric tendencies and sheer force of will rocket him (literally) over any challenge.
But in both Frankenstein and My Hero Academia the characters don’t want to succeed for the sake of succeeding. They want to be the best at what they do to show and exert their independence and will. In MHA, the show preaches that only those who are willing to reach further than all others will succeed; that they must “Go beyond- PLUS ULTRA!” as the show’s catchphrase goes. As for Frankenstein, he seeks to destroy the barrier of life and death itself, saying: “No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through…” (Shelley Ch.4) The profound emotions are the key force in driving the characters that create meaning in these stories.
Romanticism was also categorized by its emphasis on individuality. Because individuality is one of they key identifiers of Romanticism, Frankenstein, a prime example of Romantic work, contains a clear element of it. This can best be seen in Frankenstein’s monster. He is essentially forced into individuality. To begin with, he is the only one of his kind. He is rejected by his creator and alone in the world. This launches him into a journey of self-discovery. He learns how to care for himself and then how to care for others through with the secret assistance of the deLacey family. He also teaches himself to speak and read by observation. The monster even discovers how he came to be by reading Frankenstein’s journal. Through all of these things, he develops a very strong sense of identity and who he is as an individual. Though it is not what he ultimately desires, he is independent and self-reliant.
In My Hero Academia, the core idea is strength of the individual. In a world where everyone is super, the ones who truly strive are the ones who give it their all. Even the friends of Class 1A are constantly trying to one-up each other to be number 1. Striving for anything less is treated like giving up and is frowned upon as such. This is epitomized in the conclusion of the climactic battle between the characters Bakugou and Todoroki. After Bakugou defeats his opponent and wins a tournament, he realizes that he only won because Todoroki did not give his 100%. Once he realizes this, he is enraged and tries to refuse the winning spot. His quest to rise atop the rest of society will mean nothing if he is not beating them at their best. The power of the individual rising above all: it is paramount in My Hero Academia.
Now I know there may be a few readers out there that already know that you can’t talk about Romanticism without touching on the sublime. Well if you are, CONGRATULATIONS! I too remember Mrs. Farkas’s 11th grade English class!
The sublime is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. (Yes, that is a lot of pretty words.) The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation. Mary Shelley’s book, Frankenstein, used long eloquent paragraphs and genius word choice to describe the subliminal beauty of a landscape or Victor looking upon his creation in either absolute awe or sublime disgust.
A flash of lightning illuminated the object, and discovered its shape plainly to me; its gigantic stature, and the deformity of its aspect more hideous than belongs to humanity, instantly informed me that it was the wretch, the filthy daemon, to whom I had given life. (Shelley ch. 7)
In My Hero Academia the sublime can be portrayed with a few key notes of music, the movement of the animation, or the howl of a character in combat. When the iconic score of You Say Run swells, the animation becomes more fluid and detailed, and the hero All Might delivers his seminal monologue, the final blow comes and the audience is left in a state of speechless awe, captivated by the artistic compilation of this subliminal beauty that only anime can provide.
Furthermore, the Romantic movement was not solely a literary movement. Another important aspect of the Romantic movement is visual art. The works associated with the Romantic movement often encompassed the grand, epic, and emotional nature of… well, nature and power of the individual. The Romantic Movement often included works from artists like: Theodore Gericault, Joseph Mallord William Turner, and most pertinent to this article Caspar David Friedrich, and Henry Fuseli, with their works of Wanderer above the Sea of Fog and The Nightmare respectively.
These works of art are synonymous with the romantic movement. The Nightmare, a painting that Mary Shelley was very familiar with, is, according to Anne K. Mellor, the inspiration for one of the scenes in Frankenstein. This association between Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein shows one of the reasons for this piece’s inclusion in the Romantic movement. From the piece itself we can also see reason for its inclusion with its deep emotion of lust portrayed in the image. The emotions portrayed in this image and Frankenstein’s attachment to it exemplify its inclusion in the Romantic arts.
The Wanderer above the Sea and Fog is arguably the most iconic Romantic artwork of the whole movement. Its grandiose positioning of its figure over a vast landscape boasts both the epicness of nature and the ambitions of man to climb atop it — to understand it. It invokes the feeling of overwhelming grandeur, even accomplishment.
In the 3rd episode of My Hero Academia, there is a shot of Midoriya standing on top of tower of trash, roaring in victory. This visage pays homage to Caspar David Friedrich’s most famous work, only here the grandeur is purely Midoriya’s emotional triumph.
My Hero Academia, being an anime, captures all of the mediums of a modern day show. The painters of old only had static (but beautiful) visuals to make their point but now directors can use an eloquent dance of music, vocals, dialogue, flowing animation, etc. to create that grand epic feeling that Romantic painters could only dream of. Director Kenji Nagasaki is a master in choreographing fight scenes that blend all said attributes to create heart pounding, emotional, thrilling scenes that border on the sublime in their execution. This aspect of Romantic visual arts in a modern medium demonstrates yet another reason that My Hero Academia is a Romantic work.
My Hero Academia contains elements of emotional meaning, imagination, individuality, and even invokes the sublime through the visual and auditory arts — the key elements that we use to characterize a work as Romantic. However, these aspects do not pertain to My Hero Academia alone, but to almost all of anime as a genre. However AGAIN, part of the definition of Romanticism requires that its works be written in the 18th or 19th centuries. Therefore, My Hero Academia cannot be considered a true Romantic work. However EVEN MORE, because anime so completely encompasses all these same ideas, one could easily say that My Hero Academia and anime as a whole as the Modern Romanticism.
Now, remember all those ideas: the heightened emotions that create meaning, the strength of the individual, tenacious imagination, and the powerful visuals invoking the sublime. Keep them in mind as you watch this final clip from the very first episode:
