As I get older, I begin to get a better understanding of the things I loved as child and start to see them very differently, and as a result my opinion for those things begin to change. I personally like looking back on the things of old because, I think reflecting on something you used to love can be a enriching experience and it can actually make you feel better to get the heavy feeling of uncertainty off your chest, doing this helps you see things much clearer.

Recently, a show has appeared in the anime community and it has taken up the world by storm and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. The show that is being praised worldwide and made me sit down and write a blog post about it is called, My Hero Academia.

My Hero Academia is a shonēn action series based off the manga of the same that debuted in the Spring season 2016. It is set in a world where 80% of Earth’s population has a supernatural ability known as a “Quirk”, it follows high school student Izuku Midoriya on his journey to become the world’s greatest hero under the guide of the world’s number one Hero – All Might in the hero school UA.

How to be a spiritual successor 101

MHA follows the common shonēn formula of having an underdog protagonist facing various obstacles in order to become the best of the best like nobody ever was. This is seen in series like Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball (before Saiyans were introduced), Black Clover, and so on and so forth.

My Hero Academia takes the concept and makes it somewhat fresh by having the world set where superpowers are essentially the norm; and being in a superhuman society there are rules that have to be governed in order to unsure peace and stability.



For this write up, I’m going to primarily focus and differences and similarities MHA has to another well-known shonēn series, Naruto. When it comes to comparing MHA and Naruto the 2 are nearly identical. A young boy who is treated unfairly just because he wasn’t born unlucky, is given a chance to prove the world wrong by learning to control a massive and mysterious power, in a society of super-humans, all while learning various lessons and experiences from his teachers and classmates which further gives them and the viewer an understanding of their respective world’s customs.

Yes, while the similarities are so big that to some people it can appear as blatant plagiarism. My Hero Academia feels like a more refined version of Naruto. Saying this can be quite an overstatement, but as it is currently sitting at around 157 chapters it manages to expand it’s world bit by bit with out feeling lazy. With every Quirk in the world there are rules, equipment, lifestyles that people have to follow in order to avoid spreading chaos. But as much as I’d love to talk about the world of MHA much more I should dive right in to the real meat of this essay: How to become a spiritual successor. From my understanding, I believe can pinpoint this by looking at each respective series’ tournament arcs.

Tournament Arcs for better or worse serve the purpose of pitting characters against each other through organized competitions. The competitions can be whatever the author chooses them to be, but from the point of the audience in the story it is seen as nothing more than a sport, while from the point of view of the reader/viewer it is a format of that introducing new characters and give the viewer what their personalities are like, give minor characters a day in the spotlight or to further progress and develop a previously established character. Usually in a battle shonēn anime, the most memorable moments of a series tend to appear in these types of arcs, either to amazing character revelations or fantastic visuals. And both Naruto and MHA have both of these, the latter seems to follow the aftermath much better than the former.

The 2 fights I will be focusing on here are Naruto’s match against Neji, and Midoriya’s match against Todoroki. Both of these fights seemingly have one thing in common, the struggle of being chained to your own lineage and that is present with Naruto and Midoriya’s opponents.

The Bird trapped in a cage called “Destiny” – Neji Hyūga

Neji Hyūga is a young man the hails from one of the Hidden Leaf Villages’s 4 noble clans, every member possesses the Byakūgan, a special eye that extends the users field of vision and allows them to see through solid objects.

Regarded as something of immense value in the ninja world that in order to protect it, the clan divided itself in two parts: the main household and the branch household, the latter whose members are branded with special seal by the former in order to protect the Hyūga’s secrets while also being a countermeasure to any branch member that retaliates against the main household.

The parallels between Neji and Todoroki begin to show when Neji reveals that due to the great value of the Byakugan, a political fiasco occurred many years ago this resulted in the death of a Ninja Village leader that tried to kidnap the main branches first born child. The country where the villager hailed from denied all allegations and the only way they would be satisfied was for the Hyuga clan leader to die and offer his corpse, however Neji’s father who was the clan head’s twin brother died instead.

Neji was very young when he first learned of this, and from then on he became very spiteful of the main household for he believed they have done to his father, and following that experience he began to believe that a person’s destiny is decided from the day there are born and couldn’t be changed no matter the circumstances.

Due to his skills, Neji states that his destiny was that of rare talent and in every occasion he arrogantly displays his skills to further prove his point; in fact, to an excessive degree when he vents out his frustration during his match with Hinata, whom he was nearly about to kill at the time.

But his talents would still have to be handicapped in order by the mandatory servitude of the main household. It isn’t until his eventual loss to Naruto Uzumaki and his uncle revealing the truth of what really happened at the nigh of his Father’s death that he begins to realize that destiny isn’t inescapable but rather it’s one’s destiny that makes it.

Naruto understands very well because he had to endure being orphaned at birth, ostracized by his entire village due possessing a cursed power, and ridiculed by his peers and teachers for failing the Graduation Exam. It isn’t until Naruto is set up for a crime, beating up the trickster and saving the one person that didn’t view him as a monster, that he began making his own destiny, by trying to achieve dream of becoming Hokage.

(This however is somewhat render a moot point when we discover several chapters later that Naruto was born as “Chosen One” but I digress because that topic could be discussed in another post entirely.)

From that focal point of life and onwards, Neji vowed to never lose a fight again and begins socializing and training with his friends and family, whose own dreams he became supportive of, this change in turn caused him to embrace his responsibility as a member of the branch family in order to protect his cousin, Hinata.

Denouncing your familial bonds – Shōto Todoroki

Now, Todoroki is a similar case but it’s somewhat different.

Todoroki is the youngest child of the world’s #2 hero, Endeavor. From the day he was viewed simply as Endeavor’s greatest creation. Prior to his birth, Endeavor was constantly obsessed with surpassing All Might. Convinced that he would no longer be able to surpass him, his obsession led to arrange a Quirk Marriage in order to conceive a child strong enough to surpass All Might.

About the time he was 5-years old, Endeavor began putting Shōto through a harsh training regimen due to his Half-Cold Half-Hot Quirk, the intense training sessions usually ended up bringing the young Shōto to tears while also vomiting. Shōto’s mother was the one to usually defend during this session but at times, Endeavor flat out refused to listen to her advice and would even resort to physical abuse.

Shōto was also not allowed to interact with his older siblings; and from then on he would begin despising his father along with training sessions but the one person to get him through those tough times was his mother, continuing to encourage him to be a hero. However, Shōto’s life and personality took a drastic change when his mother eventually had a breakdown from all of the domestic abuse and splashed hot water on the left side of Shōto’s face, permanently scaring him.

From then on, Shōto vowed to become a hero by only using his Ice half, feeling that if he used his flames he would be playing into his father’s plans. Similarly to Neji, Todoroki feels the need to always prove a point to others by sticking to his goal and ignoring other opinions.

His over-reliance on only the right side of his Quirk is made blatantly clear when, out of venting out some frustration, he nearly freezes Sero to death during their match and once again during his following match with Midoriya.

And once again, just like Neji, his philosophy for how to go about life, is very detrimental to his own growth potential; he is subconsciously holding himself back due to the fear of what little individuality he’ll lose should he decide to use his father’s flame fearing he’ll become just like him.

That all changes during his match with Izuku Midoriya. As Midoriya continues to break all of his fingers by using all of his power, he declares to Todoroki that he’ll never be able to do any actual damage to him if he doesn’t bring out the full power of his Quirk.

The reason Midoriya insists on goading Todoroki to use his full potential is because: Why should a person who born with a great power not use it to its full potential compared to a person who was denied a power since birth?

For better or worse, people are all likely to inherit something from their predecessors, but the one thing that can’t be inherited is the ability of choice. Midoriya and Naruto aren’t stand out characters because of their powers, but because of how they decide to use said powers. Regardless where the character’s power originates from, the character in question still has the ability to use that power to shape himself into the person he wants to be. No one phrases this idea better than the number one hero himself, All Might.

“Yes, that’s right. Children often inherit Quirks from their parents or develop similar power sets. But the most important thing to remember is that a Quirk is what you make of it regardless of your history. You decide how you use it, that’s what I mean when I say ‘I am here’ only you can decide to become a hero no one else. Take this to heart kids, you got it.” – All Might during a TV interview.

Infuriated with this declaration Todoroki continues to attack with only his Ice half and starts to experience the drawbacks, through every blow, throw every punch exchanged Todoroki starts to remember his past and tries to remember why he wanted to be a hero; and after remembering the words that his mother once told him; “You are not a prisoner of your lineage, it’s ok to use your power”. In order for him to break free of his lineage he has to do it, and while him holding back still comes off as someone trying to find his individuality, it comes off as disrespectful towards others who have no knowledge of his backstory. If people rejects the parts of who they are then they’ll never be at their best, and if people don’t make use of the tools and advantages they are given then they can never challenge themselves to do better in the future.

Writing like this and for a tournament arc no less, makes me understand why some people view My Hero Academia as a spiritual successor to Naruto, it plays around with some of the Naruto manga’s plot structures, character interactions and backstories, and refines them to have a sense of completion. This is scene from all the manga chapters I’ve read so far with scenes that show Todoroki interacting more and more with his “savior”.

One of my biggest gripes with the Naruto series as whole is that it never gave one of its most standout characters, Rock Lee, a conclusion to his character arc. And you see part of Rock Lee’s character arc in Midoriya; both in his relationship with Todoroki during the beginning of the Sports Festival and how it paralleled with Lee and Neji’s mindsets on a ninja’s capabilities, and to an extent there are even some resemblances to Rock Lee’s relationship with Gaara.

I secretly hope these parallels won’t stop for because with the amounts of potential Naruto has leftover during the years, I fully welcome a new author taking those elements and refining them to a T.