My introduction to this series was an uncertain one I originally found out about this when I was just a lone animeonly with what I had consumed of My Hero Academia being just being the first 5 seasons and while it was a cool series it wasnt anything to write home about. Then later on in life I joined a Discord server with some people I knew from AniList and met someone there who was a gigantic fan of MHA and after talking about it a lot I decided to read the rest of the MHA manga from where season 5 ended commentating my journey to this person now with the side quest of finally getting around to reading this series because it did seem interesting as soon as I caught up to the main series. Then this happened and I read the first chapters of this digitally in which it struck a cord within me and a few days later when I went to the manga shop with my friends I saw volumes of it and as such bought 12 of them and as time went on I read more and as such my opinion of this rose higher and the rest of this history And now with that out of the way here goes PLOT Set somewhere after All Mights big fight against All For One the one he has that is the reason he passes his quirk onto Deku in the main series but before Deku meets All Might being kind of what Better Call Saul is to Breaking Bad a series that doesnt at all rely on its predecessor to be good and also gives backstories and development to several ignored MHA characters including mainly how several UA teachers got in their line of work. Main plot line is kinda just like if Deku hadnt been simped on by Ochako and hadnt gotten into UA but still wanted to use his abilities to do good in the world even if it meant becoming public enemy no. 1. It follows the life of Koichi Haimawari a.k.a. The Crawler/The Hauler/The Cruller/Nice Guy and him trying his best to make ends meet and do good deeds with his frankly underwhelming movement quirk Slide and Glide which allows the user to move in any direction at roughly the speed of a bicycle if they have 3 points of contact on the surface theyre trying to propel off. One day on patrol he witnesses Kazuho Haneyama a.k.a. PopStep mainly just known as Pop preforming an illegal idol concert out in the street before the police comes and everyone runs away as to not get arrested. Later on he finds Pop being mugged in an alleyway and attempts to stop the muggers and save her which of course goes terribly wrong and while on the verge of being murdered a grumpy old man known as Knuckleduster a.k nvm thats a spoiler who beats the shit out of the muggers. After this Pop and Knuckleduster take refuge in Koichis house against his will and their teaming up and story truly begins. Like I mentioned previously this manga also serves to give backstories or just extended development to previously neglected characters in the main series. This includes giving Stain a backstory to why he became a villain giving Oboro Shirakumo the friend of Aizawa and Present Mic who is turned into Kurogiri revealed in I believe season 5 Aizawa Present Mic Midnight an extensive explanation of their childhood and explaining in detail what happened to Oboro and finally a glimpse to Mirko as a schoolgirl showing how badass she was even before the events of season 6 And one last thing because of the whole gimmick of Pop being a pop idol there is a major subplot of idol culture and every several arcs focusing on it as to make it not just pure heroic action but it is executed and flows with the story so well it shouldnt really take much away from you best bet is to just read it :shrug: CHARACTERS Furuhashi kinda just took all the character dynamics from main MHA and just removed all their flaws. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/c/c1/KoichiHaimawariVolume14.png For starters Koichi is kilometres better as a main character than Deku hes not some chosen one being carried in life by too much deus ex machina he is just some guy trying to make his way through life with development and power ups that have sensical placement much better than One For All randomly releasing a new power stronger than the last one whenever Deku is in any minor peril and as the story progresses you realise every action this man makes is perfectly in characters because he is just a kind ass motherfucker. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/1/16/PopE29886Stepcolorscheme.png Next you have Pop a very refreshing take on lead female characters in shounen as she serves a purpose to the story past as being a milestone for the main character to work up so he can finally fuck mostly shown through all the idol debacle she could fully lead this series herself and I would be all here for it. Her relationship with Koichi isnt even something it makes much sense to heavily ship they are just very close friends who can perfectly operate on their own separately and honestly Im happy this manga is underrated so people dont ship them on the level people do in main MHA. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/a/ad/KnuckledusterColoredVolume2.png Next we have Knuckleduster kinda like the equivalent of All Might in Dekus life but for Koichi. He is a lot more mysterious than the other two main characters which is why its best you limit spoilers as much as possible because all the reveals are so expertly executed. He originally starts off just as this grumpy old guy who wants to the bare minimum and while I really dont want to reveal much you will slowly begin to realise how just wrong you were. Now for side characters which this series doesnt fail in either 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/a/ab/ChristopherSkylineHeroCostume.png First you have Christopher Skyline a.k.a. Captain Celebrity who is the Number 1 Pro Hero in America at this which is confusing knowing about one of the arcs in the main series who originally just seems like a phony doing all of this for clout his name is literally celebrity for gods sake but it quickly becomes clear that this is not the case and he instead because the actual insert for All Might for this series trying in any way he can to assist Koichi and Pop as long as he can get publicity from it. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/d/d8/MakotoTsukauchiFullBody.png Next you have his assistant Makoto Tsukauchi brother of Naomasa Tsukauchi from the mains series the police detective that works with All Might funny how that works who is just always in a positive mood and manages to light up any room or situation she finds herself in when shes not busy pissing off her brother and getting in his way during cases. And to add the majority of her facial expressions are reminiscent of Noelle from Deltarune it is scarily uncanny. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/a/a8/OboroShirakumo.png Then of course we have Oboro Shirakumo who while not entirely an original character is giving more screen time than Horikoshi could ever dream of so he fits here. The entire backstory arc showing his childhood alongside Aizawa Present Mic Midnight was emotional the entire time knowing he was not going to survive. He was a very fun and interesting character with a really cool quirk idea I really wish he could be expanded upon more. Now for the villains and while I will say they are not as good as Shigaraki I really love Shigaraki possibly the best part of MHA for me they are in no way bad https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/5/5a/QueenSwarm.png The first one is a complicated case to explain because it isnt just a single person rather the villain itself is a quirk a parasitic queen bee that inhabits peoples bodies and turns them into villains and of course all the people it inhabits are people important to the plot which is honestly such an interesting concept I can only hope Horikoshi would make a similar concept just a rogue quirk without any actual owner. 150https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/8/80/Number6VillainCostume.png And then you have Number 6 a.k nvm thats a spoiler the kind of like overarching mysterious main villain who gets even slower reveals than Knuckleduster but honestly the tension as you slowly find more and more about him and follow him through his shenanigans is really great and while I do prefer Shigaraki more if this series was as long as main MHA and he had gotten the same amount of time to develop who knows what may have happened. https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/bokunoheroacademia/images/6/6b/Hizashi2COboro2CandShotajudgingNemuri27sHeroCostume.png And then finally theres preexisting characters from main MHA who got more characterization within this. This series seriously made Midnight Mirko and even one of Overhauls random lackeys who got fuck all screen time in MHA some of my favourite characters in the series because Furuhashis ability to write and Betten Courts ability to draw exhillirated their every on screen moment ten fold CONCLUSION If you cant tell by now if you actually bothered reading all that and didnt just skip to the conclusion not that I would read this all either I rank this spinoff much much higher than main My Hero Academia and if even if youre someone who hates MHA I will still wholly recommend you read this because of how it improves on everything MHA failed to do while adding more and due to it being so underrated there isnt any fucking annoying teenage fujoshis shipping all the characters. Honestly if you like anything about superhero culture or youre a fan of Love Live this series should definitely be on your list. This is the first time Ive written a review that isnt empty ramblings I posted to my account and while this will probably become a rare happening for me because Ive realised how much worse my rambling and time management gets when its all officiallike please feel free to criticise this or whatever I dont really mind nor care I just wanted to finally say I have written a proper review and what better to do it on than this