There it is the fourth installment of one of the most successful battle shounen of the recent years. 4 seasons and 2 movies in the spawn of 4 years is no joke. Hero Academia had the charm of being simple and for that I respected it. I used to be a fanboy for the first 3 seasons thinking it was one of the best recent shounen peaking at Stains arc and delivering a great sendoff with AFO vs OFA and after season 3 ended I came to realize that it wasnt as good as I initially thought but I still respected it for its simplicity. It wasnt until Season 4 came that everything fell apart and I started to realize how the small issues that were present before started to mass draining the enjoyment and love I once had with this series. You see theres nothing wrong on aiming for something different the problem is that many things that Season 4 introduced were introduced way too late and/or felt like a spit to the face. Suddenly the simplicity I praised on this anime vanished and every detail on the plot started to be spoon fed to you as if you were mentally ill to the point is obnoxious. I understand the point of adding flashbacks and monologues thats important when it comes to the manga because manga lacks animation so its understandable that they add the thought process of the characters and what are they thinking on certain scenarios however when it comes to anime you can rely more on show dont tell instead of relying on monologues and flashbacks to explain whats happening. We can see whats happening we know what the characters are thinking by looking at their reaction theres no need to keep showing the same flashbacks over and over again. You may debate whether or not the audience that this anime is aiming for needs it or not but I refuse to think that teenagers need to be constantly told what a character is thinking to understand whats happening. Nighteyes flashbacks were exhausted to the point it was obvious what was going to happen because if you remember Deku is the one narrating his own story so we know as a fact that hes going to succeed no matter what. All emotional weight Nighteye couldve had is thrown to the drain by this fact. His quirk should have been only movement prediction rather than future sight. The only way that couldve worked were if Nighteyes future sight wasnt put on Deku but rather on another character that doesnt have plot armor and could actually had the risk of dying like Mirio for example. Now that I talk about it remember when I said that this season felt like a spit to the face? Mirio is part of this problem not because I hate him or anything but because its crystal clear that he should have been the main character since day one it shadows Deku in every way and his quirk while it doesnt rely on random power ups is the best when it comes to skills its a matter of seeing how bravely Mirio fought against Overhaul. This isnt just about Mirio Gentle while I hated him for being a shitty excuse of a villain still had a better and understandable background story than Daddy Issues Shigaraki if Gentle were a Day 1 villain I probably wouldnt have hated him. Sadly just like Stain Mirio and Gentle are just disposable plot devices for Deku. This season also fell on the same mistakes many battle shounen do specially recent battle shounen and its the poor power balance these series have. I once praised the creativity behind quirks and how I thought it was a great power system boy I was wrong. It felt in the same problem Re:Creators had theres barely any control to it it was never properly explained and because of that broken and overpowered quirks is a thing. Lets take Hunter x Hunter for example its power system is very open and wide but its restricted to the user and its type and achieving incredible powers has a lot of consequences its only through long long training that Gon and Killua were capable of improving a lot without random power ups not a single character in HxH felt broken and/or over powered with no reason. Ever since AFO vs OFA Hero Academia kept adding over powered stuff for the fun of it. Dekus fight against Overhaul was extremely insulting as it was a battle of insane powers rather of skills: Overhaul transforming himself into a giant while Deku had a battery on his back that was able to restore him making him able to use his powers to the max without breaking his bones. It was just a flashy fight of insane powers clashing with each other with absolutely no value at all Bones then relies on adding cheap audiovisual value in an attempt to make this fight memorable but backfires as the whole fight isnt even tense at all specially since we know Deku succeeds. All the budget should have gone towards Mirios fight rather than Deku. There is this short middle arc for the ones who failed the license exam which is one of the most ridiculous things Ive seen when it comes to power balance can someone explain me how the heck does some kids have full control of crazy abbilities and better thought process than heroes in training? Another big problem of this season is that it keeps introducing more and more and more characters which if done right shouldnt be a problem however we already have a large cast of characters which not even half of them are relevant and arent really fleshed out properly yet this anime introduces way more characters shadowing those that were already established and even if they get their spotlight it arrives way too late. If we had a smaller cast this couldve worked way better that way characters wouldnt be left out and development would feel rewarding. Giving several characters a tiny bit of development each time the story feels like remembering them isnt a good way to develop or even try to add depth to a character. There is a good chunk of characters that doesnt add ANYTHING to the plot and makes me think how the likes of Mineta or the Invisible girl approved the hero test while someone like Gentle didnt. It just doesnt make sense and its heavily contrived in favor of shitty comic relief and wasted potential. Talking about Comedy while it is a very subjective topic making a joke by explicitly making a character point it out ISNT BY ANY MEANS FUNNY it actually ruins the visual joke which are all lame and repetitive anyway. Recent battle shounen comedy heavily relies on doing silly faces and very predictable jokes that are often out of place. The only thing left out to talk about is the animation which took a massive downgrade of still frames that were already happening since Season 3. I know there was a movie in the making but thats not excuse for doing a power point presentation. The scene Im talking about is Mirios fight which entirely consisted on still frames specially the quirkless Mirio part. Many people excuses this by saying that all they got in the manga was a black panel of Deku Narrating what happened but thats not an excuse. David Production did a 1 minute lenght of 4 small manga panels for Vento Aureo so why couldnt Bones do it? If only this anime had stuck to its main simplicity instead of aiming for a more ambitious approach things couldve gone better what I got in return was a disjointed ambitious project filled with plot holes plot devices conveniences wasted potential for ideas that couldve worked since day one and many other small issues that made this season a complete disappointment.