Is 'My Hero Academia' an allegory to real world police forces? Would you consider this a fair view of it?
I'll admit to not having watched the series/read the materials, but from what I understand it's about a group of individuals who receive training and equipment quirks/superpowers which allow them to serve society in extraordinary ways; essentially Heroes in the classic sense. or community protectors
Except at some point after these quirks started appearing organizations showed up to organize and privatize the very nature of what it means to be a 'Hero'.
A few 'villains' of the show such as Stain or Lady Nagant point out the corrupt and authoritarian nature of this organization, often going out of their way to take down individual cops 'Professional Heroes' who seem to do the job only for glory and money or to expose previously secret actions by said organization such as assassinations and cover-ups.
Having not watched the show or read the source materials, I can't help but feel the show is basically an anime cop show with some self-introspection.
Let me know what I have wrong or if I'm a completely ignorant fool on the topic.
Posted Jul 20, 2021, 2:45 AM UTC
That's true, but the same can be said of any superhero grouping since the Justice League - or even since the rise of Batman. Even if the author has a sympathetic view of the police and the current order, it is inevitable that its authoritarian aspects come to light under a minimally critical eye. Alan Moore, with Watchmen, just needed to shift the emphasis a little bit to make it obvious to everyone.
(or Concrete Revolutio, by Seiji Mizushima, Shō Aikawa, Gen Urobuchi and others, who do something like Watchmen using superheroes from the Japanese tradition)