For #WorldMentalHealthDay2022, my geek and weeb energy was channeled Plus Ultra-ly.
I have solely believed that My Hero Academia is more than your normal superhero stories with kickass powers or amazingly drawn stories.
Of all Shounen Jump Manga that I have read during my 25 years of breathing and living my wholesome weeb life, I always find myself returning back to reading My Hero Academia.
SO! It’s my 25th birthday last month and it’s also World Mental Health Day! Thus, please allow me to indulge you in the series that returned on air on October 1st for its sixth season.
I picked this manga when I was in High School, around 2015 due to the influence of a longtime friend, and was immersed in the story quickly. If you haven’t been friends with me long enough to hear me rant nor picked it up yourself, here’s the brief story of My Hero Academia.
My Hero Academia (Japanese: 僕のヒーローアカデミア, Boku no Hero Academia) is a story set in a world where superpowers (called “Quirks”) have become commonplace. Naturally, so does superheroes and supervillains alike.
The main story follows Izuku Midoriya (Deku), a boy who was born without a Quirk but still dreams of becoming a superhero himself. He is later scouted by All Might, Japan’s greatest hero, who bestows his Quirk to Deku after recognizing his potential.
Deku later enrolls in a prestigious high school for superheroes in training.
As of October 2022, My Hero Academia has garnered around 22 story arcs, 6 seasons of anime, 370ish manga chapters, and 3 independent movies; a crazy feat when you realize that it’s only an 8-year-old manga.
If you haven’t read it, maybe once you skimmed it, you thought you were going to get stories about how a boy who against all odds, became the greatest hero; which is all true.
This time, I however want to focus on how My Hero Academia taught me about the three things that we sometimes find ourselves struggle throughout our life:
Hope, Perseverance, and Forgiveness.
An Ode to Hope
One of the reasons I love My Hero Academia is because of the world-building. But then again, I have always loved stories with great world-building that can suck me into the world immensely and make it seem so believable, like Fullmetal Alchemist or Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint did.
In a world where superheroes and supervillains are normal, you have this chaotic world that depends on Superheroes to protect everyone; along the way, Bystander Effect is everywhere because they can depend on heroes to save the day.
In this story, we have All Might, Japan’s (or even the World’s) Mightiest Hero; whose motto is “Don’t you worry again! Why? Because I am Here!”
And I love him. So much.
All Might was known as The Symbol of Peace in the world. He is the Hope, The Pillar, and the Sense of Security of the world. He is the “face” of keeping safe everyone, especially in Japan.
He is also super strong, and always enters saving the day with this huge smile on his face. You can see it here in this video which inspired Deku himself to be a superhero himself.
As the story progressed, I myself began to feel how amazing All Might is as the character that is portrayed as the number one hero too! Because I myself feel inspired and this overwhelming sense of hope emitting from this 2D character also. This finally brings me to the question that has been at the back of my mind:
Why do we like stories about heroes anyway?
A researcher from Richmond University, Dr. Scott T. Allison explained why we like heroes so much and I will underline around three reasons that I think are relevant to this essay.
- They invoke emotional elevation.
This elevation emotion makes you feel warm and somewhat expanded. Try to remember when you watch any Marvel superheroes or whenever you read stories about simple acts about heroes. Those stories emitted a huge sense of security and a sense of admiration for a beautiful act from a human being.
- They can heal a psychic wound
Whenever we hear stories or witness stories about heroes that are currently happening in front of our eyes, it has the power to calm the mind. It is later circled to the fact that heroic stories or people make us feel safe and secure.
- They inspire us to change our lives for the better
At the same time, we sometimes experience the feeling that heroes can also show us how to change our lives for the better.
For example, Spider-man stories tell us that great power comes with great responsibility and that the best use of power is used to help others. Or we can use All Might’s motto to save people with a huge smile on his face while yelling “PLUS ULTRA!”. In my experience, it inspires me to thrive better as a person, a normal one, as well.
I believe All Might is portrayed as the hero who provided a sense of security for everyone and as a sense of hope. When Kamino Arc happened and he was on the brink of defeat, you can tell that it all seemed that hope was lost. But he never wavered. All Might knew his position, responsibility, and his power to the world.
In the age where people are overly dependent on heroes, in this manga, to save the day, All Might acknowledge the burden that followed as the Symbol of Peace. He knew that if he lost or gave up, the world would definitely LOSE their sense of security.
And as human beings, we hated that. (I myself hate that)
Feeling safe and secure means having a sense of control over yourself and the environment. Exploring, discovering, and challenging your boundaries can be really fun, and can help you get to know who you are. However, a sense of security is something that we can slowly build again through adaptation.
Just like when the characters began adapting to navigate in a world where All Might is no more. After the Kamino arc where the characters are forced to adapt despite the looming villain threat, they slowly braved themselves to hope for a better future. Because once we feel secure and have a sense of control over our surroundings, that is where we begin to learn how to hope.
And I believe being able to hope despite the uncertainty is a wonderful thing.
An Ode to Perseverance
Perseverance has been the beating heart of Shounen Jump Manga, it is one of the reasons I somehow adapted this mindset in my daily life. Where sometimes, it could be a bit unhealthy because sometimes, hard work does lie.
However, My Hero Academia reminded me, most of the time, why persevering can give you a reward. Even though your hard work didn’t come through, you learned things that may be beneficial for your future endeavor.
The main character, Deku, helped me to internalize the importance of persevering.
Deku wasn’t born with the quirk that he had, Deku’s power was earned.
When things were earned, you feel like you deserved the power and when you feel deserved, you feel prouder of what you have achieved so far. Sure, you struggle for a while with the impostor syndrome-ish that came with the power that you earned.
In fact, Deku did too. Even though, he really deserves the power that he inherited. He risked his own life to save someone for God's sakes when other Heroes could only stand by and watch.
And during the course of perseverance, you might fail. And That’s okay.
Deku failed several times before he succeeded. In order to master one of his key skills, Full Cowl, Deku had to break several of his bones and was sent to ER (or his school clinic) more than five times.
My Hero Academia for me is an ode to perseverance because we witnessed how these characters’ blood, sweat, and tears came to be. One of my favorite characters is a small child named Eri.
Eri was abused, literally killed, and resurrected for her quirk. Eri even had trouble trusting the Heroes, including Deku, which is why they dedicated the first 13 episodes of Season 4 to rescue her. After she was rescued even, Eri even couldn't bring herself to smile and forgot how to (Which Was Pure Heartbreaking For Me).
And in the most wholesome yet anime-way, it took a whole school festival and class band performance who worked hard, persevering, to make her smile and laugh so bubbly at the end.
Every time I was stressed out and wondered whether persevering was worth my time, My Hero Academia always gave me a kind reminder.
Persevering was always worth it, even though it didn’t maybe bring the numbers that I hoped. Or the results that I wished for. Or maybe just focusing on how much I grew by choosing to persevere, it never failed to warm my heart.
Like the motto, “Go Further Beyond, PLUS ULTRA!” right?
Of course, there are times, realistically speaking, when we need to choose to back out and not persevere. And for me, that’s okay too. Because in the end, we are the only ones who know what’s best for us. If the best thing for us is to hold on and persevere, do it.
However, if the best thing for us is to step down and aim differently, then do it as well.
An Ode to Forgiveness
Lastly, My Hero Academia reminded me of the importance of relearning yourself, owning up to your past mistakes, and the concept of forgiveness itself. And I am sorry for spoilers territory but I am going to talk about:
Endeavor’s and Bakugo’ Katsuki’s Arc.
We’ll start with this man whose body is literally covered with flames, shall we?
Meet Endeavor.
Endeavor was the notorious Number Two Hero in the My Hero Academia world. He was a very strong hero and full of ambition. He had been longing to be the number one but All Might was always on his way. He spent years training himself on his special quirk, Eternal Flame.
However, Endeavor is one hell of a shitty father.
He was the father of one of the protagonists as well, Todoroki Shouto. Throughout the story, we learn how Shouto was a child that was born to be bred as the next number one hero by Endeavor himself.
Endeavor was ruthless towards Todoroki and his own family. Endeavor abused Shouto, and ruthlessly trained him until he vomited his stomach out when he was a toddler. He even abused his own wife and caused her to throw Shouto, her own son, a kettle full of hot water, permanently injuring his left side; before eventually sending her to a psychiatric ward.
His other three children were abused as well. His eldest one even died at a fairly young age because all he wanted was Endeavor to pay attention to him before ended up killing himself in a forest fire. His second son resented him for what Endeavor did to his older brother, and his only daughter had trouble making her dream family a reality.
It was until Endeavor finally became the Number One hero that he realized, it wasn’t such a grand place that he once thought it to be. After he almost lost his life during a close battle, Endeavor’s thoughts kept shifting to his family.
In season 5, Endeavor was later shown to try making amends with his family. He began showing up to dinner arranged by his daughter. He began to send his wife flowers in the hospital. Endeavor also tried to express his eagerness to spend time with his children so that he could taste the food that they made.
In short, Endeavor’s willingness to make amends became a very messy experience for him and for his family.
Because here’s the thing about making amends and forgiveness, you cannot make people that you have wronged, in Endeavor’s case, abused, just forgive you.
Before I explain more about forgiveness and the theories (aka me psychology-geeking out), the second one is Bakugo Katsuki’s Arc.
Bakugo Katsuki didn’t show up as a likable character either.
In episode 1, Bakugo was shown bullying Deku, mocking him because Deku didn’t have any powers, wrecking Deku’s books, and even telling him to end his own life.
It was after he and Deku entered U.A High that Bakugo slowly stopped bullying him (he still yelled mean things to Deku) but as Deku grew up to be more confident, Deku began to slowly fight back against Bakugo’s bullying as well.
Bakugo has trouble acknowledging that the guy who used to follow him around and he used to bully as well, is slowly becoming equal or even stronger than him. As someone who was used to being praised and had lackeys following him around, I would sense that the feeling of inferiority that cultivates is not something that a 15-year-old would like to have.
It took Bakugo 3 seasons to finally accept Deku as his equal (after they fought and were suspended by school), thus creating this friendly bantering and rivalry that the two of them had.
In addition, it took Bakugo nearly 300 chapters in the manga to finally acknowledge his inferiority, address the bullying acts that he had made to Deku, and finally apologize to Deku for every mistake that he has made. Even called him “Izuku”, to emphasize his words on atonement.
This was important since Deku is the name that Bakugo made for him when they were children because Deku couldn’t do anything. Deku symbolizes when the bullying started.
In a different approach than Endeavor to his family, by this point of the manga, Deku already forgives Bakugo.
However, the process until Bakugo admitted his faults and braved himself to finally apologizes?
Long. Messy. Painful too, honestly.
Because that's forgiveness.
But let’s talk about research on forgiveness, shall we?
Forgiveness in Research
According to Enright and North, forgiving others encompasses two parts:
First, there is a willingness to abandon one’s right to resentment, negative judgment, and negative behavior toward one who acted unjustly.
Second, forgiving involves the voluntary fostering of the undeserved qualities of compassion, generosity, and sometimes even love toward the offended.
Forgiveness also can be more simply defined as a decrease in negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors toward the offender, and perhaps, over time, a gradual increase in more positive thoughts, feelings, and sometimes even behaviors toward an offender can occur.
Through that three definitions, we can highlight that the key to forgiveness is: willingness, voluntary acts, and decreasing negative emotions. As the victims most importantly, these three are stuff that is sometimes not easy to do, let alone achieve. We can't control or decide that we must forgive someone here and now. And expect that resentment, anger, sadness, and all of the negative emotions went: Poof. Gone.
Because it doesn’t work that way.
Forgiveness is a very Messy experience.
David Augsburger in his book “Caring Enough To Forgive” says:
“Forgiveness is a journey of many steps, each of which can be extremely difficult, all of which are to be taken carefully, thoughtfully, and with deep reflection”.
Research focusing on romantic partner abuse and forgiveness by Richard Cowden wrote that “deciding to forgive can trigger emotional forgiveness, however, the process of emotional forgiveness is not necessarily predicated on or a byproduct of decisional forgiveness.”
A victim can make a decision to reduce negative behavior toward a transgressor and perhaps act benevolently toward a transgressor, yet may still experience ongoing emotional unforgiveness (e.g. anger, disappointment, resentment).
However, reducing emotional unforgiveness beyond mere elimination of negative emotions may make forgiving a valued person more difficult, particularly as the victim attempts to absorb and make sense of being betrayed by a close person whom they trusted. This was shown by Shouto and his siblings towards Endeavor.
Shouto’s older brother, Natsuo, angrily told off Endeavor that he was a great hero but a terrible father, to the point that being in the same room with his own father suffocated him. And I believe Natsuo’s feelings were valid. Because sometimes being in the same room with the perpetrator of the abuse does not make you feel safe, even though it happened a long time ago.
Everyone processed their pain differently.
That’s why psychologists and mental health professionals are here to help and assist you as you process the pain and big emotions that follow. We know and acknowledge the messy and hard process that you are going to go through when you choose to forgive someone who has wronged you.
However, Suzanne Freedman and Robert D. Enright’s research about three forgiveness therapy is something that you could highlight if you are wondering to choose to forgive someone:
Results show that forgiveness is an effective way of restoring psychological health following abuse as well as increasing forgiveness toward the offender.
Yet, I would like you to also remember that:
Forgiveness is a Process.
Into The Light UK wrote this in their article about forgiveness:
Forgiveness is not about denial. Forgiveness is admitting it was that bad — that abusive. Many people think forgiveness over looks and forgets the harm done. This is not the case — we have to fully acknowledge the atrocities against us. Forgiveness is also not forgetting.
We do not “forgive and forget”.
Forgiveness is a much more complex process than many people think it is. It takes time. Getting in touch with the pain, anger, grief, and loss is all part of the process of forgiveness. All these stages are not to be rushed.
Walking towards forgiveness is a long road and some events are so traumatic you could not possibly forgive them in one go. You would take time and energy and that’s okay.
We need to process all of those complex and messy emotions slowly, at our own pace.
Sometimes we fail. Sometimes our resentment and anger get the best of us, and that's okay. We are human beings, it’s natural for us to make mistakes, even when we are trying our best to forgive.
What about Perpetrator and Forgiveness?
One of the reasons I highlighted the importance of forgiveness in My Hero Academia is how they took an angle on the offender or the perpetrator, like Endeavor and Bakugo.
A lot of article journals that I have read when researching forgiveness (yes for this article only) stated that lots of research are saturated towards victim forgiveness, and rarely focused on the perpetrator’s angle. However, in latest years, many have tried to understand the perpetrator’s angle as well.
According to Sandage and the team’s research in 2000, an inability or unwillingness to seek forgiveness can have negative consequences for a perpetrator’s reputation and relationships, leading to problems such as social isolation.
As a mental health practitioner, I have witnessed several cases and stories where people who labeled themselves as the perpetrator, tend to withdraw themselves from relationships and even society, focusing entirely on blaming themselves.
Thus, guilt came along.
Along with the awareness of their bad actions, perpetrators may experience guilt about their wrong deeds. This was exuded clearly in Endeavor and Bakugo when they realize that they have wronged people close to them. Guilt is an unpleasant emotional experience for perpetrators.
As perpetrators continue to feel guilty in their relationships, it decreases their relationship satisfaction (Overall et al., 2014) and impairs their mental health (e.g. O’Connor et al., 2002). Blaming themselves or self-blame is one of the consequences.
However, if exercised in a healthy manner, guilt may be the driving and protective factor in motivating a certain type of behavior (e.g. compensatory behavior like expressing an apology) to restore the relationship (Baumeister et al., 1994).
In conclusion, compensatory behavior is a perpetrator-driven approach aimed at reconciliation with the victim. Similarly, forgiveness involves a compromise by the victim, as well as a commitment to improving the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim (McCullough, 2001), thus signaling the victim’s conciliatory attitude and implying a resolution of the relationship crisis between the perpetrator and the victim.
Likewise, victims may also attempt to repair the relationship by expressing forgiveness to their perpetrator (Burnette et al., 2012). Both the perpetrator and the victim come to a compromise to restore their relationship.
Either way, seeking forgiveness involves any implicit or explicit attempt to communicate remorse or restitution following an acknowledged offense (Riek, 2010).
Individuals report more forgiveness-seeking behaviors when they perceive the acts that they have committed to had been more severe when they feel more responsible, experience more rumination (psychology way to say overthinking, basically), and are more committed to the relationship with the victim (Riek, 2014).
The statement that I just explored was shown quite explicitly by Deku and Bakugo’s relationship dynamics.
Though not explicitly stated, as the audience, we received a glimpse of where Deku positioned himself with Bakugo. Deku was already motivated to see himself as Bakugo’s equal since season 1, whereas it took Bakugo longer than that. This was the same when Bakugo expressed his remorse and apology to him. Deku had already forgiven him.
Endeavor himself engaged in forgiveness-seeking behaviors because he realized the grand position as a Hero that he now held. The fact that he is willing to protect the mass but failed to protect his family, in my weeb opinion, began to haunt him. This was even aggravated when Endeavor realized the pain he had caused his oldest son.
Forgiveness for the perpetrator is also a very messy experience.
As I have stated earlier, acknowledging that we may have wronged people and they suffered so much because of it is not a comfortable feeling that we can live with it. The guilt is immense and painful to process, especially when we tend to see ourselves as the sole perpetrator, thus blaming ourselves even more.
In order to acknowledge the fact that we have wronged people, it is important for us to be vulnerable with ourselves. And vulnerability is a very hard thing for us to navigate.
To be vulnerable with ourselves is even harder.
Moreover, according to Elisabeth Xie’s research, forgiveness from victims does not relieve the perpetrators’ guilt; rather, it keeps them distressed. This research suggests that rather than being forgiven by the victims, for the guilt to be alleviated, it is more important to forgive oneself. Even as perpetrators.
At the end of the day, forgiveness, both for victims and perpetrators are a process and a journey. You cannot expect yourself to forgive your abuser, offender, or perpetrator in one go. Take in the process. Focusing on the emotions that followed. And it may be hard.
But what if we cannot bring ourselves to forgive?
It‘s okay too. Remember: people process things differently and at their own pace. Thus if now, if we cannot bring ourselves to forgive people that have wronged us now, then it is better not to force it.
Nonetheless, forgiveness is a great step in order to make ourselves become more mentally healthy. We can exercise this in many ways. Remembering the reason why we choose to forgive or asking forgiveness can help.
In addition, choosing to hope that we will come to terms with it eventually according to our pace, and persevering in learning more about forgiveness might be one of the keys to bringing us peace.
So thank you My Hero Academia, for always reminding me of them.
And I hope it can serve as a reminder for you too.
So, have you picked up My Hero Academia yet?
Anyway, I originally wanted to write My Hero Academia to channel my weeb energy about All Might and the Psychology of A Hero. However, I slipped and this monster essay (which suddenly focused on forgiveness) happened lol :D
(Huge thanks to Kak Riza for being my beta-reader and reviewer ❤, who is also a licensed clinical psychologist!)
Happy World Mental Health Day 2022!
