i think my favorite thing about Tiger is that he wears the exact same frilly catgirl dress as the rest of his teammates. i can't imagine the rest of the team would force that on him, so it must be by his own choice, and that implies some things to me. we don't know when exactly he transitioned but the way the manga blurb is phrased makes me think he was already an adult when he did, so my read on it is that the Pussycats started off as an all-girl team with matching color-coded outfits, and then Tiger transitioned, and instead of switching to a more masculine costume, he chose to keep wearing this one to preserve the group aesthetic. and that plays into the thing about passing privilege as well - he passes very well so he can be confident that when people see him and see the costume they'll just think "oh, he's in a dress to match the rest of the team, it's just part of their gimmick" and not "oh, that person is in a dress, must be a woman." As a trans guy who has achieved a point of passing privilege myself, that thinking makes perfect sense to me. if you know you'll pass no matter what you're wearing, then you can dress however you want without having to weigh the risks of getting misgendered or being clocked as trans. conversely, Magne's choice to continue presenting more masculine feels like a result of her not having that same privilege. She's at that early point of transition where you're still mostly closeted except for a trusted group of close friends, and she knows that if she were to try presenting as a woman to the general public, she wouldn't pass. she'd be seen as a 'man in a dress' and risk putting a target on her back for transphobia and hate. so she'd rather just avoid drawing attention to herself, minimize interactions with the public, and stick to the group of friends who will treat her like a woman no matter how she looks. Tiger and Magne both dress in a way that's closer to their AGAB than their current gender identity, but Tiger does it out of confidence and Magne does it as camouflage.
I remember a few people on Tumblr complaining about how Magne was mocking trans people because she isn’t very “feminine.” But personally I always thought she was great representation considering her backstory so I’m glad you mentioned it because not a lot of people talk about it
@@luan28martins4 I think that had more to do with her being a very secondary character among the league of villains. Though I agree her death was a bit out of the blue and mostly for dramatics, Horikoshi has made very clear who are really the main characters of the league. I mean Tomura is important for obvious reasons, Dabi has been also very relevant because of his importante in later arco and overall his importance to the plot, and toga appear more or sometimes has more relevance because she is of the protagonists age and has more relationship with Deku or Uraraka even if it is just obsession. I'd argue Twice is somewhere in between, probably because his development was important because hawks killing him was a major event so it had to feel important. Other than that, Compress, Spinner, and others, including Magne, haven't had as much development because, well, let's just say Horikoshi is good at design and creative in the other aspects too, but his execution is not perfect. It is not ideal, but she got her vengeance. I don't think Horikoshi killed her because she was a trans character, considering toga is sort of bisexual and is relatively alright, and magne had been mentioned as trans early on. Towards her character it was a bit of a brute death though
@@unlimon6382 but the fact she's a side character also tells a lot about the type of "representation" we're getting here. Authors usually fear making minority groups main characters because the attention they receive main creat a far more intense reaction of the conservative audience. Also, Toga bisexuality is easier to the toxic otaku to accept, since it is heavily coded. Also, bisexual women are very sexualized by straight men, at the point where it is a trope on it's own. It's no surprise there's a lot of stuff with her in the fandom. Magne, however, is seeing very different, with the broad shoulders and constitution.
It's so rare to see trans women in antagonistic roles that aren't just look at that scary trans girl, and it makes sense why magne joins the league of villains instead of just trans people bad. It's also great to see a non-feminine trans women because some of us don't fit that traditional feminine way. While I do wish that she wasn't immediately killed, this is certainly better than what most of hollywood and disney have done recently.
Considering Disney has given us The Owl House, which has multiple on screen same gender couples and an openly nonbinary character I'd say you're wrong.
@@ravenfrancis1476 you need to take a reading comprehension class, they said "most of hollywood and disney" you being able to list a single show proves their point
@@phaeste Not really. In fact it kinda proves the opposite. If i can easily debunk the argument by listing off a single show I'm not going to get into the weeds here.
@@ravenfrancis1476 disney also cancelled the owl house after the queer stuff was introduced just saying, and with stuff like gravity falls the queer elements had to be hidden until the show was ending anyway
Tbh the villains allways made me feel more bad Like they where rejected by society for things they couldnt chose Himiko was FORCED into being "normal" and her quirk was viewed as "villanous" like its implied that her quirk makes her naturally drawn towards blood, and her stain and Shinso all have "villainous quirks", what makes her backstory more sad is she is a CHILD, she is literally 2 years older than class 1-a Twice wasn't sure if he was himself any more and basically couldnt live without his costume on Dabi's quirk just dosent work with his body Magne was rejected for being trans Spinner was rejected for being a lizard Basically they where shunned from society for things out of their control
Yeah and when you see shigaraki’s backstory in mha your like wow with proper care he would just not be a villain . It’s just that the only hand who reached out to him happened to be the lord of evil .
worse when you realize that the story is just "maintaining the status quo" Horikoshi likes to think his characters are critiquing and fixing the government they live in. When in reality they are just reinforcing what's wrong about society in the first place and whoever hits Hardee by the end of the day wins the argument
I’m so glad that someone else is mentioning this, Magne not passing is one of the reasons I love her. As a trans kid in the closet I don’t pass, I can’t pass. So seeing a trans person who doesn’t pass makes me feel seen. Horikoshi never meant for Magne to have this connotation, he never meant for her and Tiger to be such huge foils but they are and I love how that happened. Also, Magne’s death could also be seen in as the trope of killing off the powerhouse in order to make the new villain more powerful. It still hurts that she’s dead I still like that it’s there. I love how both the trans characters are the muscle of their respected groups.
Seeing people mourn Magne and having the new villain misgender them shows that this stuck a cord with viewers. I honestly think this seems like good representation. It's saddening, sure, but I think it's almost poetic. As someone who does not like the manga all that much, this is one of those things that peaked my interest again.
@@ravenfrancis1476 An objectively bad character did this, like so bad that literally all the other villains got pissed at the guy for misgendering her. Yes she shouldn't have died but the show makes it very clear that misgendering was fucking bad
@@phaeste The fact it was a bad character that did it is irrelevant. We don't need to kill off trans rep to establish how bad a cis villain us or how close she was to the other cis villains. Also, the only people in the series to explicitly voice out against misgendering are characters the story also frames as dangerous criminals. Nobody in 1A reacted when Aizawa lumped Tiger in with the 'ladies', so in MHA the only people explicitly confirmed to be trans affirming are a cartoonishly evil blood obsessed serial killer, a guy who's defining trait is his mental instability, and their villainous organization of murderers and supervillains.
My main problem with Magne's portrayal in the series is the fact that she looks how I feel. Like, exactly how I feel. I look in the mirror, I see this. I'm being represented more honestly than I'm comfortable with!
I remember when twice corrected overhaul toga said 'dont make that mistake again'. it meant so much to me. Like it doesnt matter who u are or whatever u should be able to have respect and treat people right. I think some of the major villians have the big flaw of 'tragic backstory but they are actualllyy crazzzyyyy' like overhaul is poor boy who twisted his gratitude into greed and LITERALLY TORTURES CHILDREN?. But characters like twice, toga and magne all had much more compelling stories that to me cast them less like villians and more like people. I deffo feel that the author its trying to say a lot within the story but is somewhat confined by the medium and genre. It has its flaws but im glad it tries. I do think its shit that they killed magne off though like why? She didnt need to die there it was purely to show off overhaul as a real threat. Which could have been done another way or they could have reconstructed her as part of their 'partnership'.
narrative wise they should of killed Spinner. Magna contributes more narratively and was a bigger fan favorite. She is a strategist and after her death the League is just reactive.
to be fair overhaul is an example that not every villain is has a symapthetic motive and some of them are JUST assholes, and is immeiately set up as the League's foe as well as one to the heroes. Is kinda why THE LEAGUE are the ones who finish him off. but yeah MHA is great but it has so many issues like a LOT of admittedly good media has.
MHA has its positives and downsides. I noticed it's been incredibly progressive when showing trans characters and humanizing villains and explaining why they are the way they are. But Horikoshi also tends to kill characters quickly when they can no longer contribute to the narrative in an immediate way or if their story could become potentially uncomfortable for the audience, especially female characters. Eg. Stars n Stripes, Midnight, and Magne. I really hope that if Hori writes another series he takes his time with it, maybe a biweekly release schedule because it's obvious a weekly schedule is taking a toll on his health and writing abilities.
If I remember correctly, Magne was killed off because she had become enough of a fan favourite that it would actually mean something to people if she was killed, as the only people in the League with real connections to the main plot are Shigaraki, Dabi, and Kurogiri. Don't quote me on that, though, it's just what I heard.
@@diegomonsterenergy862 I don't really think a show where the only prominent trans character to not get treated like a man in dress joke gets violently exploded and then misgendered can properly really be described as progressive.
The thing about Magne is that she falls into the same issues that pretty much all the other female characters fall into in MHA. She's a complex character with an interesting backstory and intriguing personality. There were a lot of cool things a creator can do with this character. However, all of her potential gets wasted and she gets killed early on in the story. Just when she's about to get interesting. The exact same thing happens to other female characters. Take Ochako for example. She's a cool character with an interesting power and intriguing backstory. Her reasons for becoming a hero are selfish on the surface but very selfless when you dig deeper. Her relationship with her family is heartwarming and she has some awesome moments. Her potential also gets completely wasted and she becomes nothing more than the girl who has a crush on the MC. Just found these parallels to be sad. Shonen anime unfortunately DOES have a lot of great female characters... but they always get tossed aside or turned into love interests for the benefit for male characters. You can argue that Magne is used as a plot device to show how evil Overhaul is. It really sucks.
I mean, in Shoujo manga men only exist to fight over the female mc. Shoujo men have two “personalities”. Boy 1: “grrr I hate you but I love you” Boy 2: “hey, I’m boring childhood friend and will always love you”
@@BlackSheepNara I’m not really sure what type of Shoujo you’ve been watching but there’s a lot of Shoujo with very well written male characters. Not to mention that there are FAR more Shonen than Shoujo. Plus, Shonen tends to be far more popular as well. Sure there is the occasional anime with barely any male characters, but Shoujo tends to treat both male and female characters well.
Just know that Ochako is not just a character who likes the MC, sure she does but that’s not what defines her. She took toga down and that ended up saving so many people in the manga. The whole love thing with her and deku is actually really sweet and makes for a good parallel with how toga and Ochako define love for someone.
I mean overhaul killed and revived a child over and over again without a second thought, him not caring about magne's identity is in character, remember this is the same person who put the person they supposedly care so much about in a coma because he didn't want to torture a child
It makes sense for the character, but the issue is more that the story was written like that all, like why not simply not have that scene playout that way? how about you don't kill one of the only trans characters in the show incredibly brutally and have them misgendered afterwards?
@@goten339 yeah I definitely get it, but unlike what some fans seem to think overhaul is supposed to be an evil sociopath with no care for others, so him doing the misgendering isn't a problem to me since it's coming from an evil person who doesn't value other lives, and besides her companions even correct overhaul on that so they do point out that overhaul was being disrespectful and seem to side with magne's companions, still I do get killing the only trans character is in bad taste and I don't agree with that however I think an evil person can disrespect someone's identity so long as it's a character you're supposed to hate and doesn't get redeemed since the only people who will be siding with overhaul disrespecting a dead person's identity are simps who will justify child torture or people who are actually evil themselves
@@ravenfrancis1476 why not both though, the issue seems to be that magne died so if they just didn't do that or had her come back in some way then overhaul being disrespectful wouldn't matter as much since I think we should at least acknowledge that the show isn't on the side of chisaki there given how magne's allies correct him after he misgenders her
Do not worry. The motivations of the villains will be explored in S5. Also FYI, MHA S4 actually introduced a villain with a tragic reason for being a villain and Deku struggle to fight him because he relates to him.
with the direction the manga has gone i think its gotten worse to be honest its moved in to super hero deconstruction terrirtory which is so tired and cliche
@@ladyaceina It is not that bad man. Just because something is cliche does not make it bad or boring. It us all in execution and so far, I think the execution has been good. If you do not like it, read something else.
Overhaul, the misgendering villain who kills Magne, is truly a horrible villain who tortures a little girl who has a rewind quirk. He gets attacked by the leader of the League of Villains and loses his ability to use his quirk. So there are consequences to transphobia in MHA.
@@ravenfrancis1476 a trans character dying does not make a story transphobic, a trans character being poorly written does and neither magne nor tiger are poorly written characters Trans characters should be just as suseptable to death as any other character, they shouldn't have trans plot armor, that's ridiculous and would rob all their scenes of any tension Magne is not the only character or the only member of the league of villains to die, MHA doesn't kill off exclusively trans people, if it did then that WOULD BE transphobic but it doesnt so that's not even worth discussing
@@sighberspook2021 Yes, killing off trans characters is transphobic, especially if you only have two of them before you start killing them off. They should not be just as susceptible to death, that defeats the point of representation.
I do think that the series deserves just a bit more credit for its awareness, if not of passing privilege then at least of Japan's transphobic society. Tiger had to fly to another country to get his surgery because he couldn't get it in Japan, did so without telling anybody beforehand, and was afraid that the other Pussycats, who he had been close friends with for years, would reject him when he came out. Even with his decent amount of wealth and his team's status as THE most popular of all heroes who aren't directly fighting villains, he still thought transitioning was a major risk for himself.
i totally feel the being shunned for not passing well. i don’t pass that well, but i try my best. in pe class, i use the men’s locker room (i’m transmasc), but i always feel like i’m not actually welcome in there. nobody ever talks to me, if everyone’s having a conversation and i try to join it and make a joke or whatnot, everyone just goes silent or ignores me. i always just feel like a girl who accidentally walked into the wrong locker room, and it’s just so shitty.
I’m hoping that MHA will take the idea of the villains all having tragic backstories and make the heroes of the world begin to realize that these people aren’t necessarily evil, and the world really does need to change.
@@luan28martins4 if the creator does not want to put more LGBT characters then there will be no more, it is his work and no one else should interfere in his work
I think it's important to address the the ftm trans character embraces his femininity he literally wears makeup and a skirt for his job showing that yes trans mascs can be masculine and feminine at the same time same with magne despite her being masculine her loved ones still view her as a women because she is a women who just can't pursue her medical transition because of her wealth background. It also normalises that being a trans women means you can have facial hair it doesn't mean you're any less women. I love magnes quirk because it works based on gender identity not the person's biological sex which is great it also doesn't work on herself which shuts down a lot of the "well if she used her quirk on herself it would show she's male" which is simply false since it's based on gender identity as explained in the manga
FYI, Tiger actually does reference being a trans man in the anime. .at least in the dubbed version and also its a very quick mention. I only caught it on my third watch. I'm honestly just super excited to see someone talking abt this coz I was really just glad to see trans characters in one of my fave shows.
@@ferael0013at least in the wiki, they say he went to Thailand, famous for its trans people and the origin of the "Lady boy" meme. Essentially, Thailand is where people often go to get gender affirming surgeries
The whole point about Tiger's superpower allowing him to change his appearance is wrong. It gives him superhuman flexibility, allowing him to stretch and flatten his body at will.
It's not weird, it's just realistic and sad. Still, a justified reason doesn't wash away your crime once you've chosen to act as a villain. As for your comment on MHA trying to make poor/lower class people look villainous is completely not true about what the show is trying to do. The show is actually trying to show the systematic evil/injustice of the whole society through those seemingly unfair but realistic examples. I strongly recommend you to give the original manga a try and then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you are an anime-only, at least maybe check out the latest season (s5) where you will see the "justification" for villains, and Magne's realistic setting isn't an accident. Also, a slight spoiler, her death isn't dealt with very lightly, which even has an impact in the latest arc involving another LoV member.
Yeah, I've noticed the show is pretty woke when it comes to class and money and corruption. I mean, this is the show that has a villain named Stain that is all about killing heroes that do it for money. There is a lot of criticism on capitalism if you pay attention.
@@oku12 Stain is an interesting case in that his overall view is that heroes should be heroes for the sake of heroism itself, rather than profit. the point resonates with both heroes AND villains because, well, it's a very valid one but he's also COMEPLETLY INSANE. He views the world in a very black and white viewpoint to the point where when one of his would-be targets actually took his view to heart and changed for the better he had a complete meltdown over it.
"No, no, it's okay the only trans character in the show whos not Tiger dies violently and gets misgendered after getting killed!" I've read the manga. It doesn't at all address any of the problems with Magne's death.
not only that, but trying to frame them joining the league because it's the only group that will accept them is completely dishonest. they join the league because they believe in Stain's values
As rough as Big Sis Magne's death is, I think that a part of this was also that they wanted to show that the League are a family, like. Himiko, and the rest of the league WRECK that bastards shit because he *dared* hurt one of their own. They take his arms, they take his quirk, to leave him to watch as they take the role he wanted. They're criminals, but they choose the label because *fuck* said society. I feel like the end goal of this show is to show the villains while going about their plans and Doing their bad things, they might have a few points, and that the heroes need to change if they're to do better. Idk I like the series a lot, I feel like it does well where a LOT of anime fails.
Nah, if they wanted to communicate that they shouldn't have robbed us of trans representation. Spinner or Compress would've been much better options to kill off.
The series has a bad case of Brad Bird storytelling where the villains will get to make a lot of good points about the failings of society and how they plan to change things so that people like them or the world at large can be better off, but in lieu of offering a real rebuttal to any of this or pointing out the flaws in their motives or goals, the heroes just kind of yell, "It's wrong to kill people!" and then kick the shit out of or possibly kill them.
@@tobsonasanya4765 I know plenty of police officers who like helping people, but they aren't changing the broken system they work within. Find me a time any of the heroes suggested any better solution and then did anything with that.
@@alexdoesthings2875 he is still a child lol. I am pretty sure the future generation would change things hopefully. And to be honest society can never be fixed
Watching this makes me want to read Magne fanfics and see how other people represent her and her issues since the show and manga doesn’t really go into it much 🥺
I can't believe I missed this. I saw indications about Magne but I didn't realise that Chiasaki misgendered them. Did the Netflix subtitles screw that up?
I feel like we're actually going there, to My Hero Academia talking about how the world isn't just black and white, isn't just heroes and villains, slowly but steady. It has been hinted at ever since the Stain arc that maybe the villains are who they are because of how society treats people who are different. A lot of the villains have "villainous" quirks, or quirks they can't really control properly, like Shigaraki who accidentally killed his family when his quirk first manifested, or Toga whose parents thought of her as a maniac and scolded her for not having a normal quirk (she's drawn to drinking blood) which led to her keeping it inside her until she couldn't stop herself any more and drank blood from a dying classmate. Also, heteromorphs in general have a harder time, like for example Tsuyu's bestie (who looks like a snake), and Spinner (who looks like a lizard). And now in one of the latest chapters of the manga (SPOILER WARNING!) the very big deer-like woman says that she was going from shelter to shelter, but none of them wanted to take in a heteromorph until she came to UA (which has a heteromorph, Nezu, as their principal). So, to me, it feels like they're building up to show us that villains just try to survive in an environment that's very harsh against them. Though a bunch of them do kill, a lot of heroes kill too, and we've seen in the manga that when heroes kill it's swept under the rug.
The MHA world has just as homogenous a society as Japan, so I'm not suprised the struggled Magne had compared to Tiger, since Tiger decided to be a hero so he would have had more access to resources that Magne did not.
Tbh off topic but I feel like mha needs more poor people who arent villains, like the only 2, yes TWO confirmed poor people are Ochako and Mt.Lady (Ochakos family is basically broke and she barely eats any food to save money and Mt.Lady basically became a hero to get money, but in turn she has to pay for the damage she causes, and repeat, she is in a cycle) Also I think that Magne should have lived, like she was done so dirty, also I hate how most of the lgbtq characters are villains Magne- Trans woman Himiko- She has both a crush on Ochako and Deku, so she is probably Bi or Pan, or Poly, etc Dabi- He gives me huge bi vibes as well but idk *I mean only Magne is confirmed but Toga and Dabi just give me vibes
True, The representation for a hero who's getting into it to earn money is somebody whose parents own a contracting business but don't have enough to go on vacation to Hawaii.
there could have been an interesting conversation in the manga that Hero society would prefer or would only help those who wish to seek medical or mental health. And in the regards of Magne we see that she isn't accepted in society, possibly because she doesn't pass. It isn't made clear whether or not she wanted surgery. But I'd wager that in Horikoshi's mind or in the story hw wrote; Magne was not accepted because she didn't have pass privilege. You hit it on the nail that Horikoshi hints at this class divide but doesn't go deeper, and to me it seems like Horikoshi doesn't really grasp the idea of a class struggle and how it effects everything
okay im not trying to offensive in any way these are just my thoughts on some of the things mentioned in the video: i agreed with most the things you said, but it wouldnt make sense to just make the villians all mentally stable or accepted or completely accepted by society. These are the things that drive them into villiany. I think it was unfair and stupid to finally show the background of magne and then just kill her off, but i think they did show transphobia and trans representation in an accurate way. Toga, Twice, and the others corrected people who misgendered magne multiple times, but they didnt seem to care and continued misgendering her, and then killed her; but this is why the villians betrayed chisaki, aka the asshole who killled magne. They made it clear they wanted revenge for this. I also think it was cool that they showed that magne wasnt wealthy and didnt have access to surgeries and hormones etc, and "didnt pass" to most people, while tiger did have access to all this and was accepted a lot more, i think it was an interesting comparison. Also not all the heroes come from extremely wealthy backgrounds, for example, uraraka is becoming a hero purely just to make money for her family, as they never really had a lot of money. Great video tho i really enjoyed it and you brought up some really imporant stuff!
Havent watch the show, so I am not sure about this, but "These are the things that drive them into villiany" is a really big trope, isnt it? I mean - most people doing lot of bad stuff have a lot of power in the real world, or not? Like droppic an atomic bomb, genocide native people, etc. I mean... villans in hero stories are almost always portraied as outsiders and that in it self feels like a dangerous trope for me. Not to mention the "people are crazy / mental ill" trope that makes people feel more uncomfortable when they meat people with so called disabillities, which also feels really unfair and weird to me. Just a thought I wanted to ad.
The show presents two types of villains: those who want power and/or cause pain for pain's sake, and those who due a situation or event in their lives are driven into villainy either for revenge, acceptance, or because they want to change the system that did I'll with them. Likewise there are heroes who are only there for the money and fame, and those who genuinely want to help, and sometimes they come as a mixed bunch, so sometimes is hard to which is which at first glance. I think this is as much of a reflection of today's society as the lives of Tiger and Magne are of the treatment of trans people.
I think that was great that they did that showing her background and then killing her off, it made you care about her and then suddenly kill her off adding to a gut punch and making the revenge the villains seek out for her more poignant
As a trans woman, to be able to pass, I need to wear big breast prosthetics and a covid mask at all time outside, otherwise not a single person would respect it. The stupid stubles that simply doesn't want to away, HRT who doesn't do shit and my stupid bodyshape just fucking ruins me every single day... The only way I feel less like shit is thanks to bodybuilding women who are respected as women despite the fact that they are buff. Bring me hope for myself...
Tbf with the whole magne dying right after getting confirmed thing that's pretty common with straight cis characters in anime too. If a side character in a shonen gets a large chunk of an episode dedicated to them they're probably about to die.
I'm pretty sure 13 was confirmed to be trans too because when they got a face reveal they also got a character page that explicitly stated that they don't identify as a man or a woman
It makes me so sad that they killed Magne off so soon. Like, in many, many fanfictions are really great depictions of Magne. So many of the other villains like Twice got their backstories and then got killed, but atleast he got development! Her wiki page literally had almost nothing about her personality, because she only appeared a handful of times.
This is MHA's biggest strength and weakness. The idea that the super big villainous organization is in reality just a close knit group of marginalized people is fascinating. And the few glimpses we get into this perspective are great. Force us to think. Where this falls flat is that the writer doesn't seem to want us to think about it too much. Despite how important these issues are to forming these villains, none of it gives any of the heroes much pause. Even the heroes who want to help dont really do anything to criticize or fight back against these flaws in their society. They aren't willing to sacrifice their status quo. It doesn't help matters that the main villain, AFO, is so cartoonishly evil that he distracts from any potential nuance the moment he enters a story.
The last half of season 5, a.k.a, My Villain Academia will give you more details about the villains backstories and will actually help you sympathize and understand them. It's also highly reguarded as one of the best arcs in My Hero Academia. It's a shame that Magne died too soon so they can't really explore her background but I suspect that Horikoshi didn't feel like he would able to write a trans character properly so instead of half-assing it he just killed her off.
I was waiting for somebody to talk about this! I was really bummed that Magne didn’t get more development, and it’s the main reason I didn’t continue with the anime / manga.
If thats realy your main reason than i am happy to not have you in the community. Its just ja stupid reason to stop a show because a side Charakter didnt get any development, if you didnt like the show thats ok but if its truely mainly because of this then good luck getting through life.
@@zike9343 Zike, your whole comment was unnecessary. Anyone can stop watching something if they don't like it. I don't understand what's 'stupid' about it? If my favorite character in an anime died, and that character was literally my only reason for watching the anime, would I not have every right to stop watching the show? Stop acting like it's ground breaking or world ending to stop doing something if you won't like it.
There are so many themes My Hero Academia has largely failed to follow through on that it's ridiculous. It set up discussions around class, race, trans issues, sexism, trauma, abuse, especially abuse by people in power or institutionally supported abuse, and disability so well and then totally dropped them for "heroes good even if they do bad things, villains bad even if they literally had no choice in the matter or if they have super valid points or were literally being slowly killed by the system actually."
The insanity of a lot of these arguments boils down to the projection of self rejection. Calling them mentally ill knowingly, then trying to excuse their behavior because they represent a disgusting mindset you agree with. It's like these people are self aware and just reject it. You can do better bro. God Bless.
Dang. A bit too soon for this video. It gets so much deeper on a lot of these topics (besides the trans stuff) and how the people with power controls what is considered good or bad.
Im suprised this mainstream story has such an interesting thing to say about the way trans people are treated, and using trans people as a way to illustrate the problems of this world. Im suprised the cat guy is a trans man, because were so used to trans women being protrayed as odviously amab and clockable. This just fills me with a lot of hope for future trans rep. Ik the larger audience probably didnt notice the trans rep, but the fact it is canon and talked about in the show is incredible, and it might even effect some cis fans thoughts about trans people.
MHA has a lot of good but it DOES have a lot of "signalling towards spicy and interesting and then backpedalling on it" so it's mixed feelings for sure. The entirety of Stain, for example, was bringing to fore this question about the idea of heroism within that world and how that was troublesome for everyone... dropped. Then later on the show signals toward questioning the whole idea and structure of having this one messiah in the figure of All Might and how that might not be so great... and then we just forget about it, let's go back to watching Deku become the new All Might anyway.... I liked how the people in Villain League were so angry at Magne getting misgendered. It was actually the part of the show where I realised "oh this IS what's going on. I see". Kind of a missed opportunity considering what her quirk was (she could "magnetise" people with the polarity determined by their gender), that never got explored in any way Currently I'm excited for next season but REAL WORRIED about what they signalled they want to do with Endeavor by the end where they just go all the way to the person most hurt by him and have them say "oh no, he's always been a good person, you know"... that's uhh.... concerning....
Manga reader here Everything you just stated will be covered and come back in season 5 an especially season 6, no spoilers but the seeds were sown and they will be reaped
Tbf I think you can't really judge a show for "dropping storylines" until the show/manga is finished. I honestly always assume that those issues/characters will come back into play, the initial events are just the foundation. I honestly prefer my storytelling this way. I don't want you to just show me the house falling down. A show that takes time to show you each crack forming one at a time and how they all build up to make the house fall down is way more interesting to me. I think MHA has earned a little good faith.
@@nbucwa6621 hmmm I'd say a yes and no kind of thing. I do think you can, yes judge from what you've seen but you're correct in that you need to remember you are in that context where more stuff will come out so it's not a final type of opinion. With MHA it has good highs but I still feel that the space it seems to want to be in and the message it wants to convey is still fairly narrow. Deku WILL become the hero we need and the world still not survive not having one. So my hopes for MHA are tempered there. Again, ready to be surprised but it does feel that every time the show comes to a place where those ideas get questioned, it backpedals immediately, which is why I'm not holding my breath here. Finally, I totally get the slow burner thing, it's part of what made Inuyasha so great. But the show needs to keep the thread alive in the background as it simmers. MHA to me feels very focused on the current big thing, possibly as a side effect of all the arcs revolving very directly around big big multi episode fights
Hi friend, looks like your Patreon link is broken. I had to remove some rubbish at the end of the link when I clicked it, and then it worked. Anyhow. Great video! As someone who has never seen the show, it was interesting taking a look at these two characters and their portrayal.
If they do the same thing She-ra did, basically showing how the League is a group of people who pretty much needed help but were ignored, and attempt to be redeemed later on near the end it would be somewhat of a way where they show that they weren't in the complete wrong. But if they do the Steven Universe take, of redeeming all the evil they did and making it as if everything they did over all that time wasn't so wrong, that would be a terrible redemption to the point where it's problematic. Honestly I hope that some of the villains like Shigaraki or Toga can be somewhat redeemed but still shown to take responsibility for their actions. My honest opinion, you may disagree, or you may agree! Idk but I sorta want to start a discussion on this.
yea, I think redemption arcs are super tricky. a lot of them fail just because of the time limits of the show, or that focusing too much on it will upset the narritive flow. the only time I've seen a villian redemption done right is in the soul eater anime with crona (there's probably more but I probably have just forgotten or have not seen them). I would like for them to redeem some of the villians because people like shigaraki really were just absolutely fucked over by society, and the fact that he's a villian arguably isn't his fault because he had an unfortunate and terrible freak accident with his quirk, was forced to walk the streets where nobody would save him due to the illusion of peace and idea of "a hero will save him" that the hero society created, and the only person willing to save him was a villian, who then groomed him and traumatized him further, forcing him to be evil and plant all these ideas in his head. i really don't see an opportunity where he could have broke out of this when all for one drilled all these evil thought in his head since he was 5. of course he is also a mass murderer who has killed so many people, and that also is nessecary to address. as much as it's not really his fault, he still took away so many lives. i feel like he and so many other villians truly deserve redemption and an actual chance to live a better life and break away from being a villian. but will society really allow that? will deku or any one else actually realize that the whole reason they have these villians us because the society they created allowed for it? and even if they do, how can the villians move foreward from a life in the shadows with all these firm ideas that were reinforced constantly. how can they address the fact that they have taken so many lives? i really want them to be given a chance, something they haven't had before, but I don't really know if the world they live in or the narrative will allow it :(
I would say that the main difference is that the villains in Steven Universe were the oppressors who literally wanted everyone to be perfect. The heroes were characters who didn't fit into their society. In SPOP, many of the villains were abused and shunned by the heroes (especially in the case of Entrapta) but this does get addressed by the end. And the big bad is essentially a cult leader who wants to make everything perfect and uniform, similarly to the Diamonds in Steven Universe. I don't think either show is executed perfectly in its themes and messages. Both of them have flaws. But what isn't perfect? They also both have strengths.
Who said the diamonds were redeemed? Steven can barely stand to be in the same room as them. Are you saying that because they're being allowed to exist because unfortunately there's nothing they can seem to do about them? The diamonds are certainly TRYING to be better, though mostly for Steven's approval and are now putting their considerable powers into helping gems, but that's the stuff you do on the path to redeeming yourself, not just after. They're not even in charge anymore.
The league gets really good in the My Villain Academia arc but considering how the anime is fucking it up I’m worried it’s not gonna be nearly as good .
thank you so much for confirming the existence of trans characters in My Hero Academia! It means a lot to have this representation be officially acknowledged, especially in a world where some people try to assign genders to characters without considering the creator’s intent or the story’s context. To me, making assumptions about a character’s identity without evidence can feel disrespectful, so having this confirmation is really validating. Representation matters, and seeing it treated with care and authenticity in this series is so appreciated. Thank you for your work!
I love My Hero Academia (it's my main hyperfixation right now) and I honestly really like both Magne and Tiger. Usually with representation, people are too scared to have queer people as villains because of the many instances with the queercoding of villains in movies and TV that are still around today, but having a trans hero and a trans villain is always something that I've found so cool. As a trans person, I'm okay with Magne not passing, since I don't always pass either and I greatly envy pliabody. I feel like the people that are concerned with trans representation that are mad at representing non-passing trans people sound (unintentionally) transphobic. I relate mostly to Deku and his struggles, but I really love the trans representation in MHA. I don't think it was accidental that Horikoshi (the author of the manga) delved a bit into this topic, a lot of what he writes seems to be intentional.
Why do you just assume that the representation/intricate dive into trans reality/passing privilege is an accident? Boku no Hero isn't a mass-produced show made by a room of executives, it's a story penned by one person, by all accounts a very smart and kind-hearted person who very much pushed a lot of boundaries that were set by the manga/anime industry (especially when it comes to shounen) back in the mid-2010s when it comes to what was traditionally allowed and encouraged to be portrayed, and continues to portray characters with very diverse and complex characteristics and societal positions to this day, coupled with some pretty good (albeit not perfect) commentary on society as a whole. I feel like it's overly dismissive to portray all that as some sort of accidental miracle.
i mean the characters dont go anywhere but i don't think it was an accident either this things are far too comoon MHA points out a lot of problems but then doesn't do anything about them or just gives an easy answer see bakugo telling izuku to kill himself, mineta sexual arrasment, the objectification of female with youyorozu and kendou, the mutant discrimination with shoji, the corrupt heroes with stain, UA entrence exams being completly focused on destroying robots etc. the series just points at problems and then kinda resolves them but not really like bakugo apologizes, mineta has"development" youyorozu get's a new teacher, shoji does whatever he did with spiner, stain gets beaten up and sent to prision, and shinso gets a second chance to join the hero class but these end up being individual solutions to problems that continue to exist and everybody just forgets about it.
as far as I'm aware the canon got a lot better and more intentional into analyzing the societal dynamics you mentioned. not in regards to trans people as far as I'm aware, but the recent plot-points feel intentional enough that Magne's situation and the discussions it opens might not have have been completely accidental
I like how they have a hero and a villain character showing how transpeople can represent everyone. Like Trans people are not evil or good, they are just humans and can happen to be either of both. That's kinda awesome although some ways the show treats both characters are kinda weird/bad, but I think a lot is supposed to be that way, since Magne is treated badly and not accepted as who she is so she becomes a villain, since the league of villains is the only group that accepts her as she is. That perceives her as she want to be perceived and refers to her as she wants to be referred to. I'd have liked it if some hero was like misgendering her and she is like bro I'm a girl and the hero is like sorry sorry, that was disrespectful of me, I'll do better now. Like to show that not all the heroes are bad in that way and that some heroes are shitty to people but some aren't or at least are but not on purpose.
Off topic, but I strongly recommend the visual novel Umineko no naku koro ni, as the topic of gender identity (and identity as a whole) is portrayed in a very interesting way there. I haven't seen many videos on the topic and I really think there is a lot of gold there.
1:47 help- I'm watching with low volume and captions and the capts said "transportation" instead of "trans representation" 😭😭 I had to rewind and double-check lmfao
Its easier to say in hindsight now with more episodes but I do think they've set up the league of villains this way to criticize these themes. That ostracizing people, stigmatizing mental health, and stomping down the poor creates these villains, and that they wouldn't be the way they are if we treated them better. We do have a few examples of people who suffer these abuses and still make it through the world as heroes, like Todoroki and Hawks, but not without a lot of suffering and hardship, and I do think despite the villains being murderers that they do try to humanize them and how they became how they are and how its the faults in our society that created these issues.
I just want to say that there is trans rep in the manga Pradise Kiss, Skip and Loafer, Our Dreams at Dusk, Last Gender, To Strip The Flesh, Boys Run The Riot (by a trans man!) and Otomen. Aya Kanno's two most well know works Otomen and Requiem of The Rose King really play with what defines gender. Otomen's main character being a cisman who hides his love of all things girly after his dad comes out as a trans woman and leaves the family. Requiem of The Rose King has an honest to God intersex main character who over the course of the story has doubts about whether he truly feels like a man.
You’ve helped me understand why, as a trans guy who doesn't pass well yet, I never really cared about Mettaton or Mad Mewmew but adore Spamton, even tho him being trans is much more an allegory than it is for the previous two. He's short, no one takes him seriously or respects him (except Kris, who is also trans), he was beloved when he was conventionally attractive but now people are put-off by him since he isn't. He has crippling body disphoria (about being a puppet), he's severely mental ill due to how he's been treated by society and is extremely poor, homeless even, and no one wants to acknowledge how badly he needs help.
You gave me a whole new perspective on these characters I was first introduced to them during my conservative teen days and I misremembered them through that lense, so I thought they weren't great rep and just poorly handled sterotypes Being reintroduced to them now as a queer person by a queer person has completely flipped my perspective and I have a new appreciation for them
Part of the reason I love MHA is that it tries to be realistic about what a hero society would look like: having a system means that privilege and power still play huge roles in who's considered a hero and who isn't. That point is made in a lot of different ways, from *ssholes who still become heroes because it's a socially acceptable way to enjoy power and violence to how sympathetic a lot of the villains are to how regulatory commissions function in the society. As a result, I really appreciate that Magne looks the way she does, because it makes perfect sense that someone without access to money and a stable place in society wouldn't be able to access gender-affirming care. And the fact that her friends still gender her correctly and respect her says a lot about what gender is and isn't, and what it means to be an ally.
For context: this video is 3 years old, but I haven't watched MHA much past the plot element's being discussed here, so my opinion isn't informed by things that happen later all that much. That being said, I highly disagree with the video. I think MHA does actually address the class divide between heroes and villains, it may not do it very well, it may still be a battle shonen with all it's usual tropes, but I do believe that it is self-aware that it's world is basically a neoliberal distopia and tries to criticize the society it portrays all the time. So I think maybe the marginalization of Magne and the contrast of privilege between her and Tiger may well be intentional, or at least partially so. THAT BEING SAID, I still feel deeply offended (as a trans person) by both representations because BOTH FEEL LIKE A JOKE. Both are more "clever" jokes than usual, they aren't "haha trans gross and funny". Tiger's joke is his quirk being body modification AND the "then he took a trip to Thailand", it just feels like a condescending in-joke type of situation. Magne's joke is more cruel, I think, and also more subtle. It's also based on her quirk: (quoting the wikia) "She could magnetize a person's entire body or specific portions. Men are polarized south, and women are polarized north. Magne couldn't magnetize herself.". She can't use her quirk on herself, so she can't "confirm" her gender with her quirk, she can't validate herself through her gender-based quirk. And I know we can also think through a "she can't because she doesn't need to!" lens, but that what we kind people from the community think. A cis man who thinks "haha trip to thailand to trans your gender" is funny does not think that way, he thinks it's comedically ironic she can't use her quirk on herself.
Agreed with most things except the poverty problem- that actually is discussed a lot and a lot of the villains hate the heroes for exactly that reason- Stain for example
Just recently started watching My Hero with a close trans friend of mine, and was honestly shocked, given the history within anime and manga, at how well it handled these two. Definitely wish we had gotten more time with Magne, and that they were more explicit in the anime in confirming Tiger being trans, but in a sea of nightmare carp this was really positive to see. I will say, i suspect that at least a portion of the representation being as good as it is, may not have been as accidental as suggested here, given the skill at portraying other interpersonal issues in a lot of other aspects of the show as time has continued to go on, though that skill does at times make me sad that they dont really ever break into the economic aspect of things more explicitly, since i suspect that it could be handled really well if they tried.
I would really love to see you cover One Piece, although its long there are a ton of queer people in it. Although two major trans characters only show up like 1000 chapters in 😂😅
A lot of Anime and video games from japan deal with the cultural concerns of japanese society, often manga artists and video game designers are sort of fringe people who have the ability to speak to the problems in society through the art they create in that very eastern cultured indirect way. it's why there is the killing god trope in JRPGs for instance.
one thing i think is a key point in hero academia is that....we kinda see that the villains are right. society ostrasizes those who are different, or who have the "wrong" quirks, and others and isolates people, leaves them with no way out and casts them as villains. then it becomes very easy for someone like All for One to come along and manipulate these people into following his agenda, because he promises to tear down the system and punish the entire society who hurt them. most of the villains are completely sympathetic and their situations could've been avoided if they got the support from society they needed, but they pushed out and marginalized instead. it doesn't feel like the show completely "villainizes" them so much as casts them as the antagonists that the heroes often need to learn from. unfortunately it's a problematic trope in superheroes where "the villain is right but goes too far" which...hero aca does fall into. but it completely makes sense why every one of these "villains" is lashing out and wants to cause harm, when they've been hurt so badly themselves. honestly i feel like society often casts activists and those who are outspoken against the status quo as villains in real life...
It's not even just that she gets murdered, she gets murdered in a more brutal way than literally anyone in the show till that point it's such a disgusting writing decision
Great vid. There's a new manga/anime called Skip and Loafer that is incredible AND has AMAZING trans representation. Check it out and hopefully you can make a video about it someday 💜 PS: The character name is Nao-chan.
i can totally get behind the arguments of magne as a pre-transition or non-transition trans woman, especially since a lot of transfem fans love her for that, but i just cant get out of my head how her other trans friend in the show was literally an unshaved man in a little girl's dress. its rooted in a specifically japanese cultural image of crossdressing men
I remember the english va for overhaul made an audio where kai actually apologizes for misgendering (and killing) magne I cant remember where it is but i think its a little funny
To me, Magne is great representation. And honestly, if you (general you, not you Lily) feel that Magne is here to paint trans people in a bad light, you don't understand the way villains are written in MHA. Season 6, released recently, really shows how every single villain of the league is designed to be sympathetic despite their villainy, as well as exploring the darker side of hero society. (Spoiler below) The death of Twice was probably more impactful than the death of Night Eye.
I don't think the way Magne is represented is accidental - it all seems pretty intentional. Its not always executed the -BEST- to be sure, constrained by genera tropes as it is, but Horikoshi is very clearly laying out the ways in which this world has failed individual people, and how letting people slip through the cracks harms society. Spoilers ahead for the most recent seasons but: This all comes to a head when the villians DO win. Society collapses, and its made incredibly clear that the heroes and the status quo they were protecting are just as much to blame for that collapse because they functionally laid the ground work and ignored the major problems of it. We're even introduced to a hero-turned-villian who was forced to do awful things in the name of upholding that societal order. The societal status quo is pretty explicitly framed as a bad thing, and now that its all collapsed at this point in the story, things are very clearly being set up to have it be built back up better, in the hands of a new generation that understands the mistakes that came before them.
To be fair the anime cuts out lot of important stuff that’s was in the manga. Don’t care much for the anime, it’s one of those things that really does better in a manga setting. A lot of gags and stuff just don’t fit in animated form.
i think my favorite thing about Tiger is that he wears the exact same frilly catgirl dress as the rest of his teammates. i can't imagine the rest of the team would force that on him, so it must be by his own choice, and that implies some things to me. we don't know when exactly he transitioned but the way the manga blurb is phrased makes me think he was already an adult when he did, so my read on it is that the Pussycats started off as an all-girl team with matching color-coded outfits, and then Tiger transitioned, and instead of switching to a more masculine costume, he chose to keep wearing this one to preserve the group aesthetic.
and that plays into the thing about passing privilege as well - he passes very well so he can be confident that when people see him and see the costume they'll just think "oh, he's in a dress to match the rest of the team, it's just part of their gimmick" and not "oh, that person is in a dress, must be a woman." As a trans guy who has achieved a point of passing privilege myself, that thinking makes perfect sense to me. if you know you'll pass no matter what you're wearing, then you can dress however you want without having to weigh the risks of getting misgendered or being clocked as trans.
conversely, Magne's choice to continue presenting more masculine feels like a result of her not having that same privilege. She's at that early point of transition where you're still mostly closeted except for a trusted group of close friends, and she knows that if she were to try presenting as a woman to the general public, she wouldn't pass. she'd be seen as a 'man in a dress' and risk putting a target on her back for transphobia and hate. so she'd rather just avoid drawing attention to herself, minimize interactions with the public, and stick to the group of friends who will treat her like a woman no matter how she looks.
Tiger and Magne both dress in a way that's closer to their AGAB than their current gender identity, but Tiger does it out of confidence and Magne does it as camouflage.
very good analysis
Yeah, I thought the same
I remember a few people on Tumblr complaining about how Magne was mocking trans people because she isn’t very “feminine.” But personally I always thought she was great representation considering her backstory so I’m glad you mentioned it because not a lot of people talk about it
I just don't like how she's immediately killed after explicitly talking about being trans.
Bruh. She literally looks like an average trans person.
@@luan28martins4 I think that had more to do with her being a very secondary character among the league of villains. Though I agree her death was a bit out of the blue and mostly for dramatics, Horikoshi has made very clear who are really the main characters of the league. I mean Tomura is important for obvious reasons, Dabi has been also very relevant because of his importante in later arco and overall his importance to the plot, and toga appear more or sometimes has more relevance because she is of the protagonists age and has more relationship with Deku or Uraraka even if it is just obsession. I'd argue Twice is somewhere in between, probably because his development was important because hawks killing him was a major event so it had to feel important. Other than that, Compress, Spinner, and others, including Magne, haven't had as much development because, well, let's just say Horikoshi is good at design and creative in the other aspects too, but his execution is not perfect.
It is not ideal, but she got her vengeance. I don't think Horikoshi killed her because she was a trans character, considering toga is sort of bisexual and is relatively alright, and magne had been mentioned as trans early on. Towards her character it was a bit of a brute death though
@@unlimon6382 but the fact she's a side character also tells a lot about the type of "representation" we're getting here. Authors usually fear making minority groups main characters because the attention they receive main creat a far more intense reaction of the conservative audience.
Also, Toga bisexuality is easier to the toxic otaku to accept, since it is heavily coded. Also, bisexual women are very sexualized by straight men, at the point where it is a trope on it's own. It's no surprise there's a lot of stuff with her in the fandom. Magne, however, is seeing very different, with the broad shoulders and constitution.
Omg I'd prefer to be a boy but I'm a girly girly person. There's nothing wrong with not acting ur preferred gender-
It's so rare to see trans women in antagonistic roles that aren't just look at that scary trans girl, and it makes sense why magne joins the league of villains instead of just trans people bad. It's also great to see a non-feminine trans women because some of us don't fit that traditional feminine way. While I do wish that she wasn't immediately killed, this is certainly better than what most of hollywood and disney have done recently.
Considering Disney has given us The Owl House, which has multiple on screen same gender couples and an openly nonbinary character I'd say you're wrong.
@@ravenfrancis1476 you need to take a reading comprehension class, they said "most of hollywood and disney" you being able to list a single show proves their point
@@phaeste Not really. In fact it kinda proves the opposite. If i can easily debunk the argument by listing off a single show I'm not going to get into the weeds here.
@@ravenfrancis1476 >**most of** hollywood and disney
@@ravenfrancis1476 disney also cancelled the owl house after the queer stuff was introduced just saying, and with stuff like gravity falls the queer elements had to be hidden until the show was ending anyway
Tbh the villains allways made me feel more bad
Like they where rejected by society for things they couldnt chose
Himiko was FORCED into being "normal" and her quirk was viewed as "villanous" like its implied that her quirk makes her naturally drawn towards blood, and her stain and Shinso all have "villainous quirks", what makes her backstory more sad is she is a CHILD, she is literally 2 years older than class 1-a
Twice wasn't sure if he was himself any more and basically couldnt live without his costume on
Dabi's quirk just dosent work with his body
Magne was rejected for being trans
Spinner was rejected for being a lizard
Basically they where shunned from society for things out of their control
Yeah and when you see shigaraki’s backstory in mha your like wow with proper care he would just not be a villain . It’s just that the only hand who reached out to him happened to be the lord of evil .
And Shiggy... he was never rescued by heroes, and was only rescued by AFO man..,
Exactlyy
2 most oppressed groups on earth: trans person, lizard
worse when you realize that the story is just "maintaining the status quo" Horikoshi likes to think his characters are critiquing and fixing the government they live in. When in reality they are just reinforcing what's wrong about society in the first place and whoever hits Hardee by the end of the day wins the argument
I’m so glad that someone else is mentioning this, Magne not passing is one of the reasons I love her. As a trans kid in the closet I don’t pass, I can’t pass. So seeing a trans person who doesn’t pass makes me feel seen. Horikoshi never meant for Magne to have this connotation, he never meant for her and Tiger to be such huge foils but they are and I love how that happened.
Also, Magne’s death could also be seen in as the trope of killing off the powerhouse in order to make the new villain more powerful. It still hurts that she’s dead I still like that it’s there. I love how both the trans characters are the muscle of their respected groups.
He's dead lmao
@@home-4074 ok?
@KIERA SHANDHIRI LIM TAO JING he*
@@home-4074 you thought you did something there?
@@user-tx9eg4tc8o saying he's dead is just a fact? He was killed by the fuckin bird guy
Seeing people mourn Magne and having the new villain misgender them shows that this stuck a cord with viewers. I honestly think this seems like good representation. It's saddening, sure, but I think it's almost poetic.
As someone who does not like the manga all that much, this is one of those things that peaked my interest again.
It is not good representation to murder us and misgender us, no.
I agree with this, and then when Magne's friends got revenge they even mentioned they were doing it in honor of her memory.
@@ravenfrancis1476 An objectively bad character did this, like so bad that literally all the other villains got pissed at the guy for misgendering her. Yes she shouldn't have died but the show makes it very clear that misgendering was fucking bad
@@phaeste The fact it was a bad character that did it is irrelevant. We don't need to kill off trans rep to establish how bad a cis villain us or how close she was to the other cis villains.
Also, the only people in the series to explicitly voice out against misgendering are characters the story also frames as dangerous criminals. Nobody in 1A reacted when Aizawa lumped Tiger in with the 'ladies', so in MHA the only people explicitly confirmed to be trans affirming are a cartoonishly evil blood obsessed serial killer, a guy who's defining trait is his mental instability, and their villainous organization of murderers and supervillains.
My main problem with Magne's portrayal in the series is the fact that she looks how I feel.
Like, exactly how I feel. I look in the mirror, I see this. I'm being represented more honestly than I'm comfortable with!
I remember when twice corrected overhaul toga said 'dont make that mistake again'. it meant so much to me. Like it doesnt matter who u are or whatever u should be able to have respect and treat people right. I think some of the major villians have the big flaw of 'tragic backstory but they are actualllyy crazzzyyyy' like overhaul is poor boy who twisted his gratitude into greed and LITERALLY TORTURES CHILDREN?. But characters like twice, toga and magne all had much more compelling stories that to me cast them less like villians and more like people.
I deffo feel that the author its trying to say a lot within the story but is somewhat confined by the medium and genre. It has its flaws but im glad it tries. I do think its shit that they killed magne off though like why? She didnt need to die there it was purely to show off overhaul as a real threat. Which could have been done another way or they could have reconstructed her as part of their 'partnership'.
narrative wise they should of killed Spinner. Magna contributes more narratively and was a bigger fan favorite. She is a strategist and after her death the League is just reactive.
to be fair overhaul is an example that not every villain is has a symapthetic motive and some of them are JUST assholes, and is immeiately set up as the League's foe as well as one to the heroes. Is kinda why THE LEAGUE are the ones who finish him off.
but yeah MHA is great but it has so many issues like a LOT of admittedly good media has.
MHA has its positives and downsides. I noticed it's been incredibly progressive when showing trans characters and humanizing villains and explaining why they are the way they are. But Horikoshi also tends to kill characters quickly when they can no longer contribute to the narrative in an immediate way or if their story could become potentially uncomfortable for the audience, especially female characters. Eg. Stars n Stripes, Midnight, and Magne.
I really hope that if Hori writes another series he takes his time with it, maybe a biweekly release schedule because it's obvious a weekly schedule is taking a toll on his health and writing abilities.
If I remember correctly, Magne was killed off because she had become enough of a fan favourite that it would actually mean something to people if she was killed, as the only people in the League with real connections to the main plot are Shigaraki, Dabi, and Kurogiri. Don't quote me on that, though, it's just what I heard.
@@diegomonsterenergy862 I don't really think a show where the only prominent trans character to not get treated like a man in dress joke gets violently exploded and then misgendered can properly really be described as progressive.
The thing about Magne is that she falls into the same issues that pretty much all the other female characters fall into in MHA. She's a complex character with an interesting backstory and intriguing personality. There were a lot of cool things a creator can do with this character. However, all of her potential gets wasted and she gets killed early on in the story. Just when she's about to get interesting.
The exact same thing happens to other female characters. Take Ochako for example. She's a cool character with an interesting power and intriguing backstory. Her reasons for becoming a hero are selfish on the surface but very selfless when you dig deeper. Her relationship with her family is heartwarming and she has some awesome moments. Her potential also gets completely wasted and she becomes nothing more than the girl who has a crush on the MC.
Just found these parallels to be sad. Shonen anime unfortunately DOES have a lot of great female characters... but they always get tossed aside or turned into love interests for the benefit for male characters. You can argue that Magne is used as a plot device to show how evil Overhaul is. It really sucks.
I mean, in Shoujo manga men only exist to fight over the female mc. Shoujo men have two “personalities”.
Boy 1: “grrr I hate you but I love you”
Boy 2: “hey, I’m boring childhood friend and will always love you”
@@BlackSheepNara I’m not really sure what type of Shoujo you’ve been watching but there’s a lot of Shoujo with very well written male characters. Not to mention that there are FAR more Shonen than Shoujo. Plus, Shonen tends to be far more popular as well. Sure there is the occasional anime with barely any male characters, but Shoujo tends to treat both male and female characters well.
@@Ash-yu2cj sounds like they're conflating female-protagonist romance with shoujo.
I guess it means that this show is sexist but not transphobic.
Just know that Ochako is not just a character who likes the MC, sure she does but that’s not what defines her. She took toga down and that ended up saving so many people in the manga. The whole love thing with her and deku is actually really sweet and makes for a good parallel with how toga and Ochako define love for someone.
I do like how the remaining “villains” are being set up as people who need to be saved and given help. It was a nice subversion, at least for me.
I mean overhaul killed and revived a child over and over again without a second thought, him not caring about magne's identity is in character, remember this is the same person who put the person they supposedly care so much about in a coma because he didn't want to torture a child
It makes sense for the character, but the issue is more that the story was written like that all, like why not simply not have that scene playout that way? how about you don't kill one of the only trans characters in the show incredibly brutally and have them misgendered afterwards?
@@goten339 yeah I definitely get it, but unlike what some fans seem to think overhaul is supposed to be an evil sociopath with no care for others, so him doing the misgendering isn't a problem to me since it's coming from an evil person who doesn't value other lives, and besides her companions even correct overhaul on that so they do point out that overhaul was being disrespectful and seem to side with magne's companions, still I do get killing the only trans character is in bad taste and I don't agree with that however I think an evil person can disrespect someone's identity so long as it's a character you're supposed to hate and doesn't get redeemed since the only people who will be siding with overhaul disrespecting a dead person's identity are simps who will justify child torture or people who are actually evil themselves
@@pandabanaan9208 Again, no. Trans representation matters more than fictional villains being consistent.
@@ravenfrancis1476 why not both though, the issue seems to be that magne died so if they just didn't do that or had her come back in some way then overhaul being disrespectful wouldn't matter as much since I think we should at least acknowledge that the show isn't on the side of chisaki there given how magne's allies correct him after he misgenders her
@@pandabanaan9208 Why do you want to see a trans character get misgendered by a story written by a cis man so badly
Do not worry. The motivations of the villains will be explored in S5. Also FYI, MHA S4 actually introduced a villain with a tragic reason for being a villain and Deku struggle to fight him because he relates to him.
with the direction the manga has gone i think its gotten worse to be honest its moved in to super hero deconstruction terrirtory which is so tired and cliche
@@ladyaceina It is not that bad man. Just because something is cliche does not make it bad or boring. It us all in execution and so far, I think the execution has been good. If you do not like it, read something else.
@@zemox2534 ok how about the fact it fridged midnight
@@ladyaceina it is a literal war arc. There is going to be death.
@@z_zenith fridging a character is never a good move as a writer
she was just killed off for shock value nothing more
I honestly cried when Magne died, she was my favorite and honestly helped me to start my transition.
Overhaul, the misgendering villain who kills Magne, is truly a horrible villain who tortures a little girl who has a rewind quirk. He gets attacked by the leader of the League of Villains and loses his ability to use his quirk. So there are consequences to transphobia in MHA.
That does not make the story itself less transphobic or any better.
@@ravenfrancis1476 a trans character dying does not make a story transphobic, a trans character being poorly written does and neither magne nor tiger are poorly written characters
Trans characters should be just as suseptable to death as any other character, they shouldn't have trans plot armor, that's ridiculous and would rob all their scenes of any tension
Magne is not the only character or the only member of the league of villains to die, MHA doesn't kill off exclusively trans people, if it did then that WOULD BE transphobic but it doesnt so that's not even worth discussing
@@sighberspook2021 Yes, killing off trans characters is transphobic, especially if you only have two of them before you start killing them off. They should not be just as susceptible to death, that defeats the point of representation.
@@ravenfrancis1476killing off zombies is necrophobic
@@s-idney Zombies are not a real world demographic who need representation.
I really wish magne had more time in the series. She seemed like such an interesting villain
I do think that the series deserves just a bit more credit for its awareness, if not of passing privilege then at least of Japan's transphobic society. Tiger had to fly to another country to get his surgery because he couldn't get it in Japan, did so without telling anybody beforehand, and was afraid that the other Pussycats, who he had been close friends with for years, would reject him when he came out. Even with his decent amount of wealth and his team's status as THE most popular of all heroes who aren't directly fighting villains, he still thought transitioning was a major risk for himself.
i totally feel the being shunned for not passing well. i don’t pass that well, but i try my best. in pe class, i use the men’s locker room (i’m transmasc), but i always feel like i’m not actually welcome in there. nobody ever talks to me, if everyone’s having a conversation and i try to join it and make a joke or whatnot, everyone just goes silent or ignores me. i always just feel like a girl who accidentally walked into the wrong locker room, and it’s just so shitty.
I’m hoping that MHA will take the idea of the villains all having tragic backstories and make the heroes of the world begin to realize that these people aren’t necessarily evil, and the world really does need to change.
Would be nice to see more LGBT characters in the hero side of the show. Like, the public don't accepting heroes for who they are
Is just that media is still lack of trans representation and yet they kill off in a fewer episode just because their trans.
No.
@@sabersin5368-c2c wouldn't you like to see trans heroes, really? Can I ask why?
@@luan28martins4bc hea transphobic and didn’t reply lmao
@@luan28martins4 if the creator does not want to put more LGBT characters then there will be no more, it is his work and no one else should interfere in his work
I think it's important to address the the ftm trans character embraces his femininity he literally wears makeup and a skirt for his job showing that yes trans mascs can be masculine and feminine at the same time same with magne despite her being masculine her loved ones still view her as a women because she is a women who just can't pursue her medical transition because of her wealth background. It also normalises that being a trans women means you can have facial hair it doesn't mean you're any less women.
I love magnes quirk because it works based on gender identity not the person's biological sex which is great it also doesn't work on herself which shuts down a lot of the "well if she used her quirk on herself it would show she's male" which is simply false since it's based on gender identity as explained in the manga
FYI, Tiger actually does reference being a trans man in the anime. .at least in the dubbed version and also its a very quick mention. I only caught it on my third watch. I'm honestly just super excited to see someone talking abt this coz I was really just glad to see trans characters in one of my fave shows.
Wait fr?did he say his trans? I'm currently watching the English dubbed version too(im at S4) and i missed that
What did he say
What did he say?
@@ferael0013at least in the wiki, they say he went to Thailand, famous for its trans people and the origin of the "Lady boy" meme.
Essentially, Thailand is where people often go to get gender affirming surgeries
@Sh12pen not relevant. I know he is trans. When does he reference that though?
magne is one of my favorite characters and it saddens me so much that we didn’t get to see more of her.
The whole point about Tiger's superpower allowing him to change his appearance is wrong. It gives him superhuman flexibility, allowing him to stretch and flatten his body at will.
It's not weird, it's just realistic and sad. Still, a justified reason doesn't wash away your crime once you've chosen to act as a villain. As for your comment on MHA trying to make poor/lower class people look villainous is completely not true about what the show is trying to do. The show is actually trying to show the systematic evil/injustice of the whole society through those seemingly unfair but realistic examples. I strongly recommend you to give the original manga a try and then you'll know what I'm talking about. If you are an anime-only, at least maybe check out the latest season (s5) where you will see the "justification" for villains, and Magne's realistic setting isn't an accident. Also, a slight spoiler, her death isn't dealt with very lightly, which even has an impact in the latest arc involving another LoV member.
:o I'm even more pumped for when s5 comes out now!!
Yeah, I've noticed the show is pretty woke when it comes to class and money and corruption. I mean, this is the show that has a villain named Stain that is all about killing heroes that do it for money. There is a lot of criticism on capitalism if you pay attention.
@@oku12 Stain is an interesting case in that his overall view is that heroes should be heroes for the sake of heroism itself, rather than profit. the point resonates with both heroes AND villains because, well, it's a very valid one but he's also COMEPLETLY INSANE. He views the world in a very black and white viewpoint to the point where when one of his would-be targets actually took his view to heart and changed for the better he had a complete meltdown over it.
"No, no, it's okay the only trans character in the show whos not Tiger dies violently and gets misgendered after getting killed!"
I've read the manga. It doesn't at all address any of the problems with Magne's death.
not only that, but trying to frame them joining the league because it's the only group that will accept them is completely dishonest. they join the league because they believe in Stain's values
As rough as Big Sis Magne's death is, I think that a part of this was also that they wanted to show that the League are a family, like. Himiko, and the rest of the league WRECK that bastards shit because he *dared* hurt one of their own. They take his arms, they take his quirk, to leave him to watch as they take the role he wanted.
They're criminals, but they choose the label because *fuck* said society.
I feel like the end goal of this show is to show the villains while going about their plans and Doing their bad things, they might have a few points, and that the heroes need to change if they're to do better.
Idk I like the series a lot, I feel like it does well where a LOT of anime fails.
Nah, if they wanted to communicate that they shouldn't have robbed us of trans representation. Spinner or Compress would've been much better options to kill off.
The series has a bad case of Brad Bird storytelling where the villains will get to make a lot of good points about the failings of society and how they plan to change things so that people like them or the world at large can be better off, but in lieu of offering a real rebuttal to any of this or pointing out the flaws in their motives or goals, the heroes just kind of yell, "It's wrong to kill people!" and then kick the shit out of or possibly kill them.
Yeah but the villains don’t have an actual good plan for society just anarchy and no heroes
@@FlyingSchweenies True. But the heroes don't have any better solution than to change nothing when change is clearly necessary.
@@alexdoesthings2875 proof?? we don'[t know that and deku likes helping people
@@tobsonasanya4765 I know plenty of police officers who like helping people, but they aren't changing the broken system they work within. Find me a time any of the heroes suggested any better solution and then did anything with that.
@@alexdoesthings2875 he is still a child lol. I am pretty sure the future generation would change things hopefully. And to be honest society can never be fixed
At least the author sees her as woman.
In a sense that she tragically dies for characer growth of a protagonist / to signify the threat of a villan
Watching this makes me want to read Magne fanfics and see how other people represent her and her issues since the show and manga doesn’t really go into it much 🥺
Im a trans guy, and everytime Magne shows up it breaks my heart. I love her.
I can't believe I missed this. I saw indications about Magne but I didn't realise that Chiasaki misgendered them.
Did the Netflix subtitles screw that up?
I don't think this show is on Netflix. The manga version makes it more clear
Netflix did de-gay Neon genesis evangelion with the subtitles (when it was a big theme) so it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
I feel like we're actually going there, to My Hero Academia talking about how the world isn't just black and white, isn't just heroes and villains, slowly but steady. It has been hinted at ever since the Stain arc that maybe the villains are who they are because of how society treats people who are different. A lot of the villains have "villainous" quirks, or quirks they can't really control properly, like Shigaraki who accidentally killed his family when his quirk first manifested, or Toga whose parents thought of her as a maniac and scolded her for not having a normal quirk (she's drawn to drinking blood) which led to her keeping it inside her until she couldn't stop herself any more and drank blood from a dying classmate. Also, heteromorphs in general have a harder time, like for example Tsuyu's bestie (who looks like a snake), and Spinner (who looks like a lizard). And now in one of the latest chapters of the manga (SPOILER WARNING!) the very big deer-like woman says that she was going from shelter to shelter, but none of them wanted to take in a heteromorph until she came to UA (which has a heteromorph, Nezu, as their principal). So, to me, it feels like they're building up to show us that villains just try to survive in an environment that's very harsh against them. Though a bunch of them do kill, a lot of heroes kill too, and we've seen in the manga that when heroes kill it's swept under the rug.
The MHA world has just as homogenous a society as Japan, so I'm not suprised the struggled Magne had compared to Tiger, since Tiger decided to be a hero so he would have had more access to resources that Magne did not.
Tbh off topic but I feel like mha needs more poor people who arent villains, like the only 2, yes TWO confirmed poor people are Ochako and Mt.Lady (Ochakos family is basically broke and she barely eats any food to save money and Mt.Lady basically became a hero to get money, but in turn she has to pay for the damage she causes, and repeat, she is in a cycle)
Also I think that Magne should have lived, like she was done so dirty, also I hate how most of the lgbtq characters are villains
Magne- Trans woman
Himiko- She has both a crush on Ochako and Deku, so she is probably Bi or Pan, or Poly, etc
Dabi- He gives me huge bi vibes as well but idk
*I mean only Magne is confirmed but Toga and Dabi just give me vibes
Toga is bi , hori confirmed it
" she swings both ways!"
The words above are hori's words when asked toga's sexuality
The tiger guy from the wild pussycats is trans
How most of the villains are lgbt?? Not really
True, The representation for a hero who's getting into it to earn money is somebody whose parents own a contracting business but don't have enough to go on vacation to Hawaii.
Analysis sounds spot on 👍
So frustrating that inclusive casting currently needs to seem unfair to be realistic 😔
there could have been an interesting conversation in the manga that Hero society would prefer or would only help those who wish to seek medical or mental health. And in the regards of Magne we see that she isn't accepted in society, possibly because she doesn't pass. It isn't made clear whether or not she wanted surgery. But I'd wager that in Horikoshi's mind or in the story hw wrote; Magne was not accepted because she didn't have pass privilege.
You hit it on the nail that Horikoshi hints at this class divide but doesn't go deeper, and to me it seems like Horikoshi doesn't really grasp the idea of a class struggle and how it effects everything
okay im not trying to offensive in any way these are just my thoughts on some of the things mentioned in the video: i agreed with most the things you said, but it wouldnt make sense to just make the villians all mentally stable or accepted or completely accepted by society. These are the things that drive them into villiany. I think it was unfair and stupid to finally show the background of magne and then just kill her off, but i think they did show transphobia and trans representation in an accurate way. Toga, Twice, and the others corrected people who misgendered magne multiple times, but they didnt seem to care and continued misgendering her, and then killed her; but this is why the villians betrayed chisaki, aka the asshole who killled magne. They made it clear they wanted revenge for this. I also think it was cool that they showed that magne wasnt wealthy and didnt have access to surgeries and hormones etc, and "didnt pass" to most people, while tiger did have access to all this and was accepted a lot more, i think it was an interesting comparison. Also not all the heroes come from extremely wealthy backgrounds, for example, uraraka is becoming a hero purely just to make money for her family, as they never really had a lot of money. Great video tho i really enjoyed it and you brought up some really imporant stuff!
Havent watch the show, so I am not sure about this, but "These are the things that drive them into villiany" is a really big trope, isnt it? I mean - most people doing lot of bad stuff have a lot of power in the real world, or not? Like droppic an atomic bomb, genocide native people, etc.
I mean... villans in hero stories are almost always portraied as outsiders and that in it self feels like a dangerous trope for me. Not to mention the "people are crazy / mental ill" trope that makes people feel more uncomfortable when they meat people with so called disabillities, which also feels really unfair and weird to me.
Just a thought I wanted to ad.
The show presents two types of villains: those who want power and/or cause pain for pain's sake, and those who due a situation or event in their lives are driven into villainy either for revenge, acceptance, or because they want to change the system that did I'll with them.
Likewise there are heroes who are only there for the money and fame, and those who genuinely want to help, and sometimes they come as a mixed bunch, so sometimes is hard to which is which at first glance.
I think this is as much of a reflection of today's society as the lives of Tiger and Magne are of the treatment of trans people.
I think that was great that they did that showing her background and then killing her off, it made you care about her and then suddenly kill her off adding to a gut punch and making the revenge the villains seek out for her more poignant
@@lampad4549 OK transphobe.
@@ravenfrancis1476 what about that is transphobic
As a trans woman, to be able to pass, I need to wear big breast prosthetics and a covid mask at all time outside, otherwise not a single person would respect it.
The stupid stubles that simply doesn't want to away, HRT who doesn't do shit and my stupid bodyshape just fucking ruins me every single day...
The only way I feel less like shit is thanks to bodybuilding women who are respected as women despite the fact that they are buff. Bring me hope for myself...
Tbf with the whole magne dying right after getting confirmed thing that's pretty common with straight cis characters in anime too. If a side character in a shonen gets a large chunk of an episode dedicated to them they're probably about to die.
I'm pretty sure 13 was confirmed to be trans too because when they got a face reveal they also got a character page that explicitly stated that they don't identify as a man or a woman
the second databook says that 13 is a woman and uses she/her
It makes me so sad that they killed Magne off so soon. Like, in many, many fanfictions are really great depictions of Magne. So many of the other villains like Twice got their backstories and then got killed, but atleast he got development! Her wiki page literally had almost nothing about her personality, because she only appeared a handful of times.
This is MHA's biggest strength and weakness. The idea that the super big villainous organization is in reality just a close knit group of marginalized people is fascinating. And the few glimpses we get into this perspective are great. Force us to think.
Where this falls flat is that the writer doesn't seem to want us to think about it too much. Despite how important these issues are to forming these villains, none of it gives any of the heroes much pause. Even the heroes who want to help dont really do anything to criticize or fight back against these flaws in their society. They aren't willing to sacrifice their status quo.
It doesn't help matters that the main villain, AFO, is so cartoonishly evil that he distracts from any potential nuance the moment he enters a story.
The last half of season 5, a.k.a, My Villain Academia will give you more details about the villains backstories and will actually help you sympathize and understand them. It's also highly reguarded as one of the best arcs in My Hero Academia. It's a shame that Magne died too soon so they can't really explore her background but I suspect that Horikoshi didn't feel like he would able to write a trans character properly so instead of half-assing it he just killed her off.
That doesn't really make it better. He could've just...done research.
I was waiting for somebody to talk about this! I was really bummed that Magne didn’t get more development, and it’s the main reason I didn’t continue with the anime / manga.
If thats realy your main reason than i am happy to not have you in the community. Its just ja stupid reason to stop a show because a side Charakter didnt get any development, if you didnt like the show thats ok but if its truely mainly because of this then good luck getting through life.
@@zike9343 Zike, your whole comment was unnecessary. Anyone can stop watching something if they don't like it. I don't understand what's 'stupid' about it? If my favorite character in an anime died, and that character was literally my only reason for watching the anime, would I not have every right to stop watching the show? Stop acting like it's ground breaking or world ending to stop doing something if you won't like it.
@@zike9343 sounds good. i'm getting along through life just fine regardless of your shitty opinion.
There are so many themes My Hero Academia has largely failed to follow through on that it's ridiculous. It set up discussions around class, race, trans issues, sexism, trauma, abuse, especially abuse by people in power or institutionally supported abuse, and disability so well and then totally dropped them for "heroes good even if they do bad things, villains bad even if they literally had no choice in the matter or if they have super valid points or were literally being slowly killed by the system actually."
The insanity of a lot of these arguments boils down to the projection of self rejection. Calling them mentally ill knowingly, then trying to excuse their behavior because they represent a disgusting mindset you agree with. It's like these people are self aware and just reject it. You can do better bro. God Bless.
You ignored the fact that the only transfem characters in the series were drawn to look like blatant transphobic stereotypes
Heroes get so much money that one of protagonist-turned-supporting-cast is literally in it for the money to support her family.
Dang. A bit too soon for this video. It gets so much deeper on a lot of these topics (besides the trans stuff) and how the people with power controls what is considered good or bad.
Im suprised this mainstream story has such an interesting thing to say about the way trans people are treated, and using trans people as a way to illustrate the problems of this world. Im suprised the cat guy is a trans man, because were so used to trans women being protrayed as odviously amab and clockable. This just fills me with a lot of hope for future trans rep. Ik the larger audience probably didnt notice the trans rep, but the fact it is canon and talked about in the show is incredible, and it might even effect some cis fans thoughts about trans people.
wow my friend here really said "MHA ignores flaws of hero society" with a straight face
It kinda does. The flaws are talked about sometimes but ultimately we're supposed to root for the hero society
My respect for the league of villains: 📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈📈
MHA has a lot of good but it DOES have a lot of "signalling towards spicy and interesting and then backpedalling on it" so it's mixed feelings for sure. The entirety of Stain, for example, was bringing to fore this question about the idea of heroism within that world and how that was troublesome for everyone... dropped.
Then later on the show signals toward questioning the whole idea and structure of having this one messiah in the figure of All Might and how that might not be so great... and then we just forget about it, let's go back to watching Deku become the new All Might anyway....
I liked how the people in Villain League were so angry at Magne getting misgendered. It was actually the part of the show where I realised "oh this IS what's going on. I see". Kind of a missed opportunity considering what her quirk was (she could "magnetise" people with the polarity determined by their gender), that never got explored in any way
Currently I'm excited for next season but REAL WORRIED about what they signalled they want to do with Endeavor by the end where they just go all the way to the person most hurt by him and have them say "oh no, he's always been a good person, you know"... that's uhh.... concerning....
Manga reader here
Everything you just stated will be covered and come back in season 5 an especially season 6, no spoilers but the seeds were sown and they will be reaped
@@snapseas803 this reply excites and scares me =3
@@VileLasagna Good, it should.
Tbf I think you can't really judge a show for "dropping storylines" until the show/manga is finished. I honestly always assume that those issues/characters will come back into play, the initial events are just the foundation. I honestly prefer my storytelling this way. I don't want you to just show me the house falling down. A show that takes time to show you each crack forming one at a time and how they all build up to make the house fall down is way more interesting to me. I think MHA has earned a little good faith.
@@nbucwa6621 hmmm I'd say a yes and no kind of thing. I do think you can, yes judge from what you've seen but you're correct in that you need to remember you are in that context where more stuff will come out so it's not a final type of opinion.
With MHA it has good highs but I still feel that the space it seems to want to be in and the message it wants to convey is still fairly narrow. Deku WILL become the hero we need and the world still not survive not having one. So my hopes for MHA are tempered there. Again, ready to be surprised but it does feel that every time the show comes to a place where those ideas get questioned, it backpedals immediately, which is why I'm not holding my breath here.
Finally, I totally get the slow burner thing, it's part of what made Inuyasha so great. But the show needs to keep the thread alive in the background as it simmers. MHA to me feels very focused on the current big thing, possibly as a side effect of all the arcs revolving very directly around big big multi episode fights
Hi friend, looks like your Patreon link is broken. I had to remove some rubbish at the end of the link when I clicked it, and then it worked. Anyhow. Great video! As someone who has never seen the show, it was interesting taking a look at these two characters and their portrayal.
If they do the same thing She-ra did, basically showing how the League is a group of people who pretty much needed help but were ignored, and attempt to be redeemed later on near the end it would be somewhat of a way where they show that they weren't in the complete wrong. But if they do the Steven Universe take, of redeeming all the evil they did and making it as if everything they did over all that time wasn't so wrong, that would be a terrible redemption to the point where it's problematic. Honestly I hope that some of the villains like Shigaraki or Toga can be somewhat redeemed but still shown to take responsibility for their actions.
My honest opinion, you may disagree, or you may agree! Idk but I sorta want to start a discussion on this.
yea, I think redemption arcs are super tricky. a lot of them fail just because of the time limits of the show, or that focusing too much on it will upset the narritive flow. the only time I've seen a villian redemption done right is in the soul eater anime with crona (there's probably more but I probably have just forgotten or have not seen them). I would like for them to redeem some of the villians because people like shigaraki really were just absolutely fucked over by society, and the fact that he's a villian arguably isn't his fault because he had an unfortunate and terrible freak accident with his quirk, was forced to walk the streets where nobody would save him due to the illusion of peace and idea of "a hero will save him" that the hero society created, and the only person willing to save him was a villian, who then groomed him and traumatized him further, forcing him to be evil and plant all these ideas in his head. i really don't see an opportunity where he could have broke out of this when all for one drilled all these evil thought in his head since he was 5. of course he is also a mass murderer who has killed so many people, and that also is nessecary to address. as much as it's not really his fault, he still took away so many lives. i feel like he and so many other villians truly deserve redemption and an actual chance to live a better life and break away from being a villian. but will society really allow that? will deku or any one else actually realize that the whole reason they have these villians us because the society they created allowed for it? and even if they do, how can the villians move foreward from a life in the shadows with all these firm ideas that were reinforced constantly. how can they address the fact that they have taken so many lives?
i really want them to be given a chance, something they haven't had before, but I don't really know if the world they live in or the narrative will allow it :(
pretty sure no one in steven universe said what the diamonds did was not bad
I would say that the main difference is that the villains in Steven Universe were the oppressors who literally wanted everyone to be perfect. The heroes were characters who didn't fit into their society. In SPOP, many of the villains were abused and shunned by the heroes (especially in the case of Entrapta) but this does get addressed by the end. And the big bad is essentially a cult leader who wants to make everything perfect and uniform, similarly to the Diamonds in Steven Universe.
I don't think either show is executed perfectly in its themes and messages. Both of them have flaws. But what isn't perfect? They also both have strengths.
Who said the diamonds were redeemed? Steven can barely stand to be in the same room as them.
Are you saying that because they're being allowed to exist because unfortunately there's nothing they can seem to do about them? The diamonds are certainly TRYING to be better, though mostly for Steven's approval and are now putting their considerable powers into helping gems, but that's the stuff you do on the path to redeeming yourself, not just after. They're not even in charge anymore.
The league gets really good in the My Villain Academia arc but considering how the anime is fucking it up I’m worried it’s not gonna be nearly as good .
An anime Lilly Simpson video? Sign me up!
thank you so much for confirming the existence of trans characters in My Hero Academia! It means a lot to have this representation be officially acknowledged, especially in a world where some people try to assign genders to characters without considering the creator’s intent or the story’s context. To me, making assumptions about a character’s identity without evidence can feel disrespectful, so having this confirmation is really validating. Representation matters, and seeing it treated with care and authenticity in this series is so appreciated. Thank you for your work!
I don't remember the character's name but one of them has DID/OSDD and I loved seeing representation there
I’d absolutely love to see a video about Grell from Black Butler, she’s my favorite trans rep in anime🧎♂️♥️
I love My Hero Academia (it's my main hyperfixation right now) and I honestly really like both Magne and Tiger. Usually with representation, people are too scared to have queer people as villains because of the many instances with the queercoding of villains in movies and TV that are still around today, but having a trans hero and a trans villain is always something that I've found so cool. As a trans person, I'm okay with Magne not passing, since I don't always pass either and I greatly envy pliabody. I feel like the people that are concerned with trans representation that are mad at representing non-passing trans people sound (unintentionally) transphobic. I relate mostly to Deku and his struggles, but I really love the trans representation in MHA. I don't think it was accidental that Horikoshi (the author of the manga) delved a bit into this topic, a lot of what he writes seems to be intentional.
Why do you just assume that the representation/intricate dive into trans reality/passing privilege is an accident? Boku no Hero isn't a mass-produced show made by a room of executives, it's a story penned by one person, by all accounts a very smart and kind-hearted person who very much pushed a lot of boundaries that were set by the manga/anime industry (especially when it comes to shounen) back in the mid-2010s when it comes to what was traditionally allowed and encouraged to be portrayed, and continues to portray characters with very diverse and complex characteristics and societal positions to this day, coupled with some pretty good (albeit not perfect) commentary on society as a whole. I feel like it's overly dismissive to portray all that as some sort of accidental miracle.
i mean the characters dont go anywhere but i don't think it was an accident either this things are far too comoon MHA points out a lot of problems but then doesn't do anything about them or just gives an easy answer see bakugo telling izuku to kill himself, mineta sexual arrasment, the objectification of female with youyorozu and kendou, the mutant discrimination with shoji, the corrupt heroes with stain, UA entrence exams being completly focused on destroying robots etc. the series just points at problems and then kinda resolves them but not really
like bakugo apologizes, mineta has"development" youyorozu get's a new teacher, shoji does whatever he did with spiner, stain gets beaten up and sent to prision, and shinso gets a second chance to join the hero class but these end up being individual solutions to problems that continue to exist and everybody just forgets about it.
Before watching this video I actually forgot that Magne was murdered and when you showed the scene my heart sank
as far as I'm aware the canon got a lot better and more intentional into analyzing the societal dynamics you mentioned. not in regards to trans people as far as I'm aware, but the recent plot-points feel intentional enough that Magne's situation and the discussions it opens might not have have been completely accidental
I like how they have a hero and a villain character showing how transpeople can represent everyone.
Like Trans people are not evil or good, they are just humans and can happen to be either of both.
That's kinda awesome although some ways the show treats both characters are kinda weird/bad, but I think a lot is supposed to be that way, since Magne is treated badly and not accepted as who she is so she becomes a villain, since the league of villains is the only group that accepts her as she is.
That perceives her as she want to be perceived and refers to her as she wants to be referred to.
I'd have liked it if some hero was like misgendering her and she is like bro I'm a girl and the hero is like sorry sorry, that was disrespectful of me, I'll do better now.
Like to show that not all the heroes are bad in that way and that some heroes are shitty to people but some aren't or at least are but not on purpose.
Off topic, but I strongly recommend the visual novel Umineko no naku koro ni, as the topic of gender identity (and identity as a whole) is portrayed in a very interesting way there. I haven't seen many videos on the topic and I really think there is a lot of gold there.
1:47 help- I'm watching with low volume and captions and the capts said "transportation" instead of "trans representation" 😭😭
I had to rewind and double-check lmfao
Read the manga and you'll understand the vilians so much more
Yeah, these themes on what is a hero and what if a villain are kinda explored on the show :p
@@lostotter1956 but they do more of it later.
7:48 just bc the show is a shonen anime doesn't mean it can't go over those themes. One Piece goes over themes like that
Its easier to say in hindsight now with more episodes but I do think they've set up the league of villains this way to criticize these themes. That ostracizing people, stigmatizing mental health, and stomping down the poor creates these villains, and that they wouldn't be the way they are if we treated them better. We do have a few examples of people who suffer these abuses and still make it through the world as heroes, like Todoroki and Hawks, but not without a lot of suffering and hardship, and I do think despite the villains being murderers that they do try to humanize them and how they became how they are and how its the faults in our society that created these issues.
The fact that this is supposed to be the real world but in the far future raises a lot of unanswered questions.
I just want to say that there is trans rep in the manga Pradise Kiss, Skip and Loafer, Our Dreams at Dusk, Last Gender, To Strip The Flesh, Boys Run The Riot (by a trans man!) and Otomen. Aya Kanno's two most well know works Otomen and Requiem of The Rose King really play with what defines gender. Otomen's main character being a cisman who hides his love of all things girly after his dad comes out as a trans woman and leaves the family. Requiem of The Rose King has an honest to God intersex main character who over the course of the story has doubts about whether he truly feels like a man.
I would love to see an update on this show given the newer seasons, especially the League’s quirk awakenings episode.
Oh shook I only knew about magne and because it was said in the show "you mean her" but tiger only seemed like a guy that plays with expression rules
I'd love to see you check out all the trans characters in One Piece and the evolution of how they're handled
Oh Tiger is always said to be one of the members of the group that was born the wrong gender.
You’ve helped me understand why, as a trans guy who doesn't pass well yet, I never really cared about Mettaton or Mad Mewmew but adore Spamton, even tho him being trans is much more an allegory than it is for the previous two.
He's short, no one takes him seriously or respects him (except Kris, who is also trans), he was beloved when he was conventionally attractive but now people are put-off by him since he isn't. He has crippling body disphoria (about being a puppet), he's severely mental ill due to how he's been treated by society and is extremely poor, homeless even, and no one wants to acknowledge how badly he needs help.
Honestly, I never thought of Tiger as trans. I just thought he was vibing the look 😂
You gave me a whole new perspective on these characters
I was first introduced to them during my conservative teen days and I misremembered them through that lense, so I thought they weren't great rep and just poorly handled sterotypes
Being reintroduced to them now as a queer person by a queer person has completely flipped my perspective and I have a new appreciation for them
Part of the reason I love MHA is that it tries to be realistic about what a hero society would look like: having a system means that privilege and power still play huge roles in who's considered a hero and who isn't. That point is made in a lot of different ways, from *ssholes who still become heroes because it's a socially acceptable way to enjoy power and violence to how sympathetic a lot of the villains are to how regulatory commissions function in the society.
As a result, I really appreciate that Magne looks the way she does, because it makes perfect sense that someone without access to money and a stable place in society wouldn't be able to access gender-affirming care. And the fact that her friends still gender her correctly and respect her says a lot about what gender is and isn't, and what it means to be an ally.
For context: this video is 3 years old, but I haven't watched MHA much past the plot element's being discussed here, so my opinion isn't informed by things that happen later all that much.
That being said, I highly disagree with the video. I think MHA does actually address the class divide between heroes and villains, it may not do it very well, it may still be a battle shonen with all it's usual tropes, but I do believe that it is self-aware that it's world is basically a neoliberal distopia and tries to criticize the society it portrays all the time. So I think maybe the marginalization of Magne and the contrast of privilege between her and Tiger may well be intentional, or at least partially so.
THAT BEING SAID, I still feel deeply offended (as a trans person) by both representations because BOTH FEEL LIKE A JOKE. Both are more "clever" jokes than usual, they aren't "haha trans gross and funny". Tiger's joke is his quirk being body modification AND the "then he took a trip to Thailand", it just feels like a condescending in-joke type of situation. Magne's joke is more cruel, I think, and also more subtle. It's also based on her quirk: (quoting the wikia) "She could magnetize a person's entire body or specific portions. Men are polarized south, and women are polarized north. Magne couldn't magnetize herself.". She can't use her quirk on herself, so she can't "confirm" her gender with her quirk, she can't validate herself through her gender-based quirk. And I know we can also think through a "she can't because she doesn't need to!" lens, but that what we kind people from the community think. A cis man who thinks "haha trip to thailand to trans your gender" is funny does not think that way, he thinks it's comedically ironic she can't use her quirk on herself.
Agreed with most things except the poverty problem- that actually is discussed a lot and a lot of the villains hate the heroes for exactly that reason- Stain for example
Magne's got my favorite cape aesthetic: casual clothes.
what i learned about this show is that it represents trans people as Sam Collins/Samantha Lux vs. Me (a trans dude)
Just recently started watching My Hero with a close trans friend of mine, and was honestly shocked, given the history within anime and manga, at how well it handled these two. Definitely wish we had gotten more time with Magne, and that they were more explicit in the anime in confirming Tiger being trans, but in a sea of nightmare carp this was really positive to see. I will say, i suspect that at least a portion of the representation being as good as it is, may not have been as accidental as suggested here, given the skill at portraying other interpersonal issues in a lot of other aspects of the show as time has continued to go on, though that skill does at times make me sad that they dont really ever break into the economic aspect of things more explicitly, since i suspect that it could be handled really well if they tried.
I would really love to see you cover One Piece, although its long there are a ton of queer people in it. Although two major trans characters only show up like 1000 chapters in 😂😅
A lot of Anime and video games from japan deal with the cultural concerns of japanese society, often manga artists and video game designers are sort of fringe people who have the ability to speak to the problems in society through the art they create in that very eastern cultured indirect way. it's why there is the killing god trope in JRPGs for instance.
I like to think despite transitioning he still likes the girly clothes, plus he still wants to match his sisters. Frilly clothes are just fun anyway.
one thing i think is a key point in hero academia is that....we kinda see that the villains are right. society ostrasizes those who are different, or who have the "wrong" quirks, and others and isolates people, leaves them with no way out and casts them as villains. then it becomes very easy for someone like All for One to come along and manipulate these people into following his agenda, because he promises to tear down the system and punish the entire society who hurt them. most of the villains are completely sympathetic and their situations could've been avoided if they got the support from society they needed, but they pushed out and marginalized instead. it doesn't feel like the show completely "villainizes" them so much as casts them as the antagonists that the heroes often need to learn from. unfortunately it's a problematic trope in superheroes where "the villain is right but goes too far" which...hero aca does fall into. but it completely makes sense why every one of these "villains" is lashing out and wants to cause harm, when they've been hurt so badly themselves. honestly i feel like society often casts activists and those who are outspoken against the status quo as villains in real life...
It's not even just that she gets murdered, she gets murdered in a more brutal way than literally anyone in the show till that point it's such a disgusting writing decision
They expand better on the whole hero villain society in the vigilante spin off.
And people are judged based on their quirks by society.
Great vid. There's a new manga/anime called Skip and Loafer that is incredible AND has AMAZING trans representation. Check it out and hopefully you can make a video about it someday 💜
PS: The character name is Nao-chan.
It was interesting to see two trans people in the show.
i can totally get behind the arguments of magne as a pre-transition or non-transition trans woman, especially since a lot of transfem fans love her for that, but i just cant get out of my head how her other trans friend in the show was literally an unshaved man in a little girl's dress. its rooted in a specifically japanese cultural image of crossdressing men
I remember the english va for overhaul made an audio where kai actually apologizes for misgendering (and killing) magne
I cant remember where it is but i think its a little funny
Thank you Lily for all of the videos and very in-depth commentary and critique, I appreciate your work very much.
To me, Magne is great representation. And honestly, if you (general you, not you Lily) feel that Magne is here to paint trans people in a bad light, you don't understand the way villains are written in MHA. Season 6, released recently, really shows how every single villain of the league is designed to be sympathetic despite their villainy, as well as exploring the darker side of hero society. (Spoiler below)
The death of Twice was probably more impactful than the death of Night Eye.
She is not good representation because she is violently exploded and then misgendered.
super interesting analysis, have a comment for the algorithm!
I don't think the way Magne is represented is accidental - it all seems pretty intentional. Its not always executed the -BEST- to be sure, constrained by genera tropes as it is, but Horikoshi is very clearly laying out the ways in which this world has failed individual people, and how letting people slip through the cracks harms society. Spoilers ahead for the most recent seasons but:
This all comes to a head when the villians DO win. Society collapses, and its made incredibly clear that the heroes and the status quo they were protecting are just as much to blame for that collapse because they functionally laid the ground work and ignored the major problems of it. We're even introduced to a hero-turned-villian who was forced to do awful things in the name of upholding that societal order. The societal status quo is pretty explicitly framed as a bad thing, and now that its all collapsed at this point in the story, things are very clearly being set up to have it be built back up better, in the hands of a new generation that understands the mistakes that came before them.
To be fair the anime cuts out lot of important stuff that’s was in the manga. Don’t care much for the anime, it’s one of those things that really does better in a manga setting. A lot of gags and stuff just don’t fit in animated form.
Basic story lines? Did you watch the show? The creator is an artistic genius that showed the complexities of why a person is either a hero or villain.