Bnha Analysis - Blog Posts

Yes please write more about Mic and Aizawa being foils to one another! I enjoy reading your in-depth posts!

OH BOY

okay, let’s talk a little about foil character in writing. foil characters are characters who commonly display opposite traits to another character they are closely tied with. it’s a common misconception that foil characters are always the rival to the character they foil and that they have to be opposite in every way–neither of these are true. it’s actually fairly common for a foil character to be set up as the character’s best friend and contrast only the traits the author wants to highlight in that character. i like talking about foil characters a lot because i feel as though they are very good in narratives when written correctly. 

like i said in that one ask, mic and aizawa read like foils to each other to me. or more, mic is a foil to aizawa, since aizawa is far more of a main character than he is. 

let’s start here–there was a post going around about how hizashi and aizawa’s hero names are pretty much opposites of each other, with erasing something being the opposite of presenting something and a headphone being the opposite of a microphone. that’s a good place to start, because those names are:

1. something that defines them, their careers, an who they are as people

2. fundamental to their relationship and their interconnectedness as characters, given that mic gave aizawa the hero name that he’s kept for 15 years and counting and the name that he operates his entire career under. mic essentially gave him part of his identity, and the name itself is pretty much the opposite of mic’s.

going a bit further, aizawa is characterized as not caring about appearances, introverted, and relying far more on technique than words when fighting/acting. mic is the opposite in every way, with his characterization being primarily very extroverted, obviously putting care in his appearance (i will never forgive him for That Hair), spending most of his career in the public eye, and literally using words to speak. mic is characterized as a person who pretty much never stops talking, while aizawa is much quieter and seems to pick and choose more when to speak. similarly, mic is much more visible about his emotions, whereas i think aizawa would rather die than admit he actually has feelings. mic is always moving, whereas aizawa relies a lot on stealth and being still. mic has neverending energy, aizawa can often be seen in the background asleep or just generally very lethargic. i could go on, but you get the point here for the most part. 

also, their designs are opposite of each other, too. i realize that both mic and aizawa wear all black, but you cannot tell me that the thing that sticks out with mic’s design isn’t his hair. it is literally the first thing people notice. the fucking cockatoo hair. and it’s bright fucking yellow. the closest to the opposite of black you can get without going for white. because of this, people assign bright yellow and bright colors as mic’s coloring, whereas with aizawa, everything is just black. dude literally does not wear any color (unless you count his goggles, in which case, bright yellow. literally the same color as mic.). going a step forward, mic obviously puts care into his appearance and has that weird 80′s aesthetic where all he wears is tight leather. meanwhile, we have aizawa, who wears a baggy enough jumpsuit that he could probably just wear a garbage bag instead and no one would be able to tell the difference. mic, who seems to meticulously care for his appearance, if that hair and weird mustache says anything, and aizawa, who looks like he hasn’t had a haircut or seen a razor in 14 years.

then we get to the whole style thing. mic lives his life in the spotlight. dude is a radio (and also television, maybe?) star who is well known, the head of a department, and a well-known pro hero. aizawa, on the other hand, very specifically stays out of the spotlight and works in the underground and acts like he is in actual, physical pain every time he has to talk to the press. with their fighting styles, aizawa is far more passive and would be categorized as either a support or a defense hero, since his quirk is purely non-physical. his gimmick is stealth. however, mic is completely offensive. even in the final exams, mic didn’t even chase the kids down. he literally just stood at the entrance and screamed, while aizawa has to get the drop on his opponents to attack them and usually has to be the first to attack.

speaking of quirks, i made a post a while ago about this, but mic’s quirk absolutely does not have many counters. the best thing mic has to a counter is aizawa’s erasure. mic is insanely powerful and knows how to control his quirk and would’ve easily won the final exam battle had it not been for his fear of bugs. i mean, when aizawa got hurt at usj, he easily leveled a bunch of villains with a single attack. countering mic’s quirk is very hard since he has so much control over it, and really the only counter he has in canon is aizawa right now. which, is pretty significant when you consider that these two are pretty interconnected. 

so yeah, i do really think mic is a foil to aizawa. mic usually doesn’t show up by himself in the manga or the anime–aizawa is usually somewhere to be found either directly or indirectly in the scenes he’s in. mic is used to highlight a lot of aizawa’s quiet nature, especially since these are the first two veteran teachers we see in the series–aizawa, who’s quiet and strict, and mic, who’s loud and pretty friendly. i think mic is set up to be his foil and i hope their relationship is expanded upon more in the future, since i personally think it’s one that’s important to aizawa’s character.

Canon EraserMic

Okay, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how people react to this, but with this being one of the most popular ships in BNHA, I decided to go back and look at the canon relationship between these two.

No images as I’ve heard they mess with mobile users, however, if my followers prefer it, let me know, and I’ll add them in future posts.

Keep reading

So, I noticed something interesting in the manga! Except for three times, Hizashi always tends to follow Aizawa or stand behind them.

Note:

*BNHA Spoilers

*Manga images

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I haven't seen anyone commenting about something weird on how AFO is represented in the recent art by Horikoshi:

That being the fact this is the "prime" version of him with his face restored, but wearing the final war outfit and maskless. Something clearly not possible in the story itself, as obviously that outfit was gone when he used rewind on himself for avoid die by the fire of Endeavor.

But the interesting part is that this isn't the first time Horikoshi draw AFO in this particular way, mixing his restored look with the purple jacket outfit.

The other time was in that cover in which he's facing Deku (a battle that never happened in the story, or at least not directly against his main body).

In that other art AFO also has a unique look for his mask not being seen in the story, that looks vaguely like it was still broken and almost melted by Endeavor but pieced together again while still being red hot.

Also do you notice in neither of those arts AFO has the rewind effects over him? Considering it was the plot reason he recovered his face in the first place, is a bit weird that the art of Horikoshi doesn't present him being under rewind.

And yeah I know all this can be attributed to simple creative freedom and Horikoshi though mix both designs was cool or something.

But I can't help and make my theories about this.

Can these arts be a sort of "what if" scenario?

As I said before is interesting to remember that Deku never actually fight against AFO directly on his real body, they never even encouter each other in that state for that matter, they only interacted via ShigAFO.

So maybe Horikoshi at some point had a totally different display for the final battle? One that involved Deku vs AFO and a different use of rewind.

Considering in both arts "prime" AFO appears maskless with his outfit intact, I wonder if the real revelation moment when the heroes managed to destroy his new mask wasn't seeing his potato face, but he already got his face restored offscreen.

Which could also explain why Horikoshi didn't drawn AFO with the rewind effects in the art. As probably the idea of him being on a time counter that will banish him wasn't originally part of the story and only was a leter addition.

So in this alternative scenario rather than go back to fight ShigAFO directly, Deku instead for some reason ends up in front of the original AFO and they have a real battle, just as it was represented in the cover art.

Don't know how the story should continue from that point, as it probably would change a lot more of how the rest of the final battle will play.