Welcome to This Week in Shonen Jump, our weekly check in on Viz’s various Shonen Jump series. Viz has recently changed their release format, but our format will mostly remain the same. We will still review the newest chapters of one title a week, now with even more options at our disposal. The big change for our readers is that, even without a Shonen Jump subscription, you can read these most recent chapters for free at Viz.com or using their app.
This week, Robbie checks in with “My Hero Academia.” If you have thoughts on this or any other current Shonen Jump titles, please let us know in the comments!
My Hero Academia Chapter 307
Written and illustrated by Kohei Horikoshi
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
There was no doubt that the aftermath of the last story arc would reshape many things about the “Hero Academia” world. We spent a few chapters getting glimpses of its impact on the world at large, and a few looking at the various characters (including Deku’s own internal conversation with the heroes he inherited “One For All” from), now we get to take a step into a world ravaged by villains.
This chapter makes the world of “My Hero Academia” feel almost post-apocalyptic. The wreckage from the League of Villains’ attack is still everywhere, people are huddled together to fight roving bands of bad guys, and the heroes are doing everything they can to get people to safety before a villain shows up to utterly wreck them. It has a very different vibe than past chapters, and frankly, it works.
Horikoshi makes the wise decision to focus this chapter on two side characters from the Hero License exam: Yo Shido, aka Grand, and Tatami Nakagame, aka Turtle Neck. These are characters we’ve met before, but only to a minor extent, so they serve as a familiar point of entry into this part of the story while still taking us outside the confines of U.A.
While we were told how the average citizen no longer trusts heroes, this is where we see it come into play, as the two try to convince people holed up in a building for safety to come with them to Ketsubutsu Academy for safety. The scene is entirely dialogue-driven, but Horikoshi manages to keep things dynamic by moving each panel around the scene, showing us different characters and angles that emphasize the mood. It makes it clear how little faith anyone holds in heroes now, which is particularly heartbreaking after spending over 300 chapters seeing how hard all the characters work to do good and protect people.
But of course, that’s only part of the chapter, as things quickly kick into a higher gear. The earlier scene has tension hanging over it with the knowledge that Jailbreaker (the villain formerly known as Muscular) was spotted nearby. The heroes need to get the civilians to safety before he shows up.
Well, with foreshadowing like that, of course he’s going to appear, and what an entrance it is. Horikoshi’s art amplifies the impact and power of his appearance with a two-page spread, giving us an amazingly detailed shot of him smashing into a building. The chapter gets more intense from there, with fast-paced action, nicely detailed artwork, and dramatic tension amplifying significantly.
The choice to use Jailbreaker/Muscular is another great decision, as it’s a villain we as readers are familiar with. It’s easy to remember the kind of trouble he gave Deku when they first fought, and Horikoshi uses his fight against the Ketsubutsu students to remind us of what he’s capable of. It creates a great setup for the fight to come, ending the chapter on a particularly impressive note.
“My Hero Academia” is shifting its tone significantly, having passed a point of no return for the world it’s set in. Now we get to see how the characters, and the manga’s world, adapt and change with it, and chapter 307 brings us in masterfully.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – An exciting chapter, bringing us into the new status quo of “My Hero Academia” with a good combination of character work and action.
