A review by bookish_benny
My Hero Academia, Vol. 13 by Kōhei Horikoshi

5.0

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This was a fantastic entry into the series. It starts with the second part of the provisional license exam and ends with a tense standoff between Midoriya and Bakugo so let's review.

I really love when there are a lot of characters involved in some kind of action spread and the first chapters of this volume provided this in abundance. The action split between the various students of both U.A. and Shiketsu as they tried to rescue as many "civilians" as they could within the time limit. This was interesting because they all started with a certain amount of points (100) and points were deducted for how they managed the situation (never added). If they went below the passing threshold (50) then they would not get their licenses. In this scenario, one of the main characters doesn't get their license which shocked me because I felt like it would be a "oh you can have it" kind of scenario and I'm pleased the volume stuck to the rules of the world it is covering as otherwise what would have been the point.

This exam also shone a light on #10 pro hero, Gang Orca, who is basically a walking, talking Orca whale. It's really cool to see on the pages and he also looks like a villain so that helped him play his role in the exam perfectly.

The volume continued to cover many different storylines such as All Might vs All For One as they spoke on a prison visit All Might took. While they are very different people they're essentially two sides of the same coin and I love this dynamic between them, good vs evil. We didn't get anything on the League of Villains except finding out what Toga's quirk is which was good.

Finally the volume ended on Bakugo wanting to fight Midoriya basically because he is jealous that All Might gave Midoriya his power, All For One. I can completely get from the volume why he is jealous and can't help but feel bad for him but I think his character arc needs to expand now. For me he either needs to become a villain or change his snarky attitude since it's becoming a little repetitive.