Have you seen EndGame yet? Then keep it to yourself! Matthew still hasn’t seen it. However, he does know a thing or two about the origin of superhero stories. This week he leads Team Anchester in a crash-course history lesson about the inarguably Judaic origins of the superhero, why Christians should care, and how it concerns anime fans despite how very American the whole idea is. Why are we talking about such an American category of entertainment on a podcast about Japanese anime? Sit back, continue to keep your EndGame spoilers to yourself, and allow Matthew to explain.
0:00 Introduction
1:49 Last week’s Cast Question
5:32 Superheroes, Faith, and Anime—Intro
9:19 Discussion—Golem, Superman, and Moses
12:18 Discussion—Seder, superheroes, and salvation
16:47 Discussion—Afikomen and All-Might
21:36 New Cast Question
22:18 Closing
And we want your feedback as well! Each week we’ll ask a question on the podcast and feature your answers the next time that team rolls around. Here’s this week’s CQ (Cast Question): What is your favorite part of My Hero Academia so far? It could be a scene. It could be a specific line. It could be a character. It can be something that made you laugh or something serious. BNHA is a famously meme-able series and you’re likely to have both a favorite serious part and a favorite funny part, so both or either are welcomed in your responses.
Podcast Links:
- The Nirit Anderman article, Supermensches: Comicbooks’ Secret Jewish History
- Matthew references Luke 22:19 and the Communion
- We’ve dug into All-Might and heroism on the blog before
- In fact, we love All-Might here on Beneath the Tangles
- Galaxy 999 is another series that brings to mind the Christian practice of Communion
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Featuring music by Celotron (all rights reserved).
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As soon as you said the loose Afikomen translation “I am here”, I nearly spilled my coffee haha! I’m a big fan of the anime.
As far as favorite points, there’s two: the second or third episode where All Might told Deku that he can become a superhero and Deku cries his heart out in overwhelming joy. Another is Episode 51(?) where All Might sees Deku wanting to go to any superhero school as long as he can become one, and All Might bows to his mom, swearing he’ll stay by Deku’s side.
The first point was because he dealt with low self worth, and to hear those words that boost his self esteem made me cry because I’ve dealt and still deal with low self esteem. To hear who you look up to that you’re worthy to do great things is so powerful, and gives me drive and hope that Jesus, the greatest superhero, can see me and say I can do great things. Of course, through His strength, not mine.
The second point: I’m a huge sucker for the act of humbleness and humility. All Might is best dad, because he deeply cares for all the children, like how God cares for all His adopted children. That scene moved me so much, I officially became an All Might fan. Really cool point of the connection to Afikomen to All Might’s famous calling card, “I AM HERE!”
My brother saw EndGame Friday night. He told me it was really good, but I’m not interested in seeing it. I’m more interested in seeing Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, which come out May 10th.
I know 🙂
He’s so cute
My favorite part of My Hero Academia is the All Might vs. All For one fight. I just jumped into the anime back then, and when I decided to take a peek at what was happening in the manga, that part of the Kamino arc was going on, and let me tell you, it got me really invested into the series by the end of it.
If I were to pick my favorite elements of My Hero Academia, one of them would be that every character -specially Midoriya and his classmates, but not only them- has a personality, an arc, something going on, colours and styles of their own, a mission, virtues and flaws. It´s well portrayed when the UA becomes a boarding school and there is a room contest. This is a colourful world full of interesting people, with a deep and noble vision of rivalry, legacy, responsibility, loyalty, heroism, profesional/academic excelence and freedom: it´s like being in Camelot. Also, especially in the UA, most of them do connect, and they fight to deal with the others in the best possible way. There´s a real sense of team and community, even among rivals. I miss that in most of the current western superhero comics. It reminds me about the feeling I got from Chihayafuru.
The “you can become a hero” and “this is your hero academy” moments, the vocational ones, were also great. Midoriya has a clear calling, and there´s this feeling that he is advancing towards it, learning the abilities he will need, improving, falling, standing up and going from milestone to milestone, becoming more who he is with every step. To me, it´s a lot like how life in the Holy Spirit feels sometimes. I find it deeply hopeful.