Overview

MHA Blue Sky Discourse or My Hero Academia Blue Sky Debate refers to a social media discourse over the anime adaptation of the manga My Hero Academia using soulless blue sky background in dramatic moments of the series. The debate gradually gained traction in late 2022 on X and Reddit and rose to popularity in December 2023, as people began to compare other animes with poor backgrounds that softened the impact of a climatic scene.

History

One of the earlier instances when debate surrounding the blue sky in the My Hero Academia (MHA) anime adaptation was posted on March 3rd, 2020, by X^[1] user @ColdCriti, who replied to a post showing some preview images from the 84th episode of the series (shown below) saying "The backgrounds🤢🤮" His reply amassed roughly 166 likes and 58 retweets in three years.

At the time, @ColdCriti's tweet inspired jokes and memes X in which people made fun of MHA fans hating the anime adaptation. For instance, on March 29th, 2020, X^[2] user @CappinKid posted a GIF (shown below) to represent "MHA fans when the grass is too green and the sky is too blue." The post amassed more than 148 likes and 38 retweets in three years.

Online Reactions

The discourse gained more popularity through 2022, as the sixth season of the anime was airing worldwide. One particular scene in the manga was highly anticipated by the fans to see adapted into the anime, which shows the villain Shikaragi beat up in front of a dark background talking to the main character Deku (shown below).

After episode 121 premiered, fans of the show started a debate over the blue sky background used for the moment (shown below, top). For instance, on November 21st, 2022, Reddit^[3] user /u/JustEasyyy complained about the blue sky, posting his take on how the anime should've adapted the scene (shown below, bottom). The post amassed over 73 likes upvotes and 32 comments in a year.

On January 13th, 2023, YouTuber^[4] @Browntable posted a video re-animating and fixing some color grading from My Hero Academia's newest season. The video (shown below, left) amassed more than 268,000 views and 20,000 likes in almost a year. On February 5th, 2023, YouTuber^[5] @ChibiReviews posted a video essay titled "The Biggest Flaw in The My Hero Academia Anime" commenting on some of the issues of the animated version of the series. The video (shown below, right) received over 63,000 views and 2,900 likes in 10 months.

Various Examples

Ppl are finally understanding the blue sky discourse pic.twitter.com/HzUZiW1PT2

— Kampa🧩 (@MugenKampaWorks) December 18, 2023

Search Interest

External References