My Hero Academia Fans Just Got Exciting News
Season 5 of the popular shonen anime "My Hero Academia" kicked off in March 2021, with a story arc largely focused on U.A. High School's Class 1-B. Whereas virtually all of the series' protagonists are enrolled in U.A. High's Class 1-A, Class 1-B is often overshadowed by its counterpart, both with regards to the amount of time its students are on screen, as well as their renown in-fiction. The Joint Training Arc, then — as the first story arc of Season 5 is titled — puts the students of Class 1-B front and center, after U.A. staff decides to pit both classes in competition against one another.
The Joint Training Arc devotes time to all 20 members of Class 1-B, while also giving each member of Class 1-A a chance to shine. In order to do so, the arc lasts for 11 of the 13 episodes of the first half of "My Hero Academia" Season 5. That said, in the series' comic book source material (via Reddit) and anime alike, the Joint Training Arc has been poorly received by fans on the whole (also via Reddit).
Fortunately for that contingent of the "My Hero Academia" fanbase, the series has since moved on to a story that looks to carry more dramatic weight than an intra-school tournament — in which the students of U.A. High School must intern with professional heroes. Furthermore, according to recent reports shared by anime news sources like "My Hero Academia" news Twitter account @animenews_news, it appears that the Endeavor Agency Arc, as the current story arc is titled, will be ending after six episodes. That will leave the rest of the season to focus on the Meta Liberation Army or My Villain Academia arc.
Enter the League of Villains
For fans of "My Hero Academia" who have previous knowledge of the show's comic book source material, the fact that the series kicked off the Endeavor Agency Arc immediately following the conclusion of the Joint Training Arc likely came as a surprise. In the "My Hero Academia" manga, the Joint Training Arc is followed directly by the Meta Liberation Army Arc, also known as the My Villain Academia arc, due to the fact that the title of the series for those chapters shifts to "My Villain Academia." Rather than foregrounding the heroes that usually serve as the series' protagonists, the arc — as suggested by its title — focuses instead on the members of the League of Villains as its central characters.
The anime ultimately opted to swap the order of these two story arcs.
As recounted in a post on ComicBook.com discussing the imminent arrival of the My Villain Academia arc, the storyline is something of a favorite among fans of the "My Hero Academia" manga. Especially in the wake of the poorly-received Joint Training Arc, then, it's likely that the anime adaptation of the My Villain Academia Arc could become similarly-lauded among all the fans who will be experiencing it for the first time in anime form.
"My Hero Academia" Season 5 is currently expected to last for 25 episodes (via Reddit), so assuming this remains true — and it should, given that 25 is relatively standard for an anime season — the My Villain Academia arc should last for seven episodes in total. Barring any delays in the series' weekly premiere schedule, then, My Villain Academia will kick off on August 7.