My Hero Academia has one issue it has struggled with throughout its run, and that will only become more important as the series moves into its final season. That problem, of course, is censorship, and if the finale is to land properly, the anime will need to find a way to show the brutality of its final battle.

As a series that's been running for nearly 10 years, My Hero Academia's final season is an incredibly important moment for the popular franchise. It's the culmination of everything that has happened so far, and it needs to land properly if it's to have the appropriate emotional impact. However, My Hero Academia has often been reluctant to show the violence of the manga as fiercely in the anime as it should, and that may become an issue for the series as it moves into the final battle. It contains some shocking and truly visceral moments, and it's critical that those land as creator Kohei Horikoshi intended.

My Hero Academia's Anime Has Faced Censorship Before

The Anime Has Toned Down Violence and Injuries in the Past

My Hero Academia has certainly had some confounding moments of censorship throughout its run. Season 5 was particularly infamous for its censorship, taking moments like Shigaraki's destruction of Re-Destro's legs and concealing blood, or when Dr. Garaki conducted his experiments on Shigaraki to give him All for One, and sanitizing them to a level that upset fans. Censorship in My Hero Academia often involves the removal of blood, downplaying injuries suffered by characters (Mirko's rampage in season 6, for example), and even occasionally omitting particularly violent scenes.

It's worth acknowledging that TV shows are a very different medium from manga, and the limitations of what one can get away with on a comic book page are very different from those in a fully animated series. Some of these instances of censorship were intended to help the series meet legal requirements about showing violence in Japan, and there's simply not much that can be done about that. The final battle pushes the boundaries of what the series can get away with, but it's extremely important to get these scenes right, or their emotional impact may fall flat.

Fans of the manga have long lamented the censorship of the anime, going all the way back to Deku's injuries to himself using One for All in the first season. It definitely puts Bones, the animation studio, in a difficult position, as they must satisfy both fans and censors, who want very different things. Unfortunately, TV broadcast guidelines have trumped fan desires in most situations, even on the BluRay releases of the series, which are far less strictly regulated.

Other Anime Have Handled Censorship Better

Each Series Deals With Censorship Concerns Differently

There have been several anime which have pushed the boundaries with violent content in recent years, but My Hero Academia hasn't been one of them. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, for example, has been far, far less censored than its predecessor series, and the anime has thrived as a result of embracing the dark and violent tone of that series' final arc. That's not to say Bleach has been completely devoid of censorship, but overall, relatively few of the cuts made have had to do with blood, dismemberment, or other violent content.

My Hero Academia doesn't get quite as dark as Bleach does in its finale, so it would seem that the anime ought to be able to get away with relatively little censorship, but Bones' past approach doesn't inspire confidence. This is a truly violent battle in the manga, and getting those shocking moments into the anime intact will do a great deal to increase viewer investment in what's happening, as well as accurately portray the cost of this battle for its heroes. It's difficult to give specifics without getting into spoilers, but there are a few particular scenes which fans have good reason to worry about.

My Hero Academia's Final Season Will Shape Its Legacy

Will the Anime Be Able to Deliver an Appropriately Thrilling Ending?

Given that the final season will be the last most viewers see of these characters and this series, the execution of the final battle is going to be critical for establishing the series' legacy. While some fans had problems with the manga's ending as-is, major changes to the story are unlikely, so the anime will have to play the cards it's been dealt in that regard. All the anime can do is deliver the manga's ending in animated form as accurately as possible, and that will inevitably put them in the position of making censorship decisions. If the ending is too censored, then the anime's legacy is at risk.

My Hero Academia is insanely popular, so it would be a real shame if it were to falter in the final battle. This kind of thing has tarnished a great many anime series in the past; Tokyo Ghoul, for example, was infamous for its absurd censorship, with violence and gore blurred out, blacked out, or even subjected to bizarre color inversion. This can and did absolutely ruin the anime's reputation and popularity, especially when the gore was one of that series' big draws. While My Hero Academia is certainly at less risk of this particular problem than Tokyo Ghoul was, it could still be an issue.

The only solution for My Hero Academia's final battle is to stick as close to the manga as possible, and only censor that which is explicitly a problem for airing on TV. It would be great if an uncensored version could also be produced for release on home video, but that may be asking a little much of Bones. It's absolutely critical to get these violent scenes down right in order for the series to hit the right emotional notes, particularly throughout the final battle itself. Censorship risks making the impact fall flat, which could ruin the ending and perhaps even the entire My Hero Academia series retroactively.