My Hero Academia Vol 5 Kohei Horikoshi

The end of Round three of the UA Sports Festival is all one-on-one matches between heroes. Each tries to our maneuver their classmate. Deku is up against Todoroki, and Deku challenges him to fight with his full potential, not just is one half. The boys had some heart-felt conversations in the previous volume that continued into this novel, and Deku's love of heroes and fascination with their abilities wins out over his competitive nature.  Todoroki doesn't understand that Deku would sacrifice the win in order to help Todoroki embrace everything about himself. Until this point, Todoroki has been suppressing his fire abilities because he father is a foul git who forced his mother into marriage to make a stronger hero than All Might.  In the end. Deku still comes out with many broken limbs, and Recovery Girl refuses to continue healing Deku's injuries from using his Quirk.  All Might and Deku must find another way to train his use of One for All.

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I really liked the development of Todoroki in this volume.  He is an increasingly complex character, and now that we know the backstory of his childhood and his resentment, I appreciate his struggle even more.  Thankfully, this volume didn't have much Kacchan in it, and when it did, Todoroki was busy handling him.  While the Sports Festival has sort of dragged on over several volumes, this culmination was well worth the wait.  

​Sara's Rating: 10/10
Suitability Level: Grades 7-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: August 2, 2016​
ISBN: 9781421587028 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 10/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Superheroes, School Life, Action Adventure, ​VIZ Media