Nerd Study Hall: Is My Hero Academia the perfect starter anime?

If you're eager to get into anime but have no idea where to start, the answer might just have green hair and a cape.

SYFY WIRE's Morgan Johnson is that person—the one who’s never watched anime (except Studio Ghibli films) but can't decide which series to binge first. Our own Lauren Nicholas and Max Tedaldi, both experienced otaku who know their way around the beautiful and sometimes bizarre world Japanese animation, are going to give Morgan a crash course on My Hero Academia and why it might be the perfect show to start what will inevitably turn into an anime obsession.

Just in case you've never watched My Hero Academia or read the manga—that's a whole other thing to obsess over—Izuku Midoriya is that caped not-quite-crusader with green hair that must rarely see a comb. He starts out as just a kid with no superpowers in a world where 80% of people are born with a power, or "quirk." Spoiler: Izuku does get a quirk that transforms him into a meta-human. He also gets into a super-elite superhero academy that's not unlike the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It's going to take a lot more than just that to make him earn his spandex as a real hero.

If you're into X-Men like Morgan is, this is basically that in anime form and even weirder in the best possible way. Anyone who can't get enough of superheroes and their unnatural powers will probably enjoy My Hero Academia and also recognize all the superhero tropes that get taken to another level. She's definitely onto something there.

About Izuku. Some people think he's extremely annoying in the beginning, but remember that many protagonists in anime start off as insufferable little you-know-whats until they really start to mature. In the case of Izuku, he makes strides from zero to hero in Seasons 2 and 3 after all that hero school orientation stuff is out of the way. Those problems do get replaced by the threat of supervillains. Come on, what do you expect in a story about a group of teen heroes, not all of whom are entirely self-aware yet?

Watch on to find out what else makes Max, Lauren and Morgan think My Hero Academia is Plus Ultra!

This article was contributed to by Elizabeth Rayne.