Fans want to know what to expect from My Hero Academia season 4, and with good reason. My Hero Academia is one of the most popular anime series with both Japanese and Western audiences, and wrapped up its critically-acclaimed third season late last year. My Hero Academia's first season focused heavily on establishing the world it takes place in - a society built around the most powerful heroes in a setting that sees nearly every human have a Quirk (the series' way of labeling super powers). It also brought the League of Villains to the fore, a group determined to up-end society and destabilize peoples' faith in heroes.

Season 2 of My Hero Academia took a detour around the Hero Killer Stain and a final exam arc, while My Hero Academia season 3 began with a dramatic League of Villains invasion before seeing the fledgling students of U.A. High School attempt to earn their provisional hero licenses and begin saving the world in earnest. Season 3 also ended on an emotional note, setting up the continued evolution of protagonist Izuku Midoriya's relationship with his bitter rival and frenemy Katsuki Bakugo. Each season has built up steady momentum for the series, which continually ranks highly in anime popularity polls, and fans are finally looking toward the horizon of My Hero Academia season 4 and wondering what's in store.

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My Hero Academia Season 4 Midoriya Bakugo Todoroki

My Hero Academia Season 4 Release Date

My Hero Academia season 4 will begin airing in Japan on October 12. The announcement was made with a trailer for the new season that demonstrates several new heroes and villains, and helps set up the one of the major cliff-hangers of season 3, which was the introduction of the U.A. "Big Three." The same animation team from studio Bones will make a return to the show, which is crucial in maintaining the excellence in its fight design that has made My Hero Academia such a popular shonen with viewers.

My Hero Academia season 4 also started a little early at Anime Expo 2019, when Funimation gave attendees a sneak peek into the show's debut episode. Without getting into too much detail, season 4 will maintain the same balance between heavy story-telling and comedic elements that made it such a pleasure to experience over the last three seasons, and the show will reportedly continue to keep its eye on the past and acknowledge the after-effects of some of its biggest moments.

One thing that's currently unknown is whether or not the show will air simultaneously on streaming sites like Crunchyroll, or if a Western release will be delayed after the Japanese release. Given the massive popularity of My Hero Academia, it seems unlikely that Western fans will need to wait much longer, if at all, to see the show after Japanese viewers get to see it on October 12.

My Hero Academia Season 4 Overhaul Eri

My Hero Academia Season 4 Story Details

My Hero Academia season 4 will shift its focus away from Midoriya and the team to help establish the My Hero Academia Big Three, Mirio Togata, Tamaki Amajiki, and Nejire Hado. They'll help guide the students in choosing their pro hero internships, which will also take up a chunk of the story as the fledgling heroes begin to develop new fighting styles and approaches to life thanks to the mentorships of established pros. Without diving too much into spoiler territory, many of these internships will play a large role in the My Hero Academia story for many more seasons to come, and the influences they have on some of the students are some of the manga's most compelling material.

My Hero Academia season 4 will also introduce a new villain for this particular story arc. Overhaul, who was briefly seen at the end of My Hero Academia season 3, is seen stopping a group of villains from robbing a bank while wearing a plague doctor mask (a trait that the rest of his crew shares). He labels them as needing a cure before the camera cuts away to reveal that the truck the bank robbers had attempted to get away in was both completely mangled and the robbers' bodies had been somehow merged with the wreckage. Overhaul is one of the more popular villains among manga readers, and his story will likely take up the bulk of season 4's antagonist screentime, meaning fans can also expect less of Shigaraki and the rest of the League of Villains this year.

Finally, the show will also explore what happens to the world in a post-All Might era of superheroes. My Hero Academia's most epic anime fight yet saw both All For One and All Might drained of their powers and forced out of the picture, leaving the superhero society in chaos. Will superheroes find their next beacon of hope, or will the League of Villains begin making headway in destabilizing the status quo and forcing people to decide whether heroes are truly a benefit to the world they live in? Fans will find out soon as My Hero Academia season 4 begins in October, centered around one of the most exciting manga arcs yet.

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