The My Hero Academia fandom has once again taken issue with an element of the series’ production, this time criticizing animation studio Studio Bones for the animation quality of one frame seen in the latest episode.
On March 29th the 24th episode of My Hero Academia’s 4th season, “Japanese Hero Billboard Chart,” made its debut in Japan. In the episode, as hero rankings are released to the public, the Wild Wild Pussycats team makes a surprise visit to UA High to check their respective rankings. During their visit, they run into Class 1-A and perform their group introduction to assure the students of their return:
However, some members of the fandom took issue with the quality of the frame showing the group’s final pose, considering it to be an inexcusable adaptation of mangaka Kohei Horikoshi’s original artwork.
BONES WHAT THE FUCK pic.twitter.com/ScZDOOGp1f
— Tungry (@mangadoge) March 27, 2020
They added, “Feels good to be right long ago in calling out how pretty disappointing BONES has been this whole season and the people that said I was wrong agreeing with me.”
Feels good to be right long ago in calling out how pretty disappointing BONES has been this whole season and the people that said I was wrong agreeing with me.
— Tungry (@mangadoge) March 27, 2020
This viewer, who also originated the complaints against the animation frame, took their criticism a step further, tracing Horikoshi’s original panel artwork, coloring it, presenting it as their own and professing that they had “[done] them some justice compared to what Bones did.”
I did them some more justice compared to what Bones did #MyHeroAcademia pic.twitter.com/ffklArvNC6
— Fede ☀️🌗 #1 Rei Todoroki fan (@liusyss) March 27, 2020
However, other fans of the series were quick to speak out against the comparison, noting that an anime is not a 1:1 reproduction of the source material, but an adaptation, and pointing to the differences between the crafts of still art and animation:
So… you traced his work.
Yea the standards you guys have for the animators are weird. Do take into consideration that they don’t trace they are making an adaptation— Bruhmysterious🍑 (@bruhmysterious) March 29, 2020
If you think you work harder than them because you remade ONE (1) still they did when they have hundreds of thousands of frames to draw on a deadline working 16-18 hour work days you are sorely mistaken.
Nice art but sacrifices have to be made for TV animation to be possible.
— Astral (@astral_seven) March 28, 2020
And you did it without the crunch time animators face
— TekedaFox23🍒🏳️🌈✒E3 DIRECT (@TekedaF) March 28, 2020
right good job, now animate it into the next scene until they cut to kota. oh wait you can’t becuase you just traced and colored a manga panel
— Zuku Uzu (@ZukuwoV) March 28, 2020
YouTuber Hero Hei described the complaint as “nonsense.” He also points out that the tweet at the time he made his video had been liked over 5,000 times and retweeted over 660 times. “You are telling me there are over 5,000 people that agree with this? This is absolutely crazy,” says Hero Hei.
He added, “It’s unbelievable that even on Twitter that 5,100 people thought this was a reasonable take.”
In response to the criticism for their hot take, Mangadoge wrote, “To the people that are mad that I’m complaining about how poorly drawn a simple still frame was done I’m sorry you have low standards for well known animation companies.”
To the people that are mad that I’m complaining about how poorly drawn a simple still frame was done I’m sorry you have low standards for well known animation companies
— Tungry (@mangadoge) March 27, 2020
What do you make of this complaint?