Management: 12 Days of  Anime continues with possibly my favourite side character from HeroAca

Normal heroes have quirks.

This hero has quirks.

Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of the main protagonists of My Hero Academia (HeroAca), not because they’re bad, but because I don’t quite care for their conflicts. What I do like about HeroAca though is its expansive cast of likeable characters each with their own quirks to be used creatively: Todoroki blasting things with fire and ice, Yaoyorozu solving problems with the versatility of her creations, Asui…being a deadpan frog.

My favourite side character may be Hatsume Mei. Not exactly for her quirk–which has nothing to do with her passion at all!–but because of her personality. She has a singular mind for tinkering, optimizing, improving, inventing. Pair this up with a bubbly personality, and you have a jolly girl who is singularly devoted to engineering.

of course you have

I will never forget her presence in the tournament arc, when she uses her fight to show off her gadgets. Once she’s accomplished her goal, knocking Iida in circles, she walks out of the ring on her own terms. And can you blame her? She has her own passion to pursue, and is confident enough in herself to play by her own rules.

I was delighted to see her this season again, introducing herself with an explosion from the engineering lab. I loved seeing her ignore social norms when they’re secondary to her passion: cheerily mentioning that she forgot everyone’s names, and then paying no heed to the concept of personal space. The rest of her appearance was basically her merrily trying to make the Class A students try out her gadgets that don’t work for them at all. But she doesn’t care. If something explodes, she tinkers with it until it works.

Sure, Mei can be eccentric, but when you’re confident in yourself, you can rock your quirkiness like nobody’s business.

Never change, Hatsume Mei.

You can read my other articles for 12 Days of Anime here.