The Scourge of Hero Society

With the development of the "Endeavor-gate" movement rapidly sweeping across the nation and even expanding beyond Japan's borders, one cannot help but to contemplate just how the current pro hero industry managed to produce heroes so lackadaisical and unsympathetic in regards to the damages they cause to their inanimate and human surroundings. It is common knowledge that several European countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom harshly punish their pro heroes for destruction, injury and distress caused by indifference to their surroundings. That is not to say that pro heroes should never cause damage, even to point of sacrificing a fight or civilian lives; rather, these countries teach their heroes moderation and punish them for excess force. One of the only countries worse than Japan regarding punishments for lack of moderation is the United States of America (Jones 2016). Some notable arrests for excess force include: Germany's Blitzkrieg, who served eight months in jail for striking three separate public buildings with lightning in his pursuit of French vigilante Gargouille; Spain's Fénix, who served three months in jail and 150 hours of community service for setting an anonymous person's home on fire when aiming for a villain who calls himself "Don Quixote", but is regularly referred to as "El Patatús"; England's Nightrunner, who served six months in jail and 300 community service hours because he allegedly "parkoured his way through seven flats" in order to make it to his Dungeons and Dragons game, which he was late for (Goldberg 2014). It is a very striking fact that Endeavor has done many similar things to these heroes and on a much larger scale, yet he remains ranked number one on the national hero charts in the wake of All Might's retirement.

Out of the 126 countries with a regulated hero system, 93 have instituted mandatory community service in order to maintain a hero license. 101 out of 126 have established punishments for brutality to opponents, be they villain, vigilante, or petty criminal. All of these countries, including Japan, have regulations involving loss of civilian injuries and lives lost (United Nations 2019), though Japan's laws are looser than many other nations. Japan also has laws regarding lives lost and injuries sustained on behalf of sidekicks and heroes cooperating at the site of a crime. Unfortunately, these laws are, like most of Japan's laws regulatory of the hero industry, inhibitive at best and derelict at worst.

While some may argue that Endeavor, being the current number one Japanese hero, cannot be lost so soon after All Might, it is imperative to recognize that he is not the only hero putting in hours, just the most well-known. Others may say that the system has functioned fine for a long time, and "if it is not broken, do not fix it," in the words of Councillor Watanabe (Fujimoto 2018). The simple fact of the matter is that the system is in fact broken. The fact that so many people believe that the system will collapse with the loss of one hero indicates that a major reform is in order, starting with arresting Endeavor and putting him on trial for his flagrant disregard of the few hero-regulating laws that Japan possesses. His place on the hero ranking chart should not grant him immunity to justice.

One of the simplest issues lies in volunteer work, which inspires goodwill. In direct contrast with the majority of the U.N., Japan does not impose mandatory community service on its heroes (United Nations 2019). In a personal interview, All Might has stated, "Keeping your hero license in America is harder than it is in Japan. I remember [...] spending a lot of time at the animal shelter."

Many heroes, such as Present Mic, perform volunteer work anyway; however, Endeavor is one of the many pro heroes that perform community service work rarely. In Kotaru Homura's controversial article Vilification or Volunteer Work, Kotaru states that Endeavor's community service almost always coincides with a scandal (2017).

Another objectionable facet of Japanese hero society embodied and perpetrated by Endeavor is the sheer level of property damage the man generates. As stated earlier, Spanish pro hero Fénix served three months of jail time and 150 hours of community service for setting one private residence on fire (Goldberg 2014). This is a very stark contrast to Endeavor's record- in 27 years of being a pro hero, he has set fire to 43 private residences, 218 public buildings, and destroyed or caused severe damage to an additional 114 structures (Kotaru 2017). Because of the way the current laws are set up, he has paid for none of this. Instead, the repairs are paid for by the government, according to Mashima Ryuuhei, the head of U.A.'s business department. Average citizens should not have to pay excess taxes just because heroes like Endeavor cannot control themselves. Additionally, since he doesn't pay for any of the damages he causes, he most likely has a very diminished sense of worth of property, if any at all. This only ensures that he will continue to treat others' property recklessly. In a personal interview, pro hero Snipe had this to say:

"Yeah, I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but in America, they've got the same kind of laws. But instead of just paying the extra taxes like we do here, the public gets real mad. Why, in Texas, I saw one poor hero running from an angry mob because he flooded a major intersection."

Endeavor's rampant destruction of property is an issue not only for obvious reasons, but also because destroying buildings can put civilians at risk of injury or death, can put residents of a building out of a home, can destroy their place of work and therefore their means of income, and can even put intense financial stress upon low-income citizens whose insurance does not completely cover rebuilding and medical bills. Sasagawa Hanako had this to say in a personal interview:

"I used to live in a pretty poor area; I was a college student, so I couldn't afford a better place. It had a lot of villain activity, and most heroes never came close unless they were chasing someone. That Endeavor […] set my apartment complex on fire. No one was killed, and we all got out fine except for some minor burns, but my wife and I lost our scrapbooks, which we had been making together since middle school. We were devastated. Also, I'm pretty sure my cat has asthma now. From the smoke inhalation, you see."

Another shameful aspect of Endeavor's career indicative of Japanese hero society as a whole is his brutality. It is a well-known phenomenon that a large percentage of petty criminals will turn themselves in without a fight once a hero shows up on the scene. It is because of this that areas with more visible hero patrols usually have lower crime rates, even if the heroes doing the patrolling in question do not actually arrest anyone. One of Endeavor's many ex-sidekicks, who has chosen to remain anonymous, claimed in a personal interview conducted over e-mail that Endeavor "kicks the living shit out of everyone regardless of their compliance". Some argue that if someone was committing a crime, they deserve to put taken in with force. This is a barbaric way of thinking, and a near-transparent pardoning of modified police brutality. Additionally, criminals in fear of brutality are more likely to take hostages and threaten innocent bystanders (Abarai 2017). Even if police brutality has suddenly become excusable to the general public, there still remains the very real possibility that an unfortunate bystander may be mistaken for a criminal. What if an excessively forceful hero captured the wrong person and ended up brutalizing an innocent? There have been cases of this happening not only in other countries but also in Japan, and many times the victim was left paying their own bills because the hero claimed it was an "accident". This makes it not only easy for the hero to avoid paying hospital bills, but also more difficult for the victim to get the proper insurance payments. This happened to Masato Rinmaru, who said this in an interview with Yamamoto Ken regarding ex-hero Shadowmaster:

"It was so awful. I kept insisting, 'it wasn't me, please, I didn't do it,' but he wouldn't listen. I spent two weeks in the hospital and I had to pay for it all. I tried to tell someone, anyone that would listen, but he had a really good PR team and, uh… Well, no one wanted to listen to me until he got busted for the stuff he did with in China. I still have nightmares about it." (Yamamoto 2011)

Another topic that is necessary to examine in the pursuit of justice is the topic of injuries and casualties. Many are reluctant to discuss this, but it needs to be talked about. Obviously no hero can save everyone, but as a hero as well as a decent human being, it is one's duty to try one's hardest. Time and again, Endeavor has shown disregard for those around him during combat. Several of his sidekicks and additional heroes responding as backup have sustained avoidable injuries while serving with him. Two rookie sidekicks have died when Endeavor was on the scene (Kotaru 2017), and while it is discourteous and unnecessarily vile to lay the blame for this solely at Endeavor's feet, it is inarguable that he was not as cautious as he should have been.

Civilians are in even more danger than those participating in a fight in this regard; heroes and sidekicks are trained professionals, whereas civilians are not. An estimated 400 civilians have perished in conflicts involving Endeavor (Kotaru 2017), and while in 27 years of service some casualties are to be expected, a number this high is simply unacceptable.

Endeavor also places his coworkers in harm's way. He has burned several coworkers unintentionally because they were "in his way" and "should have dodged faster" (Kotaru 2017). Debaters are split on this issue- some say that it is common sense to keep one's distance while someone is using a fire quirk. These people believe that anyone who gets burned by Endeavor because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time during a fight have only themselves to blame. These people have clearly never attended a hero school; children aspiring to be heroes learn basic situational awareness during their first semester. The fact that Endeavor's quirk is destructive and often an area-of-effect type is irrelevant. All Might punched a potential child-murderer so hard that he changed the weather, yet he still managed to not only not harm those around him (including the endangered child and myself) but also actively worked to keep his coworkers safe, as a real hero should.

Mochida Shiori, a reporter for Hero-Spiracy, claims that with All Might retired, criminal activity has the potential to hit an all-time high and that the only thing stopping these potential criminals is Endeavor, a "necessary evil" as Mochida refers to him (Mochida 2019). If Japanese pro heroes are truly so weak and the system so poorly designed that this would occur, then the system is defunct and needs to be dismantled and rebuilt entirely. If the number one hero protecting the populace is actually a villain on the side of the law, then something is undeniably wrong.

It is not an opinion but a fact that Endeavor has done many things that would be considered unacceptable and even heinous by the standards of other countries. He has gotten away with these things simply because he is the ideal product of the Japanese hero industry. Just because the things he's done are legal do not make them morally or ethically right. Hero society in this nation needs to be fixed, starting with its figurehead, Endeavor. If the Japanese government is too cowardly to bring Endeavor to justice as he deserves, then there will be no other option but to involve the United Nations, as surely the continued protection of a villainous person such as Endeavor is a sign of corruption and incompetence. Martial law under the rule of the United Nations is preferable to the continuation of this current blatant corruption and savagery.

Works Cited

Abarai, Kazuko. "The Crime of Necessity." Hero Law, vol. 7, no. 5, ser. 4, 2 Dec. 2017, p. 14. 4.

Fujimoto, Shinzu. "Councillor Watanabe's View on Hero Regulation." Kyoto Weekly, 15 Oct. 2018, p. A4.

Goldberg, Maya. "Why You Shouldn't Be a Loose Cannon." HeroDict, 30 May 2014, /why-you-shouldn-t-be-a.

Jones, M. "Modern American Heroes." HeroDict, 24 Aug. 2016, /modern-american-heroes.

Kotaru, Homura. "Vilification or Volunteer Work." Hero Law, vol. 6, no. 1, ser. 4, 4 Apr. 2017, pp. 21–22. 4.

Midoriya, Izuku. "American Hero Licensing Requirements." 20 Aug. 2019.

Midoriya, Izuku. "Taxpayers and the American Hero Industry." 20 Aug. 2019.

Midoriya, Izuku. "Taxpayers and the Japanese Hero Industry." 20 Aug. 2019.

Midoriya, Izuku. "Sasagawa's Encounter with Endeavor." 19 Aug. 2019.

Midoriya, Izuku. "Endeavor's Anonymous Sidekick." 19 Aug. 2019.

Mochida, Shiori. "Endeavor Is a Necessary Evil- Here's Why." Hero-Spiracy, 7 May 2019, .

"Restraint Laws | UN Peacemaker." United Nations, United Nations, 2019, restraint-laws.

Yamamoto, Ken. "The Truth About Shadowmaster." The Truth About Shadowmaster, Tokyo, 14 June 2011.