BONES needs to give My Hero Academia season 8 a new timeslot, and it's obvious why

Modified Feb 05, 2025 16:36 GMT

BONES needs to give My Hero Academia season 8 a new timeslot, and it — Deku as seen in the My Hero Academia anime (Image via BONES)

With My Hero Academia season 8 set to air in October 2025, fans of the series are excited for what's to come in the series' final season. While many fans criticized Studio Bones for how they treated the anime in the previous season, this wasn't the case for the seventh season, as the animation studio maintained its production quality in the penultimate season.

While maintaining its production quality, Studio Bones also toned down on its censorship compared to the source material. Going into the final season, fans would have appreciated such a move as they would not want the anime to cut any scenes. Unfortunately, the anime's early timeslot and remaining source material content could force Bones to start censoring content again.

Disclaimer: This article may contain spoilers from the My Hero Academia manga and reflects the author's opinion.

My Hero Academia season 8 needs to become a late-night anime

Deku as seen in My Hero Academia (Image via BONES)

As fans must have observed, since My Hero Academia's first season, the anime has been airing in Japan in the evening. The first season was broadcast at 5 PM JST on Sundays, while the remaining seasons were aired at 5:30 PM JST on Saturdays.

The anime aired in the evenings because, unlike dark shonen anime like Jujutsu Kaisen or Dandadan, My Hero Academia was a general shonen anime targeted toward the "young boys" demographic. Hence, an anime on superheroes and villains seemed ideal for the timeslot and aired on such a schedule. However, this cannot be the case for the anime's final season as the source material has already revealed the mature concepts set to be depicted in the upcoming anime.

All For One as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

As revealed in the manga, the upcoming My Hero Academia season 8 is set to showcase several mature scenes, including All For One's origin and his defeat at All Might's hands. Both scenes are very graphic and should not be viewed by the generic "Shonen" audience.

Keeping that in mind, there is a high chance that Japanese television broadcast guidelines would not allow the content to be aired at the same evening timeslot. Hence, Studio Bones may again censor the anime to adhere to the guidelines set by the officials.

All Might as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

Considering that the upcoming eighth season will be the anime's final season, any form of censorship is bound to become heavily criticized by the audience. Thus, the only realistic way for Bones to approach the anime's final season would be to opt for an alternate broadcast timeslot.

As anime fans must have observed, most popular series in Japan are released around midnight due to the possible presence of mature content. Similarly, with My Hero Academia season 8 anime set to feature graphic content, TOHO Animation may need to work with Studio Bones and find a new timeslot for My Hero Academia. Unless the two companies arrange for the same, fans can expect a lot of censorship in the anime's final installment.