My Hero Academia is one of the most popular manga and anime currently in circulation, having amassed fans all over the world. And like most franchises with any mass popularity, it's inspired a wealth of fan fiction that allows the general public to take the cast and stories and create all-new adventures with them.
More recently, this has resulted in a particular subgenre of fan fic, ones in which the protagonists all watch the events of... their own show. For as irreverent as this sounds, it's actually the fulfillment and culmination of everything that fan fic allows. Here's a look at all of the My Hero Academia fan fiction stories in which Class 1-A becomes an audience to its own anime, and why there will only be more of them.
My Hero Academia Future Fan Fic
In one such fan fic, Izuku Midoriya's class is forced to watch the My Hero Academia anime in a theater, with their Quirks all deactivated so that they can't counterattack against the person holding them there. This story has the whole event framed as a sort of educational or training exercise, with the class made to watch their future selves' action in order to understand what to do in drastic, potentially deadly situations. Another similar story crosses over with an unrelated but very similar series, RWBY. Characters from both universes observe Deku's growth as a hero and try to apply it to themselves.
There are loads more of these stories, many of which take place after sports festivals for some reason. This may stem from how said sports festivals are usually a cap after major events in My Hero Academia, so the cast sitting around and watching "future episodes" can be seen as a sort of preview for the next season.
Why 'Watching the Future' Fan Fic is Appealing
The odd appeal of these fan fics might be more obvious for anyone who reads or writes fan fiction. Fan fic allows fictional characters to be taken out of their usual constraints to see how they would respond to certain situations. Within the particular subgenre of "Watching the Future," some stories take a comedic route, a la something like Mystery Science Theater. In this setup, the characters watch their own show to sort of laugh at and lampoon each other's actions, essentially making the stories into retreads of the episodes featuring exclusive commentary from the cast. This is especially the case if they're watching past events of their particular series.
Prospective viewing fan fic, however, has them looking at future events and are generally more serious. These allow characters to comment on their actions, but the commentary typically has them in awe of how strong they become or who they become romantically involved with. Or, they may also shriek in horror at the prospect of their own deaths, with the information being shown to them so as to possibly avoid such a fate. The author may then spin off this idea into another fan fic where said characters successfully avoid their original destiny.
There's also the element of breaking the fourth wall to reflect on how far not only the characters, but the show itself has come. This is similar to the role of a clip show or 100th episode celebration in a TV series, albeit one which is meant to interact with and further progress the story, even if it isn't canon.
The number of My Hero Academia fan fics that go down this route will likely increase as the manga begins to come to its conclusion. This will likely involve the heroes, probably plucked from the manga/anime's beginning, all looking into the future and seeing how their stories end. This is definitely a recipe for a lot of creative opportunities, even if the concept is more than a bit strange.
