I rewatched your short about the superhero skin for jayce, and you bringing up iconic hero designs got me curious as to what your thoughts are about the character designs in something like my hero academia
(specifically I was thinking about all might but that might have something to do with the fact heās probably my favorite)
I mean honestly, if I have a criticism of All Might it's that he sort of has the Superhero Jayce problem that his costume is more designed to be a visual parody/homage to western superhero costumes than it is designed to be All Might's costume.
So you've got the so-tight-you-can-count-his-abs spandex, the Superhero Boots, the bold colors, and visual signifiers of American-ness from his blonde hair and tanned skin to the red white and blue primary colors in his costume, right?
So all of this says to me "THIS IS AN AMERICAN SUPERHERO ARCHETYPE WHO IS AMERICAN FROM THE USA HOWDY HOWDY BANG BANG GUNS HOT DOGS AND OIL WARS", but what I feel is missing are all the themes and ideas that are specific to Toshinori - wanting to be a symbol of hope, a promise of a better tomorrow, the heroic spirit of being of service to other people... that's all a bit absent.
Those things come through way better in his depowered, emaciated form, and the ways that the contrast between the two is employed. It highlights the artifice and fragility of hero society, something which the story... well I've not read it since the raid on Chisaki's base so I dunno how well it's executed on the theme, but the story certainly seemed to have ambitions address the fakeness and fragility of the system of celebrity superheroes as "keepers of the peace" and All Might's two forms do a good job embodying the duality of that.
Hero society creates villains, there's a corrupting rot at the heart of it, and it's eating the symbol of peace from the inside out, and the "Symbol of Peace" is ultimately a false front projected by someone who cannot possibly sustain it. All of that works very well.
But his costume specifically? Eeeh. It doesn't really feel like a costume that was designed to be an iconic representation of the hero himself (think Super-Man's S, Spider-Man's webbed suit, Batman's black cowl and glowing eyes, etc), so much as a very broad, vague thematic statement for the story itself to work around - which is a perfectly good use of a character design, I just don't think it expresses the character wearing it as much as good superhero costumes usually do.
Again, I've not read MHA for a long time, so take my criticisms with a grain of salt, I might have a completely different take if I re-read it.
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