Heroes/Hero Association

The Hero Association (ヒーロー協会, Hīrō Kyōkai) is an organization founded by the multi-millionaire Agoni that manages all of the cities' heroes. Agoni has also established the National Hero Registry (ヒーロー名簿, Hīrō meibo), the database that embraces every recognized hero. The Association uses a class system, with four classes and individual numbered ranks within those classes (Classes C, B, A and S), to organize every hero accordingly. They are now opposed by the Neo Heroes.

History
Three years before the current storyline, the Hero Association was founded by multi-millionaire Agoni, whose grandchild was attacked by a mysterious being and saved by Saitama. After hearing about what happened, Agoni came up with the idea and founded the Hero Association and the National Hero Registry from private funds of businesses and donations from the public.

When it was founded, the Hero Association was initially divided from C to A class and similarly were the monsters, for example, the disaster level demon was not called "demon", but simply "mysterious being that could only be defeated by a group of A class".

The creation of the S-Class only came about as the Hero Association staff noticed certain heroes were able to consistently defeat monsters where other top ranked heroes failed. To prevent rare talents from being hidden, they formed a special class. This special class specialize in combat ability and is treated on the same level as an emergency army division. This new class came to be known as the S-Class.

After the incident with Garou and the Monster Association, the organization falls under threat of replacement by the Neo Heroes. They also find themselves faced with a lot of corruption scandals regarding the illegal activities of donors, employees, as well as the fact that they tend to neglect controlling their S-Class heroes, especially Tatsumaki, in term of collateral damage caused during their heroic activities. Furthermore, the rising number of losing battles between heroes and Mysterious Being has caused the public to lose their faith in the competency of the organization. Finally, some people are now aware of the dark side of the organization, in terms of some of the more arrogant, inept, and violent heroes who now begin to pose a bigger threat to the organization and the general public as a whole.

National Hero Registry
The National Hero Registry is a database that contains the names of every officially recognized hero. Any person not registered in the National Hero Registry is not recognized as a hero and, as such, is always looked upon as a delusional weirdo, regardless of how many times they saved the world.

Hero Entrance Exam
To become an official Hero of the Hero Association, a candidate must pass an entrance exam. The entrance exam consists of two parts:

1. Fitness Test - The fitness portion of the test tests agility and physical strength. The known components of this portion of the exam included: side-to-side jumps (for 30 seconds), a 1500 meter run, weight-lifting, and squat jumps. The anime version of the fitness portion adds shot put, whack-a-mole, and punching machine components.

2. Written Test - The actual content of the written test is currently unknown, but Genos referred to both the Fitness and Written Tests as a, "...walk in the park." Genos also said of the written test that it, "is too easy to be called a test..." The written test is designed to assess the candidate's "sense of justice"; one staff member of the Association mentioned that it had an essay section.

Passing the Entrance Exam has the following actions:


 * 1) A hero is officially recognized by the Hero Association.
 * 2) A hero is entitled to the Association's money collected from donations in proportion to the tasks completed.
 * 3) An "ability" rank will be assigned based on the results of the exam (see "Classes" section, below).
 * 4) A hero will be eligible to be voted upon by the public in the hero popularity ranking.

Upon reaching A Class:


 * 1) Everybody in the A Class needs to do the teacher seminary after the heroes are hired, like Sneck with Saitama and Genos.

Income
The Hero Association makes money to sustain themselves through donation of the people across the country as gratitude for protecting them from Mysterious Beings and funding from various billionaires like Agoni or Narinki and business organizations with the purpose of generating good reputation and building positive PR in which the latter is the primary source of income.

Classes
Heroes are categorized into four different classes. C-Class is associated with the recognized weakest of all heroes, whilst S-Class is related to the recognized strongest of all heroes:
 * S-Class, with a total of 17 heroes
 * A-Class, with a total of 38 heroes
 * B-Class, with a total of 101 heroes
 * C-Class, with a total of 390 heroes

Thus there are a total of 546 heroes. To proceed to the next class up, a hero must be ranked number 1 in their current class, at which point they can choose to stay at the top of their class, or move up and start at the bottom of the next class up. In some cases, such as with Genos, a hero can be put directly into a higher class if their score on the entrance exam is high enough. To rise in the ranks, points are allocated based on the heroes achievements. The exact criteria for how the system works is largely unknown but it depends on their combat strength, monster suppression, contribution to the public, public popularity and more. Dealing with higher disaster levels nets the hero more points to rank up. The Hero Association evaluation staff assigns how many points to give each hero with Sweet Mask being one of those members.

Hero Culture
Due to the ranking system, it has led to a competitive culture. To retain their ranks, factions were created within the heroes. Most notably is Blizzard Group led by Fubuki. They largely dominate the B-Class and prevent lone heroes from rising to the top whether through violence or persuasion. They specialise in small but consistent heroic duties to retain their ranks. Another group is the C-Class Hero Alliance. C-Class heroes often work together to perform their hero activities due to their lack of individual talent. The Tank Topper Army led by Tanktop Master is another faction that has members across the hero ranks. Atomic Samurai also leads a small group with his fellow disciples. Sweet Mask is an unusual case where he is allied more with the adoring civilians and Hero Association Staff than other heroes. This allows him certain privileges other heroes do not have. Saitama is also unintentionally creating his own group as people are drawn to him due to his incredible power.

There is a maintained balance among the ranked heroes, in which the Hero Association tries very hard to enforce, since if a low ranked hero (mostly Saitama) is witnessed by people managing to defeat monsters with Demon to Dragon Disaster level, there will be an imbalance in the hero members in the association. According to an official in the association, imbalances in the hero members are more serious than Dragon Disaster monsters. As a result, it is indicated that this is the reason why Saitama progresses so slowly in climbing up the ranks, despite being witnessed doing outrageous feats of strengths, such as killing the Deep Sea King with one blow or destroying a meteor with one hit. The noticeable evidence for this fact was when Saitama broke all records in the physical exam with large margin, he was placed in the bottom of C class mainly due to his bad score in written exam, despite the fact that the person in charge of the entrance exam for heroes complimented that he has the strength of a god after examining all the testing equipment being wrecked by him.

Another factor is type match-ups. A prime example is when Lightning Genji fought against Maiko Plasma and Electric Catfish Man. Since they are electric proof, they rendered his primary weapons, electric batons, useless.

In terms of unfairness, according to Death Gatling, the class system of the Hero Association is notoriously unfair to low rank heroes, since most of the S-class heroes are the only ones that receive the best treatment and privileges in the organization, ranging from higher salary, physical supports, as well as good publication for their activities to the public. As a result, no matter how much hard work and great achievements low rank heroes can put in during their line of work, they're seemingly ignored by the public as well as Hero Association as a whole. They also rarely receive recognition from the Association to climb their rank, or are neglected by the public due to lack of publication of their deeds, since the Hero Association wants to keep the balances in the rankings in check, as well as the fact that the public only cares about rank and not the true power of an individual, the prime example being Saitama. As a result, non-S-class heroes like the A-class, B-class, and C-class heroes sometimes have to risk their life to gain recognition from both the public and the Hero Association by doing incredible things. A good example is Death Gatling's operation to lure out Garou, since if they manage to capture a Monster that defeated two S-class heroes, they will receive great recognition from both the public and the Hero Association.

'''The following section contains Webcomic spoilers. You have been warned manga-only readers.'''

No matter the case, the organization is largely unaware of Saitama's god-like power, and the factor of balance in hero rankings is also the reason why the Neo Heroes oppose them, since they think it is unfair for the hero.

Criticism on the Hero Association
The Hero Association is not without its faults as some people believe. The public heavily rely on the services of heroes to fight off dangers and should they fail, the consequences are disastrous. Despite exceptionally powerful fighters in the hero ranks, there are regular citizens that outperform heroes such as Suiryu and Bomb and calls into question their ability to defend the public. Further trust is lost when monsters simultaneously attacked multiple cities leaving the heroes stretched thin and unable to defend properly. Showmanship that contributes to the heroes popularity or discouraging another heroes' popularity are encouraged due to how hero ranking system works and has skewed heroes priority into retaining their ranks rather than performing heroic activities.

Power imbalance among the Hero Association staff and public services also seem to be present with McCoy refusing to send help battle a monster unless the police begged for it. '''The following section contains Webcomic spoilers. You have been warned manga-only readers.''' These issues all culminated in the creation of a rival hero organization known as the Neo Heroes.

Staff
Staff Members=

The Hero Association Staff are the people who send reports to the public whether it's a monster, natural disaster, or any other crisis.

Trivia

 * The hero examination is free but occurs randomly.
 * The "fighting ability" ranking in each hero section, is according to their own power. For example the fighting ability of Tatsumaki refers to her psychic power but that of Superalloy Darkshine refers to his physical power and as for someone who uses some kind of weapon to attack (Child Emperor, Metal Bat) it refers to his/her weapon ability.