Often (irl) I talk about how the media and fan reaction to The Hunger Games played out exactly what the series criticized. Merchandise centered around Capital fashion, all the popular coverage was about the romance, and people wanted THG to be just an action movie and were annoyed when Mockingjay didn’t have enough action to it. While this is something you could criticize people for, it’s really just fascinating to observe. THG was observing trends in western culture, and then the reactions proved the series right.
Observing popular reaction to Spinner in My Hero Academia feels like this too
Oh wow! This got attention all the sudden. I would like to add—this isn’t just the fandom, though it is very present in the fandom. Obviously he gets sidelined for not being the pretty anime boy, and that makes sense! Let’s face it, a lot of people just want fan content about the anime dudes they think are hot, and it is fine if that’s not the one people will accuse you of being a scalie over. People have preferences and they have stigmas, and not everyone wants smut or pretty boy art of the lizard man. No one is asking you to, either. But it is interesting that Spinner functions as someone who is disliked and sidelined for his appearance within the story but also in fandom.
People view him as a lizard, not a human. Within BNHA, Spinner is completely human. Not part animal, human. But much fandom work seeks to make him more animalistic or does that thing where you call someone “the blonde, the hero, the man,” or for Spinner, “the lizard”. In world, this should be a slur, but people do it all the time in fanfiction. It is what it is. To the viewer, he’s the lizard guy. No harm no foul, but it is exactly what happens to him in-world. He’s seen as lizard before human.
He’s also got a quieter backstory, unlike Dabi or Shigaraki, he’s a villain (less popular than hero characters), and he looks like a lizard-person. So, despite being a main villain, narrating MVA, and being Shigaraki’s right hand man, in fanon, Spinner gets sidelined. Dabi usually gains importance to Shigaraki to balance this out. Again, this is just people giving importance the characters they enjoy more, and while that’s fine, it is showing exactly what we see in canon. Spinner is weak, he looks different, and he isn’t considered important by the heroes. (All Might leaves him out when he recounts who all they have to face, which Shouji sort-of points out.) Overall, Spinner is considered less of a threat by some characters in the manga, and in fanon, he’s suddenly is less important even among the villains because most people aren’t interested in him. So Spinner is less popular with fans, leading to Studio Bones feeling like he isn’t as necessary to the anime adaptation. He’s forgettable, because he has a weak quirk and therefore doesn’t have a big fight, and this is shonen, so we give preference to the big fights and trim down the other stuff (conversations, confrontations that aren’t through punching). He’s not popular, so who all will really miss him? Spinner therefore is cut out of much of season 5. With him being more minor in the anime, a lot of season 5 merchandising considers him probably not as important or popular and less and less chance of gaining popularity since he gets so little screentime, so he gets left out of merchandise. This makes sense for companies wanting to make money on merch.
[Image description: a black with purple small backpack. The front says “League” in all capital dark purple letters and pictures Twice, Toga, Kurogiri, Shigaraki, Dabi, and Mister Compress over a black background. The side says “Shigaraki, Kurogiri, Dabi, Toga, Twice, Mr. Compress” in all caps white text over black background as well. End description]
Anyway, Spinner gets sidelined because he doesn’t get cool fights in the manga, so fanboys won’t care about his power levels, he’s not conventionally pretty or sexy so fandom won’t care about him, and when fans don’t care as much the anime won’t care as much, so he won’t gain fans with the anime-only My Hero fans. With middling interest from fans, Spinner gets left off of merchandise, making him seem like a much more tertiary character when, at this point, he is one of the only members of the original League still active. He’s being set up to lead an army while struggling over what he should prioritize–All for One’s demands and Shigaraki’s raw desires, or what Shigaraki really needs. He’s probably the closest person to Shigaraki at this point.
All this to say that the fans line up pretty perfectly with people in world, too. Most people just like the heroes, but a good number of people sympathize with the villains, which is a growing population as time goes on and their cause gains more traction and more sympathy. People who look less “strange” and more human get more sympathy. People who are more powerful have more promise, or at least with fans, more hype. That makes sense, we’re all only human and we enjoy what we enjoy. The heroes are easier to sympathize with since they are more approachable and main characters, the people who look closer to conventionally attractive align closer to with what, well, most people find attractive. Complex, terrible, heart-wrenching backstories are more mysterious or at least they are very memorable. You think about those and talk about those.
Spinner is quiet, he looks like a lizard, and he isn’t physically strong. And we, as fans, completely fulfill the point of that. It would be remarkable if we ever changed, but I doubt that such a thing could ever happen. Spinner will stay relatively unpopular, as he might stay a complex figure to the public within BNHA.
In the end, fans tend to hype up power and looks. The lack of popularity Spinner has? The reality of fandom. He’s weak and he’s not conventionally attractive.
So yeah. No one can really help it. It’s just kinda how fans are, but it also shows what’s wrong with fandom—a character has to be powerful and sexy or super-cute to be well-loved. Maybe Deku, if he couldn’t punch with the force of God and wasn’t uwu cute, wouldn’t be the “loved by millions” protag he is. Maybe he would’ve been like Spinner and the manga would be much shorter
