Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 171

 The kids are all grown up. But two of them still need a little push. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 170

 The story is over, but the journey never ends. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 169

The best way to change the world is to support each other. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 168

 Everyone adjusts to the new normal. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, All For One and One For All clashed one last time. Spurred on by his friends and allies, Izuku rushed AFO in an attempt to defeat the Demon Lord once and for all. Everyone still standing contributed to getting him past AFO’s mass of tentacles and spines to get a final hit in. He was almost stopped by Kurogiri. The last High End Nomu teleported to his master to beg AFO to return Tomura Shigaraki as Spinner was waiting for him. Bakugo came in with the last save to open the way for Izuku. He struck the villain hard in the chest and almost destroyed him, but AFO rallied one last time. Izuku charge again, saying that AFO is no Demon Lord, he’s just a sad lonely man. AFO gets a vision of Yoichi in the mindscape and he begs his brother to stay, but Yoichi warns him that this is the end. The other OFA Wielders and Tomura manifest and they lead a one-punch charge on AFO’s mind. Izuku and Tomura’s fists connect as they both strike their version of AFO. This lets the boys have a farewell, with Tomura asking him to send his goodbye to Spinner, his most loyal friend. The final shot of the episode was Izuku punching upwards into the sky as the sun breaks through the clouds. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Meryl the weather girl in Washington state. She tries to ‘apologize’ for her ‘outbursts’ last week, but her director is keeping her on a tight leash, warning her to not do any more adlibs. She pivots to saying that it’ll be a windy day and wondering how that wind will affect this battle-weary world.

 

We jump over to Japan where the construction to repair all the damage that the battle caused is underway. Some kids run up and marvel at all the heroes like Cementoss and Salaam the Egyptian hero helping with the effort. Izuku takes over the narration, saying it’s been a week since the battle and Japan is finally getting to repairs that have been delayed since the Jaku incident. Once the fighting stopped, foreign aid came pouring in, particularly from the US. One of the construction workers marvels at how much easier the job is with all the Quirks they’ve got access to. One hero throws up a holographic display of the building they’re throwing together to give the construction crew a reference.

 

Shifting to the hospital, we enter the Bakugos room, where that lizard Doctor tells Bakugo and his parents that his injuries were really bad and his body will never be exactly the same again. He’d been watching the fighting and knew that Bakugo’s injuries would be bad before operating. They did their best to repair his right arm, but the bones were badly busted up. The doctor says that he could consider getting a weaponized prosthetic like Mirko uses, but Bakugo gives that a pass. He needs his arm to use his Quirk after all. He refuses to accept that Izuku might surpass him while he’s like this, so demands that he start physical therapy right now. The doctor says he can train ‘lightly’ for now. The doctor says that he’s impressed, in a scolding sort of way, that Bakugo did so much with a broken arm and an emergency stitched heart, so he just needs to rest for now.

 

We shift over a few rooms to Izuku’s. The green-haired young hero wakes up to find All Might laid up beside him in his own hospital bed. He says that Tsukauchi pulled strings with the staff to get them into the same room. They check on each other. All Might says that the doctors told him they’d never put so many screws in one body. And Izuku says he can feel his hands a little. Izuku laments that he wasn’t able to save Tenko, despite everything he did. All Might tells him that he did his best and that he’s pretty sure he saved Tenko’s soul even if he didn’t save his life. Izuku remembers that he died with a smile and a word of encouragement to do his damn best, so All Might is probably right. Izuku says that while he transferred most of OFA into Shigaraki to try to stop him, he still has embers of it left. Bakugo then bursts into the room, dragging his IV and parents with him. Mitsuki apologizes for her son, saying that he refused to stay in his room until he got to check on All Might and Izuku. Bakugo is horrified to hear that Izuku is down to embers, knowing that that means his power will fade. Izuku puts on a brave face, saying that he doesn’t regret his choice and he got to live as a hero for a while. Bakugo remembers all of their interactions, how they shifted from an angry to friendly rivalry and how he told Izuku to not let him, Bakugo, surpass him. He starts sobbing, admitting that he’d convinced himself that after the battle, Izuku would get back to normal and they’d keep going like before, pushing each other like they’d had all their lives. Izuku says to not be like that, as he still has the ember so they’ve got some time left. All Might tells him that he’s lived his dream, that he’s been a hero since running in to help Bakugo and that he’s been encouraging people to be their best selves. He also compliments Bakugo for being a great hero and the three share a metaphorical fist bump. Narration Izuku says that he thought that he world would live in harmony without fighting, but that’s not how life works. He admits that we need to set up a few more things if we’re to chart a bright future. We get flashes of Uraraka and Shoto in their hospital rooms as the scene shifts.

 

We shift to some weeks later when Izuku, mostly recovered but sporting a new hairstyle as about 25% of his head had to be shaved for his various surgeries, heads back to UA. Narrator Izuku tells us that in June they finally hold the graduation ceremony for the 3^rd years. The big 3 get their diplomas, and react as you’d expect, Amajiki is nervous and Nejire is boisterous. Present Mic starts DJing for the graduates, because of course he does. Amajiki asks Nejire how her injures are, and she says they’re bad, but when she’s happy she barely notices them. Amajiki says that’s thanks to Mirio looking out for them when the fighting got real bad at the Coffin in the Sky. Izuku compliments Principal Nezu, the little weasel used his notoriety and influence all over the world to secure aide and help set up Japan for the work they’d need to do to repair the country. Mirio gets to make a speech, he compliments everyone for their work and that they’ve still got a lot of work to do. He encourages them to make a world where everyone can smile and tell jokes again. He phases out of his clothes and into the ground. He shouts “See ya!” as he bursts through a blank wall they had set up, leading that giant golden head tank thingy one of the other 3^rd years used back at the cultural festival.

 

Izuku and his classmates get moved up to Class 2A. Aizawa comes in and says he’ll be their homeroom teacher again. That isn’t how things are usually done, but this is an unusual year, and the students are just happy to have him again. Bakugo makes a snide comment and Sero asks if he shouldn’t be in the hospital still. Bakugo replies he just needs to take it easy for a while and he’ll be fine, and they need to be all together for as long as they can. Aizawa tells them to quiet down and calls in someone. It’s Aoyama. He tells his friends that he’s dropping out of AU. No one is happy with this, but they’ll respect his decision. Aoyama reveals that Tsukauchi and Nezu said that he could stay, but he’s choosing to take responsibility for his actions. He is dropping out, as he only enrolled in UA to be a spy… but he’s not giving up hope on being a hero. He swears to his friends that he’ll find his own way forward, and someday he’ll stand with them, head held high as a hero. Aizawa nods in approval. Aoyama opens his jacket and makes a lightshow to tell his friends to not be sad. He then introduces their new classmate, Shinzo! Everyone rushes over to welcome him… which upsets Aoyama as he wanted their attention for a little longer, and he starts spinning and firing off more lights. These hit Hagakure, which cause her powers to glitch out and make everyone see her for the first time. Ashido gives her a tackle hug, saying she’s so cute, much to Hagakure’s embarrassment. Mineta tries to get in on that too, but Aizawa tangles him in his scarf and tells everyone to sit. Third year student Mawata Fuwa comes in and informs them that until further notice, 2^nd and 3^rd year Hero course students are helping out with repairs to Japan. She’ll be their point of contact for their various jobs. They’ll do repair work and general PR to try to rebuild the public’s confidence in heroes. Shoto points out that they’ll have to work hard as AFO originally came to power in a time like this. Fuwa heads out, but not before revealing she was in Aizawa’s homeroom back in the day. She says that he was a tough teacher back then, too (two years ago, sweetie, don’t talk like you’re in your 30s) but he taught her class how to be real heroes.

 

After class, Izuku and his friends head out. They tease each other a bit, Sero saying that Uraraka should give another speech despite that embarrassing her the first time, and Uraraka saying that she hopes Izuku’s hair can grow in again soon. She’s clearly putting on a brave face, but Izuku doesn’t get a chance to talk to her as they walk out. Izuku asks if Shoto will be able to make it to the party later, and he says he’ll try but he’s got a busy day. Shoto heads out to see his family, telling everyone that he’s going to be fine.

 

The house of Todoroki gathers together. They’ve all looked like they’ve seen better days. Endeavor is covered head to toe in bandages, and due to his injuries is confined to a wheelchair. The rest of the family are doing better, but Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo all have serious burns as well. They all tell each other that no one ‘must’ be here, but they all agree they need to be. They head in and find Toya in a high-tech medical cell. He’s basically a skeleton with just a bit of flesh left on him. The doctor says that he’s on a slow march towards death, they are just trying to keep him in a reasonable level of comfort. They say that he can talk but only for a few minutes. Dabi makes up, sees his family and makes a crack about him being the latest tourist attraction. Endeavor tells him they need to talk about the future. I should probably stop using his codename. Enji reveals to his oldest that he’s retiring from hero work. He’s lost the use of his legs and his right arm, so he couldn’t keep fighting even if he wanted to. He says that he’d have done it anyway after the war. He compliments his oldest son’s flames, saying they were hotter than any he’d faced before and that he incinerated Endeavor. Dabi makes a few more jabs about it being a little late to flatter him. Enji takes responsibility for what happened to Dabi, saying that he knows that his son spent years trying to get his attention, but Enji never looked his way when he should. He knows the fire burning in Dabi is his fault. He reveals that he watches the video that Dabi released to discredit him every day. He promises that he’ll be there to see Dabi everyday, and begs his son to just talk to him. Enji also promises that his siblings might come by as well. Rei and Fuyumi beg him to use the time they have left to be together as best they can. Dabi actually starts tearing up, but his heartrate also goes up, so the doctors say they need to cut this visitation short. Shoto asks just one more question. He asks his big brother what his favorite food is. Dabi can’t answer, and they pull him back into his pod. As the Todoroki’s start to leave, Dabi whispers “Soba.”  Shoto says that that’s his favorite too. Dabi starts crying again, and he whispers, “I’m sorry,” to his baby brother.

 

Outside, Natsuo reaffirms that his feelings haven’t changed. He’s cutting contact with his family, he’s proposing to his girlfriend soon, there won’t be a wedding and they don’t get to meet her. Enji tells his son that he understands. It’s also revealed that Fuyumi has quit her job and is changing careers with the help of a parent of one of her former students. Natsuo asks if they haven’t done enough yet. Enji says that he intends to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for the harm he’s done. Enji assures Natsuo that he has done enough, but as his father he intends to keep going. Natsuo says that’ll be a hell of a way to live. Enji remembers when Dabi charged him and says that they’ll dance together in hell, and just says that ‘That’s the dance I agreed to.” Natsuo compliments his dad on sounding cool just that once before offering his brother and sister a ride back to town. Shoto runs over to the car but turns to tell his parents that he has his friends with him, and with them, he’ll get to be the person he wants to be. That makes them both smile. Enji’s former sidekicks, who are his ride home, start causing a scene and Rei mentions that this is indeed their hell. Enji’s phone goes off and she shows her husband that Hawks is checking in on him. We shift over to Hawks, who is putting on a brave face, and reveals that he’s the new Public Safety Commission president. That’s a good spot for the depowered hero. The credits roll.

 

I’ll start by saying that I like that this is a multi-part epilogue, as it lets Horikoshi tie off a lot of loose ends and makes the story feel more complete. Getting to see Bakugo tear up upon learning that despite the fight being over, things aren’t going to be like they were before was a great moment. He and Izuku have had a turbulent relationship, to say the least, but after his year of emotional growth, Bakugo finally understands that Izuku has made him better all this time. He accepts now that they’d spent most of their lives pushing each other to one degree or another and that he’s going to miss that when it’s gone. I like that Izuku puts on a brave face for him and says he doesn’t regret his choices. I know that’s true, my green boy is selfless to a T, but even as he smiles we know that he’s going to miss his powers. All Might giving them a ‘you did good,’ speech was also nice. Him thinking a lot of what he said last episode makes it clear that he’s been trying to put this into words for a while now. All Might knows what its like to be a hero and to walk away from it, so I think that makes his words more impactful. It was good seeing all the students back in their class again, it feels like a decade since they’d done normal school stuff. The changing of students will probably be a bit hard for class 2A, but Aoyama insisting that he’ll still be a hero in his own right takes some of the sting out of it. Plus, let’s be real, Shinzo absolutely deserves the spot. The kid has busted his ass catching up to the Hero Course students and has shown that he’s got all the right qualities to be a hero. And it was nice seeing Hagakure’s face again. It was sweet that Ashido’s immediate reaction was to hug her and say she’s cute. I like that we’re setting up something with Uraraka. As I said above, she’s clearly putting on a brave face to hide whatever emotions that she’s feeling. I hope Izuku gets it out of her soon. And now onto the heavy stuff, the Todorokis. I think this is the best way to end this little subplot. Toya is contained, in pain but they’re doing their best to ease his suffering. He hasn’t forgiven his father for what he’s done, but from those last few words to Shoto, I think he will spend whatever time he has left opening up to them. I like that Enji admitted to Toya that he’d done wrong, and that, ultimately, Toya got what he wanted. Endeavor is dead, and Enji will live with the consequences. It seems like a good-news-bad-news situation, in that this tragedy seems to have allowed Enji and Rei to reconcile. She’s at least able to be in the same room as him without having a panic attack, which is progress. Natsuo announcing that he’s sticking to a no contact policy after this is a bit sad, but I do think that it’s the right choice for him. Their family suffered a lot because of Enji’s choices, so he’s decided he won’t be a part of it anymore. I like that it seems like Natsuo is leaving on agreeable terms. It allows enough ambiguity that those that hope he never talks to Enji ever again can have their moment but also give romantics like me the slight hope that maybe, someday, Enji will do enough to earn a place in his middle son’s life again. As Natsuo said, it won’t be easy, but the possibility exists. I like that Enji intentionally made the callback to agreeing to dance with Dabi in hell. He’ll dance with his oldest for as long as he can. And I liked the reveal that Hawks has found a way to stay active without his powers. The former hitman of the Public Safety Commission as it’s president is… weird, but it feels like the right spot for him. We’ve got three more episodes of epilogue stuff to cover, so strap in. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 167

 It all comes down to one final punch!

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku finally broke through to Tenko. His intense empathy and the intense love Nana had for her wayward grandson broke through the anger and abuse Tenko suffered under Kotaro. This was a good news, bad new, and worse news situation. Good news, Tenko had an emotional break though. The bad news, it cost Izuku his hands as he grabbed Tenko and held on until Decay took his hands. And the worse news, the shifting in Tomura/Tenko’s mind allowed AFO’s Vestige to reassert control of him. Confident and smug, AFO revealed that he orchestrated Tomura’s whole life. He met Kotaro Shimura and pretended to be his friend. He encouraged Kotaro to have a second kid, to grow sterner and more authoritarian in his parenting, stole Tomura’s original quirk, and years later gave him Decay. It was a modified version of Overhaul, taken from a DNA sample of an orphan boy that grew into Overhaul. Using his new control of Tomura’s mind and body, AFO reshaped the body to better match his ideal He added a hand mask as well, for some reason. Once complete, he went to take care of Izuku, who lay handless on the ground. Izuku is saved by the timely arrival of Sero, Ojiro and Sato. They’d been dropped off by Aizawa. In a flashback, we learn that Aizawa and Present Mic broke through to Shirakumo withing Kurogiri and warped around getting back. Eri, wanting to do something to help Izuku, broke off her horn and gave it to Aizawa, assuring him that this would help. He used the horn on Izuku, which caused his hands to regenerate. He’s joined by the half of Class 1A that was still standing, and they all prepared to take AFO down once and for all. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Izuku sits up and marvels at seeing all of his friends, fellow students, and the remaining heroes gathering around him. They all agree that they can’t call themselves heroes and stand by while Izuku fights alone. They let Mineta have the big line, the little pervert announces that “we are here!”

 

All For One isn’t all that impressed, since he’s surrounded by badly beaten children and B-list and below heroes. He gives us a slight explanation as to why he still exists. He concedes that he probably should have been destroyed when Izuku started hurling OFA users at Tomura’s mind to break through the metaphorical leaden wall, but sensing Yoichi’s disappearance saved him. Losing the object of his obsession left an empty void in his chest that no amount of empathetic connection that Izuku threw at it could overcome. I took this to mean that he’s basically a Nobody from the Kingdom Hearts franchise, his heart is gone but his body, his existence lingers. He says that he learned the lesson Izuku was trying to teach, that tragedy makes one stronger. He activates his Quirks and reformats his arms into a colossal mass of tentacles and spines. He asks if Izuku agrees. Sero actually steps up to answer instead, saying that he doesn’t. His life hasn’t had much tragedy or pain in it, but he keeps going because he wants to keep pace with his friends. He charges Sero and says that he thinks his friends agree that life is better without those tragedies! On cue, as he shouts and runs, two more Warp Gates open and Endeavor and Shoto leap through them and firebomb the SOB.

 

We flashback five minutes. Fuyumi and Rei Todoroki are rushed off to get their burns treated. One of the heroes escorting them says that Recovery Girl is pretty tapped out at this point, but the elderly hero will try. Natsuo, who is also badly hurt but still standing, tells his dad to hurry to the battle before he gets too tapped out to move as well. Endeavor forces himself to his feet, and Shoto insists on coming along.

 

Sero grabs them both Todoroki’s in his tape and whips them around, saying that no one should have to go through pain like they have. That was his first thought upon hearing Shoto beat Dabi earlier that day. Present Mic warps in as well and rallies the heroes to give it their all. AFO further mutates his form, adding more tentacles and spines. AFO is still confident, saying that these heroes are nothing, barely worth his time. The heroes start attacking, but AFO quickly blocks or diverts their attacks with his tentacles. Kendo of class 1B notes that it takes dozens of heroes to stop even one of his attacks… so they all need to fight as a group!

 

Izuku gets up to try to join the fight, but his legs give out. Aizawa reminds him that the horn only rewound him a few minutes, so he’s essentially back to where he was at when he started punching OFA into Shigaraki. He tells Aizawa that he’s lost the bulk of OFA, and all of the previous wielder’s quirks, but still has their compounded strength. For a little while yet, anyway. He knows that he can keep the ember of the power going, just ike All Might did. Aizawa looks annoyed, but unsurprised. He patches up Izuku’s wounds and gave him that shirt that the one guy gave him to keep the boy warm. Aoyama takes his hand and says that they need to rely on each other this time. We see everyone watching the scene cheer Izuku on as Aoyama throws him forward. An explosion goes off behind Aoyama, but he naval laser’s Izuku from behind to speed him forward, telling him to not look back. Aizawa tries to call out to Shirakumo to get out of the way, but his friend’s corpse is frozen.

 

The heroes are getting frustrated by their inability to hurt AFO when Aizawa screams at them to make a path for Izuku. AFO gloats that Omnifactor unleashed, the ability his original self tried that turned him into a blob right before Bakugo killed him, isn’t about giving into emotions and just blasting away, it’s about finesse and control. He forms a dragon out of his tentacles and tries to blast Izuku, but Hagakure leaps in and refracts the blast away from. Yaoyorozu and Kaminari combine their powers to make an electromagnetic railgun and fire spikes at AFO. He blocks and asks if they think they’re clever. He unleashes another blast that knocks everyone back. Izuku winds up for a smash, but the others leap in the way to block AFO’s attack. They tell him to reserve his strength for the finishing blow and to consider them his defense. Tsu and Shoji hold Izuku between them and they race forward. We get a shot of Tsu’s family back at Shiketsu, her parents and two younger siblings, as they cheer on their froggy girl. Yes, they’re all degrees of frog as well. The little girl from Shoji’s past also calls out that she believes in him. Shoji and Tsu throw him forward.

 

Izuku lands and almost gets swiped, but he’s saved by Ashido, Kirishima and Sato. They push the tentacles back, while Present Mic and Jiro use their combined sonic booms to destroy projectiles. The next wave of tentacles are handled by 1B and Mineta. He screams at Izuku to kick his ass.

 

AFO is clearly getting frustrated by this. The heroes he’s fighting are beneath him, they’re the carrion to his buzzard, and yet he can’t seem to kill any of them. He remembers writing off Izuku as worthless when he invaded Izuku’s mind palace and confronted Yoichi and the other wielders a while back. He finally realizes that he was wrong in that assessment, and that Izuku is motivating these people to fight past their limits. Izuku is pushed forward by bouncing off a Gentle Criminal’s air trampolines. Death Arms runs in and blocks more tentacles. AFO realizes that this is a power that Izuku has that All Might didn’t. The ‘strength of weakness,’ the power to keep getting back up over and over again regardless of how hopeless the situation is. Iida super speeds in and hurls Izuku forward. AFO realizes that so long as Izuku is alive, the heroes will just keep coming. He raises a hand to prepare another blast but a bit of goo seems to block the port on his palm.

 

We cut over to All Might and Ethan and Star’s old flight team. Ethan says that their plan was to fight to the bitter end, either killing AFO or dying in the process. They even disabled their ejector seats to try to stay in the fight until the last moment, but since those worked, he assumed All Might had them repaired. All Might says that the kids want absolute victory, so they need to have as few casualties as possible. All Might thinks about how he met Izuku and how the boy threw himself into harms way to save his ‘friend.’ He thinks that since that day, Izuku has been a hero. We get a flash of all the movie protagonists, Melissa Shield, Maharo and Kazuma, Guilio and Anna, and Rody Soul and his siblings all cheering on their hero.

 

Iida, as he’s mid-throw of Izuku, asks if he remembers their first day of school together. He says that he agrees with ‘her.’ We jump to Uraraka getting airlifted to the hospital with Pixie-Bob of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. She remembers telling Izuku that she likes the name Deku and thinks its kind of cute. We flash to the White House where the president orders all American heroes to Japan. His aide asks if that’s a good idea, as AFO will retaliate if he wins, to which the president says ‘who cares, just do it!’ Izuku says that he can hear everyone cheering him on and we get a flash of all the spectators and heroes shouting you’ve got this! All Might comes in to say that since that first day, Izuku has always been the greatest hero he’s ever known. Inko gets the last word in, running up and shouting for her son to do his best. Izuku charges through AFO’s slashing tentacles and hits him square in the chest with a full power smash.

 

AFO stunned by this turn of events. His body is starting to breakdown, as he realizes Super Regeneration just isn’t going to work on this decaying body of his. He makes excuses, saying that these insignificant beings gathered their meager power together and just temporarily overwhelmed him. He realizes that when Izuku transferred OFA into this body, it did damage not only to Shigaraki’s mind but his body as well. Remember from like the second episode? An unprepared body would be broken by the feedback of the power itself. Izuku gloats that after two years and the compounding of the Quirk transfer, OFA is even more powerful than it was when All Might last used it on AFO. He tells the villain to taste the power of all nine wielders. The rainbow power punch of the Nine Wielders shatters AFO’s body, disintegrating his body into ash. Or so it appeared.

 

AFO refuses to die, pulling his shattered bits together. He says he won’t die without having accomplished his goal. He seems to have been driven insane by Izuku’s last hit, as he mutters about taking one of the heroes fighting him, any one of them, and making them his new vessel. Claws form from his broken body and start streaking towards his targets. Izuku charges him again, not willing to let him have his way.

 

Shirakumo apologizes to Aizawa and Present Mic, saying that he has to act. He must protect Tomura Shigaraki, that is his purpose. He warps from their side and forms in the way of Izuku’s attack. Not to protect AFO, not really, but to beg his ‘master’ to give Tomura Shigaraki back. He remembers Spinner and his connection to Tomura, saying that Tomura’s ‘friend’ is waiting for him. But before he could unintentionally stop Izuku’s last attack, Bakugo flies in and shatters Kurogiri’s form. Present Mic screams that Bakugo was sent to the ER and asks if he explosion flew all the way back here. Bakugo boasts that he did, but admits that Shoto helped him with an ice ski jump. As he drops, he tells Izuku to not even dare let Izuku surpass him. Izuku says that he’ll never forgive AFO, but he understands him, their quirks resonate after all. There’s a flash between Izuku winding up the final strike, AFO trying to protect himself, and to that moment that started everything. We see from AFO’s perspective when Yoichi ran away. His inner monologue was asking, nay, demanding that Yoichi look at him, to remember that Yoichi belonged to him! Izuku exclaims that AFO is no Demon Lord, he’s just a sad, lonely man! And Izuku strikes.

 

AFO has a flash of when he and Yoichi were boys reading comics together. We enter the mindscape where an ember of Yoichi forms to AFO. He says that Izuku modified their plan and their Quirk ever so slightly to allow the brothers to speak one more time. AFO rushes to his brother and tries to keep the ember alight. He begs Yoichi to stay with him, to just show him his face one more time. He claims to love Yoichi, saying that he’s nothing without Yoichi, and they need to stay together. Yoichi warns AFO that he wasn’t the only being that the ‘knight’ Izuku awakened. Behind him, the other OFA wielders and Tomura form. There’s an amazing shot of Izuku in meatspace and the other wielders, Tomura in the lead, striking both versions of AFO and Izuku and Tomura’s fists meeting in the middle. This forms a connection to Izuku, letting him talk to Izuku one more time. He thought he was consumed by AFO when he stole back control, but he realized that his grandmother did something to protect him. He says that Izuku was right about him, in the end, he was nothing more than a crying child. Izuku says that he can’t forgive him, but he had to try to break the chain of misery that consumed him. He asks Izuku to tell Spinner, if he’s still alive, that Tomura Shigaraki fought to destroy until the bitter end. Izuku agrees to do that. We pull out and see Izuku doing his finishing uppercut as the sun breaks through the cloudy sky.

 

I don’t have too much to say about this episode as at the end of the day, it was just everyone getting a chance to shout, “you can do it!” and then doing one small thing to give Izuku the opening to strike AFO. It was nice that Horikoshi gave everyone still in the fight a chance to do this, from Mineta to All Might to the movie protagonists, everyone got a shoutout. I also liked that he included a few supporting characters for people other than Izuku, namely the kid Shoji saved and the rest of the Asui family. The Asuis never featured in the main series, but there was a short story included in one of the manga chapters that introduced readers to them. They are pretty much what they appear to be, frog people. The story itself was about how Tsu got over some internalized Quirk based racism for her to actually befriend a girl who’s Quirk gave her a snakelike head and face, so her natural enemy in terms of zoomorphic quirks. I just like it when stories acknowledge that characters have people outside the main cast in their lives, even the side characters. Izuku getting to build up for his one mega punch was great. The whole story was building to this moment of Izuku finally stopping AFO, and I like that ultimately, it was a team effort. He, Izuku Midoriya, 9^th Wielder of OFA and Tomura Shigaraki, AFO’s second wielder and greatest victim together defeated the evil that had so badly infected the world. Letting the Shigaraki’s have a sort of goodbye was a nice touch, as it highlighted Izuku’s point that AFO really is just a pathetic, lonely person. I do believe he believed that keeping Yoichi trapped in a cage, near him but beneath him at all times was his way of showing love. AFO is the personification of greed, and he could let anything go, not even the brother that tried so desperately to escape him. It’s a sad but extremely human motivation for the so called Demon Lord.  I liked that Izuku and Tomura got a goodbye too. They were never friends, and even in these last moments they had to talk about how different they were… but I like that Tomura’s last thought in this life was about Spinner, the only one of his teammates and friends that might get out of this alive. It’s a bittersweet goodbye for him too. So… ya, the fighting is done. We just need a few more episodes to tie off some lose ends. See you then. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 166

 The truth of Tomura Shigaraki's existence is just sad. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku weaponized One For All. Izuku and the Vestiges plan to force the Vestiges into Tomura’s body, forcing a connection between the young men and hopefully allowing Izuku to break through his defenses and help him. This is rather difficult considering Tomura’s immense and varied powers. We flash across the battle fields and to the civilians, and see everyone is anxious for Izuku to win this fight. Some, like little Eri, get a confidence boost when Kota takes her hand and says he’ll win, others are less confident for various reasons, like Kaminari. Lady Nagant tells Rock Lock that she’s confident that Izuku will succeed as she’s been on the receiving end of his earnest desire to save others, and if he could break her defenses, he’ll get through Tomura’s. Izuku’s a clever little SOB, though, and is able to hit Tomura with 6 of the Vestiges, starting with Kudo and then following up with Yoichi, Bruce, Banjo, En, and Toshinori. The only one that’s forced back, somehow, is Nana. This forms an intense psychic link to form, and it pulls Izuku and Nana into Tomura’s mind. Once inside, they see his childhood home. Some old villains like Stain, Re-Destro, and Overhaul form as mental defenses, but Izuku pushes past them and opens the door to the house. Inside, they see the initially sweet moment of Tomura’s sister Hana showing him the photo of their grandma Nana and their dad, Kotaro, but then see the horrible moment when Kotaro finds out and slaps young Tenko. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Kotaro slapping his son, the photo negative version of Tenko Shimura, and Izuku and Nana reacting to it. Izuku immediately sprints forward to try to reach Shigaraki but finds there’s a barrier that’s separating him from the scene. He tries to force his way through as Kotaro tells Tenko that that ‘woman’ isn’t his grandmother. She abandoned her family, according to him, and he goes on to say a hero is nothing more than someone who leaves to protect strangers. This of course breaks Nana’s heart, as she realizes Kotaro kept the photo simply because he couldn’t bring himself to do it, not because he still loved his mom. Nana realizes that that Kotaro’s hatred infected Tenko and curses the fact that she wasn’t able to beat AFO and break the cycle. She apologizes to him for being so weak. Izuku keeps trying to force his way through and begs Nana to do it now! She transfers her power into Shigaraki like the others. She shoots through the barrier, grabbing Kotaro and stopping him from hitting Tenko again. She apologizes to Tenko for being weak as she and the Vestige of Kotaro break into pieces and Tenko fully forms.

 

There’s a flash and Izuku jumps ahead a few days to when Tenko’s decay quirk first activated. As young Tenko accidentally disintegrates his dog, Izuku senses the same danger coming from Tenko as he did outside of Jaku. Hana comes to apologize to Tenko for letting him take the brunt of their father’s anger, sees the dog ooze beside him and runs back inside. Tenko instinctively reaches out to her to try to stop her, but instead of grabbing her and accidentally kill her like in reality, Izuku, reduced to child form, leaps in and grabs Tenko’s hands. He swears they’ll finish this here. While in this mindscape, Izuku is able to break the rules of reality and do things like, say, keep his body from decaying when they touch Tenko’s hands. He just has to keep focusing on the reality of his own body. He says that he’s force Tenko to take OFA, and now he’ll give Tenko some of Izuku as well. Tenko asks why Izuku is doing this. Izuku says that he has to because he’s crying. Behind the boys, black-purple energy is surging. Tenko refuses to believe that he’s crying. He tries to own what he did, saying that he wanted to do this, he wanted to murder his whole family and flatten that house. He begs Izuku to tell him, if he’s not born to destroy things with these hands, why was he born at all? As the mental storm builds in power, Izuku realizes that Tomura is trying to weigh the hatred and catharsis of his evil actions against sadness and confusion. He’s still wavering, though, so Izuku refuses to let go. Tomura Shigaraki remembers what it was like right after the murders, when adults looked away from him and tried to ignore him. He realizes that if someone had just taken his hand back then… maybe things would have been different. Izuku tells Tenko that when he was lost as Dark Deku, someone (Iida) took him by the hand and it gave him peace. It’s because he knows how much comfort one can get if someone else gives a damn, that’s why he’s here. Tenko’s power is too much for Izuku’s body and he disintegrates Izuku’s hands. Despite this, he tells Tenko that everything will be okay, and it’ll all work out. Tomura realizes that Izuku’s feelings are flowing into him. Both boys fall face first onto the ground, with an exasperated, angry Tomura asking if this was really all it would take to break his hate.

 

Tomura flashes back to an afternoon playing with his friends. They were playing heroes and Tenko got a chance to play All Might, which excited him. The scene fast forwards to nightfall as Tenko insists he’s a bad guy. He does evil things, he hurts people because that’s his nature. The boys get up and are surrounded by mental images of Twice, Dabi, Spinner, Twice and Toga. Tenko insists that even if Izuku takes away his pain, it won’t work, because he has to be the hero to the villains that believe in him. Which is a weird stance to take, not going to lie. We get a brief few of a few depressed and/or misanthropic people that are cheering Tomura on in his effort to destroy society. The huge tower of hands that Tomura manifested before they entered the mindscape begins to crumble and Detective Tsukauchi begs Izuku to finish this.

 

In Tomura’s mind, he sees a very strange memory. Through the eyes of AFO, we see him approach Kotaro. AFO was playing the part of a businessman working at a place called Koga. Its clear from a few scenes that AFO had fostered a friendship between himself and Kotaro, as they’d walk together after work and got dinner together at least once. AFO is, to my meta perspective, already weirdly interested in Kotaro’s son. For some reason, neither Izuku nor Tomura recognize AFO’s voice when he speaks. Weird. Before they can puzzle it out, AFO’s Vestige manifests again, taking the mindscape and forming it into a giant body. It gobbles up Tomura, asking his vessel how could he break so easily. He claims that no choice Tomura has made has been his own, and curses Izuku and the other OFA wielders for ruining his brother and OFA.

 

As he’s being infinitely swallowed by the giant AFO, Tomura asks what the heck is going on. AFO manifests before him and says that Tomura was his puppet that he allowed to believe had free will. When Tomura still doesn’t get it, he explains. He learned after fighting and killing Banjo and later En, that he needed a stronger will than OFA in order to reclaim it. And when All Might arose and made him retreat into the shadows, he got to work. He admitted to spending years manipulating Kotaro. He didn’t start until after Hana was born, so he used his rhetorical skill and connection to Kotaro to convince him to have a second child, he stole Tomura’s original quirk when he was still an infant, and then to push him to get stricter and stricter with his kids. He even supposedly encourages Tenko’s friends into playing with him. After all of that, he disguised himself and approached a young Tenko and infected him with Decay. He even reveals that Decay is an inferior version of a Quirk that he acquired from the Doctor. He took a sample from a young boy in an orphanage, whom we’re all but told was Kai Chisaki aka Overhaul. AFO loudly and proudly proclaims that everything that Tomura has experienced, the hate, loneliness, anger, joy, and all the other things he’s felt, it was all AFO’s doing. He tells Tomura to get out of HIS body and disintegrates Tomura’s Vestige. We see the mindscape is being completely reworked into AFO’s body, he claims he wasn’t planning on doing this full redesign until AFTER getting OFA, but he’s got little choice now. He expels Izuku from the mindscape.

 

In meatspace, the hand cocoon bursts. AFO manifests, having morphed Tomura’s body to more resemble his own. He claims that he’s destroyed Tomura’s mind entirely, the only thing of him remaining being a crying he’s hearing at the back of his mind which he ‘banishes.’ For some reason, he also creates a hand mask to cover his mouth. Weird. He tells us that this drastic measure seems to have destroyed Decay as well. AFO laments losing that as well as his chance to absorb his brother, as Yoichi was used up breaking into Tomura’s mind. No matter, though, he’s focused on the future. He decides that he’ll have to focus on the hallow end goal, destroying the fetid world. Izuku tries to get back on his feet, a task made more difficult since his hands were in fact actually destroyed in that altercation. He’s just got pair of bloody stumps, he tries to get up but slips on his own blood. AFO walks over to him, saying that he’s going to lean into the narrative that they’ve created here. Loss makes one stronger, so he’s stronger now than he was before. Izuku didn’t have anything to lose, in his eyes, so this ending for him was inevitable. AFO holds up a hand and charges a plasma blast. But before he can fire, he’s tangled up in… TAPE! Sero leaps in to help Izuku. AFO is unimpressed, saying that Sero is a nuisance, a presence so unremarkable that Izuku’s presence drowned it out. Sero screams that they’re here to help.

 

AFO turns and slices thought the tape, only to get rushed by Sato and Ojiro. They take advantage of AFO not having Decay anymore and slam him back with a double hit. Izuku is stunned to see his friends there, but even more so when a Warp Gate opens behind him. He turns in time to see Aizawa step through, who apologizes for being late.

 

We flashback ten minutes. Aizawa and Present Mic are lost at sea with an unconscious Kurogiri, their comms down and no one knowing where they are. Present Mic is venting his feelings by punching Kurogiri repeatedly and telling the stupid carcass to wake up and tell them where they are. Aizawa grabs his arm and says that Kurogiri is crying. Present Mic refuses to believe that, saying it’s just the rain, Kurogiri doesn’t even have tear ducts anymore. It took them out of play because Aizawa was a danger to Tomura, end of story. Present Mic is angry and says that they’ll just wake it up to get them home and then put it down for good. They shouldn’t think about the minor miracle that brought Shirakumo back for a few seconds. He tells Aizawa that they’re 31, they can’t keep being students anymore. Aizawa points out that when he died, Shirakumo was still a UA student. He points out that Kurogiri could have easily killed them in transit, either by dropping them in the ocean, smashing them on the rocks, or ripping them to shreds between his gates. He grabs Kurogiri’s head as he said that they were able to draw out the light in Kurogiri once. Aizawa uses his Quirk on Kurogiri, saying to Present Mic that they’re UA teachers now, and as Teachers, they need to see students graduate. Even if it’s a bit delayed. He’s able to break through Kurogiri to Shirakumo, allowing their friend’s face to peek out of the darkness again. Present Mic tearfully says that these memories aren’t going away anytime soon, are they. Aizawa contacts Tsukauchi and gets a list of heroes that are still active, and their coordinates.

 

Aizawa runs into Shiketsu and tells Ectoplasm to gather every hero on guard duty that they can and to meet him out front. They need to hurry because they don’t know how long they’ve got control of Kurogiri and Warp Gate. Death Arms offers to help immediately, as does a no name hero, and the civilians offer up supplies to help the injured heroes. One guy gives Aizawa an All Might shirt off his back, which was sweet and weird at the same time. They then warp to the stadium where there’s still one villain left standing. They quickly take him out. A whole bunch of portals open and Aizawa announces that phase 3 is about to start.

 

AFO, still high on his own power, says that they’re all come here to have their Quirks stolen. Izuku is confused as to how AFO can be here, as he thought breaking through to Tenko would destroy him. Aizawa rushes over and asks how long ago Izuku lost his arms. He isn’t sure due to the weirdness of being in the mindscape.

 

We get another flashback to when Aizawa was leaving Shiketsu. Eri runs up to him and says that she knows that there’s zero chance that he’d let her come with even if she wants to help. But she figured out a way to help anyway, and offers her horn, telling him to give it to Mr. Deku. She asked Ectoplasm to help her break it off. She knows its just her horn, but she also knows that this will work. Aizawa starts to scold her for risking damaging her Quirk by doing this, but Eri cuts him off. She says that she wasn’t able to help Mr. All Might or Mr. Kacchan this way, but she wants to save Deku. She says that her dream is to be a singer, and that she plans to sing for Izuku and the others when this is over. Aizawa uses the horn on Izuku, which regenerates his arms. An Ectoplasm voice over says that it’ll only rewind two or three minutes, to let us know Izuku isn’t getting the rest of his powers back with this one. Aizawa tells Izuku he needs to hear Eri sing, so he’s not allowed to die. Mineta, Shoji, Koda, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Jiro, Ashido, Aoyama, Hagakure, Kirishima, and Tsu come through the portals. Mineta loudly announcing that if Class 1A hears Izuku is still up and kicking ass, regardless of how hurt and broken down they are, they’ll pick themselves up to join him. Izuku starts tearing up and prepares for one last smack down.

 

I’ve got to give Horikoshi praise for how he handled that reveal. He gave us all the information to figure this out, but I was still surprised. It’s been repeatedly shown that if a person is given a Quirk that isn’t compatible with their body, they can have physiological side effects. In Aoyama, it was his stomach pains if he overused his quirk, in Tomura, it was his chronic itching. Quirks are largely genetic, and while we only know Nana’s Quirk in regard to his family, somehow flight mutating into decay seemed… unlikely. He did give us the red herring explanation that quirks can mutate randomly like with Eri… but how odd it is that the grandson of Nana Shimura would be one to have this apparently super rare phenomenon happen to them. And AFO is absolutely the obsessive type of psycho that he’d stalk a family in order to orchestrate his grand master plan. Hell, even his relationship with Kotaro makes sense. Kotaro grew up without his parents, and while whomever fostered him did their best, I’m sure, the idea that he might still be looking for a paternal figure to fill the hole his father’s death and his mother’s abandonment left tracks. It is extremely screwed up to think that Tomura literally only exists because AFO manipulated Kotaro into deciding he wanted a second child. Dude is a freak. If anyone is curious, I looked into it, and according to Horikoshi, Tenko’s original quirk was that ring flight quirk that both AFO and Tomura have used in their battles. Neither know it, though, as Tenko had it stolen when he was weeks if not days old, and AFO steals a LOT of powers. Metaphorically stealing a child’s wings so he can be the perfect devil, that’s symbolism right there. It’s sad to see Tomura having his emotional breakthrough was the catalyst to allow AFO to reassert control. Dude was like two more minutes away from agreeing that he should stop fighting. Izuku losing his hands was graphic as hell. Aizawa breaking through to Shirakumo one last time so he could rally the troops felt really nice. I especially liked his scene with Eri, where this stubborn little girl takes after her various guardians and risks her own health and safety just on the off chance that she could help. Izuku saved her life once, so obviously she needs to save his hands. And Izuku having his exhausted friends at his back for this last battle makes me confident it’ll be a fight for the ages. But I’ll need to wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe. 

Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 165

 Izuku risks it all to save the world but also just one sad, angry, broken child. 

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku suffered a major loss but stumbled on a way to win. While he’d been able to hold off Tomura Shigaraki as they fought, Tomura finally broke through Izuku’s defenses and was able to steal Danger Sense along with Hikage Shinomuri. While that takes away one of Izuku’s big advantages in this fight and gives it to Tomura, it gives the Vestige of Kudo an idea. In order to make sure Izuku doesn’t run off and to facilitate his grand destruction plan, Tomura threatens to decay Mt. Fuji and thus set off an eruption big enough to destroy Japan. Izuku keeps fighting off Tomura, but Smokescreen is useless as Tomura can search him out, and he hits the limit on Gear Shift and is temporarily paralyzed. Nana tells Izuku that her grandson is too far gone and he should give up on saving him, but Izuku refuses. He knows that if the past really didn’t matter to Tomura, he wouldn’t have such a death grip on it. Kudo reveals his plan, to get Izuku to use them as a weapon. Tomura has hardened his heart into a metaphorical lead ball, but Star and Stripes left a crack in it after her fight and Vestige rampage. If they can pierce that, the mental wound might be enough to beat Shigaraki where physical wounds can’t. The others think this is crazy, but Kudo insists this is the only way. Izuku hesitates for a moment. Not because he is scared of dying, or because he wants to keep OFA for his own glory… but because he doesn’t want to lose this amazing gift All Might gave him. But then he focuses in and prepares to do just that. This kid is a hero through and through. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We jump right into the fight. Izuku has covered his body with Black Whip to strengthen himself. Like I said in the last post, it is vaguely reminiscent of his Dark Deku look, just with more of his face on display. He’s essentially puppeteering his own body with the Black Whip energy threads. This is a move so crazy that it even impresses Banjo, Black Whip’s original holder. En calls Izuku crazy for this but like in an impressed way. Kudo thinks that Izuku is doing all of this due to his deep respect for Quirks in general, and that One For All was truly blessed to have him in their collective.

 

Izuku has the general shape of a plan. One might say 12% of a plan. He needs to get close enough to Tomura without using Gear Shift, a big ask, and then hit Tomura with his left fist where he’s mentally concentrated the Second. But first, he has to get some of his DNA into Tomura’s system, to initiate the transfer. He remembers All Might explaining to him that ingesting his DNA is part of the process, and later, after fighting Stain who licked up a LOT of Izuku’s blood, that while he can transfer OFA to someone even if they don’t want it, OFA can’t be taken from him unless he wants to give it up. Ya know, barring being touched by AFO. Kudo tells the other Vestiges that he and Bruce theorized that was the situation back in the old days and he’s glad that that its been confirmed with time. Izuku knows that getting blood into Tomura’s wound would be the easiest… if Tomura didn’t regenerate almost immediately when he wants. He settles on trying to get the blood in him at the moment of impact and prepares to strike. He’s sure he’s minutes away from passing out due to his injuries, so he has to act fast.

 

Tomura regenerates the arm that he lost in the last clash. He reveals he disarmed himself, as Danger Sense told him something Izuku was trying to do would be dangerous to him, so he cut it off as a precaution. It’s weird that that’s your first response, but hey, maybe he’s still a big Aizawa fan. Tomura knows something is up, Izuku should be trying to keep himself alive, but his body language is still aggressive. The two young men charge, Izuku to transfer his power, and Tomura to kill him. When they get close, Izuku initiates Smokescreen. En is confused by this, as in the end the smoke is more of a liability to Izuku than Tomura since the other man has Search. Tomura doesn’t even bother with that, he hits the ground and activates Decay, intent on just breaking the ground beneath Izuku’s feet to stop him. But that’s when Izuku rips up the ground using his Black Chains. Tomura wonders when Izuku even had time to try that. Banjo figures out first, that Izuku somehow had the presence of mind to send out Black Whip chains after Shigaraki’s last big hit, to tear up the ground and prepare to rip Tomura into the sky. Like how they kept him in the Flying Coffin. Tomura senses movement and grabs at it, but it’s just Izuku’s cape. En connects that to how Izuku fought Nagant, using the cape to draw Tomura’s attention.

 

Tomura disintegrates it… only then realizing that there was a Black Whip tendril holding it and the end was covered in blood. Izuku knows that Search shows Tomura where people he’s seen are. He guessed that it would work with his Vestiges as well, so he transferred Kudo to the tip and used that to trigger Danger Sense. This distracted Tomura long enough for Izuku to get in close. Izuku’s ingenuity impresses En, who starts crying. Tomura’s body instinctively understands that whatever Izuku is trying is dangerous for him, so he starts growing his Hand Armor on reflex. He tries to fire a plasma burst at Izuku, but he’s too close and to quick this time. He strikes Tomura with his fist, and sends Kudo and Gear Shift into Tomura’s body like a bullet. Kudo says his goodbyes to Izuku, saying not to worry about him, as he’s a ghost already. He dives into Tomura’s body and strikes at the leaden core inside him.

 

The hit triggers something in both Izuku and Tomura. Suddenly, huge holographic projections of Himeko Toga and Dabi appear in the sky, they look just like they did when Tomura met them. A moment later, Izuku’s memory of his fight against Shoto plays, but along with Spinner saying that he looks up to Stain. Yoichi realizes that their memories are merging and getting mixed together. En tells him focus and keep fighting, the plan is working but he needs to keep the pressure on. Izuku gets a flash of Mineta and Tsu during their fight against the original League of Villains in the USJ.

 

Yoichi has some theories. Just from watching Izuku’s battles with Shigaraki, he’s seen that the two Quirks AFO and OFA have a resonance that was already growing rapidly as these young men clashed. Now that Izuku has forcefully connected them with his last attack, it’s happening even faster. He thinks his brother was so obsessed with getting OFA that he tried to attack its very soul. But despite his power, Yoichi and the others were all there willing to stand against him. He and the other wielders start running forward, preparing for the next strike. Tomura and Izuku both shout each other’s name as Izuku breaks through Tomura’s giant finger defense and strikes him in the stomach. The other wielders flow into him and strike the leaden ball, but they bounce off. In meatspace, Izuku falls back and is shocked when he realizes that the transfer didn’t work. Banjo manifests to tell him that they think that Tomura’s will is strong enough to not only forcefully take their quirks but also to deny the transfer. The others bounced off, but Banjo confirms En got in and that did hurt Tomura. There’s a huge dent in his chest from that last hit. So Izuku is now down Gear Shift, Danger Sense, AND Smokescreen. Damnit, he’s running out of powers to transfer. He curses the fact that he had to break through the wall of fingers to get to his main body. He compares them to fingernails or a wall of grime, they’re not really a part of Tomura’s body, they’re just obstacles to slow him down. A memory of Tomura walking with AFO as a child manifests. That tells Izuku, for sure, that they’re getting to the Tenko at Tomura’s core, the little boy crying while holding his dog. He vows to keep trying as many times as it takes to break through. Ya got four more tries, bucko. Less if you give up Float before Black Whip.

 

As Izuku and Tomura start staring each other down, we cut back to UA. La Brava is using a high speed spy camera that Mei Hatsume made to keep tabs on Izuku’s battle. Mei says that she used this drone to get her babies to Izuku as quickly as possible. La Brava mutters to herself that she should probably hate Izuku for sending her Gentle to jail, but as that was somehow a net positive experience for Gentle, she’s willing to let that go. And she doesn’t want to see ungrateful to him. Gentle himself lowers UA to the water below and other heroes rush over to help get everyone off the broken hunk of rock. Cementoss makes cement bridges to get people to shore and to stabilize the island. Gentle asks how he can help and Cementoss says he can help with the evacuation, and to prioritize the critically injured.

 

We cut to Shiketsu high. A very anxious little white-haired girl turns and starts running. Her minder, Ectoplasm, stops her and asks what’s up. Eri says that she has to get to Deku to help him fight. Ectoplasm gently reminds her that he’s hundreds of kilometers away, there’s no way she can reach him in time. Eri tells him to use the box that brought her there to bring her back. Ectoplasm says that the tram system was trashed by all the fighting. And Eri’s horn is still small, indicating she hasn’t built up enough energy to meaningfully rewind Izuku in the fighting. Ectoplasm tells her to be strong and remember what happened when she tried to help Aizawa. There’s a flashback to Aizawa just after the last big battle, where he puts on a brave face and tells her that he just got a little dinged up and is fine. Eri remembers her other interactions with Izuku and how he encouraged her and was just in general a very nice big brother to her. She starts crying, and then we see a familiar pair of red shoes step up. The original child that Izuku helped, Kota Izumi, steps up and takes her hand. He asks if she’s noticed how Mr. Izuku is always crying. He reveals that he’s also tearing up and says he’s a crybaby too. He says that because Izuku is always trying his best, they need to try their best too. Everyone watches Izuku battle Tomura, trying to break through the wall of fingers. The one civilian that asked Izuku if he thought he could beat AFO and the League if he rested at UA starts tearing up upon realizing he shouldn’t have ever doubted Izuku.

 

We jump back to UA and Yaoyorozu is helping Kaminari from the field. She shows him the feed of Izuku’s fight and notes he’s in Dark Deku mode again. Kaminari, who’s brain is still a bit fried, frowns. He asks if she knows about how in comic books, this is the moment where a support character says something like “I know he’ll win,” or “he’s got this.” Yaoyorozu says she never really had time for that, and Kaminari says that it really would be more his thing than hers. He starts crying, asking why he can’t seem to find the optimism to say something like that, like he would have if All Might was fighting right now. He asks if this is a sign that deep down, he doesn’t have faith in his friend.

 

We jump to Gunga Villa. The reporters we’ve been following are giving up their helicopters to get the critically injured to safety. Uraraka is on board the one flying out, she’s alive but critical. They also find Hawks, still depowered, and Tokoyami. Hawks is pretty out of it, but registers that the reporters were talking about Uravity even if the reporters didn’t get her name right. He thinks that if more people could be like her, if they cared for the people around them, it’d help.

 

Nagant is found by Rock Lock, who helped stabilize her. It seems like he asked her why she’s fighting so hard for Midoriya, as she’s midway through answering. She says that Izuku broke down her defenses and got to the heart of her. Once he was in there, she couldn’t resist his earnest pleas to just let him help her. Rock Lock agrees that that’s a pretty effective strategy, basically break down your opponents will to fight. They both agree that Izuku is probably trying that right now with Shigaraki. Nagant says that his dream is taking him down a thorny path. She says that the look on his face when he fights is so intense, that people have trouble not rooting for him.

 

We return to the fight, Izuku is still trying to break through the fingers, and it looks like his power is starting to wane. Tomura sees a flash of his father right before he killed him, Kotaro Shimura shouting at his son to stop. Tomura freaks out and screams at Izuku not to touch him. Izuku barrels through his fingers and gets another big hit in. The remaining Vestiges hit the leaden ball. This time, they all seem to get through, even All Might’s, except Nana. She’s shocked by this. She remembers when she faced Tomura in the mindscape and how he said that he hates his grandmother the most. Nana also saw her Kotaro’s face manifest on one of Tomura’s fingers in that moment. She realizes her grandson’s hate isn’t what repelled her. She remembers a young Kotaro screaming at her, begging her to not leave him. She realizes she was too weak to break through that ball.

 

Izuku crashes through Tomura’s memories. He ends up standing in front of Tomura’s home in his school uniform. He remembers Tomura stating that destroying everything even remotely connected to that house will save him from his pain. Izuku goes to hit the bell but stops when someone asks him what the point is. He looks over to see a shadowy version of himself standing at the door. He thinks that this is how Tomura sees Izuku. Dark Deku asks Izuku why he’s bothering. Izuku says he’s not sure, but he’s not going to stop until he knows what’s going on. A truck manifests and almost hits Izuku, which freaks him out because he felt it. Nana manifests and says that he’s entered the depths of Tomura’s mind. Due to their connection, he can interact with Tomura’s mind and that’s a two-way street. Izuku asks what she’s doing here, and she explains that she was the only one kicked back out. She apologizes, but Izuku thanks her for being with him here. She tells him that this is the core of Tomura Shigaraki’s mindscape. She thinks he’s at his most vulnerable here and encourages him to reach deep inside and reveal his past. Stain’s ghost attacks Izuku, stabbing him to the ground. He shifts faces to Re-Destro and then Overhaul, all three of his enemies asking what he plans on doing. Izuku says he doesn’t have one, not really, but he’s going to save Tomura. He shoves passed them and opens the door. He sees the memory of Tenko’s sister Hana showing him the picture of Kotaro and Nana together. Nana is touched her son kept that picture but then horrified when the memory goes forward and we see Kotaro slap Tomura for going into his office and messing with that photo. Izuku sees that Tomura’s form in this memory is a black photo negative and is confused as the credits roll.

 

Wow, it’s sad to see the Vestiges go. While they obviously didn’t get personalities until much later, these guys have been a part of Izuku to some degree since the second season, when they manifested to help Izuku break out of Shinzo’s mind control during the sports festival. As they’ve grown and gotten their personalities back, and interacted with Izuku, they have become a huge part of him. They’re mentors, cheerleaders, coaches, and confidants to young Midoriya. So, seeing them give themselves up in order to help Izuku beat Shigaraki and stick to his ideals is a bit heartbreaking. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves twice in order to stop All For One and that’s incredibly noble. My one critique is that I wish they’d all gotten a personal goodbye like Kudo did. I suppose Yoichi did a little as he led the charge, but Bruce, En and Banjo deserved one too. And All Might’s should have been like, “look after the living me, he needs you.” Having Nana be the only one that was rebuffed is going to be a big deal, I just know it. Izuku is going to have to deal with his greatest challenge yet, helping a very angry man work through his complicated feelings about domestic abuse. That’s a tricky subject for a licensed professional, much less a 16-year-old with more of a dream than a plan. I liked seeing how Izuku’s example helped inspire Kota to be strong and encourage Eri. He’s had a big impact on those around him. And to answer Kaminari’s question, no, having doubts doesn’t mean you lack faith in Izuku. It’s easy to look up to and believe in All Might. Even after learning under him for a year and change, All Might is still more of an idea than a person to Kaminari. Izuku is more than that. He’s Kaminari’s friend, someone that has encouraged him and bonded with him, he’s ‘real’ to Kaminari in a way that All Might isn’t. With All Might, he can shut off his brain and just believe. With Izuku, it’s so much harder because if Izuku fails, Kaminari loses his friend. It’s harder to just blindly root for that, ya know? We’re in the home stretch people, I can’t wait to see how Izuku resolves this one… in a few weeks. See you later. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social