Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 155

Revel in the Dark. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 154

 Some old faces return.

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 153

Some people will do anything to help their friends. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 152

Shoji takes center stage.  

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku and Tomura had their rematch. He made it to the fight thanks to Ethan, the fighter pilot and Star and Stripe’s squad. Seeing Bakugo dead and most of his allies badly beaten and not moving, he briefly freaks out, but Mirio gets him to focus by saying everyone (besides Bakugo, but they’re working on him) is alive. Izuku focuses on the fight and Mirio lets Izuku know that AFO and Tomura seem to be not as unified as they might think. This point is proven as Shigaraki’s body continues to Mutate and one of the hands he grows seems to have the face of his family members appear on them. Izuku uses all of his powers together to hit Tomura as hard as possible. He’s able to knock him to the ground, but AFO begins to rally within Tomura’s body. And we zoom out and learn that the other villains are rallying as well, Dabi’s fire is engulfing Kamino Ward, a huge storm is forming over the island Toga is on, Gunga villa starts to smoke, and we end on the hulked-out Spinner standing over some carnage. Damn. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open on a rainy day. This is a flashback, we’re seeing a day when a mob appeared outside of someone’s home and forced him to leave the village, saying that he’s a monster and that he should never come back. We then return to the present… or well, a few minutes before Izuku joined the fight at the UA fly coffin. Spinner led an assault on Central Hospital trying to free Kurogiri, the Nomu that future narrator Izuku dubs the masterpiece of that awful project. His army had about 1500 members and was composed of heteromorph members of the former Paranormal Liberation Front and ordinary folks that joined up to follow Spinner. The heroes are doing their best to hold them off, Rock Lock freezes several in place, and Present Mic unleashes a huge sonic attack to try to force people back, asking himself when his old friend Shirikumo (the man that was modified into Kurogiri) when he got so popular. He gets knocked aside by an attack and almost skewered, but he’s saved by Koda summoning a flock of crows to grab him. Present Mic asks what happened to Shoji and Koda says they got separated. The rioters break through, saying that no one that ‘looks human’ can understand what they’re going through.

 

One of the league members preaches the lies of modern society, saying that while cities might be ‘more accepting’ but going out into the countryside and Heteromorphs are treated as monsters. He unmasks himself, revealing a spidery face, and says that they’ll unmask society as well. He flashes back to talking with Skeptic, who says that it doesn’t matter if the League of Villains are real allies of their liberation or not, they’ll mold them into the figure heads they need. We see this in action with Spinner, who is dubbed the group’s leader, but is currently a drooling idiot, barely able to understand what is going on around him. He prepares to execute an officer with his huge sword, but is stopped by Shoji attacking, attacking with hundreds of fists. He gets mobbed and pulled down by the crowd. They call him a traitor to his ‘kind.’ Shoji counters by asking what any of their cries for equality have to do with attacking a hospital. He reminds them that the heroes prioritizes getting the Jaku hospital patients before the raid really started. We learn that it was Shoji’s memory we saw at the start of the episode, not Spinner, and obviously being forced from his home messed with him a lot. He throws off the mob with his tentacles, asking if they have a plan to do something similar, and if they don’t, he’ll never forgive them. This is the first time we see Shoji without his mask, and we see that he’s got a sort of horse-like face. And he’s got several prominent scars around his mouth.  

 

Shoji’s words confused Spinner, his brain is basically mush at this point. And Spinner’s confusion is increased as his ‘followers’ ask him to give them orders. Spinner probably was at least a decent mouthpiece before his transformation, but whatever Quirk he was given to hulk out his body definitely fried his brain. The shouting drives him to shout that he don’t care. Spider-face tries to translate what Spinner said to something more inspiring and orders everyone forward. They move, but the group has clearly lost some momentum already. Shoji asks Spinner why he’s doing this and accuses him of setting back heteromorph rights back 30 years with his actions. Spinner tells him to shut up. We get a flashback to when re was given the muscle quirk ‘Bulk up,’ and learn that AFO gave him a third quirk on top of that called ‘Scale Mail.’ Scale Mail caused dozens of blood red plates to erupt painfully from Spinner’s body, covering him in blood red armor. He also briefly remembers bonding with Tomura over the fact they’re both gamers before he charges Shoji. He slashes and takes off one of Shoji’s hands. I’m pretty sure that’s a dupli-arm hand, so he should be fine, but still, graphic.

 

Koda is stressed out at seeing Shoji hurt, as I guess the two of them are good friends. We flashback to a night with class 1A where Shoji showed his face to his friends and said that he got the scars due to a ‘blood purification’ ritual. See, his parents didn’t have his additional limbs, so they could pass as more human than Shoji could. When the rest of the villagers found out about him, there was a riot where they tried to kill him but Shoji escaped. He says that while the city Heteromorphs like Koda, Tokoyami and Tsu might think of these as ancient history, they’re still very real. Ashido says that the world shouldn’t have people like that, but Shoji shrugs and says that’s a nice thought. Mineta realizes that when he first met Shoji, he said something about how he had crazy octopus’ arms, and just now realizes that might have been offensive to him. He profusely apologizes. Shoji laughs this off and says that is no big deal. He says that they need to be able to talk about stuff like this. He also adds that he’s seen popularity lists of heroes that folks assume will turn bad and the ones that top those tend to be scarred heteromorphs. He wears a mask to try to not give folks the wrong first impression. He says that his life has been hard, but there’s been good stuff too. We flashback farther to when he was at the river near his hometown and saw another kid drowning in the water. He leapt in and save them, the little girl sobbed in his arms, and he says that he’s instead going to focus on the one good memory he has. The others all give him a big group hug and tell him that he can’t think of it like that, promising to help him make good memories that outnumber the bad. Shoji is touched by their words, but knows it’s a lot harder than that. Heteromorph prejudice has been an issue for a century and no one generation can fix it. He swears to make the world he leaves behind better than the way he found it. In the present, Koda grows a crest on his head… which I guess was always a part of his body, but he somehow repressed it to seem more human? Maybe? Who knows?

 

Shoji battles with Spinner, screaming that nothing that has happened to them can be justified, but fighting like this will just make it worse. As they fight, his words seem to get mob to calm down a little and question what is happening. Spider-face says that Shoji’s words are the naïve words of a child. He’d probably had said worse, but then a crown of crows start to encircle him, a crying Koda telling him to NEVER laugh at Shoji. Shoji wraps his extra arms around the main one, bulking it up to and power up his punches. Spinner says that power is gross, but Shoji screams that’s just who he is. Present Mic flashes back to before the fight where he saw Shoji and Koda asking to be put on the team protecting Central hospital. All Might and Aizawa were shocked that he knows about that, as he hadn’t mentioned it to the students yet. Shoji says that he spoke with the fox lady, Ippon, and she let him know that things weren’t great for Heteromorphs out in the city and that they’re all being headhunted to join a group that will attack the hospital. He and Koda what to face this head on. After that, Aizawa asked Mic to look after his students. Present Mic does just that, sprinting to try to back Shoji up and mentioning that these kids are way stronger than he and Aizawa were as students.

 

Koda has a flashback to when his mother told him about his powers. She told him that he might grow horns like hers as he grew up. She says that that’ll let him communicate with animals from much farther away. She adds that she used to be bullied because of her horns, but Koda’s father (who was a non-heteromorph) stood up for her. She tells Koda to follow his dad’s example and stand up for people in need. He uses his big attack “Hitchcock BIRDS!” to knock Spider-face from the building in a flurry of black wings. Present Mic does a sonic blast to shatter Spinner’s blade, letting Shoji get a powerful blow that knocks Spinner to the ground. He screams at everyone to not let these villains use their scars against them, and that if they keep fighting like this, next time it could be their children that get used. He flashes back to just after when he was attacked, the little girl he saved crying and saying she was sorry. That maybe if he hadn’t saved her, he wouldn’t have been attacked for being different. Spinner rights himself and catches himself on a building. He screams that his hatred won’t go away. He roars at his followers that if someone hurts them, they have the RIGHT to hurt them back. He roars that they should follow him to the future before leaping away. That rallies the Heteromorphs and they start fighting again. Shoji is at a loss that Spinner is still up after that attack. The gorilla head cop we’ve seen a few times draws his dun and says that they can’t keep this up. The episode ends as Spinner breaks into the hospital as gunshots ring out.

 

I’ll be honest, it sucks that we’re one hundred and fifty-two episodes and four movies into this series and we’re just now getting this background stuff on Shoji. Shoji has been a background character for all this time, but he’s one of the most visually distinct characters of class 1A. He’s like six feet tall with six arms and a mask over his face, he naturally draws the eye. But I don’t think he’s ever had more than a dozen lines in a season, he spoke so rarely that I am just now learning he’s voiced by Ian Sinclair, the voice actor for Brooke from One Piece. We’re just now learning that he’s been the target of heteromorph racism and been severely beaten because of it. I get it, manga writers are on extremely tight timetables and just about all of them have to be plodders, not plotters (ie, they aren’t given the luxury of being able to write their stories much in advance), so there probably wasn’t time for Horikoshi to set this up. I wish he’d had the time, as Shoji backstory is compelling as hell and I wish it was backfilled like this. That’s enough complaining. I do like this fight overall, with Shoji doing his best to try to turn these justifiably angry people away from causing more damage and unfortunately perpetuating the prejudice cycle. People think of them as inhuman monsters and treat them like dirt, so they retaliate and unfortunately prove to anyone watching that they are inhuman monsters. I like that Shoji’s backstory has the bittersweet memory with this kid. Like, he got to feel like a hero at a young age by saving this child from drowning, but it was that very heroic action that led to him getting maimed so badly that he chose to wear a mask to not put people off. That’s just such a real background. I like that Shoji is also socially aware enough to know that he had to be at the fighting with the Heteromorphs to be a voice of reason in a chaotic situation. It shows that he’s a very intelligent young man and that he can think strategically. Plus getting to see him rock his full strength was cool. I liked that they also gave Koda a bit to do, showing off his own strengthened power and that he’s not one to take kindly to someone being mean to a friend of his. Spinner is just straight up tragic at this point. He was a social outcast that found meaning in a crazed man’s speech about heroic purity and justice through violence, finding camaraderie and real friendship with this group of other social outcasts, to being made the face of a political revolution, which unfortunately led to his brain being fried because he could be made into a better tool if given more power. It’s not great for Spinner. Especially if a theory I had about multiple quirks pans out and it’s revealed that the more you have the faster your body breaks down. Three seems like it’ll do more damage to him than two is all I’m saying. So, Spinner is breaking out Kurogiri out unless someone gets in his way. Guess you’ll have to wait and see who steps up. Or watch ahead of me. Either way. Have a good night, and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 151

 Izuku vs. Shigaraki, round 1, FIGHT!

Last time on My Hero Academia the villains had their The Empire Strikes Back moment. Dabi recovered, having saved himself from Shoto’s final blow by copying his Phosphor technique and is once again on the hunt for his father. Meanwhile, All For One used his Hail Mary play, injecting himself with an artificial version of Eri’s Rewind quirk. The drug has restored him to his physical peak, even regrowing his eyes, but the downside is he’s going to keep getting younger until he ceases to be. The hero Edgeshot used his ability to reduce himself to tiny threads in a last-ditch effort to seal Bakugo’s wounds and restart his heart. Mirko and the Big Three try to buy him time. Mirko gets her other arm ripped off in the fighting, but that barely slowed her down as she rained kicks down on the villain. Shigaraki’s mind seems to be fracturing bit by bit as the Tenko Shimura in him is growing stronger. The constant attacks cause Shigaraki to mutate his form again, gaining armored plates in the form of hands all over his body. He quickly dispatches Mirko, Amajiki, and Nejire, and dubs Mirio as not worth his time. Mandalay tells them telepathically she’s going to power down the shield and she needs them to buy two seconds. Mirio, freaking out a bit by all this, decides to fall back on Sir Nighteye’s advice and tries to use one of his strengths. So, he gets in front of Shigaraki and effectively moons him, saying, “brought a peach for ya!” The sheer insanity of the moment stuns Shigaraki just long enough for Izuku to slingshot himself into the field. And the League of Villain’s member Skeptic seems to be doing something to the UA shelter with his hacking, which can’t possibly be good. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

After Izuku gives a quick summary of the situation (Villains scattered, villains rallying, he’s racing to get to the Coffin in the Sky) we learn how he covered the distance so quickly. The US Air Force guys flew their bombers to pick him up. Ethan the fighter pilot scolds Izuku for making them pick him up. He tells Izuku that he has orders to return home, but his squad is technically committing treason to help him to honor Star and Stripes’ wishes. He tells Izuku to go and beat the worst villain in history. Izuku slingshot his way to Coffin and kicks Shigaraki square in the face. He hits hard enough to disintegrate some of Shigaraki’s armor. With Izuku inside they get the barrier back up and Shigaraki gets a good shock for his trouble when he hits it. Shigaraki notes that Izuku seems stronger than before and wonders if the energy he saw sparking around him was the same as Lee’s, the second wielder. Izuku asks if everyone is okay… but stops when he sees everyone except Mirio is extremely injured… or dead. He freezes up when he sees it. Shigaraki starts to gloat, condescendingly asking him to tell the others why he’s late. He tells Izuku to avoid taking responsibility like everyone else does. Izuku’s power starts to go out of control, he unleashes a smokescreen, causes Blackwhip to erupt all around his body, and Fa Jinn energy builds up as well. Shigaraki gets off the ground and is clearly feeling smug. He thinks to himself how lucky he is, as when Izuku gets mad, he gets predicable, and so he’s confident that he’ll be able to severe Izuku’s spine when he tries to attack. Mirio grabs his friend and tells him that it’s not as bad as it looks, everyone but Bakugo is still breathing and Edgeshot is still working to save him. Everyone is okay (relatively speaking), so he just needs to calm down and focus. Shigaraki says that Mirio is just trying to help him avoid reality. Mirio says that heroes are supposed to fight and chase the ideal future, who else will make it reality? Izuku remembers All Might and Ethan encouraging him, and Banjo telling him to keep control of his heart. This lets Izuku refocus and he prepares to fight. He asks AFO if Shigaraki is still inside that body.

 

We are shown a brief glimpse into Shigaraki’s Mindscape as he explains that he is both AFO and Tomura, two consciousnesses merged into one. We’re shown the visual of AFO’s body as a small Tenko Shimura tries to get out of him like a chest burster, ya know, to symbolically imply that there’s more inner turmoil here than he’s letting on. AFO claims that his is the dominant personality because he’s older… and totally not because he engineered this whole plot to steal Tomura’s body. He warns Izuku to not think for a moment that a happy ending is possible. Mirio doesn’t believe the fusion story, and he tells Izuku about how he reacted to being told he doesn’t have any friends. He thought that after that, every hit caused Shigaraki to react, to show weakness. Nana Shimura briefly manifests and tells Izuku that her grandson is still in there. She knows this by looking at Shigaraki’s mutant left hand, which has human heads on the tips of the fingers, and she recognizes one of them as Tomura’s father, her son. Shigaraki leaps and the force of it causes the Coffin to list to the side. He tells Izuku that he’s coming for his brother. Izuku tanks the hit and says that he better not think he’s getting a happy ending either.

 

He strikes Shigaraki with a combination of Blackwhip and Fa Jinn, which hurts but doesn’t do much. Then we see that attack was just to put some distance between them for Izuku’s actual big attack. Kudo manifests and tells Izuku that he has five minutes to finish this or its all over. Izuku uses Gear Shift and goes into second. He moves at blinding speed and strikes Shigaraki in the gut, then hits him twice more as he shifts into third and then top gear.  He hits Shigaraki so hard with that last one that he breaks the sound barrier. Shigaraki is noticeably panicking at this moment as he realizes that Izuku is using Gear Shift, and that it’s more potent than it was the last time he saw it. Kudo says that his Quirk has shifted over the years and its allowing Izuku to battle at 120% his full power. He Detroit Smashes Shigaraki into the ground. Both Shigaraki brothers manifest with that hit, OFA telling AFO that they need to finish this.

 

AFO has a flashback to when he killed Kudo. We see that AFO slaughtered at least a dozen members of Kudo’s militia before grabbing the man by the throat and holding him aloft. He figured out Kudo’s Quirk could change the speed of things, but it only worked on small objects. Kudo, to show his defiance, tried to strike AFO in the back of the head with a knife he’d touched, but it doesn’t work. He dubs Kudo as worthless, beneath his notice. He’s confused as to why in the present that he sees Kudo alongside his little brother as Izuku piledrives him into the ground. Izuku’s power is great enough to even impress Aizawa. Kudo explains that his power, like the others, grew more powerful over the ages as OFA has been passed on. It’s grown potent enough to affect things on a cellular level. He claims when Izuku uses it on himself it causes him to have a punch that, and I quote, can “break the laws of reality itself.” Izuku Detroit Smashes Shigaraki with a Quintuple force. Shigaraki realized that the hit wasn’t as strong the last one and that it’s probably because Izuku didn’t use Fa Jinn to charge up. Still, he’s confident now that he can figure out Izuku’s trajectory and tries to counter his next hit. Unfortunately for him, Izuku’s Gear Shift doesn’t have to follow the laws of Physics, so he is able to downshift mid flight and escape his attack. Shigaraki tries to hit him anyway and Izuku unleashes a smoke screen. Izuku tangles him Blackwhip and pulls him upward. He uses all his Quirks together to position Shigaraki just right and then unleash a full power strike. Kudo tells Izuku to remember that meta abilities aren’t the most important thing, the real power is in the hero that uses them. Izuku and Shigaraki clash with their super powered punches. They’re stuck in limbo for a second before Izuku bursts through, and shatters through Shigaraki’s defenses. The first wielder manifests and says that it feels like his OFA and his brother’s AFO are resonating. He thinks that Mirio is right and that something is off here, and that all that’s happening is breaking the balance between AFO and Tomura. Kudo tells Izuku that he has to finish off Shigaraki, now, like he swore he’d do when he spoke with Nana. Shigaraki is infuriated by all of this. He’s the quintessential sore loser, blaming everyone around him for what’s happening. The heroes are cheating by blocking his quirks while Izuku uses all of his combined. They cheated when they split the two Shigarakis up and trapped him in a cage. Shigaraki swears he’s not done yet. It’s at this moment that we learn that Shigaraki the Younger is named Yoichi as AFO gloats. He claims that he’s not done yet, he thinks victory is still well within his reach. We’re shown the battlefields, Dabi’s fire is engulfing Kamino, a storm is forming over the island, Gunga villa is smoking, and then we see a hulked-out Spinner standing over some carnage. Damn. That’s a hell of a spot to stop at.

 

I hoped that the Shigaraki vs. Deku brawl would be memorable and it did not disappoint. The fight itself was phenomenal. I love how they worked in each of his powers into the fight at one point and that even someone like Shigaraki, who theoretically should have been the most prepared to fight someone with the perfected One For All was overwhelmed by it. I think it gives us a little insight into AFO’s mindset. He was overconfident for the entire series because he assumed that no matter how strong OFA’s quirks grew they’d never match him. The ones he met with their original wielders were weak, so they could never grow strong enough to challenge him. And Izuku obliterates that assumption by spamming his gear shift and moving at, like, quantum speed. And that final hi was so good a part of me is bummed that we have another season and a half to go. That would have been a perfect ending hit. I also enjoyed the build up to the fight, with Izuku briefly losing control of his power and how Mirio talked him back down. Izuku and Mirio have had a connection basically since they met, and I like that Horikoshi never forgot that Mirio is Izuku’s older brother for all intents and purposes. He knew what Izuku needed to hear, and how important it was that he heard it. If Izuku had rampaged, like he almost did, I don’t doubt that the one sidedness of this fight would have been in Shigaraki’s favor unless maybe Izuku gear shifted right away and became to fast to hit. I also appreciate that Mirio also detected and is letting Izuku know his suspicions that AFO and Shigaraki aren’t fully integrated. I’ve seen other series insist on only the protagonist having the awareness or insight to notice when something funky is up with the big bad. But Mirio is also extremely intelligent and insightful despite being a bit of a goof, so he would notice things being as off with Shigaraki as they are. I can’t wait to see how the situation is going to get worse. See you next time. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 150

The villains bounce back insanely well.  

Last time on My Hero Academia the Big Three Stepped up. Realizing that the situation up top was getting out of hand, Miro Togeta decided to abandon his post of monitoring to ensure no additional villains got into the UA dome and help fight. He, Nejire, Amajiki attacked Shigaraki, Nejire throwing her spiral energy at him as a distraction while Amajiki stung him with a poisonous tentacle. This caused Shigaraki’s body to mutate further, growing mouths that barfed up the poison. Toga charged him and got Bakugo away and to Best Jeanist for emergency medical care. Since Toga is untouchable, he was able to stay in Shigaraki’s face long enough to tell him that he’s a bad dude because he doesn’t have any friends. This strikes a surprisingly deep nerve in Shigaraki, briefly awakening the Tenko Shimura locked deep in his subconscious long enough for him to shout “Nuh-uh!” The rest of the fight Shigaraki is half distracted as the AFO part of him tries to figure out why he and Tomura aren’t fully integrated. Toga and Nejire kept him distracted long enough for Amajiki to use his Vast Hybrid technique to mix a bunch of animal and plant parts together along with Nejire’s energy to make a plasma cannon. He fires it at Shigaraki, obliterating his tentacles but not doing much damage to the main man. He’s actively insulted by this, asking if they really though that kind of attack could hurt someone with strength comparable to All Might in his prime. Bakugo, who has recovered but still seems to be a bit out of it, charges. It’s here that we learn that using his Quirk so much has basically spread his explosive sweat pores from just his hands to all over his body, making him even faster. He’s able to hit Shigaraki hard several times before Shigaraki gets pissed and tries to finish him. Bakugo has a vision of the All Might Vestige that he has and he tells All Might that he always really did want his autograph. Shigaraki hits Bakugo in the chest as everyone else tries to stop him. The explosion sends them all flying. Bakugo hits the ground and doesn’t move, his heart stopped. Enough Recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin by checking in on Izuku. He’s made it a good distance from the Island, but he’s still way out from mainland Japan and even farther from the floating UA. Shigaraki the Younger manifests to warn Izuku that he feels that his brother’s Quirks are somehow increasing in number. Izuku sees something coming at him from a distance.

 

Jumping back to UA, we see Monama absolutely stunned at Bakugo’s death. He remembers the last time he faced off against Bakugo during the 1A and 1B joint training, where Bakugo (correctly) announced his team would win their capture battle with a perfect score, four captures, no losses. He begs someone, anyone to save Bakugo, they can’t let it end like this. Jeanist is over Bakugo’s body and can’t seem to move at all. Mirio is also stunned, remembering his words about at least being able to hold Shigaraki off. We look over at Shigaraki who is now also growing eyes on his mutating left arm. He blames Aizawa for putting this fight on his students and says he’s disappointed in him. He starts attacking the others with the tentacle fingers again, and Jeanist frantically tries to do something, anything for Bakugo. Mirko tries to fight back but gets tangled in the fingers, she screams that she wishes she’d been able to kill him back at the lab. She bites the finger tentacle, trying to break free. Shigaraki tells her not to feel bad as a bunch of heroes failed that day. They jumped the gun and attacked before they were ready, which lead to losing even more heroes and begin stuck in this predicament. He says that Izuku had the right idea but also jumped the gun during his vigilante arc. Izuku realized that you can’t give villains time to scheme and that’s why he ran himself ragged trying to hold them off. Shigaraki also says that that plan was doomed as well and he’s sure even Izuku knew it.

 

We shift focus and return to Kamino Ward to prove that point about not letting villains prepare. Dabi’s back up, and he killed the two guards trying to handle him. He says that he’s grateful he got to fight baby brother first, it gave him a new thing to try. He figured out how to use Shoto’s Phosphor technique which protected him from the ice blast. Shoto realized that they’ve been underestimating Dabi this whole time. He’d honed his Quirk to perfection all to kill Endeavor. Dabi screams at Skeptic for an update. We see that Skeptic, the computer expert that the League of Villains kind of kidnapped, had been monitoring things from an implant in the Nomu. He tells ‘Mr. Daddy Issues’ to cool it for a second while he works. He’d hacked into the satellite system he’d helped build and confirms that Endeavor is at Gunga Villa. He seems to have drunk the Kool-Aide that Shigaraki is the one to tear down the hero system and is throwing himself wholeheartedly into it. We get a look at UA where the support course folks keeping the barrier up and the building aloft are getting alerts that they’re being hacked. He decided that if they really want to break the system, they can’t let anyone who championed it remain. He starts doing something to the security pods the UA refugees are in.

 

We cut to the bunker where Shoto’s family is. They watch some of the preschoolers that Shoto and Bakugo mentored being troublesome for their teacher and saying that they don’t have to worry about the villains cuz ‘Five Wienies’ (Shoto’s nickname) will save them. Their teacher is relieved to hear that. We see that the Todoroki’s are being watched by the League’s spies.

 

Back with Endeavor we see what’s happening to the original AFO. He congradulates them for their work thus far, saying that they’ve held off his people nicely. But it’s time for that to change. As, after all, it’s in the nature of Villains to attack and Heroes to defend. He completes regenerating and for the first time we see AFO’s complete face. Wasn’t a bad looking fella, bit of silver fox.

 

We jump back to a few months to when Garaki was out and experimenting. He explained via tape recorder to AFO that Shigaraki stole the chemicals that the Shia Hassaikai had been making to destroy Quirks. With a bit of tinkering, they’d been able to alter the chemicals to do the opposite. He included the chemical he made along with instructions with the supplies he left for AFO. This is supposed to be their Hail Mary play, as the effects of the chemical are irreversible.

 

In the present, AFO compliments Endeavor, saying that he thought he thought he’d have to use this final gambit, but he’d have never guessed Endeavor would be the one to force him to. He dropped to the ground, reveling in being able to breathe easily and with his body feeling so light. He grabs a woman hero and starts draining her Quirk. He also steals her cape, so he doesn’t have to fight in the nude. Hawks charges him and frees her with his feather sword. AFO’s still in monologue mode, saying that this version of Rewind he used will continually de-age him. This effectively gives him regeneration even more potent than Super Regeneration but has the rather massive negative side effect of it not stopping. He’ll eventually de-age back into non-existence. But he’s fine with that as he passed his torch to Tomura Shigaraki. He plans to use the time he has left to free Tomura and watch the world burn a bit more before he vanishes. Hawks realizes that AFO is in fact terrified of losing, hence why he used his Hail Mary. Because Hawks is smart, he tries to burn as much time as possible and asks AFO what the plan exactly is. AFO shrugs and says that he got the idea from comic books. He is going to steal OFA, and thus do the scariest thing imaginable, stealing hope from the world as OFA is the only thing that could stand against him.

 

We jump to the US. Outside we see the remnants of a protest with a sign reading “We are All Might” and some trash. General Ackbar is trying to convince the president to send aide to Japan now and stop AFO before things get bad. The President disagrees, pointing out the US is in trouble right now do to the sudden death of Star and Stripe. Their research has shown that Tomura is already beyond anything they could match. The president reveals that other nations are strategizing ways to appease Shigaraki once he’s conquered Japan. Ackbar is disgusted by this, saying that if they don’t strike now, no chance strike back will come. Ackbar coughs hard and then goes for something in his pocket. The Secret Service pulls their guns on him, but he was just pulling out the picture he had of young Star with All Might and David Shield. He begs the president to not give up on Star’s legacy. Heroes are supposed to support and set the stage for those who come after.

 

We return to UA where Jeanist is working frantically to bring Bakugo back. Edgeshot joins him and offers his help. He says that as the Ninja hero, there’s no place he can’t infiltrate. He reduces his body to super thin filaments and follows Jeanist’s threads into Bakugo’s chest. He shouts at Mirko to unleash the beast on Shigaraki, to ‘tear him apart with your teeth if you must!’ Edgeshot says that he won’t accept defeat, he’ll replace what’s damaged and bring him back anyway he can. Jeanist tells him that there’ll be no coming back from that, and Edgeshot shrugs and says he’ll just leave what’s left up to Jeanist. We get a flashback and learn that these two were classmates at UA, Jeanist was their club president. He says that if he must, he’ll become this child’s heart. He uses a bubble from the Hero wash to sterilize himself before beginning the operation. He goes in and sees that Jeanist has closed a lot of the wounds back hasn’t stopped the bleeding. He works quickly, trying to seal up the damage as well as give Bakugo CPR from the inside. Present Mic’s narration tells us that this is putting an intense strain on Edgeshot and that he’s killing himself to try to bring Bakugo back. He mentally tells Jeanist and Mirko not to give up and stop Shigaraki. He’s injured; this is their best chance to strike. He also screams at Bakugo to live damn it.

 

Shigaraki comes over to gloat, saying that Bakugo is dead and there is nothing they can do. We get a weird mental flash where he remembers saying that he should get to destroy whatever he wants. He remembers his mother and his abusive father. We then see a burnt and broken Shigaraki saying that he ‘has to stop this itching.’ In the present Shigaraki says he already finished the job! He tries to strike Jeanist with his tentacle. Mirko breaks free and tries to strike him, but gets caught again. Shigaraki arrogantly asks if she’s really that ready to die. Mirko rips herself free, leaving her right arm behind this time, and kicks him. This woman is too quick to lose limbs. This doesn’t seem to affect Shigaraki that much… but he still staggers. He’s confused by this as his perfect body shouldn’t do stuff like that. He thinks that maybe the damage is building up, that they’ve hit him with weak attacks over and over again and it’s starting to accumulate. He then realizes that he was afraid of Bakugo when he started unleashing earlier, and is infuriated that we was afraid of a background extra. Jeanist closes Mirko’s wound and she charges like a ranging bear. Shigaraki goes to attack, but Mirio leaps up and covers his eyes. Mirko shrieks that he better keep his eyes on her, she’ll keep fighting until it’s her time to die, and she’s got too much to do to just die right now. She says that when she leaves this world it’ll be without regrets. She pummels Shigaraki with her one good leg and her bladed prosthetic and actually hurts him. The attack was enough to get the Big Three and Jeanist free and ready to strike. We flash into Tenko in the mindscape again. The hands that have been encircling him this entire time have pulled back. He says that even after he disintegrated his family, he wasn’t broken at that point. No, the thing that broke him was that no one ever reached their hand out to him to try to help.

 

Outside, Present Mic explains that Tomura’s new body is constantly mutating to try to find the optimal form. Initially, it looked like that might be a bloated mass of finger tentacles. But the heroes overcame that and so his body is trying something else. Aizawa’s Erasure is keeping him from accessing his Quirks, so its trying for a new optimal form. This being hand… armor. Like, he’s grown a bunch of hands all over his body that have shaped into an armored mask, breastplate and so on. Dude is obsessed. Mirko says she’s had enough of him and charges, but Tomura smacks her aside. He quickly overwhelms Amajiki and Nejire as well. Mirio is still standing, but Shigaraki says that he’s not worth wasting time on. Mirio is devastated to think that he’s this level of useless on his own. Shigaraki says that Jeanist doesn’t get to fix what he broke. Jeanist tries to tangle him in threads and Mirio tries to grab him, but they’re knocked aside as he charges. Mirio is panicking at this point, everyone else is down, he’s doesn’t have an attack that can work, and Jeanist is in the line of fire. He remembers Sir Nighteye using his Quirk on him and saying that Mirio would become the finest hero ever. Nighteye’s power is supposed to be a nearly perfect prediction, so he can’t believe this is what Nighteye saw. They get told by Mandela via telepathy that she’s dropping the barrier for two seconds. Mirio really panics, trying to think of something, anything to keep Shigaraki distracted. He settles on Nighteye telling him to use Joy and laughter to balance he sorrow. He dives into the ground and comes out in front of Shigaraki. He shouts “Hey, you! Got a peach for ya!” while flexing his ass cheeks. The sheer insanity of that move stops him long enough for Shigaraki to look back and see Izuku sling shotting himself at him. And that’s where the episode ends. Damn it.

 

I want to start off by saying that Mirko is far, far, far too willing to lose her limbs. This woman is down 3 from the last few months. And yet she will not stop! Even in animated form seeing her lose another limb made me feel a bit queasy. Shigaraki’s mutations are getting nutty. The eye on his body made me think of that Resident Evil 2 scientist dude after he mutated. I kind of thought he might be exaggerating a bit about being as strong as All Might at his peak, but damn it if he’s not proving it with how much he’s humiliating the heroes. They’ve been fighting tooth and nail for a while now and they’ve barely damaged him at all. Using Bakugo’s death and attempted resurrection in this fight is a neat idea. Like, think about it, Shigaraki has nothing to gain by killing Bakugo at this point. He can just fight the heroes, potentially break out of the barrier with his immense strength alone. But no, he’s wasting time trying to kill this one teenager because he said Bakugo is dead and no one is allowed to contradict him. Which makes Edgeshot’s attempt to bring him back that much bigger of a screw you. Was Mirio flashing his ass to stop Shigaraki stupid? Yes. Was it in character? Also, yes. Did it make me laugh? Hell yes. And now Izuku’s here, so the fighting is going to shift into high gear. Shame about those other big negatives coming their way, with AFO on his way in a youthful, powerful body, and Dabi on the rampage again and now with a new ability to protect him. It’s like one step forward, two back. Hopefully they’ll make some progress next time, but we’ll have to wait and see. Have a good night, stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 149

Mirio, Nejire, and Amajiki to the rescue. 

Last time on My Hero Academia All For One was shown the tenacity of side characters. Hawks, Jiro and Tokoyami were able to overwhelm the super-duper villain and break his helmet. Sure, the Vestiges of the Quirks he’d stolen over the years rebelling against him helped, but they did break it. Infuriated, AFO retaliated and attempted to skewer them, but Endeavor leapt back up and took the hit, saving them. The number 1 hero had to do some soul searching to reach this point, remembering how his father died trying to save someone, and all of his mistakes as a man. He once again resolved to do better and try to make a better future, which I hope was worth it as it cost him his right arm. The now southpaw Endeavor tackled AFO, beating him into the dirt before flying up and unleashing a Prominence Burn at point blank range. He incinerated the Demon Lord, burning him to a blackened crisp. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the end, as AFO claimed he’d been planning on ditching this body anyway and unveiled his emergency plan. He injected himself with the Quirk destroying bullet, but for some reason this caused him to start regenerating, regrowing his eyes and ears. At the same time, Bakugo’s team were struggling but surviving against Tomura Shigaraki. The weight of the tentacles of fingers that Tomura grew proved to be more mass than they accounted for and it starts to cause the floating UA campus fall apart. Bakugo digs deep and tries to unleash a full power blast using a new support item, sweat powered cannons, point blank at Tomura. Unfortunately, while the explosion destroyed the tentacle, Tomura himself was fine. He breaks Bakugo’s arm. Jeanist and Mirko try to help but are knocked back by Tomura’s strength and new tentacle. He tells Bakugo that he doesn’t give a damn about his heartfelt speech and that the only thing he finds interesting about Bakugo is his connection Izuku Midoriya. He knows Bakugo is his oldest friend and that he will come to save Bakugo. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Watching his students and colleagues getting their asses beaten by a weapon of mass destruction in the form of white haired incel has Aizawa panicking just a little bit. He shouts at Mandalay if Izuku’s inbound. She says she doesn’t know, the electromagnetic barrier around UA is screwing with her telepathy and the radio is all static. Aizawa begs Jeanist and Mirko to save Bakugo, telling them that he has dreams he needs to fulfill of being the next number 1 hero. Inside, Amajiki and Nejire are on their feet but are battered. Because he’s a Negative Nelly, Amajiki pessimistically says that he was really looking forward to graduation. Mirio phases up from the lower level and says that he is too, and when they’re done here, they should talk Nezu into throwing a huge graduation celebration. Amajiki asks if he really should be up here, and Mirio shrugs and says he’s following procedures. He thinks the three of them together at the very least can hold Tomura off long enough for Izuku to arrive. They both agree and the Big Three of UA enter the battle.

 

Tomura knocks Bakugo to the ground and stomps on his head. He figured out that Izuku was supposed to be warped here. He muses that its actually a good thing his Quirks are being nullified, as this means he can leave a body for Izuku to find instead of a pile of ash. He remembers that Izuku got super pissed when he skewered Bakugo last time with his blades, so the actual dead body of his frenemy will hopefully get a bigger reaction. Bakugo tries to shoot him, but Tomura doesn’t react at all. He remembers that Bakugo was an All Might super fan, like Izuku, and tells him to take this as a lesson that he’ll always be garbage compared to the power of One For All. He attempts to finish off Bakugo, but that’s when Nejire comes in and blasts him with her spiral energy. Unfortunately, she’s a bit too slow and Tomura is able to turn and use Bakugo as a shield. Nejire is able to angle her attack to miss. Thankfully, while his back is turned, Amajiki is able to get him. He used his power to take on the abilities of the things he eats to give him the camouflage abilities and tentacles of an octopus. He then pumps him full of scorpion toxin. This stuns him for a moment, but then Tomura grows a mouth on his side that throws up the poison. He starts laughing at their pathetic attempts to stop him. He says that his body is constantly evolving and these attacks they’re throwing at him aren’t enough to overcome that. He asks if this is the best they’ve got, which is the best cue for Mirio they’ve had since. He phases through the tentacles to grab Bakugo and throw him out of harms way and to Jeanist.

 

Tomura recognizes Mirio and calls him another All Might Zealot. Mirio introduces himself with his hero name, Lemillion, and that his job for the day is as a guard and messenger. He’s supposed to keep any other villains from breaking into the cage to give Tomura backup. But he decided helping everyone keep Tomura from killing the heroes is more important. He asks Tomura why he is so destructive. Tomura says its because society has failed everyone, and Mirio accuses him of just being upset that he doesn’t have any friends. This seems to legitimately stun Tomura, giving Mirio a chance to use Nejire’s power to boost his punch. He slams his fist into the man’s gut and says if he cared about people he’d know there are loads of things worth not destroying. Mirio is scared, but hopeful that they can keep Tomura down for a bit longer.

 

Jeanist helps Bakugo up and offers to stitch up his arm. Bakugo doesn’t say anything but starts to cry. This clearly shakes Jeanist to his core. He says that he’ll stitch Bakugo up, but he should stay back for the rest of the fight. Tomura is operating at a level way beyond what they feared. They brought Bakugo along because he had experience fighting Tomura, but with his power boost, that experience isn’t enough to help anymore. He tells Bakugo to rest. But to his shock, Bakugo starts muttering ideas for a counter attack.

 

Mirio punches Tomura again, physically and then again, emotionally, saying that if he had friends he wouldn’t throw himself into destruction like this. He’d want to protect those friends. This pierces the walls of hate and hands in Tomura’s mind, reaching all the way to the Tenko Shimura at his core. Tenko has a flashback to when he told his mom about friends. In the present, Tomura freaks out, mentioning his childhood friends and how his dog always wanted to go on walks with him. So shut up. He throws his tentacle at Mirio… which we know doesn’t affect him even a little bit. He realize he touched a sore spot with Shigaraki, which surprised him. He notes that the tentacle is easy to damage, but Tomura’s main body is much sturdier. He tanked a hit from Nejire’s energy and isn’t even scratched. AFO makes his presence known, saying to himself that this is weird. He’s supposed to have fully integrated with Tomura, so why is a schism forming now? He realizes that the Tenko bit of Tomura is resisting the integration. He decides that he can’t let this go on and turns to go. Mirio chases after him, knowing that they can’t let him get away. We get a flashback to what he’d planned with his classmates. They’d decided that Amajiki and Nejire would open with big attacks, allowing him to slip in and save Bakugo. He’d then distract Tomura for as long as possible, but because he can just punch like a buff but otherwise average 18 year old, what he’s really doing is buying time for Amajiki’s play.

 

Shigaraki approaches Jeanist. Jeanist makes his cape try to choke him, but Shigaraki barely notices. Nejire flies over and launches more bolts at Shigaraki, but again, barely notices. He remembers Jeanist’s comment that they’d made UA into his coffin in the sky, saying that what they really did was make their own grave. He causes his finger tentacle to go wild and it starts slicing up Nejire. She flashes back to middle school. She was one of those kids that was always asking questions of other people and barely sitting still. She was just generally interested in people, but the other students took her comments as her making fun or looking down on them with her questions. She became quitter and colder after that, until she joined UA. One day Amajiki came up to her and asks her about her hair and what sort of products she uses, egged on by some of their classmates. This breaks the dam in her and she goes back to being the gal always asking questions. She says that first question was what led to all of this, to her friendship with Amajiki and Mirio, and to getting so much stronger. In the present, she unleashes a bigger blast to try to slow Shigaraki down. She thinks to herself that she knows what Amajiki’s Vast Hybrid attack can do. It’s slow, but it’s a devastating attack. We see some of her spiral energy is being funneled into Amajiki. He’s mixed just a shit ton of stuff, (animals and fruits mostly) to turn his arm into a cannon shaped mouth, which is currently gobbling up the energy. Mirio runs up on Shigaraki, thinking to himself that he believes in Amajiki. He flashes back to a time when he told, for probably the thousandth time, to be confident in himself. Amajiki knows that if this fails, they’re all dead. He’s scared, but he remembers how Fat Gum, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu and Mirio used to encourage him. He says that the weight of those words used to feel crushing but now they’re lifting him up. He unleashes Vast Hybrid: Plasma cannon. The high energy beam shreds Shigaraki’s tentacle and fries the man himself. He tries to attack through it, but Mirio close lines him. The beam cuts through the barrier and into the distance. Manual watches it go by and looks shocked.

 

After the attack, Amajiki is exhausted, his cannon arm destroyed. Mirio is also on his last legs, and Nejire got her stomach sliced up badly. Unfortunately, the attack didn’t stop Shigaraki. He almost crushes them all, but Jeanist pulls them all away with his cables. He asks if they really though an attack like that could hurt someone who is the equivalent to pique All Might. Bakugo gets up and starts walking toward Shigaraki. He mutters to Jeanist to use his first aid on the others. Jeanist tries to grab him and stop him, but Bakugo zooms away and right up into Shigaraki’s face. He unleashes a blast point blank. Shigaraki takes the hit and tries to counter, but Bakugo dodges and blasts him again. Present Mic’s narration comes in to tell us that Bakugo’s training with his abilities basically upgraded his power. Instead of just releasing explosive sweat from his palms, he now does it across his body. It hurts like hell but allows him to move at absurd speeds. He dodges another attack and blast Tomura again. As he rockets around he realizes that he’s copying Izuku. Izuku made an art of dodging attacks and countering. He asks if he can ever really catch up to Izuku. Shigaraki is infuriated by Bakugo and he doesn’t know why. The part of him that is AFO says that he’s just like ‘that insect,’ thinking of Kudo, whom from the flashback we see he strangled with his bare hands. Kudo and Bakugo are both ‘extras’ in his mind, so he wants to know why he’s feeling panic rising in him. He goes for a big hit, swearing to obliterate him as Bakugo unleashes another explosion. Bakugo enters the Mindscape and sees All Might’s Vestige within him. He apologizes to All Might’s Vestige, saying that when he met him he was kind of a punk. Mental Bakugo pulls out his trading card and says that he can’t tell All Might how badly he wanted an autograph.

 

In the present, we see one second before everything happened. Bakugo is about to blast, Shigaraki is about to slam, and Mirko, Jeanist, Nejire and Mirio all try to in some way block the attack or get Bakugo out of the way. It doesn’t work. Everyone is knocked back, Bakugo’s heart appears to stop, and he hits the ground. We see the All Might trading card fall out of his pocket, burnt. We cut to Mitsuki and Masura Bakugo watching a weather report. Basically, Dabi’s fires caused temperature spikes that are creating a massive thunderstorm. Mitsuki mentions that that isn’t good, as her son really hates the rain. Lady, he’s got bigger issues right now. Back at UA, Shigaraki mocks the heroes for trying to catch him off guard by copying the previous fights. He says their part is done now, and from now on this is Shigaraki’s story. Jeanist isn’t listening, he’s looking over Bakugo and panicking, saying that this might hurt… before he and everyone watching realize that Katsuki Bakugo has died. Hell of a place to stop.

 

Obviously, you, me, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of this series knows that Bakugo did not in fact die, but that was a hell of a death fake out. Well… I suppose it’s not a fake out since his heart has definitely stopped. Death that is reversed? Maybe that’s better… whatever, that was a dramatic as hell final attack from Bakugo. I always love a good bit of clarity when a character does a big all or nothing attack and this was a great one. Having Bakugo get his bell rung this hard, only for him to get back up and rush Shigaraki again with an attack that seemed to legitimately scare him was perfect. I love that Bakugo reflected on his relationship with Izuku and realized that Izuku is the perfect person to battle Shigaraki. He’s a master of evades and counters by this point. And I loved that emotional vulnerability he showed when he told All Might’s Vestige that he wanted an autograph. If you’re wondering how that got there, remember at the end of MHA: Heroes Rising where Izuku somehow gave Bakugo a temporary hit of OFA so they could defeat Nine? From that. Yes, the movies are canon even if they weren’t part of the manga run. It’s legit sad to see that burnt card, I hope All Might gets him another. Knowing Bakugo he’d keep both. It was also nice to see the Big Three get a chance to shine as a group. While they’d been hyped up a lot up to this point, they hadn’t really gotten to work as a team like this before. They were split up for most of the raid on the Shia Hassaikai base, and after that Mirio was Quirkless for a while, and after that they’ve been split up. I do see the hype for these three, as they work well together. Mirio as team leader and main decoy, Nejire on ranged DPS and Amajiki as the mid-range fighter with the potential to unleash a huge blast, they’re combination is phenomenal. Mirio finding the nerve to poke at within Shigaraki to widen the crack that remains between Tomura and AFO was also nice. The dude can be a bit of a ditz, but he cut right to the heart of Tomura, who is Tenko, and poke the ‘you don’t have any friends!’ nerve. Shame he couldn’t poke it harder and maybe Bakugo wouldn’t have to make his second trip to the pearly gates. One more and he gets a free sundae. That’s a Team Four Star DBZ Abridged joke for ya. Next episode is looking like an Empire Strikes Back moment for the League of Villains, so be prepared for that. See you later. Good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social