Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 151

 Izuku vs. Shigaraki, round 1, FIGHT!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 150

The villains bounce back insanely well.  

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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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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 148

Endeavor and some side characters battle the Demon Lord.

Last time on My Hero Academia Endeavor and Hawks faced off against AFO. While the other battlefronts were bolstered by hearing that Shoto had defeated Dabi and brought him into custody, Endeavor seemed to have mixed feelings about it. Which, ya know, I get, I’d not be sure how to feel if my youngest beat up my oldest regardless of the situation. Unfortunately, he’s dueling with the self-proclaimed Demon Lord, so he’s really not given time to process his feelings. Endeavor and Hawks fall into a stalemate against AFO quickly, as all three are exhausted and still recovering from the various injuries they’ve sustained the last few weeks. AFO keeps poking the ‘you’re a bad dad!” nerve on Endeavor. Endeavor doesn’t take the bait at first, but then AFO reveals he’s the one that stole the injured Toya away from the Mountain that night. That infuriates Endeavor, who tries a big burst, but AFO takes the opportunity to slash his side when he does. Endeavor falls, Hawks sends some feathers down to help cushion his fall and then prepares to die as AFO fires a shockwave at him. He’s saved by the timely arrival of Tokoyami, who is flying on Dark Shadow, and Jiro who is riding them both. Her heartbeat sonic blast cancels out AFO’s shockwave. Hawks tries to get his former Work Study student to flee, but Tokoyami refuses. They want to help, and Tokoyami insists that they work well together. Frustrated by the constant interruptions from people he thinks of as NPCs, AFO unleashes a massive energy blast, destroying one of Jiro’s earphone jacks, hurting Tokoyami, and stabbing Hawks in the confusion, asking if they really thought they could stand up to him. While this is going on, Endeavor gets up but he’s still lost in his own head about the whole “son” thing. We’re also shown groups of villains attempting to release Gigantomachia and Kurogiri from their prisons. The Gigantomachia guards hold their assault off, but the Kurogiri defenders are going up against Spinner. The lizard man was given a Gigantification extra Quirk from AFO, so he’s a legitimate threat now. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with AFO gloating about how powerful he is and how much all these heroes suck compared to him. Jiro tells him that his words don’t matter, actions do, and his actions involved making her friends cry, and she takes exception to that. She hits him with a full power sonic burst. AFO isn’t impressed, as the attack isn’t particularly strong. But when he tries to retaliate, we enter the mindscape to see the Vestiges of some of the Quirks he’s stolen reacting to the fight. The Vestiges grab onto him, slowing him down and keep him from attacking Jiro. She calls out to Hawks, who rushes the distracted AFO. As he begins his slice, we learn that he’s been very deliberate in this fight thus far. Every time he’s tried to attack AFO, he’s aimed at the same spot in the helmet. While AFO brushed all the attacks off, thinking Hawks weak or stupid, he was actually wearing down the metal of the mask. His next slash, boosted by the sonic of Jiro’s attack (somehow?), shatters both his feather sword and AFO’s Mask. Jiro leaps off Tokoyami’s back and tells him he’s up. She uses the force of her sonic attack to slow her fall. Knowing that Hawks isn’t recovered enough to finish off AFO, he focuses Dark Shadow around his fist and tries a Black Abyss punch. After wrapping Jiro’s jacket around his fist to reduce the risk of touching AFO and losing his powers, of course. AFO is distracted by the Vestiges attacking him in the mindscape and thus can’t dodge. His hit obliterates the mask and AFO drops. Tokoyami flies back up and grabs Jiro. Hawks makes another feather sword and charges, saying AFO shouldn’t have underestimated them.

 

As he drops, AFO is confused by how this happened. He knows he should have dodged Dark Shadow but somehow wasn’t able to react in time. He’s blind, yes, but he’s spent the last decade and change prioritizing gathering extra-sensory Quirks, allowing him to sense into the infrared, vibrations, and so on. He thinks it’s because of the rebelling Vestiges, which is also confusing because this hasn’t happened in his 150+ years of life. He thinks it’s because he’s using a copy of AFO, without the original his hold over the Quirk’s Vestiges have weakened. Hawks tries to finish off AFO with a final slice, but AFO regains control of his Quirks and he strikes out with his stabbing tentacles. Hawks dives in front of the kids to protect them but is saved as well by Endeavor leaping in the way. AFO rebuilds his mask with his tentacles. AFO claims that his ideals have left him warped and dubs him Endeavor the Failure. Endeavor shrieks in defiance, charging forward, losing his skewered right arm in the attack.

 

We flashback to the injured Endeavor laying on the forest floor. The blood loss, head trauma, and sorrow of the moment make him see a vision of himself as a UA student. Young Enji says that the last few weeks have weakened Endeavor’s resolve and shown what a little person he really is. He claims to be barely able to look at his older self right now. Enji says he’s not a superhero… but to not forget his origin. He flashes back even farther when he watched his father die in a fire when he attempted to save a kid stuck in a burning building. Enji also tells him to remember the frustration and shame he felt when he saw All Might, a real hero for the first time. To remember what the name Endeavor means, a name that reflects his failures as well as his efforts. Enji further judges Endeavor, saying that he’ll never be a real hero, not like All Might or even Deku. He hides his shame behind bravado and fury. Endeavor, pissed off, starts strangling Enji, who grows his iconic burning mustache and beard. Enji tells him that he can’t be reborn as something better, he has to keep cursing the weakness in him and burn hot enough to keep it at bay. Endeavor charges up and flies off to face AFO.

 

We rejoin the fight as Endeavor’s arm is ripped off. Rather than react, he uses his Hellfire to make himself a burning fist and punches AFO in the face. He tells the villain that he is persistent, and there will never be a day when he has peace again, but his duty is to fight against AFO, and he is going to do it. AFO blocked the hit with an air shield. His mask is still damaged, but he was able to hold onto most of it. He admits that Endeavor is actually giving him flashbacks to the day when All Might nearly killed him. He says that wounded heroes are the most frightening of animals. Before he can react, Endeavor charges, pushed along by Hawks’ feathers. He reforms the burning fist and slams it into the ground. The attack disturbs some heroes and villains fighting nearby. Hawks asks why he didn’t do a Prominence Burn, and Endeavor says that it wouldn’t have mattered because AFO threw up a shield at the last second. He knows he only has a few Prominence Burns in him, and so he has to make it count. He must break through AFO’s shields and obliterate him. Hawks compliments him keeping a cool head, but Endeavor disagrees, saying his rage is all consuming. He tackles AFO into the ground in a massive hit. One hero suggests helping, but Kamui Woods asks if he has a death wish. Endeavor isn’t playing around.

 

Endeavor grabs AFO and drags him along the ground, breaking up his mask and disorientating the self-proclaimed demon lord. AFO is panicking at this point, he’s injured, exhausted, and Endeavor is laying on the damage. He tries to grab Endeavor to steal his quirk, but Endeavor bursts out heat vision to fry AFO’s hands. He says those hands have ruined enough lives already. AFO tries to throw that back at Endeavor, but he’s beyond self-pity at this point. He can’t change the past, but he’ll do everything he can to change the future. He takes off and the two shoot into the sky. He swears to do everything in his power to make a better future for Shoto and the other students. He grapples AFO, hooking his legs around the other man, and gripping him with his arm, flexing his muscles to keep him steady. He vows to win this fight and then keep looking at Toya. AFO shrieks at Endeavor to release him, and Endeavor unleashes a full power Prominence Burn. The firebomb he creates is like a mini sun in the sky for a few moments. Endeavor relaxes, knowing that AFO didn’t have Super Regeneration, and even if he had some other Quirk up his sleeve, the burnt husk he’s holding isn’t bouncing back from that. So you can imagine his shock when Hawks tells him to get away from AFO. AFO, in a strained voice, asks if Endeavor really thought he’d show up without an ace in the hole. He claims that he’s done with this body and because of that, he was willing to try something a bit crazy. We see the Quirk Bullet that Shigaraki stole from Overhaul fall, and a flash of Eri to drive what’s about to happen home. He says that Heroes aren’t the only ones who become scary when backed into a hole. Just before his left ear and right eye regenerate. Well, shit.

 

 We return to UA. Tomura is using his giant finger tentacles to overwhelm the heroes. They’re still repressing his other powers, but a few giant tentacles can be destructive all on their own. Amajiki gets knocked to the ground, Nejire tries to help him but gets knocked aside for her trouble. Jeanist tells the others to keep moving and not get distracted. The tentacles are a big problem, but using them has limited Tomura’s movement, and his main body is an obvious weak point. Edgeshot uses his power to slice up one of the tentacles, but it regrows within moments. He is weirded out that this is simple growth and not a quirk. Tomura claims that the quirks within him are forcing his body to reshape to adapt to the new powers. The transformation is also affected by external pressures. He claims that once this transformation is finished, the world won’t look the same.  He monologues about how he’s going to break the system and use everyone equally. Bakugo tells him to shut up, he doesn’t care if he’s Tomura or AFO at this point, he just wants him to shut his mouth. Bakugo unleashes his new support item, a bunch of turrets powered by his explosive sweat. He starts unloading on Shigaraki and tells the others to do the same. He knows that this is their best chance to stop him, while he’s trapped, powers suppressed and with the support guys and Yaoyorozu giving them ground to stand on. He reflects on Tomura’s words, about how misunderstandings lead to fear and rejection, and his relationship with Izuku. He says that he came to terms with that crap a long time ago, and he’s going to work towards a better future the slow way, like Izuku is trying to make. He says they don’t need any meddling from “Nutsack-face’s lacky!” Jeanist is inspired by his former Work Study student’s words. Bakugo unleashes his new attack, Howitzer Impact Blaster.

 

Underground, the system is starting to break down. Shigaraki’s growing form is just too much mass for the trap to handle and they’re going down. This is all being recorded by business course students… who I guess felt left out? This one kid with crazy haircut says that he’s doing this to promote the heroes and make a real documentary on how they defeated Tomura Shigaraki.

 

We return to the fight and Bakugo hitting the him full force. The explosion shakes the entire structure, which is a sign to everyone that knows him that Bakugo was involved. The hero Kaminari is working with asks if Bakugo is insane, but Kaminari defends his friend. He says that Bakugo has an insane attention to detail, and because of that, even if it looks like he’s attacking wildly, he’s actually performing incredibly precise movements. Shigaraki realizes that Bakugo was doing his best to focus his attack and limit the risk to anyone besides the two of them, which is impressive… but futile. He caught Bakugo’s arm and breaks it with a hard squeeze. He says that he’s not interested in Bakugo or his journey. Jeanist and Mirko rush in to save him. Tomura mocks their decision to try to attack him up close, as he’s actually stronger up close. He throws a huge blow and knocks everyone back. Shigaraki says that there’s only one thing about Bakugo that he’s interested, and that’s his connection to Izuku. He knows that Bakugo is Izuku’s Frenemy and because of that, he’ll definitely be coming to save Bakugo. And then the credits roll. Damn.

 

Damn, that was intense. I like getting a bit more of Endeavor’s past and what made him want to be a hero. Watching your father die for any reason would mess a guy up, but seeing him try and fail to save someone would be especially rough. Endeavor gets a lot of flack about his desire for atonement, if he’s really worthy of it, if he can ever do enough to make up for the damage he’s done, and all that. As they say, actions speak louder than words. And the big bruiser willingly sacrificed an arm to protect three people and then risked life and his other three limbs to try to finish off AFO in one massive fireblast. It was hype as hell. Shame it didn’t work. I have to say, if you’d given me a bunch of guesses, I’m not sure I’d have come up with how the Quirk-Destroying bullet would be brought back into the story. I’d assumed it’d be used at a pivotal moment again to try to remove a hero’s quirk, like what Tomura tried to do to Aizawa. But somehow using it to make AFO regenerate would not have come to mind. Damn. I also liked that the story took a moment to give Jiro and Tokoyami a chance to shine a little. Horikoshi clearly wanted to give each of his characters at least one hype moment by the end. And letting these two minor characters join in on wailing on and nearly beating AFO is a BIG highlight. It sucks we had to jump away again, but I assume a revitalized AFO is going to factor in the finale, so I can let it go. Tomura’s tentacles of fingers is disturbing and I wish I didn’t have to see so much of it. It’s a shame that he’s just too strong at this point for anyone less than Izuku with his special boy powers to beat, because Bakugo firebombing him into oblivion would have been sick. Especially after his little speech about believing in Izuku and a better future. Sucks that Bakugo had his arm broken, but hey, this is a shonen battle, odds seem good that won’t slow him down much. But we’ll need to wait and see. See you later. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 147

 Number One and Two heroes vs the Demon Lord, ready? Fight!

Last time on My Hero Academia we were given another chapter from the book of Dabi. The story is partially told by Dabi to Shoto, and partially by Dr. Garaki to a random guard he was trying to scare. Seems that after his Quirk went out of control, setting himself ablaze as well as the mountain around him, Toya Todoroki fell into a river which ultimately saved his life. He was found by All For One and chosen to be an emergency backup vessel for AFO if anything happened to Tomura. They performed radical surgery on Dabi, sticking regenerative tissue and other cutting-edge science to save the boy’s life. He ended up in a coma, waking up three years later. AFO and a minion of his, Mr. Sunshine, tried to keep Toya contained, but he refused to learn under anyone besides his dad. He set fire to the building and ran off. He returned home to find Shoto being put through an abusive training regimen from his dad and believed the family moved on from him. He ran off, swearing to destroy his family. He spent the next few years training, rebuilding the strength he lost after the fire and coma, and eventually surpassing it. When he returned to join the League, Garaki and AFO dubbed him too obsessed with death to be an adequate vessel for AFO. In the present, Shoto and Dabi faced off. Dabi unleashed his full power, creating heat so intense even other fire elementalists couldn’t handle it. He ruined his own flesh, burning himself to a blackened husk. He initially overwhelmed Shoto, dubbing him a spoiled child that refuse to embrace his destiny. Shoto then unveiled the fruit of his own training, Flashfire Fist: Phosphor, a cold fire to protect him from Dabi’s heat. The brother’s clashed, Dabi insisting they’ll destroy each other, but Shoto saying that he’ll make them see eye to eye again. He struck his brother in the stomach and flash froze the area around him, dousing his fire and knocking him out. Well, that was emotionally draining. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The other members of Shoto’s team recover to see Dabi fall. Burnin shouts to report to everyone that Dabi has been defeated. This revitalizes the rest of the Kamino Ward heroes and they rally to take out the lesser villains and Nomu. At Central, All Might starts crying, saying that that must have been hard. Tsukauchi says that this is a great thing, its proof their plan is working even if Izuku has been delayed. He tells All Might to spread the word. The team protecting Gigantomachia, comprising Ashido, Kirishima, Mineta, Mt. Lady and members of Class 1B hold off a villain strike team that attempted to free the behemoth and are inspired by the news. The leader of this attack calls it a wasted effort, they’ll overwhelm and defeat the heroes, leaving them trampled like ‘that pathetic UA teacher.’ Ashido dodges a strike from Mr. Sludge from the first episode and a few other villains, hears this comment and freezes up for a moment. Kirishima leaps in and knocks out this dude with a hammer that tries to hit her while her back is turned. He tells his friends that Shoto has shown them how manly he is, so it’s their turn now.

 

At the Stadium, Ojiro, Sero, and Sato are also excited to hear the news. Sato says they’ll have to party after this. Ojiro agrees, but says that they shouldn’t be that surprised. He remembers back in their first mock hero test, where Shoto soloed the students playing the villains by flash freezing the area. He says that Shoto has been impressive since day one.

 

Back at UA Bakugo and company are holding off Tomura. Bakugo unleashes a barrage of blasts to push the tentacle fingers back. He smirks and says of course Icy Hot did it.

 

We then leap back to the sight of the ambush, Fat Gum announcing to Aoyama the big news. One of the league’s newer members, someone that manipulates flowers, says that he figured out the strategy. He knows that they tried to remove the League’s heaviest hitters in that ambush and left the others behind to be handled by the lesser heroes. If I were Fat Gum I’d be pretty POed at that comment. Flower man, Kunieda, says that they’re either confident or stupid. He tells them that anyone that has gone up against AFO has failed and ended up drenched in their own blood. Kunieda says that Dictator robbed him of his victory and that he is AFO’s top assassin. I guess he was one of the villains charged with taking out Izuku. He swears to make them pay, especially Aoyama.

 

We cut to another part of the battle where a mob is rushing cops. They’re stopped by Koda sending a flock of birds at them. His attack is cut off by a massive sword made from a bunch on smaller swords stuck together with belts. I guess Spinner decided to dust off that old weapon, I don’t think he’s used it once since the attack on the training camp. He looks… different. Where once Spinner was an averaged sized, slight man with the look of a lizard, he’s now easily ten feet tall and rippling with muscle. Shoji grabs Koda and pulls him out of the way of the attack. Present Mic lets them know about Shoto’s win, which inspires them. Shoji says that “Dabi will harm no one else.” This royally pisses off Spinner, who loudly shrieks that that must be information warfare. Dabi can’t possibly lose, according to him. He flashes back to before the fight. AFO offered to give Dabi an additional Quirk, but Dabi refused it, walking off. This greatly impressed Spinner, who obviously took a gigantification Quirk of some kind. He says that Dabi had everything, power, a reason to fight, and skill, there’s no way he’d lose to anyone. He orders the Heteromorphs to break into the hospital and free Kurogiri. They’ll free him and tear down society. Shoji prepares for more fighting, telling Koda that regardless of what happens, he’s been proud being in the same class as him.

 

In Kamino Ward, everyone tries to recover. Iida keeps Shoto upright, Shoto apologizes for the big fire and causing Iida’s engines to stall again. Iida asks him why he’s apologizing, since he was just incredible back there. Two heroes look over Dabi, noting that he’s still alive, which seems impossible given how badly he was burned. We see a purple light starting to glow from the center of his chest, which probably isn’t good.

 

We shift to Gunga Villa. The fighting is going on in earnest below, but it looks like Endeavor and Hawks haven’t started trading blows with All For One yet. Endeavor is stunned to hear that Shoto beat Toya. He remembers Shoto vowing to stop Toya with him once he is done crying. AFO starts mocking him, saying that Endeavor’s poor parenting has hurt both of his sons. He’s clearly trying to provoke a reaction, but so far Endeavor isn’t biting. Hawks has a flashback to the planning session for this fight he had with Endeavor and Jeanist. They know that AFO has a weakness right now, his headgear. The Skull like mask he wears to battle is also his life support system. They know if they can break it, they’ll either kill or at least severely weaken AFO with that strike. Hawks says that if AFO was anyone else, they’d throw everyone they have at him, but since AFO’s whole thing is stealing Quirks, they need to limit who fights AFO. So it’ll just be the Endeavor and Hawks. They rush AFO, Endeavor briefly distracting AFO with a big firebomb. Hawks tries to slice him from behind, but AFO predicted this and threw up a slime wall. He notes that Hawks is moving slower than before. He knows that even with healing from Recovery Girl and several support item feathers to augment his existing plumage, he’s not back at 100% yet. Hawks smiles and says they’ve both seen better days. Endeavor charges. He knows that they need to keep this fight close to stop AFO from unleashing his big shockwave attack like he used in Kamino Ward but stay far enough back so he can’t touch them and steal their powers. He summons fire fists and tries to pummel him, but AFO throws up a barrier. Hawks tries to hit him, but he blocks with a sword. He tries to keep up the mocking tone, but the heroes know he’s not at his best either. Endeavor knows he doesn’t have super regeneration this time, so they can beat him. He unleashes a big fireblast that melts AFO’s shield. He tries to distract them by attacking his ego again, saying that Endeavor’s heart doesn’t seem to be in this fight, even though he’s surrounded by heroes giving it their all, even students are fighting harder than him. He says that Endeavor’s ‘Masterpiece’ (Shoto) mopped up his failure (Toya) and asks why he’s not elated. This pisses Endeavor off and he unleashes a big blast. Hawks yells at him to not fall for it, reminding him of how AFO used this tactic against All Might. AFO reveals how he knew about Endeavor’s dirty laundry for some time, and how he used that. He reveals how he stole Toya’s body from the mountain that day, and how he ‘gave’ Endeavor his son back. Endeavor is livid with this taunt and unleashes Hellfire. Hawks realizes for sure that Endeavor would have not been able to stand against Dabi today and tries to get Endeavor to focus again. Endeavor screams that he’ll kill AFO, unfortunately he’s distracted for long enough to allow AFO to take a huge chunk of flesh from his side. Endeavor falls, and AFO turns to finish off Hawks. He raises his hand and prepares to unleash a shockwave. Hawks realizes that he’s dead, but chooses to use the last of his strength to save Endeavor and sends some feathers after him. He thinks if Endeavor can recover, he can unleash a Prominence Burst and destroy AFO.

 

The shockwave is launched but countered by Jiro’s sonic boom. She’s flown in by Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, who tells Hawks to move. Hawks tells them to run, saying that this is too much for them. Tokoyami refuses, saying they can help, and that he and Hawks work well together. AFO is clearly getting frustrated by the interruptions, asking why All Might draws so many gnats to him. He says that these two are like minor characters in the comic he read as a child, who acted like main characters but were cannon fodder. Jiro tells him not to monologue until he actually takes them down. Hawks wonders what happened to Endeavor. He landed thanks to the feathers, but throws up blood. He wonders about his boys, if they’re alive and safe. Endeavor realizes that he shouldn’t turn his rage on AFO, he knows that this is all on him. Hawks knows that he’s alive from the vibration of his breathing, so he resolves to hold out until Endeavor joins them. He tries to get Tokoyami to fly off again, but he refuses. Hawks accepts that they won’t go and takes their offer of help.

 

AFO mentally strategizes as he makes a huge claw out of his left hand. He knows he needs to protect Tomura, his other self, from harm. Endeavor is still a threat, so he needs to take him out quickly. He knows they’re buying time for Endeavor to recover. He decides that the weakest link of the three right now is Jiro and sends his tentacles to kill her. She’s knocked off Tokoyami’s back, but Hawks is able to distract AFO long enough for Tokoyami to grab her. Tokoyami yells at her to focus her blasts on AFO’s mask. Jiro freezes up, as this is way more intense of a threat than she thought. She’s amazed that Izuku and the others have been dealing with this for so long. AFO tells her that she’d been practicing in the classroom, but this is real life. He morphs his tentacles into a huge cannon and fires plasma at them. Hawks throws his feathers at the cannon and moves it out of the way… mostly. It slices off one of Jiro’s earphone jacks and Tokoyami coughs up blood. He fires his bladed tentacles on Hawks, skewering him. He asks these lesser characters if they really thought they could stand up to the Demon Lord as the credits roll.

 

Well, that was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was good that we took a moment to see how the lesser fights were going and how Shoto’s win inspired the other students. inspired the other students. Obviously, Dabi isn’t out for good just yet, that energy burst at the end there was a dead giveaway, but the temporary victory is helpful. I like the fact that the heroes were really prepared for this fight for once, what with having some heavy hitters held back to guard Gigantomachia and Kurogiri. While they’ve been off the board for a while, the two would be indispensable to AFO right now. Best to keep them locked down for as long as possible. The fight between AFO, Endeavor and Hawks is really well done. Is it a bit of cliché to try to piss off the guy with anger management issues with taunts? Yes, but I like that Endeavor was able to hold out until AFO basically said, “I took your son from you.” That would set off most parents, even ones as objectively terrible as Endeavor. And, to his credit, he probably would have killed a lesser villain than AFO with his big attacks. I can understand the war raging in Endeavor right now. He can’t be there for his children, and his actions directly caused the situation that forced his oldest and youngest to fight. Despite how horrible he was to them in the past, I do think Endeavor genuinely loves his kids, so worrying for their safety right now is a totally understandable explanation for why his head isn’t fully in the game. Shame it may have cost him a kidney. Hopefully he rallies soon. The big save by Tokoyami and Jiro was great. I was sure Hawks was going to bite it with that big blast, but then a counter shockwave saves the day. All Tokoyami has wanted to do for a while now is to fight with Hawks and prove himself, so its good to see him get the chance. Hopefully he and Jiro didn’t already have their big moment. That hit looked like it hurt badly. The Demon Lord has them all on the ropes, hopefully they can last. But we’ll have to wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 146

 Dabi's flames are so hot they'll consume everything, especially himself. 

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku got his first love confession. He’s not super enthused by this as it was from Himeko Toga. He freaks out a little bit hearing how Toga loves him and because of that needs to make him bleed. He’s saved from having to do anything about this by Tsu and Uraraka telling him to rush back to the fight with Tomura Shigaraki while they handle her. Izuku flies off, using his air shot gloves to speed himself up. Not enough to get there as fast as Izuku wants, but he’s making progress. They couldn’t just teleport him to the fight, as Shigaraki is rampaging with a huge tentacle of fingers. Aizawa’s powers aren’t what they used to be after losing his right eye, so he needs Monoma to keep Erasure going. While the situation isn’t looking great for the heroes, Best Jeanist has everyone agree to fight this monster with everything they have. Things also aren’t going well for Shoto’s team who are fighting Dabi. The eldest Todoroki has basically set all of Kamino Ward ablaze with his power to show his frustration that Endeavor didn’t come to face him. Shoto begs him to stop, but Dabi is all about the hellfire these days. Shoto begs Dabi to tell him why he never came home after the fire on the mountain, and Dabi agrees to tell little Shoto one last story before incinerating him. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open at central hospital as a gorilla looking police officer goes to check on Garaki. Garaki figured out that the ‘finale’ had begun due to the guards on patrol being severely reduced. He claims that all of this is the culmination of years of work. He reveals that Dabi had been chosen as a potential alternative vessel for All For One if something happened to Tomura Shigaraki. Garaki had sought out ‘rotten seeds’ as he described them.

 

We jump over to Kamino Ward where Dabi has doused himself in flames. He’s opened his mouth so wide that he ripped the piercing keeping his cheeks together, giving him a very rictus grin. Shoto prepares an attack if his brother lunges, and Endeavor’s sidekick team jump in the way to give him cover. Dabi says that some fires never go out as he has a flashback to that day on the mountain. He’s sobbing after realizing that his dad isn’t coming to see how much stronger he gotten (because ignoring him is the only way Endeavor has thought of to try to stop his son from immolating himself.) He starts crying, while telling himself not to cry, which seems to set off his quirk and caused the wildfire that seemingly killed him. As he’s engulfed in flames, he screams to himself that he can’t die yet, as he hasn’t shown his father anything yet. The fire gets so bad that it destroyed his cheeks before he pitched forward into the river. That doused the flames and saved his life.

 

We head back to Garaki, who said that Dabi even back them showed signs of derangement, which I guess was the most important quality to making a vessel. He corrects himself, saying that from the beginning ‘he had everything.’ We’re shown a burnt and bleeding Toya washed up on the bank of the river where AFO found him. Toya woke up in a hospital bed. He’s visibly grown, suggesting its been a few years since being on the mountain. He is badly burned and already has his distinctive burnt section around his eyes and below his jaw. He walks around until he finds a group of children. They dub him ‘Sleepy Head’ and one of the kids goes to get “Mr. Sunny.” Toya tries to ask what’s going on and realizes that his voice was damaged in the fire, so he’s also started to develop his raspy voice. One girl says he’s been in a coma for three years, at least according to Mr. Sunny when he’d shown her around. Toya is desperate to get home, but Mr. Sunny, a man with a face like a sunflower, says that he can’t. His home is here now, and he should learn to get along with everyone. Toya refuses to accept that as he needs to see his father again. He’s a little delusional at this point, believing that Endeavor was busy with hero work and that’s why he didn’t come. His coma seems to have given Toya a bit of clarity as well, as he knows he also needs to apologize to his mother for trying to hurt Shoto and to his siblings for being a dick. AFO cuts in, using one of his sound-only monitors, saying that it’s really not possible for Toya to go home. He explains that he nearly died in that fire and they were only able to save him by using emergency flesh graphs and special regenerative tissue. It sounds like they almost had to rebuild him entirely. And despite their efforts, or so he claims, they couldn’t repair his senses, so they’ve all been dulled to a degree, most specifically his sense of pain was totally out of whack. The damage to his body also damaged his quirk, and AFO claims he’ll never be the same again. Toya starts to sob. AFO tries to convince him to stay, saying that he’ll be able to help train Toya’s Quirk and get him back to something close to normal. Toya refuses and asks how he could dare to even suggest AFO could train him. He’s only got one teacher in mind and that’s his dad. He throws his slipper at the monitor, and when Mr. Sunny tries to grab him, Toya flames up. He causes a fire that destroyed the facility.

 

In the present, Garaki says that they weren’t able to get Toya to join their little group. He needed ‘seeds’ that could be ‘watered’ with hatred, to be a spare body if something happened to Tomura Shigaraki. But unfortunately for them, even someone like AFO couldn’t break Toya away from his obsession with earning his father’s approval. The gorilla cop is disgusted to hear this and claims that there’s no way that AFO could have thought out so far ahead in order to make a lieutenant like Dabi. Garaki shrugs and warns the guard not to take Dabi likely, as he’s utterly unpredictable. The biggest evidence of that being Garaki saying that the artificial cells they used to rebuild Toya should have started to break down within a month after leaving the facility. We’re shown him walking around a city at night, dead set on getting home to see his family.

 

We cut to when Dabi first joined the League of Villains all the way back in season 2, and Garaki admits that no one was more surprised than him that their broker found Dabi and brought him in. He wanted to know how Dabi was still alive and so arranged a private meeting with him when Dabi gathered Hood to fight Endeavor. Dabi says that he figured out that Garaki was the one that saved him after seeing his ‘walking corpses’ the Nomu. He figured that he was supposed to be the base body for one of those. Garaki asks how he managed to survive, and Dabi tells him that he came back because this seemed like the perfect place to hold his funeral. The look he gave Garaki in that moment had made him convinced that the only thing keeping Dabi together was his bitter rage.

 

At Kamino Ward, Dabi reveals to his baby brother that he did go back home once. He said that none of them noticed him, as usual, and as he was even weaker than before, he wouldn’t measure up to his father’s expectations at all even if they had. But he wanted his father to look at him one more time and to know how his family coped. He came into the house to find Endeavor beating on Shoto in the training room, which told him nothing had changed. They’d forgotten him and moved on. He was a failure with no reason to live. In the present, Dabi’s skin starts burning away, transforming his original flesh into the black of a Nomu but leaving the burnt artificial tissue as is. He says that after seeing that scene, he became completely focused on his flames. He felt no pain, even as his chard bits began to flake off. He continued to monitor his father, noticing his raise in popularity as a hero. We’re shown a brief scene of him praying at his own shrine in the Todoroki house, saying that ever since Toya died and he became Dabi, he’s known what he needed to do.

 

Garaki says that heat is a tricky thing to control. Dabi’s obsession with death made him incompatible with AFO as a vessel as AFO wants immortality. AFO had to let go of the fire in a bottle they’d captured. We’re shown Dabi’s flames have gotten so intense that it melts All Might’s statue even as they consume the little bits of healthy flesh Dabi has left. He swears that he will burn down everything Endeavor holds dear, his death will be proof of Dabi’s existence. Shoto tells him that he won’t let his big brother get away with that.

 

Present Mic jumps in to briefly describe Endeavor’s Flashfire Fist, saying that it’s Endeavor’s strongest attack. It involves raising one’s heat to its maximum limit, storing it and then unleashing it. He learned it when he was younger and mastered it in his quest for power, but that heat distorted his view of the world.

 

In the present, Dabi admits that talking to Shoto actually cheered him up a bit and says that his baby bro is a good listener. I really wish he’d tried therapy before going full psycho. He swears to use Shoto as kindling even if Dad wasn’t there. Shoto swears he’ll stop Dabi. Dabi says that he’s thought about Shoto a lot over the years. He initially only got a little of his flames back, but with training was able to get back his old strength and then surpass it. He says that with his dulled senses he didn’t feel the pain anymore, and that let him get strong enough to copy their father’s techniques. He unleashes his version of Flashfire Fist, Hell Spider, on Shoto and his allies. The fire knocks everyone back, Iida mentioning that it’s just like Endeavor’s attack, but bigger and sloppier. He flashes back to when he was in Shoto’s room with the others and Shoto admits that it’s weird that he doesn’t really know anything about his brother. While the other heroes are distracted trying to keep the hell spider in check, Dabi rushes behind Shoto and charges him, saying that he wants to see how pathetic his little brother can look. He decks Shoto and wants to know what pathetic face he made when he was cowering in the UA barrier and everyone learned he was Endeavor’s son and Dabi’s brother. Burnin’ notes that Dabi’s power is greater than Endeavor’s, but he’s destroying himself to use it. Dabi wails on Shoto, shrieking at him that he’s a spoiled brat. He had the perfect body, all the training, and yet he cowered behind others. He calls Shoto an aimless, half-baked puppet before launching him into a building with Jetburn.

 

Shoto tanks the hit, saying that most of what Dabi said was true. He took too many detours, he doubted himself for far too long, but he’s ready now. Dabi’s shocked to see Shoto still standing, realizing that Shoto did something to neutralize the heat. Shoto admits that he used to think Dabi was just obsessed with Endeavor, and that there’s a part of him that’s relieved to hear that he was also on his big brother’s radar. He says that in his quest to catchup with his classmates, he discovered something. He figured out how to improve Flashfire and turn it into the technique to stop Dabi. I should note that Shoto’s got an x of flames and some kind of white energy across his chest this whole time.

 

We get a flashback to Shoto speaking with his father before the battle. Endeavor suggests that Shoto reconsider the team assignments. Shoto tells his dad that this really is the only way, they need Endeavor to fight AFO as he’s the only pro left strong enough to face him. Endeavor has to face AFO, Izuku has to face Shigaraki, (Uraraka has to face Toga, he doesn’t say this but should have) and he has to be the one to face Dabi. In the present, Shoto says that their family is a nightmare, truly terrible, and yet Dabi was the only one of them who chose to burn people. He then flashes back to Izuku asking about the assignment. Shoto admits to his first real friend that he wants to fight his brother, and he doesn’t need to worry. He says that his dad will probably gripe about not keeping his promise to face Dabi but admits that that might be part of his father’s punishment. Dabi is his family’s cross to bear, and if he can’t stop him, he’ll never be a hero. He reveals the X to Izuku, who is impressed with the technique, saying it’s not like his usual Flashfire Fist. Ojiro says that since he’s been gone a while he must not have seen this yet. Kaminari comes over and demonstrates by poking the x that while it looks hot, it’s not at all. Shoto says that he can’t hold this state for long, (Bakugo shouts that its proof he’s still the best fighter). He’s mixing his hot and cold side to make a state of balance. He has mixed his powers together to make a cold fire. He says that this is how he’s chosen to move forward, not using Fire and Ice independently like his father envisioned but this cold fire. He unleashes his new technique Flashfire Fist Phosphor. He hits Dabi with his cold flame, telling his brother to focus all his anger on him, he can take it.

 

Dabi catches himself with flamethrower. He notes that his little brother is perhaps the most perfect opponent he could ever face. He lands and starts building up his heat again, preparing to charge. He says that in this society of theirs, there are limits, a straight path like Shoto’s can’t lay next to a winding one. Shoto’s Phosphor state cuts out and he has to hurry to try to get it back. He tells Shoto their paths will never meet and for him to just give up and die already. He unleashes a flame attack, but Burnin and the other sidekicks tank the hit, telling Shoto to finish this. Shoto has gotten Phosphor back up. He thanks Burnin and the others for their help, despite Burnin saying not waste time on niceties. Shoto says that it’s important to him, as being grateful was something he had to learn from his friends. He says that his past is steeped in greed and blood. When he first started to recognize his shortcomings, he thought he’d be left behind, but his friends were always waiting for him. He says that Class A doesn’t leave people behind, as he quickly remembers all the times that his classmates were there to support one another. He stores up his power and prepares to unleash it. Dabi fires a massive fire blast at Shoto. Shoto charges and strikes his brother in the stomach, saying that he’ll force their paths to cross if he has to. He tells Dabi to just stop as he uses his Great Glacier Aegir. We see a metaphorical moment, Toya Todoroki as a child being struck by child Shoto. When the screen comes back into focus, Shoto has frozen not only his brother but two huge skyscrapers around them. Dabi holds up for a moment before collapsing onto his brother.

 

I’ll be the first to say that making Dabi a potential alternative vessel for AFO is a retcon, but it’s the best kind of retcon, one that fits seamlessly into the story. When Dabi was first introduced, he was a mysterious figure, visibly scarred and scary looking. He was probably Toya Todoroki from the start, but with on how much of time crunch Mangaka are in Japan there is zero doubt in my mind that Horikoshi had very little else planned out for Dabi for a while. His past was a blank space besides the apparent death in his youth, so it was easy to slide AFO in once more of the evil plan had been worked out. Like… the AFO I’ve been following for the last decade is 1000% the sort of person to make a “the prodigal son returns” or “welcome home, lost lamb,” to Dabi if they’d met previously. He’s a smug, condescending git and would absolutely talk like he somehow knew Dabi would be back even if it was a surprise to him. Still, it works better than X-Men 97 revealing Rogue and Magneto used to bang and they just never talked about it because neither brought it up. That’s a sloppy retcon. This one is relatively clean. There were enough gaps in the story to work in this extra content about Dabi and the only reason I am confident it’s new is due to my own experiences as an amateur writer and my understanding of the working conditions of mangaka. His backstory is super sad when we learn that he did go home and just decided that his family had forgotten him. Like… kid, if you’d shouted out to your father in that moment, he might have been stunned but he absolutely would have reacted to you. Endeavor was a monster at this point in the story, but I do not believe he was so heartless he ever actually forgot his oldest. And it seems like neither Fuyumi nor Natsuo forgot him either, Shoto is the only one that might have forgotten details about him, but he was like six when Dabi ‘died.’ He believed himself a vengeful phantom, therefore that is what he became. I like that Shoto found a way to utilize his powers his way in order to stop Dabi. Is cold fire a weird, borderline nonsense idea? Yes. But Quirks at this point are full of weird magic and unique mixes, so it’s no crazier than anything else introduced. Using it to protect himself and to get into a position to unleash a massive ice wave to stop Dabi was brilliant. And I liked the symbolism of it being as much the child version of Shoto punching Toya as it is the current version punching Dabi. Metaphorical layers are neat. So, ya, Dabi is off the board, which is a net win for the heroes. Hopefully they can wrack up one or two more by the time Izuku makes it to Tomura. But we’ll have to wait and see. See you later. Stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 145

Toga admits her love and Izuku runs for his life!

Last time on My Hero Academia the final battle began. We’re given a prolonged flashback revealing how the heroes used Shinso, the brainwashing kid, to hypnotize Aoyama and his parents to trick All For One’s lie detecting sense. They sounded calm and collected when they called, therefore, no lie. They lure AFO out by making him think Aoyama was helping him capture Izuku Midoriya. Instead, Aoyama attacked AFO and then they were able to rapidly deploy their heroes by using Kurogiri’s Quirk through that dick Monoma’s copy Quirk. The heroes captured all the villains in armored pods that they’d hidden under the rubble and shoved them through Monoma’s portals to try to separate them. The goal is to break up the elite fighters of the League of Villains, guys like Dabi, Toga, Tomura, and AFO and tackle them with very specific fighters. The plan works 80-90% of the way but has the major hiccup of Izuku not ending up where he needed to be. Our hero was nabbed at the last second by one of Toga’s needles and pulled through the portal to her location. This is extremely bad for the team fighting Tomura as Izuku was the lynchpin of that fight. So Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Bakugo, Nejire, Amajiki, and Mirko are left to try to salvage the plan. They’ve got Tomura trapped in a floating prison on the grounds of UA. They’ve got an entire work force comprised of Yaoyorozu, Power Loader, Cementoss, Mei Hatsume, and the support course kids. They’d basically broken up the ground into a grid that could launch and break up any segment that Shigaraki touched, effectively neutralizing his Decay. They also can make new segments so they can hopefully keep him at bay. And they have Monoma and Aizawa outside the electrified barrier they set up (powered by Kaminari and some other electric heroes). The Teacher and student are in constant contact to overcome Monoma’s usual time limit, and have the water manipulating hero Manual to moisturize their eyes to keep them from blinking. Even without Izuku it looked like they’d had Shigaraki contained… right up until his arm mutated into a collection of mutant fingers and exploded out from him. Crap. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with a flashback to when All Might explaining the plan to divide and conquer the League of Villains to his allies. They know that the Tomura and AFO can communicate via radio waves and Vestiges, so they need to keep them at least 10 km (6.2 miles) to try to reduce their ability to coordinate. They also know Dabi in particular would be a massive headache in this plan. So, they settled on the scattering plan. We go over basics of what we’d already seen, brainwashed Aoyama’s to lure AFO in, separate in pods, scatter across Japan and hopefully take the villains out systematically. Shigaraki is sent to UA to fight Izuku and his team, AFO is sent to Gunga Villa to fight Endeavor, Hawks and their team, Dabi to Kamino Ward to fight Shoto’s team, Toga to Okuto Island to fight Uraraka’s team, the remaining captured villains will get sent to Takuba National Stadium, and any stragglers that escape capture will face off against whomever is left, specifically Fat Gum and Aoyama. They also will have people on hand to monitor Gigantomachia at Jaku hospital and Kurogiri in Central hospital to make sure they don’t get summoned by their master and have a surprise jailbreak.

 

We cut to Monoma cackling madly and taunting Tomura for not being able to use his quirk while they stare at him. I guess he taunts people when he’s nervous. Aizawa is frustrated that they’ve lost contact with Midoriya as their whole plan was built around him fighting Tomura. His frustration is cut off when Tomura whips out his giant tentacle of fingers, slamming into Mirko, bloodying her and breaking her prosthetic arm. Tomura complains about ever thinking that Aizawa was cool and calls him another disappointment before whipping his finger tentacle at Bakugo, just barely missing him. The finger tentacle nearly hits Jeanist, who dodges, and then slams into UA. Edgeshot asks if they blinked, but Monoma says he hasn’t. Tomura claims that this isn’t a quirk, that the fingers are just a natural part of his body’s growth now, like his hair or nails. It’s a side effect of his body being forced to adapt to take on so many additional quirks, he claims this is the result of the Quirk Singularity that has been pitched a few times now. He scolds everyone for denying this ugly truth he represents. Mirko lands and calls up a locker filled with backup arms. She equips a new arm and leaps over to Bakugo, telling him to get his head in the game. They start shouting at each other, and Jeanist says to pay attention, damn it.

 

Monoma tells Aizawa that he’s using Erasure like he was taught but it’s not stopping the fingers. Aizawa tells him that he knows and to calm down. Mandalay (Wild, Wild Pussy Cats, telepathy) runs up and says they’ve gotten in contact with Midoriya. Izuku through radio static explains he’s at Okuto island and that they should use Monoma to teleport him over. The pros all realize that that plan is impossible, as Monoma can’t copy more than one quirk at a time, and in the 30ish seconds it’d take for him to switch, get Izuku through, and switch back, Tomura could destroy the whole coffin. If each separate finger can use Decay, even if his range hadn’t increased, he’d be able to touch every inch and melt it. He tells Izuku to try to find a way here on his own, they’ll hold out as long as they can. Jeanist rallies his team and says they’ll beat Shigaraki even without One for All. The heroes all agree, but Amajiki is still pessimistic about it.

 

At Okuto Island, Gang Orca is leading his team against the League of Villains and their Nomu. One breaks its body into shards and rains them down like shrapnel. They’re also dealing with jailbreakers like Moonfish (dude who grows bladed teeth from the Training camp). The wave that the Nomu created with his attack scattered everyone, separating Izuku and Uraraka from the rest. Izuku tells Uraraka what happened and she tells him to book it. Before Izuku can react, Toga rushes him with her blades drawn, saying that he can’t leave because she loves him. Izuku is weirded out that she seemed to bypass his Danger Sense again. Hikage manifests, saying that Danger Sense only triggers when the person is a threat. He says he’s not sure how Toga has lasted so long in this world, saying that she legitimately feels affection when she hurts someone. This is right on the heels of Izuku asking what she wants and Toga announcing that she wants him to be her boyfriend.

 

Present Mic comes in to do the narration, saying that Izuku is the special of this series, and that he and OFA are super important. And then tells us that while he’d fought Toga a few times up to this point, this is the first time he’d heard her express her unusual “I love you therefore I want to make you bleed” mentality. Realizing that Toga essentially wants to cut him to show her affection scares the crap out of Izuku, who turns bright red and asks where the heck this is coming from. Mic puts it best, “He may be strong, but he’s still a damn nerd.” Toga admits that she’s had a crush on him since seeing him at the training camp (which, remember, she was attacking) and says that seeing him all bloody and broken made her heart flutter. She says that he reminded her of her first crush, we get a flashback scene to her literally drinking that kid’s blood, so that’s not a compliment. She, smiling in the most aggressive way I’ve ever seen drawn, tells him to get over to her so she can drink his blood and become him.

 

Izuku is still hung up on the ‘boyfriend’ line and asks if she’s really asking him to like to go on a date with her. Uraraka starts shaking with frustration on hearing this and I’m like, “Guys, focus, battle!” Toga explains that when she likes someone, she wants to become them, it’s the only way to satisfy her feelings. Water sprays up, giving Toga a chance to disappear in the wave. Izuku shouts at her that he gets where she’s coming from, as he wants to be like All Might, but she’s not thinking right if she wants to hurt people she wants to be like. This sets Toga off, as she accused Izuku of being just like Uraraka, her parents, and everyone else that want her to ‘be normal.’ She says that because he only values heroes, he won’t give her the time of day. She dons her mask and draws a bunch of her syringe needles, saying that she’ll make him bleed. Uraraka leaps in to help keep Toga off Izuku, saying that they can talk about this. She says that she’d been thinking about Toga a lot since their fight, but Toga claims she’s gotten over her fixation on Uraraka after that fight. She doesn’t matter to Toga anymore. She throws Uraraka off and says if the world rejects her, she’ll reject the world. She stabs Uraraka’s shoulder, saying that she thought they’d understand each other since they love the same person. Izuku somehow doesn’t hear this, as Tsu leaps in and kicks Toga off Uraraka as Izuku Blackwhip’s Toga and pulls her off. Izuku asks if she’s okay, and she says it was barely a scratch. Considering how deep that knife looked like it went in, I’d say she’s lying, but it’s a reasonable lie. She says they must get the knife away from her as it has her blood on it. Tsu notes that they brought Toga to an island to isolate her as she’s such a wild card… but is now worried about being stuck on an island with her. She shouts at Izuku to get moving, as now is not the time to get lost on a conversation about Romance. She and Uraraka know how to fight Toga, so they can handle this. Uraraka agrees and Izuku leaps away. Toga gets up, saying that this is so unfair that Izuku is reacting like this when she just confessed her love. As she stands, her blades start flying around her. Izuku leaps away, using float to stay airborne and his air shots to launch himself forward. He’s frustrated that he’s not flying fast enough, and that there isn’t anything for him to use Blackwhip on to slingshot himself forward. Kudo, the second wielder, manifests and tells Izuku to slow down. He’ll wreck his gloves if he pushes them too hard. He asks Izuku if he’s going to use Gear Shift to make up the difference. Izuku confirms that he had been thinking about it, but Kudo scolds him for it. He says that OFA mutated their abilities overtime and using Gear Shift like that would be dangerous. He tells Izuku to calm down and have faith in his friends. They can survive for a bit waiting for him to arrive.

 

Back with Uraraka and Tsu, they prepare to fight. Tsu is glad that Izuku left, as she knows it’s hard for him to just ignore Toga like this. And admits it’s also to keep Toga from revealing that Uraraka loves Izuku to Izuku, the only person this would be news to. Oy, teenagers. Toga is flustered by this, saying that she loves Izuku, Uraraka, and even Tsu, so their rejections hurt her. She wants to live like she wants, how she wants. She tells them to go off and die, but Uraraka says she won’t run as she needs to be true to herself too.

 

We shift over to Kamino Ward where things aren’t going great. Dabi has the whole place engulfed in flames, heroes are on the ground dead or unconscious, and his Nomu are rampaging around. He reflects on similar this is to when the Nomu attacked Hosu city during Stain’s big spree. He claims that he started getting serious after seeing that. Iida is on the edges of Dabi’s sea of flames, commenting that it’s too hot for him to approach, it’ll ruin his engine. Dabi flies up from the All Might statue that he’d been draped over, saying that he’s annoyed and was talking to himself. You see, he’s depressed that Endeavor is ‘ignoring’ him again. He’s annoyed that he’s been left to his littlest brother and his dad’s sidekicks. The sidekicks are planning to support Shoto however they can, as they’re a group of fire specialists, either being Fire quirk havers or having quirks that can combat fire, they’re probably going to be super important in this fight. Shoto says that he’s not doing this for their dad, that he wants to be the one to stop his brother once and for all. Dabi laughs at this and says that even if he doesn’t want to do their dad’s bidding, he still is, therefore he’s bad. We pull out, seeing that a huge area is on fire. He says that he and his people are here to finally break the broken system of hero society. We get flashes of each of the league members as Dabi talks about this grand plan of theirs. I only bring it up because Spinner especially does not look good, which I think might be a bit of foreshadowing what’s going on with him. Shoto asks his brother why he didn’t come home after surviving the fire. Dabi agrees to tell his baby brother one more story, how he became Dabi, how his flames grew so much hotter, and how he survived this hellish world. We see his skin start to flake away as he snarls at Shoto as the episode ends.

 

Overall, this was a solid escalation episode. 2/6ths of their plans started off reasonably well, with Shigaraki contained and Toga too far away from him to interfere. Sure, Izuku wasn’t nearby to fight, but Shigaraki was in the cage, that’s a win. But then things had to start going haywire as Shigaraki showed off his latest mutation. The finger tentacle is just… so gross to look at, I hate it so much. But it’s a nice visual representation of this Quirk Doomsday Theory that the series has talked about a few times now. This is basically the belief that over the generations, Quirks will mutate and grow more powerful until they hit a point where the human body simply can’t contain them anymore. Considering the dozens of Quirks Tomura has incorporated into his body, makes me wonder how far out this theory would be from actually being proven true. Because, like, if he’s having this severe of a mutation when he’s got dozens, perhaps hundreds, of powers within his body, that would suggest that this won’t really be a problem for a long while. But maybe more potent quirks created farther along will make it more severe. Who knows? I liked that Izuku has been temporarily benched by having him be in transit for the next little bit. Genre tradition as well as Izuku’s personality would insist that Izuku help out at whatever fight he’s closest to before moving onto the main event. But Izuku has grown as a person and understands now that a single Symbol of Peace isn’t a viable situation anymore and he has to delegate. I am sure it helps that he’s delegating to Uraraka and Tsu, two classmates that the knows can handle fights given how often he’s worked with them. And that they’re fighting Toga, someone that Uraraka has been mentally prepped for battle for a while. Toga’s love confession to Izuku was very uncomfortable and sad, considering we the audience know that she’s completely sincere and that in her mind saying she wants to become you is the highest form of flattery she can give. Of the remaining League of Villain members, she’s one of the saddest, since her position here could possibly have been avoided. Sure, it would have required a lot of therapy, but with more understanding parents or a society less likely to treat her like a freak because of her blood fixation, she might have had a more normal life. She needed someone to help her and society failed her. And now she’s an unhinged serial killer that’s planning on adding Tsu and Uraraka to her kill count. Not good. Hopefully the ocean water dilutes the blood on the knife enough to make it not useful for her power, or else she’s going to start dropping heroes like that one Lady from Re-Destro’s group. And I liked the tease about Dabi’s backstory for next time. I am curious as to how he survived that fire, and whether it’ll retcon a few things or not. Guess we’ll wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe out there.  

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social