Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 170

 The story is over, but the journey never ends. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 169

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

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 168

 Everyone adjusts to the new normal. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 167

 It all comes down to one final punch!

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 166

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 165

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 164

 Izuku has to give up something big to save the day.

Last time on My Hero Academia we got the history of the brothers Shigaraki. AFO and his younger twin were born at the dawn of the current age. Their mother was a seemingly nameless drifter with the ability to grow spikes. At their birth, AFO, already a greedy and spiteful creature, seemingly killed their mother and stole her quirk to boot. Over the years, AFO ‘provided’ for the two of them, keeping his brother on a short leash as he viewed Yoichi as his possession. He read comics with Yoichi as a child and took the wrong lesson from them and set about making himself the Demon Lord. Along the way he killed the original Glowing Baby and stole their quirk as well. Years later he’d fashioned his criminal empire and gave Yoichi his name along with the strength quirk to try to toughen him up. Yoichi was eventually saved by Kudo and Bruce but was killed by AFO as they tried to escape. But his blood splashed on Kudo and seemingly started the first transfer. And so AFO’s obsession was born. He never wanted OFA for the powers, but because he knew some bit of Yoichi was within it and he couldn’t abide by his first possession getting away. In the present, Bakugo kicks his ass up and down the street. AFO tries to attack him with every Quirk he has at once but is beaten with some ‘stealth sweat bombs’ Bakugo released go off. Hawks’ Vestige manifests in AFO’s mind to gloat that his rage caused AFO to lose focus and control of his Quirks. Bakugo blasts him so hard he rewinds to his baby form. Bakugo almost relaxes but perks up at the last moment and saves himself from being skewered by that spine quirk AFO stole from his own mother. He disintegrates, raging at being defeated. Bakugo strikes All Might’s raised fist of victory pose as he passes out. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin with a flashback to the planning phase of the grand battle. Izuku, Bakugo, Mirko, Edgeshot, Nejire, and Amajiki listen to Best Jeanist as he explains the concept of the Flying Coffin and how they’ll keep Tomura Shigaraki contained. Jeanist explains that they have to be very careful about this fight because of Tomura Shigaraki’s split personality. They’re aware that there are at least two personas warring for control in his head. Jeanist thinks that it would be better for them if the AFO personality was the dominant one in this fight. Why? Because AFO is a megalomaniac that wants to rule the world. Because of that, he’d be much more sparring with powers like Decay. Bakugo pipes in to say that Tomura doesn’t give a damn and thus is more likely to just try to disintegrate them all. Jeanist worries that because Shigaraki’s power and hatred have been so stitched together, that he’ll destroy the planet, consequences be damned. Jeanist says that they need to think of what comes after the fight. If they beat Shigaraki but he irreparably damages the planet in the fight, then what is the point?

 

We jump to Shiketsu high and see how folks are reacting to the fighting. One guy is devastated that his farm was destroyed, while Inko Midoriya watches her baby fight for his life against Shigaraki. I give Horikoshi and the animators credit for giving her perfectly reasonable amount of tears instead of the usual firehose amount she’s cried for Izuku in the past.

 

A wave crashes through town, Tomura gloats that he focused decay through the ground earlier to cause this flood. He says that given the size of Japan, he could easily sink the entire island in less that a week with his power. He tells Izuku that THAT is what he means when he says he wants to destroy everything. He wants to break the planet in such a way that there’s no hope for humanity to recover. Izuku and Shigaraki are hit with a wave, but come up swinging. Izuku knows that if he uses Gear Shift, Fa Jinn, and Danger Sense together, he’ll be able to actually fight Shigaraki, but he doesn’t have a strategy to actually win at the moment. Tomura feels a pulse and realizes that AFO is dead. He smiles when he realizes that AFO was killed simply because Tomura himself didn’t finish off Bakugo. He says that he really should thank Bakugo for that, as without having to mentally fight for control of his body, he’s now more than fast enough to keep up with Izuku. He tries to grab Izuku’s face, but he reacts with Danger Sense and slices off Shigaraki’s fingers. Banjo manifests and warns Izuku about Danger Sense and Hikage Shinomori.

 

We enter the mindscape and flashback a few minutes. Yoichi and the other former Wielders are gathered together and watching the fight from their chamber. Yoichi senses that his brother has died and tells the others that there’s no use getting emotional, the fight is still going on and is in their successor’s hands. Banjo says that that’s well and good but they need to find a way to get through Shigaraki’s defenses and beat him. Hikage senses something is coming and shoves En out of the way. Shigaraki’s hand manifests into their mindscape and grabs Hikage, pulling him from Izuku and One For All. He shouts at his fellows to protect the Ninth.

 

So… Izuku lost Danger Sense… damn.

 

Banjo’s Vestige warns Izuku what happened. Tomura gloats, saying that he’s not nearly so obsessed with OFA as his master was… but he’ll gladly steal every scrap of it if it brings Izuku pain. In the mindscape, the others wonder how that just happened. They deduce that Shigaraki just smashed through their mental defenses and snatched the first Quirk he could get. Izuku combines Black Whip, Fa Jinn, and Gear Shift together to make a high speed chain attack, but now that he has Danger Sense, Shigaraki easily dances around Izuku’s attack. Tomura realizes that Izuku is his biggest obstacle, and he intends to kill Izuku now. He charges Izuku with an energy blast, Izuku just barely gets Black Whip up around him in a shell. Tomura strikes Izuku screaming that he’s not human anymore and how there’s definitely not a scared child in him that Izuku can reach out into. I’m not sure I believe him. He calls Izuku an idiot and to stop lying to himself that there’s anyway that he can save Tomura.

 

Izuku lands at the foot of Mt. Fuji. He now knows that he can protect himself from fatal attacks if he’s fast enough, but that’s a big if without Danger Sense. His mask shatters into his hands. Bruce manifests and says that Izuku doesn’t need that anymore as he got kicked landward. He’s analyzed Izuku’s body and realized something important. He’s lost access to Danger Sense, but he’s kept the stockpiled physical power that OFA generates. So while he lost the extremely useful skill to detected attacks, he isn’t going to hit any less hard now.

 

In the mindscape, En asks if it isn’t better for Izuku to flee. The others are shocked by this suggestion… but En has a point. The only reason that Izuku is still in this is because Hikage and Danger Sense sacrificed themselves to save the collective. Without Danger Sense’s early warning, now if they get touched again, they could lose everything.

 

Tomura lands and reveals that he can see the Vestige Ghost. He says that he knows that the OFA strategy in the past has been to run and maybe transfer as a way for them to get stronger. He’s not going to allow that to happen again. He plans on killing Izuku here and now and making sure OFA is never used against him. As he walks, he’s sending out constant waves that trigger mini earthquakes around him. He claims that by the time he’s done, nothing will be left of Japan besides the skyline, and how Spinner had been looking forward to seeing that. He settles on sinking Mt. Fuji into the ocean next. Banjo manifests and tells Izuku that Tomura brought him here for a reason, that he is going to cause Mt. Fuji to erupt if he decays it. En in the mindscape says that Tomura isn’t the successor to AFO, he’s destruction incarnate. Izuku remembers his discussion with Uraraka about their respective nemeses and how she was going to try her best to empathize with Toga in the fight. Izuku remembers Tomura’s boast that he isn’t even human anymore. Izuku insists that Tomura is still a person. That line seems to infuriate Tomura. Izuku reveals that when Tomura hit him earlier, he’d figured out how to use Black Whip to strengthen his arm and actually get off a good Delaware Smash. He unleashes the smash, which was powerful enough to send Tomura into the air.

 

He looks down at the destruction that Izuku wrought and laughs, saying that was an incredible move. The shockwave was powerful enough to interrupt decay. Tomura launches himself downward again, intent on touching everything he has to make Mt. Fuji erupt. As he falls, he realizes that the dust around him isn’t scattering, and then Izuku attacks with Black Whip chains again. Danger Sense let him dodge most of it, but Izuku gets one good hit in and takes off Tomura’s arm. He dives back into the smoke. His plan is simple, use the cloud that he made with Smokescreen and Low Gear Shift to hide his movements, attack in a big arc with Black Whip, and then rush Tomura in one go. The cloud and Black Whip should make it so Danger Sense would go off constantly and allow Izuku to slip past it. He figured out this weakness to relying on Danger Sense too much after his fight with Lady Nagant. En manifests and warns Izuku that Tomura could find him with the Search Quirk he stole for Ragdoll of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. He detects Izuku and smacks him with spines.

 

Gear Shift wears off and Izuku is temporarily paralyzed. Tomura starts to gloat, saying that he figured out that Izuku can’t keep launching those high-power attacks and that his body is starting to wear out. He regenerates the arm Izuku broke off. He admits that a direct hit from Izuku might have hurt him, too bad he missed. He jabs Izuku, saying that it must be so hard with so much he has to protect. Izuku says that its hard, but he’s not giving up on Tomura or the boy still inside him.

 

Tomura isn’t impressed. He monologues about how people build stories about how the world works. Izuku is desperate to make his belief in Tomura and this crying child within him have meaning, but he insists he buried Tenko Shimura a long time ago. He says that Tenko learned all he had to about this cruel world, hardened himself, and evolved into Tomura. The visualization we get of this is the boy Tenko disappearing into a leaden ball. Tomura shrieks that without that boy, he can now do whatever he wants.

 

Nana Shimura remembers Izuku’s childhood projection insisting that he’ll save Tenko. Nana tells Izuku to give up. He can’t beat Tomura unless he fights like he’s going to kill. Tomura, in her eyes, is too far gone for him to reach. He’s broken in a way that Izuku’s words can’t fix. He’s anathema to Izuku’s hero philosophy. Izuku refuses. He realized something important. If Tomura is so far gone, so numb as he claims to be, why is it that he’s holding onto his pain like this. He thinks Tomura has pushed his pain down deep inside and put a lid on it. He remembers how Shigaraki said that heroes ignore the people that they can’t protect and ignore the pain they cause people. Izuku insists that he’ll keep pounding on that lid until it breaks.

 

Kudo thinks about how this exact mindset was what made him hesitant to trust Izuku. He’s a good kid, but naïve, in Kudo’s eyes. But, he admits that having watched Izuku from the sidelines all this time, he’s gotten a better understanding of him, and his desire to see the good in people. He wants to believe Izuku is right and that Tomura isn’t beyond saving. He thinks about how he let out a hand to Yoichi all those years ago and how that set this off. He decides he’s going to gamble on Izuku. He calls out to the Ninth and tells him to do exactly what Kudo says. He needs to let go of One for All.

 

The others are shocked by this idea, but then they get word from the Vestige of Star and Stripes, who is still lingering inside Tomura. She says that there’s a sad child in there. All Might’s vestige seems to point at something within the ball.

 

Edgeshot wakes up All Might, telling the injured hero that he needs to stay awake until help arrives. They’re without comms, so they’ve got no idea what is going on. All Might pulls himself and realizes that he can somehow sense a bit of One For All. He realizes that OFA is coming apart.

 

Tomura blasts Izuku, but he’s confused as to why he’s remembering Star. He knows he atomized her already. She’s dead, but intent on haunting him, or so he supposes. Izuku gets blasted and badly hurt. He remembers All Might saying that he can become a hero and asks why he’d give up OFA. Kudo manifests and tells him to calm down or Tomura will see inside his head. He explains that Tomura has housed Tenko in that metaphorical leaden ball in his heart. To break through that shell of anger, trauma, pain and misery, they need to exploit a weakness. They see a crack in the ball, one made from his fight with Star or so they believe. It’s wound of his mind, not his body. If they can break that, regeneration won’t be able to heal it. Izuku asks why he has to give up OFA. Kudo says that Tomura is too powerful now that he has AFO. Izuku has to transfer OFA into him and then they’ll attack him from within. En is against this, saying that if they do that, they’ll just be giving their quirks to Tomura and making him stronger. Kudo tells them to think, and then All Might’s Vestige manifests and tells him to use a visual. Kudo then chooses the best visual, and asks Izuku how does Bakugo hand him things? Izuku thinks about the last time Bakugo gave him back some homework. Bakugo threw it in his face and said, “take this and die!” Kudo says that if you throw something with too much force you can hurt someone, and that’s what they intend to do with OFA. Kudo admits that they don’t know if it’ll work, so he’ll volunteer to go first. He knows that OFA is a quirk made from their experiences and Quirks woven together. But since Hikage was taken, it is possible to unravel their unity. He wants Izuku to hurl him at Tomura with all the force he can, in the hopes he hits hard enough that it hurts Shigaraki without giving him Gear Shift.

 

En is willing to go along with this, but says they should test it with him, as Smokescreen is the least useful Quirk right now. Gear Shift is the center of their whole strategy to staying alive. Kudo insists it has to be him, though, as it’s a win-win. By transferring Gear Shift, Izuku will lose the paralysis he’s dealing with and be able to fight. And on the chance that Tomura absorbs him, it’ll transfer the paralysis and hopefully give Izuku time to react. Bruce manifests and says that this is a very risky approach. Kudo agrees that its true. They had to make a lot of tough decisions in the past, but that, to Kudo, pales in comparison to fighting Tomura. And yet, Izuku is hanging onto his ideal of trying to save Tomura from himself. He wants to believe Izuku is right and this is the only way to prove it. The others manifest and Nana points out that Izuku isn’t afraid of dying, nor does he covet the power they gave him, he’s just scared of losing this treasure given to him by All Might.

 

Tomura watches from above and wonders what the corpses are talking about. Kudo tells Banjo to stay close to Izuku as he absolutely can’t afford to lose Black Whip and Gear Shift. Kudo asks Yoichi to watch over Izuku, and Yoichi agrees, calling Kudo his hero. Kudo asks if Izuku is willing to do this. Izuku agrees. Power surges through him, morphing him into a more bestial form. Tomura charges Izuku, but Izuku slashes as him with Black Whip claws. The two faces in the sky, Izuku in a form reminiscent of Dark Deku. Tomura smirks, saying that he’d never guess Izuku was a hero with how he looks now.

 

I was aware that Izuku gives up his powers in order to beat Tomura Shigaraki, but I was unaware as to how he went about it. I have to say, using your most treasured gift as a bludgeon in order to break down the walls of pain and trauma around the heart and mind of a doomsday weapon in the shape of a person is a very novel way to do it. Losing Danger Sense was a great bad news-good news situation, as it took away Izuku’s best defensive option, but also showed Izuku and his Vestiges that they could break their unity down to use each part of OFA as a weapon against Shigaraki. It’s also a hell of an ask for Izuku to give up the power that All Might gave him to save the day. Izuku Midoriya at this point we know he’d throw himself at any challenge in order to save the day, but OFA was the start of his life starting to go right. It gave him a relationship with his idol, it helped him make new friends and ultimately mend the relationship with an old one, it let him live his dream and be a hero to some kinds that look up to him like he looked up to All Might. It’s a big ask. And he’s doing it anyway. Izuku Midoriya, it’s been said before, but you were a hero long before you got the power of one. Tomura’s speeches about pain and vengeance are well done and I like that he’s given time to vent his frustrations at Izuku. And I like that Izuku isn’t invalidating his feelings. He hasn’t tried to tell Tomura, “oh it’s not that bad,” or even “I understand you.’ At the end of the day, Izuku is standing like a bulwark against Tomura and is shouting “I’m here, let me help you!” Shame it’s happening so late, I bet if Izuku tried this on season one Tomura it might have worked. So, Izuku has a strategy. Hopefully he can pull it off. We’ll see how that goes. See you later. Have a goodnight and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social