Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 144

The final battle, round 1, Ready? FIGHT!

Last time on My Hero Academia, both sides put the finishing touches on their battle plans. Dabi reminded Toga of the vial of Twice’s blood he was able to recover, and that given her strong emotional attachment to the unstable man she should be able to use his powers if she drank it and copied him. He also burned down her old house, just cuz. AFO sent out Spinner with orders to try to rally the Heteromorphs, people with non-human appearances, to their cause. Spinner reluctantly goes along with this idea out of his friendship with Tomura Shigaraki. AFO sent moles into UA’s evacuee population with orders to stirrup trouble to get Izuku kicked out of UA again and thus make him vulnerable. Nezu beats them to the punch, however, informing the civilians of the looming danger and revealing Izuku and the rest of his class are moving to a fortified bunker dubbed Troy for their battle preparations. While there, Izuku has a moment to talk with Uraraka. Like Izuku, she has conflicting feelings about fighting a LoV member, hers being Himeko Toga. The two agree that while they can’t forgive either Shigaraki or Toga for their crimes, they both understand them, and want to help them however they can. Shoto also bonds with Iida, Kirishima and Bakugo over his own complicated feelings towards his eldest brother Dabi. AFO reveals to us that he has a lie detecting quirk he stole years ago from someone (possibly Tsukauchi’s ancestor) and because of that he’s extremely confident when he sets up an ambush for Izuku via the Aoyamas. Yuga Aoyama lures Izuku to a deserted parking lot. AFO arrives and is incredibly smug with his final gambit. He as Izuku alone, and thanks to Search he knows any hero capable of being a threat to him is miles away. He isn’t even that put out when Aoyama turns on him, attempting to Naval Laser the Demon king. He summons his league to him along with a bunch of Nomu. To which Izuku and Aoyama activate their trap card, their own mass summoning of heroes via Kurogiri gates. It’s about to be a brawl. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The episode opens with a flashback to three days ago, when All Might, Nezu and Tsukauchi arrived at the 1A dorms. All Might revealed to his students that he’s going to share the top-secret plan of attack with them. He begins by saying there isn’t much hope of finding AFO or the League in the time they have left. Kaminari says that’s what Bakugo’s been saying for days, and Sato adds that it hits differently coming from All Might. Mineta asks if they’re giving up, and Tsukauchi tells him they’re just shifting tactics. They’ve realized that AFO is both too clever and yet also too cowardly to make an appearance unless he feels like he’s in total control of the situation. Bakugo summarizes that they need to massage the ‘walking Nutsack’s’ ego to get him to appear. They need to act scared to build AFO’s confidence. They think he’s using Search to keep an eye on them, which they’re planning to use to their advantage. The heroes hope that their movements lately coupled with the movements they’ll make in the next few days will make AFO believe that they’re moving erratically and making several key mistakes. They’re working on Logistics, but they are planning on using Aoyama to set the trap. Izuku and friends are happy to hear that Aoyama is helping in whatever way he is. Hagakure and Ashido are the loudest in their joy, which adds credence to my thought that they were pretty close to the faux Frenchman. Yaoyorozu asks the big question; how do we trick him? All Might explains that they’ve learned that AFO contacted the Aoyamas exclusively through calls, which leads them to believe that he can detect lies through a person’s voice. So the trick is to make someone speak without hinting at treachery. He says that they’ll use Aizawa’s idea and use his power. All Might points to the door and calls him in, Shinso. He’s sporting a new set of battle armor, a new voice modulator and his own giant Aizawa scarf.

 

Tsu is confused by this, as she worked with Shinso during their last competition with Class 1B and he expressly told them that he can’t make someone speak with his Quirk. He says that he’s been doing a lot of training since then and his power has developed. He is a little bummed that he isn’t getting to make his entrance to the hero course in April, but accepts there are more important things going on. Their belief is that he’ll essentially use the Aoyamas as speakers, he’ll speak through them and thus that should give him a degree of separation from AFO and thus get around his lie detector sense. He says it’ll be hard as this is a newer skill he’s been working on, but he thinks it’ll work. The conversation is briefly derailed as everyone excitedly talks to Shinso about what he’s been up to, what class he wants to be in and what he thinks his hero name will be. Just a friendly bunch is class 1A. Nezu adds that Shinso has had intense private training with Aizawa, but he doesn’t have a provisional license, but the Public Safety Commission is making an exception because of the whole ‘avoiding all out civil war’ thing. Tokoyami then asks how they’re going to get around gathering the troops all in one place, since them being all together would be suspicious, and the teachers say they’ll need another person for that.

 

We cut to Central hospital where Aizawa, Class 1B homeroom teacher Vlad King, and Phantom Thief aka that dick Monoma are looking in on Kurogiri. The teachers say that they won’t force him to do anything he isn’t comfortable with, but ask him to use his power to copy Warp Gate and be the heroes’ means of mass transport. Monoma says that he’ll do it without breaking a sweat. Aizawa says that he’d hoped that he and Present Mic could pull his friend Shirakumo’s mind from within Kurogiri, but they could only draw him out for a second. He also adds that given his lost left eye and his mounting exhaustion from all of this (gestures at the country that’s literally and metaphorically on fire) his erasure is barely working at all. He knows he’ll be of little use in the fight. Monoma says that he’d heard that the heroes would have been massacred without him. He also adds that when he was younger, folks would always tell him that with his power he’d never be a ‘real’ hero, just a side character. King hugs his student and tells him that this will only work if all the parts are working in sync. We cut to the plan and see the Aoyama’s making the call, with the reveal that Shinso was hidden but within line of sight for both calls so keep his control up. He gave Aoyama the thumbs up. King continues his speech, saying that Monoma was never an extra, and that he’ll just need to step into the spotlight. In the present, Monoma cackles and screams, “Look who is in the spotlight now!”

 

The battle begins. AFO seems to be using a modified version of the strategy for the USJ attack, ie Throw just a ton of expendable goons at the heroes, but with his elite League of Villain members and High End Nomu as additional support. All Might tells everyone to fight hard, to keep AFO from getting One For All. Tomura seems confused by something and touches the ground. He tries to tell Dabi something, but Dabi spotted his pops, so he’s got eyes only for Endeavor. His big fireblast is countered by Shoto’s arrival, and then the rest of the 1A students leap out as well. Once everyone is on stage, All Might activates system Troy. Its revealed that they set several domes that snapped up and around the villains, breaking them up into separate groups. Tsukauchi swears that while they failed before, they will succeed in finally defeating AFO. They activate rocket boosters on the cages, and Monoma opens up more warp gates. The plan is to scatter the villains through there and then send heroes specifically chosen to fight each heavy hitter. Toga orders her group to break her out immediately as well, because she saw Izuku. Dabi melts his way free, saying that that cage couldn’t hold him for more than three seconds. He sees Shoto leading his strike team, as he shouts, “That’s all we needed! You’re going for a ride!” The heroes rush the pods and add their various strengths to move the pods. The plan largely works, scattering the villains with the hero groups chosen to face them. The one problem being a cord is shot from another warp gate and wraps around Izuku’s arm, pulling him away from his group. Well, shit. All Might doesn’t notice right away and thinks the plan is going perfectly. He orders the heroes left back to see Aoyama clear and for Monoma to fall back to Aizawa.

 

The first pod transports AFO to the ruins of the Gunga Villa, the former headquarters of the short-lived Paranormal Liberation Front. Endeavor leads this group along with Hawks, who immediately slices AFO with his blades, but he barely seems to notice. Hawks apologizes that the attack didn’t do as much as they’d hope, but Endeavor says that was a longshot anyway. He tells AFO that they’ve figured out his sludge teleport. It’s an inferior version of Kurogiri’s Warp Gate. Can it teleport large numbers of people? Obviously. But, it’s range is significantly shorter, and much more crucially, AFO can’t teleport himself with it. So they threw him as far as they could through the genuine article to separate him from his best minions. AFO compliments the plan, but asks if he’s really strong enough to face him. He thinks that the heroes are pairing Izuku against Tomura, which is a risky move… but he also thinks that isn’t the cruelest matchup. We jump to the All Might statue where Toya “Dabi” Todoroki is facing off against Shoto “Shoto” Todoroki. He scolds Endeavor for pitting his children against each other. We cut to UA, which has been transformed into a floating fortress with shield barriers all around it. Clearly they’re trying to limit the amount of damage that Shigaraki could do with Decay with this trap. Bakugo leaps through a gate and warns Best Jeanist that Izuku got nabbed.

 

Our protagonist comes out near an island. He’s shocked that his danger sense didn’t trigger… but considering he’d been caught and pulled by Himeko Toga, I’m not. She’s all about love after all. Thankfully he’s not alone as he’s with Uraraka’s team.

 

At UA, Amajiki and Nejire are less confident in their plan as Izuku was key to their strategy for beating Shigaraki. Mirko, who is now sporting a massive metal prosthetic to replace her destroyed left arm, is just excited to throw down with the greatest villain in human history. Shigaraki drops to the ground. He makes a quick assessment and realizes that he was transported alone. He isn’t worried, though, so long as he stays out of his head he’ll be find. It’s at this point that I realized that he’d tried to fire off a decay wave at the start of the fight, but his hand refused to work as he wanted. Hence that weird ground touch before the Todorokis faced off. It works much better the second time. He fires of a decay wave and obliterates a line of ground. But it reveals a bunch of metallic boxes that launch him into the sky and into an electromagnetic barrier that shocks him. He drops and tries to dodge, only to be tangled by Jeanist’s threads, who throws him into the ground and towards the barrier again. He explains that regardless of the power he holds, so long as Shigaraki has a body with a nervous system, an electric shock will stun him for a few seconds. Shigaraki breaks free and realizes their plan to keep decay in check. The boxes are built to launch into the sky when uncovered, and because they spring away from each other, that keeps him from sending decay through multiples at once. He says that this plan is stupid as they’ll run out of ground eventually. Jeanist isn’t worried about that. He gestured at the ground behind him, and we see new blocks fill in the gaps. Jeanist tells him that they’ve made UA his coffin in the sky. We jump beneath the building to the factory floor where we see Cementoss and Power Loader working with Mei Hatsume, the Support Course students, and Yaoyorozu to mass produce more boxes.

 

Topside, Jeanist tells Shigaraki that they analyzed the fights he had with Izuku, Endeavor and company, and his fight against Star and Stripe to figure out this strategy. He says that a sixteen-year-old girl, Hatsume, is the one that made it all possible. They modified the multi-plate system that Nezu made as part of his mass evacuation plan. And its revealed that this whole system is being powered by Kaminari and several electric based heroes to keep them afloat and the barrier active. Jeanist hurls threads at Shigaraki while the others fight him. Bakugo and Nejire blast him at a distance, while Mirko rushes him and swings with her metal arm and leg. Thoroughly pissed off, Tomura decides that he can finish this fight in one blow and tries to fire a shockwave, only for Bakugo to mock him and ask if he forgot how they nerfed him at Jaku. And then he realizes he can’t use his quirk. We then see the masterstroke of this plan. Outside the barrier, atop the power station, Aizawa is sitting with his Erasure after, and the whole time he’s touching hands with Monoma. They also have Manual there to keep their eyes moist. Aizawa adds that this strategy was built around having Izuku there to battle Shigaraki, which isn’t ideal. And worse, the last time they fought him, he wasn’t complete, so they don’t know his full capability anymore. A point proven when Shigaraki creates a tentacle made of overlapping fingers to slam into Mirko and mess her up bad. Her arm is shattered and blood scatters over the hand. Shigaraki says that he can’t believe he thought Aizawa was cool and calls him a disappointment.

 

After six seasons of villainous sneak attacks and traps, it was nice to see the heroes outthink AFO once more. This plan was brilliant. Using Shinso to bypass AFO’s lie detection was a fun way to bring him back into the story after his latest absence. And it doesn’t feel out of nowhere since there were multiple scenes over the last season or two showing him going to extra training classes and working with Aizawa. He was clearly working hard to get up to everyone’s level. I’m a little sad that this is the second to last season, as I’d have liked to see him interact with the rest of UA more. Monoma is a dick, he always will be, but I liked that little bit of added context that perhaps the main reason he’s such a loud, self-aggrandizing dick is because of his insecurities about his power not being ‘worthy’ of being a real hero. If we’d gotten that like 3 seasons ago, I might have been easier on the guy. Using his copying not only for mass transport but also to aid in suppressing Shigaraki’s powers is just brilliant. The divide and conquer strategy is pretty smart, as by this point the League of Villains is a well-oiled machine. Without this plan, it would essentially be everyone trying to focus on the two AFO users while elite forces like Dabi and Toga picked off the weaklings and added damage to the heavy hitters. It’d have been a very one-sided fight. With the villains divide and facing heroes with strategies to fight them, it’ll be a much closer match. I’m sure we’ll see more of the traps as this final arc goes on, but Tomura’s for sure is pretty damn close to perfect. Or at least it would have been a month ago when he first emerged. That ‘completion’ thing really screwed the plan here. He’s not touching the planet, so Decay is limited to the field they’re standing on. The field is covered in these breakable, launchable blocks to keep decay from spreading more than a few meters at a time. The ground is seeded with the heavy fiber cables to let Jeanist whip Tomura from afar with relative ease. They’ve got long range fighters like Bakugo and Nejire to keep him on the ropes with the close-up fighter Mirko and a mid-ranged fighter Amajiki for support. And they have Aizawa and Monoma’s team-up there to repress powers. If they had the lynch pin of Izuku Deku Midoriya there like they were supposed to, this might have been easy. But that wouldn’t be fun, of course he has to be pulled away to increase the dramatic tension of this final season. And by Himeko Toga, the one other villain that he can’t bring himself to hate for various reasons. This is going to suck for him, I think. But more on that when I get back to this season. See you then. Have a good night and stay safe!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 143

 Izuku and friends find their resolve before the big showdown. 

Last time on My Hero Academia the students and heroes prepare for their final battle. The adults try to figure out a way to convince Aoyama to help lure AFO into a trap, with Aizawa leading the charge to convince his student to help them and himself. All Might and the other heroes realize that their best chance at beating the League will be to scatter the group and try to take on each of them alone. Both to lessen the ability of the two AFOs from supporting each other and stopping Dabi and the other League members from backing them up. The students meanwhile prep their skills, and Izuku and Iida visit Mei Hatsume to get some replacement gear. While the resident gear head is busy working on a means of making UA go airborne in the event of a League of Villains attack, she’s able to spare three minutes to making Izuku new gloves and Iida new armor. She’s talented like that. The students are then broken up into squads lead by Bakugo, Todoroki, and Izuku and sent out to try to locate the League of Villains and/or AFO.

 

While on this assignment they end up having to face off against an All Might doppelganger leading an Italian crime family named Valdo Gollini. He was trying to set himself up as the new All Might, later styling himself as Dark Might, and using a young woman named Anna to augment his powers. Izuku meets and befriends Giulio, Anna’s butler that despite being maimed is on a mission to save her from her captors. They stop the Gollinis and reunite Anna and Giulio. Weird how they probably won’t be mentioned again, because that was a crazy Tuesday. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The story opens with Himeko Toga visiting her childhood home. The house is trashed and covered in graffiti. She remembers her parents and friends trying to get her to conform to societal standards, it’s mostly her mom and dad telling her to stop trying to drink blood and a friend saying that her face always looks scary. She breaks into her old room and remembers her desire to turn into a bird. As she sleeps, she bites herself and draws blood. She dreams about a little red bird landing on her and pecking at her belly until it draws blood. She says she feels warm and fuzzy in that dream and how much she loves it. Toga realizes that her parents abandoned the place and then she leaves. She runs into Dabi, who was watching from across the street. Since his fight with his father and brother, Dabi’s burns have spread farther across his face. He says that he never pegged her for the sentimental type. Toga denies that and says she was just curious what happened to the place before she starts skipping away. Dabi asks if she’s ready to burn down society, to which Toga replies she was always ready. Dabi likes the sound of that. He sets her house ablaze and the two watch it burn to the ground. She says that he’ll get them caught doing things like that, but thanks him for it. Dabi shrugs, saying that the heroes are too busy to worry about a house fire, and that he’s only nice if it causes Endeavor pain. He reveals that he got a sample of Twice’s blood right after he was murdered by Hawks. He knows that Toga’s power has increased and that she can copy not only the appearance but powers of the people she drinks the blood of, if she has strong enough feelings for them. He knows she loved Twice and suggests that she could unleash his Sad Man’s Parade, the trick where Twice was able to mass clone himself. With that skill in their pocket, Dabi is sure they can get what they want.

 

Deep in the League’s cave, Spinner hears Tomura screaming in pain and goes to check on him. He sees just an insane mass of fingers peel back and into Tomura’s body. Spinner is visibly horrified by that, but AFO tells him not to worry, as that was just a sign Tomura was recovering nicely. He asks if AFO is sure that is Shigaraki, and AFO confirms it, saying that Tomura’s… new look is just a sign that the Quirk Doomsday Theory can be overcome. That’s the idea that Quirks will eventually mutate to the point where human bodies can’t contain them. Skeptic, the computer expert, wants to use Spinner as a liaison towards the Heteromorphs. Due to their non-human appearances, Heteromorphs are often the subjects of bigotry and may be more likely to side with the villains over the heroes. He says that while Spinner originally copied Stain’s look to pay homage to him, other Heteromorphs have copied the look since, in homage to Spinner. Spinner is surprised to hear that, but Skeptic tells him not to think about it and just do his job. He shouldn’t focus on Jailbreakers but the common rioters. Tomura limps towards them, muttering that he’ll destroy it all. Spinner isn’t exactly happy with this job, but he’s willing to do it for Tomura. AFO smiles as Spinner takes the USB that Skeptic got him, saying that in this world anyone can become someone’s hero.

 

We shift to UA where a bunch of people are milling about. An average looking man goes up to an average looking woman and gives her their orders. They’re supposed to stirrup the masses and start a riot as best they can. UA know that Tomura has a week before he’s fully recovered, and in that time, they need to make certain that UA is no longer a place where Izuku can rest.

 

We’re shown Izuku and his friends working to capture Jailbreakers. Future Narrator Izuku says that they’ve been working hard to capture the Jailbreakers, but they couldn’t find a trace of the League. The students return to their dorm, exhausted and burnt out. Iida tells everyone to rest up; their youthful resilience is their strength. As a man in my mid-30s I resent them for it. Mineta walks up to Izuku and says they don’t even time to tell dirty stories. Izuku noncommittally mutters back at Mineta that that is true. He turns his attention to Uraraka who is chatting with Ashido. He says they haven’t had time to chat since he’d been back and he hasn’t even been able to thank her for her heartfelt speech to the masses. He tries to talk to her, but All Might, Tsukauchi and Nezu burst in. They ask if they’ve come with news about Aoyama. Tsukauchi holds up a finger to silence them. All Might says that they’re here to tell them the plan for what’s to come. It’s a big secret, though, so they need to keep it close to the vest.

 

The next morning, Nezu makes an announcement to the evacuees. He tells them that Tomura Shigaraki will be active again in four days. The heroes and police have joined forces to stop him. He warns that in that time the campus will go into lockdown and shift to Martial Law. He begs everyone’s cooperation and understanding in this time. We get shots of Kota, Ippon Josei, Inko Midoriya, Mitsuki Bakugo, and the League’s agent all react to this information. The people Izuku cares about look concerned, but the Agent looks stunned that UA has admitted to the situation. That really throws a monkey wrench in whatever they had planned, I’m sure. Izuku and the other students gather, thanking the civilians for their hospitality. Kota asks if Izuku is really leaving already. Izuku confirms that, saying he’s gotten to rest up but now he needs to get moving. Boy, I hope you said bye to your MOM Deku! I know you have a special connection to Kota but spare a special goodbye to your primary parent! The agent, after recovering from his surprise, admits to himself that this is great news for them. It would have been incredibly difficult for AFO to get to Izuku while in UA, but with him going out, they didn’t have to even lift a finger to complete their mission. We then get a quick flash of the students saying goodbye to their families. Izuku hugs his mom (GOOD!), Shoto says goodbye to his mom and 2/3rds of his siblings, Jiro and Uraraka see their folks, Bakugo’s mom slaps him on the back and seems to be encouraging while his dad tries to get her to calm down, and weirdly Shoji shakes hands with Ippon. Nezu also brings out Recovery Girl, who is looking even older than when we last saw her after the sports festival (I think?) and Izuku also says bye to Eri and Kota specifically. They move to Troy, a new fortress that they build 30 kms from UA.

 

I’m not sure I love that name. Troy, if you’ll recall, FELL. It’s rather famous for it.

 

Snipe tells them that Cementoss, Power Loader and Ectoplasm, got it set up and that while it’s not as fortified as UA, Troy will be a hard nut to crack. It looks like one of the UA dorms done in black and with a bunch more walls. The students head inside and unpack. Iida, Kirishima, and Bakugo give Shoto a lingering glance. Izuku checks out his room and sees from his balcony that Uraraka is outside on her own. He jumps out to talk to her, and thanks her for that speech she gave. She’s clearly flustered, but happy, with his thanks. He asks if he was interrupting her. She says no, she was just looking out over the city. She says that she might be a bit weird, Izuku is vocally against that assessment. He lists off her virtues to prove the point. She says that wasn’t want she was talking about. She tells him about when she got up on the roof and started talking, she admits she started to think about Himeko Toga. She says that while they fought, she thought she told Toga some pretty common-sense stuff… but Toga look like she was shocked by what Uraraka had to say. She says that she KNOWS that Toga has done a lot of bad stuff, the girl is a serial killer after all, but like… she can’t stop thinking about how Toga might not actually fully comprehend the wrongs that she’s done. She says that she’s looking at the ruined city to remind herself of what matters. To focus in on the important thing of stopping the pain that the villains have caused. Izuku says that he gets it, and points out his weird spiritual connection of Tomura Shigaraki, he saw a little boy crying in that man and he’s not sure he can ignore that about him.

 

We jump to inside Troy and see that Iida, Kirishima and Bakugo are sitting with Shoto to give him a short of ‘we’re here for you, man,” speech given what Shoto’s dealing with in regard to Dabi/Toya situation. Iida mentions that he has a brother too, but Shoto points out that its hard to compare the paragon of an older brother that is Tensei Iida to the deranged murder and arson machine that is Toya “Dabi” Todoroki. Shoto mentions that its weird that he doesn’t even know what sort of food his brother likes. Bakugo offhandedly says that it’s gotta be the kind of udon that burns your mouth. Shoto laughs and says if that’s the case, he’ll have to share some with his brother. All the students resolve to stop their respective villains.

 

We jump to AFO scrolling through his phone. He narrates that lies don’t work on him. He reveals that he stole a lie detection Quirk from someone when he was young, he can’t remember its name as he mixed the quirk with a few others. He doesn’t remember the person he took it from either, other than he was a dull man, but he says that that man’s descendants were far more interesting. I think he’s implying that this was Tsukauchi’s ancestor, as he says that a twist of fate brought one of those descendants to All Might. He says that there is no greater joy than watching a seed he planted bear fruit. He calls up the Aoyamas and in code sets up a plan to meet with Yuga. He says that he detected no lies or malice from her, so he’s confident that she’s still under his thumb. He says they’ll see him soon.

 

We find Izuku meeting with Aoyama in a deserted parking lot. The twinkling boy is looking very disheveled at the moment. He’s not even talking in his faux French accent! Izuku asks what he’s doing there, and Aoyama says that his parents got him released from police custody. Izuku offers to get the others and get him into a search party, but Aoyama stops him and says that he wants to talk to Izuku in private first. Aoyama thinks its funny that the courts are still in session even in this insanity. He offers to explain AFO’s plan to Izuku. He says that the war with AFO is causing massive problems globally. The yen is dropping in price, Japanese companies are failing, and villains are growing bolder. He compares it to the Great depression or the chaos of the early quirk days. Izuku is clearly scared of what he’s talking about. Aoyama explains that All For One is basically trying to throw the world into chaos so then he can step in and use his numerous powers to seize control of everything. The Demon Lord indeed. Izuku says that people wouldn’t allow that, and that heroes are still standing. Aoyama says he knows, and that’s why he has to be removed. AFO floats in sporting a new armored helmet. He applauds Aoyama’s explanation of his goals but says that it’s not totally accurate. He starts mockingly complimenting Aoyama, saying what a good boy he is, and how hard it must have been to betray his friends when they put their faith in him yet again.

 

Aoyama agrees that it was distressing as Izuku shouts “I Trusted you!” Aoyama then turns, firing off his belly laser and saying “I won’t betray my friends!” He burns a hole in AFO’s suit. That’s about the extent of the damage, but AFO is clearly pissed when he calls Aoyama an ungrateful little worm. The smoke clears and Izuku and Aoyama are standing together, the blonde trembling so bad it looks like he’s having a stroke why they try to nonchalantly banter about how good their acting was. Aoyama swears that, despite his fear, he’ll stand up and fight AFO. AFO is confused by the Aoyama’s ability to hide their intent from him… but he decides it doesn’t matter. Bold statement… He says that with Search he knows that the heroes that could actually be a threat to him are scattered across the country. He opens those slime portals and draws his League of Villains to him. He announces that it’s too late for anyone to save Izuku now. A Kurogiri portal starts to open, which shocks AFO, as they shouldn’t have been able to make use of Kurogiri’s powers. He decides that also doesn’t matter, this makes it easier to find him. Aoyama keeps on talking, saying that his parents said that the one thing that AFO would hate most would be if Japan proved that they’re still standing. That the country is still Twinkling even after his assault. Heroes start leaping from the portals, Endeavor, Mirko, Edgeshot, the Big 3 of UA, Fat Gum, Mt. Lady and the rest. Aoyama announces that they’ll see AFO defeated! Hell of a time to end on episode.

 

This was a strong start to this final battle arc. Izuku and his allies have clearly been working overtime to formulate this plan to draw out AFO to the field of their choosing. They got the Aoyamas to convince him to make a move, they somehow got Kurogiri’s power to portal in the heroes after convincing AFO that they’re all too far away to help, they even got the justifiably scared Aoyama to be brave long enough to get a kick ass declaration from him. This multi stage plan is going to need a lot of explaining, me thinks. I liked the slower moments in this episode as well. Izuku and company saying goodbye to their families was sadly sweet. I have to imagine that the parents are stressed out as hell right now. Izuku finally got the chance to talk with Uraraka and learning that they’re both in this kind of weird space where they empathize with their respective villains and understand them in a way that makes fighting them hard but necessary. They can’t forgive Toga and Tomura for what they’ve done, but they can’t just think of them as generic bad guys anymore. It was a nice bonding moment between our love interests that haven’t gotten much screen time together in ages. I also liked the short scene with Bakugo, Shoto, Iida and Kirishima. It was a little moment, but it showed that these kids are friends and aren’t just connected because of their relationship with Izuku. They know their friend is going through some stuff, so they take a moment to talk with him. Do they say or do much? No, but the gesture is what mattered. Same kind of goes for that moment with Dabi and Toga in the opener. Its weird to think of them as like… friends. But if you recall, they joined the League of Villains at the same time, they’ve worked together for over a year at this point, and while Dabi probably still would incinerate her at a moment’s notice, it still seemed like they connected in their own way. He knew that burning the house down would mean something to Toga, so he did it. The fact that she has Twice’s blood and the emotional connection to him to use his power is… horrifying. I hope the heroes figure that out sooner rather than later. But we’ll have to wait and see. Good night everyone, and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Review: My Hero Academia: You're Next

The only thing worse than a toxic fan is a toxic fan with superpowers.

So, I’m gotten some contradicting opinions on where this one falls in the timeline. My Hero Academia: You’re Next is supposed to fall somewhere in the week leading up to the final battle with Shigaraki. The kids are all training for most of that time, so ya, a sudden movie villain that they have to face could fit in there. But I’ve seen folks claim it could happen between the third and fourth, fourth and fifth, or fifth and sixth episode’s run time. Kind of a wide gap. The most compelling evidence I’ve seen is for the fourth episode though, as that’s the point where Izuku and his friends are broken into teams in order to try to find Shigaraki and the League of Villains. So that’s what we’re going with. Here’s My Hero Academia: You’re Next! Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The movie opens with a large man sitting in a room covered in Photos and watching the final battle between All For One and All Might. Considering this is suppose to be news footage, the orchestral score is impressive. The man suddenly stands and applauds All Might’s victory. He speaks with an Italian Accent and a suspiciously familiar voice. We only see a little of his head, but it’s clear that he’s got All Might’s hairstyle and is wearing an iron mask over his face. When All Might makes his famous, “You’re Next!” declaration, the man bows and promises that he will be the one to take All Might’s mantle.

 

We cut to a man with an eyepatch and a possible prosthetic arm preparing coffee in the middle of the street. He has a picture of a blonde girl on his makeshift table. A pair of refugees from across the street see him and scoff at his search for this little girl, saying that she’s probably dead. Before Eyepatch can sip his coffee, a siren goes off warning of a potential villain attack. Eyepatch packs up his gear on an armored motorcycle and rushes to the scene. The Villains in question attack a truck and one of them uses his Quirk to merge with the truck, turning it into an evil version of Mater from Cars. Another villain bounces around like a bouncy ball and another throws explosive daggers. They escape by bursting through a wall. Izuku’s team, consisting of himself, Jiro, Sero, Uraraka, Hagakure and Ojiro are the ones to start the chase. Jiro is riding up front in an armored vehicle driven by a UA robot and is the one to pick up on the disturbance. It’s weird to remember that these kids are all around 16 and thus would definitely need a driver. Izuku does some quick stretching to limber up and power up his Fa Jin shift power before floating out the back of their truck and fling off. He rockets towards the truck, using his Air Force flick attack to speed up. The criminals see him coming and immediately panic when they recognize the Jailbreak Hunter. Izuku catches the truck with Blackwhip, and while holding it dodges the other two. He pulls back hard and flips the truck. The other two try to attack him, but he binds up one of them in Blackwhip and the rest of his team catch the other. Jiro compliments the power of One For All as Sero asks that he save some fighting for the rest of them. Izuku looks up and sees Eye Patch watching them before driving off.

 

There’s an opening credit montage for the movie that serves to catch everyone up on the situation if you haven’t followed the show. It’d be weird to watch this if you haven’t, but whatever. All For One and the League of Villains Orchestrated a massive breakout from the hero prisons, the US hero Star and Stripe was killed battling Shigaraki, and Izuku and co are doing their best to help. It also foreshadows the man that looks like All Might and an army of what looks like Mobster style Nomu mobilizing and shows us Eye Patch and the blonde girl a few more times.

 

After that, Izuku and co turn over the criminals they captured to the cops. Sero radios the others that Team 3 captured three villains. Bakugo scoffs at that, saying that his team, consisting of himself, Ashido, Tokoyami, Koda, Sato and Kirishima, brought in four, therefore he wins. And three, two one… Team 2 consisting of Shoto Todoroki, Kaminari, Mineta, Iida, Yaoyorozu, Tsu, and Shoji brought in six jailbreakers. Bakugo screams that its not a competition, and Iida chides him for being so focused on the numbers, this is about helping people. Izuku’s team gets an alert about a Jailbreaker named Genji. His quirk lets him attack with a second mouth on his stomach. Izuku’s team moves out, with team 1 and 2 in route.

 

Genji runs through town cackling madly as he drags along the blonde woman from Eye Patch’s photo. He cackles again, saying that no one can stop him with her. She yells at him to let her go, as he promised to free her, but he tells her to shut up and keep moving. Genji sees Izuku’s truck incoming and uses his shoulder mounted mouths to rip open a hole in the wall and change direction. Team 3 detects this change and realize he’s headed for a shelter. Izuku leaps from his truck and Floats after them. He catches up quickly and notes that the two mouths mounted on stalks on his shoulders are new. The girl keeps screaming at him to free her, but he refuses. Izuku rushes in and tries to grab the girl’s hand, but she screams and tries to pull back. Izuku brushes her arm and has a weird vision of rose petals floating around them. He gets a headache and drops, hitting the ground hard. Genji keeps running with the girl. Izuku tries to get up and follow but whatever happened when he touched the girl rapidly drained his stamina.

 

Genji breaks into the shelter. Some guards shoot at him with lasers, but he grabs them with his stomach mouths and crushes them. He reaches to try to grab another hostage, but Izuku arrives and uses Blackwhip to grab him. Genji shrieks that he’s going to make this hurt, as he does, he mutates, more arm tentacles growing from his body and his body at least doubling in size. A rose also starts growing near his waist. The man’s strength increases by a lot and he thrashes around, actually overcoming Izuku’s impressive strength. Izuku is thrown through a wall out of the shelter, but he keeps Blackwhip on Genji. Suddenly, we’re looking down a sniper scope. Eyepatch has pushed up his eyepatch, revealing a bionic eye. He takes a shot with a sniper rifle at Genji, causing the monster to drop the girl’s hand. She falls and flowers bloom around her. Eyepatch stows his rifle and drives towards them. As he pulls up, he transforms his robot arm into a rifle and he takes a shot at the blonde girl. She sees the bullet coming, closes her eyes and seems to prepare to take the hit, but the bullet hits a weird field around her. A man in a fancy suit apologizes for being late. When Genji tries to attack him, he expands the field, freezing Genji as well. Izuku takes a close look and realizes that the field is slowing things, not stopping them entirely. Eyepatch takes several more shots at the girl, but they all hit the slow field. Izuku Blackwhips the gun and tells him to stop shoot. Eyepatch reloads his gun, and weirdly Izuku notes that his Danger Sense isn’t going off. The suit guy walks through his field towards the girl, touching her and placing a localized slow field around her. He lifts her and walks away. Once he’s a few steps away, the slow field collapses, Genji stumbles forward and is hit by Eyepatch’s bullets.

 

Team 3 pulls up and they ask what the heck is going on. Izuku says it’s complicated. Hagakure looks over and tells everyone to look up. They see a ship approaching them. It’s a literal yacht, lit up with neon lights. The ship touches down and we see more mobster looking guys standing aboard it. A cackling man in a white suit steps up and we see that it’s the man in the mask. He announces that they need not fear because “I am here!” He takes off his mask and reveals himself to look a lot like All Might. The animators are able to get this uncanny valley look to the dude by essentially just drawing All Might without the added shadows around his face and eyes so you can see everything. He basically looks like All Might when he was in his 20s, but with thicker eyebrows, shorter hair points, and a mean looking smile. Izuku notes the differences immediately, but is still shocked by this Temu All Might. His Danger Sense is going crazy as he looks at him. Eyepatch calls him Gollini. The slowmo guy brings the girl to regular speed and she immediately freaks out and tries to escape. A woman on the yacht uses her power to put the girl in a trance. Gollini says that she must have been scared and that she’s lucky he arrived. The girl, clearly under mind control, says that he was very brave for coming to save her. The woman of the goons chastises a rat faced guy named Bruno for letting her escape and Bruno says it won’t happen again. The goons bring the two on board via telekinesis. Eyepatch tries to go after them, but Izuku holds him still with Blackwhip. He begs for Izuku to let him go and says he needs to make this right. Genji runs and starts smashing buildings, which distracts the heroes from getting involved. Izuku and co capture Genji but then have to contend with falling buildings. Eyepatch rides his motorcycle after them, and takes several shots, but the mafia guys slow his bullets and him, and another smacks him with debris into a wall.

 

Genji tries to run, saying that if he’d kept the girl he’d have gotten away, but is met with Gollini. Gollini chastises Genji for betraying him. Genji tries to attack, but Gollini knocks him back with an energy punch that sends him flying. Genji crashes next to Izuku, shrinking down as he passes out. Gollini meets up with Izuku, saying that it looks like the young man wants to be a hero. Izuku is clearly freaked out by this. Gollini offers him a chocolate bar, which he refuses, which confuses the man. Gollini claims that he’s going to be the new symbol of peace, and his aura must be confusing this young man. Gollini heads for his boat and tells Izuku that he’s going to explain this so even a child could comprehend him. He flicks out several gold coins, and as they land, they turn into energy and manifest dozens of cameras, lights and flying drones. The cameras hack every TV screen that they can reach and Gollini broadcasts himself to the world. Everyone is surprised to see this guy, not the least of which being All Might. Gollini declares himself the new All Might. He says that All Might is viewed as the greatest hero due to his overwhelming power, and plans to use his own immense power to take his spot. He announces that, “From now on, It’s MY Turn!” Izuku isn’t standing for that, floating up and saying that Gollini use unnecessary force and put innocent people in danger. He’s nothing like All Might. Gollini says that when he shows off what he can do, Izuku will eat his words. He leans on his ship, takes off his cloak and grabs the girl. As he does, the girl’s hair darkens and roses sprout all around them. Gollini scatters coins, and as they land they spread out that weird liquid light. The light starts drawing people in.

 

Back at UA, Iida radios the teachers and asks if they’re seeing this. They are and everyone is confused by what’s happening. All Might runs in and asks if they’ve got any news from the kids on the ground. Team 3 watches as the light expands and Mineta asks if anyone can stop this. Shoto throws his ice at it, and it temporarily stops the wall, but it then springs forward, engulfing Team 3. Team 2’s truck tries to drive away, much to Bakugo’s irritation, but the robot driver tells him to not be stupid. Unfortunately, the light catches them as well. From the UA office we see that the light resolves into a giant citadel with an All Might, or maybe Gollini, statue in the center. All Might is in awe of what is happening and asks if this is really all one man’s doing. Hawks tells All Might to look at their files, and reveals that this is the Gollini family. All Might is visibly angry to hear that name. He explains that the Gollini Family is made of villains and that they’re the largest criminal organization in Europe. We see Gollini flick another coin and vegetation starts to form.

 

Izuku is woken up by his team and he’s shocked to find that they’re in the middle of a forest. No one knows how they got there. Izuku knocks on one of the trees and hears that it is hollow. He dubs the whole jungle is an illusion. He wonders if his power is like Yaoyorozu but on a grander scale. They can’t get a signal, so they’re on their own for now. Izuku tells his team that they need to find the others and then get in contact with UA.

 

We cut to Team 1 and find that they’re in the middle of some kind of evil amusement park. Bakugo screams “where are we?” And when the others tell him an amusement park, he tells them, “I can see that!” and then he yells at Ashido for riding the carousel. Team 2 find themselves on the outskirts of a city, which, ya know, is weird. Shoji tells them to look at the town and they see a giant All Might Statue at the center. Mineta says that whoever is running this place has a weird All Might obsession. I’m surprised no one says something like, ‘Ya, worse than Midoriya’s!’ They run towards the town to check it out.

 

Gollini creates a ballroom and asks the girl, Anna, what she thinks of the place. Anna, still in a trance, says that it’s exquisite. Gollini snaps his fingers and is brought a phone. Back at UA, Cementoss says that All Might’s doppelganger is on the line and will only speak to him. They pull up the call on the video screen. Gollini is happy to see his predecessor, saying that he didn’t know All Might would be at UA but he must be lucky today. All Might demands to know what happened to the students. Gollini says that the ‘specimens’ are safe for now. Gollini swears to All Might that he’s going to take up All Might’s mantel and use his great power to live up to and surpass All Might. He will ‘unify’ the fractured county. All Might demands he release the hostages, and Gollini refuses, saying that he needs them as part of his plan. All Might refuses to call this man his successor, saying that he sounds heroic, but he’s got a heart of darkness. Gollini likes the sound of that and dubs himself Dark Might on the spot. All Might says that Dark Might is his opposite and that he could never accept him. He has a successor and the next generation of heroes are coming to stop him. Dark Might says that the next time they’ll talk it’ll be with those students kneeling at his feet. He hangs up, though before he does loudly announces that that was a fun chat. Gollini sits down and pulls up several video screens. He’s sure from that chat that All Might’s successor must be among the students they abducted. They see Eyepatch on the video screen, and Paulo demands the chance to fight this guy in order to make up for letting Anna get stolen by that ‘compatible’ Genji. Dark Might allows this, tells him that this is his last chance, and demands that all his people call him Dark Might from this moment onwards. Paulo kneels to Anna, kissing her hand, which causes the rose on his lapel to grow bigger and causes Anna’s blonde hair to darken further. The rest of the Golinni’s do the same, the darkness spreading further on Anna’s hair. He dubs himself a legend as they finish powering up. The fortress like ship they’re inside starts to move, it rains down the same liquid light, sucking up people and objects into itself as it moves. The UA team watches the ship move, and All Might asks why Dark Might referred to the hostages as ‘specimens.’

 

Izuku and his team run through the woods, until Izuku hits something and falls to the ground. They hit a super lifelike wall. Hagakure finds a manhole that they open. It’s creepy looking, but they need to check it out. Izuku and Uraraka use their powers to float down, Izuku in the lead. As they float down, someone says “Erasure Spot” and that disables Izuku’s powers. He drops, but he catches himself on the walls. He calls up to Uraraka and tells her to get Sero to tape pull him up. Izuku slips and falls crotch first down the tube. He ends up flying out of a mountain and into a lake at the end. Uraraka tells the others what happened and Sero starts feeding tape into the tube to try to save their leader.

 

Izuku pulls himself from the lake and says, “I thought I was going to die.” He starts walking, realizing that he still can’t use his powers. He finds Eyepatch and goes to speak with him. Eyepatch pulls a gun on him and demands to know where the exit is. Izuku says he doesn’t know, and Eyepatch dismisses him. He turns to go back to his coffee. Izuku demands to know why he shot at the girl, but Eyepatch refuses to answer. He pulls another gun and shoots, not at Izuku but at a goon that rose up behind him. Eyepatch says it’s a shock bullet. More goons start shooting at them and the two duck behind a rock. Eyepatch asks Izuku why he isn’t helping. Izuku admits he doesn’t have access to his powers. Eyepatch sighs and shoves Izuku out, he draws the fire from the goons allowing Eyepatch to get around and shoot the guards. He demands to know where Miss Anna is, but they refuse to talk. He shoots them with stun bullets and then goes to lift his motorcycle. Eyepatch struggles to lift it, but Izuku helps, saying that he’s pretty strong even without his powers.

 

Team 2 enters the city and find at trail of comatose civilians laying among rose petals. They head farther in and see the woman member of the Gollini and Anna standing before a crowd of people. One man grabs Anna’s hand, and passes out. The woman sees Team 2 head toward them and she zaps them with her power. This puts them all in trances. Mineta and Kaminari have a vision of being fawned over by bikini babes, Shoto turns back into a child and is playing ball with all three of his siblings as his parents watch, Yaoyorozu enjoys a cup of team, Iida races along with his brother Tenya, Tsu has relaxes with her frog family on a bridge, and Shoji is walking with a little girl for some reason. We pull out to see them all just sitting around, Iida running into a wall. The woman says that she’ll let them enjoy their daydreams for a while. She turns back to her work, saying that she hopes they can find compatibles among the masses, but she’s not holding her breath. The Gollini only had six from their 20000+ family after all. Anna keeps on touching people and knocking them out.

 

Team 1 breaks into the castle and rush inside. They find Dark Might waiting for them. He changed his look a bit and is now sporting a black suit with like peacock feathers. Bakugo tells him that he’s going to regret impersonating All Might. He flexes as he offers to have the students face his challenge to see if they’re worthy of being knights in his new world order. Bakugo asks if he realizes how stupid he sounds. Dark Might calls them brats and tells them to put on a good show. He uses his powers to open a hole and drop them all into a dungeon. Team 1 power up and prepare to fight the monsters within. Thankfully they’re a very combat heavy team so this shouldn’t be too hard. As they fight, a man in a wizard costume asks if any of them will survive this.

 

Izuku and Eyepatch ride on his motorcycle. Izuku thanks him for bringing him along, and Eyepatch shrugs, saying that he’s practical and right now Izuku is doing the practical job of being his human shield. He gives Izuku a device and says that he took it from a goon. He rationalizes that if Izuku’s powers don’t work here, they should try to find a different area and see if they come back. Izuku hits the button and reveals a secret tunnel in the mountain that they drive through. Izuku wonders why the goons attacked them, and Eyepatch says that they’re after him and that they’re probably wondering why he’s seeking Miss Anna’s death. Izuku says he wants to know that too, but they’re distracted by missile fire. They dodge around the missiles and pull out into a costal area. They’re up against Paulo, the slow time guy and a dude with a rocket launcher for a head. Eyepatch leaps from the motorcycle and leaves it to a panicked Izuku. It crashes and Izuku rolls off. He notes that they can use their powers while the last batch of guys relied on guns. Paulo asks who he is and why he wants to kill Anna, and Eyepatch says that he made a promise. Paulo says that he must be “Scervino’s pawn.” Eyepatch begs them not use Anna’s quirk anymore, saying they don’t understand how it works. They say they’ll use her as they see fit. They say she’s going to play an essential role in their boss’s ascent. They start fighting. Eyepatch hits the rocket launcher head guy, his head morphs back into normal and he pulls a minigun on them. Izuku is pretty sure Paulo is the one blocking his power after realizing that he’s the only one not moving at all. He tells Eyepatch to help him take that guy out and that’ll get his powers back. Eyepatch uses his motorcycle, remote controlling it from his arm, and uses it to distract the goons long enough to allow Izuku to rush them. He figured out that Paolo is creating an anti-Quirk field, but also a buffer within that field to make sure his guys can use theirs. Within it, he can use OFA and he quickly dispatches them. He turns to look at Eyepatch, who pulled a gun on him. He turns upward and shoots at Dark Might who is watching from a balcony. Dark Might realizes that since Izuku has multiple Quirks that he might be All Might’s successor. Izuku demands to know what he’s doing and Dark Might says he’s going to take his rightful place as the new Symbol of Peace. Izuku tries to rush him, but Dark Might uses a power enhanced punch, knocking him aside. Eyepatch run over and pulls him from the crater he made in the wall. Dark Might throws a pair of coins and causes two monster guys to manifest. They grab Paulo and Dark Might chastises him for failing. Paulo begs for his life, and Dark Might considers it… but says he’ll try mercy on Paulo in his next life. He drops Paulo into a pit. He then yells at Eyepatch to tell Izuku that he’ll gladly accept more of Izuku’s challenges until he submits to Dark Might. He walks off and into a hall that seems to manifest as they walk. A cut opens on his face from Izuku’s kick, and he is visibly angry at the kid marring his perfect face.

 

The rest of team 3 have climbed down the pipe and found the mountain. Thankfully their powers are still working, with Hagakure mentioning that losing their powers would have been awkward for her. I’ll be honest, I hate that she’s canonically naked all the time. Uraraka is gung-ho about finding Deku, but they’re stopped by falling into a crater and appearing before the woman and Anna.

 

The wizard guy is still watching Team 1 battling the monsters. He thinks that they’ve been beaten and is a bit bummed that they’ll not see his costume. Then Bakugo blows a hole in the wall and asks if he’s the final boss. The goon is furious that Bakugo made a shortcut and says they’ve broken the game. Bakugo Howitzer blasts him and says that he’s a walking Cheat code. Dark Might drops him into a pit, congratulates them, and then says that was just the first act. He then summons more of his monster goons to attack them. Bakugo tells the ‘extras’ to do their worst.

 

Izuku wakes up on the back of Eyepatch’s motorcycle. It’s lacking its armor now since it used up all its weapons in that fight. Izuku introduces himself to Eyepatch, who reciprocates and we learn his name is Giulio Gandini. Izuku thanks him, and Giulio says that he saved him because Izuku could be useful. He says that Deku is an unusual name, but Izuku says he likes it. They pull out of the tunnel and see the town in the distance. They pull up and Izuku finds everyone including his friends knocked out. Izuku wonders what happened and Giulio says they’re incompatible with his lady’s quirk. Izuku asks what she has to do with this, but they’re interrupted by Ojiro’s scream of pain. They find Anna standing with the lady Gollini. Izuku asks what’s going on. Giulio says that those that are compatible with Anna’s power are being made into soldiers against their will. Giulio pulls his gun arm on her and says that she must be the one controlling his lady. She confirms this, saying that normally she can only hypnotize one person at a time, but with Anna’s power she can trance out tons of people. She says she’ll put them in a pleasant dream and mindblasts them. Izuku is a child in his room full of even more All Might merch than normal. All Might in his prime arrives and says that they’ll save the world together. Izuku is super excited… but then Shigaraki the younger appears in Izuku’s mind and reminds him that this isn’t real. Izuku breaks out of the dream and is pulled into another mental plane. The other former wielders appear, explaining that behind them is everyone else trapped in the dream. They say he needs to find another way out, as he can’t just break out of this illusion. We see all of Izuku’s friends trapped in what looks like a mental doll house, each of them living out the dreams they were placed in. Izuku wonders what that can mean and looks around, seeing Giulio’s dream in the distance. His body is whole without any cyborg parts. He’s serving Anna tea, who offers to have him drink tea with her. He refuses, saying they have to be proper. She says that he’s always mean to him and goes to drink her tea when she starts seizing up from her Quirk. Giulio grabs her shoulder and seems to siphon off the excess energy from her. She apologizes for being a burden on him. She thanks him for always hoping her, and saying that he’ll always be with her. She asks him if he means it, and when he says yes, it’s my duty, she looks depressed. The Gollini, Deborah, watches this from the outside and deems that Giulio could be problem so has a puppet grab him by the throat. From his perspective it looks like Anna is choking him. Izuku tries to run at them, and screams that its an illusion. Giulio realizes it’s an illusion when he sees he’s still got his right arm. He uses his bionic eye to sight on Deborah and shoots her. This breaks her hold completely. She demands to know how he did that. Anna breaks free and tries to run to him, but Giulio pulls his gun on her. We hear the promise he made to kill her to stop her from losing control and he tries to fire, but Izuku knocks the shot aside. Before he can try again, Deborah escapes, pulling Anna along through a sky balcony.

 

Sidenote, I hate that Deborah has the same name as my mom, but am glad it’s a different spelling.

 

Izuku tries to say they’ll find another way, and Giulio runs over and yells at him for meddling. He says that Izuku is meddling in things that don’t concern him. Izuku says that he did it because aiming at Anna put him in agony. He thinks Giulio really wants to help her, he says “OF COURSE!” but killing her is the only way to do that now. He explains that her quirk is Overmodification, she temporarily boost Quirks to a level they could never reach. But if you’re incompatible with her power, it causes them pain. He says that he thinks she’s afraid of human contact, he says that when he met her, she was locked away in a room like a fairytale princess. Giulio’s quirk is nullification, he touches someone with their right hand and that temporarily stops her power, keeping her from feeling the pain of stockpiling her power too much. Anna’s father thanks Giulio for helping Anna have something of a normal life now. Giulio thanks him for taking care of him as well. Anna’s father is worried her power is growing and that there may come a time when he can’t repress it anymore. We see Giulio helping Anna by repressing her power in the night and she asks him to kill her if it gets out of control. The Gollinis eventually found out, attacking the family, killing Anna’s father, and everyone else there. Giulio is hurt badly in the fight, losing his right arm, left leg and right eye. Izuku says that he could stop him, but Giulio screams “have you looked at me!” and gestures as his missing arm. He says that if Anna’s power keeps being abused, she’ll mutate the power of whoever is using her until they’re unstoppable. Izuku says that he saw how Giulio looked at Anna in the dream and that they obviously care about each other. He’s not sure that Giulio could do it if he tried. Izuku promises to save her and bring back both their smiles, but Giulio says to shut up, they need to do what she wanted. Uraraka joins them, recovering Anna’s picture and says they can help. The others agree and promise to help him save Anna. They’re interrupted by team 1 joining them and Bakugo saying that they have a fake All Might to stop.

 

Dark Might reveals to his family that he eliminated the other failures, but he’s sure Deborah won’t fail him. Dark Might remembers All Might’s declaration, and that he’s indominable even in retirement. He says that if the students want to survive the coming days they’ll need to submit to him. The giant fortress turns in it’s movements and heads toward UA high. The heroes gather and prepare to hold him off. The students help make the hostages comfortable when Dark Might makes another announcement. He says that he’s going to destroy previous society to make a new world, and that he’s planning on destroying UA to rebuild it and start a new legend. Metaphorically killing All Might to build anew. Bakugo is furious and orders the other students around. He orders most of his classmates to help the civilians, but him, Izuku, Shoto, and Tokoyami are going to stop him.

 

The heroes prepare for the Dark Might attack. They’re impressed by the size, even Mt. Lady and she’s an actual giant. Endeavor starts the opening attack, using a huge fireblast to burst a hole in it. They heroes cheer, but the building immediately regenerates. All Might says that this’ll be harder than they thought, and Hawks says that he sent in an ace to help out. The ace turns out to be Lemillion, who takes over leading the civilians to safety.

 

Izuku and co head toward Dark Might’s fortress. Giulio pulls up as well, and Bakugo tells the “cool side character” to beat it. He refuses as he needs to save Anna. Dark Might watches their approach and he’s ecstatic. He welcomes them inside with open arms. They head in and are attacked by more monster goons in a colosseum. Tokoyami tells the others to go on ahead as he can handle them all with Dark Shadow. Izuku tells him to be careful, and Tokoyami says back at ya.

 

The others are attacked by more monsters, and Class 1A heads to face them, giving Lemillion, Tsu, Sero, Koda, and Hagakure to lead the evacuees away. They rush the monsters.

 

The lead team hit another pair of goons, a guy with a huge nose and a bruiser. Bakugo and Shoto stay behind to face them, Izuku lifts Giulio’s bike and they head into the inner sanctum. Shoto tries to take the two out in one blast, but they teleport out of his range.

 

Izuku and Giulio immediately find Dark Might waiting for them with Anna. Giulio rushes in to save her, and get caught in the time manipulators bubble. He shoves Giulio over and walks toward Izuku to try to catch him in the bubble. Izuku uses his quirks combined to rocket towards the time manipulator, moving so fast that the slow field barely affects him. Dark Might runs off with Anna and they rush after them.

 

 Bakugo and Shoto have trouble with their pair. The big guy teleports and the little one has telekinesis. The others are able to handle the various monster goons pretty well. Overall they’re stronger than the monsters, but there’s just so many of them, Iida tells them to keep fighting and protect the civilians. Outside, Lemillion pops out of the ship and signals the others to attack that spot and free the civilians. The heroes unleash an all out attack to break into the fortress and save the civilians. Endeavor blasts a hole in it and everyone else use their powers to catch them as they fall. Lemillion gets the last of them out and then runs back into help. Endeavor is exhausted from all of this, but he intends to keep blasting to give the heroes a chance to break in as well.

 

Izuku and Giulio enter a dark room and Dark Might turns it into a field. Giulio explains Dark Might’s quirk, he uses Alchemy. He’s able to make any matter he wants with a catalyst. He used this power to reshape his face to match All Might’s and to mimic his power as best he can. We see how he originally looked and Valdo Gollini is an incredibly sour looking man. Izuku asks why he’d change his face to look like All Might. Dark Might answers, saying that if he’s going to take All Might’s place he should take his face as well. He reveals that he’s in All Might’s Golden Age costume. He takes a hit of Anna’s power and the fight begins. Giulio tries to stop him as he knows Anna is hitting her limit, but Dark Might’s power is insane. He knocks Izuku back and rushes Giulio. Giulio fires a dozen rounds into Dark Might’s chest. This stops him for a moment, but not for long. He admits that unlike All Might, he can’t take damage like he could, but he’s Plus Ultra, so that doesn’t matter. He morphs the bullets into lances and he attacks them all with his full force. He tell Giulio that he’s trying to have a heart to heart with a real hero, so but out nobody. He tries to crush Giulio with a golden hand, but Izuku blocks it. He realizes that Alchemy seems like multiple quirks, but it’s just one overcharged power. Giulio gets up, and Izuku tells him regardless of Dark Might’s power, saving Anna is their priority. He uses a maximum smokescreen and they start running around in the dark. Izuku clashes with Dark Might as Giulio runs to Anna. He tries to reach out to her, but then stops and drops, he’s hit by Deborah’s power, who announces that she’s not going anywhere. Izuku gets knocked into the ceiling.

 

Bakugo and Shoto figure out the mechanics of the teleporter’s power, realizing he can only move short range and within line of sight. So they use their combined powers to set the whole area on fire and force them to where they need. Bakugo blasts them and then Shoto freezes them in place.

 

Izuku tells Giulio to get up, and Dark Might captures him in a binding. Deborah orders Anna to kill Giulio. Dark Might tells Izuku to sit there and watch. Once he’s fallen into despair, he’ll accept Dark Might as the new Symbol of Peace. Izuku refuse and he keeps yelling at Anna to wake up.

 

Outside, Endeavor hits the fortress with a full power blast and Mt. Lady rips a hole open. The shaking it causes makes Anna drop her knife, buying Giulio more time. Izuku shouts at Giulio to fight for Anna, and that causes his support items to start reacting. He tries to shoot Deborah, but his arm is out of bullets. She laughs at him… but then Giulio’s leg rockets him forward and into Deborah, knocking her out. Anna wakes up and tries to run to Giulio, but Dark Might grabs her. Bakugo and Shoto join Izuku and they prepare to battle. Dark Might absorbs more of Anna’s power and the fight begins. UA’s three Musketeers work well together, they dodge around Dark Might’s attacks. Dark Might powers up and expands into a giant. The heroes make it inside, Hawks backs up Tokoyami and the others reach class 1A. The monsters merge into a super mode, which look like sea anemone. Iida tells everyone to keep fighting.

 

Giulio gets up and limps towards Anna. Dark Might keeps blasting everyone around with his megaton punches. Dark Might reiterates that he is the future, and that pisses off the boys. They each shout about how much All might meant to them and unleash their full power on Dark Might. The three heroes quickly overwhelm Dark Might. Bakugo hits him with so much force that it forces him to revert to his original face. They leave the last attack to Deku, who uses his slingshot move to rocket to Dark Might and hits him with about fifteen States of Smash. Dark Might flashes back to when he was younger, he faced off against his father who told him that he’ll never lead their family to greatness. Dark Might says that All Might became great due to his power, but his father said that All Might’s focus was Strength, not Power. Dark Might shot and killed his father. In the present he passes out and all his monster’s crumble. Dark Might’s butler tries to flee, but Lemillion catches him and knocks him out.  The fortress crumbles and everyone cheers.

 

Izuku helps dig out Giulio, who is badly hurt, but says he’ll survive. He lips towards Anna, whose hair is almost entirely black now. He runs to her as her power overwhelms her. She causes monster roots to sprout and is encased in them. Giulio is launched into the air, Izuku catches him and Giulio begs him to get him close to her. Izuku tries but he’s blasted back by her power. Anna’s power rages and she rebuilds the fortress. She wraps up Dark Might in threads of her power and turns him into a black Hulk. So I guess we’re into round two. Dark Might announces that he’s the new world and they all start fighting. Giulio drags himself to Anna and grabs her with his robot hand, but his power can’t work through it. He tries to will his nullification to work. Bakugo and Shoto blast mega Dark Might, who forces Anna to enhance him even further. He throws Bakugo and Shoto back. Giulio reaches Anna and holds her to his chest. Giulio remembers promising that Anna would always be normal with him around. This seems to trigger his power as it’s revealed that he’s compatible with Anna. She super charges his nullification, which causes her power to retract. Izuku, Bakugo, and Shoto do a combo attack on Dark Might. The two blasters super heat him allowing Izuku to do a Super Mega Ultra Kamen Rider kick, knocking Dark Might through his All Might statue and shattering the fortress to dust.

 

As the sun sets, we see Giulio cradling Anna in his arms. He falls as she wakes up. She begs him not to leave her, and he tells her to not label him a corpse anymore. He explains that she super charged his quirk and he effectively rendered her Quirkless. He thanks her for everything that she’s done for him, and says that without her quirk, they’re contract is over and she’s free to go wherever she wants. … I think that he honestly doesn’t get that she’s in love with him. Thankfully, she stops him from walking off, hugging him, telling him to call her Anna, and asking him to stay with her. Izuku swears that they’ll move forward and find a way to make everyone smile. And then the credits roll.

 

In an after Credit scene, we’re shown Tomura Shigaraki waking up from the coma that Star and Stipe put him in as AFO watches.

 

I’ll try to keep my thoughts short as you’ve already read my fourteen-page summary. I find it funny that ultimately the best villain we’ve had for a My Hero Academia movie was a version of All Might. I think that each of these four MHA movies has improved with each entry on its villains and heroes. Wolfram from Two Heroes was a generic bad guy that wanted to increase his own power. Nine from Heroes Raising was slightly better since he had an actual ideology and plan that he was working towards. Was it a generic ‘might makes right, therefore I rule because I’m mightiest’ situation? Yes. But it was helped out by Johnny Yong Basch’s performance. Flect Turn from World Heroes Mission was better still, with his anti-quirk ideology and self-loathing. And finally, we’ve got Valdo Gollini, the disturbed fan that wants to be the villainous version of All Might. He’s every toxic fanboy. Those guys that think they love Superman but say it’s unrealistic that he doesn’t use his immense power to rule the world. Or think Batman is all about beating up criminals and the mentally unwell, ignoring that Bruce Wayne is forever fighting the corruption in Gotham in other ways. He thanks All Might is all about Power, and because he has the most power, in his eyes, he needs to carry the mantel. I also appreciate that he’s so delusional that he thinks this is all him when he explicitly needs to constantly take power from his hostage to perform at this heightened level. Like, bro doesn’t at all see the contradiction here, does he?

 

The heroes of these films, the ones that get to have longer arcs because Izuku and co need to go back to the main story and get character development there, are also improved with each entry. Melissa in Two Heroes is a fun character that’s like Izuku, Quirkless and trying to find how she fits into hero society in her own way. She works hard and gets to help the next symbol of peace, Izuku, as her father did with All Might. The two kids, Mahoro and Katsuma, from Heroes Rising had to learn to grow. Mahoro had to accept that she couldn’t protect her brother from everything, and Katsuma learned that he could be a hero in his own right with his healing power. Rody from World Heroes Mission was a man that society failed that needed to find hope to try again. He was forced into Izuku’s orbit, and was dragged along, learning that his father didn’t abandon him, and in fact fought to the bitter end to protect him and his siblings. He had to learn to stand up again, and as the movie ended, he was on a better path. Giulio is the best yet, being a man that is trying desperately to perform the final request of the person he loves most. I genuinely think he didn’t realize that Anna was in love with him, or he was with her, and that he thought he was just doing his duty. Man lost an eye, arm, and leg, but still thought he was just doing a job chasing his boss. He wanted to perform his duty and see Anna’s request fulfilled. But he NEEDED to find the strength to save her so she could live a life and do as she please, which incidentally involves being with him. I also like that, like with Rody, he was involved in the final battle. And, like Rory, his job is arguably more important than Izuku and co beating up the bad guy. Rory had to stop the doomsday weapon going off, and Giulio had to stop Anna’s power from rampaging and destroying everything. He saved the girl, did his duty, and got his reward. It’s a nice little arc. This was a crazy day and a half for Izuku and company, weird how they probably won’t mention it again. Lol

So ya, overall, liked this movie. I think it’s the best of the four MHA movies thus far, and if it’s the last one they ever make, they ended it on a high note. The action was great, the art stunning, and our one-off heroes and villains were all entertaining. Next time, back to the main story. Have a good night, and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 142

 They've got 12% of a plan. So... ya, that's really more of a concept. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, they finally figured out who the mole in UA is. The episode briefly teases that it might be Hagakure, before revealing it was in fact Yuga Aoyama. Aoyama was born Quirkless like Midoriya, but his wealthy parents were able to get in contact with All For One who gave Aoyama his Belly Laser quirk in exchange for their service. Aoyama served as a pawn but is clearly hitting his breaking point continuing to do this. Hagakure observed Aoyama’s parents telling him his new orders, and she runs off to get Izuku. Izuku tries to talk to Aoyama, but fearing for his parent’s safety, he attacks his friend to give them a chance to escape. Hagakure leaps in the way of his laser and uses her power to refract the attack. Izuku captures the Aoyamas with Blackwhip and tells Yuga that he can stop struggling. The Aoyamas are taken prisoner and admit to Detective Tsukauchi, All Might and the UA staff, but they can’t give much as AFO kept all the power in their ‘relationship.’ That actually led to his capture in the Kamino Ward incident because the Aoyamas were unable to contact him to warn him of the raid. The students are heartbroken to learn that their friend was working against them this whole time, and Aoyama himself declares he’s nothing but a villain, rotten to the core. Izuku cuts in at this point and reminds everyone that Aoyama did a lot of good too, such as trying to protect Bakugo and Tokoyami during the summer camp attack or giving Izuku his encouraging cheese messages. He also suggests that Aoyama can still be a hero, as capturing him means they can potentially lure AFO out on their terms. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin with a brief recap of Yuga Aoyama admitting to working for the League of Villains and then Izuku rejecting him describing himself as a villain and insisting he can still be a hero. Yaoyorozu agrees with Izuku that having Aoyama try to trick AFO is a great plan. Aoyama is very confused by their unwillingness to turn their back on him, to treat him like a terrible person. Present Mic asks his students if they’re really sure they want to trust someone that is an admitted traitor. Iida steps up and speaks for the group by saying yes, they do, and adding that he feels that its partially on them for not realizing that Aoyama was dealing with so much. They still see him as a friend and see this as a way to heal the damage between them all. Bakugo is still upset about the kidnapping thing, but says he’ll let it go if he can blast Aoyama with his Howitzer blast 5 times. Sero asks if maybe he’s overreacting. Kirishima is very vocal about supporting Aoyama. He is sure that Aoyama was only working with AFO because he had no other way out and that Aoyama was being completely honest with his parents when he said he wanted out. He tells Aoyama they didn’t turn their backs on Izuku when they found out he was Quirkless and they won’t do it to him either. He insists that meddling in your friends life is like the most important aspect of being a hero. The students all start talking at once and Tsukauchi tells them to calm down. He reminds them that they’ve got procedures they need to follow, and that they need to be smart about this. The Aoyamas said that they can’t lie, as AFO will sense it and probably kill them. Before anyone can suggest another idea, Aizawa cuts in via a video call. He’s looking a bit shabbier than usual but he’s recovering. His right eye is gone, covered by a patch, and he’s still in his hospital scrubs. He asks if Izuku has an actual plan. Izuku confirms he’s only got a rough idea for a plan. Aizawa expected as much, and turns his attention to Aoyama. He tells Aoyama that he has no intention of expelling him from class 1A. He has a plan to move forward. After deafening the Aoyamas for this, Aizawa explains his plan to the students. We don’t get to hear it, but I am sure it’ll get filled in as they go.

 

We cut to Aizawa, All Might, Tsukauchi, Present Mic, Ectoplasm, and Nezu having a private meeting. Nezu thinks the plan they proposed can work, if they scout each location and prepare it. All Might says that it all rides on ‘him’ though. Aizawa reminds the others that they only have a week to get this set up if they want to use their temporary advantage. Tsukauchi thinks it could work and heads back to base to figure out the particulars. The Aoyamas are taken away by the cops, but Izuku shouts after Yuga that everything will be okay.

 

The students head back to their dorm and all resolve to see this through. Izuku and Iida agree that they both need new costumes after the last week, and everyone else tries to think of ways to improve their skills. Izuku and Iida head over to Mei Hatsume’s lab to get new gear. Izuku goes to knock on the door, but much like last time, gets blasted as whatever Mei was working on at the time exploded. And much like last time, Izuku found himself getting smothered by Mei’s boobs. She says its been a minute and that she’s always happy to hear their item requests. Iida asks about new costumes, Mei asks why they don’t go through the support store, and Iida reminds her that they’re pretty much defunct now due to all this (gestures as the all but open war in the streets.) Mei says that sounds like a major pain, thus revealing she has no idea what’s been going on. Power Loader, the Support course teacher comes out, realizes what the students want and calls them inside. The lab has had some changes to it, as Power Loader is in charge of the barrier around UA and has to constantly maintain it.

 

Izuku shows Mei his compression bands that he got from Melissa Shield in the US and wonders if she can repair it. She asks if he’ll need it soon, and Izuku confirms he needs it like yesterday. She says that’s rough and starts running away, saying that that she’d basically have to build it from scratch. When Iida asks about building him new armor, she runs away faster. Her other classmates offer their services, which is a relief to the boys. Iida points out that it’s a bit weird that Mei is avoiding working on a project, but we learn her new all consuming project is super important. She’s working on perfecting the evacuation system for UA to get the civilians out. Her current goal is to try to get the whole school to fly. God, I love how insane this girl is. As she types and tries to figure out how to solve this problem, Izuku remembers her ‘unique’ mindset, like her suggestion for Iida to run with his arms if he wants to cool off his legs. Izuku is impressed with her work ethic, and isn’t all that surprised that she hasn’t noticed how troubled stuff is. She admits to actually knowing how bad things are, but she’s trying to put her focus on what she can do to help. Building things is how Support Course students help people after all. Izuku starts to compliment her, but Mei cuts him off by throwing a pair of gauntlets at him. She says their inferior version of the ones he had, but if he’s cool with that, he can give those babies a spin. They look like his Air Shot gloves with the binder coming off them like a sleeve. She also throws a set of armor at Iida, and they ask her if she just whipped this stuff up with her left hand as her right was busy working on her flying school idea. She doesn’t answer, but I think you know it. The other Support course students in that time had only found their measuring tape… so they’re just gonna leave.

 

Iida and Izuku meet up with the rest of their classmates, their faces still caved in from getting their new gear thrown at them. Mt. Lady joins the students and tells them that while she sympathizes with what they’ve been dealing with, they need to focus on find and stopping the league of villains and the remnants of the PLF. Ashido asks if Aoyama will come around, and Izuku says that he believes in his friend. Bakugo says that he hopes that it doesn’t bite them in the ass. Shoto joins Izuku and says that Aoyama has done the most soul searching of all of them and will be back. Mt. Lady tells them that its time to head out. She assigns Izuku, Bakugo, and Shoto as heads of squads and tells them to divide the class into groups to search for their targets.

 

We jump over to the ruins of a city where Nejire, and Amajiki with Fat Gum and Ryukyu are helping get people to shelters. They take the civilians to Shiketsu High. Ryukyu mentions that they want to save everyone, but with fewer people out and about they’ll have less intel coming in. Fat Gum agrees, and says that he can feel it in his bones that they’re approaching all out war.

 

We shift to Central Hospital where All Might and the other allies meet to discuss their plan. The group consists of Hawks, Tsukauchi and the cops, Star and Stripe’s squad, and Ragdoll of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. All Might and Hawks tell them that they’ve been brought in due to their loyalty and past actions and asks that they don’t leak any of this information. Ragdoll asks why the rest of the team aren’t included, and they says that it isn’t because All Might doesn’t trust them, but because they’re needed in the field. All Might explains the plan. Step one, split the villains. The reports they’ve received suggest Tomura is the more powerful of the two now, and given AFO’s strength that’s saying something. The two can communicate via radio waves and through their Vestige link in the Mindscape, but keeping them apart should keep them from overwhelming the heroes. Nathan asks why AFO didn’t attack with Tomura and beat Star that way, and All Might thinks its because AFO knew how New Order worked and worried about being subjected to that power. The plan is to keep the villains at least 10 km apart. Tsukauchi thinks they’ll plan on this, will have contingencies in place. All Might agrees and points out that Dabi alone has been one of their best weapons to sew chaos and divide heroes in the past. All Might says that their plan has to be to split all of the League up, to keep Dabi, Toga, Spinner and any of their other vanguard away from the Shigarakis if they want to beat them. The cops point out that that’ll be hard given past interactions. All Might is planning on using Aoyama. Tsukauchi is skeptical and is refusing to accept the mitigating circumstances of how Aoyama was used up to this point. All Might has faith, in Aoyama and Aizawa, who is going to talk to him.

 

Aizawa meets Aoyama in an interrogation room at the hospital. A lizardlike doctor says that Aoyama’s test results came through as normal, which make Aizawa believe that AFO must have gotten the self-destruct Quirk he gave Lady Nagant after he was captured, since he didn’t implant it in Aoyama. Which also makes sense as if AFO could just do that, he wouldn’t have had to work so hard to scare all the Aoyamas into falling in line. No, he thinks AFO kept Aoyama in check by just making him terrified. Aizawa tells his student that he won’t make a lot of friends like the ones he’s made in UA and asks what is scaring him. Aoyama admits he’s scared of AFO but also admits that he’s scare that he can’t ‘twinkle’ like the rest of his class can. He explains that it’s like the more they believe in him, the less confident he feels he can meet their expectations of him. He’s terrified that if they put their trust in him, and AFO appears before him, that he’ll betray them all over again. He says they should just put in a dark hole and forget about him. Aizawa is brutally honest with his student, telling him this’ll never just go away. The others were being nice because they are his friends, but as Aoyama’s teacher, Aizawa gives him the cold hard truth. He’s probably never going to be able to call UA home again after this. Aizawa thinks to himself that Aoyama’s fear has to be ripped out of him. Aoyama tries to rationalize it away, but Aizawa cuts him off. He says he won’t let Aoyama just give up. He has to face this, he isn’t allowed to drown in his guilt. He thinks of his own school days with Present Mic and Oboro (Kurogiri before he was a Nomu) as he speaks about standing with his friends. Aoyama asks what difference a single person can make, especially a criminal. Aizawa says they won’t leave him to do anything alone. They’ll all walk the path to the future together. The episode ends with Aoyama crying.

 

In a post credit scene, a couple students come up to Hitoshi Shinso, saying they should be gone already. Shinso agrees. He’s the brainwashing kid, if the name doesn’t click something in your brain.

 

This episode was mostly set up for the final arc to me. Izuku and Iida get new gear, they’re trying to find a way to encourage Aoyama to be their bait, the adults start to formulate their plan of attack and so on. Lots of smaller things that are building to the big thing which is the all out brawl they’re going to have with AFO and company. Of all the things in this episode, I think I like seeing how much Aoyama is struggling with accepting that his friends have faith in him. I get this idea that the more they try to build him up, the lower he sinks because he doesn’t think he can measure up. There are few things that sting worse than thinking that someone believes in you when you can’t believe in yourself. Despite how he’s presented himself up to this point, Aoyama is a depressed young man that has spent most of his life but for sure the last year with a weight on his back that is far greater than he should ever have been expected to handle. To betray people he cares about so obviously, badly, and totally, only for them to still believe in him has to create a weird maelstrom of emotions. From a story perspective, I know he’s going to do it, you know he’s going to do it, if you presented this info to my 90-year-old grandmother, she’d be able to figure out he’s going to do it, but I like how it realistically presents his struggle. It’s good writing. I liked catching up with Mei Hatsume, as she’s one of my favorite tertiary characters. She’s fun for these quick gags about her being such a gear head she barely remembers Iida’s name. I like that the story established she’d been keeping busy working on the school’s defenses, as it feels like she’s levelled up off screen like so many of the class 1A students have on screen. Sure, things still blow up around her, but I get the vibe its down significantly from when she seemed to just be ramming pieces together to see what she could make. She’s a more focused character now, and is so talented at building that she can work on several projects at once. She’s definitely growing. So now, the students have their mission, Aizawa is working on Aoyama, and the League of Villains is definitely preparing to pounce. I wonder what happens next? We’ll see tomorrow. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social