Last time on My Hero Academia, two
plans were launched to try and save Katsuki Bakugo from the League of Villains.
The professional heroes used a tracking device stuck to a Noumu and intel they’d
picked up on the movements of Dabi, one of the League of Villains’ (LoV) newest
and most visually distinctive recruits, to track down the bases of operations
of the LoV. They broke into two teams with All Might leading the charge against
the Villain Bar, and Best Jeanist leading their strike on what turns out to be
the Noumu producing factory. At the same time, Izuku Midoriya, Iida, Kirishima,
Todoroki and Yaoyorozu used a duplicate tracking device as part of a hairbrained,
We’re-too-frustrated-to-stay-out-of-it plan to try and save Bakugo. They made
it to the Noumu production facility just in time to see the raid… and the
entrance of All For One (AFO), Tomura Shigaraki’s master and the brains behind
the LoV. He obliterated the forces sent against him, as well as a good chunk of
the buildings around him, and send in Noumu using his own teleportation power
to surprise attack the victorious heroes, in a bid to free his people before
they could be taken away. Not going to lie, this is a pretty dicey I left you
hanging on for about a month… but hey, that’s just how I tend to roll. Let’s
get to it, shall we?
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| Bakugo: Damn it, could I please go more than six months without barfing something slimy up? |
We open with a quick recap of the
last few minutes of the last episode. Heroes bust in, get villains in a lock,
just for AFO to start teleporting in Noumu in to fight the heroes. AFO then teleports
Bakugo and the League of Villains out, with them seemingly barfing up gray ooze
that pulls them through. All Might and the others try to follow, but can’t follow
through the barf portals like they could through Kurogiri’s portals. All Might leaves
the fight with the Noumu up to Endeavor, launching into the air after the
villains.
We then jump over to the remains of
the Noumu factory. All of the heroes appear to be alive, much to my own shock. We’re
shown a flashback as AFO explains, that Best Jeanist used his fabric
controlling powers to pull all of the other heroes out of the way and took most
of the brunt of the blast. He’s alive, though, and kind of freaking out. He got
some warning about AFO’s personality and power, and they’d all believed he was
going to stay out of things until the last moment. He refuses to give up,
though, and tries to attack AFO. AFO, unimpressed, blasts a hole through Best
Jeanist’s belly, claiming he doesn’t need Jeanist’s power. The kids were
watching all of this from their hiding space and are obviously freaking out as
well. They’re pulled out of their shock a little by hearing Bakugo portaling
in, along with the League of Villains. AFO chastises Shigaraki just a little
for failing, but tells his protégé that he’ll let Shigaraki try and fail as
many times as he needs to win. I can see why Shigaraki might worship this guy.
Izuku, having seeing Bakugo, begins
to try and figure out a plan to save him. Unfortunately, he can’t find a good
plan to save Bakugo. He starts moving to try and find a new angle, but is grabbed
by Iida. He also grabbed Todoroki, and Yaoyorozu grabbed Kirishima. The two
trainees that are only here to stop the gung-ho kids from doing something
stupid are living up to that goal. They’re both trying to think of exit
strategies, but are hitting similar walls to Izuku.
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| I pity the fool that made All Might make this face when he catches up to them. |
All Might flies in and slams
himself into AFO. Their power seems to be about equal, which is terrifying.
They leap apart, and the shockwave that it releases knocks the bystanders
around. Both of them mock the other’s failing bodies, which feels weird. All
Might swears he’s going to save Bakugo and make sure that AFO is locked up for
the rest of his miserable life. He charges AFO again, with the villain blasting
All Might away with an air pressure shockwave. He explains that he combined
several powers together to get this devastating effect and states that he could
add more modifiers to increase the damage. He turns to Shigaraki and tells him
to leave with Bakugo and the League. He uses another aspect of his power to
force an unconscious Kurogiri to open a warpgate to get everyone out of there.
Magne asks why he’d risk injuring Kurogiri like this and not just use his own
warp power. AFO claims that his power is rather new, and is much more limited
at where he can send people. Kurogiri can teleport anywhere, pretty much, where
as AFO can only transport things to or from himself or someone he knows really
well. Nice little bit of exposition to explain why OFA never tries to portal
out if/when All Might starts getting the upper hand. All Might finally
recovers, launches into the air and slams into AFO again. They start fighting as
the LoV prep to fall back. Mr. Compress shrinks and pockets Dabi and tells
Shigaraki to grab Bakugo. Shigaraki and co attack Bakugo in a group. Bakugo is
able to dodge and hold his own, but it’s 6 on 1, he’s not winning that fight. All
Might keeps trying to get him, but AFO is keeping him from Bakugo.
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| Two diametrically opposing forces clash and cause devastation. |
Izuku is still hiding and doing his
damnedest to figure out a plan to save Bakugo. He keeps hitting his head on the
fact that by law that the kids can’t face the villains in a fight. But then everything
clicks and he figures out a plan that will let them save Bakugo without fighting.
Iida and Yaoyorozu are 100% down for that. Izuku rather mysteriously says that
his plan is “all going to depend on him,” pointing at Kirishima.
Meanwhile, All Might keeps charging
at AFO but isn’t getting anywhere. AFO’s power seems to be able to completely
neutralize All Might’s power each time. Everyone watching in universe realizes
that All Might is holding back. Why? Because he knows if he goes all out,
Bakugo would get hit with the shockwaves of the battle and get hurt. Good guy,
All Might.
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| Not a graceful exit, but any escape you can walk away from is a victory, right? |
We then hear Izuku’s full plan, and
it’s pretty bonkers. Basically, he and Iida grab onto Kirishima’s waist and use
their powers to launch themselves forward. Kirishima uses his hardening power
to slam through the wall they’re hiding behind. No, that’s not why he’s the
key. After the rubble is cleared, Todoroki makes a massive ice slide for them
to slide across and high into the air. While in the air, up and out of the Villain’s
reach, Kirishima reaches out to Bakugo. Why did it have to be Kirishima?
Because from day 1, he’s tried to bond with Bakugo, fought with him and ultimately
became Bakugo’s only non-frenemy friend. Izuku believes that because of this,
Bakugo won’t put his back up to this expression of aid. It won’t be like when
he tried to help Bakugo out of the river when they were kids, someone weaker
than him offering him aid, he’s hoping Bakugo will see it instead as an equal
offering him a way out. And Izuku is right. Bakugo is able to swallow his
pride, launch into the air and grabs Kirishima’s hand. And while that’s going
on, Todoroki and Yaoyorozu slip away while everyone’s attention is away from
them.
Shigaraki snarls at Izuku getting
in the way yet again. The villains try to follow, having Magne use his power to
give magnetic polarity to Mr. Compress and launched him after them. He,
instead, slams into Mt. Lady’s face as she grows and blocks him. Gran Torino
then flies in and disables Magne and Twice. All Might, knowing the shackles are
off, charges AFO and Gran Torino goes to try and take out Shigaraki and Toga.
He’s knocked aside by AFO’s finger tentacles. He forces Magne’s power to activate,
and cause all the men of their group, polarized south, to fly into Toga, polarized
north. I assume he can control the strength of said polarity, or something,
because I doubt Toga (as a teenage girl) has mass on par with several grown
men. Just sayin’. He also throws Magne though the portal, as Magne’s power
doesn’t work on herself. He then uses his gunk teleportation to pull Gran
Torino in front of himself to block All Might’s punch. Thankfully, All Might was
able to pull back to not shatter his mentor’s face. He tosses Gran Torino out
of the way.
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| I'm not saying it absolves him of his crimes, but I can kind of understand the All Might hate. I'd be furious too if my face was so screwed up it cost me my eyes! |
All Might charges AFO one more
time, and hits him with a full force smash. He hits AFO hard, slamming his opponent
into the dirt, claiming that he’ll protect everyone and finally stop AFO. All
Might is clearly hitting the wall, as he’s now halfway between his sickly true form
and muscle form, but he thinks he’s stopped AFO. Unfortunately, the villain is
still awake. His mask has been smashed in and All Might’s fist is adhered to
his face, but his skull is still whole. He tells All Might that he knows he hit
a nerve, as it’s similar to what Nana Shigura, his former master and previous
OFA user, said in their last battle. And that’s how we end it, with this smug
SOB smiling evilly. Damn.
Okay, so this was a buildup episode,
lots of talking, dramatic pauses and only some action. And yet this is probably
the scariest episode that we’ve had thus far. Why? Because All For One is terrifying.
It’s not just his his compiled powers and skull face mask, but the dude’s very
presence seems to weigh everyone down. I like that his power seems to deform
his body as he uses it. His arm expands to an INSANE level when he uses his air
blasts, his fingers elongate and rip apart as he stretches out and force powers
to activate. I like when a villain’s powers look damaging or painful, bad guys
should hurt when they use their full power, or at least they should for me. The
fact that this man is able to basically obliterate several heroes, keep a bunch
of rookies frozen in place, and takes punches from All Might is freaking scary.
And yet, he’s this super understanding and forgiving mentor to Shigaraki. Like,
just by watching him, you know that he’s manipulating Shigaraki, aiming him and
trying to use him to destroy his enemy. And yet, it’s the kind of manipulation
where, if you’re the target of said manipulation, you fall for it hook, line
and sinker. AFO is a monster and he took someone vulnerable and weak and turned
him into a monster as well. He killed him, metaphorically speaking, with kindness.
Not saying this absolves Shigaraki of all the terrible things he’s done, but it
puts things into context. And obviously, this is going to be a pretty tense
fight since we’ve seen All Might throwing himself at AFO without much damage,
and he’s hitting his limit. He’s running out of power, and AFO is clearly a villain
that he needs to go full force against. And I liked Izuku’s B plot. He spends
the entire episode trying to find a way to save someone that HATES being saved.
Coupled with how he can’t actually help Bakugo fight the villains without a license.
And I like that Izuku finds a way for him save Bakugo without breaking the
rules. He knew his friend well enough to save him despite Bakugo’s stubbornness,
which I loved. Sure, these guys have a ton of issues, but Izuku probably
understands Bakugo better than anyone. With that understanding came their
little Hail Mary play to get Bakugo out and let All Might let loose. Next time,
we’re going to see what happens when All Might’s unstoppable force meets All
For One’s immovable object… or maybe All For One is the unstoppable force… I’m
thinking too hard on this metaphor. Let’s just watch two powerhouses collide.
It’s going to be fun!
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