We get to see the new #1 Hero in Japan earn his title.
Last time on My Hero Academia, we
actually learned how heroes are ranked. Normally a subject handled with a minimal
press release, they turned the whole thing into a massive event as a means of
raising people’s spirits. Endeavor is officially made the #1 hero, much to his
own chagrin. We’re also introduced to the new #2, Hawks. He’s a bit abrasive,
but he invites Endeavor to lunch for a project. The project in question being hunting
for rumors of Nomu activity and either 1. Confirming them and warning the public,
or 2. Disproving them and reassuring the public. Their lunch is interrupted by a
monster that Dabi unleased, a High-End Nomu. This hulking black Nomu is capable
of talking which freaks everyone out. I should note, while not called so in
this episode, this Nomu is usually referred to as Hood. He’s not the only
High-End we’ll see, so it’s good to give each one their own designation. But
more on that later. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The kids strongly favor mom's looks. Keep that in
mind, it'll be important later.
We open with Shoto Todoroki’s elder
siblings Fuyumi and Natsuo visiting their mother, Rei. They have a lovely
domestic moment where Fuyumi teases her brother about being busy with a girlfriend,
asking how mom is doing, and them chuckling at the fact Shoto regularly sends
her letters since he’s been too busy to make visits. It’s a sweet moment
between three people that you know have had it extremely rough, even if you don’t
know all the details. Apropos of nothing, Natsuo brings up Endeavour. Bro, don’t
bring up an abuser to their victim, that’s like trauma cases 101. He’s angry
that his father is officially #1, and that no one seems to know or care that
the Todoroki family imploded a decade ago. He hates that Endeavor is so
successful when he doesn’t think about them or interact them at all. He mentions
that Endeavor is basically a stranger to him, as he was so focused on Shoto. Natsuo
thinks his father is just going to bury his past and forget them. Rei, not-sarcastic-shockingly,
doesn’t think the worst of her estranged husband. To demonstrate, she uses a
flower. The blue flower is her favorite, and she only mentioned it to Enji,
once, when they first started courting. (I use that as the more archaic term
seems to be truer to their match than dating) Since she was put into the
hospital, she receives new ones regularly. She hasn’t seen Enji in all that
time, as she’s still terrified of him and the doctor isn’t sure how she’ll react,
but that seems to her to be a sign that he hasn’t forgotten her. Which… yeah,
the man apparently comes in regularly to get her health reports and leave her
with a small token does at least prove the Enji Todoroki never forgot Rei or
put her far from his mind.
So is a side effect of being a Nomu being super jacked
or do only super jacked people get made into Nomu?
We then cut to Endeavor fighting
Hood. Hawks mentions that he is shocked to see Endeavor flying, to which
Endeavor claims he’s not, that he’s just not falling. The whole, “using fire
power for thrust to mimic actual flight” thing is so cool, I do love seeing
powers utilized in ways to mimic other powers. The High-End Nomu regenerates its
arm and the flesh of its chest that Endeavor burned off in his first attack.
Endeavor notes that this is a power he saw from the eyeless Black Nomu during
the Stain incident, but not from the gray/green Nomu that were also there. He deduces
that the black Nomu are probably more powerful. Since this one is able to talk,
he resolves to take it in for interrogation. He attacks with another Hell-Fire Fist,
but Hood dodges around it. Hood slams Endeavor into a window and throws him
clear through to the other side of the building. Endeavor and Hood end up
slicing the building in half. While they brawl, Hawks uses his special visor
and feathers to track and get as many of the people out of the building as
possible. His Quirk is called Fierce Wings, and it lets him control the individual
feathers of his wings. He’s able to save 76 people as the building crumbles.
Endeavor uses his Hell-Fire Fist:
Hell Spider, to unleash long threads of flames to try to slice up the Nomu. He’s
able to reduce it down to its head and torso, but its still up. Endeavor tries
to slice him up even finer, but only ends up destroying another building. Hawks
uses his feathers to clear the debris, and complains about Endeavor’s sloppy
cutting technique. In the confusion, Hood completely regenerates. A pair of
passing heroes take shots at it to help, but Hood isn’t interested in fighting
them. It unleashes a swarm of Nomu from its body to distract them.
Rocket MAAN! Burning out his fuse up here alone
Endeavor notes that he’s already
hitting his limit, and is overheating. He remembers Hood demanding to fight the
strongest, so he thinks its capable of reasoning. Meanwhile, Hawks takes on some
Nomu with Feather Swords to try to help the lesser heroes. Hood knows that Endeavor
is hitting his limit, noting that he hasn’t been using his big fire attacks as
much. Endeavor mentally explains that his best technique “Hell-Fire Fist” is
potent but rapidly raises his body heat. It’s dangerous to keep using, but Hood
basically demands that he keep hitting him with his best attacks. Its stronger
and faster than he is, and its got a wide array of abilities he can’t match,
plus regeneration. Anything less than his best will get him killed. He admits
to himself that Overheating is his greatest weakness. This personal confession
makes him remember Rei as they first met; his oldest three children as kids,
Fuyumi and Natsuo with their sickly eldest brother Toya; and Shoto using both
sides of his power, thinking that “it’s what drove me, with each of you, the
reason for my actions!”
Hood attacks Endeavor, clearly
excited to battle a powerful hero. Endeavor swears to incinerate him so fast
that he can’t regenerate. He unleashes the massive Prominence Burn, engulfing
it in flames. The creature is seemingly immolated and reduced to ash. Endeavor
is exhausted but can’t drop, knowing he can’t seem pathetic right now after his
bold statement for people to “Just watch” him at the ranking event. Hood,
unfortunately, survived. It ripped its head off and threw it out of the blast
radius. It regenerates and attacks Endeavor as its limbs regrow. We get a cut
over to Rei, a few petals from her flower dropping.
The thing ripped off it's head, and that's the most
metal thing ever.
Japanese culture lesson. A common
superstition in Japan is that when an object belonging to or of great significance
to a person is damaged or broken by accident or by no obvious means, it means
the person is in life threatening danger. If you’re washing your spouse’s
favorite mug and it breaks, you should be concerned, basically. The flower
obviously matters to Endeavor, as it’s the only gift he’s able to give his
wife, and so it losing petals is not good.
Back at the fight, Endeavor takes a
massive hit to his left side and face, obliterating his left eye. We cut to everyone
important to Endeavor looking in shock, Fuyumi and Natsuo watching on a car TV,
Shoto watching with his classmates, and All Might and the other teachers watching
in their lounge. The only one not watching is Rei, as she doesn’t have a TV. We’re
then shown Endeavor splayed out on the ground before Hood, the High-End
demanding to fight someone stronger. Shoto remembers his father’s promise to be
a better hero, and person, and seems visibly angry at this creature seemingly
killing his father. A News reporter in a helicopter talks about how Hood and
the other Nomu are rampaging and how it’s similar to the Kamino Ward incident.
Endeavor seems to hear this, gets pissed and gets up. He tries to attack Hood,
but Hood knocks him aside and into another building.
Natsuo yells at his father to fall
back and wait for backup. He should quit and get out of there, as he’s not like
All Might. Something that Endeavor knows and that being why be basically
destroyed his family to overcome All Might. Fuyumi, though has faith, saying
their father is too stubborn to quit.
Hood goes to start killing more
people, causing a them to panic, with one reporter going so far as to say there’s
no symbol to protect them. That is until the Natsu-lookalike fan starts yelling
at them, pointing out that Endeavor’s flames are still burning, so there still
is hope. Which Endeavor proves by charging at Nomu again.
At this point, Endeavor is barely
able to move, noting that he’s really only moving on the thrust of his flames.
He promises to keep turning up the heat until he kills this thing. He knows from
the High-End’s previous actions that its head is its weakness. While he kind of
laments not being able to take it in for questioning, he very quickly resolves
that he won’t stop until he turns Hood into Ash. Hawks flies in, doing his best
to distract Hood while Endeavor preps his attack. He can’t hit the creature
remotely hard enough, but he’s fast enough to outmatch Hood. He remembers
saying that Endeavor was the only one that was trying to surpass All Might,
visualizing Endeavor standing with other heroes in front of a gulf leading
toward All Might. He gets down on his knees and trying to make a literal
metaphorical bridge as a younger Hawks watches.
Endeavor's favorite tactic, scorched earth.
Hawks takes a devastating hit to
his head, but he sends some feathers to Endeavor, increasing his speed more.
Endeavor rushes Hood, following Thanos’ advice to go for the head. Hood,
probably sensing this, bites down on Endeavor’s arm up to the elbow. Hood’s innards
are being burned to ash, but he regenerates enough to keep going and the
burning hand is far enough down his throat to protect his brain. Endeavor’s
kids cheer him on as he has Hawks use the last of his feather’s strength to
rocket him upward. Endeavor flies as high as he can, taking the Nomu out as far
into the upper atmosphere as he can. He realizes that this Nomu, a
bio-engineered freak designed to kill and destroy, is what he was… or maybe
what he might have become. A monster that can only spread pain and misery. He
tells the Nomu to burn up and be at peace. He admits he never liked the school’s
slogan, but it’s too damned appropriate not to use right now. He goes Plus
Ultra! and unleashes a massive Prominence Burn.
His journey isn't over, it's just beginning. But a
hell of a beginning.
Endeavor crashes to the ground,
along with an incinerated Hood corpse. He is still standing, his fist overhead,
it’s a sign of victory, a symbol of a new beginning. Watching the aftermath,
Narrator Izuku muses that since All Might retired, it’s up to all of them to
carry his symbol. And the credits roll.
In an after-credit’s scene, we’re
shown Izuku having a vision of him standing with Nana Shigura and the other
pre-All Might One For All wielders. She is the clearest, with many of her
predecessors partially obscured by a haze. Izuku himself seems to be only in
this realm with the upper part of his face and one arm. He sees AFO seemingly force
the power onto his brother, the original OFA. Izuku sees OFA reaching toward
him, hearing him say “it’s you, you’re the ninth.” He wakes up, shattering his
window with his power. OFA is sparking on his skin and Izuku is breathing
heavily. It ends with a sign promising the story will continue in season 5.
Okay, I’m just going to say that I
love that finale. We got to see both Endeavor pushed to the absolute limit with
his powers and also see some character growth via flashbacks and epiphanies throughout
the fight. I will say, Horikoshi set himself a tall order when he decided that
Endeavor, a character he so effectively turned into a hatesink with his initial
introduction, should get a redemptive character arc. It could have been really
easy to make Enji “Endeavor” Todoroki an absolute bastard with no redeemable
characteristics and let Shoto just hate him without reservation. But instead,
we’ve been shown some of his layers, of how his obsession with being the best
started out innocuous enough, but gradually consumed him like the fire he
manipulates. It cost him his wife, who he might not have loved (jury is still
out, personally, if theirs was a completely loveless relationship or not) but whom
he at least seemed affectionate to at one point. It cost him the love of two of
his sons, Shoto from physical abuse and Natsuo from neglect. And it cost him
the soul of his eldest, Toya, which also feeds into Natsuo’s hate. Yeah, it wasn’t
directly stated here, but it’s heavily implied later and eventually outright
stated that Toya Todoroki died and it was in some way tied to Endeavor. … Not
murder. The eldest son was sickly and small, but had possessed fire power surpassing
Endeavor. He would have been the perfect successor, but complications we’ll get
into later made that impossible. And while his thoughts on Toya are rather
vague at the moment, we do learn that much like with Rei, that is a wound
Endeavor has kept close to his vest but never allowed to fully heal. I loved
the design of Hood and the use of powers. That long neck coupled with its
muscles and hooded face just made this thing a terror to behold. And that’s
before it got excited and showed its exposed brain. The episode doesn’t list
them, but this High-End possessed shoulder mounted jets, enhanced muscles, a
more general enhanced power quirk, malleable arms, and regeneration, along with
that unnamed storage quirk. The combination let him be incredibly maneuverable,
and strike with either immense force or cutting precision, depending on his
needs. The whole ripping his head off thing to dodge an attack was also a ruthless
kind of brilliant. I also liked how Horikoshi used this thing’s battle lust,
hatred and ruthlessness as a means of letting Endeavor figure himself out a bit.
Seeing himself in Hood marks a change for Endeavor, one that will more than
likely hurt him immensely but be for the best for the people he loves. And,
best of all, this isn’t the end of his emotional journey. After this fight, he
doesn’t suddenly become a beloved hero, or earn back his sons’ love. Natsuo
will flat out state he still hates his father relatively soon, and Shoto remains
largely indifferent. But he still keeps trying. And I think that really pisses
Dabi off. The field commander of the League of Villains has a very intense
hatred of Endeavor and I can’t imagine he’ll take this attack’s failure well,
even if he probably knew Hood wouldn’t put him down for good. But more on the
Blue-flame elementalist later. That was a solid season finale and great tease
for the next season, which we will get to at some point. But now that I’ve gotten
season 4 of MY Hero Academia finished, let’s jump into Loki. See you there.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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