A dinner party at the Todorokis? This is going to be so awkward!
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Uraraka and Tsu went on a filler adventure. They, along with their hero mentor
Ryukyu and fellow Work Study senior Nejire teamed up with Tsu’s old mentor
Selkie to track some smugglers. The smugglers were moving ingredients for the
Quirk enhancing drug Trigger. The smugglers almost escaped on a plane but
Uraraka got onboard and took out the last of them. The plane almost crashed,
but with help from Nejire and Ryukyu she landed the plane. After, the girls had
a beach party. Meanwhile, a man in white is told that their shipment was
captured. He isn’t concerned as they have enough Trigger for their plan. This
leads into the third My Hero Academia film, World Heroes Mission.
Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open with Izuku on his hero
beat. A mugger steals a man’s briefcase and Izuku and company head out to help,
but Endeavor literally blows past them and takes the guy out with a knee to his
gut. Like, dude, you could have let them have that one and just not have it
count since the dude didn’t show off any powers. Anyway, after that the student
and Endeavor head out to check out a hit and run, Endeavor solving it before
the boys even get there. Endeavor tells the boys to go home and get some sleep,
they’ve got an early day tomorrow.
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Heavy Lifting!
Later, Endeavor heads into his
office, sees the Meta Liberation War book and remembers the key details about
the 100,000 force that will be attacking in a few months. He’s interrupted by a
call from his second child, and only daughter, Fuyumi. Fuyumi, still trying to
make her dysfunctional family work, suggests that he bring Shoto and his other
Work Study students around the house for dinner. Endeavor obviously says that
he will, but then muses about how he can help his family. I guess he’s gone
through enough of a personal arc to acknowledge that he’s the root cause of
nearly all the Todoroki family problems, if he’s thinking about that. He
remembers a dream he’d been having recently of his wife Rei, and their living
kids, Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shoto, enjoying a meal together. I give him props for
acknowledging why he knows he’s never at the table with them. We get a
flashback to when Rei had her nervous breakdown and threw boiling water at
Shoto’s face to burn away his father’s side. We then jump ahead to when
Endeavor learned via Fuyumi that Shoto was visiting Rei in the hospital. Fuyumi,
rather optimistically, predicts that one day their family will be whole again.
He then remembers Natsuo screaming at him for being an abusive asshole. His
train of thought shifted to his conversation with All Might about what it means
to be a symbol, and how All Might advised him to think about the kind of hero
he wants to be. He’s pulled out of his thoughts by Burnin who tells him there’s
an emergency.
The next day, Izuku, Bakugo and
Shoto get up and head to the front of the building to go on patrol. During
their Work Study, they’re staying at the dorms in Endeavor’s agency office.
They chat for a bit about their training before Endeavor arrives and they set
out. There’s a montage of the boys getting to scene just after Endeavor solves
the problem. He advises them to constantly be observing, to act before
thinking. That evening, Bakugo and Izuku are annoyed they haven’t caught up but
Shoto points out they are doing better. Endeavor, thinking about Fuyumi one
more time, sets his mind and takes the three boys to the house for dinner.
Most. Awkward. Meal. Ever.
Bakugo is obviously angry. Fuyumi
greets them, Izuku is a dork as he introduces himself and Bakugo is seething
with rage at having to be here. She leads the boys to the dining area and
introduces them to Natsuo. The dinner is super awkward as Natsuo, and Endeavor
are still not talking. Izuku and Bakugo actually start having a good time
eating. Natsuo mentions that Fuyumi has been doing most of the cooking at the
house for a while, and she pipes in to say he used to cook too. Shoto asks if
he’d had his brother’s food before, which Natsuo says is possible, but Endeavor
did watch his diet carefully. Endeavor, trying to reach out to his second son,
says that he’d like to try Natsuo’s cooking some time, but Natsuo abruptly
leaves. I guess he just agreed to be there for food, not socializing or dad
forgiving. Dinner finishes and Endeavor starts doing the dishes. When alone,
Izuku asks Bakugo is he realized that the Todoroki’s have a lot of issues, to
which Bakugo says yes but he learned this information against his will. They
overhear Fuyumi and Shoto talking, Fuyumi admitting she gets angry at their
father too, but she’s trying to use the opportunity to fix things. Shoto isn’t
sure if he can forgive their dad after all that happened. We get a couple more
seconds of what happened after Rei through the water at him, and it seems like
she immediately realized what she’d done and begged his forgiveness as she
helped him with the burns. We learn via a flashback to a letter that Rei is
doing better and is hopeful she can live with her children again someday. Shoto
admits that he doesn’t know what he wants from their dad yet. Bakugo,
infuriated, opens the door and yells at the Todoroki’s for talking about such
sensitive subjects when guests are over! Izuku and Bakugo gather more dishes,
Izuku taking a moment to tell his friend that he thinks Shoto is ready to move
forward with his dad, that doesn’t mean forgive hm but maybe he can. Both
Natsuo and Endeavor overhear as well.
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Some mistakes you can't make up for.
We cut to Endeavor praying at a
small family altar. This is a tradition in Japan, burning incense for the
people that you’ve lost in your life. The altar has a picture of a white
haired, blue eyed boy whom is revealed to be Toya Todoroki. Endeavor again asks
what he can do for his family, and that he wishes that Toya could be at the
table with their family like in the dream.
After the credits, we see a man covered
in bandages walking through a shopping district. He sees a news report about
Endeavor and smiles evilly.
I believe I said this before in the
last Endeavor focused episode, but I really like how Horikoshi is handling his
development. Endeavor was a monster, a blight on his family that caused a ton
of physical and psychological damage to people he should have protected above
all else. He fully acknowledges that at this point and seems to want to find
some way to make amends. But he’s not asking for forgiveness. He knows that he
can’t fix his past actions but he wants to do better in the future. I know I’ve
said this before, but Horikoshi could have easily left Endeavor as a hatesink
with no redeemable or admirable qualities other than his overwhelming power.
Instead, he is showing us a man that is actively, desperately trying to change
and right some of the wrongs he’s committed in the past. And, yeah, I
appreciate that all of his children seem to be having mixed feelings about him.
Fuyumi, who probably remembers her father not being a colossal dick all the
time better than the other two because she's the oldest child of the three, is reaching
for that memory of her parents when they were happy. Even if she can admit that
she gets why her brothers struggle with it. Natsuo is obviously still wrestling
with his resentment, an anger that must feel even more complicated after the
fight with Hood and he saw his father fighting valiantly. And Shoto, the one
who has probably seen their father change the most and yet still isn’t sure if
that’s enough. It’s complicated, like family tends to be. Makes you wonder how
Toya would feel, were he still around. What? The relationship drama enhances
the brawls, that’s basic storytelling. I’m not apologizing for getting sucked
into this weird little drama. Oh, and it is hilarious that Katsuki Bakugo is
the one that seems most annoyed by the breaches of host/guest etiquette
happening at this house. Classic Bakugo. Next time, we’ll see Endeavor make a
little more progress. Have a good night!
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