Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 106

Endeavor takes a big step forward.

Last time on My Hero Academia, Endeavor got introspective. Japan’s top Hero is wrestling with how he can help his family, as things are still difficult with his sons. To try to do this, he takes Shoto and the other two to a dinner at his house. The food is great, but things are incredibly awkward as Endeavor’s older son, Natsuo, is still incredibly angry with him. After dinner, his daughter, Fuyumi, admits that she also can be mad at their dad but wants to try to fix things if they can. Shoto is, shockingly, still not sure where he sits. Bakugo yells at them for having this kind of deep conversation while guests are over, and Izuku tells Shoto that he thinks his friend is ready to move forward. Endeavor, having overheard this, prays at the family alter to the memory of his oldest, Toya, and wishes that he could be part of a dream Endeavor has about his family having dinner together. After the credits, a shifty looking fellow seems to be setting his sights on Endeavor. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

True psycho.

We open with a flashback. Endeavor had just captured a villain and had been showing his insecurity by asking the cop he was talking to if he wished All Might had gotten the call first. Dude is just a ball of anger and insecurity, I swear. He walks out and a creepy man fixates on him as he walks past the reporters. He calls Endeavor a star in human flesh and is weirdly worshipful of him. In the present, he claims that Endeavor is his only hope, and that he had hoped Endeavor would kill him seven years ago, but is infuriated that Endeavor took him alive. He believes that a man should get to choose his end and it seems like he really wants to be immolated. This guy, credited as Ending, just got out of jail and immediately started stalking Endeavor in order to get his ending. He sees Natsuo leave the house and takes a Trigger injection. Oh no.

 

If she didn't have the red in her hair, I'd really
question how Endeavor is her dad.

Back in the house, Endeavor is still praying at his shrine to Toya while Shoto and Fuyumi explain their family history. Namely, that Natsuo hates their dad so much because he was incredibly close with their oldest brother Toya and that he died shortly after their mother was hospitalized. While Rei has been getting better, there was a time when she couldn’t even see Shoto without having a panic attack, Natsuo is slower to heal. He blames his father for Toya’s death and the implication is that its not without justification. Endeavor enters and tells the boys it’s time to go. The group heads to the car, Bakugo demanding to get a Tofu recipe from Fuyumi, and Endeavor thanks his daughter. Fuyumi thanks Izuku for being her brother’s friend and they head out.

 

Natsuo reaches his apartment when the sidewalk’s pavement markings rear up and attack him. Oh no.

 

I wonder what number of kidnapping this is
for Natsuo.

On the drive, Endeavor tells the boys he wants them to progress faster. He wants them to shift their schedules so they can do some Work Study work during the week. Feels like that might cut into class time... but kay. Bakugo yells about the cramped car and the driver yells back about ungrateful kids to their free ride. They’re drive is interrupted by Natsuo being used as the end of a flail at their car. Endings, whose power seems to be to manipulate sidewalk paint… kay, attacks them using the traffic lines. Endeavor, furious, leaps out of the car and charges Ending. The creepy stalker demands to know if Endeavor remembers him. Endeavor does, and that makes him so happy. He claims that he admires Endeavor for having all the things that he never had, could never have, not in a million years. He wants Endeavor to kill him, and is willing to kill Natsuo to get Endeavor to react. Threatening a man’s son… well, yeah, that would get me to want to incinerate him, that’s for sure.

 

Meanhile, Izuku and company break out of the car. The driver unleashes their equipment from the trunk and the boys get their gear on. They’re immediately attacked by sidewalk paint. They remember Endeavor’s advice to focus on extremely precise or extremely destructive power and start blasting the paint. Ending runs and Endeavor pursuits. Endeavor nearly catches up but then sees Natsuo’s look of horrified terror causes him to freeze up. The boys catch up and Ending is infuriated. He tells Endeavor he needs to kill him quick or more people are going to die. He throws a bunch of cars into the air and nearly has Natsuo hit by a train. Bakugo saves Natsuo using his speed and Izuku saves the car with Blackwhip. Shoto slides him and hits Ending with an icewave, knocking him back and presumably out. Endeavor breaks out of his fugue at this point, runs over and hugs Natsuo. He gets Bakugo too, but that’s I think mostly because he was holding Natsuo up. Disgusted by paternal affection, Bakugo slithers away and demands to know what happened to Ending. Shoto caught him in ice. He’s quite upset. He then demands to know if the “extras” are fine, which Izuku confirms. Bakugo is very smug about having fulfilled Endeavor’s challenge to beat him to a villain just once, but he’s too… emotional about his son to be mad. Endeavor apologizes to Natsuo, saying that he hadn’t meant to neglect his family, that he ran from his problems and let that happen. And that, whatever happened to Toya, he feels that he may as well have killed Toya himself. Natsuo says he won’t forgive his dad, as he’s not kind like Shoto, but there are tears in his eyes as he says it. He says he won’t forgive him. Endeavor says he doesn’t want forgiveness, he wants to atone. Natsuo demands to know what he could do, and Endeavor says he has an idea. Meanwhile, Ending is having a freak out, begging Endeavor to get mad, to flare up and kill him with his fire. Endeavor is 1000% not listening.

 

Endeavor is always in a glass case of emotions, it seems.

Later, Endeavor learns that Ending used Trigger to boost his powers. His driver tells him he’ll need to be more careful as this is the second attempt on his life in two days. Natsuo, standing with the boys, asks Bakugo what his hero name is, and Bakugo confirms he actually has one now. But he won’t tell Izuku, or anyone, as he has someone to run it by first. Endeavor thinks that Hawks has sharp eyes, indeed, which causes Hawks to sneeze where he his in the Meta Liberation Army headquarters. How sweet.

 

After the credits, Endeavor brings Natsuo back to the house and let Fuyumi know what happened. Endeavor also lets her know about his plan to start atoning. He knows that Fuyumi is working on getting Rei discharged from the hospital and live a peaceful life. He also knows that bringing her back to the house will probably only remind her of the worst days of her life, and that probably isn’t a good call. He tells her that he’s going to build them a new house, one that’s more convenient to her and Natsuo. He tells her to prepare to move. She asks what he’s going to do. Endeavor remembers his dream about his family having a peaceful domestic moment together at the dinner table. He asks himself again, what can he do for his family? His solution… to stay away. He tells his children that he’ll stay at the house and the credits roll.

This is a solid conclusion to this mini-arc about Endeavor trying to find a way to help his family. Having a stalker villain from his past, one that adored his fiery personality and so badly wanted to be destroyed by his heat, was a nice touch to show how he’d grown. Is it on the nose to have a villain shout at him to get mad, to get fired up and burn him, to show that he isn’t that guy that gets fired up and burn people anymore? Yes, but it works. I liked the heart to heart he had with Natsuo too. The one good thing, saving his son, doesn’t undo all the anger that Natsuo is still feeling, but it seems like it’s the important firsts step to maybe get there some day. I like the focus on atonement over forgiveness. While we still don’t know what happened to Toya, its clear that however Endeavor was involved, it either directly or indirectly lead to his death. That’s not something one should be forgive for, but trying to make the world better, or at least the lives of his family better, to try to balance the scales I think is a good call. His solution is a good one too, I think. Not for him, obviously, but trying to give them all space so they can possibly move forward I think is the right call. It’s really hard to analyze one’s feelings without a little distance. It was also fun to see Bakugo get so smug about meeting Endeavor’s challenge, only to be deflated when he realizes that Endeavor is too overwrought with paternal feelings to react is great. Next time, finally, Wakanda Forever. See you then!

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