A VILLAIN Training arc. How unusual.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Aizawa and Present Mic got a blast from the past. They were brought to Tartarus
Prison to interview Kurogiri. Gran Torino and Tsukauchi had discovered
something truly horrific. Kurogiri is revealed to be an intelligent Nomu, like
Hood, but they’d discovered that this Nomu had been made using the corpse of a
dead friend of theirs. Oboro Shirakumo had been the third of their amigos, but
had been killed in an accident during their Work Study. Aizawa and Present Mic
try to talk to their old friend, but whatever was done to him to make him
Kurogiri seemed to lock down all of his memories. They do finally breakthrough for
a second, and Shirakumo pushes his way to the forefront of his own mind. He is
only able to tell them to look at the hospital before he reverts and Kurogiri
shuts down. This information is passed to Hawks, who says that that puts all
the pieces together. The final shot is of the League’s evil scientist, Dr. Kyudai
Garaki, watching over Tomura Shigaraki going through what looks like an
incredibly painful medical procedure. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We start this arc by watching Tomura
Shigaraki spewing blood from his body as whatever the medical procedure he’s
going through advances. The pain he’s in looks excruciating. This seems to
cause him to flashback to Kurogiri telling him the League of Villains has been
weakened since losing All For One. He says that AFO left “formidable power” for
him and that Shigaraki just needs to say the word for him to retrieve it.
We then officially jump back two months
to the start of October. The League of Villains: Tomura Shigaraki (disintegrates
anything he touches with all five fingers), Twice (Clones things), Dabi (Fire
elementalist), Mr. Compress (can shrink objects to the size of marbles and
restore them), Spinner (looks like a lizard), and Himiko Toga (can shapeshift
into someone by drinking their blood) are facing off against a creature called
Gigantomachia. He’s a hulking monster with skin that looks like it’s made at
least partially from stone and around his neck is a radio. This creature was,
fun fact, also the thing that scared the crap out of Ashido and Kirishima
before they went to UA. Shigaraki claims he’s not impressed by this “formidable
power,” this pisses of Gigantomachia and he seems creates whirlwinds with his
movements. He’s super depressed at the thought AFO chose such a weakling to be
his successor. Dr. Garaki contacts Shigaraki over the radio and gives him the
info on Gigantomachia. He’s AFO’s biggest fan and former bodyguard. His giant
body allowed him to take on multiple quirks without extensive Nomu modifications.
In the final years before he was captured, AFO chose to hid Gigantomachia as
part of his contingency plans to destroy All Might and the world of heroes. Gigantomachia
charges and Dabi tries to incinerate it. This has no effect on the creature, but
Garaki plays a recording of AFO’s voice to calm him down. Shigaraki takes off
his glove mask and says Gigantomachia is more trouble than he’s worth.
Nothing good comes from people sized test tubes.
Garaki uses the black sludge barfing
teleportation quirk that AFO used as his emergency escape for them in Kamino
ward to bring the group to his lab. There are multiple containers around them
where Nomu are being created, but Dabi notes they seem different than the ones
from before. Garaki says they are, revealing them to be “High End” Nomu’s like
Hood. Garaki introduces himself and he informs them that he’s only been giving
the League of Villains the dregs of his work thus far. He made a deal with AFO
to give Shigaraki aid but isn’t willing to let him have the good stuff like the
High End Nomu until he proves himself.
Shigaraki remembers someone telling him to “stop it,” and he reveals
that he doesn’t remember much from his past. He flashes back to when he met All
For One, when he was still Tenko Shimura, and he adopted the boy. The villain
that showed the boy kindness when the heroes failed him. Shigaraki is taken to
his new home, introduced to Garaki and presented with his first gift… the severed
hands of all his family that AFO reveals he killed! It’s the thought that counts?
Shigaraki claims he doesn’t remember the whole thing but is getting bits and
pieces now. AFO promises to give purpose to the frustration he felt. Shigaraki
reveals he feels sick while wearing his hands but they also comfort him. He wants
to destroy the world to relieve the disgust he feels. His speech gets Garaki on
board, but he wants Shigaraki to prove his words with action. Toga asks if he’s
going to destroy the things she likes, but Shigaraki says he’ll spare things
his allies like. Garaki says that he’ll help Shigaraki, but he needs to prove he’s
worthy by defeating Gigantomachia. Dabi says he’s not going to help, as he
wants to court an ally (Hawks) and focus on that. Garaki gives them a new device
to communicate with him, and then uses a small Nomu to teleport them back via
ooze.
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Shigaraki really thinks he can take this thing out...
They find Gigantomachia waiting and
Shigaraki asks if he’s ready to submit to his future king. We jump to December
where Shigaraki is still battling Gigantomachia and trying to get it to submit.
His group try take him out by distracting him with a clone but it doesn’t stop.
Toga and Spinner sum up the whole situation to us, that they’ve been fighting for
months to get it under control with no progress, Gigantomachia rages for about
2 days straight before sleeping for three hours and then beginning anew. And,
the creature can track Shigaraki wherever he goes, so he only gets 3 hours to
sleep. The other villains swap in and out to give him backup since Gigantomachia
doesn’t seem to care or notice about them. As they walk to rejoin the group,
Spinner asks why Toga is still with the League, as she claims she was inspired
by Stain but his influence is pretty much non-existent in the League at this
point. Spinner, you’ll recall, thinks of himself as Stain’s great disciple.
Toga says she’s there for “love” her love of Stain, and Izuku, and Uraraka, and
that she’s overjoyed to “be” all these wonderful people. Spinner says she’s a free
spirit as he puts his mask back on.
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The destruction these two will wrought is impressive.
They find the group and, weirdly,
Shigaraki is optimistic about finally beating Gigantomachia. Twice gets a call
from Giran, their black-market contact. A dude with a distorted voice, noticeably
not Giran, answers and tells them to watch the news. They hear about severed
fingers being left at the sites of their big fights. It’s revealed their
talking to Re-Destro, the leader of the Meta Liberation Army, and that the
fingers being left are Giran’s. He reveals that they have Giran. He gives the
League their party line, that the Meta Liberation Army is all about destroying
the current order to make a new world order. Re-Destro reveals that his group
has been prepping for their big revolution for years and that they’re currently
watching the League of Villains via satellite. He tells Shigaraki that the leader
of their Liberation has to be Destro’s successor, him, and that the League has
grown too popular for that to happen. He gives them Deka City in the hour to
free Giran, and then decide if he’ll join them or be captured. Twice is all for
saving Giran, as he’s the one that brought Twice to the League. The other
Villains are less interested, but Twice won’t drop it. Shigaraki takes off Twice’s
mask to shut him up. They have two hours before Gigantomachia, and that Dabi is
nearby. Shigaraki has a plan, to lure Gigantomachia to the city and have him
destroy it for them, weakening Gigantomachia in the process and allowing Shigaraki
to defeat him. The villains prepare to head out.
Training arc are fun, regardless if
you’re following heroes or villains. We’re getting a little background on
Tomura Shigaraki here and the picture is bleak even in this early stage. What
do we know for sure? His family is all dead, his disintegration power killed
them and reduced them all to severed hands. I know the whole story at this point,
and I can tell you it only gets more depressing. We’ll get more of it as his
arc goes on. Gigantomachia is an excellent trainer for Shigaraki, as the creature
is big, powerful, and won’t sit still long enough to be disintegrated. That
plus his devotion to OFA means that he’s coming at Shigaraki full force. Dr. Garaki
is an interesting villain to add to the mix. Yes, I’m using his real name and
not the alias. Why? … because I forgot he used an alias for a while. My bad.
Anyway, he’s an interesting addition to the story as a sadistic monster that is
willing to work on literally anyone in order to perfect his Nomu. And I’m not
being metaphorical here. Remember, back during the Stain fight, where I
mentioned that author Horikoshi revealed that the Nomu that grabbed Izuku at
the end and tried to fly off with him used to be one of Bakugo’s henchmen when
they were kids? That boy was named Tsubasa and he was Garaki’s grandson. Yeah. This
coupled with Garaki being the doctor that told young Izuku that he’d never get
a Quirk just opens up so many possible fan theories. And the introduction of
Dr. Doofenshmirtz… I mean, Re-Destro and his group is a great challenge for Shigaraki
to overcome. I won’t give too much away here, but they’ve been prepping to do the
League of Villains “destroy the status quo” plan since before Shigaraki was
born. So they’re VERY prepared. … no, I’m not the first person to point out
that Re-Destro looks like a buff Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb.
It’s just a very funny comparison. So yeah, a solid set up to the arc going forward.
Next time, the raid on the city begins. Have a good night.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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