Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 118

 For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

I was planning on doing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to close out this month… but things got complicated. Namely, the films antagonist and the villain for this whole next phase of the MCU, Kang, is played by Jonathan Majors. Majors was arrested March 26, 2023 on an assault charge and information is surfacing that he has a history of violence that has been covered up. I want a bit more time for information to surface, and figure out how to talk about the film without overly praising Majors, who was a major part of this movie. So… more My Hero Academia.

 

Last time one My Hero Academia, Dabi used Hawks as kindling for what he did to Twice. The psychotic villain also revealed his real name to Hawks, something that seemed to shake him to his very core. Mirko, meanwhile was badly hurt in her attempts to stop Garaki from activating Shigaraki. She was able to badly damage the tank holding him before being taken down, and Present Mic was able to run in and finish the job, shattering the tank. He grabbed Garaki in an attempt to force him to deactivate the Nomu. Which, incidentally, probably saved his life as he was out of the room when the damaged equipment caused a sparking cable to fall into the tank fluid Shigaraki was lying in and revive him. Oh no. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Mirko’s attempt on Shigaraki’s tube, followed by Present Mic’s actual destruction of it and Shigaraki flopping out of the rubble. We cut to the headquarters where they reveal the hospital has been cleared and that the lesser Nomu are being defeated. The main heroes are going to head to the lower levels to help. Present Mic drags Garaki to try to stop the Nomu, and the spark revives Shigaraki. His first words in his new life is to note that it’s cold. I’ll also note that he seems to have lost the pointer and middle finger on his left hand.

 

Stealing his cape after murdering him is a low blow.
Tomura.

The Heroes are still fighting the Nomu. They’re still incredibly strong even without their Quirks. Aizawa knows he can’t take his eyes off the two they’re battling but if Endeavor can draw it to his line of sight he can stop them all. At that moment, Endeavor is barely able to hold off the lady High End and protect Mirko with his flames. The High End rushes him, but is distracted by Gran Torino flying in and kicking her in the head. The other heroes arrive and give aid. Rocklock locks the lady Nomu down, and Endeavor gets in close and incinerates her head. They take out the other Nomu and Present Mic arrives with the doctor. The hero with Shigaraki goes to eyebeam him to death, but Shigaraki disintegrates him, stealing his cape as well.

 

Birds of a feather and all that.

Back at the Villa, Fat Gum and the four students see the explosion of Dabi’s fire and realize Hawks is in danger. Tokoyami forces himself free of Fat Gum’s fat body and flies out to try to help Hawks. Fat Gum drops the other three students off and goes after him. In the villa, Dabi is about to kill Hawks when Tokoyami flies in and knocks him back. Dark Shadow examines Hawks and tells Tokoyami that it’s bad, Hawks wings and back are entirely burnt. Dabi teases Tokoyami’s sense of ideals by pointing out that Hawks killed Twice, claiming the heroes fight dirtier than he ever did. Dabi goes to incinerate them, Tokoyami is able to dodge but the light of Dabi’s attack weakens Dark Shadow significantly. Hawks, despite his injuries tries to talk to Tokoyami. He realized that Dabi seems to waste time talking, both when he was preparing to kill Hawks and now, making him that there’s something about Dabi’s quirk that makes him need to waste time like that. It’s implied that due to the heat of his blasts, much like Endeavor, there’s only so much fire he can unleash at one time before he starts to hurt and/or overheat himself. Hawks tells him to make a run for it, and Tokoyami does. Dabi can’t unleash a blast big enough to kill them and they fall to a lower area. Dabi leaps down after them, saying he thought Tokoyami might try to escape so he saved power with his last two shots to try to finish them off. He’s interrupted by a massive ice attack, not from Todoroki but from Getan. He pontificates on protecting Re-Destro from government dogs and tells his men to coordinate their attack. Dabi seems pretty chill about losing Tokoyami, saying that he might start early this time. Tokoyami flies off, telling he believes Hawks is a good person and that he can’t die on him.

 

In the lower area, Re-Destro tries to coordinate his men and orders spare prosthetics brought to him. Gigantomachia has stood up by this point, saying that he can smell his master’s scent.

 

Izuku's mind is screaming "RUN!" 

Meanwhile, Burnin’ is still leading the evacuation effort in town. Izuku and his team help lead the evacuation, Bakugo still being a dick about it because he’s Katsuki Bakugo and he doesn’t people very well. Izuku hears a voice telling him that “He” is coming. Bakugo yells at him for slacking off, but Izuku recognizes the voice as the first wielder of One for All, the Younger Shigaraki. He warns Izuku that they don’t have time. He warns that a “transcendent one” one who has been freed from the shackles of humanity, approaches.

 

Izuku seems to see the situation at the villa, where Shigaraki unleashes an attack on the heroes. Garaki looks ecstatic at what happened. Shigaraki’s decay spreads rapidly. Gran Torino grabs Present Mic and Garaki and flies off, telling everyone to run and not touch the cracks that are forming. Aizawa runs, getting a lift from Ryukyu in her dragon form. One of the High Ends grabs him and nearly pulls him to his death, but Crust flings a diamond shield to cut the creatures arm off and save Aizawa. Crust unfortunately was hit, though. He gives Aizawa the thumbs up as he crumbles to dust. Endeavor flies off with Mirko. The whole hospital starts crumbing and the decay wave spreads throughout the city. Pixie-Bob of the Wild, Wild Pussycats tries to use her earth manipulation power to stop the decay, but she only slows it down a little. Her teammate Tiger grabs her, and the three Pussycats beat a hasty retreat. Garaki claims that something “plus ultra” happened for the villains with Shigaraki’s awakening. He’s having entirely too much fun with all of this.

 

Izuku tells his friends to run and then runs up and uses his 45% St. Louis smash to try to stopcap the wave. The shockwave he unleashes is powerful, but it can’t overwhelm the decay. He remembers the time that Shigaraki had him by the throat, warning him that touching all fingers to his neck will kill him, and realizes that this wave of destruction is that on steroids. Todoroki joins Izuku and tries to stop the wave with Ice, but his ice starts decaying too. Everyone tries to run, pulling off some amazing feats to try to get as many folks out as possible. Bakugo carries three people while flying, and Izuku and Uraraka use her anti-gravity and his Blackwhip to tow a bus out of the way. Burnin’ can’t get in contact with anyone and the feeds at headquarters are cutting out. One of the officials asks what on earth is going on.

 

The big boy is awake!

In the wreckage, we see Shigaraki standing on a broken platform. He walks over to a vault and opens it, revealing broken quirk canceling bullets. He’s interrupted by a headache and hearing AFO calling out to him. He ignores it, grabbing a radio, and telling Gigantomachia to bring the others to him. He promises to destroy everything from now on. Well, damn this escalated quickly. 

 

Well, much like the Kamino Ward incident, things were going exceptionally well until they started going catastrophically badly. Destroying the Nomu, capturing Garaki, and dismantling the Paranormal Liberation Front’s bases just does not matter when Shigaraki is now more powerful than ever before. Dude basically destroyed an entire downtown district in less than 10 minutes, that’s end of the world type damage if he gets much stronger.  I liked the bit where the memories of his family tried to stop him, including Nana. It implies to me that maybe there’s still someway to turn him around. Not redeem Shigaraki, but maybe to stop him from causing more damage. I can’t imagine using the ghost of his grandma to try to reason with him could be used for much of anything else, to be frank. The idea that Shigaraki and Izuku, both successors to the two Shigaraki brothers, having some kind of connection now that they’ve both inherited the power from one of them is a standard choice for this kind of story, but I like it. Like Naruto and Sasuke, or any number of fated heroes and villains, tying them together on some kind of spiritual level is one of those story beats as old as storytelling. Not sure how Izuku’s One For All will be able to stand up to Shigaraki’s All For One, but I have faith in the kid. Also, RIP Crust. You were barely in this story but went out like an absolute badass. That plot is thickening with Dabi as well, and I know we’re going to get more about who he really is in the coming episodes. It’s not exactly shocking but the reveal is amazingly well done. I’ll see you next time. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 117

 Who IS Dabi?

Last time on My Hero Academia, Hawks attempted to take out Twice. The No. 2 hero revealed himself as the traitor to the Paranormal Liberation Front. He admits he’s taking out Twice now because he knows Twice is one of the most dangerous elements to the PLF. Twice, hating himself for thinking he caused another plan to fail, refuses to go down and tries to fight Hawks. Hawks almost takes him out, but is interrupted by Dabi. Dabi slows Hawks by burning his wings and freaks him out by using his real name, Keigo Takami. Despite this, Hawks does take out Twice. Twice is able to clone himself, though, and uses the last of his strength to free Toga and Mr. Compress from being captured before melting away. At the same time, Tokoyami helps Fat Gum and Amajiki to destroy an exit from the PLF lower level. Dark Shadow tells him that Gigantomachia is in the lower level as well, but Fat Gum tells him not to worry. This makes me worry, not going to lie. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Tokoyami giving us a brief summary of Hawks and his Quirk, Fierce Wings. Basically, he’s fast, cunning, and strong. Tokoyami at one point asked him what his weakness is, and Hawks reveals it is fire. … well… crap. He says that his method for dealing with fire is to take out enemies before fire is introduced. And he’s currently fighting Dabi. … Who’s whole thing… is big fire blasts. Oh my god, he is going to die.

 

Fataxi, AWAY!

We jump to Fat Gum using his doughy body to carry the four UA students from the frontline now that their tasks are complete. Honenuki asks if it’s really a good idea for them to pull back so soon, Kirishima adding they can still be helpful. Fat Gum tells t hem not to worry. Their big area attacks were indispensable at the start, but as they round up enemy combatants and the field shrinks, they’ll do more harm than good. Its at that moment when they see Dabi’s blue flames raging in the upper level of the villain, letting them know the situation Hawks is in.

 

This day pivoted on Hawks hard...

Dabi, meanwhile, is fighting Hawks and chastising him for killing Twice. Dabi sounds extremely pissed as he kicks Hawks around and yells at him for killing Twice… but Hawks notices he’s got the biggest sociopathic grin on his face as he talks about it. Mixed signals are so creepy in this context. Dabi tells him to shut up and reveals he can’t cry because his tear ducts are burnt shut. Dabi says that Twice was invaluable to the League of Villains, his life made Dabi’s “dream” seem possible, so his death has him absolutely furious. Hawks demands to know what his deal is, revealing that he was able to get details on every one of the members of the League of Villains except Dabi and Shigaraki. The man is a ghost, having no story before showing up at the League’s recruitment drive after Stain’s arrest. Hawks remembers that Dabi knows his name. He flashes back to when he was a child with an Endeavor toy, where he’s told to give up his name to be part of a special program to make him a great hero. Child Hawks agreed to it, so long as he could be made into a hero that makes people smile, like Endeavor did when he saved him. His own anger boiling over, Hawks demands to know who Dabi is. Dabi, shockingly, says his name. Both in the Anime and Manga, we don’t hear it. Dabi just mouths the words here, and in the manga the speech balloon was blank. But Hawks hears it, and the name stuns and terrifies him. Dabi tells Hawks that, more than Twice, more than on any army of villains, Hawks should have kept his attention of Dabi. He admits to not giving a damn about the League of Shigaraki, they’re a means to an end for him. He claims that a single person’s obsession can change the world and he will prove it by destroying the hero hypocrites and carry out Stains will. He further burns Hawks wings as he talks.  Hawks, somehow, flashes back to Stain’s big declaration that he’ll kill the fakes and hypocrite heroes and that only All Might is worthy of stopping him. Dabi tells Hawks “see ya” and that his death means nothing as he tries to incinerate him.

 

Dabi's almost done playing.

In the lower levels, Re-Destro tells his people to be calm as Gigantomachia holds his little radio up waiting for a signal. We cut to the command center where everything seems to be going well.

 

Endeavor and Aizawa meet up with Crust. His team are having trouble stopping the High End, as it can regenerate, but Aizawa cuts off his Quirk and Endeavor burns it, greatly weakening the High End. Crust tells them to go help Mirko as they’ve got this now.

 

Mirko is doing far better than a recent amputee should in a fight. She’s still running and hopping circles around the Nomu. Unfortunately, they’re speed is picking up and are getting harder for her to hit. She tries to make a break for it to take Shigaraki and Garaki, but the Nomu grab her, ripping her hair and injuring one of her legs. She says that every Rabbit knows that the keep to escaping is to focus on running. She makes it into the area with Shigaraki’s tube, but the Nomu stabs her with it’s tentacle, severing her right leg at the knee. She refuses to give up, though and follows through with her attack. Endeavor, Aizawa, Crust and his crew arrive, distracting the Nomu long enough for Mirko to start kicking Shigaraki’s tube.

 

They quickly take out two of the Nomu. The surviving High End, one that has the overall body shape of a woman, quickly deduces that Aizawa is the reason it can’t use its powers and that it’s likely vision based due to Aizawa’s gear. This one proves to be significantly smarter than Hood. They try to chase it down but it keeps dodging they’re attacks and regenerating if it gets hit. The Nomu that Endeavor has pinned starts to recover and stretches it’s tentacles to stab her again. Mirko plays through the pain, though, and sends cracks through Shigaraki’s tube. The process was at 74%, which causes Garaki to freak out. Mirko gets pulled back and into Endeavor. She’s missing her left arm, has huge chunks taken out of her side and both legs, but she’s alive. Endeavor starts cauterizing her wounds, saying she can’t die on him given how much he owes her. He’s interrupted by the lady Nomu arriving, saying killing the No. 1 hero will make it feel even better.

 

The others are still battling the Nomu. Mirko warns them over the radio that Shigaraki is in some kind of activation tube like the other Nomu. The tube was damaged by her kick but not destroyed. She warns them that he’s obviously more powerful now and that electricity would activate him. Aizawa knows Rocklock and other backup will be arriving soon, but the three Nomu they’re fighting are a problem for them, and the lady Nomu that escaped his line of sight is probably fighting Endeavor. Aizawa tells Present Mic and another hero to help. The High Ends try to stop him but they’re able to get away.

 

Garaki should count himself lucky Present Mic
is too much a professional to get payback right now.

Inside, Garaki is working to get Shigaraki online. He needs to wake him before more of the solution leaks out despite his reservations. He hits a button to do so, but Present Mic runs in and uses his sonic voice to finally, totally shatter the tube. Present Mic rushes Garaki, remembering Aizawa telling him that he’ll go along with him if he goes to fight. He punches Garaki to check to see if he’s the real one. The other hero checks Shigaraki but finds that he doesn’t have a heartbeat. Garaki reveals that Shigaraki was put into suspended animation to reduce the strain on his body from the modifications. The tube he was in was meant to revive him. Garaki sobs as his plan to see through have been foiled. Present Mic drabs Garaki off, to try to stop the Nomu, telling the other hero to handle Shigaraki.

 

As Present Mic carries Garaki, Garaki starts expounding on his Quirk Singularity Theory and now no one took it seriously 70 years ago when he proposed it except All For One. Present Mic, scoring a nat 20 on his history check, remembers that the scientist credited with coming up with the Quirk Singularity Theory, later dubbed the Quirk Doomsday Theory, disappeared shortly there after and would have to be over 120 by now. Okay, so we’re looking at My Hero Academia happening 130-150 years after the shining baby. Garaki pontificates how awesome All For One is. He reveals that he’s the reason AFO is still kicking, as his Quirk is called Life Force. It effectively doubles a person’s life span at the cost of physical strength. He even admits that what he has now is a copy of Quirk, having given the original to AFO. Okay, so that suggests that All For One works by taking a quirk and allowing AFO to make copies of any Quirks he’s taken in. Garaki asks if Present Mic is a friend of Kurogiri and admits that the accident that killed Oboro Shirakumo was actually meant for Aizawa, as he and AFO wanted Erasure. Present Mic calls him the most revolting monster he ever encountered.

 

So... it begins.

Meanwhile, Shigaraki wakes up in a kind of astral plane. He sees destroyed buildings, hands, and fragments of his memories floating about. He sees Hana, his mother and father. He disintegrates his dad almost immediately. He sees AFO in the distance, part of his face covered in black energy, calling him towards him. Garaki, in the physical world, reveals that AFO knew his time was limited so had entrusted everything to Shigaraki. He even had his own Quirk removed and replaced with a copy to transfer it to Shigaraki. Shigaraki goes for his master, but the memories of his family try to stop him, grabbing him like his hands used to, including Nana. Nana tells him to make sure he doesn’t forget. Shigaraki disintegrates them all, saying they will see him as he is. In the real world, a spark from a broken machine hits the fluid and sparks Shigaraki back to life. Oh, shit.

 

This episode has a lot jammed into it. Dabi’s ‘fight’ with Hawks is a bit of a standout moment, as I think we got more of his real personality in those five minutes than we’ve had in the dozen or two episodes he’s appeared in thus far. We see a very sadistic grin on his face as he talks about the death of Twice and of his “dream” to see Stain’s will fulfilled. Like, I’d be willing to bet there’s a few viewers out there that forgot that Dabi was majorly influenced by Stain given how little he’s talked about him or anything. He has a history with heroes, his offhand comment about them being the real bad guys, how its important to learn that before you waste time worshiping them, and the like suggest he’s intimately familiar with heroes. And his name. Again, at this point in the story we have no confirmation of who he really is, beyond that the man behind the name Dabi is incredibly dangerous to the hero system, somehow. I’d already figured out who he is by now, FYI, but I’ll save that info for when Dabi reveals it. The fight with the Nomus was super intense too. Just seeing the intelligence difference between the basic monsters and the High Ends was chilling. The lady High End figured out Aizawa’s whole strategy in seconds and nearly took out Endeavor with its superior tactics. The five of these things together could have probably killed all the heroes if Garaki had awakened them earlier. Oh, and the worldbuilding stuff is neat, like getting a definite age on Garaki and how long One For All has been operating. Garaki has been working on this project for 70 years, and Quirks have been a thing for over 120. I’d high ball it to say 150, at this point, giving Garaki at least a few generations to observe to come up with his theory. As I believe I mentioned before, Garaki was the Quirk specialist in the first episode that told the Midoriya’s that Izuku wouldn’t ever get a Quirk. There’s a fan theory that Garaki lied, Izuku did have a quirk, but it was somehow stolen at some point. While I do buy the idea Garaki used consults like that to track and steal powers, I prefer Izuku being not a victim in that. What? I like chosen one narratives as much as the next guy, but I think it’s a more interesting story if Izuku never had power at all than he was robbed of it. Shigaraki coming online is terrifying and it’s going to have MAJOR repercussions. But more on that next time, see you then. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 116

 Villains aren't always bad people. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Mirko was unleashed. Japan’s No. 5 pro hero nearly stopped Garaki single handedly, but one of Garaki’s lesser Nomu delayed her just a second long enough for Garaki to activate his High End Nomu. The five Nomu came online, knocked Mirko aside and one of them started battling Crust, the No. 6 hero. Mirko recovers and proves that she’s bonkers in the best way. She singlehandedly takes on the four High Ends, hitting two of them hard enough to send them reeling and ultimately ripping one’s head off, killing it. All it cost her was her left arm, as the Nomu she decapitated used a physical warping power to crush it. She isn’t deterred though and promises to either take out the other Nomu and getting Garaki or die trying. Garaki, meanwhile is considering activating Shigaraki early, despite his development is only at 71%. At the same time, Edgeshot and his team started the raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front’s villa. Denki Kaminari is one of the four students brough along in the first wave to help with crowd control and is freaking out just a little bit. Midnight, wanting to help her student process this, advices him to not think about saving the world but saving just what is important to him. It is heavily implied that the important “thing” he’s trying to protect is in fact a person, and that person is Kyoka Jiro. The desire to protect her is enough to motivate him to run up and take a lightning bolt attack from a PLF lieutenant, giving him a solid hero moment. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open at the central command center, confirming that Edgeshot’s team has begun the attack and that their other teams are sealing off alternate exits to force them all to exit through the main building. We jump to Re-Destro and Trumpet in the lower levels of the Villa preparing for their big meeting when a minion runs in and warns them that the heroes are attacking. Re-Destro goes from a creepily calm demeanor to his stress energy covering his face in less than a second.

 

Outside, Kaminari is still draining electricity. The lieutenant tries to increase his discharge in an attempt to overwhelm Kaminari, but Edgeshot attacks, striking him and a bunch of his lesser minions. He used his Quirk to make a tiny hole in each of their lungs to disorientate them, he warns them not to move too much to speed up the healing. Midnight rushes in, hitting a bunch of minions with her sleep pheromone. Kamui Woods runs in next, capturing folks in his Lacquer Chain Prison. Komori and Honenuki use their unique skills to capture a ton of PLF members in the ground and cover them with Mushrooms to disable them. The pros start rushing in, Gang Orca telling the two to stay back and let them handle the rest.

 

That's a lot of Twices.

Meanwhile, Hawks has Twice captured and surrounded by his feathers. Hawks reveals to Twice, and Skeptic listening in, that he’s the spy and that he planned all this to keep Twice from the fight to stop him from doubling things. Twice has a major freakout about all of this, flashing back to how Magna was killed and Mr. Compress being hurt, and realizing that he’s the reason why their plans keep getting screwed up. He brought in the Shia Hassaikai in to meet with Shigaraki, which lead to Magna’s death and Compress losing his arm, and he backed Hawks the whole way through. Twice admits that he felt he had to trust Hawks as not trusting him made him feel like he was giving into his dark thoughts again. Hawks offers to help Twice, to help him rebuild a his life because he believes deep down that Twice is a good person. Twice, though, isn’t interested in talking any more. He gets up and starts making clones of himself to protect himself from Hawks’ feathers. He says that he doesn’t give a damn abut himself any more and is only interested in protecting his friends happiness.

 

Outside, Tokoyami is pulled aside to help Fat Gum and Amajiki to seal off one of the last few exits from the underground compound. Amajiki uses his Quirk to take on aspects of the food he eats to disable a bunch of PLF members and he and Fat Gum hold the upper level, sending Tokoyami into the Dark. I assume you remember that Dark Shadow revels in the dark. Tokoyami summons a massive version of Dark shadow and has him start smashing things up. He tunnels downward, but unfortunately hits Re-Destro’s escape attempt. Re-Destro transforms, allowing himself to take Dark Shadow’s attack. He gets thrown back into their big assembly area and Dark Shadow is able to collapse the rest of the tunnel. Dark Shadow tells Tokoyami that the saw a huge monster in there as well, but Fat Gum says that he shouldn’t be a problem as Shigaraki isn’t their to give Gigantomachia orders. Fat Gum also reveals that Hawks was the spy out here. Fat Gum then has Tokoyami hop into his body and ferry’s him out of the area. Tokoyami remembers Hawks’s advice to train up his short range abilities and says that he hopes Hawks gets to see how far he’d come.

 

Dabi is going full sadist.

Hawks, at that moment, is fighting Twice. Twice made a wall of himself to try to fight Hawks. While Twice has the numbers advantage by a stupid degree, the fact his clones get weaker with each doubling means that Hawks can take them out with minimal effort. Hawks says that he won’t let his emotions get in the way of his mission. He admits to actually liking Twice, but Twice claims that he doesn’t get to talk like they’re friends. He tries to make copies of the League members, but Hawks takes them out easily as well. Hawks admits that he specializes in taking foes out quickly because nothing is more dangerous than a foe that keeps getting back up. Twice rushes him, but Hawks slices him across the chest with a feather sword. Twice, crying, says that he calls himself a hero but those on Hawks side drop their morals easily. He says that while he’s screwed up before, Toga and the others stayed with him. Its because of that that he’s willing to give up everything to make sure his friends are happy. Hawks says he’ll be sure to let them know that… right before Dabi arrives and nearly fries them. Dabi knocks Hawks off Twice and tells Twice that he didn’t screw up, that it’s the heroes who are at fault. He goes to incinerate Hawks, but he dodges, pulling Twice out of the range of the attack too. Hawks chastises Dabi for using an attack that would have killed Twice, too, but Dabi says it wouldn’t have killed him and that Hawks impulse to protect Twice makes him predictable. Hawks asks why Dabi doesn’t seem surprised by his betrayal. Dabi says he never trusted him, and thanks him for doing some despicable things to earn the Leagues trust. Twice gets up, grabbing Toga’s hankerchief to staunch his bleeding, wraps Hawks up in cloning goo and tells Dabi to roast he bird. Dabi unleashes an attack, telling Twice to go wild and push the advantage back to their side. Twice stumbles through, high fiving Dabi as he did, but Hawks circled around despite his burnt wings and tries to get Twice again. Dabi screams “Keigo Takami” as he attacks Hawks again, which freaks him out because… how could Dabi know his real name?

 

Bye Twice, I'm surprised how sad this makes me.

Twice vows to protect his friends and attempts to clone himself again, but Hawks flies out and charges him. Toga and Mr. Compress get captured but the hero that grabbed them gets stabbed by Twice. Mr. Compress thanks him and tells him to get to doubling. Twice reveals that he’s a clone and that he’s falling apart. He asks for forgiveness for “ruining” their plans again. He stumbles over to Toga and gives her back her handkerchief as he melts back into goo. As the real Twice bleeds out, he muses that while his life has had a lot of falls, he did have people that cared about him, which made his life worth living. His last thoughts are a hope that Hawks dies and admitting that he was happy with his life with them.

 

I think that Twice is a great example of how to write a sympathetic villain. His arc has shown how he was constantly down on his luck and kept falling into worse and worse situations until he ended up with the League of Villains. The bad guys took him in, respected him and made him feel like he mattered. So obviously, when Hawks threatened them, even when he offered to try to help Twice live a better life, he attacked. Now, an argument could be made that Dabi and Shigaraki only kept Twice around because of how useful his cloning power is, but I think Spinner, Toga and Mr. Compress did value him as an actual friend and colleague. You understand his motivations, and why he wants to protect those who value him even when he doesn’t really value himself. And you can understand why Hawks needed to get Twice off the gameboard. A villain that can make a battalion in seconds is not someone that the heroes can have running around. It still hurt to see Hawks has to kill Twice to take him off the field. I like that his final moments were to save Toga, as those two had a connection for most of their run together. Given their age difference, I’d like to think it was something akin to a father-daughter bond than anything else. She’s 17, he’s 30 something, I don’t WANT there to be a romantic element to these two. No thanks. And I liked that Tokoyami got a chance to shine alone with the others. Seeing Dark Shadow wrestle with Re-Destro was a bit surprising. Thank goodness he got out in time. So yeah, the raid has had a major casualty in Twice being taken out. But Hawks is injured and at Dabi’s mercy, whom may know things that no living person should about Hawks. How very interesting. We’ll see where this goes, next time. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 115

 Mirko's on a rabbit rampage. It's much scarier than it sounds. lol

Last time on My Hero Academia, the raid on the Paranormal Liberation Front began. Izuku and the majority of his classmates are staying back for the time being to help with evacuating civilians. Meanwhile, Endeavor leads a group of heroes to raid Dr. Garaki’s hospital where he makes the Nomu. They initially believe they captured him, but it turned out to be a Twice Clone. Garaki unleashed Nomu in the dozens to try to stop the heroes from interfering with his great work. He attempted to escape via Johnny, his teleporting Nomu, but it was killed when the rabbit hero Mirko slammed a door through the room and asked him the obviously best line for a rabbit to ask “What’s up, doc?” The raid has begun. Let’s see how it shapes up, shall we?

 

We open with Mirko breaking into Garaki’s lab and Garaki screaming in horror as she shattered a Nomu’s tank. This dude has issues. Outside, Mandalay of the Wild, Wild Pussycats is coordinating the evacuation effort when all the windows in the hospital blow out. Mirko radios that she found Garaki and she intends to figure out if he’s the “real” one by kicking him. Endeavor says they’ll arrive to back her up, eventually, but they’ve got Nomu to handle. Endeavor and Aizawa team up and destroy the tunneling Nomu and the heroes destroy several more. Rocklock notes that they’re able to handle most of these weaker Nomu, but there’s just so many of them that they’re slowing the heroes down. Mandalay lets them know all the patients have been evacuated. Rocklock opens a secret passage to the morgue and leads a group to help Mirko. Aizawa and Endeavor stay behind to handle the Nomu. Endeavor jokes about there still being time for Aizawa to sign up as one of his sidekicks, but Aizawa scoffs at this, asking who’d train his useless children if he did.

 

Meanwhile, two of those useless children, Izuku and Uraraka, are informed by Burnin about the hospital situation. They’re told to start clearing their assigned areas. Izuku and Uraraka start working with the rest of their team, consisting of Todoroki, Bakugo, and Iida (hey, all the most major characters) and begin moving from house to house making sure civilians have evacuated. Bakugo is clearly pissed by this assignment and yells at every house he is forced to check. Izuku and Iida split off to check the nearby apartments while the other three check the houses.

 

Crust, the number six hero, the first to enter the hidden passage notes that the underground area had basically living areas for the Nomu. The ones they’d faced we’re coming directly from the morgue but from this storage area. Some lesser Nomu come at him and he uses his Quirk to make a shield. He notes that the Nomu are victims but he will defeat them to avenge them.

 

One more Nomu and this might be a fair fight.

Mirko goes to “check” Garaki is the real one, Garaki shrieking that he is the real one and there’s no need for violence, and kicks at him. Garaki flashes back to conversation he had with Shigaraki. He notes that it’s unfortunate that Dabi didn’t recover Hood, as he was the furthest along High End they had. The others he’d been designing are barely in the testing phase. Without All For One, making Nomu takes significantly longer and Hood himself needed 10 hours to stabilize after waking it up. In the present, Garaki goes from some kind of remote in his shirt. Mirko tries to kick it out of his hand, but she’s stopped by another of Garaki’s smaller Nomu assistants, this one dubbed Mocha and has Twice’s doubling Quirk. Garaki hits the remote, praising Mocha for acting on it’s own to protect him, unleashing 5 High Ends and orders them to kill everyone. Crust arrives and one of the High Ends attacks him. This one has extra mouths all over his body. Garaki runs to his chair and escapes. Mirko pulls herself from the rubble she’d been thrown into, says she won’t let him escape and that this’ll be fun. This woman is terrifying, in the best meaning of the word.

 

Yeah, Crust, knock him back!

Crust gets pushed back by the High End, it saying it needs more room to kill him properly and runs into some of his backup. He tries to push the Nomu back and lets the others know about the situation.

 

Garaki, having reached a deeper part of his lab, explains how he makes the Nomu. He bioengineers human corpses and infuse the reanimated tissues with Quirks. They have no will of their own and can only work as they’d been programmed. He separates them into tiers, based on the amount of Quirks they have, color and overall power. Lower tier have only a few powers and are white, middle are grayer and have more power, and upper are black with the more Quirks still and increased physical size and strength. They’re roughly ten times as strong as the average person. And the High Ends are even stronger. They’re more powerful across the board but are also more intelligent and capable of working independently. High Ends are made exclusively from Villains with strong desires to kill. He notes that it’s significantly harder to make them, with his surgical process taking three months for the Quirks to adhere. Obviously AFO could do the transfers significantly faster. He says that there are Five High Ends going right now but they’re just barely ready. Garaki laments losing his little sidekicks, as now he’s lost access to his Warping Quirk as well as Double. Garaki questions if he should activate Shigaraki early. He’s only at 71% complete, but he’s hoping it’ll be enough.

 

Mirko pulls herself from the rubble. She can hear Garaki working deeper in the lab thanks to her rabbit ears and she has a straight up serial killer look on her face at the thought of catching him. The High Ends are legit confused that she’s still up and alive. Mirko reveals she landed on her legs and they absorbed the impact. She rockets past them and tries to make a run at Garaki, the Nomu cut her off, though. She faces off against the Nomu, using her Lunar Ring kick to several injure two of them. If you’re wondering about the moon thing on her costume and attacks, Japan has a myth about a rabbit making mochi (some kind of desert) on the moon, so Rabbits and Moons are used together a lot. She leaps through a Nomu’s attack, just for another to use his body twisting Quirk to break one of her arms. She leaps over the spiked Nomu she knocks into the ground and catches the body twister. She notes that his type attack from a distance and are usually weak up close. He tries to hit her with an optic blast, but she twists, catching his head between her legs and rips it clean off. DAMN girl. She ties off her damaged arm and prepares to keep fighting. She warns the Nomu that she lives her life like every day might be her last, so she’ll fight them to the bitter end if she has to.

 

This is why you bring the cement man. 

Meanwhile, Edgeshot and his team are approaching the villa. The rest of 1A are waiting for their signal to help. They’re encouraged by their guardian, some sort of tiger man who I can’t find a name for, who also tells him to be prepared. Jiro, whom is using her earphone jacks to monitor the situation, says that she knows Tokoyami will be fine, but is worried about Kaminari. Hm… how very interesting. Yaoyorozu tells her that he’ll be fine and she gets back into monitoring. Meanwhile, Kaminari is running with the main hero group and is freaking out just a little. Tokoyami encourages him by saying that he’s an incredible person, but he doesn’t believe him.

 

Yeah, give Kaminari that moment. He deserves it.

Cementoss begins with a cement wave at the villa building. Inside, Skeptic is freaking out about the attacks, and he blames Twice for it completely. We learn he’d monitored the conversation Twice had with Hawks where he revealed what was happening with Shigaraki and says that after that he monitored Hawks even more closely but couldn’t see anything suspicious. He screams the heroes are coming as Cementoss concrete wave hits. Skeptic orders his people to battle formations. One of his minions, a man with a lightning bolt on his face offers to “light ‘em up.” The heroes charge. Kaminari is still clearly nervous as the battle is about to start, and Midnight tells him to not think about protecting the world but think about just protecting what is most dear to him. He stops and looks back toward his class and thinks of Jiro. Jiro says some words of encouragement at that moment, whether this is Kaminari imagining her saying this or she’s saying something that he doesn’t hear but feels is anyone’s guess. Oh, that’s sweet. He clenches his hands into fists. The Paranormal Liberation Front lightning guy prepares to do his big electric attack. Kaminari, sensing this, rushes forward. Tokoyami remembers practicing guitar with Kaminari and calls him kind and that he’d do anything for his friends. Kaminari rushes in and uses his power to draw in all the electricity. He gets complimented by Cementoss and admits he’s just glad he could help. I’m glad they gave him a moment.

 

Ya know, it is really nice after over a hundred episodes and nearly three times as many chapters in the manga, it’s really interesting to finally get some more info on the Nomu and how they’re created. The fact that every one of them is a modified corpse with additional powers fused into them is just terrifying. Obviously they’re exposed brains and warped bodies made it clear these things aren’t natural, but to know that they’re essentially enhanced super powered zombies is terrifying. Thank God that All For One was captured when he was or there could be dozens of the High End models active right now. Then it might be a fair fight against Mirko. Ha! Mirko is rapidly becoming one of my favorite side characters, with her (frankly) terrifying disposition, battle prowess and the fact that she seems to be having fun at least up until her arm is crushed makes her just so delightful. Like, ya know she’s strong as she’s in the top five, but this lady severely injured three Nomu and killed a fourth, that’s an incredibly demonstration of why she’s so high up. She’s down an arm but I still think she’s got an edge on the Nomu. But we’ll see. And I liked that Kaminari was given a moment to shine here. Over the course of the series, he’s more often than not been the butt of jokes and been left to do zany, mildly sexual harassment pranks with Mineta. Hell, he’s done the whole “act as a lightning rod” thing before in and the focus is usually on him overloading and acting goofy after the fact than giving him a hero moment. But we took a moment to not only confirm that he and Jiro have something of a “thing,” but also give him a moment of heroism that didn’t immediately jump to “Kaminari fried his brains and is now being a goober” moment. You did good Chargebolt. This is probably the most development we’ll see for their “thing” until the final chapter, but I’m calling it now that they’ll be shown as part of the same hero team and a couple, if not parents of at least one kind with electric earphone jacks. Anime’s follow certain trends, you’ll be amazed when I’m right. So the raid has begun and the first major hiccups (Nomu unleashed) and miracles (Kaminari disabling the PLF’s electrical user) have occurred, let’s see what comes next. See you then. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 114

 The Raid begins!

Last time on My Hero Academia, we caught up with Izuku and his classmates after their Work Study training. Everyone has improved significantly, even the non-main characters. All Might in the meantime has gathered all the information he could on the previous One For All users and their powers. Later, while the students celebrated, All Might revealed to Aizawa that he’s decided to do his best to keep living but is frustrated at how little he can do as a retired hero. Aizawa cheers him up by saying his presents makes people better. Around the same time, Eri’s powers are finally starting to hit critical mass and Aizawa plans to start training her. The episode ends with Izuku and co getting told they’re all going to be on a “Expeditionary Operation” through their Work Studies, which means they’re helping out on the raid of the newly formed Paranormal Liberation Front bases. Neat. Let’s get to it.

 

Interestingly, I believe this is the first season since season 2 that doesn’t begin with a filler episode that’s just meant to refresh returning or introduce new viewers on the basic concepts and characters of the series. Ya knows, a quick cute story that just shows us Izuku, Bakugo, Todoroki, Uraraka, Iida and the rest of the class, gives us their powers and the basic structure of their superhuman society.

 

Hawks got his serious face on.

We join Hawks as he continues to work with the Paranormal Liberation Front. He’s pulled aside by Twice who wants help figuring out a credo to inspire the troops. Why Hawks? Mostly because the others are in meetings, Giran and Dabi doesn’t care, and Toga is too cute to ask. Hawks reveals that the PLF has been split into regiments, there’s Black headed by Twice, Violet headed by Gitan and Dabi, Carmine headed by Toga and Skeptic, and Brown headed by Mr. Compress and Spinner. The top three members of each regiment serve as aides to the lieutenants. Hawks reveals that he’s been under surveillance since he arrived, and he has only been able to gather the intel that he has thank to his training. He gives Twice a wordy credo and sends him off. Hawks thinks the future looks dire. The plan is to attack major cities across Japan, killing leaders and heroes, and Shigaraki and Trumpet will hand out weapons to lead the new anarchist society. Twice thanks Hawks as he walks off. Hawks reveals that he has been purposely targeting Twice, as since he overcame his trauma, he has become a one man army. He dubbed Twice the villain that most needs watching.

 

Shigaraki's squad sure got scary fast...

Hawks flashes back to when he gave Twice some info on heroes in a classroom setting, Twice saying that he really needs to get Hawks in front of Shigaraki to show that he’s legit. Twice lets slip that Shigaraki is in the mountains for the next four months, but it shouldn’t be a problem that he told Hawks, since he’s been working so hard. In the present he dubs Twice friendly but far too trusting.

 

Hope this hospital is insured...

We jump over to Izuku, who gives us the info the heroes have on Garaki. Supposedly, he’s quirkless and started his hospital as part of Quirk based community outreach. Rocklock calls him a true villain. This is part of a meeting consisting of him, Endeavor, the Wild Wild Pussycats, several other heroes, and Detective Tsukauchi. Tsukauchi reveals that a spy was sent in and found a forbidden area that no one besides Garaki could enter, the only entrance is in the morgue and the spy got a shot of a tiny Nomu inside the room one time when Garaki entered it. Tsukauchi says that it’ll be easy to capture Garaki, but if they do it sloppily, it could be another Kamino ward or Hosu incident. Those really rocked the public trust in heroes, and they cannot risk it happening again. They’re going to hit this hard and with all available resources. They’re breaking the heroes into two teams, Endeavor is leading one and they’re going after Garaki, Edgeshot the other and his team will attack the Paranormal Liberation Front’s mountain villa. The Work Study students will help with evacuation.

 

Edgeshot and his team are preparing to attack the mansion. The leadership of the PLF are inside and hopefully cut off from their usual escape route as the teleporter they use is at the hospital. Komori (grows mushrooms) asks if the students should be this close, but Midnight comes over to encourage her that they need their help. And promises that they’ll just need them for the first few minutes of the fight and after that they’ll fall back and join the rest of the students on the evacuation team. Kaminari, Tokoyami and Honenuki (softens non-living material with a touch) are in the front with the bulk of the heroes, Kaminari freaking out about being on the frontlines and saying he never thought he’d miss his class so much.

 

Is it possible to insure an entire city? Cuz they
might need it...

Back with the class, Yaoyorozu theorizes they were brought to the front as all of their powers specialize in taking out large groups at a time, hence why they’re up there. Edgeshot mentions that all the auxillery bases of the PLF are all encircled too. Endeavor realizes that Hawks was the one that told them about this and asks where he is, but Tsukauchi tells him it’s classified. He walks off, telling himself he’d been preparing like Hawks warned him to do.

 

In Deiki city, the raid begins. How? By Death Arms grabbing Slide n Go, the PLF’s local hero and mole in the city. Izuku and co move in to start the evacuation.

 

At the hospital, Endeavor leads the troops in. Most of the heroes stay up front to fortify the location, but Endeavor sends Mirko (rabbit themed hero with powerful kicks) in ahead after their spy to get to the morgue. Deep inside the hospital, Garaki is super pleased with how things are going, right up until Endeavor shows up and threatens him.

 

Meanwhile, Natsuo and Fuyumi are leaving the new house together, discussing the fact Endeavor told them he’ll be out of touch for a while on a mission. This is way more information than he tends to give them, which stuns Natsuo a little, enough for him to say he hopes it doesn’t turn out like the fight with the High End Nomu. Now that’s something I doubt he’d have been able to say before his near murder. Character growth.

 

Garaki tries to run but he’s tripped by Aizawa’s capture scarf, who then cancels out his Quirk. It shows that he’s got a Quirk, a regenerative type that keeps him younger than he physically is. From the near corpse like look of his face without his Quirk, he has got to be 100+. They realizes that this is quirk, be it natural or artificially created somehow, is how All For One has lived so long. (We’re never given an exact date from the first quirk to now, but I’ve always guessed minimum of 80 years, but possibly as much as 120.) Present Mic grabs Garaki and demands to know why he’s using a power like Super Regeneration for evil. He demands to know what he did to his friend but is interrupted by two passing doctors who try to help Garaki. They’re evacuated and Aizawa gives Garaki the breakdown of what they know. He’s making the Nomu, without commands from specific individuals they’re basically corpses, and that they’re now going to take something important from him in retribution for all the things he’s taken. Damn, dark. Mirko found the secret room and burst inside. She reports to Endeavor what she’s in and that Nomu are starting to pop up. A moment later, a tunneling Nomu burrows through the ground and stabs Garaki. It’s revealed that he’s a Twice Double, and Garaki notes that it’s fascinating that Aizawa’s quirk doesn’t undo the cloning. The Nomu start attacking on mass.

 

And thus begins the Mirko arc.

We cut to Garaki, laughing to himself that the heroes didn’t consider that he’d clone himself to devote all his attention on his main project. He is still in the hospital, but in its bowels with the nearly complete Shigaraki. He reveals that reproducing a Quirk is a resource and equipment heavy process, hence why he’s still in the hospital. He won’t lose his catalogue of abilities, or so he claims. Mirko meanwhile flexes her legs and plows through a ton of Nomu to reach Garaki, crushing and killing the little Nomu he uses for teleportation. She asks him “What’s up doc?” and guesses he’s the real one. Ha, nice reference Mirko.

 

I think this was a great start to this new arc. Izuku and co were on the back burner as the pros got into position, but ya just know that something is going to go horribly, horribly wrong and Izuku is going to be duking it out with Dabi or Spinner in like two or three episodes. I initially questioned sending Endeavor into the hospital, as I’d thought that they’d want the heaviest hitter attacking the main base… then I remembered there’s a high chance of High Ends being in that facility, so him leading that charge was good call. I totally get why Mirko is now a fan favorite of the series. She’s both anime girl hot, but ruthless in a way that is just so fun to watch. Like, I know it’s technically fan service when we’re shown her visibly flexing her legs before she goes on a kicking spree, but when she does go on that spree, she decapitates several Nomu before crushing Giraki’s teleporter with a door. That’s so freaking cool that I can let a little fanservice go. And that’s really all I can say about this one, as it’s almost all set up. But what a beautiful set up it is. See you next time. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 113

 One last break before things blast off.

Last time on My Hero Academia, we got a bit more of Shigaraki’s backstory. Namely, his first “non-dad” intentional murder and All For One dubbing him Tomura Shigaraki. We also learn that Shigaraki is in fact AFO’s surname. Shigaraki, having unlocked his repressed memories and embraced them, wipes the floor with Re-Destro, unleashing a wave of disintegrating energy around them. Re-Destro survives but had to amputate his legs to keep from being disintegrated. Re-Destro, believing Shigaraki to be the ideal of “liberated” meta human, bows to him and gives him leadership of the Meta Liberation Army. The League of Villains and Meta Liberation Army are restructured into the Paranormal Liberation Front, with Shigaraki at his head and the former leads of both groups serving as his Lieutenants. The episode ended with Garaki offering Shigaraki greater power. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Solid poker face for a guy who must be terrified.

We open with a flashback to Shigaraki being proclaimed the Grand Commander and his declaration that from now on, they do what they want. We learn that Hawks was in the crowd and witnessed the pronouncement. We flashback further to Hawks meeting with Dabi earlier to earn his trust. How did he do it? By presenting Best Jeanist’s corpse in a duffel bag. Dabi isn’t convinced that it’s really Best Jeanist, but does think Hawks killed someone, so he’s in. Hawks analyzes the situation and realizes that they’re extremely screwed. Between Skeptic (he runs a global communications network), Re-Destro (his company is one of the biggest Hero gear suppliers), and the High End Nomu, the Paranormal Liberation Front can do a LOT of damage. After the meeting, Hawks meets with Dabi and tries to figure out a way to salvage this situation. Meanwhile, Garaki is in a medical lab with Shigaraki. He notes that with Shigaraki’s latest spike in power, he can now disintegrate things touching his initial point of contact. Like, if he touches the ground, the disintegration can spread out and hit things touching the ground around him. Shigaraki notes that using his power once basically destroyed one of his arms and that he’ll need greater power to face the heroes. Shigaraki gets into the chair and begins working. He babbles a bit and claims that, with Quirks mixing and mutating with each generation, the powers get more complicated and more difficult to control. He calls this the Quirk Singularity Theory and it was the basis for his research. He tells Shigaraki that he’ll be undergoing this procedure for the next four months and it’s going to suck for him. He claims that all Quirks will be in the palm of his hand if he survives the process, even One For All.

 

In the present, Izuku and his class are practicing fighting the drones from their entrance exam. Aoyama, Hagakure, and Ashido take out a whole bunch of robots with their new skills. Ashido mentions, somewhat flirtatiously, to Kirishima that she got the idea for her new attack, Acidman, from his Unbreakable form. I only bring this up because I ship them. Everyone shows off their new skills, some learned attacks, some improved their existing skills, and coordinating their skills. Izuku uses full cowling and really impresses his master, All Might. He uses Blackwhip to tangle up a ton of robots and then shoot styles through them. What an impressive job, kids.

 

They've got just a sweet relationship.

After the exam, everyone congratulates Izuku, Bakugo and Todoroki. Izuku takes a moment to run over and thank Uraraka for her help in him getting control of Blackwhip. She plays it off as no big deal, and reveals that stopping him encouraged her to add extendable cables to her own arsenal. They do a fist bump and I squee a little.

 

Present Mic and Aizawa are together, processing what they learned about Kurogiri. Present Mic is taking it especially hard it seems. When Aizawa mentions that there must be a facility making Nomu, Present Mic says that he’ll do a karaoke contest with them and “boil their guts while their eardrums bleed.” Damn, Present Mic. They’re interrupted by Togata and Amajiki, who tell him that something is up with Eri. She’s with Hado, her horn has grown substantially and she’s crying, asking why it itches. Aizawa comforts her, telling her she’s in safe hands at AU.

 

All Might has a private meeting with Bakugo and Izuku. He congratulates them both for their growth, Bakugo being a dick about it, and apologizes to Izuku about not getting as much data as he’d hoped. He presents Izuku with a composite notebook titled “Previous Successor Quirks, Notes for Young Midoriya.” He says that he compiled all he could find about the previous OFA users and their abilities. The second and third users are complete unknowns, but he was able to find things on the others. As Izuku and All Might discuss using the Blackwhip, Bakugo grabs the notebook and flips to the user’s page. He was the 5^th wielder, Daigoro Banjo aka Lariat. Bakugo notes that none of the previous wielders all had abilities that were comparatively weak before getting the ability. All Might theorizes that might be on purpose, as AFO was obsessed with the power and might have killed anyone who he considered strong. Bakugo says that makes sense and probably why all the previous users died young. All Might tells Izuku the next power he should try to manifest is Float, the ability of his master, Nana Shimura. Bakugo starts cackling like an insane person, telling Izuku he wins because he can already fly and Izuku is going to waste time catching up to him. I do so enjoy this crazy rage monster. Izuku, shockingly, sticks up for himself and says he’ll catch up in no time. All Might enjoys seeing his two protégées bonding.

 

At the dorm, Izuku and Bakugo are scolded for being late and encouraged to help cook dinner. Bakugo has a great line where he yells at Todoroki for cutting the chives poorly, saying ‘You shamed your sister!” The kids have their potluck dinner and celebrate. Izuku basks in having friends and living like this at UA.

 

Deciding to live can be a hard choice.

Outside, Aizawa joins All Might. He tells the former hero that Tsukauchi called and said that he wants to postpone All Might meeting Stain for now. All Might asks how Eri is, and Aizawa tells her she’s sleeping and he’s planning on starting her formal training next week. All Might offers his help. He sighs, and when Aizawa asks, he says that he’s decided to keep on living but he’s frustrated that he can’t do more to prepare the students. Aizawa tells him his presence alone is enough to inspire greatness. All Might remembers his last moments with Nighteye and thanks Aizawa for the encouragement.

 

Meanwhile, Hawks is trying to figure out all the pieces to the Paranormal Liberation Front and Shigaraki. He knows that Shigaraki has a backer, someone to do with a hospital. We cut to Jaku Hospital, where Dr. Garaki works. A nurse asks him how his work is going, and he says that all that’s left is to put on the finishing touches. We’re shown Shigaraki being painfully transformed as he says it. Hawks joins the Front’s higher ups, musing that he’ll do his best to gain intel and buy time for the other heroes. He ominously states that X-Day will be here soon.

 

After the credits, Izuku and his class are all told they’re Work Studies will all be taking part in a “Expeditionary Operation” or a work field trip during Spring Break. They’re brough to Daike City and are told they’re going to help the heroes evacuating residence during the hero’s mission against the Paranormal Liberation Front.

 

Okay, so as season finales go, this one is just okay. Most of the runtime is devoted to getting us caught back up with Izuku and his class after their month-long Work Studies and showing us how the others have improved to make them ready to participate in the next big battle arc. That’s cool but I wish there’d been just a little more meat to it, ya know? The reveal that Hawks got his in with the League by giving them “Best Jeanist’s” corpse was a bit of a surprise. Mostly for the realism of the fake corpse. What? Hawks is a spy, that in and of itself makes it clear that Dabi is right and that is no Best Jeanist. Why pretend otherwise? I did like seeing All Might again and learning what he’d been up to in his downtime. The fact that he was able to compile any information at all is impressive given how little they’ve had to go on about the previous heroes. I mean, we can assume that Nana told him as much as she knew, but unless she got visions too, she probably only knew a lot about her immediate predecessor and maybe the predecessor before him. I also appreciated getting confirmation from All Might that he’s going to do his best to keep on living despite his injury and health problems. As Aizawa put it, him just being around is inspiring and even if he isn’t as physically imposing as he used to be, he’s still a symbol. Getting a plot update with Eri was helpful too. Seems like that, by whatever process she builds up energy in her horn, it builds up quickly after a certain point. Given that it looks only slightly shorter than it was when she helped Izuku, that bodes well for a certain hero’s return. And choosing to end the season on Izuku and co gathering to take part in the raid is both a really cool idea but torturous for the fans watching the anime. A mega level cliffhanger right there. Thankfully, I didn’t watch most of season 5 until now and we can roll right into season 6 next time. I’ll see you there. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 112

 What goes into making a monster?

Last time on My Hero Academia, we learned the origins of Tenko Shimura, aka Tomura Shigaraki. He was the younger child of Kotaro, the only son of Nana Shimura, All Might’s mentor. While Kotaro was a solid provider to his wife, in-laws and children, the man had seething hatred for heroes and often took it out on young Tenko. Tenko was often sent outside, despite an unknown allergy, and was regularly beaten. One shining spot, and unfortunately the beginning of the end of the Shimura family, was his sister Hana showing him a picture of their father and grandmother. Kotaro is furious when he realized that the kids had been in his office and took the photo, beating Tenko because Hana blamed him. Later, Hana goes to apologize to him, but Tenko’s power finally manifested when he accidentally killed their dog. Tenko accidentally kills his sister, mother, and grandparents, and deliberately murdered his father. After, he claimed that the itching finally stopped. In the present, Shigaraki is battling Re-Destro, the descended of revolutionary Destro and is getting his ass kicked. Let’s see how that is going, shall we?

 

There was a point where this was even sillier.

We open with Shigaraki’s flashback continuing. We join him just after running away from the wreckage of his house as he just sort of wandered around with bloody hands in a fugue state. People see him but do their best to avoid the creepy child with blood on his hands. He mentions that he’s basically mute while this is going on. A few strangers notice him, try to talk to him, but his disturbed face freaks them out. Shigaraki muses that if even one person had tried to reach out to him, his returned itching might of stopped. And then we see All For One (AFO) approaching him as he takes cover from the rain under a bridge.

 

After the opening credits, we join Shigaraki after he’d been taken to AFO’s safehouse. AFO and Dr. Garaki are with him and just presented him with his family’ hands. AFO tells him that his urge to destroy is so overwhelming and it’s spilling out of him and seems to be the source of his itch. AFO, a sociopath, tells Shigaraki to just do what he wants and just hurt and destroy as much as he want. He remembers two thugs that beat him up in his wanderings and tells AFO that he wants to kill them and doesn’t know why. AFO, again, Sociopath, tells him to do his best. We then see Shigaraki in his hand covered look, which is so much more disturbing when you know that those are supposed to be his family’s hands, finding these two thugs and murdering them. AFO and Garaki watch, noting that the boy is both repressing his memories, as well as his Quirk. Yeah, the five finger’s on one hand touching something to disintegrate it thing was a mental block he put up. AFO muses that Shigaraki’s family’s hands will “cradle” him and keep him in check. And that he’ll personally cultivate Shigaraki as his “Symbol of Fear.” Shigaraki muses that killing makes him feel sick, but feels incredibly calm. He gets the thugs hands added to his collection, and AFO officially dubs him Tomura Shigaraki. Also revealing that AFO’s family name is in fact Shigaraki.

 

In the present, Shigaraki claims to remember everything and now doesn’t see his family’s death as a tragedy but a thing of beauty. He takes his father’s hand from his face, destroying it and saying its no longer necessary. Re-Destro rushes him, but Shigaraki blocks his attack and starts disintegrating his side. At the same time, Gigantomachia is rampaging in the downtown area. Re-Destro hits a button on his belt and activates some kind of enhancement armor to raise up and attach to him. Re-Destro is starting to freak out a little, as his power seems to be waning. He is afraid of Shigaraki but it’s not the kind of fear that he can use to enhance his powers like he used to. He remembers being told by his family that he’ll be the one to bring Destro’s dream into reality as the armor finishes attaching to him. The Claustro armor, as it’s called, is supposed to enhance his stress to 150%.

 

Meanwhile, Twice and his clones, two of which are carrying Toga, are following Gigantomachia at a distance because while he’s helping them, they still need to beat him to make him an ally. While Dabi complains about his ice opponent fleeing, Mr. Compress calls to the doctor for an emergency evacuation. Garaki isn’t going to help them, though, unless they take out the Liberation Army first. Mr. Compress asks if he’s willing to let Shigaraki die, as he’s AFO’s successor. Garaki claims that it’s because he’s AFO’s successor that he needs to be driven into a corner. While Twice clones try to round the League of Villains up to regroup, the entirety of the Meta Liberation Army are rushing to try to get to Re-Destro.

 

Re-Destro hits Shigaraki with a fist, but Shigaraki disintegrates the metallic fist. Re-Destro claims that the Meta Liberation army is all about their, frankly, insane belief that people should be able to use their Quirks however they want and that it’s a god given right. Wow, the parallels to certain groups in the US is insane. He tries to fly off to get out of Shigaraki’s range. Shigaraki remembers AFO telling him to meld hate and joy in his heart to make himself free. He unleashes a wave of disintegration energy as Gigantomachia reaches him. The destruction wipes out most of the city and Re-Destro’s armor as he cackles “Destroy it all!”

 

A dark king is born.

Shigaraki limps toward Re-Destro. He’s reverted to normal, sans his feet. Why? He touched the ground while Shigaraki’s disintegration wave was unleashed, so he cut them off to save the rest of his body. Shigaraki mockingly asks why they were even fighting. The rest of the Meta Liberation Army arrive, and prepare to attack, but Re-Destro calls them off. He has decided that Shigaraki, as a shining example of a truly liberated being, offers for Shigaraki to kill him and that he names him the leader of the Meta Liberation Army. Gigantomachia is brought to tears at the sight of the successor. Shigaraki remembers Mr. Compress complaining that if they’d tried to work with the Shia Hassaikai they might have a nicer accommodations before asking if Re-Destro is rich.

 

We cut to a week later, with Future Narrator Izuku telling us what the Meta Liberation Army’s cover story for the event is. Basically, a group of villains lured the heroes away from Deika city and started rampaging. The Meta Liberation Army use the whole thing, including the story that untrained civilians held off the villains long enough for the heroes to arrive, as a PR stunt to push their rhetoric. Meanwhile, the League of Villain members enjoy some sushi on Re-Destro’s dime. Twice does a little shrine offering to the memory of Toga… not the real one, the clone he made to use to give the real one a transfusion. Because while Twice might have overcome his issues, he’s still a nutjob. Toga tells him to stop doing that as it’s creeping her out. Trumpet and Skeptic arrive to get them for a meeting.

 

A very odd executive board...

They’re all brought to a meeting lead by Re-Destro and Shigaraki. Re-Destro officially names Shigaraki as the leader, their Grand Commander. They redub themselves, based on something that Re-Destro and Spinner thought up, as the Paranormal Liberation Front. He names Re-Destro, Geten Trumpet, Skeptic, Spinner, Mr. Compress, Twice, Toga and Dabi as his lieutenants and that they’re going to do what they want. The crowd cheers. Shigaraki sends Re-Destro to get him some tea. Garaki congradulates him on his successes and tells Shigaraki he’ll grant him power, if that’s what he wants. Damn, hell of a way to end this.

 

Shigaraki’s whole backstory is just so damn depressing. This is a kid that was failed by their hero system, with everyone thinking that someone else will handle this, and that a monster prayed upon. And AFO used this kid to make him into a weapon of mass destruction. Props to the animators to make Shigaraki’s crazy face to seem supremely crazy. Seeing him unleash his full power and destroying most of the city in one blow is unsettling. Shigaraki just got a massive power boost, and it’s implied he’s going to get a lot more. I mean, we know he’s going to, that is what we saw at the end of the last arc. Which, I need to remind you, came after this moment in the manga. Shigaraki defeated the Meta Liberation Army, rebranded their group the Paranormal Liberation Army, and was promised even more power, then we don’t see him again for chapters and then we’re shown him getting a tortuous power boost. I personally think this is plays a lot better than how the anime did it, but what do I know? So yeah, the villains are more powerful than ever, basically now have unlimited resources, and the backing of thousands of minions. Good thing Izuku has had… a minor power boost. Crap, this might not be an even fight. But we’ll see how things start ramping up next time. See you then. 

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