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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