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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