Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 120

 The two opposing forces finally meet.

Last time on My Hero Academia, Shigaraki started letting lose with his enhanced power. Endeavor does his best to hold him off, but Shigaraki is simply too powerful. He’d probably would have been killed, but Shigaraki is compelled to fight Izuku and get One For All. He uses the stolen Quirk Search to find and start chasing Izuku. Izuku and Bakugo, the only two that know the full situation, Blackwhip web-swing and explosion fly away from the civilians. Shigaraki nearly captures the boys, but they’re saved by Gran Torino at the last second. Endeavor and other heroes battle Shigaraki, thankfully Aizawa is there to turn off Shigaraki’s enhanced powers. Unfortunately, Shigaraki has also had his body enhanced so he’s supernaturally strong without a Quirk. The other heroes arrive to serve as backup, but Shigaraki summons more Nomu to back him up. Well, this isn’t going to end well. Let’s get to it.

 

Toshi, dude, PG 13 new report.

We open with a news copter letting the world know that about a 1/3 of Jaku City has been destroyed, the Heroes are doing their best to evacuate everyone, and that chaos is running rampant. All Might is watching this on his computer with Eri… bro, she’s like 5, don’t show her this! Anyway, All Might is watching and once again clearly lamenting his lost powers. We’re also shown Mrs. Midoriya, Todoroki’s siblings and mother, and Mrs. Bakugo all going about their day blissfully unaware that the people they love and/or have complicated feelings for (looking at you Endeavor) are in a fight for their lives. Hell, Mrs. Bakugo is sitting looking through an old photo album labeled “Katsuki Memory,” ya know, just to twist the knife that she doesn’t know her baby was like .00005 seconds away from dying. We’re then shown All For One in his prison cell, smiling as the reporter asks if this is the new normal of a world constantly in peril.

 

What hurts more, Endeavor's pride or his ribs...

We return to Endeavor battling Shigaraki, just before his backup arrives and the Nomu rises from the rubble. Endeavor unleashes a hail of fire blasts as Ryukyu flies up to aid him, but Shigaraki flips around and slams both into the ground. He lands on Endeavor and mockingly asks if he copied Endeavor’s pose right from when he beat Hood of the High End. Endeavor knocks him off and asks where these Nomu came from. He knows Shigaraki unleashed his power in the lab and that from everything he’s seen before that should have meant that the Nomu would be destroyed too. Shigaraki reveals that he now has total control of his quirk, so he simply “willed” the pods to not be affected by decay, so they weren’t. He destroyed some but the High Ends are active. Garaki, who is happy but seems to still be going through some sort of breakdown, explains that he’s impressed with Shigaraki’s use of strategy to get the High Ends active. Using his radio’s radiowaves to give them the electrical spark to awaken them. The good news is that these Nomu weren’t properly tested so they’re basically rabid animals. The bad news is that these are rabid animals with multiple quirks, higher than normal power and a kill instinct like no other. Damn. Garaki dubs them “near High Ends” due to their lack of intelligence. Gran Torino flies off to help Aizawa, telling the boys to stay hidden. Izuku asks himself what is worse than a world without One For All.

 

Aizawa thanking God mentally that he didn't Flunk
Izuku Midoriya on that first day. 

Shigaraki locks eyes on Aizawa and rushes him. Rock Lock, who’d been keeping Aizawa up, dodges to the side and goes into an attack. Aizawa refuses to die here, as he believes it’s his duty to look after class 1A until they graduate, mentally promising Shigaraki that if he thinks Aizawa is a problem, his students will blow his mind when they’re ready. He draws a blade from his belt and prepares to fight. Gran Torino flies in, but he’s going to be too slow to make it. Izuku rockets in and knocks Shigaraki aside. Izuku realized that he can face Shigaraki so long as Shigaraki’s powers are blocked. He begs the pros to let him and Bakugo help fight. He knows there aren’t enough heroes to battle him and the Nomu, and that if Aizawa is taken out it’s literally all over as Shigaraki will just disintegrate everything. He realized that the worst thing that losing OFA is losing Aizawa, his teacher, mentor, and center point of his class. Plus, ya know, literally the only one able to stop Shigaraki from unleashing his full power. Bakugo flies in and he and Izuku take Shigaraki on. Izuku binds the villain with Blackwhip and lets Bakugo unleash AP shots on him. Shigaraki is powerful enough to withstand the attack but is clearly annoyed by Izuku’s whips binding his movements. He leaps at Bakugo, but Endeavor flies in and knocks him aside. He asks where Shoto is and is told he’s outside. The heroes reorganize. Manual and Rock Lock are going to help keep Aizawa safe and using Erasure to keep Shigaraki’s powers at bay, while Izuku, Bakugo, Endeavor and Gran Torino do battle with him. Endeavor tells them protect Aizawa. Shigaraki rushes them again, wondering if it might not be better to just grab Izuku and run, but is hit with another psychic wave that tells him to steal OFA. A scar forms over his right eye and he says “Come to me, little brother” freaking Izuku and Bakugo out. Shigaraki tells his master that AFO’s ambition is far too big and that this is his body and his power now. He sees a mental image of AFO reaching out to him. He wonders how a being calling himself the lord of evil could be beaten by someone. He thanks his master for raising him, but refuses to succumb to his influence completely, saying he wants to be better. He says he’ll take OFA because he wants to! Gran Torino flies in, knocking his arm aside. He’s confident that he’ll be able to take on Shigaraki as, while one blow might be fatal, he’s an expert dodger and trained All Might, so is used to battling superstrength. He says he won’t let Shigaraki besmirch Shimura’s memory anymore and attacks. Endeavor almost hits Shigaraki with an intense blast from behind Gran Torino, but he dodges, knocking them both back with the blast.

 

Shigaraki goes for Izuku, but Bakugo, flying above, reveals Izuku is the bait and unleashes a full power blast from his gauntlet at him, knocking him back. Remember, that gauntlet stores up his nitro sweat and increases the potency like 10x. And he’s gotten a LOT stronger since he last used it. Izuku and Endeavor hit Shigaraki hard, Endeavor telling himself that it doesn’t matter if he can’t beat Shigaraki alone, he WILL stop him.

 

Back at headquarters, they are still flying blind. Edgeshot’s team has captured several villains but are obviously still working on it, given the whole… shitstorm they’re dealing with. Jiro, meanwhile, uses her earphone jacks to do recon and lets everyone else know that something huge is underground and moving, revealing Gigantomachia has entered the fray.

 

The beast reaches out and grabs Compress as he rises, revealing that he’s also grabbed Spinner and Toga. Compress tosses Toga a spare change of clothes when he notices her. He tries to grab Dabi but Dabi refuses to go without grabbing one more, Skeptic of the Paranormal Liberation Front. Skeptic doesn’t want to go… but obviously Dabi is the one making the final call as he’s the one the giant behemoth is listening to at the moment. In the background, Mt. Lady is still trying to swat Geten like a ice flinging fly. Gigantomachia uses his nose and catches Shigaraki’s scent, he rushes blindly toward him, but Mt. Lady gets in the way, doing her best to slow him down. Jiro’s earphone lets her know the thing is on the way. The heroes go to try to slow him down, telling the Work Study kids to stand back. Skeptic demands to go back and help Re-Destro, but Dabi tells him to shut up to hide the fact that Gigantomachia is carrying passengers. Geten tries to hold off the heroes, but Cementoss captures him in concrete. Re-Destro digs himself out and orders the Meta Liberation Army to follow Gigantomachia and go to their leader.

 

Yeah, Mt. Lady, push that living mountain back!

Mt. Lady slows Gigantomachia for a bit, but Gigantomachia grabs her by the leg and tosses her aside. Seeing her thrown aside so easy freaks out her teammate, Kamui Woods.  He is so freaked out that he call out to her using her real name to check on her, but his passenger won’t let him stop to see if she’s okay. Said passenger, Midnight, tells him to get in close to Gigantomachia, ripping her outfit to expose more of her skin. She realizes that if Gigantomachia gets to Shigaraki, they’re basically boned, so she’s planning on hitting him with as much of her sleep pheromones as she can. They’re stopped by Dabi popping out and fireblasting them. The fire stops Kamui Woods, because… obviously, wood man, and Mr. Compress throws compressed debris to knock her to the ground. She asks herself what hero could stop Gigantomachia but can’t think of anyone that is still standing.

 

Worst. Fieldtrip. Ever. But let's make lemonade out
of these lemons.

Midnight contacts the Work Study kids and tells them they need to stop him. She tells Yaoyorozu to either use her quirk to make tranquilizers for Gigantomachia or to get out of the way if she doesn’t think she can do it. She’s cut off by Paranormal Liberation Members reaching her and starting to fight. Knowing that they literally have no good options, Yaoyorozu rallies the students, telling Jiro and Shoji to track Gigantomachia’s movements and for Honenuki to get ready to use his softening quirk too. Jiro says that it’ll be on them in less than a minute, but corrects herself when she notes Gigantomachia is slowing down. Why? Mt. Lady leapt on him and is trying to use her body to slow him. She’s got a good line as she’s being slammed up and down on the ground, saying that Gigantomachia will “Pay for this! I haven’t clung onto a guy since MIDDLE SCHOOL!” Yaoyorozu starts making canisters of something for all the 1A and 1B students. It’s the 36 or so students vs. Gigantomachia. Well, there’ve been more lopsided anime fights.

 

This episode was great. Much like the Kamino ward incident, we’re seeing how the battle is escalating and how the populace is starting to react to it. I imagine we were specifically shown Mrs.’s Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki just going about their day specifically so we can juxtapose how their days will shatter when they realize their boys (and estranged husband in Rei’s case) are quite literally fighting for their lives. Shigaraki with all this power is terrifying. He’s got all the physical strength of a Strongman like All Might, plus a power that can destroy anything with a touch, regeneration, and a whole host of other powers he hasn’t gotten to try out yet. He’s a ball of death that they’re just barely keeping contained by Aizawa’s power and everyone else’s fists. And it’s interesting to start seeing the side effects. It looks like AFO included some means of influencing Shigaraki’s mind in whatever was done to enhance him. Maybe it’s an effect of sharing a Quirk, maybe it’s an attempt to make the same spiritual connection OFA users have, it’s too early to say. It is clear that AFO has got a bigger plan at play here, and that Shigaraki might be less of a king and this than he thinks he is. It’ll be interesting to see how that develops. Plus, he and Izuku are about to throw down and that’s going to be glorious. I liked Izuku throwing some credit Aizawa’s way. All Might is his inspiration and his mentor, but Aizawa has also been putting in the work to train Izuku, has done a lot to try to push Izuku to be the best (within the rules) and helped inspire him as well. Seeing Izuku realize that Aizawa is integral to this defense and his education was neat, I thought. Setting the bulk of the Hero Students to fight Gigantomachia was a brilliant thing to do, too. It gives the lesser characters something to do, and will give a legit reason as to why Gigantomachia isn’t leaping in, further screwing everything up. They’re going to have a hell of a fight on their hands since Gigantomachia also has back up, but I’ve faith in them. The beat down is about to begin. I’ll see you next time. 

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