Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 122

 In my experience, nothing is more terrifying than pushing a kind person to anger.

Last time on My Hero Academia, the Work Study students faced off against Gigantomachia and the League of Villains. Using a few traps, they were able to slow the monster down substantially, but the overwhelming power of Gigantomachia was quickly overwhelming them. In a last ditch effort, Mina Ashido attempted to fling a canister of tranquilizer into Gigantomachia’s open mouth, wiffed it because she remembered meeting this thing two years prior and was terrified, only for her personal Izuku, Eijiro Kirishima, to leap in and make the shot. It doesn’t seem to affect Gigantomachia, unfortunately, and he starts transforming. Meanwhile, Izuku, Bakugo, Endeavor, Ryukyu and Gran Torino tried to put a stop to Shigaraki. Even without most of his powers, he was physically strong enough to be a threat. He ends up possibly mortally wounding Gran Torino, ramming his fist through Ryukyu’s dragon hand and, unfortunately, launching a Quirk destroying bullet at Aizawa, hitting him. This rightly pisses of Izuku, who screams his teachers code name like bloody murder. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Aizawa loses a leg to save his power and everyone's
lives, fair trade.

We pick up immediately where the last episode stopped, Ryukyu screaming that the bullet is a Quirk Deleter and Aizawa getting hit. But we see he drew a sword he’d been carrying as the bullet hit. He thanks Ryukyu mentally for the heads up and… amputates his leg to keep the Quirk Deleter from Deleting his Quirk. He thinks of Eri as he does it, saying that he’s going to be rational and do what he must. And, in a terrifyingly badass moment, we see he doesn’t even blink as his right shin comes flying off. Bad ass. Shigaraki agrees with me here… but then also notes that Aizawa was still distracted for a second.

 

Izuku is playing for keeps.

Freed from Aizawa’s block for a moment, Shigaraki breaks free and charges Aizawa, getting a hand on his face and digging grooves into it. Izuku grabs him with Blackwhip but is too slow to stop him, but a massive icewall forms, knocking him aside. Shoto Todoroki has arrived. Shigaraki remembers seeing a third blip following Izuku and Bakugo earlier as he tries to get up, but before he can move, Izuku slams into him and sends him flying. He quickly grabs Aizawa and gets him out of Shigaraki’s reach. Shigaraki asks them what their plan is even at this point, they’re just delaying the inevitable.

 

We cut to Iida and Tsu who are helping evacuees. Iida is worried that he can’t reach Izuku, Bakugo and now Todoroki, despite Shoto’s promise to bring them back. Uraraka joins them and says they should go after them. Their attention is drawn to civilians watching a report. It’s revealed that Gigantomachia has overwhelmed the heroes battling him, we even expressly see Amajiki knocked out among other generic heroes, and the news is basically warning every person in every town between the sight of that battle and Jaku city to evacuate immediately. Uraraka reveals that nearly every hero of Japan was on this mission, so there’s no backup to stop Gigantomachia now. We’re shown Gigantomachia barreling through a downtown area as the Work Study students look on in horror. Sero asks Shoji if he can see any heroes still standing, and he cannot. He prays that Tokoyami, the only member of their group unaccounted for right now, is okay.

 

We’re shown Tokoyami in the ruins of the medical center. We see a brief flashback of him saving Hawks and a pair of doctors when Gigantomachia came barreling through and through boulders about. Back with the others, Yaoyorozu is frustrated their plan didn’t work, and that the only reason they weren’t taken out by Gigantomachia didn’t consider them a threat. One of the heroes, Majestic, was shown to use his powers to get them out of harm’s way just as Gigantomachia started rampaging. Mineta wonders if maybe they were doomed to fail from the very beginning.

 

Back at Jaku, Dr. Garaki is being taken away by the police and laughing at Present Mic for their failure. He admits that he was worried at the hospital, but now that Shigaraki is awake, the balance of power has forever shifted in their favor. He says that Gigantomachia is a living natural disaster that will stop at nothing to get to his master and reveals the Nomu were his attempted at making more of him. He deems the end is near.

 

Rushing has it's consequences.

Shigaraki seemed to have healed from his most recent injuries. Izuku and the rest of the heroes are exhausted, and Endeavor has turned off his flames to recover. While he has a greater tolerance for heat than most, he does have his limit. Shoto forms an ice barrier around his father to help him cool off faster, since they’ll need him to fight again ASAP. He waits a moment before activating his heat again. Bakugo, remembering Shigaraki attacking them all, is pissed. Izuku is standing with Rock Lock and Manuel as the two heroes try to get a tourniquet around Aizawa’s stump. Rock Lock tells Izuku to run. Izuku, who looks absolutely murderous right now, says not a chance. Shigaraki goes to use a decay wave, but at the last moment his chest rips open, and he doesn’t immediately regenerate. He’s confused by this, but then tries to remember the date and if it’d been four months exactly yet. Izuku, watching him, has the epiphany that Shigaraki is just like him, a vessel for the power he inherited… and much more importantly, his body still isn’t equipped to handle all the raw power of AFO like he hadn’t been for OFA yet. Shigaraki goes to use a Decay Wave again, but Izuku stops him. How? Wrapping everyone in Blackwhip and triggering a new power. The Quirk of the 7^th Wielder, Nana Shimura, Float! Gran Torino, who is still alive amazingly, confirms that this is indeed her power. Izuku, knowing that if Shigaraki touches the ground they’re all boned, resolves to stop him in the air, using every ability he has in his arsenal.

 

Believe it or not, he's walking on air.

Izuku, knowing that his control is spotty with Blackwhip, drops the others down and prepares to fight. Endeavor orders Shoto to help with Triage, in part because he’s already holding Gran Torino. Bakugo calls Izuku a dumbass and tells him to run, but Izuku points out who else is left to stop Shigaraki? Endeavor is furious at having to rely on his student when he should be the one in the most danger as number 1. Shigaraki promises to send Izuku’s ashes all the way to heaven after he steals OFA since he likes being in the air so much. He says he’ll do the same to Izuku’s friends, and oh, that was the wrong thing to say. Izuku pulls him in and starts wailing on him.

 

Bakugo, watching a rage consume his frenemy like he’s never seen before, is angry and shocked. We see a quick flashback to Izuku asking Sero, Uraraka and Tsu to help him figure out training methods to use with Blackwhip. Izuku is rocking an afro right now, as Bakugo had helped him with his training and blew up in his face one too many times. They ask why Aizawa isn’t helping with this, and we learn that this was when he and Present Mic were interrogating Kurogiri. Sero and Tsu are there to help him with tendril work, and Uraraka to help him figure out how to stop and redirect in midair. We start with Uraraka anti-gravitying them and telling him to treat it like swimming in the air. While Izuku figures out how to move in the air using his Air Force attack as propulsion, All Might goes to speak with a sulking Bakugo. He tells Bakugo that he’s hoping getting Izuku to practice floating a little might help him with Float finally triggers. Bakugo tells All Might that Izuku is going to have to reveal the nature of his Quirks soon. Bakugo knows that they can’t keep Izuku’s multiple powers under wraps if he manifests more. All Might says they’ll be careful and hide Izuku’s additional powers going forward. He points out this is to protect Izuku not only from villains, but anyone that might be tempted to take OFA. Bakugo starts asking tougher questions, specifically why All Might seems to be hiding how the 4^th user died. Bakugo noticed before that All Might had avoided answering when he asked before. All Might says that he doesn’t know for sure, and that he refuses to add that to Izuku’s mental weight until he’s sure. Bakugo, having accepted that he knows Izuku better than most at this point, says that he doesn’t think about himself and that selflessness freaks him out. All Might notes that this is why Bakugo is so quick to train with Izuku, as a means of penance for being a dick to Izuku when they were younger because of his unease. All Might tells him that he doesn’t believe Izuku sees it that way. He goes on to say that he’s thinks Bakugo is like Endeavor, in that they both actively have tried to change.

 

Izuku has mastered the fight face. 

In the present, Bakugo is clearly furious as he watches Izuku fights. Izuku is using OFA at 100% but Shigaraki is still smiling. He notes that Shigaraki isn’t healing as fast, though, so he thinks he’s overwhelming Shigaraki’s regeneration. His left arm is in it’s classic “I broke every bone in it” red pulpy look, as the two full power strikes with it proved to be too much for his bones. Despite this, his status as the current OFA user is to use his power to defeate Shigaraki once and for all. He remembers being told that if he breaks his arms two or three more times, he’ll lose the ability to use them. He doesn’t seem to care, though, as he unleashes several additional full power strikes on Shigaraki. Shigaraki notes that he’s healing slower with each hit and is furious that he exhausted himself fighting the other heroes. Well, the thinks that for a moment but then realizes that this kid is to blame, regardless of anything else. He prepares to blast Izuku with some kind of plasma ball and says that he’s holding Shigaraki back from his dream. Izuku screams “That’s exactly why I’m here!” as he rushes him again. He unleashes a Texas Smash, breaking his arm worse. Shigaraki flies back and starts going over his mental inventory of Quirks for a counter to Izuku’s power and whip.

 

On the ground, Manual asks if Izuku is really just a student. Bakugo says he is, but he’ll kill himself if he keeps this up. He knows that Izuku is destroying his body with each hit, and that there’s no way that he’ll be able to outlast Shigaraki if he can regenerate. He tells Todoroki to get over here and launch them into the air. He tells Endeavor to turn down the heat for now to power up for a final blast. Bakugo and Shoto use their powers to get themselves and Endeavor into the air, Endeavor warning them to wait until Izuku has Blackwhip fully extended and then to get out of the way. Bakugo remembers all the times he’s interacted with Izuku and accepts he’s a hero. Izuku knocks Shigaraki back and prepares for another strike, but Endeavor flies out, latches onto him and performs a Prominence Burst! It starts to incinerate Shigaraki… but then AFO calls out to him again, asking him to lend him his body. Shigaraki doe so and releases those weird tentacles AFO used to force Kurogiri to use his warp gate despite being knocked out. As Endeavor drops, he mutters “why won’t you just die!” Shigaraki, in a harmonized voice of both AFO and Tomura, calls out to his “little brother.”

 

Bakugo, remembering Izuku rushing in to save him from the slime monster, and then that time when they were kids when Izuku went to look after him when he fell in a river as a kid, says that his body just ‘moved’, and we see he knocked Izuku to the side and took the blow for him. Damn, Bakugo, that’s some solid character growth.

 

Damn, this was a good episode. Seeing Izuku go berserk and attempt to take on Shigaraki all on his own was amazing. It’s been a while since we’ve seen him use so much power it breaks his body, and it’s still a visually jarring experience to see his arms hang so limply after using multiple full power strikes. And his reveal of Float was amazing. Shigaraki is about to unleash his one hit KO, but Izuku’s like “Nope!” The fury he unleashed here is chilling, but I suppose after seeing two mentors maimed, and hearing this psycho threatening his friends, it’d be weirder if Izuku hadn’t gone berserk. I think he has the right idea that his power is made for defeating All For One, but I’m worried that believing he MUST do it by himself is going to get him hurt. I love Bakugo’s flashback in this. We get to see how Bakugo’s views on Izuku has shifted since they had their scuffle and started working together more routinely. He sees how shitty he was to Izuku growing up and now much of his selflessness and kindness were a strength that repelled him when he was weak. Not physically, but mentally and emotionally. And that ultimately being what lead to his “hero moment” where his body moved without thinking to protect Izuku, damn that was just perfect. The fact that AFO has seemed to take the driver’s seat in Shigaraki’s body is… troubling. Putting his over a century of knowledge into a body that is young and whole and fit is a recipe for disaster and I think everyone knows it. Hopefully Izuku will be able to hold them off. But we’ll see next time. Have a good night. 

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