All Might finds a way to have one last brawl with his oldest enemy.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Uraraka did her best to confront Himiko Toga. The angry, embittered young woman
hid herself among the Duplication of Twices and tried to kill everyone, but
Uraraka found the real Toga and did her damnedest to just talk out their feelings
with her. Toga tries to fight off Uraraka even after the other girl trapped her
and all the Twice clones in her anti-gravity touch. She stabs Uraraka in the
gut and says that they’ll never understand each other. We get flashbacks to
Toga’s backstory, where we learn that she was told to repress her desire to
drink blood and was called a monster by like the age of six, so like… there’s
no way this girl had a chance of being normal. Uraraka keeps pushing despite
her wound and finally breaks through to Toga, saying that Toga is beautiful when
smiling her very vulpine smile. It’s at this point that Toga’s Twice
transformation runs out and she says goodbye to him one more time as all her
clones melt away to dust. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open on the last moments of last
episode, with the two girls floating to the ground as Twice’s transformation
runs out. Uraraka tells Toga that she can’t replace the League of Villains, but
she’ll do her best to try. We pull out to see how everyone else had faired
against the Duplication of Twices. Everyone seems to have survived, one broke
down just as it reached a very injured Iida, and it looked like Endeavor tried
to shield his family with his body from the squad that came up on him. Hawks
had fought one off for a while, the clone attempted to run him through with a
dagger as it broke down. Hawks tells this Toga that he has to admit that Twice
was a nice guy, but that she already knew that.
Toga grabs her mask and her knife,
saying that she only started using a knife to become the people that she loves,
but that she ended up using it in anger. She looks around and sees that all the
heroes that also got his with anti-gravity are floating down super gently to
the ground. She realizes that despite her serious stomach wound, Uraraka is
using all her strength to make sure that her Quirk releases slowly enough that no
one drops from too far. Toga coughs up blood, reminding us that using a copied
Quirk drains her more than just shapeshifting. Uraraka’s torso is coated
with blood, she’s also got a ton on her face. She’s bleeding out but still
trying to save everyone. Toga looks around and sees that no one else is near
enough to help. She tells Uraraka that the League of Villains will tear the
world apart and that the world they create will be a better fit for her… but
she realizes that she can’t lose Uraraka.
Toga licks up some of Uraraka’s
blood and shapeshifts into her. She’s exhausted from the fighting, though, so
part of her face reverts almost immediately. She tells Uraraka that when she
transforms using her Quirk, her blood transforms as well, so this should work.
She uses her costume’s syringes to transfuse her shapeshifted blood into Uraraka
and another needle to stitch up her stomach wound. She talks to Uraraka about
what its like being a hero, saying that all she had to do is fight and capture villains,
but she genuinely tried to help Toaga. She says that she thinks Uraraka is
pretty weird, but she loves that about her. She realizes that Uraraka can’t let
her go free and Toga can’t let herself be captured, so she had to come up with
another solution. She thanked Uraraka for caring about her, and that she
admires that Uraraka doesn’t run from the past like Toga does. She thinks that
maybe if she’d met Uraraka sooner, maybe she’d have decided to give as much
blood as she took. She hands Uraraka an All Might figure she’d be carrying as
she lays beside Uraraka. Toga has a mental image of healing that bird she drank
blood from as a child and watching it fly away. She cradles Uraraka to her as
she thinks that she’s Himeko Toga and she lived and loved how she wanted.
We jump over to All Might who is
holding his briefcase and waiting for AFO. He asks if this is what Nighteye saw
in his vision. He flashes back to just after the fight where he’d thought he’d
killed AFO once and for all, but was hurt in the process. Nighteye shrieked at
him that if he kept going on this path, he’ll face off against a villain and
die horribly. All Might sees the teenage version of AFO approaching and says
its hard to believe this is the same man he fought. He thinks that if the
prediction hasn’t changed, this is what Nighteye saw for him. … “BUT I AM STILL
HERE!” He activates the briefcase. It and the hood of his car break down into
some kind of nanotech that covers his body in an Iron Man like battle suit. He remembers
Nana Shimura telling him that in a fight that the strongest one is the one with
a smile on their face. That’s why he has to show his face. His mask peels open
to show his huge grin as he announces the reveal of ARMORED ALL MIGHT!
All Might tells a drone that popped
out of his car, Hercules, to record everything and transmit it to his allies.
Hercules confirms that its already doing it. The cops watching marvel at All
Might’s new suit, and La Brava remarks how crazy it is that All Might is going
to face off against All For One. She hits button and starts streaming the video.
Tsukauchi remembers when All Might left, All Might saying that he’s going out
to help the others. He wonders if All Might has headed out to die. He tells La
Brava to turn off the stream, as he knows that All Might is only going to be
able to buy them a few minutes at most. He’s doing this to buy time for Izuku,
but regardless of how many gadgets he’s brought to bear, a Quirkless human can’t
face off against this power.
AFO recognizes All Might and looks
like he’s equal parts furious and elated. He admits that of all the people he’s
faced in his long life, All Might has been the biggest thorn in his side and yet
also the one he loved toying with most. He sees that huge grin on All Might’s
face and demands to know why he’s laughing when he knows he’s going to die. AFO
charges a plasma beam and fires. I’ll point out that he pumped so much energy
into that attack his own right arm was burned to a stump. All Might calls out “Red
Riot!” to Hercules, and the plates floating behind him form a shield around his
body. He survived the hit, but is warned that his shield is down by 66%. The
next hit will destroy it, and All Might says that that is fine by him and keeps
charging. AFO says that he’s familiar with All Might’s brazen style, but
without OFA, he’s flying towards his death. All Might calls out “Black Whip,”
and pierces AFO with black cables. He then calls out “Chargebolt,” and AFO gets
zapped, which keeps his arm from regenerating. All Might reveals that he’d been
studying AFO since he fought Nana Shimura and he also knows how AFO fights. He
always opens big, with a huge, messy long ranged attack. It’s designed to
weaken his opponent, to soften them up so he can rush in and steal their Quirk.
A strategy that’s utterly useless against someone who is Quirkless!
At the station, La Brava teasingly
asks Tsukauchi if he still thinks this’ll be a bloodbath. Tsukauchi starts
crying, thinking to himself that he should have known All Might wouldn’t go
quietly.
All Might says that he knew after
their last brawl that he’d have to face AFO again and that he’d have to come at
him with the best technology possible to bridge the gap in their power. He
doesn’t say Melissa Shield’s name, but we quickly flash to her anxiously
watching the fight as All Might says he traveled to the US where a Friend
hooked him up with Hercules and this powered armor. He shouts at AFO that he
should know by now that All Might never enters a fight thinking he could lose. He
calls out “Cellophane” to bind him, “Sugar Man” to power up his foot by
encasing it in more car parts, and “SHOOT STYLE! SMASH!” to hit AFO in the face
with a high horsepower kick! As he beats on AFO he admits that this is a little
shameless, a man in his fifties beating on a teenager. In his head, All Might
says that he figured something out about AFO. In order to mold Tomura Shigaraki
and try to steal OFA, he nurtured an intense hatred and anger in the boy that is
now feeding back into AFO. The only reason they’re fighting right now is that Shigaraki’s
anger is making AFO blind to reason. All Might loudly proclaims that he’ll get
AFO so angry that he can’t focus on anyone else in the world!
AFO combines Springify, Brawn
Boost, Air Cannon, Rivet Stab, Dark Ball and Impure Beam to make a huge blast
that sends All Might through several buildings. All Might’s suit is damaged by
the hit, but his suit’s Auto-Guard cape “Tsukoyomi” absorbed most of the blow. He
points out that that string of Quirks was completely random, which makes him
pretty sure that his taunts are working. Hercules tells him that his left arm
and collarbone were also broken in the blast and All Might calls for maximum
assistance. AFO floats over and tries to mock All Might back, saying that his ‘fancy
body bag’ can only give out so much power. Once it’s broken, he’ll be useless.
All Might remembers advising Izuku not to rely too much on an item as some
heroes fall to pieces if they lose theirs. He flashes back to when he met Nana,
where we see she saved him from fighting a gang using a mop handle. She asks if
he really thought he’d win with just that.
All Might says that he and AFO
think alike and charges, striking his face. AFO unleashes a huge blast of
energy from his body, saying that he’s got more than enough time to ‘pick up some
trash’ and then get back to hunting Izuku. All Might says what’s pathetic is
AFO acting like he’s untouchable. He calls up another item, an injection of
Pinky Acid that he rams into AFO’s side. Mina’s acid is potent, infecting his
body in seconds. AFO shrieks in fury as All Might jeers at him.
He flashes back to begging Nana
Shimura into taking him as her student. Young Toshinori reveals that his family
was killed recently by villains, Nana isn’t impressed as something similar
happened to her and she doesn’t want to help someone seek revenge. Toshinori
impresses her by his resolve to become a symbol to unite people. He wants to be
the Symbol of Peace, to devote himself to bringing everyone out of the darkness.
In the present, AFO flings All
Might aside. At the police station, they see that AFO is getting closer to
Izuku and UA, but he’s visibly diverted his path to fight All Might. Tsukauchi
tears up watching his friend throw himself at this villain.
Hercules tells All Might that he’s
got a lot of broken bones from that hit and his lungs were damaged. As AFO
flies after him, her remembers meeting Izuku and thinking about how odd it was
to think he used to be that young. He also remembers his meeting with Stain, as
the hero killer refused to believe he was All Might as All Might smiled regardless
of his power. The suit binds his injuries as he gets back up. He looks up to
see AFO has de-aged even more and thinks that AFO doesn’t realize how much he’s
been rewound. He doesn’t want to call attention to it and bring FO back to his
sense. He realizes that AFO must have used his Quirks to purge the poison from
his system. All Might finally realizes that AFO’s rewind is speeding up each
time it heals him from wounds. So he just needs to keep piling on the damage to
make him de-age to nothing. He starts laughing, driving AFO into a further rage.
He calls out to Hercules for more backup. His car launches more parts, merging
with his suit as he calls out to his thrusters, “Uravity and Ingenium,” and
sets them to full throttle. He asks his students, Class A, to lend him his strength.
We flash to the 1A students, all over who look like they’ve gotten rocked to
one degree or another before settling on Kaminari. He’s watching from above as
Izuku tangles with Tomura, creating a huge cyclone of power. The winds they’re
kicking up are infused with his signature green energy making a sort of cyclone
of lightning around them. Izuku senses through All Might’s vestige that he’s
also fighting. All Might tells him that they’ll win this together!
After the credits we see an All
Might card in the rain with the promise “To be concluded.” That’s a hell of a season
finale.
One aspect that I really liked about
this fight is that both parties know this is a stall. All Might knows that regardless
of how powerful this suit Melissa built for him is, regardless of what
techniques he uses against AFO, that at the end of the day he’s going to be a
speedbump slowing the eldest Shigaraki down. Don’t give me that look, that even
fits with what All Might says about him never thinking he’s going to lose a fight.
His win is distracting AFO long enough that Izuku either doesn’t have to fight
him at all or for the barest minimum amount of time before he de-ages to
nothing. So, AFO can break all of his bones, disintegrate him into smoke or do
any other number of horrible things to him, but at the end of the day, All
Might will still ‘win’ in the sense that he wasted AFO’s time when every second
mattered. And I like that AFO also knows that this is a stall, but he doesn’t
care because he wants to beat All Might. This really highlights what an egotistical
psycho AFO is, that even in this situation where every second matters, he’s
still risking eating up some of his precious time if it means FINALLY wiping
the smile off All Might’s face. All Might noticing that AFO’s getting younger at
a faster rate based on his healing I think was the first moment where he
thought he could potentially win this fight just by running out the clock. His Hercules
system is able to pump out enough power to hurt AFO, that’s fact, so if he just
keeps laying on the knicks, cuts and blasts, he could win. Death by a thousand
cuts and all that. Naming his attacks and armaments after his students was a
sweetheart thing to do. All Might clearly loves those kids a lot and is putting
a lot of faith in these attacks and defenses based on their skills. I just
wonder how he’ll represent something like Koda’s speaking to animals. All Might
isn’t showing a Batman level of skill based on prep time, but I like that it’s
clear that his boast about studying AFO as much as AFO studied him isn’t
bluster. Predicting his opening move and then catching him in the electric cables
was just brilliant. I don’t know how much of this fight is going to take up
next season, but I hope its at least a couple episodes. And I’ll close on pointing
out how sad but sweet a conclusion to Toga’s story this is. She’s a girl that got
a raw deal, who’s power made her life hard but who’s family made it
exponentially harder, she killed, she hurt people, and she loved with all her
heart. She wasn’t a saint by any stretch, but she chose to go out selflessly
helping someone she cared about, in her own dysfunctional way, and that’s
commendable in its own way. I wish there had been a better ending for her, but
having her blood be the thing that saved Uraraka after Uraraka’s blood saved her
is a nice bit of symbolic symmetry. The final season is going to be lit. See you
tomorrow for that.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-162012154
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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