Like so many villains, AFO's origin is sad and petty.
Last time on My Hero Academia
Bakugo came to the rescue. Using incredible speed that he’d developed from
pushing his quirk to his limit, he overwhelmed the youthful AFO with his
explosions. AFO tried to teleport Tomura to him so he could transfer himself
into his protégée, but Tomura fights him, telling the old man to back off. AFO
tries to get past Bakugo, but despite his injuries the hellion is too fast to
get around. AFO tries to rationalize that Bakugo isn’t that dangerous to him,
he’s just on a time crunch. He’s got a middling power and is just an extra, a
stumbling block to his goal. Only to get blasted by Bakugo yet again and into a
building. AFO realizes why Bakugo seems to be triggering him as much as the
blonde bastard is, and its because he reminds him of the second OFA wielder,
Kudo. He screams that everything that’s happened is Kudo’s fault and he hates
Kudo so damn much. Bakugo snarkily tells him that he’s getting demented, as his
name is Kacchan Bakugo. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
Looks like this episode is going
back to the beginning. Like, beginning-beginning. Our first shot is of a
fertilized ova growing into twin fetuses that one must assume are the twin
Shigarakis. AFO says that it’s ‘hazy’ but he remembers quite a bit. After that
we pull out to see a couple walking on the street, they’re chatting about
nothing of importance when they see a white-haired pregnant woman drinking in
an alley. She’s got spikes growing out of her skin. The couple ask if she’s
okay, and the woman throws her bottle at them to drive them away. We get a look
at the twins, and AFO is significantly larger than Yoichi. We cut to sometime
in the future and see it’s a rainy night when the twins come into the world.
They lay on the ground bleeding beside their mother.
Narrator Present Mic comes in to
give us a brief history of meta society. It’s a bit like they used to do in the
early seasons, but with a bit more meat to it. It started with a glowing baby
and increased exponentially from there. Some had powers from birth, others
didn’t get theirs until the onset of puberty. Initially it was thought that the
powers were linked to a novel disease, and those with Meta powers were
supposedly a new offshoot of humanity. Present Mic tells us that people jumped
to that conclusion and that led to a lot of fighting between the haves and have
nots. This led to increase in strife and violence.
We join a vigilante group that are
apparently going around attacking Metas. They’re plotting to attack some folks
they saw at a protest when a young AFO comes out of the shadows. He’s dressed
in rags and has wide, staring eyes. They immediately clock him as an orphaned Meta,
and one tries to get the others to think of ‘it’ as a Carrier. The mob tries to
walk off, but are all skewered from behind by boney spikes AFO unleashes.
Narrator Present Mic says that AFO stole this quirk from his mother shortly
after his birth. AFO, according to Mic, was a greedy, vengeful being right from
the start. If he felt slighted or insulted, he attacked with extreme prejudice.
We see him and Yoichi as infants, AFO huge and Yoichi small, the two boys
clinging to their mother’s corpse. AFO is, disturbingly, draining the blood
from his mother’s breast.
Later we see AFO killing more
people and taking their quirks. Yoichi begs him to stop hurting people.
Narrator Present Mic says that AFO hogged much of the nutrients while in the
womb, so Yoichi was born sickly and small. He supposedly didn’t have a Quirk,
so he wasn’t much use to AFO… but AFO is a greedy SOB and viewed his younger
brother as his possession. And he doesn’t give up his possessions. We follow
the boys to their hideout; were Yoichi avidly reads the Captain Hero comic. We
hear over the radio that the ‘Glowing Baby” is now an adult and is suing for
peace between normal and meta humans. AFO asks his brother about the comic in
that “I don’t care but tell me anyway” way of kids. Yoichi says that he has
trouble reading, but comics are easier since the drawings help. Yoichi did his
best to connect with his brother, offering to show him the comics and help him
understand the story. Present Mic makes it seem like these attempts at kindness
were… ill-advised.
We jump forward three years, and
Yoichi is sitting up reading comics still. AFO returns to him, flying toward
his brother in a way that makes it look like he’s coming from the moon. He
glows faintly as he reveals to Yoichi that the Glowing Baby had 10 million followers
and points out how weird it is that the GB had such a following just because
they were the first registered meta human. He says that Metas are popping up
all over the world, now, so why is the ‘first’ so important anyway? He then
revealed that, yes, he killed the GB and stole their glow. Yoichi begs to know
why. AFO reveals he took the idea from the comic “One for All and All For One.”
Seems he took all the wrong lessons from the Captain Hero story. He says that
the hero fights alone and is miserable, but everyone else follows the Demon
Lord and submits to them. He says that he’s found a dream of his own that he’s
going to follow while smiling evilly.
Jump forward another decade or so,
and the now adult AFO asks Yoichi why he continues to act foolishly. He offers
Yoichi a place at his side, but Yoichi refuses. He says that the world is in
chaos and AFO is just making it worse. AFO says that he can’t understand
because he doesn’t have a meta-ability, so he decided to fix that. He claims
that he bends reality to his will and he’ll remake the world as he sees fit as
he gives Yoichi the seed that will become One For All. We also learn that it is
in this moment that he gave Yoichi his name, saying that it’s fitting as Yoichi
was the first thing that he ever owned. Yoichi roughly means Bestowed First or
something similar, so I get it. Yoichi begs him not to do this, but obviously
AFO doesn’t listen.
Jump forward a bit more, and Yoichi
is discovered by the men that would be the second and third wielders, Toshitsugu
Kido and Bruce Lee. They lead him out of the room he was being held in and run.
AFO chases after them, screaming at Yoichi to stay. He does the typical abuser
tactics, saying that Yoichi belongs to him, that he gave Yoichi everything he’s
ever had, even given him a Quirk… and if he doesn’t want to belong to AFO
anymore, what good is he? He grabs Yoichi by the shirt and… blows him to
pieces. Blood splatters everywhere, including on Kido’s face… which I assume is
how the first OFA transfer took place. Present Mic narrates that AFO’s eyes in
that moment were blank, dead in such a way that Kido wasn’t reflected in them
at all.
Later, we join AFO as he has dinner
and looks at his brother’s hand. He’s extremely confused, as he knows he gave
Yoichi a Quirk… and yet when he tried to take it from Yoichi in that last
moment, he found that the Quirk was gone. He admits that he wondered if Yoichi
had had a Quirk to begin with, but that he stole it when they were infants. He
realizes that Yoichi did have a Quirk, one that was so weak that it didn’t
register to his senses. He wonders if it never triggered due to Yoichi’s
malnutrition.
We join Kido and Bruce in their
lair, where Bruce tells Kido according to their tests his meta factor has
changed. He has his original, and a second, weaker one within him. We see a
video diary that Yoichi left for AFO, telling his brother that if he just tried
to have a little empathy, his ability to take and give Quirks would be a real
blessing onto the world. AFO realizes that some part of Yoichi must still exist
within this transference Quirk.
We get a montage of AFO’s life
after that. He built up his army, amassed power and influence, and began
hunting the wielders of OFA. He killed Kudo (2nd), Bruce (3rd),
Banjo (5th), and En (6th) over the years, but only seemed
to catch them after they transferred the Quirk. He came closest with En, it
seems, who only was able to give Nana Shimura OFA just after he took the fatal
wound from AFO. AFO personifies these transfers as Yoichi running from him. He
remembers All Might smashing his skull in and bleeding to death, only to be
revived later by Dr. Garaki.
In the present, AFO once again
shrieks that everything that has happened is Kudo’s fault. He then reveals that
his hatred for Kudo was so great that after killing Kudo, he systematically
hunted down and murdered every single person that he could find that was even
distantly related to him. He wiped out that bloodline. And yet, he can’t help
but see Kudo’s defiance in Bakugo’s eyes. He thinks that if there was a
relation to Kudo, he’d have sensed it when Bakugo was brought to him at the
League’s headquarters. He dubs the resemblance superficial, but he can’t get it
out of his head. AFO mutates, growing a huge tumor like growth from his back. He
says that Kudo has somehow traveled across time to vex him once again. AFO’s
running low on time and options. He could teleport Bakugo away, but his only
anchor points would be to All Might, which is too close to him to be useful, or
to Tomura, which would come with its own issues. He can’t take much more
serious damage or he’ll rewind to nothing. And he can’t waste his strength
because he now is certain he’ll need to fight Tomura to transfer his quirk and
possess the boy again. So… drastic measures time.
He mutates into a giant mass of
flesh, human faces appear in the wriggling mass, his mouth opens wide,
splitting the skin of his cheeks. He shrieks that he’s activating all of his
Quirks at once for one single purpose, victory. His fleshy mass consumes the
building around him to make himself even bigger. He propels himself forward
using all of his power at once. Yoichi’s vestige and the others sense AFO’s
approach. All Might and Edgeshot realize that AFO is gambling everything on
this move, and that after this he’ll de-age to a baby at least if he’s stopped.
Bakugo is stunned to see this and realizes he screwed up by not finishing AFO
off fast enough. He thinks that Izuku won’t have to worry about him anymore as
he raises his hand. All Might screams at him to get out of the way before being
knocked back by AFO’s shockwave. Bakugo asks AFO to just please blow up. To
AFO’s shock, he starts getting hit with explosions. He drops to the ground,
confused and dazed. Bakugo reveals another bit of bullshit, he mixed the
explosive sweat from his hands and forearms with the non-explosive sweat from
the rest of his body. He propelled the sweat beads forward with small
explosions that didn’t set off the bigger bursts hidden inside. He calls them
delayed explosives. AFO is horrified to realizes that Bakugo had coated him in
sweat a few times when they clashed and some of it even got into his mouth!
Gross. And explosive. Bakugo screams that he’s the king of thinking on his
feet.
All Might remembers telling Bakugo
about how AFO’s regeneration is also killing him and what he needs to do. AFO
screams up at Bakugo that this is his story and that this extra needs to get
out of his face. Bakugo unleashes his Howitzer blast down on AFO and it starts
to overwhelm him. AFO is extremely confused by this. He’s more powerful than
this. Bakugo’s attacks shouldn’t be hurting him like this. But his Quirks
aren’t synching up like they’re supposed to. There’s discord within him. He
wonders if its because he’s de-aged too much. We enter his mindscape and see
Hawks Vestige manifest behind him. HV says that he’s got a bit of riot on his
hands, the other Quirk factors are sort of turning into his fan club. He claims
that AFO let Tomura’s hate swallow him up and that caused him to lose control
of the other Quirk Factors. In the real world, AFO blows up into a fleshy mass,
the main body thrown upward. Bakugo tackles him and gets his hand on AFO’s
face. He remembers AFO’s claim that this is his story, and Bakugo corrects him.
He says that was never true. He remembers all the big moments of his life, including
his birth somehow, and his interactions with Izuku and their friends. He yells
that this isn’t AFO’s story, but theirs! And unleashes a full power blast on
AFO.
All Might realizes that they’d done
it. He and Bakugo, and everyone else that fought AFO today whittled him down
bit by bit until he could be beaten. AFO drags himself from the ground, having
been reduced to an infant by Rewind. He’s in denial, thinking that he just
needs to get a little bit closer to Tomura. He just needs to get to Tomura,
transfer his Quirk into Tomura, and then use that to strengthen the Vestige in
Tomura. Then he’ll get control back, kill everyone, absorb OFA and win. He does
have a bit of an epiphany when he admits that the reason why he so gleefully
causes pain and misery like he has, for over a century, is because he’s
terrified and wants everyone to look at him, to acknowledge his existence. He
screams that he’s so close when Bakugo lands in front of him. Bakugo is shocked
to see him still moving. He throws up blood; he’s exhausted and feeling cold. He
starts to fall over, feeling like the battle is over as AFO can’t even speak
anymore, just cry like the baby he appears. Bakugo almost passes out but
remembers telling his friends that the only way to prove you’re strong is to
stand on your feet. He catches himself and says that he’s not going down until
he KNOWS he won. AFO tires one last attack, his first attack, launching a spine
at Bakugo. It looks like it skewers Bakugo, but he actually caught it with his
teeth and then exploded it.
This proves too much for Rewind and
AFO gets consumed by his power. He shrieks in fear and pain, saying that it
can’t end like this and how much he hates Bakugo. He’s shocked that he was
overcome by his own emotions. He is consumed in fire. Hawks Vestige wonders if
now the Quirk Factors will return to their owners… but no, that’s not the sort
of story this is. He thinks it would have been nice as he’s consumed. AFO
vanishes. Bakugo drops with his fist raised. He is bummed because he wanted to
stay standing like All Might. He mentally encourages Izuku, telling him to beat
Tomura’s ass.
I do so enjoy getting villain
backstories. I can’t say that I’m shocked to learn that this
multi-generational, centuries long grudge and obsession that All For One had
with One For All ultimately leads back to an abuser being unwilling to let his
victim go… but I don’t think I’d have guessed that one on my own. AFO is a
control freak and violent man, one that can’t even begin to understand why his
brother didn’t want to be his minion when he’s oh so generous to Yoichi.
Like, the dude doesn’t even get that essentially naming his brother “My First
Toy” is a micro-aggression so huge that it’s really a macro-aggression. I’m not
usually one for the ‘he was born evil’ trope, but it kind of works for AFO. He wasn’t
born evil so much as born greedy, which metastasized into evil as his greed
grew. Metaphorically as well as literally eating your mother is one of those
things that is hard to rationalize. I loved the visual of AFO mutating into a
Cosmic Horror monster of flesh and mouths as he tried to fight Bakugo. I’m a
sucker for monsters beyond human comprehension, what can I say? It was
incredibly sad to learn that Yoichi didn’t really get to escape. As far as I
can tell, he died maybe feet from the room he was held in… but I suppose he at
least got to have the dream of escape. And that his Vestige has gotten to meet
these new people and travel along with them. It’s a tragic tale but not one
without hope. Bakugo using mixed sweat as like stealth bombs was silly,
incredibly so, but I’ll not complain too much as him getting the win against
AFO was amazing. I liked the reference to FMA as well… Fullmetal Alchemist
is an immensely popular manga and anime series by Hiromu Arakawa that ran from
2001 to 2010. It featured the adventures of the Elrich brothers, Edward and
Alphonse, as they searched for the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, a bit of
Alchemical legend that they hope can restore their bodies after they committed
the sin of human transmutation. I’ll do my best to be vague so as not to spoil
one of the greatest anime of all time… but in the finale, a character is eaten
by one of the Homunculi, the villains of the story. That man is able to
manifest themselves in the mind of that Homunculi, Pride, just as Pride is
attempting a Hail Mary body swap with protagonist Ed to try to stave off death.
It’s an eerily similar moment to Hawks manifesting to have a final laugh at AFO
before his defeat. Shame that Hawks doesn’t get his power back, but I think
he’ll be fine with the loss when he learns AFO is dead for good. So, Tomura
Shigaraki is the last man standing and is still inarguably the biggest threat
the world has ever seen. Izuku is going to have to find a way to put him down
once and for all. Here’s hoping he can win. See you later. Have a good night
and stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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