Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 164

 Izuku has to give up something big to save the day.

Last time on My Hero Academia we got the history of the brothers Shigaraki. AFO and his younger twin were born at the dawn of the current age. Their mother was a seemingly nameless drifter with the ability to grow spikes. At their birth, AFO, already a greedy and spiteful creature, seemingly killed their mother and stole her quirk to boot. Over the years, AFO ‘provided’ for the two of them, keeping his brother on a short leash as he viewed Yoichi as his possession. He read comics with Yoichi as a child and took the wrong lesson from them and set about making himself the Demon Lord. Along the way he killed the original Glowing Baby and stole their quirk as well. Years later he’d fashioned his criminal empire and gave Yoichi his name along with the strength quirk to try to toughen him up. Yoichi was eventually saved by Kudo and Bruce but was killed by AFO as they tried to escape. But his blood splashed on Kudo and seemingly started the first transfer. And so AFO’s obsession was born. He never wanted OFA for the powers, but because he knew some bit of Yoichi was within it and he couldn’t abide by his first possession getting away. In the present, Bakugo kicks his ass up and down the street. AFO tries to attack him with every Quirk he has at once but is beaten with some ‘stealth sweat bombs’ Bakugo released go off. Hawks’ Vestige manifests in AFO’s mind to gloat that his rage caused AFO to lose focus and control of his Quirks. Bakugo blasts him so hard he rewinds to his baby form. Bakugo almost relaxes but perks up at the last moment and saves himself from being skewered by that spine quirk AFO stole from his own mother. He disintegrates, raging at being defeated. Bakugo strikes All Might’s raised fist of victory pose as he passes out. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin with a flashback to the planning phase of the grand battle. Izuku, Bakugo, Mirko, Edgeshot, Nejire, and Amajiki listen to Best Jeanist as he explains the concept of the Flying Coffin and how they’ll keep Tomura Shigaraki contained. Jeanist explains that they have to be very careful about this fight because of Tomura Shigaraki’s split personality. They’re aware that there are at least two personas warring for control in his head. Jeanist thinks that it would be better for them if the AFO personality was the dominant one in this fight. Why? Because AFO is a megalomaniac that wants to rule the world. Because of that, he’d be much more sparring with powers like Decay. Bakugo pipes in to say that Tomura doesn’t give a damn and thus is more likely to just try to disintegrate them all. Jeanist worries that because Shigaraki’s power and hatred have been so stitched together, that he’ll destroy the planet, consequences be damned. Jeanist says that they need to think of what comes after the fight. If they beat Shigaraki but he irreparably damages the planet in the fight, then what is the point?

 

We jump to Shiketsu high and see how folks are reacting to the fighting. One guy is devastated that his farm was destroyed, while Inko Midoriya watches her baby fight for his life against Shigaraki. I give Horikoshi and the animators credit for giving her perfectly reasonable amount of tears instead of the usual firehose amount she’s cried for Izuku in the past.

 

A wave crashes through town, Tomura gloats that he focused decay through the ground earlier to cause this flood. He says that given the size of Japan, he could easily sink the entire island in less that a week with his power. He tells Izuku that THAT is what he means when he says he wants to destroy everything. He wants to break the planet in such a way that there’s no hope for humanity to recover. Izuku and Shigaraki are hit with a wave, but come up swinging. Izuku knows that if he uses Gear Shift, Fa Jinn, and Danger Sense together, he’ll be able to actually fight Shigaraki, but he doesn’t have a strategy to actually win at the moment. Tomura feels a pulse and realizes that AFO is dead. He smiles when he realizes that AFO was killed simply because Tomura himself didn’t finish off Bakugo. He says that he really should thank Bakugo for that, as without having to mentally fight for control of his body, he’s now more than fast enough to keep up with Izuku. He tries to grab Izuku’s face, but he reacts with Danger Sense and slices off Shigaraki’s fingers. Banjo manifests and warns Izuku about Danger Sense and Hikage Shinomori.

 

We enter the mindscape and flashback a few minutes. Yoichi and the other former Wielders are gathered together and watching the fight from their chamber. Yoichi senses that his brother has died and tells the others that there’s no use getting emotional, the fight is still going on and is in their successor’s hands. Banjo says that that’s well and good but they need to find a way to get through Shigaraki’s defenses and beat him. Hikage senses something is coming and shoves En out of the way. Shigaraki’s hand manifests into their mindscape and grabs Hikage, pulling him from Izuku and One For All. He shouts at his fellows to protect the Ninth.

 

So… Izuku lost Danger Sense… damn.

 

Banjo’s Vestige warns Izuku what happened. Tomura gloats, saying that he’s not nearly so obsessed with OFA as his master was… but he’ll gladly steal every scrap of it if it brings Izuku pain. In the mindscape, the others wonder how that just happened. They deduce that Shigaraki just smashed through their mental defenses and snatched the first Quirk he could get. Izuku combines Black Whip, Fa Jinn, and Gear Shift together to make a high speed chain attack, but now that he has Danger Sense, Shigaraki easily dances around Izuku’s attack. Tomura realizes that Izuku is his biggest obstacle, and he intends to kill Izuku now. He charges Izuku with an energy blast, Izuku just barely gets Black Whip up around him in a shell. Tomura strikes Izuku screaming that he’s not human anymore and how there’s definitely not a scared child in him that Izuku can reach out into. I’m not sure I believe him. He calls Izuku an idiot and to stop lying to himself that there’s anyway that he can save Tomura.

 

Izuku lands at the foot of Mt. Fuji. He now knows that he can protect himself from fatal attacks if he’s fast enough, but that’s a big if without Danger Sense. His mask shatters into his hands. Bruce manifests and says that Izuku doesn’t need that anymore as he got kicked landward. He’s analyzed Izuku’s body and realized something important. He’s lost access to Danger Sense, but he’s kept the stockpiled physical power that OFA generates. So while he lost the extremely useful skill to detected attacks, he isn’t going to hit any less hard now.

 

In the mindscape, En asks if it isn’t better for Izuku to flee. The others are shocked by this suggestion… but En has a point. The only reason that Izuku is still in this is because Hikage and Danger Sense sacrificed themselves to save the collective. Without Danger Sense’s early warning, now if they get touched again, they could lose everything.

 

Tomura lands and reveals that he can see the Vestige Ghost. He says that he knows that the OFA strategy in the past has been to run and maybe transfer as a way for them to get stronger. He’s not going to allow that to happen again. He plans on killing Izuku here and now and making sure OFA is never used against him. As he walks, he’s sending out constant waves that trigger mini earthquakes around him. He claims that by the time he’s done, nothing will be left of Japan besides the skyline, and how Spinner had been looking forward to seeing that. He settles on sinking Mt. Fuji into the ocean next. Banjo manifests and tells Izuku that Tomura brought him here for a reason, that he is going to cause Mt. Fuji to erupt if he decays it. En in the mindscape says that Tomura isn’t the successor to AFO, he’s destruction incarnate. Izuku remembers his discussion with Uraraka about their respective nemeses and how she was going to try her best to empathize with Toga in the fight. Izuku remembers Tomura’s boast that he isn’t even human anymore. Izuku insists that Tomura is still a person. That line seems to infuriate Tomura. Izuku reveals that when Tomura hit him earlier, he’d figured out how to use Black Whip to strengthen his arm and actually get off a good Delaware Smash. He unleashes the smash, which was powerful enough to send Tomura into the air.

 

He looks down at the destruction that Izuku wrought and laughs, saying that was an incredible move. The shockwave was powerful enough to interrupt decay. Tomura launches himself downward again, intent on touching everything he has to make Mt. Fuji erupt. As he falls, he realizes that the dust around him isn’t scattering, and then Izuku attacks with Black Whip chains again. Danger Sense let him dodge most of it, but Izuku gets one good hit in and takes off Tomura’s arm. He dives back into the smoke. His plan is simple, use the cloud that he made with Smokescreen and Low Gear Shift to hide his movements, attack in a big arc with Black Whip, and then rush Tomura in one go. The cloud and Black Whip should make it so Danger Sense would go off constantly and allow Izuku to slip past it. He figured out this weakness to relying on Danger Sense too much after his fight with Lady Nagant. En manifests and warns Izuku that Tomura could find him with the Search Quirk he stole for Ragdoll of the Wild, Wild Pussycats. He detects Izuku and smacks him with spines.

 

Gear Shift wears off and Izuku is temporarily paralyzed. Tomura starts to gloat, saying that he figured out that Izuku can’t keep launching those high-power attacks and that his body is starting to wear out. He regenerates the arm Izuku broke off. He admits that a direct hit from Izuku might have hurt him, too bad he missed. He jabs Izuku, saying that it must be so hard with so much he has to protect. Izuku says that its hard, but he’s not giving up on Tomura or the boy still inside him.

 

Tomura isn’t impressed. He monologues about how people build stories about how the world works. Izuku is desperate to make his belief in Tomura and this crying child within him have meaning, but he insists he buried Tenko Shimura a long time ago. He says that Tenko learned all he had to about this cruel world, hardened himself, and evolved into Tomura. The visualization we get of this is the boy Tenko disappearing into a leaden ball. Tomura shrieks that without that boy, he can now do whatever he wants.

 

Nana Shimura remembers Izuku’s childhood projection insisting that he’ll save Tenko. Nana tells Izuku to give up. He can’t beat Tomura unless he fights like he’s going to kill. Tomura, in her eyes, is too far gone for him to reach. He’s broken in a way that Izuku’s words can’t fix. He’s anathema to Izuku’s hero philosophy. Izuku refuses. He realized something important. If Tomura is so far gone, so numb as he claims to be, why is it that he’s holding onto his pain like this. He thinks Tomura has pushed his pain down deep inside and put a lid on it. He remembers how Shigaraki said that heroes ignore the people that they can’t protect and ignore the pain they cause people. Izuku insists that he’ll keep pounding on that lid until it breaks.

 

Kudo thinks about how this exact mindset was what made him hesitant to trust Izuku. He’s a good kid, but naïve, in Kudo’s eyes. But, he admits that having watched Izuku from the sidelines all this time, he’s gotten a better understanding of him, and his desire to see the good in people. He wants to believe Izuku is right and that Tomura isn’t beyond saving. He thinks about how he let out a hand to Yoichi all those years ago and how that set this off. He decides he’s going to gamble on Izuku. He calls out to the Ninth and tells him to do exactly what Kudo says. He needs to let go of One for All.

 

The others are shocked by this idea, but then they get word from the Vestige of Star and Stripes, who is still lingering inside Tomura. She says that there’s a sad child in there. All Might’s vestige seems to point at something within the ball.

 

Edgeshot wakes up All Might, telling the injured hero that he needs to stay awake until help arrives. They’re without comms, so they’ve got no idea what is going on. All Might pulls himself and realizes that he can somehow sense a bit of One For All. He realizes that OFA is coming apart.

 

Tomura blasts Izuku, but he’s confused as to why he’s remembering Star. He knows he atomized her already. She’s dead, but intent on haunting him, or so he supposes. Izuku gets blasted and badly hurt. He remembers All Might saying that he can become a hero and asks why he’d give up OFA. Kudo manifests and tells him to calm down or Tomura will see inside his head. He explains that Tomura has housed Tenko in that metaphorical leaden ball in his heart. To break through that shell of anger, trauma, pain and misery, they need to exploit a weakness. They see a crack in the ball, one made from his fight with Star or so they believe. It’s wound of his mind, not his body. If they can break that, regeneration won’t be able to heal it. Izuku asks why he has to give up OFA. Kudo says that Tomura is too powerful now that he has AFO. Izuku has to transfer OFA into him and then they’ll attack him from within. En is against this, saying that if they do that, they’ll just be giving their quirks to Tomura and making him stronger. Kudo tells them to think, and then All Might’s Vestige manifests and tells him to use a visual. Kudo then chooses the best visual, and asks Izuku how does Bakugo hand him things? Izuku thinks about the last time Bakugo gave him back some homework. Bakugo threw it in his face and said, “take this and die!” Kudo says that if you throw something with too much force you can hurt someone, and that’s what they intend to do with OFA. Kudo admits that they don’t know if it’ll work, so he’ll volunteer to go first. He knows that OFA is a quirk made from their experiences and Quirks woven together. But since Hikage was taken, it is possible to unravel their unity. He wants Izuku to hurl him at Tomura with all the force he can, in the hopes he hits hard enough that it hurts Shigaraki without giving him Gear Shift.

 

En is willing to go along with this, but says they should test it with him, as Smokescreen is the least useful Quirk right now. Gear Shift is the center of their whole strategy to staying alive. Kudo insists it has to be him, though, as it’s a win-win. By transferring Gear Shift, Izuku will lose the paralysis he’s dealing with and be able to fight. And on the chance that Tomura absorbs him, it’ll transfer the paralysis and hopefully give Izuku time to react. Bruce manifests and says that this is a very risky approach. Kudo agrees that its true. They had to make a lot of tough decisions in the past, but that, to Kudo, pales in comparison to fighting Tomura. And yet, Izuku is hanging onto his ideal of trying to save Tomura from himself. He wants to believe Izuku is right and this is the only way to prove it. The others manifest and Nana points out that Izuku isn’t afraid of dying, nor does he covet the power they gave him, he’s just scared of losing this treasure given to him by All Might.

 

Tomura watches from above and wonders what the corpses are talking about. Kudo tells Banjo to stay close to Izuku as he absolutely can’t afford to lose Black Whip and Gear Shift. Kudo asks Yoichi to watch over Izuku, and Yoichi agrees, calling Kudo his hero. Kudo asks if Izuku is willing to do this. Izuku agrees. Power surges through him, morphing him into a more bestial form. Tomura charges Izuku, but Izuku slashes as him with Black Whip claws. The two faces in the sky, Izuku in a form reminiscent of Dark Deku. Tomura smirks, saying that he’d never guess Izuku was a hero with how he looks now.

 

I was aware that Izuku gives up his powers in order to beat Tomura Shigaraki, but I was unaware as to how he went about it. I have to say, using your most treasured gift as a bludgeon in order to break down the walls of pain and trauma around the heart and mind of a doomsday weapon in the shape of a person is a very novel way to do it. Losing Danger Sense was a great bad news-good news situation, as it took away Izuku’s best defensive option, but also showed Izuku and his Vestiges that they could break their unity down to use each part of OFA as a weapon against Shigaraki. It’s also a hell of an ask for Izuku to give up the power that All Might gave him to save the day. Izuku Midoriya at this point we know he’d throw himself at any challenge in order to save the day, but OFA was the start of his life starting to go right. It gave him a relationship with his idol, it helped him make new friends and ultimately mend the relationship with an old one, it let him live his dream and be a hero to some kinds that look up to him like he looked up to All Might. It’s a big ask. And he’s doing it anyway. Izuku Midoriya, it’s been said before, but you were a hero long before you got the power of one. Tomura’s speeches about pain and vengeance are well done and I like that he’s given time to vent his frustrations at Izuku. And I like that Izuku isn’t invalidating his feelings. He hasn’t tried to tell Tomura, “oh it’s not that bad,” or even “I understand you.’ At the end of the day, Izuku is standing like a bulwark against Tomura and is shouting “I’m here, let me help you!” Shame it’s happening so late, I bet if Izuku tried this on season one Tomura it might have worked. So, Izuku has a strategy. Hopefully he can pull it off. We’ll see how that goes. See you later. Have a goodnight and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social