The story is over, but the journey never ends.
Last time on My Hero Academia
Izuku honored Tomura Shigaraki’s last request. He met with Spinner, who doctors
were able to save from transforming into a full Nomu. Izuku told him Tomura’s
last words, that he fought to destroy everything. Spinner has a bit of a
breakdown as he says that Tomura was his first, best friend and his hero. Izuku
tells him that he thinks Tomura felt the same. As he left, Spinner promised to
write a book about the League of Villains and Tomura Shigaraki so no one can
ever forget the group and move on. Izuku thinks that’s a good idea and says
that he hopes it’s a comic. Izuku went on to start his second year with helping
with cleaning up the debris and learning that the new crop of first years is
already idealizing him and the rest of his class. Later, Uraraka heads to the
Troy base to be alone and to have a hard cry about failing to save Himiko Toga.
She’s interrupted by Izuku, who knew where she’d be, and had deduced that he
and the rest of class 1A/2A’s supporter needed support for once. He tells her
that he also feels like he failed to really save Tenko, Tomura Shigaraki, and
that he thinks that they’ll need to help each other. The rest of the class
shows up, all also insisting that they need to support one another, and Izuku
puts his money where his mouth is and tells them about how his power is fading.
They have a goodbye party for Aoyama, and Izuku looks hopefully to the future.
In a post credit scene, we see a child with an implied destructive power escape
from a ruin and ask why it was only him. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it,
shall we?
We open with this scared Edward
Scissorhands-looking child, named Koki, as he escapes from wherever he was
being held. The boy wore what looks like a fancy straitjacket and his threads
coming off of his face. He thinks, “Was it just me?’ as he stumbles out into
the busy street and sees people walking around.
Keigo and All Might have lunch and
Keigo tells the former hero that he’s planning on expanding the Hero Billboard
chart. His plan is to expand it out so that it can include both professional,
capital H heroes as well as the normies that just try to help out. He figured
it’s a way to show recognition to the folks that stepped up and helped out
during the fighting. All Might says he’s surprised Keigo doesn’t want to just
get rid of the glorified popularity contest, and Keigo says that it’s a flawed
system, but it’s the best one they’ve got right now. He says that heroes need
help to save more people.
We return Koki as the boy wanders
the street. He has a flashback to when his Quirk first manifested. It’s kind of
vague, but it looks like he’s got some kind of destructive quirk that causes
things to break down in a black-purple smoke. His father is horrified by this
and says that if Koki’s Quirk gets out, the family will be ruined. He orders
someone kill his son and hide the body. When one of Koki’s siblings points out
that that’s an insane request, his father changes it to lock him up and hide
him where no one will find the boy. Furthermore, they’ll need to keep him
silent. He’s not supposed to speak again. Koki is paced in a cell in what looks
like a fancy house and left to rot. He escapes after the destruction, and
wonders what he did wrong. We see his Quirk is active, causing more of that
black-purple smoke to rise from his shadow. He wants to know wants to know what
he did wrong, why was he forced to suffer alone in the dark while everyone else
got to go around being happy. He’s about 5 seconds away from going on a rampage
with his quirk… when a little old lady grabs him by the arm and asks him what’s
wrong. This woman was the one that found a young Tenko Shimura wandering the
streets and almost helped him… but pulled back when she saw the crazed look in
his eye and said that the police will find him, eventually. She says that she
often wonders if that boy did get help… and that question has kept her up at
night for a long time.
We jump back to Keigo and All
Might. Keigo says that Izuku was a beacon during the battle. Folks watched him
fight and he taught them all something.
The old lady goes from holding
Koki’s wrist to grasping his hand and says that everything is going to be
alright. Granny is here for him. This causes Koki to cry and for his Quirk to
dissipate. We pull out and see Izuku and Uraraka on patrol. They’d been headed
over to handle this, but smile when they see that Granny has it covered. Keigo
says that he hopes the changes they’re making, based on what Izuku showed them,
will make the world a better place and make a world that heroes can take it
easy.
If this old lady had a nickel for
every disturbed child with a destructive power she came across, she’d have two
nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?
We flashback all the way to the
first episode, where young Izuku tries to defend a bullied kid from Bakugo and
his cronies. He gets his ass kicked. Narrator Izuku says that not everyone is
created equal, people are different in large and small ways. But those
differences are what lead us to care about one another. We see that we’ve
jumped forward about eight years. Izuku is now a teacher at UA, the embers of
OFA having faded a while back. He’s taking notes in the teachers lounge as a
now teenage Kota comes in to talk to him. He calls him Midoriya, but quickly
corrects it to “Mr. Deku,” and asks where the class is meeting for the
practical course. Izuku tells him to head to the bus stop and they’ll be headed
to the USJ.
We’re shown snippets of what has
happened since Izuku was at UA. He attended classes and graduated. All Might
spent time with Recovery Girl as he healed up. Heroes like Mirko and Mt Lady
did hero stuff. Shoji got some kind of award from a Heteromorph group, Koda
applauding him. Enji and Rei continued to visit with Dabi. And it looks like
Eri was adopted by Mandalay of the Wild, Wild Pussycats and started going to
school with Koda. Aizawa and Present Mic visited Shirakumo’s grave. Izuku
trained with his classmates and prepared for the hero licensing exam. Izuku and
a bunch of the boys did their best to encourage Bakugo through his physical
therapy, and he tells them to shut the hell up. Spinner released his book and it’s
at least a marginal success. I’d like to think Izuku has a copy, and he too
suggests it to anyone that wants or needs another perspective on villains and
hero society.
We pick up with Izuku and Uraraka
as they walk home from class, Uraraka commenting on the snow falling and Izuku
saying they’re just three months out from Graduation. They confirm with each
other that they’re sticking to their plans post-graduation. We then head to
graduation, and every one of Izuku’s class get their diplomas. Izuku is told by
Nezu that he knows this world wouldn’t be the same without him. Izuku, humble
as ever, says that they all did this. After the diplomas are handed out, Tenya
Iida aka Ingenium is called up to give a speech. His speech is encouraging and
ends with him saying that they need to GO BEYOND! This being the cue for their
vision of the surprise thing-breaks-through-the-wall moment. Theirs is Bakugo
and Monoma using Explosion to burst through it, Bakugo shouting “And show the
world what we can do!”
Izuku sums up the story thus far,
that All Might gave him power and he started on an incredible journey. He then
says that that journey is over, but you maybe are asking why he’s still
talking. And in the first meta joke from Future Narrator Izuku, he says “It’s
because there’s still runtime in the episode.”
8 Years later we join a middle
school class as they discuss their high school prospects. One kid wants to go
to UA. One kid wants to build support items and wants to study at Lightly Labs,
which is where Hatsume ended up and has been excelling. We cut to Hatsume as
she works on her latest Baby and her supervisor orders her to go take a bath as
she’s been focused on building for the last few days. Another student wants to
be a doctor, like Ryu Yoshida, the lizard doctor. That name is literally Dr.
Dragon Yoshi-da, which is a punny name even for Horikoshi. A fox girl wants to
be a professional coder and wants to work for GeL Inc, the programing firm that
Danjuro and Manami Tobita (Gentle Criminal and La Brava) started. Yes, they’re
still together and it makes me smile. One kid, Dai, gets teased for applying
for UA when he’s got a less than impressive Quirk. He says that he won’t know
if he can do it if he doesn’t try. The first UA kid says that he shouldn’t
bother because the villain rate is dropping. By the time they graduate, only
the best of the best will be able to make it, and that’s not him. He students
are told to turn in their surveys.
Dai heads home, musing about how
much his classmates have changed. He thinks about the heroes the idolized when
they were younger, All Might, Endeavor, Deku, Great Explosion Murder God
Dynamite (hey, someone said the whole thing), and Shoto. He seems to be the
only one that still feels that way about them. He heads to the All Might
statue, and says that whenever he feels anxious, he heads there.
We cut to a news report about
Shoji, the hero Tentacole and how he’s doing his best to bring awareness to
Heteromorph discrimination. He’s given the Imamura Peace Prize. We then cut to
a report about how Iida (Ingenium), Froppy (Tsu), Creati (Yaoyorozu) and
Uravity (Uraraka) are doing a nation-wide tour of elementary schools. They’re
apparently working on different programs to fill time as villain rates have
dropped. Uraraka is spearheading a Quirk counseling program that people are
saying is the social program the world needs most. She’s trying to pull other
heroes into the program as well. We see Eri, now a high schooler, meeting with
friends.
Izuku gets shown a video of Bakugo freaking
out while handling a fire by Aizawa. He says that Bakugo’s rating is going to
nosedive, again. In the video, Bakugo shrieks at the kid taking the video to
leave or die as he’s not here for his entertainment. Izuku asks Aizawa how
trying to get Bakugo to calm down and speak more nicely has gone, and Aizawa
shrugs, saying he failed. He adds that Shoto is going to get a big lead on Bakugo
now, as he’s an extremely diligent, hardworking hero. He’s so good that most
folks don’t bring up that he’s Endeavor’s son anymore. Izuku is pretty jazzed
about that, saying that he’s sure he’ll rocket up past Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods,
and maybe even dethrone Mirio from the top spot. He mentions that Monoma and
Honenuki are hot on their heels. Aizawa gives him a look and asks Izuku if he
misses it. Izuku nods, but says that he realized something when Fuwa spoke to
their class at the start of second year. Sure, he was going to lose his powers,
but he still had experiences that would be worthwhile to share with others. We
pull in on some photos Izuku has taped up on his desk, showing him with various
students he’s had. He figured doing that would make him ‘cool.’ He asks Aizawa
if he’s cool, and Aizawa flatly tells him to be stricter with his students. Aizawa
says that these days, UA graduates are all but guaranteed hero spots, so they
need to give the students discipline so they don’t end up arrogant and lazy.
Izuku points out that Aizawa was pretty nice to his class, all things
considered. Thus, proving to me that he’s blocking out a LOT of his first year.
Izuku walks home and sees Tokoyami
and Hagakure on product advertisements. He sighs and mentions that since
getting jobs, he and the former Class 1A have had trouble meeting up. Which,
ya, that’s a tough part of adulthood. Gotta make time for friends and hobbies
as an adult, kiddo. He passes by a statue that commemorated him and his class.
A report on a billboard talks about how Kirishima is super popular among male
fans and some boys shout about how they’re Unbreakable like him. Izuku thinks
about how much he likes seeing his classmates’ exploits. He mentions when he
thinks about his school days, he often ends up at the All Might statue. One of
the kids runs by and nearly falls on his face. Izuku dives to keep him from
hitting the ground to hard, and sees Dai also tried to help, but he misjudged
the jump and ate it really bad. Izuku sees the kid run off, and then helps Dai
up, who geeks out when he realizes he’s looking at the Deku. They talk,
and Dai mentions how he’s got a weak quirk and how that makes him anxious. He
comes to the All Might statue and asks the statue if he can be a hero like
them. Izuku realizes that Dai is in the same spot he was back in the day. He
starts doing his analysis muttering, talking about how Dai’s ability to throw
the large dots that grown on his head is a hair-based power like Mineta. Dai
realizes that he’s trying to help but wonders why he’s being creepy about it.
Izuku gives him the ‘You, too, can become a hero.”
Izuku says that he misses being a
hero. But so long as he can keep inspiring others, this is still the story
about how we became the greatest heroes. We get a “The End” graphic, but Old
All Might grabs it and crushes it in his hands, telling Young Midoriya to hurry
or he’ll be late to class. Izuku is excited to see him and asks why All Might
didn’t tell him he was headed in, as Izuku would have gladly picked him up at
the Airport. All Might reveals that he picked up a lot of data from his final
battle with AFO. He hands Izuku a brief case designed like his Deku costume,
saying that while the data he got was good, he and some others want Izuku to
gather more. Since Izuku is one of the few people alive that has experience
with multiple Quirks, he’s uniquely suited for it. The suitcase opens up and
transforms Iron Man style into suit. All Might reveals that Hatsume and Melissa
Shield’s made it, thanks to donations from his classmates and particularly a
large donation from Bakugo. All Might tells him not to hide his excitement and
get on out there.
We cut to Keigo, who mutters things
are easier now but there’s still excitement. He calls heroes in to handle a
landslide, and Izuku and former class 1A gather to handle it. Bakugo holds out
his hand to him and tells Deku to come on. Izuku leaps into action with his
friends, including Aoyama who must have gotten certified as well. As they
charge, he sees a ghostly vestige of Tomura Shigaraki looking up at him from a
roof and nodding approvingly. Narrator Izuku says that he and his friends will
keep trying to save people and help others.
Over the ending credits, we see
where everyone ended up. Hagakure and Aoyama are working together independently.
Kirishima and Ashido are working together, Ashido using her charisma and
zealous comments to earn him media attention. He’s selling a manly calendar and
Ashido keeps her fans entertained with her breakdancing. Tsu and Uraraka are
working with kids and on that Quirk counseling program. Shoji and Koda are
dealing with human rights issues, and Shoji is now confident enough to go
without his mask more often. Kaminari and Jiro work together, doing both hero
work and training Eri on instruments. Ojiro and Sato are massively popular and
Ojiro plans to open a marital arts studio. Tokoyami and Shinso are working
together and are famous men of mystery. Tenya Iida took the lead on the
Ingenium Agency, but his brother Tensei has made a recovery due to support
items so is also helping out. I don’t have proof Hatsume is the one that built
him the tech, I just know she did. Yaoyorozu works in a lab and is a lecturer
in her spare time. Sero and Mineta are working together, Sero’s popularity
annoys the shrimp who thought he’d be the more popular of the two. Shoto is
also massively popular and doing good works. Bakugo is doing well but his
attitude keeps him from staying high on the popularity charts. He’s still
really close with Best Jeanist and Edgeshot, who did get to be human sized
again. And finally, Izuku works as a teacher but is taking up hero work again.
The story ends with a “the story continues on…” tease.
Well, that was a hell of an ending.
I remember when the manga first finished up and there was some outrage over how
it ended. There were folks that were upset that Izuku ended up retiring from hero’s
work to become a teacher. I chock this up to some folks not fully understanding
the story. Izuku from minute one was an inquisitive child that liked making
notes, analyzing others and figuring out the best way to use the abilities he
was eventually given by All Might. That’s a skill he showed off a few times in
the various training arcs and would be ideally used in a classroom where he’s
training the next generation of heroes. And from there, he can use his natural
charisma and empathy to help raise up future heroes that are powerful enough to
stand up to someone like Tomura Shigaraki, but with the necessary empathy and
intelligence to stop those kinds of threats before they happened. His actions
inspired that old lady to not wait for someone else to stop a threat, but to be
the hand of comfort for someone who needed it. Being a hero in his eyes was
never about the fame or power, it was about helping people, something he can do
in spades as a teacher. The worst folks mocking this choice made a bunch of AI
pictures of Izuku working at McDonalds which, like, wow, way to be a dick. I
love that we went full circle with him. All Might once told a powerless boy
that he too can become a hero, so too the hero Deku told a boy without much
power that he too could become a hero. There are folks on the other end of the
spectrum that didn’t like that Izuku got an Iron Man suit that lets him
continue to be a hero, they feel like it cheapens his sacrifice if he just gets
tech-based replacements. I think this argument has a bit more weight to it, but
I like the suit. Being a hero does matter to Izuku, and being given the chance
to continue to help people along with his friends feels like a reward that I
don’t want to take from him. It’s having his cake and eating it too, to some,
but folks only complain about that when they didn’t get that option, ya know?
Okay, so that’s the main story of My Hero Academia. The extremely hectic
two years in the life of Izuku Midoriya, the hero Deku, the Ninth Wielder of
One For All that faced off against and defeated the generational evil of All
For One and saved the soul of his greatest victim, Tomura Shigaraki. It was a
hell of a ride. But we’ve got one more epilogue to cover before I do a total
wrap up. See you for that tomorrow. Have a good night and stay safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-165228929
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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