Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 150

The villains bounce back insanely well.  

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 149

Mirio, Nejire, and Amajiki to the rescue. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 148

Endeavor and some side characters battle the Demon Lord.

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 147

 Number One and Two heroes vs the Demon Lord, ready? Fight!

Last time on My Hero Academia we were given another chapter from the book of Dabi. The story is partially told by Dabi to Shoto, and partially by Dr. Garaki to a random guard he was trying to scare. Seems that after his Quirk went out of control, setting himself ablaze as well as the mountain around him, Toya Todoroki fell into a river which ultimately saved his life. He was found by All For One and chosen to be an emergency backup vessel for AFO if anything happened to Tomura. They performed radical surgery on Dabi, sticking regenerative tissue and other cutting-edge science to save the boy’s life. He ended up in a coma, waking up three years later. AFO and a minion of his, Mr. Sunshine, tried to keep Toya contained, but he refused to learn under anyone besides his dad. He set fire to the building and ran off. He returned home to find Shoto being put through an abusive training regimen from his dad and believed the family moved on from him. He ran off, swearing to destroy his family. He spent the next few years training, rebuilding the strength he lost after the fire and coma, and eventually surpassing it. When he returned to join the League, Garaki and AFO dubbed him too obsessed with death to be an adequate vessel for AFO. In the present, Shoto and Dabi faced off. Dabi unleashed his full power, creating heat so intense even other fire elementalists couldn’t handle it. He ruined his own flesh, burning himself to a blackened husk. He initially overwhelmed Shoto, dubbing him a spoiled child that refuse to embrace his destiny. Shoto then unveiled the fruit of his own training, Flashfire Fist: Phosphor, a cold fire to protect him from Dabi’s heat. The brother’s clashed, Dabi insisting they’ll destroy each other, but Shoto saying that he’ll make them see eye to eye again. He struck his brother in the stomach and flash froze the area around him, dousing his fire and knocking him out. Well, that was emotionally draining. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The other members of Shoto’s team recover to see Dabi fall. Burnin shouts to report to everyone that Dabi has been defeated. This revitalizes the rest of the Kamino Ward heroes and they rally to take out the lesser villains and Nomu. At Central, All Might starts crying, saying that that must have been hard. Tsukauchi says that this is a great thing, its proof their plan is working even if Izuku has been delayed. He tells All Might to spread the word. The team protecting Gigantomachia, comprising Ashido, Kirishima, Mineta, Mt. Lady and members of Class 1B hold off a villain strike team that attempted to free the behemoth and are inspired by the news. The leader of this attack calls it a wasted effort, they’ll overwhelm and defeat the heroes, leaving them trampled like ‘that pathetic UA teacher.’ Ashido dodges a strike from Mr. Sludge from the first episode and a few other villains, hears this comment and freezes up for a moment. Kirishima leaps in and knocks out this dude with a hammer that tries to hit her while her back is turned. He tells his friends that Shoto has shown them how manly he is, so it’s their turn now.

 

At the Stadium, Ojiro, Sero, and Sato are also excited to hear the news. Sato says they’ll have to party after this. Ojiro agrees, but says that they shouldn’t be that surprised. He remembers back in their first mock hero test, where Shoto soloed the students playing the villains by flash freezing the area. He says that Shoto has been impressive since day one.

 

Back at UA Bakugo and company are holding off Tomura. Bakugo unleashes a barrage of blasts to push the tentacle fingers back. He smirks and says of course Icy Hot did it.

 

We then leap back to the sight of the ambush, Fat Gum announcing to Aoyama the big news. One of the league’s newer members, someone that manipulates flowers, says that he figured out the strategy. He knows that they tried to remove the League’s heaviest hitters in that ambush and left the others behind to be handled by the lesser heroes. If I were Fat Gum I’d be pretty POed at that comment. Flower man, Kunieda, says that they’re either confident or stupid. He tells them that anyone that has gone up against AFO has failed and ended up drenched in their own blood. Kunieda says that Dictator robbed him of his victory and that he is AFO’s top assassin. I guess he was one of the villains charged with taking out Izuku. He swears to make them pay, especially Aoyama.

 

We cut to another part of the battle where a mob is rushing cops. They’re stopped by Koda sending a flock of birds at them. His attack is cut off by a massive sword made from a bunch on smaller swords stuck together with belts. I guess Spinner decided to dust off that old weapon, I don’t think he’s used it once since the attack on the training camp. He looks… different. Where once Spinner was an averaged sized, slight man with the look of a lizard, he’s now easily ten feet tall and rippling with muscle. Shoji grabs Koda and pulls him out of the way of the attack. Present Mic lets them know about Shoto’s win, which inspires them. Shoji says that “Dabi will harm no one else.” This royally pisses off Spinner, who loudly shrieks that that must be information warfare. Dabi can’t possibly lose, according to him. He flashes back to before the fight. AFO offered to give Dabi an additional Quirk, but Dabi refused it, walking off. This greatly impressed Spinner, who obviously took a gigantification Quirk of some kind. He says that Dabi had everything, power, a reason to fight, and skill, there’s no way he’d lose to anyone. He orders the Heteromorphs to break into the hospital and free Kurogiri. They’ll free him and tear down society. Shoji prepares for more fighting, telling Koda that regardless of what happens, he’s been proud being in the same class as him.

 

In Kamino Ward, everyone tries to recover. Iida keeps Shoto upright, Shoto apologizes for the big fire and causing Iida’s engines to stall again. Iida asks him why he’s apologizing, since he was just incredible back there. Two heroes look over Dabi, noting that he’s still alive, which seems impossible given how badly he was burned. We see a purple light starting to glow from the center of his chest, which probably isn’t good.

 

We shift to Gunga Villa. The fighting is going on in earnest below, but it looks like Endeavor and Hawks haven’t started trading blows with All For One yet. Endeavor is stunned to hear that Shoto beat Toya. He remembers Shoto vowing to stop Toya with him once he is done crying. AFO starts mocking him, saying that Endeavor’s poor parenting has hurt both of his sons. He’s clearly trying to provoke a reaction, but so far Endeavor isn’t biting. Hawks has a flashback to the planning session for this fight he had with Endeavor and Jeanist. They know that AFO has a weakness right now, his headgear. The Skull like mask he wears to battle is also his life support system. They know if they can break it, they’ll either kill or at least severely weaken AFO with that strike. Hawks says that if AFO was anyone else, they’d throw everyone they have at him, but since AFO’s whole thing is stealing Quirks, they need to limit who fights AFO. So it’ll just be the Endeavor and Hawks. They rush AFO, Endeavor briefly distracting AFO with a big firebomb. Hawks tries to slice him from behind, but AFO predicted this and threw up a slime wall. He notes that Hawks is moving slower than before. He knows that even with healing from Recovery Girl and several support item feathers to augment his existing plumage, he’s not back at 100% yet. Hawks smiles and says they’ve both seen better days. Endeavor charges. He knows that they need to keep this fight close to stop AFO from unleashing his big shockwave attack like he used in Kamino Ward but stay far enough back so he can’t touch them and steal their powers. He summons fire fists and tries to pummel him, but AFO throws up a barrier. Hawks tries to hit him, but he blocks with a sword. He tries to keep up the mocking tone, but the heroes know he’s not at his best either. Endeavor knows he doesn’t have super regeneration this time, so they can beat him. He unleashes a big fireblast that melts AFO’s shield. He tries to distract them by attacking his ego again, saying that Endeavor’s heart doesn’t seem to be in this fight, even though he’s surrounded by heroes giving it their all, even students are fighting harder than him. He says that Endeavor’s ‘Masterpiece’ (Shoto) mopped up his failure (Toya) and asks why he’s not elated. This pisses Endeavor off and he unleashes a big blast. Hawks yells at him to not fall for it, reminding him of how AFO used this tactic against All Might. AFO reveals how he knew about Endeavor’s dirty laundry for some time, and how he used that. He reveals how he stole Toya’s body from the mountain that day, and how he ‘gave’ Endeavor his son back. Endeavor is livid with this taunt and unleashes Hellfire. Hawks realizes for sure that Endeavor would have not been able to stand against Dabi today and tries to get Endeavor to focus again. Endeavor screams that he’ll kill AFO, unfortunately he’s distracted for long enough to allow AFO to take a huge chunk of flesh from his side. Endeavor falls, and AFO turns to finish off Hawks. He raises his hand and prepares to unleash a shockwave. Hawks realizes that he’s dead, but chooses to use the last of his strength to save Endeavor and sends some feathers after him. He thinks if Endeavor can recover, he can unleash a Prominence Burst and destroy AFO.

 

The shockwave is launched but countered by Jiro’s sonic boom. She’s flown in by Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, who tells Hawks to move. Hawks tells them to run, saying that this is too much for them. Tokoyami refuses, saying they can help, and that he and Hawks work well together. AFO is clearly getting frustrated by the interruptions, asking why All Might draws so many gnats to him. He says that these two are like minor characters in the comic he read as a child, who acted like main characters but were cannon fodder. Jiro tells him not to monologue until he actually takes them down. Hawks wonders what happened to Endeavor. He landed thanks to the feathers, but throws up blood. He wonders about his boys, if they’re alive and safe. Endeavor realizes that he shouldn’t turn his rage on AFO, he knows that this is all on him. Hawks knows that he’s alive from the vibration of his breathing, so he resolves to hold out until Endeavor joins them. He tries to get Tokoyami to fly off again, but he refuses. Hawks accepts that they won’t go and takes their offer of help.

 

AFO mentally strategizes as he makes a huge claw out of his left hand. He knows he needs to protect Tomura, his other self, from harm. Endeavor is still a threat, so he needs to take him out quickly. He knows they’re buying time for Endeavor to recover. He decides that the weakest link of the three right now is Jiro and sends his tentacles to kill her. She’s knocked off Tokoyami’s back, but Hawks is able to distract AFO long enough for Tokoyami to grab her. Tokoyami yells at her to focus her blasts on AFO’s mask. Jiro freezes up, as this is way more intense of a threat than she thought. She’s amazed that Izuku and the others have been dealing with this for so long. AFO tells her that she’d been practicing in the classroom, but this is real life. He morphs his tentacles into a huge cannon and fires plasma at them. Hawks throws his feathers at the cannon and moves it out of the way… mostly. It slices off one of Jiro’s earphone jacks and Tokoyami coughs up blood. He fires his bladed tentacles on Hawks, skewering him. He asks these lesser characters if they really thought they could stand up to the Demon Lord as the credits roll.

 

Well, that was a rollercoaster of emotions. It was good that we took a moment to see how the lesser fights were going and how Shoto’s win inspired the other students. inspired the other students. Obviously, Dabi isn’t out for good just yet, that energy burst at the end there was a dead giveaway, but the temporary victory is helpful. I like the fact that the heroes were really prepared for this fight for once, what with having some heavy hitters held back to guard Gigantomachia and Kurogiri. While they’ve been off the board for a while, the two would be indispensable to AFO right now. Best to keep them locked down for as long as possible. The fight between AFO, Endeavor and Hawks is really well done. Is it a bit of cliché to try to piss off the guy with anger management issues with taunts? Yes, but I like that Endeavor was able to hold out until AFO basically said, “I took your son from you.” That would set off most parents, even ones as objectively terrible as Endeavor. And, to his credit, he probably would have killed a lesser villain than AFO with his big attacks. I can understand the war raging in Endeavor right now. He can’t be there for his children, and his actions directly caused the situation that forced his oldest and youngest to fight. Despite how horrible he was to them in the past, I do think Endeavor genuinely loves his kids, so worrying for their safety right now is a totally understandable explanation for why his head isn’t fully in the game. Shame it may have cost him a kidney. Hopefully he rallies soon. The big save by Tokoyami and Jiro was great. I was sure Hawks was going to bite it with that big blast, but then a counter shockwave saves the day. All Tokoyami has wanted to do for a while now is to fight with Hawks and prove himself, so its good to see him get the chance. Hopefully he and Jiro didn’t already have their big moment. That hit looked like it hurt badly. The Demon Lord has them all on the ropes, hopefully they can last. But we’ll have to wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 146

 Dabi's flames are so hot they'll consume everything, especially himself. 

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku got his first love confession. He’s not super enthused by this as it was from Himeko Toga. He freaks out a little bit hearing how Toga loves him and because of that needs to make him bleed. He’s saved from having to do anything about this by Tsu and Uraraka telling him to rush back to the fight with Tomura Shigaraki while they handle her. Izuku flies off, using his air shot gloves to speed himself up. Not enough to get there as fast as Izuku wants, but he’s making progress. They couldn’t just teleport him to the fight, as Shigaraki is rampaging with a huge tentacle of fingers. Aizawa’s powers aren’t what they used to be after losing his right eye, so he needs Monoma to keep Erasure going. While the situation isn’t looking great for the heroes, Best Jeanist has everyone agree to fight this monster with everything they have. Things also aren’t going well for Shoto’s team who are fighting Dabi. The eldest Todoroki has basically set all of Kamino Ward ablaze with his power to show his frustration that Endeavor didn’t come to face him. Shoto begs him to stop, but Dabi is all about the hellfire these days. Shoto begs Dabi to tell him why he never came home after the fire on the mountain, and Dabi agrees to tell little Shoto one last story before incinerating him. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open at central hospital as a gorilla looking police officer goes to check on Garaki. Garaki figured out that the ‘finale’ had begun due to the guards on patrol being severely reduced. He claims that all of this is the culmination of years of work. He reveals that Dabi had been chosen as a potential alternative vessel for All For One if something happened to Tomura Shigaraki. Garaki had sought out ‘rotten seeds’ as he described them.

 

We jump over to Kamino Ward where Dabi has doused himself in flames. He’s opened his mouth so wide that he ripped the piercing keeping his cheeks together, giving him a very rictus grin. Shoto prepares an attack if his brother lunges, and Endeavor’s sidekick team jump in the way to give him cover. Dabi says that some fires never go out as he has a flashback to that day on the mountain. He’s sobbing after realizing that his dad isn’t coming to see how much stronger he gotten (because ignoring him is the only way Endeavor has thought of to try to stop his son from immolating himself.) He starts crying, while telling himself not to cry, which seems to set off his quirk and caused the wildfire that seemingly killed him. As he’s engulfed in flames, he screams to himself that he can’t die yet, as he hasn’t shown his father anything yet. The fire gets so bad that it destroyed his cheeks before he pitched forward into the river. That doused the flames and saved his life.

 

We head back to Garaki, who said that Dabi even back them showed signs of derangement, which I guess was the most important quality to making a vessel. He corrects himself, saying that from the beginning ‘he had everything.’ We’re shown a burnt and bleeding Toya washed up on the bank of the river where AFO found him. Toya woke up in a hospital bed. He’s visibly grown, suggesting its been a few years since being on the mountain. He is badly burned and already has his distinctive burnt section around his eyes and below his jaw. He walks around until he finds a group of children. They dub him ‘Sleepy Head’ and one of the kids goes to get “Mr. Sunny.” Toya tries to ask what’s going on and realizes that his voice was damaged in the fire, so he’s also started to develop his raspy voice. One girl says he’s been in a coma for three years, at least according to Mr. Sunny when he’d shown her around. Toya is desperate to get home, but Mr. Sunny, a man with a face like a sunflower, says that he can’t. His home is here now, and he should learn to get along with everyone. Toya refuses to accept that as he needs to see his father again. He’s a little delusional at this point, believing that Endeavor was busy with hero work and that’s why he didn’t come. His coma seems to have given Toya a bit of clarity as well, as he knows he also needs to apologize to his mother for trying to hurt Shoto and to his siblings for being a dick. AFO cuts in, using one of his sound-only monitors, saying that it’s really not possible for Toya to go home. He explains that he nearly died in that fire and they were only able to save him by using emergency flesh graphs and special regenerative tissue. It sounds like they almost had to rebuild him entirely. And despite their efforts, or so he claims, they couldn’t repair his senses, so they’ve all been dulled to a degree, most specifically his sense of pain was totally out of whack. The damage to his body also damaged his quirk, and AFO claims he’ll never be the same again. Toya starts to sob. AFO tries to convince him to stay, saying that he’ll be able to help train Toya’s Quirk and get him back to something close to normal. Toya refuses and asks how he could dare to even suggest AFO could train him. He’s only got one teacher in mind and that’s his dad. He throws his slipper at the monitor, and when Mr. Sunny tries to grab him, Toya flames up. He causes a fire that destroyed the facility.

 

In the present, Garaki says that they weren’t able to get Toya to join their little group. He needed ‘seeds’ that could be ‘watered’ with hatred, to be a spare body if something happened to Tomura Shigaraki. But unfortunately for them, even someone like AFO couldn’t break Toya away from his obsession with earning his father’s approval. The gorilla cop is disgusted to hear this and claims that there’s no way that AFO could have thought out so far ahead in order to make a lieutenant like Dabi. Garaki shrugs and warns the guard not to take Dabi likely, as he’s utterly unpredictable. The biggest evidence of that being Garaki saying that the artificial cells they used to rebuild Toya should have started to break down within a month after leaving the facility. We’re shown him walking around a city at night, dead set on getting home to see his family.

 

We cut to when Dabi first joined the League of Villains all the way back in season 2, and Garaki admits that no one was more surprised than him that their broker found Dabi and brought him in. He wanted to know how Dabi was still alive and so arranged a private meeting with him when Dabi gathered Hood to fight Endeavor. Dabi says that he figured out that Garaki was the one that saved him after seeing his ‘walking corpses’ the Nomu. He figured that he was supposed to be the base body for one of those. Garaki asks how he managed to survive, and Dabi tells him that he came back because this seemed like the perfect place to hold his funeral. The look he gave Garaki in that moment had made him convinced that the only thing keeping Dabi together was his bitter rage.

 

At Kamino Ward, Dabi reveals to his baby brother that he did go back home once. He said that none of them noticed him, as usual, and as he was even weaker than before, he wouldn’t measure up to his father’s expectations at all even if they had. But he wanted his father to look at him one more time and to know how his family coped. He came into the house to find Endeavor beating on Shoto in the training room, which told him nothing had changed. They’d forgotten him and moved on. He was a failure with no reason to live. In the present, Dabi’s skin starts burning away, transforming his original flesh into the black of a Nomu but leaving the burnt artificial tissue as is. He says that after seeing that scene, he became completely focused on his flames. He felt no pain, even as his chard bits began to flake off. He continued to monitor his father, noticing his raise in popularity as a hero. We’re shown a brief scene of him praying at his own shrine in the Todoroki house, saying that ever since Toya died and he became Dabi, he’s known what he needed to do.

 

Garaki says that heat is a tricky thing to control. Dabi’s obsession with death made him incompatible with AFO as a vessel as AFO wants immortality. AFO had to let go of the fire in a bottle they’d captured. We’re shown Dabi’s flames have gotten so intense that it melts All Might’s statue even as they consume the little bits of healthy flesh Dabi has left. He swears that he will burn down everything Endeavor holds dear, his death will be proof of Dabi’s existence. Shoto tells him that he won’t let his big brother get away with that.

 

Present Mic jumps in to briefly describe Endeavor’s Flashfire Fist, saying that it’s Endeavor’s strongest attack. It involves raising one’s heat to its maximum limit, storing it and then unleashing it. He learned it when he was younger and mastered it in his quest for power, but that heat distorted his view of the world.

 

In the present, Dabi admits that talking to Shoto actually cheered him up a bit and says that his baby bro is a good listener. I really wish he’d tried therapy before going full psycho. He swears to use Shoto as kindling even if Dad wasn’t there. Shoto swears he’ll stop Dabi. Dabi says that he’s thought about Shoto a lot over the years. He initially only got a little of his flames back, but with training was able to get back his old strength and then surpass it. He says that with his dulled senses he didn’t feel the pain anymore, and that let him get strong enough to copy their father’s techniques. He unleashes his version of Flashfire Fist, Hell Spider, on Shoto and his allies. The fire knocks everyone back, Iida mentioning that it’s just like Endeavor’s attack, but bigger and sloppier. He flashes back to when he was in Shoto’s room with the others and Shoto admits that it’s weird that he doesn’t really know anything about his brother. While the other heroes are distracted trying to keep the hell spider in check, Dabi rushes behind Shoto and charges him, saying that he wants to see how pathetic his little brother can look. He decks Shoto and wants to know what pathetic face he made when he was cowering in the UA barrier and everyone learned he was Endeavor’s son and Dabi’s brother. Burnin’ notes that Dabi’s power is greater than Endeavor’s, but he’s destroying himself to use it. Dabi wails on Shoto, shrieking at him that he’s a spoiled brat. He had the perfect body, all the training, and yet he cowered behind others. He calls Shoto an aimless, half-baked puppet before launching him into a building with Jetburn.

 

Shoto tanks the hit, saying that most of what Dabi said was true. He took too many detours, he doubted himself for far too long, but he’s ready now. Dabi’s shocked to see Shoto still standing, realizing that Shoto did something to neutralize the heat. Shoto admits that he used to think Dabi was just obsessed with Endeavor, and that there’s a part of him that’s relieved to hear that he was also on his big brother’s radar. He says that in his quest to catchup with his classmates, he discovered something. He figured out how to improve Flashfire and turn it into the technique to stop Dabi. I should note that Shoto’s got an x of flames and some kind of white energy across his chest this whole time.

 

We get a flashback to Shoto speaking with his father before the battle. Endeavor suggests that Shoto reconsider the team assignments. Shoto tells his dad that this really is the only way, they need Endeavor to fight AFO as he’s the only pro left strong enough to face him. Endeavor has to face AFO, Izuku has to face Shigaraki, (Uraraka has to face Toga, he doesn’t say this but should have) and he has to be the one to face Dabi. In the present, Shoto says that their family is a nightmare, truly terrible, and yet Dabi was the only one of them who chose to burn people. He then flashes back to Izuku asking about the assignment. Shoto admits to his first real friend that he wants to fight his brother, and he doesn’t need to worry. He says that his dad will probably gripe about not keeping his promise to face Dabi but admits that that might be part of his father’s punishment. Dabi is his family’s cross to bear, and if he can’t stop him, he’ll never be a hero. He reveals the X to Izuku, who is impressed with the technique, saying it’s not like his usual Flashfire Fist. Ojiro says that since he’s been gone a while he must not have seen this yet. Kaminari comes over and demonstrates by poking the x that while it looks hot, it’s not at all. Shoto says that he can’t hold this state for long, (Bakugo shouts that its proof he’s still the best fighter). He’s mixing his hot and cold side to make a state of balance. He has mixed his powers together to make a cold fire. He says that this is how he’s chosen to move forward, not using Fire and Ice independently like his father envisioned but this cold fire. He unleashes his new technique Flashfire Fist Phosphor. He hits Dabi with his cold flame, telling his brother to focus all his anger on him, he can take it.

 

Dabi catches himself with flamethrower. He notes that his little brother is perhaps the most perfect opponent he could ever face. He lands and starts building up his heat again, preparing to charge. He says that in this society of theirs, there are limits, a straight path like Shoto’s can’t lay next to a winding one. Shoto’s Phosphor state cuts out and he has to hurry to try to get it back. He tells Shoto their paths will never meet and for him to just give up and die already. He unleashes a flame attack, but Burnin and the other sidekicks tank the hit, telling Shoto to finish this. Shoto has gotten Phosphor back up. He thanks Burnin and the others for their help, despite Burnin saying not waste time on niceties. Shoto says that it’s important to him, as being grateful was something he had to learn from his friends. He says that his past is steeped in greed and blood. When he first started to recognize his shortcomings, he thought he’d be left behind, but his friends were always waiting for him. He says that Class A doesn’t leave people behind, as he quickly remembers all the times that his classmates were there to support one another. He stores up his power and prepares to unleash it. Dabi fires a massive fire blast at Shoto. Shoto charges and strikes his brother in the stomach, saying that he’ll force their paths to cross if he has to. He tells Dabi to just stop as he uses his Great Glacier Aegir. We see a metaphorical moment, Toya Todoroki as a child being struck by child Shoto. When the screen comes back into focus, Shoto has frozen not only his brother but two huge skyscrapers around them. Dabi holds up for a moment before collapsing onto his brother.

 

I’ll be the first to say that making Dabi a potential alternative vessel for AFO is a retcon, but it’s the best kind of retcon, one that fits seamlessly into the story. When Dabi was first introduced, he was a mysterious figure, visibly scarred and scary looking. He was probably Toya Todoroki from the start, but with on how much of time crunch Mangaka are in Japan there is zero doubt in my mind that Horikoshi had very little else planned out for Dabi for a while. His past was a blank space besides the apparent death in his youth, so it was easy to slide AFO in once more of the evil plan had been worked out. Like… the AFO I’ve been following for the last decade is 1000% the sort of person to make a “the prodigal son returns” or “welcome home, lost lamb,” to Dabi if they’d met previously. He’s a smug, condescending git and would absolutely talk like he somehow knew Dabi would be back even if it was a surprise to him. Still, it works better than X-Men 97 revealing Rogue and Magneto used to bang and they just never talked about it because neither brought it up. That’s a sloppy retcon. This one is relatively clean. There were enough gaps in the story to work in this extra content about Dabi and the only reason I am confident it’s new is due to my own experiences as an amateur writer and my understanding of the working conditions of mangaka. His backstory is super sad when we learn that he did go home and just decided that his family had forgotten him. Like… kid, if you’d shouted out to your father in that moment, he might have been stunned but he absolutely would have reacted to you. Endeavor was a monster at this point in the story, but I do not believe he was so heartless he ever actually forgot his oldest. And it seems like neither Fuyumi nor Natsuo forgot him either, Shoto is the only one that might have forgotten details about him, but he was like six when Dabi ‘died.’ He believed himself a vengeful phantom, therefore that is what he became. I like that Shoto found a way to utilize his powers his way in order to stop Dabi. Is cold fire a weird, borderline nonsense idea? Yes. But Quirks at this point are full of weird magic and unique mixes, so it’s no crazier than anything else introduced. Using it to protect himself and to get into a position to unleash a massive ice wave to stop Dabi was brilliant. And I liked the symbolism of it being as much the child version of Shoto punching Toya as it is the current version punching Dabi. Metaphorical layers are neat. So, ya, Dabi is off the board, which is a net win for the heroes. Hopefully they can wrack up one or two more by the time Izuku makes it to Tomura. But we’ll have to wait and see. See you later. Stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 145

Toga admits her love and Izuku runs for his life!

Last time on My Hero Academia the final battle began. We’re given a prolonged flashback revealing how the heroes used Shinso, the brainwashing kid, to hypnotize Aoyama and his parents to trick All For One’s lie detecting sense. They sounded calm and collected when they called, therefore, no lie. They lure AFO out by making him think Aoyama was helping him capture Izuku Midoriya. Instead, Aoyama attacked AFO and then they were able to rapidly deploy their heroes by using Kurogiri’s Quirk through that dick Monoma’s copy Quirk. The heroes captured all the villains in armored pods that they’d hidden under the rubble and shoved them through Monoma’s portals to try to separate them. The goal is to break up the elite fighters of the League of Villains, guys like Dabi, Toga, Tomura, and AFO and tackle them with very specific fighters. The plan works 80-90% of the way but has the major hiccup of Izuku not ending up where he needed to be. Our hero was nabbed at the last second by one of Toga’s needles and pulled through the portal to her location. This is extremely bad for the team fighting Tomura as Izuku was the lynchpin of that fight. So Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Bakugo, Nejire, Amajiki, and Mirko are left to try to salvage the plan. They’ve got Tomura trapped in a floating prison on the grounds of UA. They’ve got an entire work force comprised of Yaoyorozu, Power Loader, Cementoss, Mei Hatsume, and the support course kids. They’d basically broken up the ground into a grid that could launch and break up any segment that Shigaraki touched, effectively neutralizing his Decay. They also can make new segments so they can hopefully keep him at bay. And they have Monoma and Aizawa outside the electrified barrier they set up (powered by Kaminari and some other electric heroes). The Teacher and student are in constant contact to overcome Monoma’s usual time limit, and have the water manipulating hero Manual to moisturize their eyes to keep them from blinking. Even without Izuku it looked like they’d had Shigaraki contained… right up until his arm mutated into a collection of mutant fingers and exploded out from him. Crap. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with a flashback to when All Might explaining the plan to divide and conquer the League of Villains to his allies. They know that the Tomura and AFO can communicate via radio waves and Vestiges, so they need to keep them at least 10 km (6.2 miles) to try to reduce their ability to coordinate. They also know Dabi in particular would be a massive headache in this plan. So, they settled on the scattering plan. We go over basics of what we’d already seen, brainwashed Aoyama’s to lure AFO in, separate in pods, scatter across Japan and hopefully take the villains out systematically. Shigaraki is sent to UA to fight Izuku and his team, AFO is sent to Gunga Villa to fight Endeavor, Hawks and their team, Dabi to Kamino Ward to fight Shoto’s team, Toga to Okuto Island to fight Uraraka’s team, the remaining captured villains will get sent to Takuba National Stadium, and any stragglers that escape capture will face off against whomever is left, specifically Fat Gum and Aoyama. They also will have people on hand to monitor Gigantomachia at Jaku hospital and Kurogiri in Central hospital to make sure they don’t get summoned by their master and have a surprise jailbreak.

 

We cut to Monoma cackling madly and taunting Tomura for not being able to use his quirk while they stare at him. I guess he taunts people when he’s nervous. Aizawa is frustrated that they’ve lost contact with Midoriya as their whole plan was built around him fighting Tomura. His frustration is cut off when Tomura whips out his giant tentacle of fingers, slamming into Mirko, bloodying her and breaking her prosthetic arm. Tomura complains about ever thinking that Aizawa was cool and calls him another disappointment before whipping his finger tentacle at Bakugo, just barely missing him. The finger tentacle nearly hits Jeanist, who dodges, and then slams into UA. Edgeshot asks if they blinked, but Monoma says he hasn’t. Tomura claims that this isn’t a quirk, that the fingers are just a natural part of his body’s growth now, like his hair or nails. It’s a side effect of his body being forced to adapt to take on so many additional quirks, he claims this is the result of the Quirk Singularity that has been pitched a few times now. He scolds everyone for denying this ugly truth he represents. Mirko lands and calls up a locker filled with backup arms. She equips a new arm and leaps over to Bakugo, telling him to get his head in the game. They start shouting at each other, and Jeanist says to pay attention, damn it.

 

Monoma tells Aizawa that he’s using Erasure like he was taught but it’s not stopping the fingers. Aizawa tells him that he knows and to calm down. Mandalay (Wild, Wild Pussy Cats, telepathy) runs up and says they’ve gotten in contact with Midoriya. Izuku through radio static explains he’s at Okuto island and that they should use Monoma to teleport him over. The pros all realize that that plan is impossible, as Monoma can’t copy more than one quirk at a time, and in the 30ish seconds it’d take for him to switch, get Izuku through, and switch back, Tomura could destroy the whole coffin. If each separate finger can use Decay, even if his range hadn’t increased, he’d be able to touch every inch and melt it. He tells Izuku to try to find a way here on his own, they’ll hold out as long as they can. Jeanist rallies his team and says they’ll beat Shigaraki even without One for All. The heroes all agree, but Amajiki is still pessimistic about it.

 

At Okuto Island, Gang Orca is leading his team against the League of Villains and their Nomu. One breaks its body into shards and rains them down like shrapnel. They’re also dealing with jailbreakers like Moonfish (dude who grows bladed teeth from the Training camp). The wave that the Nomu created with his attack scattered everyone, separating Izuku and Uraraka from the rest. Izuku tells Uraraka what happened and she tells him to book it. Before Izuku can react, Toga rushes him with her blades drawn, saying that he can’t leave because she loves him. Izuku is weirded out that she seemed to bypass his Danger Sense again. Hikage manifests, saying that Danger Sense only triggers when the person is a threat. He says he’s not sure how Toga has lasted so long in this world, saying that she legitimately feels affection when she hurts someone. This is right on the heels of Izuku asking what she wants and Toga announcing that she wants him to be her boyfriend.

 

Present Mic comes in to do the narration, saying that Izuku is the special of this series, and that he and OFA are super important. And then tells us that while he’d fought Toga a few times up to this point, this is the first time he’d heard her express her unusual “I love you therefore I want to make you bleed” mentality. Realizing that Toga essentially wants to cut him to show her affection scares the crap out of Izuku, who turns bright red and asks where the heck this is coming from. Mic puts it best, “He may be strong, but he’s still a damn nerd.” Toga admits that she’s had a crush on him since seeing him at the training camp (which, remember, she was attacking) and says that seeing him all bloody and broken made her heart flutter. She says that he reminded her of her first crush, we get a flashback scene to her literally drinking that kid’s blood, so that’s not a compliment. She, smiling in the most aggressive way I’ve ever seen drawn, tells him to get over to her so she can drink his blood and become him.

 

Izuku is still hung up on the ‘boyfriend’ line and asks if she’s really asking him to like to go on a date with her. Uraraka starts shaking with frustration on hearing this and I’m like, “Guys, focus, battle!” Toga explains that when she likes someone, she wants to become them, it’s the only way to satisfy her feelings. Water sprays up, giving Toga a chance to disappear in the wave. Izuku shouts at her that he gets where she’s coming from, as he wants to be like All Might, but she’s not thinking right if she wants to hurt people she wants to be like. This sets Toga off, as she accused Izuku of being just like Uraraka, her parents, and everyone else that want her to ‘be normal.’ She says that because he only values heroes, he won’t give her the time of day. She dons her mask and draws a bunch of her syringe needles, saying that she’ll make him bleed. Uraraka leaps in to help keep Toga off Izuku, saying that they can talk about this. She says that she’d been thinking about Toga a lot since their fight, but Toga claims she’s gotten over her fixation on Uraraka after that fight. She doesn’t matter to Toga anymore. She throws Uraraka off and says if the world rejects her, she’ll reject the world. She stabs Uraraka’s shoulder, saying that she thought they’d understand each other since they love the same person. Izuku somehow doesn’t hear this, as Tsu leaps in and kicks Toga off Uraraka as Izuku Blackwhip’s Toga and pulls her off. Izuku asks if she’s okay, and she says it was barely a scratch. Considering how deep that knife looked like it went in, I’d say she’s lying, but it’s a reasonable lie. She says they must get the knife away from her as it has her blood on it. Tsu notes that they brought Toga to an island to isolate her as she’s such a wild card… but is now worried about being stuck on an island with her. She shouts at Izuku to get moving, as now is not the time to get lost on a conversation about Romance. She and Uraraka know how to fight Toga, so they can handle this. Uraraka agrees and Izuku leaps away. Toga gets up, saying that this is so unfair that Izuku is reacting like this when she just confessed her love. As she stands, her blades start flying around her. Izuku leaps away, using float to stay airborne and his air shots to launch himself forward. He’s frustrated that he’s not flying fast enough, and that there isn’t anything for him to use Blackwhip on to slingshot himself forward. Kudo, the second wielder, manifests and tells Izuku to slow down. He’ll wreck his gloves if he pushes them too hard. He asks Izuku if he’s going to use Gear Shift to make up the difference. Izuku confirms that he had been thinking about it, but Kudo scolds him for it. He says that OFA mutated their abilities overtime and using Gear Shift like that would be dangerous. He tells Izuku to calm down and have faith in his friends. They can survive for a bit waiting for him to arrive.

 

Back with Uraraka and Tsu, they prepare to fight. Tsu is glad that Izuku left, as she knows it’s hard for him to just ignore Toga like this. And admits it’s also to keep Toga from revealing that Uraraka loves Izuku to Izuku, the only person this would be news to. Oy, teenagers. Toga is flustered by this, saying that she loves Izuku, Uraraka, and even Tsu, so their rejections hurt her. She wants to live like she wants, how she wants. She tells them to go off and die, but Uraraka says she won’t run as she needs to be true to herself too.

 

We shift over to Kamino Ward where things aren’t going great. Dabi has the whole place engulfed in flames, heroes are on the ground dead or unconscious, and his Nomu are rampaging around. He reflects on similar this is to when the Nomu attacked Hosu city during Stain’s big spree. He claims that he started getting serious after seeing that. Iida is on the edges of Dabi’s sea of flames, commenting that it’s too hot for him to approach, it’ll ruin his engine. Dabi flies up from the All Might statue that he’d been draped over, saying that he’s annoyed and was talking to himself. You see, he’s depressed that Endeavor is ‘ignoring’ him again. He’s annoyed that he’s been left to his littlest brother and his dad’s sidekicks. The sidekicks are planning to support Shoto however they can, as they’re a group of fire specialists, either being Fire quirk havers or having quirks that can combat fire, they’re probably going to be super important in this fight. Shoto says that he’s not doing this for their dad, that he wants to be the one to stop his brother once and for all. Dabi laughs at this and says that even if he doesn’t want to do their dad’s bidding, he still is, therefore he’s bad. We pull out, seeing that a huge area is on fire. He says that he and his people are here to finally break the broken system of hero society. We get flashes of each of the league members as Dabi talks about this grand plan of theirs. I only bring it up because Spinner especially does not look good, which I think might be a bit of foreshadowing what’s going on with him. Shoto asks his brother why he didn’t come home after surviving the fire. Dabi agrees to tell his baby brother one more story, how he became Dabi, how his flames grew so much hotter, and how he survived this hellish world. We see his skin start to flake away as he snarls at Shoto as the episode ends.

 

Overall, this was a solid escalation episode. 2/6ths of their plans started off reasonably well, with Shigaraki contained and Toga too far away from him to interfere. Sure, Izuku wasn’t nearby to fight, but Shigaraki was in the cage, that’s a win. But then things had to start going haywire as Shigaraki showed off his latest mutation. The finger tentacle is just… so gross to look at, I hate it so much. But it’s a nice visual representation of this Quirk Doomsday Theory that the series has talked about a few times now. This is basically the belief that over the generations, Quirks will mutate and grow more powerful until they hit a point where the human body simply can’t contain them anymore. Considering the dozens of Quirks Tomura has incorporated into his body, makes me wonder how far out this theory would be from actually being proven true. Because, like, if he’s having this severe of a mutation when he’s got dozens, perhaps hundreds, of powers within his body, that would suggest that this won’t really be a problem for a long while. But maybe more potent quirks created farther along will make it more severe. Who knows? I liked that Izuku has been temporarily benched by having him be in transit for the next little bit. Genre tradition as well as Izuku’s personality would insist that Izuku help out at whatever fight he’s closest to before moving onto the main event. But Izuku has grown as a person and understands now that a single Symbol of Peace isn’t a viable situation anymore and he has to delegate. I am sure it helps that he’s delegating to Uraraka and Tsu, two classmates that the knows can handle fights given how often he’s worked with them. And that they’re fighting Toga, someone that Uraraka has been mentally prepped for battle for a while. Toga’s love confession to Izuku was very uncomfortable and sad, considering we the audience know that she’s completely sincere and that in her mind saying she wants to become you is the highest form of flattery she can give. Of the remaining League of Villain members, she’s one of the saddest, since her position here could possibly have been avoided. Sure, it would have required a lot of therapy, but with more understanding parents or a society less likely to treat her like a freak because of her blood fixation, she might have had a more normal life. She needed someone to help her and society failed her. And now she’s an unhinged serial killer that’s planning on adding Tsu and Uraraka to her kill count. Not good. Hopefully the ocean water dilutes the blood on the knife enough to make it not useful for her power, or else she’s going to start dropping heroes like that one Lady from Re-Destro’s group. And I liked the tease about Dabi’s backstory for next time. I am curious as to how he survived that fire, and whether it’ll retcon a few things or not. Guess we’ll wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe out there.  

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 144

The final battle, round 1, Ready? FIGHT!

Last time on My Hero Academia, both sides put the finishing touches on their battle plans. Dabi reminded Toga of the vial of Twice’s blood he was able to recover, and that given her strong emotional attachment to the unstable man she should be able to use his powers if she drank it and copied him. He also burned down her old house, just cuz. AFO sent out Spinner with orders to try to rally the Heteromorphs, people with non-human appearances, to their cause. Spinner reluctantly goes along with this idea out of his friendship with Tomura Shigaraki. AFO sent moles into UA’s evacuee population with orders to stirrup trouble to get Izuku kicked out of UA again and thus make him vulnerable. Nezu beats them to the punch, however, informing the civilians of the looming danger and revealing Izuku and the rest of his class are moving to a fortified bunker dubbed Troy for their battle preparations. While there, Izuku has a moment to talk with Uraraka. Like Izuku, she has conflicting feelings about fighting a LoV member, hers being Himeko Toga. The two agree that while they can’t forgive either Shigaraki or Toga for their crimes, they both understand them, and want to help them however they can. Shoto also bonds with Iida, Kirishima and Bakugo over his own complicated feelings towards his eldest brother Dabi. AFO reveals to us that he has a lie detecting quirk he stole years ago from someone (possibly Tsukauchi’s ancestor) and because of that he’s extremely confident when he sets up an ambush for Izuku via the Aoyamas. Yuga Aoyama lures Izuku to a deserted parking lot. AFO arrives and is incredibly smug with his final gambit. He as Izuku alone, and thanks to Search he knows any hero capable of being a threat to him is miles away. He isn’t even that put out when Aoyama turns on him, attempting to Naval Laser the Demon king. He summons his league to him along with a bunch of Nomu. To which Izuku and Aoyama activate their trap card, their own mass summoning of heroes via Kurogiri gates. It’s about to be a brawl. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The episode opens with a flashback to three days ago, when All Might, Nezu and Tsukauchi arrived at the 1A dorms. All Might revealed to his students that he’s going to share the top-secret plan of attack with them. He begins by saying there isn’t much hope of finding AFO or the League in the time they have left. Kaminari says that’s what Bakugo’s been saying for days, and Sato adds that it hits differently coming from All Might. Mineta asks if they’re giving up, and Tsukauchi tells him they’re just shifting tactics. They’ve realized that AFO is both too clever and yet also too cowardly to make an appearance unless he feels like he’s in total control of the situation. Bakugo summarizes that they need to massage the ‘walking Nutsack’s’ ego to get him to appear. They need to act scared to build AFO’s confidence. They think he’s using Search to keep an eye on them, which they’re planning to use to their advantage. The heroes hope that their movements lately coupled with the movements they’ll make in the next few days will make AFO believe that they’re moving erratically and making several key mistakes. They’re working on Logistics, but they are planning on using Aoyama to set the trap. Izuku and friends are happy to hear that Aoyama is helping in whatever way he is. Hagakure and Ashido are the loudest in their joy, which adds credence to my thought that they were pretty close to the faux Frenchman. Yaoyorozu asks the big question; how do we trick him? All Might explains that they’ve learned that AFO contacted the Aoyamas exclusively through calls, which leads them to believe that he can detect lies through a person’s voice. So the trick is to make someone speak without hinting at treachery. He says that they’ll use Aizawa’s idea and use his power. All Might points to the door and calls him in, Shinso. He’s sporting a new set of battle armor, a new voice modulator and his own giant Aizawa scarf.

 

Tsu is confused by this, as she worked with Shinso during their last competition with Class 1B and he expressly told them that he can’t make someone speak with his Quirk. He says that he’s been doing a lot of training since then and his power has developed. He is a little bummed that he isn’t getting to make his entrance to the hero course in April, but accepts there are more important things going on. Their belief is that he’ll essentially use the Aoyamas as speakers, he’ll speak through them and thus that should give him a degree of separation from AFO and thus get around his lie detector sense. He says it’ll be hard as this is a newer skill he’s been working on, but he thinks it’ll work. The conversation is briefly derailed as everyone excitedly talks to Shinso about what he’s been up to, what class he wants to be in and what he thinks his hero name will be. Just a friendly bunch is class 1A. Nezu adds that Shinso has had intense private training with Aizawa, but he doesn’t have a provisional license, but the Public Safety Commission is making an exception because of the whole ‘avoiding all out civil war’ thing. Tokoyami then asks how they’re going to get around gathering the troops all in one place, since them being all together would be suspicious, and the teachers say they’ll need another person for that.

 

We cut to Central hospital where Aizawa, Class 1B homeroom teacher Vlad King, and Phantom Thief aka that dick Monoma are looking in on Kurogiri. The teachers say that they won’t force him to do anything he isn’t comfortable with, but ask him to use his power to copy Warp Gate and be the heroes’ means of mass transport. Monoma says that he’ll do it without breaking a sweat. Aizawa says that he’d hoped that he and Present Mic could pull his friend Shirakumo’s mind from within Kurogiri, but they could only draw him out for a second. He also adds that given his lost left eye and his mounting exhaustion from all of this (gestures at the country that’s literally and metaphorically on fire) his erasure is barely working at all. He knows he’ll be of little use in the fight. Monoma says that he’d heard that the heroes would have been massacred without him. He also adds that when he was younger, folks would always tell him that with his power he’d never be a ‘real’ hero, just a side character. King hugs his student and tells him that this will only work if all the parts are working in sync. We cut to the plan and see the Aoyama’s making the call, with the reveal that Shinso was hidden but within line of sight for both calls so keep his control up. He gave Aoyama the thumbs up. King continues his speech, saying that Monoma was never an extra, and that he’ll just need to step into the spotlight. In the present, Monoma cackles and screams, “Look who is in the spotlight now!”

 

The battle begins. AFO seems to be using a modified version of the strategy for the USJ attack, ie Throw just a ton of expendable goons at the heroes, but with his elite League of Villain members and High End Nomu as additional support. All Might tells everyone to fight hard, to keep AFO from getting One For All. Tomura seems confused by something and touches the ground. He tries to tell Dabi something, but Dabi spotted his pops, so he’s got eyes only for Endeavor. His big fireblast is countered by Shoto’s arrival, and then the rest of the 1A students leap out as well. Once everyone is on stage, All Might activates system Troy. Its revealed that they set several domes that snapped up and around the villains, breaking them up into separate groups. Tsukauchi swears that while they failed before, they will succeed in finally defeating AFO. They activate rocket boosters on the cages, and Monoma opens up more warp gates. The plan is to scatter the villains through there and then send heroes specifically chosen to fight each heavy hitter. Toga orders her group to break her out immediately as well, because she saw Izuku. Dabi melts his way free, saying that that cage couldn’t hold him for more than three seconds. He sees Shoto leading his strike team, as he shouts, “That’s all we needed! You’re going for a ride!” The heroes rush the pods and add their various strengths to move the pods. The plan largely works, scattering the villains with the hero groups chosen to face them. The one problem being a cord is shot from another warp gate and wraps around Izuku’s arm, pulling him away from his group. Well, shit. All Might doesn’t notice right away and thinks the plan is going perfectly. He orders the heroes left back to see Aoyama clear and for Monoma to fall back to Aizawa.

 

The first pod transports AFO to the ruins of the Gunga Villa, the former headquarters of the short-lived Paranormal Liberation Front. Endeavor leads this group along with Hawks, who immediately slices AFO with his blades, but he barely seems to notice. Hawks apologizes that the attack didn’t do as much as they’d hope, but Endeavor says that was a longshot anyway. He tells AFO that they’ve figured out his sludge teleport. It’s an inferior version of Kurogiri’s Warp Gate. Can it teleport large numbers of people? Obviously. But, it’s range is significantly shorter, and much more crucially, AFO can’t teleport himself with it. So they threw him as far as they could through the genuine article to separate him from his best minions. AFO compliments the plan, but asks if he’s really strong enough to face him. He thinks that the heroes are pairing Izuku against Tomura, which is a risky move… but he also thinks that isn’t the cruelest matchup. We jump to the All Might statue where Toya “Dabi” Todoroki is facing off against Shoto “Shoto” Todoroki. He scolds Endeavor for pitting his children against each other. We cut to UA, which has been transformed into a floating fortress with shield barriers all around it. Clearly they’re trying to limit the amount of damage that Shigaraki could do with Decay with this trap. Bakugo leaps through a gate and warns Best Jeanist that Izuku got nabbed.

 

Our protagonist comes out near an island. He’s shocked that his danger sense didn’t trigger… but considering he’d been caught and pulled by Himeko Toga, I’m not. She’s all about love after all. Thankfully he’s not alone as he’s with Uraraka’s team.

 

At UA, Amajiki and Nejire are less confident in their plan as Izuku was key to their strategy for beating Shigaraki. Mirko, who is now sporting a massive metal prosthetic to replace her destroyed left arm, is just excited to throw down with the greatest villain in human history. Shigaraki drops to the ground. He makes a quick assessment and realizes that he was transported alone. He isn’t worried, though, so long as he stays out of his head he’ll be find. It’s at this point that I realized that he’d tried to fire off a decay wave at the start of the fight, but his hand refused to work as he wanted. Hence that weird ground touch before the Todorokis faced off. It works much better the second time. He fires of a decay wave and obliterates a line of ground. But it reveals a bunch of metallic boxes that launch him into the sky and into an electromagnetic barrier that shocks him. He drops and tries to dodge, only to be tangled by Jeanist’s threads, who throws him into the ground and towards the barrier again. He explains that regardless of the power he holds, so long as Shigaraki has a body with a nervous system, an electric shock will stun him for a few seconds. Shigaraki breaks free and realizes their plan to keep decay in check. The boxes are built to launch into the sky when uncovered, and because they spring away from each other, that keeps him from sending decay through multiples at once. He says that this plan is stupid as they’ll run out of ground eventually. Jeanist isn’t worried about that. He gestured at the ground behind him, and we see new blocks fill in the gaps. Jeanist tells him that they’ve made UA his coffin in the sky. We jump beneath the building to the factory floor where we see Cementoss and Power Loader working with Mei Hatsume, the Support Course students, and Yaoyorozu to mass produce more boxes.

 

Topside, Jeanist tells Shigaraki that they analyzed the fights he had with Izuku, Endeavor and company, and his fight against Star and Stripe to figure out this strategy. He says that a sixteen-year-old girl, Hatsume, is the one that made it all possible. They modified the multi-plate system that Nezu made as part of his mass evacuation plan. And its revealed that this whole system is being powered by Kaminari and several electric based heroes to keep them afloat and the barrier active. Jeanist hurls threads at Shigaraki while the others fight him. Bakugo and Nejire blast him at a distance, while Mirko rushes him and swings with her metal arm and leg. Thoroughly pissed off, Tomura decides that he can finish this fight in one blow and tries to fire a shockwave, only for Bakugo to mock him and ask if he forgot how they nerfed him at Jaku. And then he realizes he can’t use his quirk. We then see the masterstroke of this plan. Outside the barrier, atop the power station, Aizawa is sitting with his Erasure after, and the whole time he’s touching hands with Monoma. They also have Manual there to keep their eyes moist. Aizawa adds that this strategy was built around having Izuku there to battle Shigaraki, which isn’t ideal. And worse, the last time they fought him, he wasn’t complete, so they don’t know his full capability anymore. A point proven when Shigaraki creates a tentacle made of overlapping fingers to slam into Mirko and mess her up bad. Her arm is shattered and blood scatters over the hand. Shigaraki says that he can’t believe he thought Aizawa was cool and calls him a disappointment.

 

After six seasons of villainous sneak attacks and traps, it was nice to see the heroes outthink AFO once more. This plan was brilliant. Using Shinso to bypass AFO’s lie detection was a fun way to bring him back into the story after his latest absence. And it doesn’t feel out of nowhere since there were multiple scenes over the last season or two showing him going to extra training classes and working with Aizawa. He was clearly working hard to get up to everyone’s level. I’m a little sad that this is the second to last season, as I’d have liked to see him interact with the rest of UA more. Monoma is a dick, he always will be, but I liked that little bit of added context that perhaps the main reason he’s such a loud, self-aggrandizing dick is because of his insecurities about his power not being ‘worthy’ of being a real hero. If we’d gotten that like 3 seasons ago, I might have been easier on the guy. Using his copying not only for mass transport but also to aid in suppressing Shigaraki’s powers is just brilliant. The divide and conquer strategy is pretty smart, as by this point the League of Villains is a well-oiled machine. Without this plan, it would essentially be everyone trying to focus on the two AFO users while elite forces like Dabi and Toga picked off the weaklings and added damage to the heavy hitters. It’d have been a very one-sided fight. With the villains divide and facing heroes with strategies to fight them, it’ll be a much closer match. I’m sure we’ll see more of the traps as this final arc goes on, but Tomura’s for sure is pretty damn close to perfect. Or at least it would have been a month ago when he first emerged. That ‘completion’ thing really screwed the plan here. He’s not touching the planet, so Decay is limited to the field they’re standing on. The field is covered in these breakable, launchable blocks to keep decay from spreading more than a few meters at a time. The ground is seeded with the heavy fiber cables to let Jeanist whip Tomura from afar with relative ease. They’ve got long range fighters like Bakugo and Nejire to keep him on the ropes with the close-up fighter Mirko and a mid-ranged fighter Amajiki for support. And they have Aizawa and Monoma’s team-up there to repress powers. If they had the lynch pin of Izuku Deku Midoriya there like they were supposed to, this might have been easy. But that wouldn’t be fun, of course he has to be pulled away to increase the dramatic tension of this final season. And by Himeko Toga, the one other villain that he can’t bring himself to hate for various reasons. This is going to suck for him, I think. But more on that when I get back to this season. See you then. Have a good night and stay safe!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 143

 Izuku and friends find their resolve before the big showdown. 

Last time on My Hero Academia the students and heroes prepare for their final battle. The adults try to figure out a way to convince Aoyama to help lure AFO into a trap, with Aizawa leading the charge to convince his student to help them and himself. All Might and the other heroes realize that their best chance at beating the League will be to scatter the group and try to take on each of them alone. Both to lessen the ability of the two AFOs from supporting each other and stopping Dabi and the other League members from backing them up. The students meanwhile prep their skills, and Izuku and Iida visit Mei Hatsume to get some replacement gear. While the resident gear head is busy working on a means of making UA go airborne in the event of a League of Villains attack, she’s able to spare three minutes to making Izuku new gloves and Iida new armor. She’s talented like that. The students are then broken up into squads lead by Bakugo, Todoroki, and Izuku and sent out to try to locate the League of Villains and/or AFO.

 

While on this assignment they end up having to face off against an All Might doppelganger leading an Italian crime family named Valdo Gollini. He was trying to set himself up as the new All Might, later styling himself as Dark Might, and using a young woman named Anna to augment his powers. Izuku meets and befriends Giulio, Anna’s butler that despite being maimed is on a mission to save her from her captors. They stop the Gollinis and reunite Anna and Giulio. Weird how they probably won’t be mentioned again, because that was a crazy Tuesday. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The story opens with Himeko Toga visiting her childhood home. The house is trashed and covered in graffiti. She remembers her parents and friends trying to get her to conform to societal standards, it’s mostly her mom and dad telling her to stop trying to drink blood and a friend saying that her face always looks scary. She breaks into her old room and remembers her desire to turn into a bird. As she sleeps, she bites herself and draws blood. She dreams about a little red bird landing on her and pecking at her belly until it draws blood. She says she feels warm and fuzzy in that dream and how much she loves it. Toga realizes that her parents abandoned the place and then she leaves. She runs into Dabi, who was watching from across the street. Since his fight with his father and brother, Dabi’s burns have spread farther across his face. He says that he never pegged her for the sentimental type. Toga denies that and says she was just curious what happened to the place before she starts skipping away. Dabi asks if she’s ready to burn down society, to which Toga replies she was always ready. Dabi likes the sound of that. He sets her house ablaze and the two watch it burn to the ground. She says that he’ll get them caught doing things like that, but thanks him for it. Dabi shrugs, saying that the heroes are too busy to worry about a house fire, and that he’s only nice if it causes Endeavor pain. He reveals that he got a sample of Twice’s blood right after he was murdered by Hawks. He knows that Toga’s power has increased and that she can copy not only the appearance but powers of the people she drinks the blood of, if she has strong enough feelings for them. He knows she loved Twice and suggests that she could unleash his Sad Man’s Parade, the trick where Twice was able to mass clone himself. With that skill in their pocket, Dabi is sure they can get what they want.

 

Deep in the League’s cave, Spinner hears Tomura screaming in pain and goes to check on him. He sees just an insane mass of fingers peel back and into Tomura’s body. Spinner is visibly horrified by that, but AFO tells him not to worry, as that was just a sign Tomura was recovering nicely. He asks if AFO is sure that is Shigaraki, and AFO confirms it, saying that Tomura’s… new look is just a sign that the Quirk Doomsday Theory can be overcome. That’s the idea that Quirks will eventually mutate to the point where human bodies can’t contain them. Skeptic, the computer expert, wants to use Spinner as a liaison towards the Heteromorphs. Due to their non-human appearances, Heteromorphs are often the subjects of bigotry and may be more likely to side with the villains over the heroes. He says that while Spinner originally copied Stain’s look to pay homage to him, other Heteromorphs have copied the look since, in homage to Spinner. Spinner is surprised to hear that, but Skeptic tells him not to think about it and just do his job. He shouldn’t focus on Jailbreakers but the common rioters. Tomura limps towards them, muttering that he’ll destroy it all. Spinner isn’t exactly happy with this job, but he’s willing to do it for Tomura. AFO smiles as Spinner takes the USB that Skeptic got him, saying that in this world anyone can become someone’s hero.

 

We shift to UA where a bunch of people are milling about. An average looking man goes up to an average looking woman and gives her their orders. They’re supposed to stirrup the masses and start a riot as best they can. UA know that Tomura has a week before he’s fully recovered, and in that time, they need to make certain that UA is no longer a place where Izuku can rest.

 

We’re shown Izuku and his friends working to capture Jailbreakers. Future Narrator Izuku says that they’ve been working hard to capture the Jailbreakers, but they couldn’t find a trace of the League. The students return to their dorm, exhausted and burnt out. Iida tells everyone to rest up; their youthful resilience is their strength. As a man in my mid-30s I resent them for it. Mineta walks up to Izuku and says they don’t even time to tell dirty stories. Izuku noncommittally mutters back at Mineta that that is true. He turns his attention to Uraraka who is chatting with Ashido. He says they haven’t had time to chat since he’d been back and he hasn’t even been able to thank her for her heartfelt speech to the masses. He tries to talk to her, but All Might, Tsukauchi and Nezu burst in. They ask if they’ve come with news about Aoyama. Tsukauchi holds up a finger to silence them. All Might says that they’re here to tell them the plan for what’s to come. It’s a big secret, though, so they need to keep it close to the vest.

 

The next morning, Nezu makes an announcement to the evacuees. He tells them that Tomura Shigaraki will be active again in four days. The heroes and police have joined forces to stop him. He warns that in that time the campus will go into lockdown and shift to Martial Law. He begs everyone’s cooperation and understanding in this time. We get shots of Kota, Ippon Josei, Inko Midoriya, Mitsuki Bakugo, and the League’s agent all react to this information. The people Izuku cares about look concerned, but the Agent looks stunned that UA has admitted to the situation. That really throws a monkey wrench in whatever they had planned, I’m sure. Izuku and the other students gather, thanking the civilians for their hospitality. Kota asks if Izuku is really leaving already. Izuku confirms that, saying he’s gotten to rest up but now he needs to get moving. Boy, I hope you said bye to your MOM Deku! I know you have a special connection to Kota but spare a special goodbye to your primary parent! The agent, after recovering from his surprise, admits to himself that this is great news for them. It would have been incredibly difficult for AFO to get to Izuku while in UA, but with him going out, they didn’t have to even lift a finger to complete their mission. We then get a quick flash of the students saying goodbye to their families. Izuku hugs his mom (GOOD!), Shoto says goodbye to his mom and 2/3rds of his siblings, Jiro and Uraraka see their folks, Bakugo’s mom slaps him on the back and seems to be encouraging while his dad tries to get her to calm down, and weirdly Shoji shakes hands with Ippon. Nezu also brings out Recovery Girl, who is looking even older than when we last saw her after the sports festival (I think?) and Izuku also says bye to Eri and Kota specifically. They move to Troy, a new fortress that they build 30 kms from UA.

 

I’m not sure I love that name. Troy, if you’ll recall, FELL. It’s rather famous for it.

 

Snipe tells them that Cementoss, Power Loader and Ectoplasm, got it set up and that while it’s not as fortified as UA, Troy will be a hard nut to crack. It looks like one of the UA dorms done in black and with a bunch more walls. The students head inside and unpack. Iida, Kirishima, and Bakugo give Shoto a lingering glance. Izuku checks out his room and sees from his balcony that Uraraka is outside on her own. He jumps out to talk to her, and thanks her for that speech she gave. She’s clearly flustered, but happy, with his thanks. He asks if he was interrupting her. She says no, she was just looking out over the city. She says that she might be a bit weird, Izuku is vocally against that assessment. He lists off her virtues to prove the point. She says that wasn’t want she was talking about. She tells him about when she got up on the roof and started talking, she admits she started to think about Himeko Toga. She says that while they fought, she thought she told Toga some pretty common-sense stuff… but Toga look like she was shocked by what Uraraka had to say. She says that she KNOWS that Toga has done a lot of bad stuff, the girl is a serial killer after all, but like… she can’t stop thinking about how Toga might not actually fully comprehend the wrongs that she’s done. She says that she’s looking at the ruined city to remind herself of what matters. To focus in on the important thing of stopping the pain that the villains have caused. Izuku says that he gets it, and points out his weird spiritual connection of Tomura Shigaraki, he saw a little boy crying in that man and he’s not sure he can ignore that about him.

 

We jump to inside Troy and see that Iida, Kirishima and Bakugo are sitting with Shoto to give him a short of ‘we’re here for you, man,” speech given what Shoto’s dealing with in regard to Dabi/Toya situation. Iida mentions that he has a brother too, but Shoto points out that its hard to compare the paragon of an older brother that is Tensei Iida to the deranged murder and arson machine that is Toya “Dabi” Todoroki. Shoto mentions that its weird that he doesn’t even know what sort of food his brother likes. Bakugo offhandedly says that it’s gotta be the kind of udon that burns your mouth. Shoto laughs and says if that’s the case, he’ll have to share some with his brother. All the students resolve to stop their respective villains.

 

We jump to AFO scrolling through his phone. He narrates that lies don’t work on him. He reveals that he stole a lie detection Quirk from someone when he was young, he can’t remember its name as he mixed the quirk with a few others. He doesn’t remember the person he took it from either, other than he was a dull man, but he says that that man’s descendants were far more interesting. I think he’s implying that this was Tsukauchi’s ancestor, as he says that a twist of fate brought one of those descendants to All Might. He says that there is no greater joy than watching a seed he planted bear fruit. He calls up the Aoyamas and in code sets up a plan to meet with Yuga. He says that he detected no lies or malice from her, so he’s confident that she’s still under his thumb. He says they’ll see him soon.

 

We find Izuku meeting with Aoyama in a deserted parking lot. The twinkling boy is looking very disheveled at the moment. He’s not even talking in his faux French accent! Izuku asks what he’s doing there, and Aoyama says that his parents got him released from police custody. Izuku offers to get the others and get him into a search party, but Aoyama stops him and says that he wants to talk to Izuku in private first. Aoyama thinks its funny that the courts are still in session even in this insanity. He offers to explain AFO’s plan to Izuku. He says that the war with AFO is causing massive problems globally. The yen is dropping in price, Japanese companies are failing, and villains are growing bolder. He compares it to the Great depression or the chaos of the early quirk days. Izuku is clearly scared of what he’s talking about. Aoyama explains that All For One is basically trying to throw the world into chaos so then he can step in and use his numerous powers to seize control of everything. The Demon Lord indeed. Izuku says that people wouldn’t allow that, and that heroes are still standing. Aoyama says he knows, and that’s why he has to be removed. AFO floats in sporting a new armored helmet. He applauds Aoyama’s explanation of his goals but says that it’s not totally accurate. He starts mockingly complimenting Aoyama, saying what a good boy he is, and how hard it must have been to betray his friends when they put their faith in him yet again.

 

Aoyama agrees that it was distressing as Izuku shouts “I Trusted you!” Aoyama then turns, firing off his belly laser and saying “I won’t betray my friends!” He burns a hole in AFO’s suit. That’s about the extent of the damage, but AFO is clearly pissed when he calls Aoyama an ungrateful little worm. The smoke clears and Izuku and Aoyama are standing together, the blonde trembling so bad it looks like he’s having a stroke why they try to nonchalantly banter about how good their acting was. Aoyama swears that, despite his fear, he’ll stand up and fight AFO. AFO is confused by the Aoyama’s ability to hide their intent from him… but he decides it doesn’t matter. Bold statement… He says that with Search he knows that the heroes that could actually be a threat to him are scattered across the country. He opens those slime portals and draws his League of Villains to him. He announces that it’s too late for anyone to save Izuku now. A Kurogiri portal starts to open, which shocks AFO, as they shouldn’t have been able to make use of Kurogiri’s powers. He decides that also doesn’t matter, this makes it easier to find him. Aoyama keeps on talking, saying that his parents said that the one thing that AFO would hate most would be if Japan proved that they’re still standing. That the country is still Twinkling even after his assault. Heroes start leaping from the portals, Endeavor, Mirko, Edgeshot, the Big 3 of UA, Fat Gum, Mt. Lady and the rest. Aoyama announces that they’ll see AFO defeated! Hell of a time to end on episode.

 

This was a strong start to this final battle arc. Izuku and his allies have clearly been working overtime to formulate this plan to draw out AFO to the field of their choosing. They got the Aoyamas to convince him to make a move, they somehow got Kurogiri’s power to portal in the heroes after convincing AFO that they’re all too far away to help, they even got the justifiably scared Aoyama to be brave long enough to get a kick ass declaration from him. This multi stage plan is going to need a lot of explaining, me thinks. I liked the slower moments in this episode as well. Izuku and company saying goodbye to their families was sadly sweet. I have to imagine that the parents are stressed out as hell right now. Izuku finally got the chance to talk with Uraraka and learning that they’re both in this kind of weird space where they empathize with their respective villains and understand them in a way that makes fighting them hard but necessary. They can’t forgive Toga and Tomura for what they’ve done, but they can’t just think of them as generic bad guys anymore. It was a nice bonding moment between our love interests that haven’t gotten much screen time together in ages. I also liked the short scene with Bakugo, Shoto, Iida and Kirishima. It was a little moment, but it showed that these kids are friends and aren’t just connected because of their relationship with Izuku. They know their friend is going through some stuff, so they take a moment to talk with him. Do they say or do much? No, but the gesture is what mattered. Same kind of goes for that moment with Dabi and Toga in the opener. Its weird to think of them as like… friends. But if you recall, they joined the League of Villains at the same time, they’ve worked together for over a year at this point, and while Dabi probably still would incinerate her at a moment’s notice, it still seemed like they connected in their own way. He knew that burning the house down would mean something to Toga, so he did it. The fact that she has Twice’s blood and the emotional connection to him to use his power is… horrifying. I hope the heroes figure that out sooner rather than later. But we’ll have to wait and see. Good night everyone, and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social