Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 166

 The truth of Tomura Shigaraki's existence is just sad. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku weaponized One For All. Izuku and the Vestiges plan to force the Vestiges into Tomura’s body, forcing a connection between the young men and hopefully allowing Izuku to break through his defenses and help him. This is rather difficult considering Tomura’s immense and varied powers. We flash across the battle fields and to the civilians, and see everyone is anxious for Izuku to win this fight. Some, like little Eri, get a confidence boost when Kota takes her hand and says he’ll win, others are less confident for various reasons, like Kaminari. Lady Nagant tells Rock Lock that she’s confident that Izuku will succeed as she’s been on the receiving end of his earnest desire to save others, and if he could break her defenses, he’ll get through Tomura’s. Izuku’s a clever little SOB, though, and is able to hit Tomura with 6 of the Vestiges, starting with Kudo and then following up with Yoichi, Bruce, Banjo, En, and Toshinori. The only one that’s forced back, somehow, is Nana. This forms an intense psychic link to form, and it pulls Izuku and Nana into Tomura’s mind. Once inside, they see his childhood home. Some old villains like Stain, Re-Destro, and Overhaul form as mental defenses, but Izuku pushes past them and opens the door to the house. Inside, they see the initially sweet moment of Tomura’s sister Hana showing him the photo of their grandma Nana and their dad, Kotaro, but then see the horrible moment when Kotaro finds out and slaps young Tenko. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Kotaro slapping his son, the photo negative version of Tenko Shimura, and Izuku and Nana reacting to it. Izuku immediately sprints forward to try to reach Shigaraki but finds there’s a barrier that’s separating him from the scene. He tries to force his way through as Kotaro tells Tenko that that ‘woman’ isn’t his grandmother. She abandoned her family, according to him, and he goes on to say a hero is nothing more than someone who leaves to protect strangers. This of course breaks Nana’s heart, as she realizes Kotaro kept the photo simply because he couldn’t bring himself to do it, not because he still loved his mom. Nana realizes that that Kotaro’s hatred infected Tenko and curses the fact that she wasn’t able to beat AFO and break the cycle. She apologizes to him for being so weak. Izuku keeps trying to force his way through and begs Nana to do it now! She transfers her power into Shigaraki like the others. She shoots through the barrier, grabbing Kotaro and stopping him from hitting Tenko again. She apologizes to Tenko for being weak as she and the Vestige of Kotaro break into pieces and Tenko fully forms.

 

There’s a flash and Izuku jumps ahead a few days to when Tenko’s decay quirk first activated. As young Tenko accidentally disintegrates his dog, Izuku senses the same danger coming from Tenko as he did outside of Jaku. Hana comes to apologize to Tenko for letting him take the brunt of their father’s anger, sees the dog ooze beside him and runs back inside. Tenko instinctively reaches out to her to try to stop her, but instead of grabbing her and accidentally kill her like in reality, Izuku, reduced to child form, leaps in and grabs Tenko’s hands. He swears they’ll finish this here. While in this mindscape, Izuku is able to break the rules of reality and do things like, say, keep his body from decaying when they touch Tenko’s hands. He just has to keep focusing on the reality of his own body. He says that he’s force Tenko to take OFA, and now he’ll give Tenko some of Izuku as well. Tenko asks why Izuku is doing this. Izuku says that he has to because he’s crying. Behind the boys, black-purple energy is surging. Tenko refuses to believe that he’s crying. He tries to own what he did, saying that he wanted to do this, he wanted to murder his whole family and flatten that house. He begs Izuku to tell him, if he’s not born to destroy things with these hands, why was he born at all? As the mental storm builds in power, Izuku realizes that Tomura is trying to weigh the hatred and catharsis of his evil actions against sadness and confusion. He’s still wavering, though, so Izuku refuses to let go. Tomura Shigaraki remembers what it was like right after the murders, when adults looked away from him and tried to ignore him. He realizes that if someone had just taken his hand back then… maybe things would have been different. Izuku tells Tenko that when he was lost as Dark Deku, someone (Iida) took him by the hand and it gave him peace. It’s because he knows how much comfort one can get if someone else gives a damn, that’s why he’s here. Tenko’s power is too much for Izuku’s body and he disintegrates Izuku’s hands. Despite this, he tells Tenko that everything will be okay, and it’ll all work out. Tomura realizes that Izuku’s feelings are flowing into him. Both boys fall face first onto the ground, with an exasperated, angry Tomura asking if this was really all it would take to break his hate.

 

Tomura flashes back to an afternoon playing with his friends. They were playing heroes and Tenko got a chance to play All Might, which excited him. The scene fast forwards to nightfall as Tenko insists he’s a bad guy. He does evil things, he hurts people because that’s his nature. The boys get up and are surrounded by mental images of Twice, Dabi, Spinner, Twice and Toga. Tenko insists that even if Izuku takes away his pain, it won’t work, because he has to be the hero to the villains that believe in him. Which is a weird stance to take, not going to lie. We get a brief few of a few depressed and/or misanthropic people that are cheering Tomura on in his effort to destroy society. The huge tower of hands that Tomura manifested before they entered the mindscape begins to crumble and Detective Tsukauchi begs Izuku to finish this.

 

In Tomura’s mind, he sees a very strange memory. Through the eyes of AFO, we see him approach Kotaro. AFO was playing the part of a businessman working at a place called Koga. Its clear from a few scenes that AFO had fostered a friendship between himself and Kotaro, as they’d walk together after work and got dinner together at least once. AFO is, to my meta perspective, already weirdly interested in Kotaro’s son. For some reason, neither Izuku nor Tomura recognize AFO’s voice when he speaks. Weird. Before they can puzzle it out, AFO’s Vestige manifests again, taking the mindscape and forming it into a giant body. It gobbles up Tomura, asking his vessel how could he break so easily. He claims that no choice Tomura has made has been his own, and curses Izuku and the other OFA wielders for ruining his brother and OFA.

 

As he’s being infinitely swallowed by the giant AFO, Tomura asks what the heck is going on. AFO manifests before him and says that Tomura was his puppet that he allowed to believe had free will. When Tomura still doesn’t get it, he explains. He learned after fighting and killing Banjo and later En, that he needed a stronger will than OFA in order to reclaim it. And when All Might arose and made him retreat into the shadows, he got to work. He admitted to spending years manipulating Kotaro. He didn’t start until after Hana was born, so he used his rhetorical skill and connection to Kotaro to convince him to have a second child, he stole Tomura’s original quirk when he was still an infant, and then to push him to get stricter and stricter with his kids. He even supposedly encourages Tenko’s friends into playing with him. After all of that, he disguised himself and approached a young Tenko and infected him with Decay. He even reveals that Decay is an inferior version of a Quirk that he acquired from the Doctor. He took a sample from a young boy in an orphanage, whom we’re all but told was Kai Chisaki aka Overhaul. AFO loudly and proudly proclaims that everything that Tomura has experienced, the hate, loneliness, anger, joy, and all the other things he’s felt, it was all AFO’s doing. He tells Tomura to get out of HIS body and disintegrates Tomura’s Vestige. We see the mindscape is being completely reworked into AFO’s body, he claims he wasn’t planning on doing this full redesign until AFTER getting OFA, but he’s got little choice now. He expels Izuku from the mindscape.

 

In meatspace, the hand cocoon bursts. AFO manifests, having morphed Tomura’s body to more resemble his own. He claims that he’s destroyed Tomura’s mind entirely, the only thing of him remaining being a crying he’s hearing at the back of his mind which he ‘banishes.’ For some reason, he also creates a hand mask to cover his mouth. Weird. He tells us that this drastic measure seems to have destroyed Decay as well. AFO laments losing that as well as his chance to absorb his brother, as Yoichi was used up breaking into Tomura’s mind. No matter, though, he’s focused on the future. He decides that he’ll have to focus on the hallow end goal, destroying the fetid world. Izuku tries to get back on his feet, a task made more difficult since his hands were in fact actually destroyed in that altercation. He’s just got pair of bloody stumps, he tries to get up but slips on his own blood. AFO walks over to him, saying that he’s going to lean into the narrative that they’ve created here. Loss makes one stronger, so he’s stronger now than he was before. Izuku didn’t have anything to lose, in his eyes, so this ending for him was inevitable. AFO holds up a hand and charges a plasma blast. But before he can fire, he’s tangled up in… TAPE! Sero leaps in to help Izuku. AFO is unimpressed, saying that Sero is a nuisance, a presence so unremarkable that Izuku’s presence drowned it out. Sero screams that they’re here to help.

 

AFO turns and slices thought the tape, only to get rushed by Sato and Ojiro. They take advantage of AFO not having Decay anymore and slam him back with a double hit. Izuku is stunned to see his friends there, but even more so when a Warp Gate opens behind him. He turns in time to see Aizawa step through, who apologizes for being late.

 

We flashback ten minutes. Aizawa and Present Mic are lost at sea with an unconscious Kurogiri, their comms down and no one knowing where they are. Present Mic is venting his feelings by punching Kurogiri repeatedly and telling the stupid carcass to wake up and tell them where they are. Aizawa grabs his arm and says that Kurogiri is crying. Present Mic refuses to believe that, saying it’s just the rain, Kurogiri doesn’t even have tear ducts anymore. It took them out of play because Aizawa was a danger to Tomura, end of story. Present Mic is angry and says that they’ll just wake it up to get them home and then put it down for good. They shouldn’t think about the minor miracle that brought Shirakumo back for a few seconds. He tells Aizawa that they’re 31, they can’t keep being students anymore. Aizawa points out that when he died, Shirakumo was still a UA student. He points out that Kurogiri could have easily killed them in transit, either by dropping them in the ocean, smashing them on the rocks, or ripping them to shreds between his gates. He grabs Kurogiri’s head as he said that they were able to draw out the light in Kurogiri once. Aizawa uses his Quirk on Kurogiri, saying to Present Mic that they’re UA teachers now, and as Teachers, they need to see students graduate. Even if it’s a bit delayed. He’s able to break through Kurogiri to Shirakumo, allowing their friend’s face to peek out of the darkness again. Present Mic tearfully says that these memories aren’t going away anytime soon, are they. Aizawa contacts Tsukauchi and gets a list of heroes that are still active, and their coordinates.

 

Aizawa runs into Shiketsu and tells Ectoplasm to gather every hero on guard duty that they can and to meet him out front. They need to hurry because they don’t know how long they’ve got control of Kurogiri and Warp Gate. Death Arms offers to help immediately, as does a no name hero, and the civilians offer up supplies to help the injured heroes. One guy gives Aizawa an All Might shirt off his back, which was sweet and weird at the same time. They then warp to the stadium where there’s still one villain left standing. They quickly take him out. A whole bunch of portals open and Aizawa announces that phase 3 is about to start.

 

AFO, still high on his own power, says that they’re all come here to have their Quirks stolen. Izuku is confused as to how AFO can be here, as he thought breaking through to Tenko would destroy him. Aizawa rushes over and asks how long ago Izuku lost his arms. He isn’t sure due to the weirdness of being in the mindscape.

 

We get another flashback to when Aizawa was leaving Shiketsu. Eri runs up to him and says that she knows that there’s zero chance that he’d let her come with even if she wants to help. But she figured out a way to help anyway, and offers her horn, telling him to give it to Mr. Deku. She asked Ectoplasm to help her break it off. She knows its just her horn, but she also knows that this will work. Aizawa starts to scold her for risking damaging her Quirk by doing this, but Eri cuts him off. She says that she wasn’t able to help Mr. All Might or Mr. Kacchan this way, but she wants to save Deku. She says that her dream is to be a singer, and that she plans to sing for Izuku and the others when this is over. Aizawa uses the horn on Izuku, which regenerates his arms. An Ectoplasm voice over says that it’ll only rewind two or three minutes, to let us know Izuku isn’t getting the rest of his powers back with this one. Aizawa tells Izuku he needs to hear Eri sing, so he’s not allowed to die. Mineta, Shoji, Koda, Yaoyorozu, Kaminari, Jiro, Ashido, Aoyama, Hagakure, Kirishima, and Tsu come through the portals. Mineta loudly announcing that if Class 1A hears Izuku is still up and kicking ass, regardless of how hurt and broken down they are, they’ll pick themselves up to join him. Izuku starts tearing up and prepares for one last smack down.

 

I’ve got to give Horikoshi praise for how he handled that reveal. He gave us all the information to figure this out, but I was still surprised. It’s been repeatedly shown that if a person is given a Quirk that isn’t compatible with their body, they can have physiological side effects. In Aoyama, it was his stomach pains if he overused his quirk, in Tomura, it was his chronic itching. Quirks are largely genetic, and while we only know Nana’s Quirk in regard to his family, somehow flight mutating into decay seemed… unlikely. He did give us the red herring explanation that quirks can mutate randomly like with Eri… but how odd it is that the grandson of Nana Shimura would be one to have this apparently super rare phenomenon happen to them. And AFO is absolutely the obsessive type of psycho that he’d stalk a family in order to orchestrate his grand master plan. Hell, even his relationship with Kotaro makes sense. Kotaro grew up without his parents, and while whomever fostered him did their best, I’m sure, the idea that he might still be looking for a paternal figure to fill the hole his father’s death and his mother’s abandonment left tracks. It is extremely screwed up to think that Tomura literally only exists because AFO manipulated Kotaro into deciding he wanted a second child. Dude is a freak. If anyone is curious, I looked into it, and according to Horikoshi, Tenko’s original quirk was that ring flight quirk that both AFO and Tomura have used in their battles. Neither know it, though, as Tenko had it stolen when he was weeks if not days old, and AFO steals a LOT of powers. Metaphorically stealing a child’s wings so he can be the perfect devil, that’s symbolism right there. It’s sad to see Tomura having his emotional breakthrough was the catalyst to allow AFO to reassert control. Dude was like two more minutes away from agreeing that he should stop fighting. Izuku losing his hands was graphic as hell. Aizawa breaking through to Shirakumo one last time so he could rally the troops felt really nice. I especially liked his scene with Eri, where this stubborn little girl takes after her various guardians and risks her own health and safety just on the off chance that she could help. Izuku saved her life once, so obviously she needs to save his hands. And Izuku having his exhausted friends at his back for this last battle makes me confident it’ll be a fight for the ages. But I’ll need to wait and see. Have a good night and stay safe. 

Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 165

 Izuku risks it all to save the world but also just one sad, angry, broken child. 

Last time on My Hero Academia Izuku suffered a major loss but stumbled on a way to win. While he’d been able to hold off Tomura Shigaraki as they fought, Tomura finally broke through Izuku’s defenses and was able to steal Danger Sense along with Hikage Shinomuri. While that takes away one of Izuku’s big advantages in this fight and gives it to Tomura, it gives the Vestige of Kudo an idea. In order to make sure Izuku doesn’t run off and to facilitate his grand destruction plan, Tomura threatens to decay Mt. Fuji and thus set off an eruption big enough to destroy Japan. Izuku keeps fighting off Tomura, but Smokescreen is useless as Tomura can search him out, and he hits the limit on Gear Shift and is temporarily paralyzed. Nana tells Izuku that her grandson is too far gone and he should give up on saving him, but Izuku refuses. He knows that if the past really didn’t matter to Tomura, he wouldn’t have such a death grip on it. Kudo reveals his plan, to get Izuku to use them as a weapon. Tomura has hardened his heart into a metaphorical lead ball, but Star and Stripes left a crack in it after her fight and Vestige rampage. If they can pierce that, the mental wound might be enough to beat Shigaraki where physical wounds can’t. The others think this is crazy, but Kudo insists this is the only way. Izuku hesitates for a moment. Not because he is scared of dying, or because he wants to keep OFA for his own glory… but because he doesn’t want to lose this amazing gift All Might gave him. But then he focuses in and prepares to do just that. This kid is a hero through and through. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We jump right into the fight. Izuku has covered his body with Black Whip to strengthen himself. Like I said in the last post, it is vaguely reminiscent of his Dark Deku look, just with more of his face on display. He’s essentially puppeteering his own body with the Black Whip energy threads. This is a move so crazy that it even impresses Banjo, Black Whip’s original holder. En calls Izuku crazy for this but like in an impressed way. Kudo thinks that Izuku is doing all of this due to his deep respect for Quirks in general, and that One For All was truly blessed to have him in their collective.

 

Izuku has the general shape of a plan. One might say 12% of a plan. He needs to get close enough to Tomura without using Gear Shift, a big ask, and then hit Tomura with his left fist where he’s mentally concentrated the Second. But first, he has to get some of his DNA into Tomura’s system, to initiate the transfer. He remembers All Might explaining to him that ingesting his DNA is part of the process, and later, after fighting Stain who licked up a LOT of Izuku’s blood, that while he can transfer OFA to someone even if they don’t want it, OFA can’t be taken from him unless he wants to give it up. Ya know, barring being touched by AFO. Kudo tells the other Vestiges that he and Bruce theorized that was the situation back in the old days and he’s glad that that its been confirmed with time. Izuku knows that getting blood into Tomura’s wound would be the easiest… if Tomura didn’t regenerate almost immediately when he wants. He settles on trying to get the blood in him at the moment of impact and prepares to strike. He’s sure he’s minutes away from passing out due to his injuries, so he has to act fast.

 

Tomura regenerates the arm that he lost in the last clash. He reveals he disarmed himself, as Danger Sense told him something Izuku was trying to do would be dangerous to him, so he cut it off as a precaution. It’s weird that that’s your first response, but hey, maybe he’s still a big Aizawa fan. Tomura knows something is up, Izuku should be trying to keep himself alive, but his body language is still aggressive. The two young men charge, Izuku to transfer his power, and Tomura to kill him. When they get close, Izuku initiates Smokescreen. En is confused by this, as in the end the smoke is more of a liability to Izuku than Tomura since the other man has Search. Tomura doesn’t even bother with that, he hits the ground and activates Decay, intent on just breaking the ground beneath Izuku’s feet to stop him. But that’s when Izuku rips up the ground using his Black Chains. Tomura wonders when Izuku even had time to try that. Banjo figures out first, that Izuku somehow had the presence of mind to send out Black Whip chains after Shigaraki’s last big hit, to tear up the ground and prepare to rip Tomura into the sky. Like how they kept him in the Flying Coffin. Tomura senses movement and grabs at it, but it’s just Izuku’s cape. En connects that to how Izuku fought Nagant, using the cape to draw Tomura’s attention.

 

Tomura disintegrates it… only then realizing that there was a Black Whip tendril holding it and the end was covered in blood. Izuku knows that Search shows Tomura where people he’s seen are. He guessed that it would work with his Vestiges as well, so he transferred Kudo to the tip and used that to trigger Danger Sense. This distracted Tomura long enough for Izuku to get in close. Izuku’s ingenuity impresses En, who starts crying. Tomura’s body instinctively understands that whatever Izuku is trying is dangerous for him, so he starts growing his Hand Armor on reflex. He tries to fire a plasma burst at Izuku, but he’s too close and to quick this time. He strikes Tomura with his fist, and sends Kudo and Gear Shift into Tomura’s body like a bullet. Kudo says his goodbyes to Izuku, saying not to worry about him, as he’s a ghost already. He dives into Tomura’s body and strikes at the leaden core inside him.

 

The hit triggers something in both Izuku and Tomura. Suddenly, huge holographic projections of Himeko Toga and Dabi appear in the sky, they look just like they did when Tomura met them. A moment later, Izuku’s memory of his fight against Shoto plays, but along with Spinner saying that he looks up to Stain. Yoichi realizes that their memories are merging and getting mixed together. En tells him focus and keep fighting, the plan is working but he needs to keep the pressure on. Izuku gets a flash of Mineta and Tsu during their fight against the original League of Villains in the USJ.

 

Yoichi has some theories. Just from watching Izuku’s battles with Shigaraki, he’s seen that the two Quirks AFO and OFA have a resonance that was already growing rapidly as these young men clashed. Now that Izuku has forcefully connected them with his last attack, it’s happening even faster. He thinks his brother was so obsessed with getting OFA that he tried to attack its very soul. But despite his power, Yoichi and the others were all there willing to stand against him. He and the other wielders start running forward, preparing for the next strike. Tomura and Izuku both shout each other’s name as Izuku breaks through Tomura’s giant finger defense and strikes him in the stomach. The other wielders flow into him and strike the leaden ball, but they bounce off. In meatspace, Izuku falls back and is shocked when he realizes that the transfer didn’t work. Banjo manifests to tell him that they think that Tomura’s will is strong enough to not only forcefully take their quirks but also to deny the transfer. The others bounced off, but Banjo confirms En got in and that did hurt Tomura. There’s a huge dent in his chest from that last hit. So Izuku is now down Gear Shift, Danger Sense, AND Smokescreen. Damnit, he’s running out of powers to transfer. He curses the fact that he had to break through the wall of fingers to get to his main body. He compares them to fingernails or a wall of grime, they’re not really a part of Tomura’s body, they’re just obstacles to slow him down. A memory of Tomura walking with AFO as a child manifests. That tells Izuku, for sure, that they’re getting to the Tenko at Tomura’s core, the little boy crying while holding his dog. He vows to keep trying as many times as it takes to break through. Ya got four more tries, bucko. Less if you give up Float before Black Whip.

 

As Izuku and Tomura start staring each other down, we cut back to UA. La Brava is using a high speed spy camera that Mei Hatsume made to keep tabs on Izuku’s battle. Mei says that she used this drone to get her babies to Izuku as quickly as possible. La Brava mutters to herself that she should probably hate Izuku for sending her Gentle to jail, but as that was somehow a net positive experience for Gentle, she’s willing to let that go. And she doesn’t want to see ungrateful to him. Gentle himself lowers UA to the water below and other heroes rush over to help get everyone off the broken hunk of rock. Cementoss makes cement bridges to get people to shore and to stabilize the island. Gentle asks how he can help and Cementoss says he can help with the evacuation, and to prioritize the critically injured.

 

We cut to Shiketsu high. A very anxious little white-haired girl turns and starts running. Her minder, Ectoplasm, stops her and asks what’s up. Eri says that she has to get to Deku to help him fight. Ectoplasm gently reminds her that he’s hundreds of kilometers away, there’s no way she can reach him in time. Eri tells him to use the box that brought her there to bring her back. Ectoplasm says that the tram system was trashed by all the fighting. And Eri’s horn is still small, indicating she hasn’t built up enough energy to meaningfully rewind Izuku in the fighting. Ectoplasm tells her to be strong and remember what happened when she tried to help Aizawa. There’s a flashback to Aizawa just after the last big battle, where he puts on a brave face and tells her that he just got a little dinged up and is fine. Eri remembers her other interactions with Izuku and how he encouraged her and was just in general a very nice big brother to her. She starts crying, and then we see a familiar pair of red shoes step up. The original child that Izuku helped, Kota Izumi, steps up and takes her hand. He asks if she’s noticed how Mr. Izuku is always crying. He reveals that he’s also tearing up and says he’s a crybaby too. He says that because Izuku is always trying his best, they need to try their best too. Everyone watches Izuku battle Tomura, trying to break through the wall of fingers. The one civilian that asked Izuku if he thought he could beat AFO and the League if he rested at UA starts tearing up upon realizing he shouldn’t have ever doubted Izuku.

 

We jump back to UA and Yaoyorozu is helping Kaminari from the field. She shows him the feed of Izuku’s fight and notes he’s in Dark Deku mode again. Kaminari, who’s brain is still a bit fried, frowns. He asks if she knows about how in comic books, this is the moment where a support character says something like “I know he’ll win,” or “he’s got this.” Yaoyorozu says she never really had time for that, and Kaminari says that it really would be more his thing than hers. He starts crying, asking why he can’t seem to find the optimism to say something like that, like he would have if All Might was fighting right now. He asks if this is a sign that deep down, he doesn’t have faith in his friend.

 

We jump to Gunga Villa. The reporters we’ve been following are giving up their helicopters to get the critically injured to safety. Uraraka is on board the one flying out, she’s alive but critical. They also find Hawks, still depowered, and Tokoyami. Hawks is pretty out of it, but registers that the reporters were talking about Uravity even if the reporters didn’t get her name right. He thinks that if more people could be like her, if they cared for the people around them, it’d help.

 

Nagant is found by Rock Lock, who helped stabilize her. It seems like he asked her why she’s fighting so hard for Midoriya, as she’s midway through answering. She says that Izuku broke down her defenses and got to the heart of her. Once he was in there, she couldn’t resist his earnest pleas to just let him help her. Rock Lock agrees that that’s a pretty effective strategy, basically break down your opponents will to fight. They both agree that Izuku is probably trying that right now with Shigaraki. Nagant says that his dream is taking him down a thorny path. She says that the look on his face when he fights is so intense, that people have trouble not rooting for him.

 

We return to the fight, Izuku is still trying to break through the fingers, and it looks like his power is starting to wane. Tomura sees a flash of his father right before he killed him, Kotaro Shimura shouting at his son to stop. Tomura freaks out and screams at Izuku not to touch him. Izuku barrels through his fingers and gets another big hit in. The remaining Vestiges hit the leaden ball. This time, they all seem to get through, even All Might’s, except Nana. She’s shocked by this. She remembers when she faced Tomura in the mindscape and how he said that he hates his grandmother the most. Nana also saw her Kotaro’s face manifest on one of Tomura’s fingers in that moment. She realizes her grandson’s hate isn’t what repelled her. She remembers a young Kotaro screaming at her, begging her to not leave him. She realizes she was too weak to break through that ball.

 

Izuku crashes through Tomura’s memories. He ends up standing in front of Tomura’s home in his school uniform. He remembers Tomura stating that destroying everything even remotely connected to that house will save him from his pain. Izuku goes to hit the bell but stops when someone asks him what the point is. He looks over to see a shadowy version of himself standing at the door. He thinks that this is how Tomura sees Izuku. Dark Deku asks Izuku why he’s bothering. Izuku says he’s not sure, but he’s not going to stop until he knows what’s going on. A truck manifests and almost hits Izuku, which freaks him out because he felt it. Nana manifests and says that he’s entered the depths of Tomura’s mind. Due to their connection, he can interact with Tomura’s mind and that’s a two-way street. Izuku asks what she’s doing here, and she explains that she was the only one kicked back out. She apologizes, but Izuku thanks her for being with him here. She tells him that this is the core of Tomura Shigaraki’s mindscape. She thinks he’s at his most vulnerable here and encourages him to reach deep inside and reveal his past. Stain’s ghost attacks Izuku, stabbing him to the ground. He shifts faces to Re-Destro and then Overhaul, all three of his enemies asking what he plans on doing. Izuku says he doesn’t have one, not really, but he’s going to save Tomura. He shoves passed them and opens the door. He sees the memory of Tenko’s sister Hana showing him the picture of Kotaro and Nana together. Nana is touched her son kept that picture but then horrified when the memory goes forward and we see Kotaro slap Tomura for going into his office and messing with that photo. Izuku sees that Tomura’s form in this memory is a black photo negative and is confused as the credits roll.

 

Wow, it’s sad to see the Vestiges go. While they obviously didn’t get personalities until much later, these guys have been a part of Izuku to some degree since the second season, when they manifested to help Izuku break out of Shinzo’s mind control during the sports festival. As they’ve grown and gotten their personalities back, and interacted with Izuku, they have become a huge part of him. They’re mentors, cheerleaders, coaches, and confidants to young Midoriya. So, seeing them give themselves up in order to help Izuku beat Shigaraki and stick to his ideals is a bit heartbreaking. They’re willing to sacrifice themselves twice in order to stop All For One and that’s incredibly noble. My one critique is that I wish they’d all gotten a personal goodbye like Kudo did. I suppose Yoichi did a little as he led the charge, but Bruce, En and Banjo deserved one too. And All Might’s should have been like, “look after the living me, he needs you.” Having Nana be the only one that was rebuffed is going to be a big deal, I just know it. Izuku is going to have to deal with his greatest challenge yet, helping a very angry man work through his complicated feelings about domestic abuse. That’s a tricky subject for a licensed professional, much less a 16-year-old with more of a dream than a plan. I liked seeing how Izuku’s example helped inspire Kota to be strong and encourage Eri. He’s had a big impact on those around him. And to answer Kaminari’s question, no, having doubts doesn’t mean you lack faith in Izuku. It’s easy to look up to and believe in All Might. Even after learning under him for a year and change, All Might is still more of an idea than a person to Kaminari. Izuku is more than that. He’s Kaminari’s friend, someone that has encouraged him and bonded with him, he’s ‘real’ to Kaminari in a way that All Might isn’t. With All Might, he can shut off his brain and just believe. With Izuku, it’s so much harder because if Izuku fails, Kaminari loses his friend. It’s harder to just blindly root for that, ya know? We’re in the home stretch people, I can’t wait to see how Izuku resolves this one… in a few weeks. See you later. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 164

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

So… Izuku lost Danger Sense… damn.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 163

 Like so many villains, AFO's origin is sad and petty.

Last time on My Hero Academia Bakugo came to the rescue. Using incredible speed that he’d developed from pushing his quirk to his limit, he overwhelmed the youthful AFO with his explosions. AFO tried to teleport Tomura to him so he could transfer himself into his protégée, but Tomura fights him, telling the old man to back off. AFO tries to get past Bakugo, but despite his injuries the hellion is too fast to get around. AFO tries to rationalize that Bakugo isn’t that dangerous to him, he’s just on a time crunch. He’s got a middling power and is just an extra, a stumbling block to his goal. Only to get blasted by Bakugo yet again and into a building. AFO realizes why Bakugo seems to be triggering him as much as the blonde bastard is, and its because he reminds him of the second OFA wielder, Kudo. He screams that everything that’s happened is Kudo’s fault and he hates Kudo so damn much. Bakugo snarkily tells him that he’s getting demented, as his name is Kacchan Bakugo. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Looks like this episode is going back to the beginning. Like, beginning-beginning. Our first shot is of a fertilized ova growing into twin fetuses that one must assume are the twin Shigarakis. AFO says that it’s ‘hazy’ but he remembers quite a bit. After that we pull out to see a couple walking on the street, they’re chatting about nothing of importance when they see a white-haired pregnant woman drinking in an alley. She’s got spikes growing out of her skin. The couple ask if she’s okay, and the woman throws her bottle at them to drive them away. We get a look at the twins, and AFO is significantly larger than Yoichi. We cut to sometime in the future and see it’s a rainy night when the twins come into the world. They lay on the ground bleeding beside their mother.

 

Narrator Present Mic comes in to give us a brief history of meta society. It’s a bit like they used to do in the early seasons, but with a bit more meat to it. It started with a glowing baby and increased exponentially from there. Some had powers from birth, others didn’t get theirs until the onset of puberty. Initially it was thought that the powers were linked to a novel disease, and those with Meta powers were supposedly a new offshoot of humanity. Present Mic tells us that people jumped to that conclusion and that led to a lot of fighting between the haves and have nots. This led to increase in strife and violence.

 

We join a vigilante group that are apparently going around attacking Metas. They’re plotting to attack some folks they saw at a protest when a young AFO comes out of the shadows. He’s dressed in rags and has wide, staring eyes. They immediately clock him as an orphaned Meta, and one tries to get the others to think of ‘it’ as a Carrier. The mob tries to walk off, but are all skewered from behind by boney spikes AFO unleashes. Narrator Present Mic says that AFO stole this quirk from his mother shortly after his birth. AFO, according to Mic, was a greedy, vengeful being right from the start. If he felt slighted or insulted, he attacked with extreme prejudice. We see him and Yoichi as infants, AFO huge and Yoichi small, the two boys clinging to their mother’s corpse. AFO is, disturbingly, draining the blood from his mother’s breast.

 

Later we see AFO killing more people and taking their quirks. Yoichi begs him to stop hurting people. Narrator Present Mic says that AFO hogged much of the nutrients while in the womb, so Yoichi was born sickly and small. He supposedly didn’t have a Quirk, so he wasn’t much use to AFO… but AFO is a greedy SOB and viewed his younger brother as his possession. And he doesn’t give up his possessions. We follow the boys to their hideout; were Yoichi avidly reads the Captain Hero comic. We hear over the radio that the ‘Glowing Baby” is now an adult and is suing for peace between normal and meta humans. AFO asks his brother about the comic in that “I don’t care but tell me anyway” way of kids. Yoichi says that he has trouble reading, but comics are easier since the drawings help. Yoichi did his best to connect with his brother, offering to show him the comics and help him understand the story. Present Mic makes it seem like these attempts at kindness were… ill-advised.

 

We jump forward three years, and Yoichi is sitting up reading comics still. AFO returns to him, flying toward his brother in a way that makes it look like he’s coming from the moon. He glows faintly as he reveals to Yoichi that the Glowing Baby had 10 million followers and points out how weird it is that the GB had such a following just because they were the first registered meta human. He says that Metas are popping up all over the world, now, so why is the ‘first’ so important anyway? He then revealed that, yes, he killed the GB and stole their glow. Yoichi begs to know why. AFO reveals he took the idea from the comic “One for All and All For One.” Seems he took all the wrong lessons from the Captain Hero story. He says that the hero fights alone and is miserable, but everyone else follows the Demon Lord and submits to them. He says that he’s found a dream of his own that he’s going to follow while smiling evilly.

 

Jump forward another decade or so, and the now adult AFO asks Yoichi why he continues to act foolishly. He offers Yoichi a place at his side, but Yoichi refuses. He says that the world is in chaos and AFO is just making it worse. AFO says that he can’t understand because he doesn’t have a meta-ability, so he decided to fix that. He claims that he bends reality to his will and he’ll remake the world as he sees fit as he gives Yoichi the seed that will become One For All. We also learn that it is in this moment that he gave Yoichi his name, saying that it’s fitting as Yoichi was the first thing that he ever owned. Yoichi roughly means Bestowed First or something similar, so I get it. Yoichi begs him not to do this, but obviously AFO doesn’t listen.

 

Jump forward a bit more, and Yoichi is discovered by the men that would be the second and third wielders, Toshitsugu Kido and Bruce Lee. They lead him out of the room he was being held in and run. AFO chases after them, screaming at Yoichi to stay. He does the typical abuser tactics, saying that Yoichi belongs to him, that he gave Yoichi everything he’s ever had, even given him a Quirk… and if he doesn’t want to belong to AFO anymore, what good is he? He grabs Yoichi by the shirt and… blows him to pieces. Blood splatters everywhere, including on Kido’s face… which I assume is how the first OFA transfer took place. Present Mic narrates that AFO’s eyes in that moment were blank, dead in such a way that Kido wasn’t reflected in them at all.

 

Later, we join AFO as he has dinner and looks at his brother’s hand. He’s extremely confused, as he knows he gave Yoichi a Quirk… and yet when he tried to take it from Yoichi in that last moment, he found that the Quirk was gone. He admits that he wondered if Yoichi had had a Quirk to begin with, but that he stole it when they were infants. He realizes that Yoichi did have a Quirk, one that was so weak that it didn’t register to his senses. He wonders if it never triggered due to Yoichi’s malnutrition.

 

We join Kido and Bruce in their lair, where Bruce tells Kido according to their tests his meta factor has changed. He has his original, and a second, weaker one within him. We see a video diary that Yoichi left for AFO, telling his brother that if he just tried to have a little empathy, his ability to take and give Quirks would be a real blessing onto the world. AFO realizes that some part of Yoichi must still exist within this transference Quirk.

 

We get a montage of AFO’s life after that. He built up his army, amassed power and influence, and began hunting the wielders of OFA. He killed Kudo (2^nd), Bruce (3^rd), Banjo (5^th), and En (6^th) over the years, but only seemed to catch them after they transferred the Quirk. He came closest with En, it seems, who only was able to give Nana Shimura OFA just after he took the fatal wound from AFO. AFO personifies these transfers as Yoichi running from him. He remembers All Might smashing his skull in and bleeding to death, only to be revived later by Dr. Garaki.

 

In the present, AFO once again shrieks that everything that has happened is Kudo’s fault. He then reveals that his hatred for Kudo was so great that after killing Kudo, he systematically hunted down and murdered every single person that he could find that was even distantly related to him. He wiped out that bloodline. And yet, he can’t help but see Kudo’s defiance in Bakugo’s eyes. He thinks that if there was a relation to Kudo, he’d have sensed it when Bakugo was brought to him at the League’s headquarters. He dubs the resemblance superficial, but he can’t get it out of his head. AFO mutates, growing a huge tumor like growth from his back. He says that Kudo has somehow traveled across time to vex him once again. AFO’s running low on time and options. He could teleport Bakugo away, but his only anchor points would be to All Might, which is too close to him to be useful, or to Tomura, which would come with its own issues. He can’t take much more serious damage or he’ll rewind to nothing. And he can’t waste his strength because he now is certain he’ll need to fight Tomura to transfer his quirk and possess the boy again. So… drastic measures time.

 

He mutates into a giant mass of flesh, human faces appear in the wriggling mass, his mouth opens wide, splitting the skin of his cheeks. He shrieks that he’s activating all of his Quirks at once for one single purpose, victory. His fleshy mass consumes the building around him to make himself even bigger. He propels himself forward using all of his power at once. Yoichi’s vestige and the others sense AFO’s approach. All Might and Edgeshot realize that AFO is gambling everything on this move, and that after this he’ll de-age to a baby at least if he’s stopped. Bakugo is stunned to see this and realizes he screwed up by not finishing AFO off fast enough. He thinks that Izuku won’t have to worry about him anymore as he raises his hand. All Might screams at him to get out of the way before being knocked back by AFO’s shockwave. Bakugo asks AFO to just please blow up. To AFO’s shock, he starts getting hit with explosions. He drops to the ground, confused and dazed. Bakugo reveals another bit of bullshit, he mixed the explosive sweat from his hands and forearms with the non-explosive sweat from the rest of his body. He propelled the sweat beads forward with small explosions that didn’t set off the bigger bursts hidden inside. He calls them delayed explosives. AFO is horrified to realizes that Bakugo had coated him in sweat a few times when they clashed and some of it even got into his mouth! Gross. And explosive. Bakugo screams that he’s the king of thinking on his feet.

 

All Might remembers telling Bakugo about how AFO’s regeneration is also killing him and what he needs to do. AFO screams up at Bakugo that this is his story and that this extra needs to get out of his face. Bakugo unleashes his Howitzer blast down on AFO and it starts to overwhelm him. AFO is extremely confused by this. He’s more powerful than this. Bakugo’s attacks shouldn’t be hurting him like this. But his Quirks aren’t synching up like they’re supposed to. There’s discord within him. He wonders if its because he’s de-aged too much. We enter his mindscape and see Hawks Vestige manifest behind him. HV says that he’s got a bit of riot on his hands, the other Quirk factors are sort of turning into his fan club. He claims that AFO let Tomura’s hate swallow him up and that caused him to lose control of the other Quirk Factors. In the real world, AFO blows up into a fleshy mass, the main body thrown upward. Bakugo tackles him and gets his hand on AFO’s face. He remembers AFO’s claim that this is his story, and Bakugo corrects him. He says that was never true. He remembers all the big moments of his life, including his birth somehow, and his interactions with Izuku and their friends. He yells that this isn’t AFO’s story, but theirs! And unleashes a full power blast on AFO.

 

All Might realizes that they’d done it. He and Bakugo, and everyone else that fought AFO today whittled him down bit by bit until he could be beaten. AFO drags himself from the ground, having been reduced to an infant by Rewind. He’s in denial, thinking that he just needs to get a little bit closer to Tomura. He just needs to get to Tomura, transfer his Quirk into Tomura, and then use that to strengthen the Vestige in Tomura. Then he’ll get control back, kill everyone, absorb OFA and win. He does have a bit of an epiphany when he admits that the reason why he so gleefully causes pain and misery like he has, for over a century, is because he’s terrified and wants everyone to look at him, to acknowledge his existence. He screams that he’s so close when Bakugo lands in front of him. Bakugo is shocked to see him still moving. He throws up blood; he’s exhausted and feeling cold. He starts to fall over, feeling like the battle is over as AFO can’t even speak anymore, just cry like the baby he appears. Bakugo almost passes out but remembers telling his friends that the only way to prove you’re strong is to stand on your feet. He catches himself and says that he’s not going down until he KNOWS he won. AFO tires one last attack, his first attack, launching a spine at Bakugo. It looks like it skewers Bakugo, but he actually caught it with his teeth and then exploded it.

 

This proves too much for Rewind and AFO gets consumed by his power. He shrieks in fear and pain, saying that it can’t end like this and how much he hates Bakugo. He’s shocked that he was overcome by his own emotions. He is consumed in fire. Hawks Vestige wonders if now the Quirk Factors will return to their owners… but no, that’s not the sort of story this is. He thinks it would have been nice as he’s consumed. AFO vanishes. Bakugo drops with his fist raised. He is bummed because he wanted to stay standing like All Might. He mentally encourages Izuku, telling him to beat Tomura’s ass.

 

I do so enjoy getting villain backstories. I can’t say that I’m shocked to learn that this multi-generational, centuries long grudge and obsession that All For One had with One For All ultimately leads back to an abuser being unwilling to let his victim go… but I don’t think I’d have guessed that one on my own. AFO is a control freak and violent man, one that can’t even begin to understand why his brother didn’t want to be his minion when he’s oh so generous to Yoichi. Like, the dude doesn’t even get that essentially naming his brother “My First Toy” is a micro-aggression so huge that it’s really a macro-aggression. I’m not usually one for the ‘he was born evil’ trope, but it kind of works for AFO. He wasn’t born evil so much as born greedy, which metastasized into evil as his greed grew. Metaphorically as well as literally eating your mother is one of those things that is hard to rationalize. I loved the visual of AFO mutating into a Cosmic Horror monster of flesh and mouths as he tried to fight Bakugo. I’m a sucker for monsters beyond human comprehension, what can I say? It was incredibly sad to learn that Yoichi didn’t really get to escape. As far as I can tell, he died maybe feet from the room he was held in… but I suppose he at least got to have the dream of escape. And that his Vestige has gotten to meet these new people and travel along with them. It’s a tragic tale but not one without hope. Bakugo using mixed sweat as like stealth bombs was silly, incredibly so, but I’ll not complain too much as him getting the win against AFO was amazing. I liked the reference to FMA as well… Fullmetal Alchemist is an immensely popular manga and anime series by Hiromu Arakawa that ran from 2001 to 2010. It featured the adventures of the Elrich brothers, Edward and Alphonse, as they searched for the fabled Philosopher’s Stone, a bit of Alchemical legend that they hope can restore their bodies after they committed the sin of human transmutation. I’ll do my best to be vague so as not to spoil one of the greatest anime of all time… but in the finale, a character is eaten by one of the Homunculi, the villains of the story. That man is able to manifest themselves in the mind of that Homunculi, Pride, just as Pride is attempting a Hail Mary body swap with protagonist Ed to try to stave off death. It’s an eerily similar moment to Hawks manifesting to have a final laugh at AFO before his defeat. Shame that Hawks doesn’t get his power back, but I think he’ll be fine with the loss when he learns AFO is dead for good. So, Tomura Shigaraki is the last man standing and is still inarguably the biggest threat the world has ever seen. Izuku is going to have to find a way to put him down once and for all. Here’s hoping he can win. See you later. Have a good night and stay safe.  

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 162

 Bakugo is shifting into Turbo. 

Last time on My Hero Academia Stain tried helping for once. He used Blood Curdle to paralyze AFO and rushed him with All Might to try to finish off the Demon Lord. Unfortunately, AFO anticipated Stain trying to get involved and made sure he had a quirk that let him expel his blood and then also to change his antigens, giving him a different blood type. AFO lays the beatdown on Stain, thanking the psycho for all that he did to help develop the League of Villains and Shigaraki, but say that the only thing he has left to contribute is his Quirk. He pops Stain like a blood balloon and steals his Quirk. All Might is badly hurt in this tussle, but visions of Nana and his old apprentice Nighteye get him to keep going. Bored with this, AFO tries to Sludge Warp Tomura Shigaraki to him so he could transfer his quirks and re-possess Tomura. Tomura refuses to go, though, and tells the old man to back off. AFO grabs All Might and flies to the Flying Coffin to show off the defeat of All Might to Izuku and the world. Young Midoriya’s attention is torn between battling Tomura and trying to think of something he could do to help his mentor. AFO lifted All Might overhead and began to slowly rip him in half. Izuku reached out to his mentor, and Tsukauchi begged someone, anyone to save All Might. To everyone’s surprise, this seemed to have worked, as it was at this exact moment that Bakugo’s heart kicked back on and Katsuki “Dynamite” Bakugo is looking to save the day. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with AFO slowly ripping All Might in half as everyone watches in horror. We’re shown how people around the world are reacting, some are horrified, some are treating it’s not their business, some are interested but in a ‘I’m not scared just curious’ sort of way, and so on. Meryl, the weather girl that tried to speak out about what was happening in Japan, is noticing a weird cloud causing weird changes to the weather. Bakugo gets up and starts breathing hard. We shift to showing various people praying for intervention for All Might. We get the final line from Meryl’s broadcast, ‘One person has the power to change the world.’ As that line is spoken, Izuku and Bakugo make eye contact, nod, and both lock into their assigned task. Izuku must beat Tomura Shigaraki, and Bakugo must save All Might. Bakugo leaps from the Flying Coffin and rockets toward Izuku. Izuku spins himself and Tomura around and catches Bakugo by the wrist. He keeps spinning, build momentum. Kudo manifests to Izuku and warns against using Gear Shift so soon, he says that his body will get hit with serious recoil and he should save the attack for when he has a clear path to victory. Kudo looks over and sees that All Might’s energy Vestige has started shifting to look more like the actual man and goes quite. Izuku used Second Gear and Bakugo fires off an explosion to rocket at AFO. Tomura mocks Izuku, saying Bakugo will never make it in time. He knows about the Vestige in Izuku’s head and says that it’s starting to gain definition because All Might is about to die. He predicts with All Might’s death, it’ll show the world the future of peace he promised was a lie and that will break them. We then see that the tailwind blowing behind Bakugo is increasing. Izuku remembers Nighteye’s last words to All Might, how Izuku changed the future when he couldn’t. He felt like maybe, somehow, people’s thoughts can alter fate. If enough people believe something with their whole being, maybe that’s enough to change the future. Bakugo rockets forward, faster and faster, remembering how he felt when he realized All Might lost his power because of him. He collides with AFO, grabs All Might and breaks him free of AFO.

 

The second he’s out of AFO’s hands, the Vestige of him returns to a yellow cloud All Might asks what Bakugo is doing here and he screams ‘Let’s win this!’ All Might seems to pass out and sees a vision of Sir Nighteye. He asks if this was supposed to be the end. Nighteye confirms that, yep, if things had gone like he’d seen, All Might should have been ripped in half. But somehow, fate has been rewritten. Nighteye says that All Might’s dream is over, but he hasn’t been beaten yet. He needs to do all he can to fulfill his promise to Izuku and the world. All Might laughs and says that he thought that the mentor was supposed to die when they pass the baton. Nighteye shrugs and says that this is life, not a comic book. All Might asks what is he even supposed to do with this hallucination, what’s the point. Nighteye tells him that he is a person, but he’s a hero too, so he doesn’t get to die so easily.

 

The world reacts in confusion to Bakugo’s sudden save, some recognizing him as the crazy kid that made a ruckus at the sports festival, some remember that he was kidnapped by the League of Villains, but Maharo Shimano (older sister from Heroes Rising) remembers the hero, Bakugo! Bakugo and All Might hit a building and roll to the other side. Bakugo drags himself upward and stands between All Might and AFO. All Might asks if he’s alright, and Bakugo says he should ask him the same. Edgeshot comes from Bakugo’s chest, warning that Bakugo’s body was royally screwed up. He did the best he could to sew him up and wrap up his bones, but Bakugo did straight up die. Edgeshot drops to the ground, exhausted and used up from making himself so thin and doing all that work to get Bakugo up again. He says that Bakugo shouldn’t be moving right now and that every breath will be agony for a while. Bakugo thanks him for saving his life. Edgeshot tells him not to, as he only stitched him up. He tried to use his special technique to get Bakugo’s heart beating again, but it wasn’t working. He hit the point where he was going to have to choose between trying to save Bakugo or saving himself, when some of Bakugo’s explosive sweat somehow got into Bakugo’s blood stream and the mini-explosions from that got his heart going again. Edgeshot says that what saved Bakugo was his mastery over his quirk. I’m calling bullshit on the science of that, but let’s move on. Bakugo goes back to his bombastic self, asking who this young idiot with an actual face is, as he thought he was going to fight AFO. All Might says that is AFO and calls Bakugo over. He says that his suit is basically out of power, but the gauntlet he has should work as a splint. He transfers the gauntlet to Bakugo’s right arm, which gets it back in working condition. Bakugo starts tearing up at having received a gift from All Might.

 

AFO looks incredibly torn on what to do. He thinks about going after All Might to finish him off, but decides against it. He has to transfer himself to Tomura ASAP or risk de-aging into nothing. He decides to take OFA and his brother first. He flies over, intent on transferring his Quirk and mind into Tomura’s body. He curses that Tomura resisted his other self when he tried to teleport the boy to him. He thought he’d accounted for every variable. To which I say, bro, if you didn’t think Tomura Shigaraki was going to be a stubborn, willful child, you didn’t account for crap. He flashes back to his boast to the League that he plans every route carefully with contingency plans, so if the optimal route is blocked, he’ll just switch to a new one. He’s visibly infuriated that he’s been foiled so many times today. He knows he’s powerful enough to handle any one of the heroes that has stood against him today, but they just keep getting in his way. He mentally shrieks, asking “why does it feel like the gears are slipping out of place! The Winds should be blowing in MY favor!” And its at that moment that Bakugo all but teleports to his side. He screams, “I’m the final boss, got it?! All For One!” and grabs AFO’s face and blasts him to kingdom come. He boasts that because He, not sure if he means All Might or Izuku, can’t beat AFO, he’s going to be the to end AFO.

 

The cops at HQ take a moment to celebrate Bakugo saving All Might before Tsukauchi asks for a status update. The big fights are mostly over at this point. They’ve got Skeptic and Spinner in custody, the Nomus have all been defeated on the island, and they’re freeing the heroes that Kunieda captured. There’s still fighting at the stadium, but that was like 5^th on the list of battles so that’s acceptable. They’ve evacuated everyone from UA to Shiketsu high. The only folks unaccounted for at the moment are Kurogiri, Present Mic and Aizawa. Which isn’t great but isn’t terrible either. We return to the rooftop that Lady Nagant passed out on. She woke up in time to see Bakugo blast AFO.

 

All Might is impressed with his other protegees extreme speed. The still tiny Edgeshot says that Bakugo, despite his injuries, was able to move so fast that not even Tomura Shigaraki could keep up with him earlier. He thinks Bakugo is on the cusp of learning something important.

 

Bakugo thinks to himself that using his Quirk hurts right now, but he’s going to keep fighting. AFO drags himself out of the crater Bakugo blasted him into, infuriated and swearing he’s going to finish this.

 

Tomura is annoyed that Bakugo refuses to die. He thinks Bakugo is a gnat or a cockroach that he intends to keep squishing until it takes. He breaks free of Black Whip and starts scratching his neck again. Izuku assesses the situation. He’s been able to keep Shigaraki at bay with his quirks, specifically Black Whip and Danger Sense, but he just doesn’t know how he’ll finish off someone that can 1. Regenerate endlessly and 2. Kill him in one hit. He knows that he needs to use Gear Shift to do it, but that using that Quirk will render him immobile when the power runs out or he switches it off. It’s all or nothing. He prepares the Shift. Izuku and Bakugo mentally scream that it’s time to go beyond as the fighting resumes.

 

AFO rockets past Bakugo, intent on stealing OFA. Bakugo screams after him “Do you think I’m an extra?” AFO assesses that Bakugo’s power is middling at best and he’s not on the level of All Might, Endeavor or even Dark Shadow in terms of intimidation. He’s just got a schedule to keep. That’s why he’s running like a coward. He’s running because he doesn’t want to risk having to use Rewind again just in case this pissant gets a good hit in. Bakugo meanwhile has had an epiphany about his explosions. He’s figured out how to time them, to use them to their maximum effect. This seems to essentially give him access to the Speed Force from DC comics as he rockets like the Flash after AFO and blasts him out of the sky. He’s coughing up blood as he goes too far, passing AFO, and cackling that he went too fast. AFO tries to keep flying but Bakugo dogs him the whole way. Bakugo remembers asking if he could ever hope to catch up to Izuku, and realizes that maybe, just maybe, he’ll be able to surpass Izuku.

 

At Shiketsu, Mitsuki Bakugo shakes her husband’s shoulder and makes Masaru watch their son go apeshit on AFO. He’s scared for his son. Mitsuki tells him to suck it up, for Katsuki, because despite everything she knows he still has a grin on his face.

 

The woman knows her boy well.

 

A grinning Bakugo is scaring the piss out of AFO. He’s baffled as to why Bakugo is making him react so passionately, even more so than when he faced All Might. He flashes back to when he killed Kudo. He had the man by the throat as Kudo told him that his brother, Yoichi was dead, and the ‘demon lord’ himself killed him. AFO actually started to cry upon hearing that. He realizes the hate he feels toward Bakugo is the same as he felt towards Kudo. Kudo, who ruined everything. Kudo that even ruined Yoichi. He shrieks that Kudo ruined everything when he reached out his hand to Yoichi. He realizes that the same thing happened again when Izuku grabbed Bakugo’s hand and this whole fight started going against him. Everyone watching the fight cheers as Bakugo blasts AFO into the side of a building again. AFO drags himself from the latest crater, shrieking that the person he hates most in the world, the one who ruined everything, the source of his hate was Kudo. Bakugo laughs at this, asks if he’s gone senile and proudly proclaims that his name is Kacchan Bakugo! Way to own your best frenemies childhood nickname for you, Katsuki.

 

On the one hand… Bakugo coming back to life and then using a newfound understanding of his explosions to essentially enter the Speed Force is silly, cheese, and kind of dumb if you think about it for more than a minute. Still… hype as hell. I knew that Bakugo would get back up, but I underestimated how much aura the boy would farm once he got into fight mode against AFO. There are few scenes that are as cool as when a hero locks in against someone that they or their allies were struggling with and suddenly they make the villain flee. AFO doing his best to rationalize why he was afraid and running just added to the moment. On paper, this fight should still be one sided, but because of his dwindling time and the destructive force of Bakugo’s power, I get why AFO is starting to panic that maybe Bakugo will do enough damage that he’ll have to Rewind more. He’s definitely hitting the limits of what time he can spare. The reveal that Kudo earned a special bit of enmity from AFO due to whatever part he played in Yoichi Shigaraki’s life and death was interesting. I’d assumed that while AFO hates the OFA users, it was in a more clinical, detached sense. They are the ones that hold power he wants and continue to defy him, obviously he hates the OFA wielders. But… the idea that it might be a lingering resentment towards the second wielder is a… not shocking twist exactly but an interesting development. Makes everything that happened before this much more personal. It was cool to see how Nighteye’s vision was supposed to go. I totally get why Sir Nighteye was so dead set on trying to prevent what would have been an incredibly graphic death. Seeing the Symbol of Piece get split like Jazz in Michael Bay’s Transformers would have been a hell of a blow to moral worldwide. And I like the explanation that Izuku kind of… manifested this change. I like this idea that while yes, by in large a lot of what happens to people is ultimately too big to change even with foreknowledge, there are ways to shift things even if doing so is insanely rare. The power of positive thinking is silly in a lot of ways, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think there was merit to it. And if anything is going to change fate, it might as well be a nearly planet wide desire to save someone that spent decades trying to be Superman. Izuku struggling with Tomura is a little lame just because they didn’t do much besides get prepared to start fighting… but their struggle is the main event and we’ve got like six episodes left, so I get trying to tease it out a little. Guess we’ll see next time how it starts… oh, and I liked Bakugo owning the name Kacchan. His best Frenemy has called him that for years and he’s just now accepting it, it’s sweet. See you later. Have a good night and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social