© Kohei Horikoshi/Shueisha/My Hero Academia Production Committee
If I had to describe our heroes’ situation last week, I’d say it was somewhere between “awful” and “turbocharged.” It seems like everything that could go wrong does, leaving our main fighters scrambling to take on three powerhouses at once, while Deku is about to face a fully animated Shigaraki. As if that wasn’t enough, the episode’s opening minutes introduced some new questions, just to figure out the six ways the good guys are going to be ruined by next Saturday. Deku was hyperventilating under the pressure of the Gearshift. Skeptic disabled UA’s ability to fly, and the entire flying fortress plummeted to the ground. It was a perfect picture of danger for our entire cast. Night is indeed the darkest.
Of course, that’s when the heroes arrive.
I don’t know the words to describe the pure, unadulterated joy I felt when Gentle and La Brava arrived on the scene. One of my favorite things in any kind of shounen story is when a minor character introduced long ago arrives to turn the tide at just the right moment, and Horikoshi couldn’t have chosen a more endearing duo to do that. If you’re one of those fun-loving people who calls the festival’s storyline “filler,” and haven’t experienced the bittersweet stories of these down-and-outs Youtube threat, then you’d be sorry not to appreciate how affirming it is to see them arrive at the last minute and – if not turn the tide of the battle – add that little spark of hope our heroes need to keep fighting.
More importantly, these two are prime examples of what Deku is trying to achieve throughout his conflict with Shigaraki. Gentle and La Brava could easily have been thrown into jail and forgotten. However, the compassion they show and their unwavering love for each other keeps them moving toward the light until they arrive at the right time and place to make a change. Of course, calling any of Team Rocket a “villain” is a stretch in the grand scheme of things, but what Tsukauchi said still stands. Every “villain” started out as an ordinary person, and if we want to build a more compassionate world where violence and prison are not people’s only two options, we need heroes to acknowledge this. It’s a beautiful moment that combines a delightful character twist, thrilling action sequences, and a wonderful thematic link that continues to tie this fight and MHA’s ultimate story together.
And then they did it again.
Yes boys and girls, the one and only Gun Mom, Mrs. Nagant, is back with a vengeance and you can’t breathe if you don’t scream. It’s a perfect close to the episode, emphasizing the highs and lows, and ultimately showing that Deku’s true strength as a hero isn’t one-and-done or his ability to mix these quirks together. All of these abilities still caused him to panic during Shigaraki’s moments as he wiped out countless lives. No, what saved him – and maybe just saved the world, was when he saw someone lost in the darkness, hurt and taken advantage of by someone they trusted, he reached out and appealed to their better nature. Here, this results in perfect shots to keep the fight alive. Whether this applies to Shigaraki is another question, but like the rest of the episode, it proves that giving up the “villain” isn’t the only solution.
grade:
my hero academia Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
