© Kohei Horikoshi/Shueisha/My Hero Academia Production Committee
I don’t know if that’s how the anime planned it, or if it’s just leverage as they have to plan how to fit into this hectic, ongoing war, but the ending of this episode is pretty fortuitous. It’s more or less cut in half, telling two battles against the two biggest threats in the story, led by the two heroes who need to be most responsible. One of the stories tells of a child desperately trying to prove that he has corrected his worst mistakes. Another: a man who gave in to his past and threw himself into the abyss of hell, hoping to take the devil with him.
Even though he’s second, we should start with Bakugou. Frankly, the battle against Y’all For One has been pretty uneventful so far, and is easily the weakest frontline of any detail we’ve seen yet. A lot of this depends on how bad Shigaraki’s finger mutation is. The animation team is clearly trying their best to create some dynamic action with these big CG sausages. However, compared to the character animations, they’re too crispy, making any sequence containing them feel full of visual noise. Ironically, Horikoshi was one of the few artists who loved hand-drawing, but his hobby made the entire artist team suffer.
More importantly, the reason this battle is difficult is because everyone knows it is the prelude to Deku’s arrival. The villains know it, the audience knows it, and Bakugou especially knows it, even though he stubbornly refuses to admit it. Furthermore, none of them really have a direct connection to either half of the villain beyond a broad and universal need to save the world from his wanton cruelty. The only personal animosity between anyone on the battlefield is Bakugo’s resentment towards AFO for kidnapping him and trying to win him over to his side, and it’s this little thing that fuels his big move this week.
When Y’all For One waxes philosophical about how his control of the world will eliminate all the pesky individualism that causes so much conflict in the Quirk world, Bakugou sees firsthand how hollow those words are. It’s so gratifying to see a character who once abandoned his teammates for revenge, now leading a team into battle, alongside not only his comrades, but countless others who support them. That’s enough to give his big explosion some thematic impact based on ballistics, even if it just makes Shigaraki look like The Phantom of the Opera. It doesn’t exactly make up for the shortcomings, but it does bring some much-needed tension to the fight. It’s no longer a question of whether the heroes here can defeat Shigaraki – it’s whether they can survive long enough for Deku to arrive.
Survival is also the name of the game against AFO, but Endeavor seems uninterested in the competition. With the development of the Todoroki family story, Endeavor’s pursuit of becoming a top hero has gradually faded from people’s sight, but in this battle with this cross-generational villain, he found the last chance to become the successor of All Might— —fierce, bloody, and desperately trying to stop AFO from hurting other people. It’s here that we really get to know Endeavor’s backstory, before his obsession with the Supremes became so utterly toxic. What I love is that there are no excuses or explanations for how Endeavor became who he is. He faced tragedy, like so many in this world, and he sought strength to protect others from it, only to falter and be consumed by his worst impulses.
There is no simple forgiveness, no explanation that can alleviate his responsibility. It’s just the guilt and failure of a flawed human being and a new will to burn everything as fuel in the final battle. His past self might have reveled in the responsibility and recognition of truly standing in All Might’s shoes, but now he only cares about preserving a future for his successors. It’s far from a conclusion for Todoroki, the man with an abusive father, but it’s the perfect culmination of the heroic character Endeavor.
Sadly, just like Bakugo great prosperity, it did not reach an agreement. I say “almost” because the idea of finally seeing All For One at its peak was so cool that it totally outweighed nerfing Endeavor’s Last Stand. Endeavor tried to drag the devil back to Hell, but instead he smashed those fiery doors open.
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my hero academia Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
