Hogan Reviews

We’ve reached the final story arc in My Hero Academia, but due to its length we’re only getting the first half this year, which is fine. Beats the olds ways of filler, anyway! Due to this being a final battle though there isn’t going to be a lot of plot to talk about, instead a lot of action. There are two good dives into the heads of long-recurring villains though, so that’s always fun. Let’s take a look!

At the end of the previous chunk of episodes all the villains appeared and most of the heroes warped in as well, but instead of an all-out war in one place the villains are shoved into cages and the cages are warped to different locations across Japan. All For One is taken to one place where Endeavour and Hawks confront him, Dabi is taken to where his younger brother Shoto is, and Toga is taken along with her rival in Uraraka though she manages to pull Deku into her portal, leaving Bakugo, Best Jeanist, Mirko and other heroes to fight the sort-of, partially-possessed Shigaraki in a specially made floating “coffin” without their trump card. Classic shonen trope, the main hero will now have to take a long journey to make it to the main villain, leaving side characters a chance to show what they can do! While all this is going on All Might is watching on from a special monitor-filled room. I may as well talk about each villain’s battle in turn, even if they actually switch back and forth.

The battle with Dabi is good, though to start with it’s just a battle of fire vs. fire, with Shoto eventually using his ice powers in conjunction with his flames to win, though Dabi survives and heads to where Endeavour is. The rest of his family also arrive, as does Shoto thanks to Iida’s super-fast running, which is kind of disappointing that this was his only contribution to the final battle, but ah well. Dabi nearly goes nuclear while his Dad and family try and apologise, and soon Shoto arrives and does the same, leaving Dabi wishing he’d sought his family out first instead of falling in with villains, before dying. Shoto manages to contain the blast and save everyone else. Endeavour once again apologises to not only the now-dead Dabi but his whole family. A satisfying end, and a visual treat!

Dabi gets put out of action! … In this case, briefly before coming back later, but hey.

Toga uses a vile of Twice’s blood to gain his power to duplicate himself and create a tidal wave to copies to smother her opponents. The fight eventually spills over to include the heroes from the battle with All For One before Uraraka finally gets through to Toga when she sees her despair at not being able to completely copy Twice’s abilities when she thought she loved him. I mean, it initially just gets Uraraka stabbed in the gut, rather graphically I might add (seeing what is still a sweet little girl coughing up blood is always an uncomfortable but effective sight!) eventually she tells Toga that she’s cute after we get a flashback of everyone calling her a monster because her quirk needs her to drink blood. Toga sacrifices her life to save her rival, doing something good for someone else for the first time in her life. Again, much like Dabi, it’s a really effective bit of storytelling and a great end point for the character.

Uraraka spots the real Toga in her first, and presumably last, big one-on-one fight!

As for the initial fight with All For One, as Hawks and Endeavour do some damage with assistance from Tokoyami and his Dark Shadow, Kyoko and her earjacks, Gigantomachia (who switches sides thanks to the hypnotic voice of Shinso) and even the long-forgotten characters from the Provisional License Exam get to do something, albeit briefly. Sadly for our heroes though All For One, who is still planning to fully take over Shigaraki’s body, uses a special version of the Rewind Quirk to begin reverting his body to his younger, more powerful self with the knowledge that this body will keep regressing until it vanishes completely. Endeavour loses an arm, Hawks is very nearly killed outright, Kyoko loses most of an ear and Tokoyami is also hurt before All For One makes his escape, heading towards his new body to give it a hand. There are some good moments, but obviously unlike the previous two there isn’t a definitive end to this one. I’ll also mention a bunch of side characters and villains take part in a fight at a hospital involving villains who were born with Quirks that make them look different and thus have been persecuted in the past, something honestly I don’t remember really being mentioned as a thing before. Due to being made up of so many characters I didn’t have any emotional investment in though I, well, wasn’t that invested in it!

The fight with Shigaraki is brutal and full of Akira references, with red cape-wearing Shigaraki unleashing a torrent of fingers jammed together like a large tentacle despite his Quirks being held at bay by Eraser and co. Bakugo gets severely injured, shows all new powers that takes Shigaraki by surprise, only to then get killed! Dun-dun-dun! … Then the next episode one of the side-character heroes begins using his powers to bring him back to life, but still! Great moment, even if I didn’t believe for a second that what is the most popular character in the series according to Japanese fan polls would be killed off… The “big three” from UA arrive as well, though beyond one joint attack its really only Mirio / La Million who does anything thanks to his phasing Quirk, including shaking his arse at his opponent at a pivotal moment confusing him just briefly enough that Deku can arrive in the nick of time in a scene that actually made me laugh. Just seeing the big bad stop briefly just because he can’t understand why one of his opponents would do that made me chuckle. What can I say?

Overall Thoughts:

Bakugo gets to look cool before only serving to be an emotional shock moment for Deku later on…

My Hero Academia’s big finale gets off to a good start, with lots of eye candy fights and some good, emotional endings to the two most memorable second-tier villains. Throw in a whole HOST of returning characters and cameos from across the series and it’s doing its job as a finale so far, and I have no doubt the second half will do much the same.

Deku and Shigaraki have their big showdown, or well the first part of it I guess, during which we not only get to see Gentle Criminal reappear and get to be a hero by stopping the “Coffin” from falling but also Lady Nagant redeem herself by helping the heroes as well. Plenty of cameos during this finale! Deku uses a bunch of the One For All Quirks to get the upper hand, but of course it’s far from over.

Deku uses a combination of his Quirks to get the upper hand in what is no doubt a very early moment in their overall fight…

At the same time as All For One heads to that battlefield All Might puts on a very Iron Man-like suit of armour and does battle with his old foe, knowing he can’t win but also knowing All For One wouldn’t be able to resist fighting him. Sure enough at the end of this chunk of episodes, both All Might and Deku are looking out-matched by their respective All For One versions, but All Might’s smile gives us the hope he always talked about…