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I was going to comment to the effect of “let’s see the fans complain about that one”. But, well – this is HeroAca, you know some will. There’s no silk purse fine enough in the world for this fandom to not see a sow’s ear in it. All the stops were pulled out here, down to bringing Nakamura Yutaka – one of Bones’ most legendary sakuga Gods (and that’s saying something) – in to take charge. That’s a luxury a studio like that has, a stable full of true thoroughbreds to call on. Especially for a series with a budget like Boku no Hero Academia (though Bones isn’t on the speed dial if low budget is on the production committee’s mind).
This one was one of the tentpole episodes of the entire final arc, to be sure. After a couple weeks of the sampler platter approach, pinging all over the battle map and the cast list, this one was stripped down to bare essentials. Two fronts and two huge ones, and probably 90% of the ep dedicated to one of them. Horikoshi has been almost Togashi-like in sidelining the theoretical protagonist for this section, but if Deku and Bakugo aren’t going to be involved these are pretty much the biggest fish in the sea.
Things are in a bad way for the hero side, to say the least. In Gunga, Dabi continues to heat up towards a self-immolation. The real problem is, the bang is going to be so big it’ll wipe out everything and everyone within in a 5 KM radius. That includes not just a crap-ton of heroes (including the #1 ranker), but one of the escape pods of civilians. Shouto and Tenya are on their way back to the Coffin (formerly) in the Sky to try and cut off All For One, but All Might takes charge of the situation, He hijacks the coms and tells Todoroki and Tenya to head for Gunga. Only “Engine” and “Half-Cold Half-Hot” can prevent that catastrophe, he tells the boys.
At this point it’s clear to Tsukauchi what All Might has in mind. There’s no one else to face down AFO, but this is his fight to begin with. We’ve come full circle, from the moment when the #1 hero encouraged the boy with no quirk to chase his dream anyway. Now quirkless himself, he must face down his fated enemy. All For One will have no choice but to face him, All Might is certain. Why? Because “I am here”. Shigaraki’s hatred may be impacting AFO, but I don’t think he could ever have ignored the tantalizing opportunity being presented him here. “Now it’s my turn” closes yet another loop in the story. All Might faces the demon lord alone – but perhaps not in every sense…
That clears the stage for the Todoroki family. The tragic, dysfunctional, shattered Todoroki family. But there’s also a role for Tenya to play here, and I’m glad of that. For so much of the story after the Hero Killer Stain arc, Tenya has been a bit player – his quirk not on the same level as the three he originally walked alongside. But Tenya is the only one who can get Shouto where he needs to be fast enough for it to make any difference. His quirk is a specialized one to be sure, but when the moment calls for it, a specialized quirk can be the only one that fits the bill. In an episode full of incredible animation, this sequence is especially spectacular even by Nakamura and Bones standards.
That said, not even “Engine” – augmented by judicious use of ice – can get Shouto to Gunga fast enough. It falls to the other members of the family to buy time, starting of course with Enji. But Rei, seeing what’s happening, leaves her other children behind and hops a robo-Uber to the heart of the maelstrom. Rei can apologize all she wants, but she’s not the one who brought all this to pass. If he’s done nothing else, Enji at least has come to terms with the fact that so much inside his family and out is his fault. He brought all this to pass, but his contrition does no one any good in the end. All he can do is try and minimize the additional damage his miserable excuse for a life wreaks on the world, and on what’s left of the Todoroki clan.
In effect, it takes the combined efforts of the entire family – Shouto arriving last – to keep Dabi’s explosion from causing unthinkable devastation. But this doesn’t end well even so – not for Touya certainly. His realization of just how small and petty his motivations were doesn’t change the ultimate fact that he hates his father for what happened. And his family, for continuing to live relatively normal lives even as his ended all those years earlier. And that’s as it should be. Enji should hear this expression of hate from his dying son – he deserves both the hate and the reminder of it. The others deserve neither, but the extent of the harm the patriarch has done is such that there’s no way they can be spared.
Bottom line – every time BnHA needs to deliver the goods, it does. Horikoshi and Bones have always nailed the really big moments, and this one was no exception. There are peaks and valleys in this series to be sure, and the adaptation itself hasn’t been exempt from adding a few of its own making. But the core of both the source material and Bones’ interpretation of it remain rock solid – at the very top of their respective classes. I have a lot of faith in Boku no Hero Academia, and that faith has always been rewarded.
