OK, now Boku no Hero can formally begin.

I’ve talked about consequence a fair bit in my past few posts about Boku no Hero Academia.  So the question of whether the students who decided to mount a rescue mission for Bakugo suffered any for their rash and foolish actions is a relevant one.  It’s also one I can’t fully answer because the crisis is ongoing, not finished.  Still, based just on what we saw this week, we can say a few things.  Not least among them that in addition to foolish, what Kirishima and Todoroki instigated was totally unnecessary – in fact, it was flat-out disrespectful of their elders at Yuuei.  Did they really thing those heroes would leave any stone unturned when it came to rescuing Kacchan – especially with their reputations already in tatters?

Indeed, the wheels are in motion here in ways these foolish children cannot even imagine.  But the whole question of underestimating the opponent is a theme that runs thick through this episode.  As the kids close in on what they assume is the enemy hideout, Momo points out what should have been obvious – just because the Nomu she attached her tracking device too is inside that abandoned warehouse, that doesn’t mean Bakugo is in there too.  And indeed, when Kirishima and Izuku steal a look through a back window, what they see is a Nomu factory – but no sign of their kidnapped comrade.

Meanwhile, the real action is taking place elsewhere – where the professionals have figured out that Bakugo is actually being held.  Inside that hideout Kacchan continues to defy the villains at every turn – showing utter disdain for their attempts to turn him.  What he displays towards the League isn’t hatred or outrage – it’s more like they’re so pathetic as to be beneath contempt.  This is why Kacchan, despite being something of a sociopath, is not a berserker – he has self-awareness and always has.  The way he behaves is a choice, not an impulse – and it aims towards a long-term goal that sees anyone that potentially stands in his way as an enemy.  If there’s a top hero he reminds me of, it’s not All Might but Endeavor (though at this point Kacchan certainly lacks his marketing savvy).

The full-on raid by a combined strike force of heroes past and present and the police is a work of art.  While Endeavor stays outside (reluctantly) as a sweeper, All Might leads the team that storms the League’s lair and rescues Bakugo (his face as he wrestles with his feelings while All Might comforts him is priceless).  And the grown-ups have sent a team – led by Best Jeanist and Mt. Lady – to the Nomu lair too, a critical step to prevent Kurogiri from calling them in as reinforcements.  Inside that lair is Ragdoll as well, and Tiger is with Jeanist – but Ragdoll, while alive, seems utterly lifeless.  The villains have underestimated the resolve and resourcefulness of the heroes it seems – the police have managed to dig up all of their real names.

But there’s a reason that the likes of Gran Torino have been called in for this mission.  The heroes know that behind Shigaraki and the League rests a far more dangerous evil – All For One.  And to say he makes his presence felt is an understatement.  In one fell swoop All For One undoes what Best Jeanist and Mt. Lady have accomplished and turns the table at the main battlefront, warping a murder of Nomu across to wreak havoc with the police, heroes and any unlucky bystanders who happen to be nearby.  And to shock and terrify the Yuuei children into complete catatonic helplessness.

There’s a strange sense of closure in hearing the great Ohtsuka Akio bring All For One fully into the fray at long last.  It was his voice (or perhaps Ishizuka Unshou’s) I was hearing in my head when All Might spoke in the manga, but now it somehow feels right to hear him as the great polar counterpart to All Might, the prime mover of this strange world Horikoshi-sensei has created in BnHA.  The cadets horrified into mute inaction are literally children, but in a real sense everyone in this story is as a child before this man.  As much as it’s achieved in two and a half-seasons of anime, it was all prologue – Boku no Hero Academia really only begins this week.