One of the hardest things in fiction is to have a moment be intensely anticipated, subject to a huge buildup and staggering expectations – and then deliver on that moment.  I don’t think Boku no Hero Academia was ever going to have a problem blowing away new viewers with this episode, but the burden it had to carry in terms of manga readers like myself was a different matter.  It was unfair, really – not anything a director, writer and team of animators should ever be forced to deal with.  For us, this wasn’t an anime episode – it was history waiting to be made.

Once I had a chance to recover my bearings (and my vision – terrible timing to get something in my eyes the way I did at for most of this episode), I sat down to consider this post, and what my expectations for it would be.  I knew I had to communicate the depth of admiration I had for everyone involved, and this is the best I could could come up with: I don’t think Togashi Yoshihiro and Madhouse could have done any better.  When it comes to shounen, I’m not sure there’s any higher praise I could offer than that, and I knew this episode deserved the highest praise I could possibly muster.

As a fan of Boku no Hero (and I was singing its praises when most folks outside Japan had never heard of it), it’s impossible to overstate how important this week’s material was to me.  It’s everything  – the heart of the matter, the essence and essential nature of everything that makes BnHA an exceptional shounen of historical importance.  When I read this part of the manga it was visceral and devastating, exhausting and exhilarating and, ultimately, heartbreaking.  It kept building and building on itself until that final, climactic moment when the desiccated figure of All Might pointed at the world and I knew in my heart exactly what he was going to say.

This is the thing about Boku no Hero, which it has in common with the likes of Hunter X Hunter and Rurouni Kenshin.  No matter how epic the fights are (and come on – Bones hit that part out of the county, never mind the park) it’s the character moments that truly stagger you.  That moment when All Might said those words is among my absolute favorite moments not just in shounen, but any manga – and I mean favorites that I could count on one hand, let’s put it that way.  To call the moment significant is to do it a terrible injustice of understatement – even “epic” is laughably inadequate.  It was everything that 94 chapters had built towards, encapsulated in four words that shook you to the very core.  There’s an elegance to it that reminds me of yes, Togashi – a sense that this was all written in Horikoshi’s head before it ever started to make it to the page.

That the anime managed to deliver on that moment is a tribute to everyone involved, and let’s not forget to include Miyake Kenta and Ootsuka Akio in that, because their voice work during these two episodes has been astonishing.  All Might is a man utterly broken by the weight he’s chosen to carry on his back, yet also the strongest man in the world.  He realizes that the fact that he appears as such is as important as the fact itself, and understands the importance of what happens when the illusion he’s sustained is shattered before the eyes of the world.  But he still has to fight, to finish the job – because he always does.

All Might has given up so much, it just tears your heart out.  And that’s a reminder of what he’s asking of Izuku, a fact which can’t be forgotten for a moment.  That Izuku is taking the burden willingly is largely moot – Toshinari Yagi took it willingly, too.  But is he the sort of man who could knowingly inflict what he’s suffered on a child he loves without it breaking him inside?  This is what separates the heroes from the villains in this mythology, yes – but not just that.  The gap that Endeavor describes when he looks at All Might is largely about this – All Might is the only one strong enough to accept the burden he’s accepted, never mind exercise the power that goes along with it.

Until now, of course.  Until Deku came along.  One assumes that until Toshinari Yagi came along, only Shimura Nana (an excellent Sonozaki Mie) was strong enough.  All For One took her away from him, and now he’s turned her grandson into his protege, too – the ultimate failure from All Might’s perspective.  But All Might knows he can’t give into his despair, even if he uses every last scrap of One For All that remains in him.  I don’t think All For One did himself any favors by mentioning Izuku Midoriya’s name, because that was a reminder to Toshinori that his life was no longer his own to give.  It’s bad enough that he passed his burden on to Deku (and that All For One knows it) – for All Might to leave the boy to fend for himself when he’s so unprepared would be unthinkable.  Even if he gives up everything in the process, All Might has to live – and that sort of sacrifice is what he was made for.

There are so many moments that stand out here, in addition to that one.  Bakugo and Izuku each staring at the big screen, screaming their guts out tearfully for All Might, in that moment at long last exactly the same.  Bakugo staring at Izuku in the aftermath, his suspicions simmering, his thoughts unreadable.  The horror on Izuku’s face as he grasps the meaning of All Might’s words, and realizes how preposterously wide the gap between he and All Might still is (but make no mistake – the tears he sheds are not over what is about to happen to him, but what has just happened to All Might).  And the wasted, sunken figure of All Might, gathering every scrap of power that was left to him for a “United States of Smash”, knowing that he was saying his final farewells to that which had given his life meaning.

This is heartbreaking stuff, pretty much all of it.  In no way is there a sense of triumph to any of this even if the good guy “won” – only loss.  Even the masses tearfully screaming All Might’s name seem to realize at long last how much their need has demanded from him, and that they now face an uncertain future without him.  Some men are good, and some great – but only the rarest of the rare are both, and All Might is one such man.  Deku is the protagonist of Boku no Hero Academia, but “One For All” is an episode that reminds us in no uncertain terms just how much, up to now, this has been All Might’s story.