Those of you who read the manga knew which direction Boku no Hero Academia was headed in, of course. And for those who don’t, nothing I say could paint these last couple of episodes as especially momentous by this series’ standards. They’re a sort of portage, really, as the series picks up the canoes and transitions from one plot stream to the next. I think one could reasonably argue – though it was only obvious to me in hindsight – that HeroAca had gotten a little heavy and ponderous at this point in the story, and was tonally out of balance. There were more light moments in the mix early in the series, though it’s easy to lose sight of that now.
Be that as it may, I can’t imagine many were seriously concerned for the safety of four elite hero students against a murder of early grade-schoolers. Horikoshi, as he often does in the change-of-pace chapters, does use this occasion to introduce a serious concept – the theory that quirks are becoming increasingly stronger generation by generation, and will eventually be uncontrollable. But mostly this is about socially awkward teens learning that dealing with awkward social situations is part of being a hero too. And surprisingly, it’s Bakugo who comes up with the approach that finally works – win the kids over with cool quirky effects.
There’s nothing too revolutionary about this resolution, but it does show that Kacchan is very much capable of learning from failure (though he could indeed benefit, as Camie notes, from shutting up more often). Certainly the most interesting element of the aftermath is Shouto’s interaction with his father. This is a tough one, truthfully. It’s hard to make the case that Endeavor deserves the chance to make amends, and I can’t possibly blame Shouto for wanting nothing to do with him after what that man has done. But this may be a case where the boy has to be the bigger man, because like it or not Endeavor is both a part of him and the next #1 hero.
The second half of the episode is devoted to what’s indisputably a diversion, “The Strange Tale of Aoyama”. But be that as it may I confess I almost loved this chapter and-a-half in the manga, because I rather like Aoyama as a character – he’s so unlike anyone else in 1-A. As side stories go this one works because first off, it’s funny – the whole way Aoyama equates cheese with some kind of grand social outreach, and then the cheese message on the balcony which has Deku terrified. Aoyama always seems to be on the wrong end of the series’ humor when he’s involved, and this story isn’t exempt from that, but its heart is in the right place.
As Deku says he doesn’t really know Aoyama – and in fact, he’s one of the least explored of all the Class 1-A group. As I’ve noted before he has a notable tendency of rising to the occasion out of nowhere in the big moments, but he’s the odd man out in so many ways. That’s why his outreach to Deku is actually sort of touching, because we can see how much it means to Aoyama to finally meet someone who seems to be in the same boat as him (even if he doesn’t know the reason why). For Deku making friends is as easy as it is difficult for Aoyama, yet before now it had never occurred to Deku that Aoyama needed one as badly as he did. So a happy ending for all concerned – though he really needs to dial back the whole cheese thing…
Tim
February 9, 2020 at 8:39 amngl that part in the manga (aoyama) had me more confused than anything else. I couldn’t tell if horikoshi wanted us to think he was the traitor, a stalker, or just socially awkward. other than that can’t wait for hopefully not a botched festival arc.
Guardian Enzo
February 9, 2020 at 8:43 amI thought it was pretty clear what Horikoshi intended (though obviously it comes down to interpretation). Aoyama was desperately lonely but lacked the ability to truly befriend anyone. He realized early on that Deku was the least judgmental and overall kindest person around, but couldn’t make the leap to friend status. Finally he saw something that he could connect with Deku over, but even then lacked the courage to do so directly, so he took the indirect approach.
Kurik
February 9, 2020 at 10:03 amVery insightful of you as always Enzo and mirrors my thinking as well though you put it into words much better than I ever could. I liked was really surprised Kacchan came up with the solution for the kids and shows (again) the depth of his character. The whole solution was quite clever and well thought out and I still wouldn’t have come up with it myself if I was in their shoe! Good one.
Krize
February 10, 2020 at 8:16 amThat little tidbit about the Quirk Singularity Doomsday theory was something I was intrigued to see, because I’ve been thinking for a while how, if you strip away certain genre trappings and choices of narrative tone, there’s not a whole lot at the conceptual level that separates a world like Boku no Hero Academia from Shin Sekai Yori. Starting with Eri we’ve seen a danger that SSY termed in it’s lexicon as a karmic demon-an individual with incredible power but insufficient ability to control it, making them a threat to people around them.
When one considers the damage wreaked on society by quirk-powered individuals, and the insane rights of crime worldwide mentioned in the movie, even the best efforts of pro heroes seem like a band-aid on the real problem, which, as SSY eloquently put, is that such power exists at all.
This is why I think the details of Overhaul’s plan were quite interesting (I don’t know that he actually aimed to strip the human race of all quirks, but he certainly acknowledged the possibility) and wish it had been better implemented in more of a long game way. In any case, while this is a shounen (and a great shounen) at the end of the day, i’ll be interested to see how Horikoshi follows up on this thread going forward.
Guardian Enzo
February 10, 2020 at 9:49 amThat SSY allusion is an interesting one. I agree – I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine a dystopian future where quirks have caused civil was among the humans in SSY fashion. Or, if you like, an Avatar situation with benders and non-benders (which is more political than the armageddon scenario depicted in SSY).