It all happened a little too fast, but “My Villain Academia” delivered as it needed to.  My “read the manga” advice still stands – there’s a lot there that didn’t make it into the anime, and it’s well worth knowing.  This arc really should have lasted the bulk of the second cour, and Season 5 of HeroAca would have been a lot better off for it.  But even at half a cour (next week’s episode is kind of a hybrid, which is appropriate as a season finale) MVA did a lot to redeem the experience – never as bad as the haters made it out to be, but not on the level of the first four seasons.

This business of leaving behind the main cast for an extended period is something not all shounen mangaka have the guts to do (nobody is better at it than Togashi).  But I think Horikoshi-sensei realized it was something he had to do.  As a big bad, Shigaraki Tomura was somewhat lacking.  MVA was really all about his awakening as a character, both literally and figuratively.  With him leveling up in stature in a manner which suggests he’s ready to be the true Symbol of Fear, it begs the question – is Endeavor ready to do the same as the new Symbol of Peace?

One of the joys of this arc is hearing the great Ootsuka Akio tear it up as All For One, and that’s never more the case than with this episode.  He was actually the actor I originally had in mind for All Might (Miyake Kenta ended up being just fine) but now I can’t imagine anyone else playing AFO.  All For One as portrayed by him leaves enormous shoes to fill – it’s hard to imagine more villainous stature in anybody – but Shigaraki brings a different sort of energy to the role.  The predatory way in which All For One grooms him is quite chilling, but you can’t deny that it was effective.  And it was all building up to this moment.

There was some carping last week about Horikoshi trying the “make the villain sympathetic because of a bad childhood” trope, but – as much of the criticism of BnHA seems to do – I think it misses the point.  In good fiction everyone has a story, be they good or evil.  Villains don’t end up the way they are just by coincidence or genetics – they’re a product of a series of events, and decisions beyond their control.  Shimura Tenko did have a terrible childhood, and having some empathy for that in no way cheapens his status as the Symbol of Fear now.  If someone else had stopped to help him – if indeed his family had circled the wagons around him instead of his father – well, who knows?  We never will, because that’s not how it played out.

I noted last week how ReDestro, despite his size, was left looking small next to Shigaraki.  And that only intensified this week.  ReDestro’s “Plus Ultra” was utterly useless against Decay – in fact, it just made him an easier target.  And that’s the truly terrifying thing about Shigaraki’s ability – it’s indiscriminate.  If it touches you, you die.  If you aren’t alive, you crumble to pieces.  Decay – and Shigaraki – are destruction incarnate.  The only way ReDestro can save himself, in fact, is by cutting off his own feet (which were touching the ground) before the rest of his body followed them into oblivion.  Which was actually pretty ballsy and quick thinking.

In the end, ReDestro is leader enough to face the truth.  He’s no match for Shigaraki, and in fact in Shigaraki lies the greatest hope for his movement to succeed.  He orders his followers to stand down rather than throw their lives away, and even Gigantomachia is awed by what he sees playing out.  But what’s really interesting is what Shigaraki does.  Having just declared that the league can “do what they want” and seemingly embraced full chaotic evil alignment, he steps back and acts as the leader of the villain movement.  He sees the usefulness in ReDestro and the Meta Liberation Army, and rather than keep indiscriminately killing (starting with ReDestro) he subjugates instead.  Again, we see him growing into the role fate has chosen for him right before our eyes.

The post-MVA world is a very different place.  The Paranormal Liberation Front now stands at the apex of villainy, with Shigaraki as its undisputed head.  The MLA is folded into its ranks, and even Garaki gives him his stamp of approval.  That leaves us with the question – in the end, did it matter much that this arc and the Endeavor Agency arc switched places?  I would argue that it probably didn’t, because the one story effectively feeds into the other – and while the manga benefitted from a break in-between, the anime will naturally have that as Season 6 won’t air until sometime in 2022 (most likely).  The length of the arc is another issue, but that ship has sailed and there’s no point worrying about it now – I’m just glad that what we got did the material justice.