The pretenders come and come, but BnHA still outclasses all of them IMHO. Its sales never falter – in fact they’re extraordinarily resilient for a blockbuster manga of this age. But it does get taken for granted, as meteors flash across the sky burning more brightly. I never resent any mangaka making a big score – it’s a brutal gig (especially for weeklies) and any of them them like Gege or Gotuge who finds the golden ticket is welcome to their miraculous success. But Horikoshi just does it better, whether he gets the recognition or not. There’s more nuance in one episode of Boku no Hero Academia than whole seasons of flashier rivals.

This was a fascinating episode. A great battle ep, yes, because HeroAca is a great battle shounen and delivers the goods in the big moments. But because it’s Horikoshi the subtext of the battle is even better (and more important) than the battle itself. It features the two main villains, but the protagonist is missing from the party. He’s on the way of course, but unable to impact these massive events in any way except through the impact his absence has. Watching All For One and Shigaraki back to back is a compelling revelation of where they are in relation to each other at this moment in time.

Folks love the Star Wars analogies with HeroAca, and it’s no wonder – Horikoshi doesn’t shy away from it. But the mask thing really throws people. Those comparisons are overblown but as long as we’re playing, thematically speaking All For One isn’t Vader – if anyone is, that’s Shigaraki (which makes Izuku Luke, and the mystery of his paternity that much more intriguing). No, AFO is Palpatine – with all that implies. By the time A New Hope rolls around Palpatine is already a physical wreck, a withered and scarred body seemingly on the edge of collapse. But does he look worried?

It’s a measure of that fact that the likes of a much-reduced Hawks and Endeavor and a couple of students can cause All For One any concern. Kyouka’s sound wave attacks are literally child’s play to him, This Hawks is – in AFO’s own words – an “ordinary person”. And Endeavor is bleeding out and seeing visions. But these zaku are chipping away at All For One, literally and figuratively. And his collection of quirks, more vital than ever thanks to his lack of physical robustness, are starting to play up. The copies, it seems, are more unruly than the stolen originals.

But, as AFO says, the scariest hero is a wounded hero. And they don’t get much more wounded than Endeavor, physically and existentially. He’s still a miserable bastard but I think there’s no denying he’s owned his transgressions. He may have given up on redemption (which I think is pretty fair, to be blunt) but he knows he can still play a role in giving the next generation a future. Not his own middle son, perhaps – and he can blame no one else for that. But his youngest and the ones who walk beside him, maybe. And if he can finish the job All Might started than perhaps, just perhaps, he might allow himself to believe he was worthy of the #1 mantle.

Is this the end for All For One? I think this is one of the rare cases where the Star Wars model would probably provide a pretty good guide. Meanwhile, Shigaraki is still getting handsy with his opponents in the coffin in the sky. In fact his body has gained so much mass that it’s weighing down the enclosure and causing it to plummet towards the Earth. This was supposed to be the fated battle, Deku facing off against Shigaraki. Both All For One and Shigaraki acknowledge Deku as their main foe – yet the heroes have to try and and take down the one who seems undeniably the stronger enemy without him.

Bakugo tries to take matters into his own hands (pun intended). He throws his best new sweat bomb attack at Shigaraki but in the end, succeeds only in getting himself ensnared. Even quirkless, Shigaraki seems basically unbeatable. No one in the bubble can beat him, certainly, and that really only leaves one possibility. This is complicated when you look at it from the villain side, and what the ultimate aims of the man pulling the strings are. But as a matter of combat it looks pretty straightforward. This was an incredibly complex plan and it was brought off almost without a hitch in spite of that. Yet Shigaraki seems unbowed and unruffled. He’s waiting for the same thing everyone else is, but he might not have to wait much longer.