We reached the stage of the manga a little while back where I made the switch to anime-only. There were various reasons for that (none of them issues with the manga itself). But the reality is, it’s just incredibly hard to avoid spoilers totally in the age of social media. There are a lot of douchebags out there who either don’t give a flip or don’t even consider that not everyone wants to know this stuff in advance. And a certain image from these chapters went pretty viral at the time they were published.

So then, the event at the end of this episode was not a surprise to me, though I knew no details of the buildup to it. In the larger sense this is pretty straightforward – the heroes throwing everything and everyone they have at Shigaraki, and him brushing them all off like cigar ash on his trousers. But the nuances are a lot more complicated, starting with what is or isn’t happening inside Shigaraki himself. This is a long time for the hero of a series with a first-person title to be offscreen, but HeroAca hasn’t really missed a beat.

There was a pretty important subbing error this week – when Shigaraki tells Bakugo he’s “goldfish poop next to One For All”, it was translated as “All For One”. That not only totally changes the meaning but doesn’t even really make sense in context. The ep itself was another total banger, though. It’s the subtext that makes these headline fights in BnHA as great as they are. Kacchan is carrying a lot of baggage with him into this one, which is nothing new for him. He’s an incredibly smart guy who excels at playing at being a dumbass – and thinking he could make a dent in Shigaraki’s armor was probably a case of his pride overwhelming his intellect and judgment.

With Kacchan helpless and Izuku still whereabouts unknown (he’s not even on the radio anymore), something has to be done to stall for time. So the big three spring into action, despite having been assigned to backup/messenger duty. We haven’t seen Mirio in combat for a long time (understandably, as he was quirkless for much of it). He naturally takes point, with Hado and Tamaki searching for a way to do some damage. Mirio is an odd case. In truth, his quirk is rather weak. He admits his has nothing of his own that could hurt Shigaraki in a fight. But in terms of temperament, he’s closer to the ideal of a number one hero than anyone else.

Ironically Tintin does manage to land a blow – a verbal one. Shigaraki is quite enraged at Mirio’s suggestion that he doesn’t have any friends (so much so that Mirio reflexively apologizes), and this raises some interesting questions about just who and what this being facing the heroes is. This does manage to land Shigaraki in the back foot, creating an opening for Tamaki. It’s his “Vast Hybrid” attack, the final move for his Manifest quirk, that offers the best chance to slow down Shigaraki, and he aims to incorporate Hado’s “Wave Motion” into it. The resulting plasma wave attack is certainly powerful – but not powerful enough.

All this does manage to elicit of bit of uncertainty in Shigaraki, though it’s not clear just who’s expressing it. In the end though, it’s a wave dashed against a brick wall. Even without his quirks Shigaraki seems stronger than a raft of heroes chosen from the ranks of the elite – a reminder of just how big the gap is between him and everyone (or almost everyone) else. Having seen the big three’s best shot amount to nothing, Kacchan drags himself to his feet and back into the arena. He has one last trick up his sleeve – “Cluster”, caused by the perspiration unable to escape through his overtaxed palm sweat glands leaching out of his entire body. Shigaraki seems very slightly worried – and annoyed – but in the end there’s no sign that this has done him any meaningful damage.

Bakugo shows a self-awareness we almost never see from him here. He understands that he’s been chasing Deku these past few years, not the other way around. He knows he hasn’t communicated his true feelings to those he cares about. Maybe admitting all that gives him a little peace at the last – if nothing else, he no longer has to carry the weight of self-deception. If this is indeed the end for Katsuki Bakugo, maybe it’s small solace that he faced it with his eyes open. But Deku won’t know that of course, and it’s not hard to imagine who he’ll blame for what’s happened in his absence.