“People who experience setbacks in life are called villains…  Those that don’t fit in are ostracized.  There are no exceptions.  It’s a problem from before society.  It’s a principle of living in groups.”

– All For One, to Deku (Season 6, Episode 22)

“You don’t have to understand. It’s because you don’t understand that we have heroes and villains.”

– Shigaraki, to Deku (Season 7, Episode  16)

Another wonderful episode of Boku no Hero Academia. Although most of them are in truth, not that you’d ever see most of the series’ so-called fans stop whining and complaining long enough to acknowledge it. It got me thinking about a number of things regarding the context of the events it depicts. The “School Festival” arc is really mis-named, for it was far more about the two characters it birthed than the festival they disrupted. That’s an arc which I pretty much did- well, not a 180 on but maybe a 60 after the anime. It worked far better in that format, thanks in part to legends Yamadera Kouichi and Hochan lifting it with their presence. But I also got what Horikoshi was trying to do with it in a way I never did with the manga.

As we rejoin events, Toga’s desperation ploy seems to have turned the battle in favor of the bad guys. I love the little laugh Ohtsuka Akio gives as All For One makes that observation. Twices are breaking out all over, stuffed with killing intent. Endeavor is faced with his worst (self-inflicted) nightmare. And Skeptic has managed to hack into the Yuuei system,  in the process bolloxing up the levitation for the Coffin in the Sky seemingly beyond repair. Deku is overloaded on Gearshift, and struggling to breathe. And if all that weren’t bad enough still more Twices come out inside the coffin, and – among other things – tackle Monoma and thus take “Erasure” offline (and off Shigaraki).

Not that it’s smooth sailing for AFO. Hawks has a good quirk but his real superpower has always been being the smartest guy in the room. He deduces that Shigaraki is still experiencing growing pains – and that All For One is insecure about his control over him. Hawks leaves Touya in Endeavor’s hands and moves to take on the Demon Lord himself. Or at least slow him down.  Toga is here at Gunga Villa too, to make things worse. But Ochaco and Froppy have hitched a ride with her, and soon Tokoyami and Eri show up too. But against the sea of phosphor Dabi is laying down, what can they accomplish apart from trying not to die?

The situation with the CitS is extremely bad for any number of reasons. Not least that everyone at the bottom of it is going to be grape must if it crashes, as Skeptic’s hacking has made seemingly inevitable. Then we have the fact that with “Erasure” no longer constraining him, Shigaraki can unleash “Decay” when it does. But like Deku, Shigaraki is having some issues – the mesh between Tomura and All For One is not seamless, and it’s taking them some time to lumber back into motion.

I had mixed feelings about La Brava and Gentle Criminal when I read the “School Festival” arc. But in anime form, it really clicked in. Of course the seiyuu were (and are) beyond stupendous. But their role in the story made a lot more sense to me the second time around. In short, they call out the fundamental unfairness of this hero-dominated world. As I put it at the time, “regular people trying to get by in a world where being extraordinary is everything”. That’s not the fault of heroes like Izuku – he’s default kind to the core. But the pathos in Gentle Criminal and La Brava’s story turned him into the villain for a couple of episodes.

That of course was what HeroAca’s underrated spinoff, Vigilantes, was really about too. The truth is that some villains are tragic figures more than anything else. And I think maybe Horikoshi is better at writing them than just about any other type of character. That was what really made La Brava and Gentle Criminal resonate with me in the end. And this has been a hard lesson for the establishment, brought low by their own arrogance as much as anything. They’re forced to turn to people like Tobita and Aiba – and Monoma. People branded as villains and traitors who were victims of the myopia of hero society. This is all AFO is doing, really – exploiting that hollow center that the demise of All Might as a poultice did so much to reveal.

Gentle Criminal got lucky – a chance to redeem himself in the form of All For One’s mass prison breaks. And both he and Brava had a skill that Tsukauchi (presumably) was smart enough to realize could be vital if the grand plan went off the rails. Humility doesn’t come easily to hero society but these events have humbled them, and being forced to rely on the likes of these two (and Lady Nagant, for that matter) is good medicine for a broken system. For now it’s about survival, but if victory is ever achieved, what sort of world follows it depends very much on the heroes’ ability to learn from their mistakes.