This is the most positive I’ve seen the HeroAca zeitgeist in memory. You’re hardly hearing any complaints about the final season so far, and lots of praise. Truth be told I think it’s mostly being driven by anime-onlys – Bones is as usual killing it and this is pretty much the easy part. If the manga experience is anything to go on the complaints will come, though perhaps the passage of some time has helped readers realize that the manga ending was actually really good.

If you’re a fan of Katsuki Bakugo (I’m pretty sure this was the first time he self-identified as “Kacchan”, ROFL) – and given that he’s won every character poll I’ve ever seen that’s a lot of people – this is your golden era. I’m not hyper-enthusiastically one – Horikoshi has written better, though I absolutely appreciate the character and his role in the story. But whatever issues I have with Kacchan as a character, I think the fact that he’s actually grown is what elevates his arc, and this moment in the story.

Bakugo is not the main character, as important (and popular) as he is. As such his spotlight dance is a tricky one for Horikoshi. He can’t be the last one on the dance floor and really, he shouldn’t have the most flashy denouement. But he is massively important and indeed the most popular character. As such he needs a huge climax for his part in the story. But again, it can’t overshadow the lead. And indeed, there’s a heated debate among fans about whether Bakugo or Shigaraki is in fact the deuteragonist of the series. If you believe the latter than it’s even more obligatory that Deku vs. Shigaraki not be overshadowed by Kacchan vs. All For One (or anyone else).

There’s also the main antagonist debate, which is very relevant at this point in the story. And it’s not a clear-cut matter, as if you go by the mythology AFO has a stronger case, probably. But right now Shigaraki is paired off with Izuku, and that’s been fated since the beginning. So who dances with All For One here at the end of all things – All Might, his eternal foil, or the second-most important character in Boku no Hero Academia? Horikoshi has chosen “both”. Toshinori made his return and last stand against his “old friend”. And when he had nothing left to give, Bakugo rose from the dead (very nearly literally) and accepted the baton.

Izuku is pretty much at a standstill with Shigaraki as all this is playing out. He can’t use “Gearshift” because the recoil will impact him. He’s holding off Shigaraki with “Blackwhip” mainly, and Shigaraki is in no rush. He clearly doesn’t much care what happens to All For One and sees time as being on his side. So he waits, about as cheerful as he ever gets, and all of the action is elsewhere. That “elsewhere” is a lot of places, but the main event is Kacchan and All For One. AFO may try to dismiss this young one as a “pebble” (and Shigaraki dismiss him as a roach) but Bakugo is seizing his moment.

To be frank, the whole business with Edgeshot and Kacchan’s sweat drops giving him a huge power-up is kinda silly, but in a comic book sort of way and since that’s very much what BnHA is, that fits just fine. For his part Toshinori muses that he was supposed to die here – the Nighteye in his imagination tells him that’s how it would be if this were indeed a comic book. But Bakugo-shounen has other plans. All Might uses what’s left of Hercules to splint his broken arm, and Bakugo takes the fight to All For One in glorious fashion. Flashy and painful – this is exactly how Kacchan will have wanted his big moment to play out.

I never made the connection All For One does here – Katsuki to his brother, Yoichi. In the brief moments we’ve spent with him Yoichi seemed to have a very different sort of personality, but in All For One’s increasingly manic state, he can’t unsee it. For him, control is everything – meticulous planning leading to predictable results. Kacchan is a wild card, which triggers AFO for starters. And maybe it’s a function of seiyuu, but “Rewind” seems to have changed more about him than just his face. This All For One is more impulsive, volatile – less in control. And in truth, right now he’s even less in control than he thinks.