The farther along we get with the ending of Boku no Hero Academia, the more mystified I am that there was so much bitching about it. Like, genuinely – I know it’s been 15 months, but I genuinely struggle to see why so many manga readers hated it. I remember some of the complaints, sure (not all of them). But I don’t think the anime viewers giving this sky-high review scores and TV ratings are pushovers or nuts. It’s a given that Bones is doing a great job adapting, but they’re adapting faithfully – this is Horikoshi Kouhei’s finale. I’ve seen a lot of kaijuu battle shounen endings, and trust me – this is way better than almost all of them.
The news that the final season would be only 11 episodes was certainly unsurprising, as that’s more than enough to cover the manga material. It didn’t upset me because it still gives us three full episodes of coda and epilogue, which – again – is way more than these series usually give you. After 170 eps you certainly need them. And this isn’t some phony denouement either – it’s genuine aftermath. The battle has been won, the world is a mess but relieved, and the final three episodes will take their time exploring the process of reflection and recovery.
One thing I did disagree with about with the manga ending (there are a few more I can’t quite discuss yet) was the fate of All Might. To be clear – I love the character and his arc (and some don’t). But given the nature of his story, he should have given his last on that final battlefield. By having Toshinori survive I felt Horikoshi robbed his arc of something of its poetry. And Deku and Kacchan’s, too. That means what we get with it is prosaic. It’s damn good prose – made better by the fact that All Might’s participation in the final battle didn’t come without a terrible personal cost. I’m glad he’s alive, and that the boys had their chance to close the loop with him. But it’s a bit of a missed narrative opportunity too, in my opinion.
Cost is a recurring theme here. None of the main heroes escapes it, nor obviously the main villains. Bakugo has barely avoided losing his right arm, and his whole quirk hinges on using his hands. And Izuku of course has given up his quirk altogether, ember or no. Not that he would ever have considered otherwise, given the choice again. And One For All itself effectively existed to fulfill this mission. This hits Bakugo incredibly hard – so hard that he’s unable to avoid his most emotionally honest moment of the series. That’s how much Deku meant to him all along. And it hits All Might like a wrecking ball too, though he does his best not to let that show.
Of course the person this is harder for than anyone else is Izuku, and that’s not even factoring in his permanent (for now) bad hair day. The dream is over for him, as glorious as it was at its best. He was the perfect vessel for One For All, someone who embodies the very notion of it down to his DNA. He too is trying to be stoic for the sake of Bakugo – and Toshinori too, don’t kid yourself. But this has to cut him deep. In the end the responsibility for everyone and everyone fell on his shoulders, as unfair as that is. And he did what he always does, exactly what he had to. Which is why he’s a great shounen protagonist and the best character in this series no matter what the reader polls said.
As the world rebuilds, it moves on for Yuuei too. There’s a graduation to consider – a late graduation to be sure, but one Mirio and the third-years certainly earned. Deku returns to school when his hospital turn ends. And to the hero course too, though it’s fair to wonder how exactly that’s going to work. Shinsou joins 1-A – 2-A for now, and given that some feel he’s a sleeper for the strongest quirk in the series that seems fitting. But Aoyama-kun chooses to leave in order to make amends for what he’s done. It can be argued that process has already happened – he was certainly integral to the final victory. But given that All For One is the literal reason he was in Class 1-A to begin with, it’s understandable that he wouldn’t feel right progressing with them.
Redemption is a big theme here. And where redemption in HeroAca is concerned, Endeavor is the sun around which it revolves. Summing up his story was always going to be a difficult matter for Horikoshi, one of his own making. He never spared us the gruesome details of just how flawed and cruel a man Enji is. Well, his arm is gone and he’s in a wheelchair. His hero days are over, the truth of his transgressions is out, and he has to stare the product of them in the face. The face of Touya, hideously scarred and near death. Enji can blame no one else for this spectacle but himself, but at least he doesn’t try to.
Was Horikoshi-sensei too kind to Endeavor in the end? It can be debated, no question. But his family is broken – his middle son is a mass murderer and near his end, his eldest can’t be free of him soon enough. I’ve always felt that the crux of the Endeavor redemption storyline came down to whether you believe genuine remorse is a mitigating factor in guilt. Endeavor has been punished for his misdeeds – karmically and eventually literally, one assumes. But he hasn’t been deserted. His wife – who has more reason than anyone to do so – chooses not to. Nor do his daughter and youngest son, and they all deserve better. Or his friends, like Hawks.
When Touya, whose life Enji destroyed, breathes his last Enji will continue on. Maybe that’s too good for him, but it probably takes more courage for Endeavor to live on given the sort of life it’s going to be. The one who really matters in all this is Shouto, who bore the brunt of so much of his father’s moral and ethical bad debt. If I have an issue in all this it’s that he, like his mother and sister, is more forgiving than he should be. But the bonds of blood are easier to sever from the remove of distance than in the actual event.
