Without any question, one of the major functions of this arc was to introduce – or at least reintroduce and reinforce – characters previously outside the narrative inner circle. To wit, the members of Class 1-B – plus one of course. They’re not all going to be important, obviously, but it’s interesting to speculate on which ones will be – and in what way. One of them is pretty obvious but among the others it’s much harder to say.
First of all Shinsou, who’s certainly the most important non-core character in the arc. Maybe even the most important character period, given how the middle section featured almost no Deku. Shinsou is a lock to be a key player down the stretch – that much would be obvious just from the screen time he receives here. But his quirk is a sleeper, too – potentially even among the top 10 overall in the series. One gets the sense from the Joint Training arc that there’s a deeper connection between he and Deku, too.
Who else? The answer might be surprising, but I think Monoma has a chance to emerge as important. He’s an unusual figure in this series – rarely do we have good guys who so openly speak of the dark side of hero culture. His quirk is damn powerful too – something of a Chrollo quality to it. But it’s the sort of quirk – and Monoma’s the sort of personality – that one expects to find in either a villain or a vigilante, rather than a hero. Monoma gets some very interesting stretches of dialogue in this arc, and they too suggest to me that he may be headed for something of a rogue role.
Once Aizawa decides to let the battle go on as scheduled, the focus shifts to that. Will Deku fight quirkless? No – as rattled as he is, he knows he’s more a liability than a help if he does. He puts his trust in Ochaco and she once again comes through, effectively leading the team as Deku concentrates on keeping Shinsou occupied. Monoma is a wild card since Ochaco doesn’t know which quirks he’s copied, but she plays her cards right and manages to subdue hum and act as backup for Mina and Mineta.
It makes sense that Aizawa should mentor Shinsou (I suspect he ends up in Class 1-A). They share a commonality in that their quirks are reactive – more about subduing the enemy than offensive capability. They’ve had to bridge the gap using other means, but Eraser has had a lot more practice at than than Shinsou. As for Deku, he learns the hard way that Blackwhip is not a power he can soft-pedal – simply put, it’s not one he can safely use at all at this point. Indeed, the idea that Monoma had used Copy on it was a briefly scary moment, but that was a bluff (fortunately for Monoma, most of all).
That tendency of HeroAca fans to default to criticizing Horikoshi that I mentioned last week asserted itself in the reactions to the One For All reveal. I think Monoma pretty much spelled out the truth of the matter early in last week’s episode, but so many people saw this as a cheap freebie power-up for Deku. Well, believe what you will – but I don’t think that’s how this mythology works. Bear in mind I’m paused with the manga before all this shakes out so possess no inside info, but is this development really a gift for Deku – or one of those burdens Monoma-kun talked about last week? That’s for viewers and readers to decide for themselves – for now. But I think the reality is going to be very different from what a lot of people seem to assume.
sonicsenryaku
June 6, 2021 at 12:03 am* but so many people saw this as a cheap freebie power-up for Deku*
You know, i never really understood why that was people’s immediate knee-jerk reaction to the one-for-all reveal. It was almost indisputably clear to me that the appropriate reaction horikoshi was looking for from audiences was: “Wow, Deku reeeeeaaaaally has his work cut out for him; kid never seems to get a break.” Why people saw this as a controversial development in the story was beyond me; I mean, this seemed like the logical progression of that power considering it’s called “one for all” and the story had alluded to previous owners having quirks before acquiring the power whose core attribute is THE ACCUMULATION OF POWER. In earlier episodes of the series, I use to question why a power called one for all only seemed to give a person a power as basic as superhuman strength; now it completely makes sense and everything is right with the world.
I think people need to give themselves more time to sit down and think/evaluate their opinions before shouting out things that feel so off base. Like, why do we care if Deku ultimately becomes this busted superhero with the gift of wielding 7 different quirks? He ain’t busted now and he ain’t gonna be for a while. This is a story about Deku becoming the #1 hero; the spoiler is intentional because the suspense and overall narrative catharsis is meant to be derived from seeing the grueling hard work he had to put into attaining the position. We know this to be true because we see just how much Deku struggles simply to master one for all’s superhuman attribute. Hearing that there are 7 more quirks he has to master should have a person flinching at the herculean task being practically dumped on this poor kid and anticipated the growth and perspective Deku will have to attain to be able to harness such power responsibily. I don’t know man; fans reaction to that development just comes off as making a problem of something that never had the potential to be one in the first place due to already established story lore
LAsuka
June 6, 2021 at 12:43 amI guess most people wanted an underdog story with a kid having a heavily flawed quirk with one-dimensional abilities is able to rise to the level of ‘greatest hero’ by simply mastering One for All and using it in creative ways, along with his intellect in order to achieve greatness. The emergence of other quirks is reasonable lore-wise, but it gives Deku the potential of a lot more powerful, which kinds of undermines his underdog ‘label’.
animealex
June 6, 2021 at 4:08 amDear Sir or Madam, I would like to sign everything you just said. I’m one of those people you described.
sonicsenryaku
June 6, 2021 at 4:53 amBut superhuman strength isn’t even an underdog ability really. As we can see with other superhero entities like superman, omniman, and most specific to this example, All Might in his prime, having superhuman strength can be busted as hell. I call superhuman strength “basic” because it doesn’t require creative effort to make it a busted ability, not to mention most media tend to portray superhuman strength in a very straightforward fashion (strong punches, smashing things through walls, etc) rather than finding creative means to utilize the power, but I’m getting off topic. Deku obtaining the potential to master 7 more quirks doesn’t change anything about his underdog situation; as a matter of fact, it actually increases his burden, which is one of the major takeaways we are supposed to have from this reveal. Deku’s initial one for all ability wasn’t an inherently flawed (not having control of it was the issue); being superhuman is pretty effing cool and doesn’t have many draw backs in terms of utility. What made Deku an underdog was that 1. he had barely spent any time with his new quirk while everyone else had practically grown up with theirs and 2. Deku’s quirk is overwhelmingly volatile, meaning he needs to work super hard just to get it under control and come up with (as you said) creative ways to utilize the powers without them destroying him. That hasn’t changed just because the possibility of 7 new quirks are now in his purview. If anything, it makes his goal seem that much more insurmountable while allowing more dynamic and (as you’ve also desired) interesting uses of these powers because of the amount of them he’ll have in his inventory. Again, I don’t really understand why the fans went cockeyed over this reveal. Your explanation is something i already considered when the fans erupted in argumentation; i just found the reasoning to be flawed for the very reason i have just stated.
Riv
June 6, 2021 at 2:52 amThe One-for-All reveal didn’t strike me as a freebie power-up move either. Given how poorly Deku’s first experience of the new move went, I can’t imagine acquiring any of them will be smooth sailing.
With the large cast, I think an interesting question is how many of Class 1-A (and 1-B) will really end up becoming pro heroes. I think this training arc certainly exposes a lot of the weaknesses that many of them have. Of course, a lot will depend on where the manga ends in terms of answering this question. But I think it would be more compelling story-wise to show that not all of them actually do become pro heroes and rather find other ways to employ their quirks.
Bob
June 6, 2021 at 3:52 am> Indeed, the idea that Monoma had used Copy on it was a briefly scary moment, but that was a bluff (fortunately for Monoma, most of all).
I thought he copied it but just didn’t get any power since it’s an accumulation-type Quirk, hence him saying it was a dud.
As for OH MY SEVEN QUIRKS, can’t say I’m the biggest fan of it, but it hasn’t been a dealbreaker. Other developments are far more questionable.
sanzal
June 6, 2021 at 6:10 amI think people go thermonuclear over the six quirks reveal because of Naruto PTSD. That series became a mess towards the end with Naruto becoming so powerful that he made almost everyone else (except Sasuke) practically irrelevant. I’m thinking people are scared Deku might become the same, especially since Horikoshi has on several occasions cited Naruto as one of his biggest inspirations.
So far, Hori’s managed to toe the line pretty well, so let’s hope he’ll stick the landing without going off the rails.
Guardian Enzo
June 6, 2021 at 9:07 amBut HeroAca ain’t Naruto. Maybe Horikoshi does suffer from WSJ fatigue but that’s, well- not his fault.
Yukie
June 6, 2021 at 12:31 pmI am also not a fan of this development when it happened (since All Might and other previous users didn’t seem to experience the same thing), but thinking about it, it makes sense that with AFO as an opponent, Deku needed this power-up. Powerscaling’s always been a tough element to work with for WSJ mangakas, esp. the longer the manga is, and Horikoshi has already done relatively well in that dept. compared to others.
Derrick
June 6, 2021 at 9:23 pmwith DBZ, by the time we have alien and universe scale threats the power level has been off the charts.
thankfully we don’t have that kind in MHA mythology yet.
blargnobia
June 7, 2021 at 6:59 amI feel like the people who’re upset about Deku’s multi-quirk are the same people who would be whining about how boring OFA is if Deku only had superstrength.
So far Hori has tried a few different methods for keeping OFA interesting (eg: Midoriya’s comically breakable arms; full cowl; “hey didja know legs are for kicking”-shoot style; and whatever those gloves that he uses to flick air are called.) The problem is, most of those are just Deku trying to use his superstrength more efficiently or safely. They add tension, but aren’t consistent enough to be really important. The fact that Deku acted like using his legs was a huge deal is a pretty good indicator of how limited OFA actually is, creativity-wise.
tl;dr: giving Midoriya more quirks is necessary from a narrative standpoint. The power creep is certainly an issue (always is in shounen), but hopefully Hori keeps that reined in.
Guardian Enzo
June 7, 2021 at 7:30 amInteresting point about OFA. In a sense this is the “one quirk to rule them all”, so its true upside has to be extraordinary. It also has to be able to stand against AFO, which it will inevitably be tested against in the final battle.
ibtachi
June 8, 2021 at 6:40 pmIf anything the handling and delivery of OFA’s power creep reminds me of Avatar the Last Airbender (which also introduced the power-creep with a deft, cautious hand). I doubt its exactly linear but you’d assume 7x the powers would be at least equally as difficult.
If anyone’s calling it an asspull they’re clearly not appreciating how impossibly OP AFO is as a foil from a narrative standpoint — and adding to that I never envisioned Deku being able to go superman like All-Might either. The mythology behind it makes almost perfect sense.
Guardian Enzo
June 8, 2021 at 8:38 pmWord.