This chapter (in the larger sense) of Boku no Hero Academia always had a leg up with me.  I’ve always liked Twice, from the moment he appeared in the series (with a great out of nowhere backstory introduction).  And while Endou Daichi isn’t a name well-known to anime fans, the 40 year-old seiyuu delivers what I consider one of the best performances in a series full of great ones.  An arc like My Villain Academia can’t work unless you can see the villains as human beings, and few BnHA villains are as sympathetic as Bubaigawara Jin.

The League and the Army make a fascinating contrast as villains go.  The MLA are basically an extremist political (even quasi-religious) organization – their cause is their bond.  The League’s cause is basically “fuck the world that fucked us over”.  Their bond is their bond – as much as most heroes these villains are driven by personal loyalty.  Hell, it’s their loyalty to Giran – not even officially a member – which has brought them here in the first place.  There is a conventional world domination element here which springs from All For One, but for most of the League this is about being accepted when no one else would accept them.

Twice is the ultimate exemplar of this.  In simplest terms, this is not a bad guy – just a sad and messed up one.  Set adrift at 16 by a run of bad luck after the death of his parents, he was literally at the end of the line when the League entered his life.  His multiple personality disorder is both the engine and the brakes for his ability.  And make no mistake, that ability is terrifyingly strong in its potential – and those with far-seeing eyes have always understood that potential.  That’s why Twice has always been a subject of great interest from very powerful people.

We see here both the depths of Twice’s neuroses – he’s avoided physical injury out of fear he’d disappear as easily as his clones do – and his true power.  In the clutches of Skeptic, who uses his Anthropomorph quirk to make lookalikes, Twice sees “himself” about to kill the unconscious Toga.  Rather than being driven completely around the bend by this, Twice’s fierce desire to protect her blows out the limiter on his own quirk, and all of a sudden he’s able to make seemingly unlimited clones of himself.  Which he does with extreme prejudice, flipping the odds of this pitched battle on their head.

Meanwhile Dabi and the MLA bigwig Geten (Yamashita Seiichirou) are going at in a battle of fire and ice.  Politician Trumpet (Majima Junji) takes to the field as well, with a seeming ability to rile up his supporters to superhuman feats of strength.  Everyone has their hands full, even Shigaraki, so Twice’s army of clones doesn’t arrive a moment too soon.  Along with Mr. Compress and Spinner Shigaraki fights his way towards the control tower where Giran is being held, swept along in a sea of clones.  There’s another problem, though – if Twice’s army takes out too many of the townsfolk, there’ll be no one left to go against Gigantomachia when he finally arrives (which isn’t scheduled to happen for more than an hour).

The scene in the control tower is a wild ride to be sure, one where the contrast between the two sides is fully on-display.  As is Re-Destro’s meta ability, which seems to be enormous raw strength and power.  He’s quite a talker, this one, and he reveals an interesting fact to Shigaraki (his clone, actually) – the one who first used the term “quirk” and died a martyr to the cause of meta liberation was Destro’s mother, his own grandmother.  The roots of this cause very deep in Re-Destro, and even an army of Twice clones doesn’t phase him.  What the real Shigaraki does certainly does, though – and Shigaraki’s clone takes the time to warn Twice’s clone to do his best to protect Giran in what’s about to happen.

All of this works quite beautifully, frankly.  While this episode is wall to wall action, the pacing actually feels less rushed than the first two eps of MVA – and indeed, I’m pretty certain it adapted less than those episodes did.  This sort of material is some of Horikoshi’s strongest, and I wish it had more opportunities to shine in the anime.  Villains or no, these are fascinating and complicated people.  And the dynamics of this fight make for tense viewing, especially with Gigantomachia’s arrival looming like a giant shadow over them.  I wish there were more of it, but the Meta Liberation Army arc was definitely worth waiting for.