What They Say:
In the future, mankind is blessed with superhuman abilities called Quirks and in a response to the growing crime rate, superheroing becomes a viable profession. Izuku “Deku” Midoriya dreams of one day becoming a great hero like his idol All-Might, but he was born completely quirkless with no powers at all. However, when Deku ends up having a chance encounter with All-Might in the flesh, it changes his destiny forever.
The Review:
Content (warning as portions of this review may contain spoilers):
After a fun if somewhat unnecessary side trip last time, this week we’re back to the main storyline as another major development unfolds. This one happens to involve a little origin story and one that’s been on our minds for a while now: where exactly One-For-All came from. The majority of this episode is centered around the answer to that question as well as a few other revelations, and despite being a bit slower in execution that the significance of the material would imply, it all comes together to lay the groundwork for what’s to come.
Things start off as the kids all return from their internships and talk about their various experiences. This mostly leads to a variety of mixed gags, but for Deku, Todoroki and Iida it’s a bit more solemn since none of them can ever tell the truth about what really went down between them and the Hero Killer. From there the kids take on a rescue training exercise, and despite the naming involved, the scene is primarily there to demonstrate to the others how much Deku’s training with Gran Torino has helped him to improve his control of One-For-All. This sort of thing is pretty standard in shonen, but the amount of showing off here was almost a bit too transparent for my tastes so I appreciate that it didn’t end in Deku automatically coming in first place, and highlighting that his level of control could still use a lot of improvement if he wants to reach his full potential.
After the exercise, All-Might pulls Deku aside and reveals to him the secret origins of One-For-All. Long ago when society was still adjusting to the idea of quirks, and chaos ran through the streets, one man took advantage of the situation to become the shadow ruler of Japan. The man was known as All-For-One and his quirk had the ability to both absorb the quirks of others, and give or force new quirks onto other people. One of the people he passed power onto included his supposedly quirkless brother who possessed a strong sense of justice, and gave him an ability that could stock up power. As it turned out, however, the younger brother actually did have a quirk: the ability to be able to pass his quirk down to others. While this quirk was more or less useless on its own, when combined with the power stocking ability, it became One-For-All, a quirk that would grant its user greater power the further along it was passed down. The younger brother decided to leave the task of defeating All-For-One to future generations and after eventually ending up in the hands of All-Might, All-For-One was finally taken care of.
Or so he thought. Turns out All-For-One is still barely alive and is not only the one secretly pulling the strings behind the League of Villains but is also serving as Shiragaki’s mentor in the hopes of turning him into the next shadow ruler of the nation in the same way All-Might is shaping Deku to become the next symbol of peace. It’s a pretty neat, if not totally unexpected twist, and it creates a strong parallel between Deku and Shiragaki as both our hero and our primary baddie are seeking to step out of the shadows of their mentors, and it’s certain to affect their dynamic later on. Cool as this revelation is though, it moves pretty slowly and it’s not quite exciting enough to keep the whole episode going, but it’s also a case where I don’t think there was too much that could have been done to make it flow better so I’m willing to cut the show some slack on this one.
The real complications of this story though, happen afterward as All-Might entrusts Deku with the task of defeating All-For-One if he really is planning on making a return. Deku is more than willing to take on the challenge if All-Might is on his side, but All-Might himself is scared to admit to him that there’s a very real possibility that by the time this big confrontation happens, he won’t be around anymore. It’s a heavy but important reminder that All-Might’s condition means he’s running on borrowed time as the current symbol of peace in the world, and when his time finally runs out, the consequences are likely to be massive. For now though, it still seems like the show has some other things to do, and next week is looking to bring us back to the academy part of My Hero Academia, but this episode does great job of laying down the foundations for what’s to come later on, and I’m looking forward to seeing the full scope of MHA’s larger story begin to roll out.
In Summary: This week brings us back to the main storyline, and just in time for a few big bombshells as we’re given the origin story of One-For-All. Despite the plot significance of this little tale however, the episode itself moves pretty slowly, though in this case, it’s more an issue of the material itself than anything. However, while the material is a little on the slow side, it’s all still pretty interesting, and the long-term implications it provides are more than enough to make up for that as we’re finally starting to see more of the bigger picture when it comes to MHA’s story. It seems like it’ll still be a while before any of that plays out, but as far as setup goes, this episode’s a pretty good way of getting people pumped.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV
