“Who Are You Really?”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kohei Horikoshi
Translation: Caleb D. Cook
What They Say
Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Jumping into My Hero Academia this far into it is something I probably wouldn’t recommend. I did something similar with Bleach a couple of years ago before it ended but I had the background of the anime to help me with. I’ve seen through the third season of this show and the films, and I’ve liked the property but it’s not something I’m hardcore about – unlike my youngest kid who can’t get enough. But I figured I’d grab the latest chapter I had available to me at the time and check it out just to see how the manga itself feels at this stage. I had liked what little I had seen of Horikoshi’s previous work in Shonen Jump and it’s clearly been a few years since Barrage, so I was looking forward to revisiting his artwork.
With this taking place after things have gone quite badly with so much destruction in the city and the losses that have been taken, Yagi is keeping to himself and just dealing with all of it in a really bad way. It’s not self-pitying but he’s realizing that he’s lost his way and that has him wondering if what hes’ done has been the right thing over the years considering all the losses that they’ve had. While it’s a somber setup, it changes when the hero-killer Stain shows up and threatens him for speaking ill of All-Might in front of the statute of All-Might – which has been vandalized after what went down. Stain’s pretty intense in cutting down Yagi verbally for things, but in its own way that just makes Yagi feel even worse considering who it’s coming from – and that he has to try and convince him that he actually is All-Might.
But what flows from this is really well done. It’s the last thing you’d expect from someone who claims to have killed forty heroes, but Stain reminds Yagi that All-Might was the spark that has fanned the embers of heroism that has spawned forth. Stain is, in fact, quite inspiring as he goes through this, and even pulls Yagi away briefly when a young woman comes to the All-Might statue to clean it off. Revealing the connection the two share is a shock for Yagi, but it serves Stain’s purpose to make it clear the impact he’s had. You can continually see how all of this is impacting Yagi, bringing him back from the edge that he found himself on in trying to cope with everything that happened, I’ve always liked Yagi from the start when we saw his true self and what his larger goal was, so seeing him grapple with things here and to have someone like Stain course-correct him really works far better than it should.
In Summary:
It’s definitely weird to start the manga this far in but with some background in it for a while in the anime side, it was easy enough to get the gist of things even while not knowing what the last big arc and all its destruction was about. Horikoshi’s storytelling is focused well on Yagi here and I really like everything he did with him and how it challenges him. At the same time, I really found myself fascinated by Stain and wanting to know more about him, his story, and what lead him to this path and the viewpoints that he has. The installment looks and reads great and hits a sweet spot for emotional character material without it being over the top in melodrama.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: September 17th, 2021
