My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON ‒ Episode 165

©堀越耕平／集英社・僕のヒーローアカデミア製作委員会

It is satisfying to see a villain cowering in fear after being so aggressively on the offensive for so long. The plan seems to be working as Deku can isolate all the different lingering spirits found in One For All for both offensive and defensive purposes. He has shown incredible creativity and worked around Shigaraki's strengths, who has now literally and figuratively regressed within himself. The show emphasizes that the reason why Deku can be so creative in utilizing these quirks is that he has such a profound respect for them. Deku spent most of his life without a quirk, but he was always fascinated by and always tried to find new ways to utilize them. Now he's putting that approach into practice to the point where he has more faith in his quirks than the previous holders of them, like with the successor who gave Deku the smokescreen quirk.

We all knew it wasn't going to be that easy to pass on all of the previous One For All successors to Shigaraki. I'm surprised how quickly it happened, as a part of me was expecting that they would literally need to throw one at a time in, but I can also understand why that would affect the pacing. Plus, it wouldn't make sense since Shigaraki would catch on pretty quickly, and it would be harder for them to continue the longer the fight dragged on. They tested the theory, and they tried to put their all into it, but Nana was the only one who couldn't make it through. This makes sense because she still needs to get her closure. I don't think it's a coincidence narratively that she is the only one left by Deku's side as he is plunged into the deepest realms of Shigaraki's subconscious to the point in his childhood where his family trauma starts, manifesting as his villain origin story.

We already know what led Shigaraki to the path, as we already saw in previous arcs. However, I'm curious what this added context of Nana being the one to see everything will add. She has commented about feeling guilty and feeling responsible for everything for a while, but she was never able to directly do anything since she's basically a lingering ghost at this point. Now, Deku has inadvertently allowed her to directly confront the sins of her past. Even if you argue that Nana's actions were justified as she was trying to protect her son from being targeted by All For One, that doesn't change the fact that her actions created hatred passed down to what is currently one of the most dangerous villains of all time. This setup is also important because it'll finally be the emotional climax for Deku and Shigaraki's relationship. Even during this episode, Deku is constantly asked what he is going to do when he gets to Shigaraki, and he has no idea; he just wants to understand, and I assume he'll come to answer once he gets the full picture.

This episode also does a good job of establishing the desperation that everybody is feeling. Everyone is more or less safe, and all the other villains are properly dealt with, but nobody is happy. Everyone is looking at Deku ripping his body apart and flinging it all over the place for their sake, and the situation must look horrifying to them. My favorite part of this is actually when Denki is talking to Momo about how worried he is about whether or not Deku will come out of this safely, talking about whether or not that worry means he doesn't have faith in Deku at all. I think that sums up how everybody is feeling right now: they want to be hopeful, but it's so easy to be scared about what comes next. You can be hopeful about a situation or have faith in somebody, but you can still be cautious about whether or not everything will turn out fine, and considering how Deku has only stayed in this fight by the skin of his teeth, it's time to see if he can come out of this putting those worries to rest.

Rating:

Bolts also streams regularly on Twitch as an indie Vtuber called Bolts The Mechanic where they talk about and play retro media!

My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.