My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON

Episode 170

With that, we have finally reached the end…sort of. I'm sure there'll be special episodes and other media released in the near future. We still have the Vigilantes spinoff series that still needs to wrap up, but much like when the final chapter came out, this is meant to be the end of the My Hero Academia story. While I am impressed by how much extra material there is in this episode compared to the final chapter of the original manga, there are a few things that this finale falls a bit short on. However, those things are arguably inconsequential compared to how strongly it comes down on its overall message about optimism, hoping for a better tomorrow, and ultimately rewarding kindness with even more kindness. Let's not just make a future where the heroes are better, but let's make one where everybody is better because the ideal future is the one that Hawks mentioned so many years ago, a future where heroes have an abundance of free time. After all, the idea of being a professional hero might not be as necessary to help a fellow person in need as many people originally believed.

A lot of the symbolism in this finale is incredibly on the nose, but that doesn't make it any less powerful. Starting the episode with an almost one-to-one mirror for Shigaraki was poignant, but the fact that it was the same woman who originally rejected Shigaraki as a child, which helped this young, mysterious boy, I think, is the perfect symbol for how things are shaping up for the future. The fact that she felt guilty over neglecting young Shigaraki and that she was inspired by Deku putting his life on the line shows that he did have an impact. It wasn't a professional hero or the number one symbol of peace that potentially stopped another disaster; it was just an old woman on the street who offered a helping hand, saying that she was there.

All Might's traditional catchphrase of “I am here!” is one that everybody should adopt. It's this idea that someone will always be there when someone else is struggling or in need. If we can have more people like that, whether they're a hero, a social worker, or just a regular citizen, then that is what will prevent other villains from forming. Don't get me wrong, disasters will always happen and chances are we will have a different form of beast in the future like All For One who was born evil, but that's not the type of injustice that needed to be fought, it was a society that had become too reliant on heroes to the point where they thought that they didn't need to be there to help other people. But all it took was a quirkless boy to show that anybody could be a hero at the end of the day. The statue of All Might being replaced with a mural of him surrounded by citizens all putting their fists up in the air is also a perfect symbol for how things are now compared to how they were before.

I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that I wish I could've seen more of that flash forward eight years later. It's nice to see that everybody at least gets mentioned at the end, which I don't even think was something that the original manga managed to do. We get to see a copy of Spinner's book on the shelves, and we see that everybody is making strides to improve society and helping people outside of just their hero work. I especially love Uraraka's attempts at doing quirk counseling, which is the exact type of service that Toga probably really would've benefited from when she was younger. It's also nice to see Shoji get this explosion of popularity as he's fighting the civil rights issues of the mutant-based quirk owners, but it also just reminds me that I really wish that had been set up stronger throughout the series. That's one of my only major complaints about the show as a whole, but at least it's a definitive thing to highlight right up until the very end.

I would be here forever if I just listed every individual thing that was referenced. Kota, being Deku's student, feels perfect, and it's even nice that the very boy that the old lady helped is at the Hero Academy. It's nice to see Bakugo try to help people, but he never managed to fix his unstable attitude. What I really like, though, is that despite not being an active hero anymore, everybody, including Bakugo, still calls Izuku by his hero name, which shows that they still acknowledge his efforts and still see him as a hero, even though he doesn't do hero work anymore. I really like that idea, along with Hawk's suggestion to keep the popularity polls up, but instead of only focusing on heroes, they expand them to include all types of people doing heroic work, including the citizens. I like the little twist he puts on this idea about how you can't combat things with negativity. Rather, sometimes it's better to expand on the positivity and help more people feel seen. Yes, those popularity polls did lead to people like Endeavor, but they are also a great way of highlighting the actions of others.

I'm not gonna lie, I cried right there with Deku as he equipped his new support item at the very end. You could feel the subtle sadness of everybody asking if he was OK, not being a hero anymore, and I'm sure he wasn't lying when he said that he was fine where he was, since he was still helping people in other ways. In a lot of ways, he's doing the exact job that he probably would've fallen into if he never got One For All in the first place. But All Might showing up and literally giving him another means to be a hero brings the series full circle. He is literally passing on a suit that appears to be an amalgamation of quirks similar to One For All, but this time, it's not a power that's being passed down by a bunch of faceless adults that Deku doesn't know. These are support items by people that he's interacted with and funded by all of his friends. Literally, everybody is coming back and supporting him the same way that he has broken his back literally and figuratively to help everybody else. Yes, it's sappy, but Deku deserves it. We shouldn't be kind FOR the reward, but that doesn't mean kindness SHOULDN'T be rewarded.

I will admit, it is a little disappointing that a handful of the most popular shows that get talked about or shared these days are ones that arguably don't have much substance to them. They're all about very vague ideas of family or just excuses to showcase action scenes. My Hero Academia has flaws, but it tries to be an inspiration for kids, teens, and young adults. It's a series that can make you second-guess how you've treated other people or what you can do to make the society you live in just a little bit better. It's a series that might make you look back on a person you see struggling in the street and offer a helping hand. There's always something that can be done, and whether you're some big and important person with statues built of you or a small, weak high schooler who gets in over his head, it's better to reach out and declare that you are there than to turn a blind eye.Say it with me now, EVEN YOU CAN BE A HERO!

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My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.