My Hero Academia Season 7

Episode 158

I am sitting here, trying to write this review with tears in my eyes. My Hero Academia is not perfect and this arc definitely highlights how some things can fall a bit short if you don't take the time to properly set them up. But when the writing hits, it hits hard in a way that transcends multiple layers of understanding. Last week we got a beautiful conclusion to Dabi's confrontation with the Todoroki family and while that resolution was messy, it was overall simple. Toga's story on the other hand is more complicated and the various levels that can be read into it run so deep that I can't hit all of them in the span of a single episode review, but I will try my best.

As someone who has a full-time job working with special needs and neurodivergent children, I have seen firsthand almost everything that Toga has gone through as a child. Hell, as someone with ADHD myself, I have also been on the receiving end of many of the words and persecutions that Toga had to suffer through. Even if you don't fall into those categories, Toga's story is one about growing up “abnormal” compared to everybody else. It's about having something or being someone that can be perceived as “different” or “dangerous” without actually posing any real threat. It's easier for people to tell someone they need to suppress who they are for the sake of THEIR definition of normal than to sit down and understand where that fear might be coming from.

Due to her quirk, Toga has a fascination and attraction to the blood of others. In a lot of ways, ingesting or tasting blood is a physical love language that satisfies her desires. However, everybody else sees this as something that needs to be fixed. Sure, you could make the argument that it could be seen as something dangerous that should at least be looked into, but the suggestions introduced by Toga's parents, her classmates, and licensed evaluators were all far too extreme. They wanted a full-on repression of Toga's self and just like Curious had mentioned in previous arcs, Toga was forced to wear a mask. Ironically, by keeping those desires repressed for so long, they ended up coming out in a way that Toga could not control and that's how a self-fulfilling prophecy ended up being created. Togo was labeled a monster and she sought out the company of other people that were deemed the same way hence her attraction to the League.

Yes, Toga has definitely crossed a lot of lines throughout the show, and I like the fact that Uraraka acknowledges that there are some things about Toga that she can't forgive but this isn't about those things, this is about taking the hard route that other people are too afraid to take. There are a lot of people out there who think it would be so much easier if we just got rid of people who didn't fit our definition of normal but just because something is easy, doesn't mean that it's right and so Uraraka is literally doing everything in her power just to physically and emotionally reach Toga this episode.

I like the fact that Uraraka acknowledges her own faults in this situation. She fell into the same exact trap that Toga's parents and so many other people did. She saw something she didn't understand, projected her fear, and used Toga's later actions to justify that initial reaction. Unlike Dabi who was never found, Uraraka did her best to make sure that Toga knew that she was being seen. The symbolism of them as children, embracing each other, and Uraraka declaring that she will share her blood with Toga for the rest of her life was pure poetry. There are so many ways that you could read into that. Some people see it as a love confession while others see it as just a broad declaration of acceptance. You can even argue that maybe Uraraka is paying penance for the other people who weren't willing to give themselves to her. All of those interpretations have some kind of weight and I think that's what makes the scene so beautiful.

There are so many people in this world that do not feel seen. There are so many people in this world who just want to be called cute. There are so many people in this world that want to be allowed to smile without holding anything back and yet the fear of others can make that impossible. Not everybody's desires are equal, but we're not talking about a monster here, we're talking about a little girl who was told for years that she was nothing but a monster. Yet here we have another little girl look her straight in the face and find that monster's smile one of the cutest things in the world. The love between these two girls is what put an end to the sad man's parade. Hands down one of the best episodes in the entire series.

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