Episode 143 – My Hero Academia Season 7

MHA really, really likes the “calm before the storm” episodes. This has been both a help and a hindrance over the years, allowing the series to make a lot of important adjustments before the fights begin so that we clearly understand the emotional and thematic stakes, but also to load each arc with a lot slowly and occasionally. a tedious turn of the wheel. The good news for anyone tired of this pattern is that “Let You Down” is most definitely the final setup episode for this whole story. The best news is that this is probably the best the series has ever offered.

On paper, lining up these ducks is pretty simple. We reiterate where all of our characters are with their different story arcs, establish the stakes for the world as a whole, and end with both sides making a grand entrance for the final battle. The episode’s strength lies in the details and how effectively it weaves together the story’s many frayed threads.

The cliffside conversation between Deku and Uraraka is key to all of this, as the two men consider what they want to happen with this impending war. Obviously they want to win and stop the bad guys from harming the rest of the world, but what happens after that? Uraraka insists that there is something wrong with her even asking this question. She has witnessed the damage Toga and her compatriots have inflicted on so many innocents, but she still cannot silence the part of her heart that aches at the other girl’s tears. Deku knows that Shigaraki is a walking disaster, but he has still witnessed the frail humanity in him. So what can they do with all this? Is a return to the situation as it was, by force, the right answer? The only answer? Is it even A answer when “the way things were” gave rise to this conflict in the first place? Neither character can articulate these questions, but something in their own morality compels them to keep searching for a new solution.

Meanwhile, our remaining villains actively reject difficult and complicated questions or do their best to bury the humanity our heroes see in themselves. Spinner finds himself becoming the leader of the disaffected and marginalized heteromorph population of hero society, taking on the revolutionary role that Stain inadvertently created. In many ways, he became exactly what he wanted to be when he joined the league, but now he’s barely self-aware enough to realize he’s not cut out for it. He may have a sympathetic motivation to rebel against the status quo. Yet Spinner is also a lonely teenager who has followed the lead of others throughout this series and hasn’t thought about what he would do with so much power and influence, much less what kind of world he wants to build if they win. So he defaults back to following others, focusing on his desire to help his friend and ignoring all the complicated baggage of who he chooses to become.

Toga and Dabi, by comparison, are already well into their respective journeys, but even as they prepare for this latest conflict, you can see their human vulnerabilities peaking through the cracks. On the eve of destruction, Toga cannot help but revisit her origins, sneaking into the vandalized and abandoned house from which she fled, remembering the literally bloody dreams that marked her as an aberrant. She never says it, but it’s safe to say she came here to reaffirm the choices she’s already made, pushing aside her uncertain feelings and making Twice’s revenge her driving force. Dabi is already fully dedicated to this path, and I think this common ground is what drives him to immolate Toga’s old home. He insists that this isn’t a kindness and is just more destruction that he can lay at his father’s feet, but I suspect that part of him just wants a mate while he walk in hell. It’s a short sequence that leaves a lot unsaid, but it’s all the better for being brief.

None of this is really new information, but here it serves to crystallize who these characters are and what they each hope for from this battle. We know what is at stake not only for the world but also for these individual characters and that the answers to their questions cannot be resolved through combat alone. This wealth of character writing makes this episode not only rewarding for longtime viewers, but critically important for what is to come.

Rating:

My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.