Summary
My Hero Academiais currently in its final arc. With each new chapter every week, we get closer and closer to the end of the series. However, crafting a fantastic ending is not an easy task to achieve. That is especially true for a series that has been going on for so long. Lots of great series havetried and failed at this precise moment, such asNaruto, Bleach,andPromised Neverland, just to name a few. They reign supreme for many years, only to mess it up right at the end.
Although it’s hard to admit, lots of fans feel thatMy Hero Academiais currently headed in the same direction. The issue that most people notice is the fact that this final story arc has been dragging on for quite some time now. It’s been about 56 chapters afterthe beginning of the Final War arc, and it seems the story is still quite keen to keep on going. So isMy Hero Academialosing its momentum?
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Leading Up To The Climactic Fights
Before we answer that question, let’s examine some of the key plot points that help build the momentum for this final arc. These are some of the thrilling battles that help create the hype for the final confrontation between good and evil.
The war began with the heroes’ “Divide and Conquer” strategy. Rather than taking the villains head-on, it will be better to separate them into smaller groups, teleport the groups to faraway places to ensure there’s no chance the villains can help each other, and then win the battles one by one. Much to the heroes’ surprise, the villains, led bythe members of the League of Villains, managed to throw that plan into shambles by dragging Deku away from the battle that he was supposed to fight. What a masterful way to begin a final fight. This is without a doubt one of the best moments in the series.
There are a couple of battles happening after that, but the two most notable ones arewhen Dabi went berserkand Himiko Toga’s heartbreaking rampage. In Dabi’s fight, we get to see Endeavor’s family trying their best to stop Dabi’s uncontrollable rage. In Toga’s fight, Uraraka and lots of other pro heroes do everything they can to put an end to Toga’s desperate last attempt to convey her destructive despair over humanity. These two fights are not only intense and mind-blowing, but they are heartbreaking as well. Definitely some of the best fights in the series.
The Heroes vs. The Villains
Now it’s time to talk about the main event. Everything that has happened in the series thus far is a lead-up to this battle. A battle between good and evil. A battle between Deku and All Might against Shigaraki and All for One.
Following the divide-and-conquer plan, the heroes managed to put All-for-One, who is currently in the body of Shigaraki, into a super cage. They deactivate his quirk using Eraserhead’s quirk which is furtherstrengthened by Monoma’s quirk.
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Unfortunately for the heroes, even when he is trapped in such unfavorable conditions, All-for-One can still cause terrible damage to the surrounding structure and even inflict mortal wounds on numerous heroes, including Bakugo. Deku has to exert every single ounce of power and creativity within him if he wishes to defeat All-for-One/Shigaraki.
Not far from Deku’s battle is where All Might makes his stand. His enemy is the real body of All-for-One who is leisurely flying after he finishes dealing some major damage to the pro heroes and UA students that were supposed to hold him in place. All Might is quirkless right now, but that won’t stop him from trying to keep All-for-One away from Deku’s battle. So he clad himself in the most advanced armor courtesy of the genius people from the US. This suit of armor is not only extremely durable, but it can also imitate the quirks of other heroes, such asDeku’s black whips, Kaminari’s electrification, Shoji’s tentacles, and even Yuga’s naval laser, just to name a few. But standing up against the younger version of All-for-One proves to be an extremely hard and dangerous task to do.
Is My Hero Academia Losing Its Momentum?
So isMy Hero Academialosing its momentum? Does the final arc drag on way longer than necessary? Well, the answer is “Sort of”. You see, the two battles of Deku vs.All-for-One/Shigaraki, and All Might against All-for-One should be the culmination of everything that has happened in the series thus far. It is the ultimate fight between the hopeful forces of good and the destructive forces of evil. It is the battle between the old and new generations of heroes and villains. The juxtaposition between the two battles creates a sense of thrill, excitement, and intensity, unlike anything that ever graced the world of anime and manga before.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with the battles themselves, the problem lies in the order of how the story is being told. Rather than keeping the two battles as the penultimate moments of this final arc,Kohei Horikoshi, the author ofMy Hero Academia, decided to put the supporting characters’ battles right between the two. As a result, the momentum that was built by Deku’s fight is substantially dropped when we go to the other battles. Had it been a straight back-and-forth between Deku’s and All Might’s fights, the momentum would’ve reached its crescendo by now.
In these final moments, keeping the momentum steadily climbing until the story reaches its climactic moments would ensure the readers remain engaged and invested in the story. But that’s not what happened. As a result, the hype for this final arc comes and goes whenever we are introduced to a new battle, which pretty much botches the momentum.
In conclusion,My Hero Academiadoesn’t necessarily have lost all of its momentum. However, the structure of the story certainly messed up the momentum of what could’ve been the best final battles in the history of anime and manga.
