Epilogue to War! The End of My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia Final Season Ep 9 Review

Well, the heroes did it! They won! They beat All for One, Shigaraki, and the League of Villains. Deku and his friends are the heroes who saved the world. But just because the war is over doesn’t mean that everything will go back to normal. In fact, for some people, things will never be normal again. The war has scarred them too deeply for that to be possible. With the climax of My Hero Academia over, now comes the falling action and then the epilogue. And much like how it was in the manga, I cannot help but feel like the anime didn’t do as good a job as it could have.

To be fair, though, the Naruto manga never really dealt with the aftermath of its final arc. The next chapter just skipped straight to the epilogue.

Bakugo’s…not Happy about Deku Losing his Powers

With the death of All for One and Shigaraki, the final war against the greatest villains in history is over. Now comes the harder part: cleaning up everything. The fighting between the heroes and villains tore up huge chunks of Japan, so there’s going to be a lot of rebuilding to do. Thankfully, a practical perk of living in a world where superpowers are the norm is that it doesn’t take long to start rebuilding. Japan will be back on its feet in no time.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for the heroes. Many of them are scarred, both mentally and physically, some even permanently, like Hawks. Others like Bakugo are facing a protracted period of physical therapy to make up for the injuries they suffered. Bakugo even refuses to get a prosthetic arm since he needs them intact for his Quirk to work. Everyone knows that he’ll be fine, though…at least, physically. Emotionally, though, he’s devastated by the toll the war extracted. Not on him, but on Deku.

Given how badly Bakugo reacts to learning that Izuku sacrificed One for All, I think Horikoshi was using him to voice the fans he knew would be upset by this. I should know, as I was one of them! I understand why he had to do it to save Shigaraki’s soul (which he did), but it still felt unfair. Without a Quirk, he wouldn’t be able to be a hero for much longer. His dream was now over! Just when Bakugo was getting used to the idea of the two of them pushing each other to the top, this happened to them. I mean, everyone knows that Deku is a hero, but this means that the actual profession is beyond him.

Still, this is a small price to pay compared to what a family like the Todoroki’s have endured.

The End of Endeavor

The Final War had plenty of moments where each of the main cast got to shine, but out of all of them, I think one of the best were the ones with the Todoroki family. The reveal that Dabi was the brother and son they thought long-dead almost destroyed the family. But at the same time, it drove them to come together as an actual family for the first time to stop Toya. Now they all bear the scars of that fight, and they’re never going to fully heal.

Endeavor officially retires as a Hero. Not because he lost an arm, but because he doesn’t feel deserving of being one after everything he did to his family. His other son makes it clear he’s cutting all ties with him, which, while sad, is understandable. Not everyone can forgive someone even after they start making amends.

As for Toya himself, he somehow managed to survive his attempts to go nuclear. His injuries are so great, though, that his death is inevitable; the most the doctors can do is slow it down by keeping him asleep most of the day. Despite this, the Todoroki’s still reach out to him. It’s touching to see how much they care about Toya, even after everything he’s done. But they’re doing it because they want to make peace with Toya before the end; otherwise, they will never find peace.

A Celebration Overdue

The war is over, but scars have yet to heal. Yet all is not doom and gloom. The Big 3 of UA High are able to have their overdue graduation ceremony, much to everyone’s joy. Knowing them and how amazing they each are, they’ll be in the top ten heroes of Japan right off the bat. They deserve it for how amazing they were in the final war. As for Aoyama, while everyone at UA chooses to forgive him for being All for One’s unwilling spy, he still chooses to leave UA, wanting to atone on his own terms. The plus side is that Shinso will be joining the Hero Course alongside Class A. Too bad that we will never get to see how he fits in with everyone because the series is ending.

I really wish that the anime had decided to extend this epilogue for a few more episodes. Maybe build on everything that the cast went through in a way that the manga couldn’t. At the same time, though, I’m grateful that we managed to get what we did, knowing we could have gotten nothing. It evens out, and to its credit, the final chapters are pretty good at being emotional. Come back tomorrow and you’ll hopefully see what I mean as we go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!

I Give “Epilogue: The Hellish Todoriki Family” a 4/5

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