Farewell, My Hero Academia! Go Beyond, PLUS ULTRA

My Hero Academia Final Season Series Finale Review

This is it, everyone. After almost ten years, eight seasons, and four movies, we’ve made it to the end of the main series of My Hero Academia. However, this won’t be the end of the franchise as a whole, for reasons that I will go over later. It is, however, the end of the story of how Deku and his friends became the world’s greatest heroes.

With all of that said, I think I would like to just get into the final episode and see how it compares to the final chapter, as I know that the anime added a few things that made the ending, which was a bit controversial, a lot more palatable.

Another Shigaraki? NOT ON OUR WATCH!!

The final episode opens up on the best note possible: showing us that society has learned from the mistakes it made with Shigaraki. We see a new character, a boy whose Quirk led him to be abused and imprisoned by his family, only to escape thanks to the chaos of the war. As he’s walking around and seeing everyone happy and smiling, he’s on the verge of crashing out and becoming another Shigaraki. Then suddenly, an old woman, the same one that turned away from Tenko Shimura when he needed it, steps in to help him. She has no idea that that boy she didn’t help became Shigaraki, and likely never will. However, she’s regretted what she failed to do, and seeing what Midoriya did has made her want to step up and make the same mistake twice. And thanks to that, a potential villain will never come to pass.

I loved this moment in the manga, and I love it just as much in the anime, and the anime makes it better by having placed alongside a conversation between Hawks and All Might about the future of how heroes fit in society. As most people who have followed the story by now have realized, a society where superheroes are real has left everyday people complacent. When they see something bad happen, they aren’t willing to step up, thinking someone else will. But the problem is that when everyone thinks like that, no one ever will step up. Not even heroes can solve all these problems on their own. Heroes had become a reality, but in doing so, they lost sight of what it means to be a real hero, until Midoriya reminded them of that. And it seems like that lesson has begun to stick.

All Might sums it up pretty well: instead of a single Symbol of Peace, there can now be many Symbols of Peace. If everyone helps each other out, then the world will be all the better for it. And as the timeskip shows, that little boy ends up becoming a student at UA, under none other than our own hero.

An Extended Look at What Came Next

In the manga, we only managed to get a single page covering everything that happened in the rest of Midoriya’s time at UA, but in the anime, that gets extended into several minutes worth of time. We see the pro heroes returning to work, Bakugo undergoing rehab, and Class A planning their futures. We see Spinner got his book published and it looks to sell well. And most importantly, we get to see the class have their graduation ceremony. It’s a very touching and emotional moment as we see the people we’ve come to know and love as they head out into the world. And of course, Bakugo makes a big show of things!

But, while Deku did manage to graduate and get his license as a pro hero, it’s a bittersweet feeling. By the time he graduates, the last embers of One for All are gone. Considering how fast All Might used up his own embers, though, it’s impressive that Midoriya managed to hold onto them for two more years. That must have taken a lot of willpower and concentration on his part.

And so, we cut to eight years later, when everyone is all grown up.

Everyone’s Living their Best Lives

Like in the manga, we get snippets of what everyone in the cast are up to. And the world has changed for the better as we see a class of middle school students talking about their plans for high school. Whereas everyone in Deku and Bakugo’s class wanted to be heroes, others are saying they want to work in other professions, like becoming a doctor or working with Mei Hatsume or at La Brava’s cyber company (good on her!) The point is that heroes are not as needed as much anymore, with heroes finding new ways to help beyond fighting crime as the U.A. students make a splash. But there’s one kid who still wants to be a hero, and like a certain boy before him, he has his own fateful encounter.

Without his powers, Midoriya is Quirkless once more, meaning he hasn’t been able to do hero work despite having his liscence. Instead, he’s become a teacher at U.A., helping the next generation on their path. It’s poetic, if you ask me. Deku knows more about heroes and what jt means to be one, and like All Might before him, he’s there to encourage another youth to aspire to become a hero. It’s fun to see him in All Might’s position with someone younger than him. He may not have powers, but in his own way, he’s still able to be a hero. And most importantly, he’s passing that dream onto others as My Hero Academia comes to an end…is what you’d THINK!!

DEKU IS BACK BABY!!

I’ve heard rumors that Horikoshi initially planned to end the series with Midoriya losing his powers for good, and leaving it at that. While that would have been poetic in some fashion, I’m glad that he realized that this would end up making a lot of fans mad. I’ve already said it, but it seemed unfair that Midoriya would have to give up on his own dream to save the world; it’s not something that he deserves. And thank heavens, he chose to rewrite the ending. And thanks to the research done with the suit All Might wore in the final war and the funding of Bakugo and his old classmates, Midoriya gets a second lease on being a hero: his own armored suit.

I already knew this thanks to a lifetime of Marvel and DC, but you don’t need powers to be a superhero. Sometimes all you need is a cool suit of armor and training, like Batman and Iron Man. And so, the series truly comes to an end as we see Midoriya, after eight years of retirement, gets to live out his dream. Deku, the One for All Hero, soars once more!

What makes the ending even better, though, is the credits.

The Credits Really Cinched it for My Hero Academia

A big criticism of the final chapter of My Hero Academia is that we only got snippets of what Class A was up to after becoming pro heroes. It wasn’t until later that we even knew where most of them ranked on the Hero Chart! But in what has to be the best improvement the anime makes to the finale, the final credits are a montage showing where everyone is now and what they are doing. It’s glorious. We get to see everyone live their best lives, and their futures are all bright.

This is a much better way to end My Hero Academia, and one that almost brings a tear to my eye. But thankfully, this isn’t the end. There’s still one last chapter that Horikoshi wrote to wrap up another loose end, and it’s getting its own special episode this spring. In addition, this ain’t the end of our time in the MHA universe. As of right now, the second season of the prequel/spin-off, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes has started to air, so we can still enjoy that. Plus, since this is a world about superheroes and powers, who’s to say that we won’t get any more spin-offs in the future? The point is that while the original series is over, I doubt this is the last time we’ll see Deku and the others. And if it is, then it was one heck of a ride. Hopefully, this series inspires someone else to write a hit Shonen series in the future. So, until that day, be kind to everyone, help out where you can, and go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!  

I Give “My Hero Academia” a 5/5

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