“That’s how you become a Hero like in the comics.”

BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA 320 – DEKU VS CLASS A

The gentle rain fails at washing away our sorrows. Amidst exploding nitroglycerin, smoke and hundreds of flapping wings, we hear the pleas of concerned friends. One For All (Deku) vs. Class 1A marks the beginning of an emotional and turbulent reunion. Woven by Horikoshi’s hands, the tapestry taking shape holds the meaning of Izuku’s friendship with his classmates. While some, like Koda, Kaminari and Sato haven’t been directly influenced by him in any life changing ways, they all want to share the burden of his journey. Their feelings are the same, in the heart of these aspiring heroes lights aflame their collective values.

The play on words with One For All and 1-A is a nifty little thing. It’s unquestionable how mighty powerful this Quirk is. But if they stand together as a class, their powers might actually be stronger than OFA and AFO. As soon as Izuku was able to use the Quirks from his predecessors, what happened? He started learning 1-1 from his friends who had similar Quirks: Sero’s Tapes and Blackwhip; Uraraka’s Zero Gravity and Float; Iida’s Engine and Shoot Style; Tsuyu’s Froppy Style and Blackwhip—not to mention Katsuki’s influence on Full Cowling. It’s hard to deny that there are similarities between all of these Quirks. And if we look deeper, we’ll see how much Deku has learnt from his classmates in general (e.g. Ashido’s breakdancing). With his obsessive observational skills and Quirk Analysis For The Future, Izuku can prove to be just as fearsome of a strategist and commander as All For One–if he’s not running around in reaction to his fears. All of this is bound to culminate in a war, right? Something huge, Avengers Infinity War style.

I’m slippin’ off the edge. I’m hangin’ by a thread.

Contrary to Izuku’s beliefs, his friends have taken a lot into consideration, they’ve looked at the situation from different points of views. The irony lies with him, seeing as he’s the oblivious one. Blinded by his fears, Deku is incapable of seeing how close he stands to the edge. By carrying the weight of the survival of humanity on his shoulders, he fails to see that together they stand stronger, more powerful. Izuku is close to forgetting his own humanity, but his friends are here to help!

Can tomorrow be Saturday, please?

13 Comments

  1. Deku really is oblivious. He has helped others when they didn’t ask for help, but when he is in trouble and someone attends their hands to help he refuses.

    He needs to wake up and realises that he cannot save the world on his own.

    Zemox2
    1. What we can do is not include chapter titles. But please be mindful not to click on the read more because you will get spoiled. I make sure to use inconspicuous images for the ones that go on the feed.

      Just for reference this layout of ‘series name + chapter number + title’ has been common practice by previous bloggers who covered Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter manga, etc. The intention is not to spoil anyone’s day. As mentioned, we will no longer use that format.

  2. Wonderfully written post Gabie!

    Somewhere along the panels of this chapter, I started imagining what All Might would say after this whole dust has settled should he ever reunite with class 1-A. Would he start confessing how lousy a mentor he’s been? Would Katsuki tear at him? Would Deku say something about it, or just take it all in with silence?

    Will he die a gruesome death, like in Sir Nighteye’s prophesy, before he could take his one and only chance at redemption with Deku, whom he promised to protect and nurture, but utterly failed? After all, there’s no better time to kill him and crush Deku’s soul further than now.

    In a post-societal-fall existence like this, anything can happen. All Might could die, the UA mole could reveal themself and take the life of someone Deku cares about. Anything.

    If any of that happens, what right could class 1-A have to convince Deku he should put his fragile faith in them and his life in their hands? That’s how he sees it anyway, but as you said Gabie, this is war. There’s no walking away from it with smiles printed on everyone’s faces. Deku hasn’t matured enough to realized that yet. And why would he mature that much? He’s still just a teenager. No one should expect that kind of maturity out of someone that young.

    No matter how this pans out, the ball is still in All For One’s court, and there’s no apparent way the tables could be turned…. yet. I look forward to how Horikoshi-sensei resolves this crisis.

    1. Thanks yolo! Glad you enjoyed it!

      Man, whenever that meetup happens, I’m sure Katsuki’s going to have some things to say. And so far, whatever comes out of that feisty mouth is actually very reasonable and sound. Definitely looking forward to that.

      Am I a horrible person for low key hoping All Might will die? ha ha. I love his character, but the implications of his death and the impact on Deku’s life are way too good, like when Luke lost Obi Wan, or when Naruto lost Jiraya… The death of the mentor is always such key pivotal moment in storytelling and I’m a sucker for it.

      Also agree very much with you, while we’re not denying his current skillset, intelligence and actual potential, all of his internal conflicts we’ve been pointing out are extremely reasonable given his age and if anything, I appreciate them being part of his journey, that’s what makes it so easy to connect with him as a character, his personal struggles resonate with our personal stories.

      As for the U.A. mole, do you have any theories? I know most people think it’s either Hagakure or Aoyama.

      As always thanks for sharing your inputs! It’s always fun to talk about someone so taken into the narrative. I wonder every now and then if Horikoshi knows people are having in depth conversations and discussions about his work like this. Unfortunately my Japanese is very kindergarten level so I can’t really snoop around Japanese forums and such.

      1. Hey Gabie sorry for the late reply.

        I feel like any assumption I make about the mole will be met by a red herring. After all, there’s still a lack of motive here for why someone would play nice while advancing hero profession disgrace from behind the scenes by plotting the fall of UA from the inside. But I do know Horikoshi-sensei needs to address this mole issue sooner or later. We have only one more saga here, and this has been teased in the last one.

        1. No worries about that!

          There are so many possibilities that could potentially answer that question you just posed, I’m really curious to see how Horikoshi will weave this one. It’ll be a shocker for sure.

  3. If all it takes to make Deku go back to U.A will be Bakugo to the face, then I am goung to be really dissatisfied. With him being stronger than the entire Class 1-A combined, it would really be more fitting for someone like Stain to give him the wake up call, drawing a nice parallel to how it turned out when he was fighting him along with Iida and Todoroki. Alternatively, I would accept Uraraka bringing him over with her “If heroes help those who are hurting, then who is going to help heroes who are hurting?” logic. Anything but “haha you damn nerd I’m still stronger than you explosions go BOOM BOOM” type of BS.

    DarkHeartedAlchemist
    1. Ha ha ha. I really hope we don’t go that way. I’m optimistic that we’ll get an epic fight. Even super tired, Deku is still extremely powerful. But damn, if Stain showed up, that would be pretty epic. I hadn’t thought about that. He’s bound to make an appearance since we’ve seen him like, two or three chapters ago?

Leave a Reply to Gabie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *