Boku no Hero Academia Manga – 327 & 328

Hygiene is important.

Boku no Hero Academia 327 – Rest

The joke around the fandom is that maybe Horikoshi is a lowkey fanfiction reader, because he really delivers! After months of restless chase, an emotionally wrecked Izuku and endless drama, we finally take a breath. Chapters like these tend to be appreciated or marked as ‘pointless’, for me it’s the former. Rest is the fruit of the author’s harvest. Wholesome, fun and lighthearted. “Lather, rinse, repeat!! And dunk!!” if only it were that simple, according to Kacchan’s hygienic standards that’s not even close, you losers! “Scrub his skin raw with a wire brush and industrial strength-cleanser!” And before we delve into Deku and All Might’s heartwarming reunion, there was a small but pretty significant change in translation that kind of upset me. When Katsuki calls Izuku but starts off with “De–Izuku”, in the original Japanese version, this is how their exchange goes after this:

Deku: 無理しないでデクでいいよかっちゃん > Muri shinaide Deku de iiyo Kacchan
Bakugo: 俺の辞書に無理なんて言葉はねんだよ > Ore no jisho ni muri nante kotoba wa nendayo

Now, my Japanese is pretty basic, but I’ve taken actual lessons and even after double checking with other sources, the direct/literal translation of this conversation would go like:

Deku: Kacchan, you don’t need to do the impossible. Deku is fine.
Bakugo: The word “impossible” ain’t in my dictionary!

But the official Shueisha instead went with:

Deku: Too challenging? ‘Deku’ is fine, Kacchan.
Bakugo: I dunno the meaning of challenging!

What picked at me is that we’re dealing with a post-apology Izuku x Katsuki friendship. Horikoshi is not only an incredible artist, but he’s also a top notch writer. We’ve seen time and time again how he plays around with words and their meanings and how he takes them very seriously (I mean heck, every single character’s name has a meaning behind it that is connected with their personality/quirk and/or the role they’ll play in the series). So it felt dismissive of the translators to change an empathetic/compassionate reaction from Izuku–of not wanting Katsuki to feel uncomfortable and an extra pinch of his self-deprecating tendencies–into some sass. It bugged me.

Paranormal activity? Oh no wait, it’s All Might.

Back to the ghost in the window. With a newfound strength and values adjusted, Toshi is ready to support and trust his students. In this heart to heart everyone steps in to apologize, take accountability for the times in which they could’ve done better and face their realities head on. And did we get some foreshadowing for a School Festival Band 2.0?

“There must be both dark and light. I will do what I must to keep the balance, as the balance is what holds all life.”

Boku no Hero Academia 328 – No Man is an Island

Cue in soundtrack. It’s the night Akaguro Chizome (a.k.a Hero-goroshi Stain) escapes from Tartarus thanks to AFO’s prison break masterplan. We learn how he came upon highly sensitive information and that his intent from the beginning was to hand it to Toshinori. And as for the information? It was indeed pretty mind-blowing and at the same time seems to connect many points scattered across the board. First of all, radio waves or emotional waves? Or actually: both? Through his own vestige inside of Shigaraki, AFO was able to communicate with his body inside of Tartarus and coordinate their attack. Now here’s how I found myself on my Monday afternoon, skimming through old chapters and organizing my thoughts. Because we all know OFA came from AFO. The eldest Shigaraki brother wanted to coerce his younger brother into joining his cause and thus passed him a quirk made out of his own. With this newfound piece of information, we come across an incredible puzzle piece: the vestige phenomenon is not exclusive to OFA, rather it’s an inheritance from AFO.
And if AFO passed OFA to his brother, then he might as well have passed along a vestige of himself, one that lies hidden inside of the quirk, and that would explain AFO’s ominous words “I hear my little brother’s voice!” that up until now just confused the heck out of me. So could it be that unbeknownst to everyone, it was actually Deku himself who was (unconsciously) leaking information to AFO? But wait, hold my tea.

“Execute Order 66.”

“…When I was close enough to touch him, whatever my vestige was thinking and feeling sort of flowed into me. It’s not words, exactly. More like feelings flowing through you.” By the end of this coverage you guys will probably be tired of me citing Star Wars, but it’s just that Horikoshi is such a geek and he’s done some many references I can’t stop drawing parallels between them. In Star Wars the dark side is composed of all negative emotions that makeup the human experience: fear, anger, jealousy, greed, hate. All emotions AFO has made clear to be nurturing in his successor, emotions he’s counting on to be used as his weapon against OFA. And if these sibling quirks both respond to emotions, their vestiges and are stockpile types of quirks, it would all make sense that the power being stockpiled inside of OFA is not only quirk power, but also ‘light’–the positive emotions and hope shared by all OFA users to fight against AFO’s darkness. While I’m sure we’ll see an epic battle between Shigaraki and Deku, my guess is that the real fight will happen within Deku (like a hidden boss). There’s still a lot of mystery behind OFA’s vestiges and I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually knew about the existence of an AFO vestige sharing their space and withholding this information from Izuku (or that they at least suspect this). After all, if a danger lurks from within, wouldn’t the fourth’s Danger Sense come into play? That could explain why he chose not to fully wield the power of the quirk and instead spent all his life in seclusion, training and strengthening himself–body and mind, so that this force would be stocked inside of OFA.

“To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not. In this war, a danger there is, of losing who we are.”
– Master Yoda.

“Oh beautiful for heroes proved, in liberating strife, who more than self, their country loved.”

For someone as megalomaniac and ambitious as All For One, I always found it a little odd that he’d only want to conquer Japan. So I was relieved to see that we’re actually dealing with an international crisis. Making it hard for allied countries to send in reinforcements to our heroes in Japan, except for one extraordinary disciple of All Might. America’s Number One Hero: Star and Stripes! I’m beyond excited to learn more about her, but from the little screen time she’s had, I’m sure she’s just gained one new fangirl.