Boku no Hero Academia 6 – 09

「爆豪勝己 : ライジング」 (Bakugo Katsuki: Raijingu)
“Katsuki Bakugo: Rising”

Trying to keep up with coverage while traveling really is a Sisyphean task, especially with a fairly big season like this one. Again, my only option is to go short with these posts or it’s just going to be cascade failure once the week starts. That’s especially difficult with HeroAca this season, since pretty much every episode is a balls-out blockbuster. There’s so much happening in terms of plot and character that every episode fundamentally changes the reality of the setting in one way or the other.

When a major character saws off his own leg in battle and that doesn’t even make the front page, you know your episode made a lot of news. Quick thinking by Aizawa-sensei certainly, but man – that’s a drastic sort of response. And it doesn’t even buy him much time, because Shigaraki immediately jumps in and tries (succeeds?) to gouge Eraser’s eyes out. At the very least it clears him of “Erasure” for the moment, and that looks to be pretty much game over.

It’s all hands on deck for the hero side at this point, and Shouto intercedes to buy some time himself, and to cool his father’s jets while he’s at it. Deku uses this respite to unleash the next in his series of One For All abilities – “Float“. This is the ability of none other than Shimura herself (ironically), which brings a smile to Gran Torino’s (not dead yet) face. It’s a logical play and the only one Deku really had – if Shigaraki isn’t touching the ground, he can’t unleash Decay 2.0. Theoretically Deku shouldn’t be showing all these quirks off in public, but such concerns are trivial in the face of what’a happening at the moment.

Its inescapable that here at the end of all things it’s a 16 year-old student facing off against the apocalypse, not the number one hero. It certainly doesn’t escape Endeavor’s attention. Again, in different times that would be the headline but the stakes are simply higher at the moment than they’ve ever been. Deku has certainly proved himself beyond anyone’s reasonable doubt, and Endeavor simply isn’t a #1 on the level of his predecessor.

As you would expect he’s beating the hell out of his body using One For All Classic at 100% power. But at least he’s inflicting some damage on the enemy in the process. You knew there had to be a price to be paid for Shigaraki waking up too early, and that price in an inability to keep all of All For One’s stolen quirks humming along. Deku, as a boy who knows what it’s like to try and contain many quirks when your body might not be ready for it, recognizes his opponent’s vulnerability and throws whatever caution he has left o the wind.

The other interesting element here is Bakugo, who (in flashback) give us a sense of why his and Deku’s fates are so intertwined. And a reminder of how perceptive he is. Kacchan is the one asking All Might the tough questions, because no one else is asking them. In the present, he understands that Izuku is simply engaging in a war of attrition – which he seems destined to lose eventually.

Preview