My Hero Academia 0312: “End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End”
Season 3 of My Hero Academia is heating up, and we’re following every move. Just be careful: spoilers and speculation below.
My Hero Academia has hit a crossroads. The Symbol of Peace has finally burnt out, for both citizens and villains. The League may have failed, but their experience makes them stronger. The heroes and police need to adjust, and U.A. has a lot of recalibrating ahead.
All Might’s power may be gone, but he still has challenges ahead: training Deku and reckoning with Tomura Shigaraki’s history. All Might’s already developed feelings for his master’s grandson and successor’s enemy. He cannot change Shigaraki’s past, but he can be there for Deku.
The string of incidents with the League of Villains has left U.A.’s image even weaker than All Might’s. They need to amp up their security, but before that, they need forgiveness and blessings from the parents whose trust they’ve broken. The first two stops, households Jiro and Bakugo, accept All Might and Aizawa’s apologies and are all for U.A.’s proposed dorms. Inko Midoriya, however, adamantly refuses.
Inko has every right to hesitate — her only son can’t adjust to a Quirk that “miraculously appeared” because villains keep attacking U.A. — and admits she wants to pull him out. Deku storms out like a teenager and reappears with Kota’s letter, physical evidence he was someone’s hero for just one second. All Might lowers himself and asks Inko for a blessing to train Deku as the next Symbol of Peace. He’ll do anything, even die, to protect him. It’s an interesting foil to the beginning of the series, when Quirkless Deku begs All Might for an answer: “Can I, too, become a great hero?”
The Verdict:
“End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End” comes on the heels of serious development and takes time to show how everyone’s reacting. It’s a huge improvement on earlier flaws and shows that the anime is maturing along with its characters. Also, Bakumom.
Rating: 8.6
“End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End” is available to stream in Japanese on Crunchyroll and Hulu. All dubs going forward will stream two weeks after the Japanese release.
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