Respect Your Elders [My Hero Academia 281]

Unless they’re Republican. Ooooh, I’m so topical.

Anyway, let’s talk about the chapter.

Gran Torino is gonna die.

Okay, it’s possible he may survive, but come on. Being killed by his old friend’s grandson. That’s way too poetic not to happen. He’s doomed. But, since Shigaraki can’t use his quirks we’ll get to hear some final words from the old hero at some point before he goes.

So, what’s up with Shiggy’s body? A power-up from the looks of it. Could that be where things go wrong for him? Could this black line power-up be too powerful? Maybe activating it for too long will eventually hurt him because he’s incomplete. Look, something has to go wrong with Shiggy body at some point. It’s simply a question of when, not if, it happens.

Nana Shimura. She fudged the family records, erasing her son from them to keep AFO from hurting him. We knew she gave him up but seeing her put it into words and breakdown was a powerful moment. But, what does it all mean? When did AFO figure out Nana had One For All? Was Nana purposefully keeping a low profile so as to find and teach the next user? It’s a good plan, if true. Remember, y’all, OFA gets passed to whoever the dying user can convince to take their DNA. It’s a pretty bad method because the new user barely knows what’s going on so they either have to get the quick version from the dying user or get a literal dream job orientation from the dead 1st User. Maybe both.

The point is, it’s not effective. BUT, if a Current User finds and trains the Next User, that will increase the newbies chances of gaining enough overall experience and power to defeat AFO. Or, at the very least, keep him off their backs until they can in turn pass it again. And, so on, and so forth until OFA is powerful enough to take the Overlord of Evil down once and for all. You’re quite the planner, Nana!

The quirk erasure bullets. Whose gonna get hit? Well…if Shiggy only uses two, I’d see the first going to Ryukyu to give Shigaraki some room to break free of Black Whip and use the other bullet. The second? Hmm…I’d say Rock Lock because I can see him trying to stop the bullet with his quirk and losing it in the process.

This was a good chapter. Not much happened other than Gran Torino getting hurt and that quick flashback but it was more than enough. Endeavor is running out of power so whatever the heroes need to do in order to survive has to happen soon. My advice? Call in the X-Men. They’ll take care of Shigaraki in no time flat. Plus the heroes can have their victory party on Krakoa. After Gran Torino’s funeral, of course. Hosting it at the same time would just be plain rude.