Spoilers for My Hero Academia chapter 319
After the previous chapter, which ended with Bakugo finding an extremely worn down, mentally exhausted Deku, I assumed this chapter would focus on Bakugo talking (yelling) some sense into Deku. I assumed that Bakugo had convinced (threatened) Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist to let him work with them since he knows, better than anyone else, that Izuku Midoriya has no problem with putting the needs of the entire world before his own.
I’ve written about the biggest threat to Deku’s safety being his own damn self. That’s been confirmed with him leaving everyone behind since he’s the main target All For One has his sights set on. At this point, he’s not even communicating with All Might and the others anymore, leaving them to worry about his safety.
Deku’s ragged and unrecognizable, tiredly declaring that he’ll save everyone, so with Bakugo showing up I assumed, at best, that Deku would break down crying and take the world’s longest nap, and at worse, he’d kickstart Deku VS Kacchan 3.
Well.
That kinda happened.
In the most surprising, but necessary way.
It turns out that when Bakugo showed up and told someone that he found Deku, he wasn’t talking to Endeavor, Hawks, or Best Jeanist. He was talking to Class 1A because, surprise, the ENTIRE CLASS is with Bakugo, and they’re ALL working together to get Deku back.
So it’s not Deku VS Kacchan 3 that’s hinted at when this chapter ends, it’s Deku VS HIS ENTIRE CLASS.
This, by far, is gearing up to be one of the most important fights of the series (if not THE most important one).
Usually, in a manga series like this, the iconic battles end up being the black and white definitive matches between the obvious good and the obvious evil. That’s not to say that we don’t get fights that can be summarized as “necessary therapy sessions”, but My Hero Academia doesn’t shy away from its huge battles being between characters who need to release the emotions they’ve been holding in for far too long. The sports festival had Deku VS Todoroki, concluding with Todoroki realizing that the fire he’d been suppressing was his power, not his father’s. Deku VS Kacchan 2 centered on Bakugo revealing his guilt, and pain, about All Might’s retirement.
Now it looks like we’re getting Deku against his entire class because he’s so set on this self-destructive path, a path his friends refuse to let him follow.
We see Class 1A discussing those letters Deku left for them, Bakugo straight-up ripping his up. The kids work together to figure out that Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and even All Might co-signed on this plan where Deku works with them to find All For One. Instead of sitting back and waiting for the dust to settle, they take action, realizing that Deku’s been carrying way too much responsibility, and has been since he inherited One For All.
There are a couple of amazing things about this moment. We get to see that it’s more than just Bakugo who gets to go and save Deku from himself, furthermore, we get to see Bakugo work with the class as a whole. Sure, he’s the one who knows Deku better than anyone (which he plainly states), but the entire class cares about Deku, so the entire class should be in on this plan to bring Deku back.
It’s also amazing to see the kids standing up to the adults. They don’t hesitate to tell Endeavor how unfair it was to do this without telling them the full story, and Bakugo, especially, doesn’t hesitate to tell the number one hero that this “search for All For One with Deku” plan was a major misfire. This has very much been a “preparing future generations for what’s to come” story, which means that said future generations should be able to look at their mentors and go, “You were wrong.”
What I really love is how no one is hesitating in calling Deku out on his self-destructive ways. Not a single one of his friends believes that I’m fine lie he tells them when they meet again, and when Deku puts his mask on and demands that they move out of the way, not a single person budges. These kids are ready to fight Deku if they have to because sometimes, your friend is so far gone that the only option is to stand firm against them.
I have a feeling that this battle is going to be an intense, emotional mess, where Deku is going to have to deal with his friends and, potentially, the past One For All users who were already on edge about him going off alone. I predict that a good chunk of the fight will be Bakugo up against Deku, but I’m really curious to see how the other students of Class 1A contribute to the fight.
The fact that Deku’s even entertaining the thought of fighting everyone shows how far gone he is. This level of intensity is usually reserved for the main character who’s under the influence of a villain, perhaps with mind control or something that makes them look like this:
That’s not what’s happening here. This is just Deku being so determined to protect everyone that he’s got this twisted sense of what that means.
Something about that is so heartbreaking.
How far are Deku’s friends going to have to go in order for him to realize that he doesn’t have to do this alone and, more importantly, that it’s okay if he puts himself first?
(image: Kohei Horikoshi)
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