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Shoto and Toya fanart by myako_rkgk

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Fantasy villain outfits so far in My Hero Ultra Rumble!

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HE'S SO HANDSOME

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hey guys look at my cat

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I always disliked Shigaraki's initial answer to Spinner's rant in ch.220 because it gave me the distinct impression that he didn't actually have anything to say in response to his warranted concern about where they were going from here (besides restating that Kurogiri's gone, so deal with it). So I was pleasantly surprised to read your MVA in Memoriam post clarify that the Jap. ver. of his response was different. Though it's a little unclear how so besides referencing a line he'd use later.

Hey there, @bringbestintentionwhen! I got both this and your direct message asking for a fuller explanation about the rest of how Shigaraki starts his response to Spinner, which I'm happy to detail and then theorize about. Let me provide both a scan of the scene in question and just a bit of preambulatory repetition of stuff from my other post to establish context for other readers and get the part you already know out of the way.

This is the entirety of what Shigaraki gets out before Machia arrives; romanized, the Japanese would read, Dakara…  Ji… Ji is the first syllable of jigoku, “Hell”, and what I assume Spinner is remembering when he flashes back to this moment after Shigaraki’s grandiose promise to Ujiko, which leads with the same syllable.  (There, Shigaraki says, Jigoku kara tengoku made, lit. “From Hell all the way to Heaven.”)

As to the Dakara, my trusty reference Jisho gives several possible translations depending on whether it’s leading the sentence or being used as a conjunction; Caleb’s translation, above, is perfectly acceptable and naturalistic for the situation.  A literalistic translation, something that could kind of get across the gist (even if it’s hella clunky) no matter where you put it in a sentence, might be, “That’s why,” but for a sentence-opener like Shigaraki’s using above, “Like I already said,” or, “Like I told you before,” are the sentiment dakara is putting across—it’s an emphasis word for restatement, more or less.

Of course, as you may be thinking, Shigaraki hasn’t said anything like that before.  His “Hell to Heaven” line to Ujiko is for sure the first time he’s said anything like that!  So what is he getting at there?

I checked with my usual go-to for minutiae about Shigaraki’s early scenes in the manga (the ever-reliable @codenamesazanka) and neither of us could remember anything in particular that Shigaraki said prior to this moment that his Dakara here could really be a callback to.  He certainly hadn’t articulated that level of scorched earth approach before in front of Spinner!  He did tell Stain, way back when, that he wanted to destroy All Might and the society that worshiped him, but the boldest statement of purpose he’d given the League up through Chapter 220 came circa Overhaul: The next kings will be us.

So is it something in the scene itself, then?  I only see two things that he could really be intending to reiterate with that, “Like I said”: his earlier answer that they’re going to keep going like they’re going until they “finish”—that being his answer when Spinner first started questioning him, before Dabi got back—or a repetition that they’re looking for the Doctor.  Neither is real substantial, of course—either one would be better than just stressing that Kurogiri’s gone, which I don’t think was his intention, but neither would they present a concrete answer to Spinner’s concern.  So based just on the, “Like I said,” a dislike of the non-answer would be a pretty fair read!

With that said, though, there is one last thing in Shigaraki’s talk bubbles that we could look at other than just the words, and that’s the modulation implied by the punctuation.  Notice in the picture above that the Japanese gives Shigaraki ellipses in both talk bubbles, while the English translation copies the first ellipsis but changes the second into an em-dash.  That’s a pretty important distinction!  In English usage, an ellipsis would mean Shigaraki trailed off before the earth-shaking rumbling started, whereas the em-dash indicates the rumbling interrupted whatever he was going to say and he broke off.  C.Cook has not been the most slavishly accurate retainer of crucial punctuation in the world, but I also wasn’t sure if the ellipses/em-dash distinction was as clear-cut in Japanese.  To get some insight on that, I turned to my Translator Sis.

What she said was that the em-dash is not something you see much of in most manga—typically, the ellipses serves the purposes of both, leaving some potential ambiguity which readers (and translators!) have to just make their best guesses about based on the surrounding context/characterization.  What we have with that in mind is a talk bubble that nothing interrupted but that still contained a noticeable pause (otherwise there’d be no punctuation at all), followed by a talk bubble that gets overrun by the SFX—I’d say Cook’s punctuation gets that across!

I want to point chiefly, then, to that first pause.  Shigaraki was taking Spinner’s complaints seriously in that scene, I think.  He didn’t raise his hand or his voice to threaten, and his gaze during Spinner’s rant were very level and controlled.  Whatever he started to say, he broke off saying it and then started over before the walking calamity showed up.  The first ellipsis indicates this hesitation; combined with the fact that he’d never brought up Hell before such that he could smoothly reiterate it with that Dakara, I think that Shigaraki was actually about to spring the Hell line (or one similar to it, anyway) on Spinner.

As to how he was going to frame it to answer Spinner’s challenge, that, I can’t say.  I doubt it would have been the same, “I’ll show it to you,” he gave Ujiko, but maybe it would have been, “I’ll expose it,” or, “We’ll tear it all down,” something to echo Spinner’s talk of emptiness with a promise of an empty world—which, of course, he would take the first step to delivering in the vast crater that waits on the other end of the arc.

So, a lot of it’s open to interpretation!  Readers, Japanese or English, wouldn’t have had any way to know what Shigaraki was about to say in 220 when it came out; indeed, I imagine Cook had to just take a wild guess at a Japanese word that started with ji[1] and lucked out that he picked something he could smoothly fold into Shigaraki’s later line.  (The official English is “Heaven and hell both.”  That’s the case both online and in print, so if Cook didn’t get lucky, then the online version’s been retroactively changed to fit.  Uncommon, I gather, but it's been known to happen.)

Spinner’s the narrator in MVA, so it’s totally fair, and possibly even intentional, for you (the specific you, bringbest, as well as the general readership you) to be in his shoes of being frustrated by Shigaraki’s vagary.  To put it mildly, Shigaraki is not the best communicator in the world!  But just because he often fails to articulate his intentions well to his followers[2] doesn’t mean he doesn’t have things straight in his head.

Thanks for the ask!

1: I did not go all the way to the point of checking to see what else Shigaraki said in 220 that started with ji that Cook might have been leaning on or that Japanese readers could have made assumptions about.  Mea culpa.  Jiji, “old man,” does, and it’s the only word I know of that would fit if you assume Cook intended “He” as a stand-alone, complete word rather than a first syllable of an incomplete one.                 I don’t know how Shigaraki refers to Ujiko in the scene—if he ever uses jiji or oji when describing him—but an attentive Japanese reader would recall that they’ve seen the likely personage Shigaraki’s referring to as AFO’s doctor way back in Chapter 59.  So, if there was any assumption in the Japanese readership that Shigaraki was referring to a particular “he” there with his cut-off Ji, it would likely have been the Doctor rather than Kurogiri, who I’m pretty sure Shigaraki does not ever refer to as an ojisan at any level of formality.

2: See also his exchanges with Stain about conviction, with Kurogiri about his plans at the training camp, and with Toga when she and Jin found out they were being loaned to the yakuza.

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Desperately need Mr. Compress popping his pussy to Abracadabra by Lady Gaga

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My Hero Hunter

My Hero Academia meets Monster Hunter

Part 1

Since Monster Hunter Wilds is being released today, I’ve spent the past few days diving into an interesting comparison. Many of the dragons and monsters from Monster Hunter share striking similarities with the Quirks and abilities of characters from My Hero Academia / Boku no Hero Academia. Some of these parallels go beyond just their powers – even their appearances sometimes match perfectly.

In this mini-series, I will explore these connections and analyze how certain monsters resemble specific MHA characters in their fighting styles and abilities.

I hope you like it ☺️

Bakugo and Brachydios, the Crushing Wyvern

This monster belongs to the Brute Wyvern category – bipedal, large monsters that resemble a Tyrannosaurus Rex in body structure.

Its unique trait is the bright green, slime-like substance that drips from its massive fists and the tip of its horn. This slime sticks to surfaces or enemies and detonates after a short time with devastating force. In the heat of battle, this process accelerates, allowing Brachydios to cover the battlefield in a chain reaction of explosions, leaving little room for escape.

Bakugo’s Quirk may not rely on slime, but it does revolve around sweat. The sweat glands on his palms secrete an explosive substance – a nitroglycerin-like sweat that he can detonate at will.

Hawks and Seregios, the Thousand Blade Wyvern

Image from the Monster Hubter Fandom page

A monster from the Flying Wyvern category – a pair of legs and a pair of wings. Whether the wings are functional or not doesn’t even matter.

Seregios, the fearsome aerial hunter, is known for its razor-sharp scales, which it rains down on its enemies with incredible precision. These blade-like scales pierce deep into the flesh of its foes, leaving painful wounds that make it harder for them to keep fighting. But Seregios is not just a flying berserker – its impressive agility and lightning-fast reflexes make it one of the most dangerous predators in the sky.

Hawks is very similar, thanks to his Quirk Fierce Wings and his incredible speed. He can precisely control each individual feather from his red wings, using them as weapons to strike enemies from a distance or to rescue and support others. Like Seregios, Hawks is not only fast but also highly intelligent and tactically skilled – both carefully observe their opponents and then strike with surgical precision.

Endeavor and Teostra, the Ruler of the Flame

This winged lion belongs to the Elder Dragon category – the epitome of a classic dragon, with two pairs of legs and a pair of wings. This creature category is unique, as these dragons are far stronger and older than others, often described as living natural disasters.

Teostra is a true embodiment of the flames. With a single flap of his wings, he ignites infernos, and his powerful presence has an overwhelmingly intimidating effect. His burning aura scorches everything in his vicinity, while his explosive power allows him to dominate the battlefield. But behind this brutal, fiery force, there is more than just chaos – Teostra is a king, proud, unstoppable, and always determined to assert his dominance.

The same can be said for Endeavor, whose Quirk, Hellflame, allows him to generate and precisely control flames of extreme heat. His presence, before Dabi revealed himself as Tōya, was much like Teostra’s – dominant, proud, and untouchable. I always had the feeling that he had no qualms about hurting others, despite being a hero – or rather, despite once being one.

–> Part 2 - Gale Force, Shemage and Geten (coming soon)

-> Part 3 - Dabi and Shigaraki (coming soon)

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The character designs are so hard istg. Each and every one of them.

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Dance the night away

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wowiee

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Somebody’s gotta keep him company while his leg heals dude it’s not my fault

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Twitterの死柄木さんぽシリーズが本当に可愛くていつも癒されてます😌

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Shouto's biggest dream

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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this manga is so fucking awesome bro

big zanka fan

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he’s just a silly little guy