#YOU HAVE A GOOD DISABLED CHARACTER HORIKOSHI IN YOUR HANDS

[marisandini-chu-blog]

I can't believe I have more to say to this just to give MHA salt but my brain cannot shut up because THIS little arc could have been a waaaaaaaaay better and sympathetic premise for Deku.

Because yeah, there's nothing wrong with wanting to become a the best hero for selfless idealistic reason, but it's not something I personally resonate with – even Naruto has the selfish reason of just wanting love and acceptance.

Because if I have to choose a story of a boy who wants something for his dream, and a boy who wants something for the dream of margianalize people like him. I would have definitely be interested with the latter.

Chosen One stories is great and all, but we could have had Deku finding an avenue in the midst of his studies for quirkless people like him to be able to achieve what was once an impossible dream. One for All shouldn't be the only thing keeping Deku from being a hero. Deku should not have been the only quirkless hero at the end of the story. Quirkless people should have had the option and avenue for jobs that would have been impossible for them beforehand as a sign of support. But even Deku offers reasurance to someone with a quirk, as weak as it was. Quirkless was also mention to be treated with kindness by civilians... and was never mention again to be empowered or anything else. Simply asking society as a whole to have basic fucking decency and kindness to people in need as if it was the most revolutionary thing that Deku's fight had given impact (and maybe it is for a japanese conservative society, but I don't think they're that bad).

Where's the fucking support for the Quirkless, Horikoshi!!! Where are they now? Why should they not have the agency to fight for a better life? Why is their voice not heard or mention?!?!

Look at Nova — THAT'S HOW YOU WRITE AN EMPOWERING MARGIANALIZE PERSON!

Even if we never see any other black-ear child, Nova's narrative make it so his success would be the success of future black ears and his tribe as a whole. It doesn't just impact him, and him alone. That's how impactful a single character could be when done right.

Alright, rant end.

Is it just me? Or is the latest arc of Mairuma is the best damn yet?

Because I've got to say; that's one of the best damn arc in the series which is already a hard bar to cross. Not only did it dive deeper into worldbuilding and explore the political impact of connection with powerful figures (something most shounens VERY rarely ever explore) but Nova has been one of the best highlight of that arc.

Many times, Shounen mangas has cover stories of dreams, goals, wishes based on desire, passion, revenge to move a plot forward. However, I don't think there's ever a one like Nova; a child who see himself in the future black-ears child and was thinking of their future and the path he could carve for them as much as he wants to carve for himself.

Yes, there are stories of a character who sees flaws in a system and tries to correct or make it better. But what makes this arc more unique is the fact Nova was never implied to be mistreated (again, something very different from other shounen. Though it's a strech because the many-ears as a whole has been mistreated). The Chief is shown to love Nova and Nova LOVES his tribe in return. But it is implied that Nova's disability made him be infatilized by the tribe. Thus, alliniating him in the process. They don't hate him for being different, they pity him. And the author manage to make that a tragedy.

Yet, Nova not only see he has worth more than the tribe's says, he saw worth in his race more than the tribe can see. Making him the most inspiring character in the series. Heck, he inspire even Iruma.

Which makes this why this is the best goddamn arc; writing about a goal to incite change for a flawed system or belief, and also to carve a path not just for the general future generation, but also for disabled or margianalized people who will have more choices open in the future.

And I think that's the most compeling reason written in a most beautifully executed arc in the whole damn shounen series I've ever read and I will never get over this.

[jp---v]

Part of me wishes that Midoriya never received One For All. As a disabled person, it always seemed like Quirks and the lack of Quirks were (in some ways) a metaphor for disability. The whole "Can someone be a Hero without a Quirk" just read as "Can I be Someone if I am disabled". And the answer was no. The answer was "You're useless, but I can fix you". I know that it would make so many arcs and part of the story either way more difficult or probably just impossible, but I wish that Midoriya stayed quirkless. He was built up as being incredibly smart and I wish we got to actually see that instead of. Big Punch. Big Kick. Fight Win. I wish that instead we saw him be resourceful and intelligent, I wish he was a bit more like Eraserhead or Nighteye, where they have weapons to help them fight. I wish we saw him fall behind physically and get support from teachers in the areas he was failing, see him go from just barely scraping by to succeeding because he has support, anything other than just handing over the cheat code to being a "Good Hero". I wish Midoriya's story was actually about if it's possible to become a hero without a quirk, and I wish the answer was yes.

Sorry for the big chunk of text, I've been thinking of this for. A while.

Ok, first thing first. Minor notes.

Paragraph breaks are your friend

You probably could've made your own post and more fully fleshed out your thoughts without having to worry about the ask character limit.

Now onto answering.

Yes. The series would've been completely different if One for All wasn't in play. Several arcs would have been impossible for Midoriya to participate in the Big Final Fight, and an action series where your protagonist can't join the fight, isn't set up for success.

But there are different avenues that could've been taken. A bigger focus on Underground heroics. Behind the scenes info gathering, undercover work, stake-outs, and all the dirty side of heroics people don't get to see. Eraserhead is an Underground hero himself, there's no way he couldn't have done with a quirkless Midoriya what he did with Shinsou and more, because he's his homeroom teacher. Weapons, tactics, Underground contacts. Then there's Midoriya getting to use his brain to design support gear and strategize his way around his opponents. Why set him up as this super analytically-minded person if it rarely comes into play? He's just another 'hit 'em till they stop fighting back' hero in the end.

But him losing One for All sucks too because he never even actually got to master it. The thing he's been trying to do since he got it. The series set this huge, important goal with easily trackable benchmarks(the percentages) and tosses it to the wayside, only for him to still fail at saving Tenko(because Tenko's been gone for years. A memory isn't a person).

On a wider scale, the series could've explored the themes of discrimination against quirkless people instead of brushing them away almost entirely. The fact that by the end of the series everyone was acting like quirkless discrimination never existed, and were instead focused on heteromorph discrimination, may have partially come from the fact that Bakugo is a 'fan favorite' gag me and Horikoshi didn't want to acknowledge him being the bigot he was pretty clearly shown to be early on. So it all got swept under the rug and "never happened." Because that would also require recognizing Midoriya's trauma, and the series has never once acknowledged it or taken Midoriya's pain seriously. Like honestly, Midoriya being so starved for human contact that he let's Uraraka call him Deku, even after explaining that it's an insult with years worth of weight behind it(and her still calling him that after he explained it), then making it his hero name? This terrible insult you've been called for pretty much your entire life, that's what you want to be known as for the rest of your life and beyond? And after Bakugo's alleged "apology" he switches to the overly-familiar Izuku, as if they're actually close friends and he still isn't violently screaming and insulting him like he has for years.

And as far as "support from the teachers" goes... UA actually sucks, just, as a school. He couldn't get support when he had more power in his pinky than most teachers have combined, even when he kept breaking that pinky. Eraserhead doesn't want 'students' to make into 'heroes' he's making paranoid little child soldiers. Despite having high grades, a 'saving people' mindset instead of wanting to be a hero for fame or money, which should put him pretty high on favorability compared to most of his classmates, but no, he's the Problem Child because he can't control his quirk. But does he ever get any actual help? Extra training? Quirk counseling? Nope! He gets thrown to the fucking wolves until Gran Torino sees what's happening and comes out of retirement to help this poor child no one else is helping. Crazy how Midoriya spent a couple of months at UA and his control never got any better, but just a week with someone actually training him and he can finally use OfA without hurting himself.

I forgot where I was going with this tbh.

Anyway... the story could've been completely different if Horikoshi acknowledged Midoriya's trauma, showed the effects of quirkless discrimination, and actually let the teachers teach in a series with the word 'Academia' in the name.

If Midoriya had had any kind of suppprt from anyone in his life, and was less hyperfocused on quirks specifically so he could think about support gear, then yes. He could've been a hero. Not the bright, shining spotlight kind of hero, but still a hero.

[stillness-in-green]

If it's any consolation, I'm sure that the Advisors and the rest of the MLA (Re-Destro, Trumpet, Geten) will show back up sooner than the final arc, just because we're going into Year 2 and the students would find great 1 on 1 or team opponents with the Advisors. Re-Destro and Geten are heavy hitters (and Geten could be tied to Dabi, Shoto and all that somehow) and they were locked up with Mr. Compress and Machia, but who do you want to see first from the Advisors?

Thanks, anon; I certainly do hope we'll get to see more of them.  Admittedly, my main concern is that I so liked what was going on with the Paranormal Liberation Front that even if we do see all of the MLA types again, if it's only in the context of speedbump battles for the students, that's still going to be a letdown.  Better than nothing, to be sure, but I really do want them to join back up with the League, even a League that's confused and out of sorts under All For One's hand.  I love RD's big spiritual-awakening-flavored crush on Shigaraki, the cross-organization tensions and relationships, just as much as I love the depth the MLA brings to the world outside of just what's going on with the heroes.

I'm fairly frustrated with how the MLA fared during and after the raid, largely because it's awfully hard not to conclude that, if what we have right now is all the erstwhile-MLA are ever going to come to, Shigaraki would have been significantly better off if he'd just killed them all and shacked up with Ujiko for four months.  And that would be such a waste!  The end of My Villain Academia was such an enormous triumph for Shigaraki! I want his victory to amount to something more than what we've seen, something that shows that both his strength and his mercy will pay off for him in the long-term, will be a concrete benefit to him rather than, with the benefit of hindsight, the reason everything went so wrong.

Particularly with Re-Destro, since Horikoshi saw fit to have Dark Shadow all but one-shot the man, and Edgeshot defeat him off-panel, it's really not going to mean much to me for him to have a big fight with students unconnected to anything else.  The drama's rather gone out of it at this point.  That's particularly the case since, if he's no longer connected to Shigaraki's plot, it's that much easier for him to just be off-paneled and forgotten about.  But, if Rikiya gets looped back in with the League, if his gratitude and admiration of Shigaraki mean he still has a role to play in Shigaraki's arc, that makes it much easier to get invested in any fights that role will lead him to. Ditto the MLA more broadly; it's categorically ridiculous to present that organization with the kinds of numbers, breadth of influence and legitimate grievances they have, only to try to sweep them back under the rug exactly like Shigaraki accuses heroes of doing with everyone they can't save. 

To say the least, I'm pretty invested.  But I appreciate your consolations and am trying to hold out hope that we'll get some good stuff with them yet!

My anxieties aside, and to hit the other portion of your ask--who would I like to see first among the Advisors?--hit the jump:

(All nicknames and shorthand are taken from this post.) 

Well, it'd be nice if they could all get at least as much to do as the Eight Bullets back during the Hassaikai arc, seeing as they got a similar splash page spread introducing all their faces.  There are considerably more than eight of them, of course, but even if they never get more attention than e.g. Galvanize or the hose-faced guy who iced Midnight did, at least then we'd have some idea of their power sets and at least one angle on their personality.

Assuming we aren’t going to get full breakdowns on every single one of them, there are still four things I'd really like to see happen with the MLA/the Advisors: the student fights we're expecting, the jailbreaks we're being told about, the reunion with the League I'm praying for, and for literally anyone in the in-world media to try and get their side of the story.

Student Fights: Seeing the guy who killed Midnight again is as sure a bet as any of these get.  Momo is an important enough character, with enough sustained arc, that she will have to get something else to do before the series is over.  Taking command of a group battle against real opponents--ones with more responsiveness and agency than Gigantomachia--would be in-line with what she's been moving towards so far.  I would, however, love it if that fight would be more challenging than a straightforward battle of tactics.

I headcanon Hose Face and Scarecrow as, respectively, an ex-con and a dude with physical disabilities--both people who have ample reason to want to change the series' status quo irt human rights abuses in prison and overly restrictive quirk use laws.  I'm not expecting the canon to validate me on what amount to wild guesses, of course, but I want those Advisors in particular to have motivations more nuanced than, "They're quirk supremacists; who cares why they're willing to put their lives on the line over this?"

A feel-good revenge match in which a bunch of teenagers lay the smack down on characters whose humanity the audience is asked neither to know nor care about would be lazy, and counterproductive to the series' current thematic concerns. Give Momo her victory, by all means, but don't give it to her easy.  A confrontation like this would be a good way for the less central Class A students to begin wrestling with the question of who, exactly, heroes "save" and what it is that people need to be saved from, exactly the way Deku and Uraraka and Shouto are now wrestling with these questions.

As far as other fights go, I'd also love to see Brand and The Question pop up again. They're probably the two I'm most curious about purely in terms of what their quirks are.  Why does The Question wear a mask, and what's he like that he wound up in Mr. Compress's chain of command?  And with Brand, what kind of quirk does he have that's powerful enough to land him a ranked position in the Guerilla Warfare Regiment but indirect enough that he fights with a sword?

Prison Breaks: I wouldn't expect this to be particularly involved, probably more of an aside than anything, but I want the Bindi Ladies to spring Hole Punch Face, thus getting us an angle on what's going on with that particular trio.  Aviator Teeth can come too because I want at least some hints about what his deal is.

I'd also love to watch Horikoshi even attempt to retroactively justify some of the logistics of the single-day capture and subsequent detention of 17,000 super-powered, combat-trained people.*  I mean, I don't think there are any feasible explanations for that, but I'd be curious to see what he'd come up with, especially if every possible answer just makes Hero Society look worse! We have only ever seen Tartarus as an example of the prison conditions in this country; I'd love to hear more, and an MLA-focused jailbreak would be a great way to show it.

PLF Reunion: Of course, my number one thing to see with a reunion is Re-Destro being just as dismayed as Spinner is over Tomura's possession.  I crave more serious attention being paid to Rikiya's profound awe over Shigaraki's freedom, and would love to see his reaction to Shigaraki apparently losing that freedom.

Aside from the obvious, though, if the PLF does start piecing itself back together, I expect to see Sanctum again, given the attention he's gotten so far, and the fact that he's now the highest-ranked member of the Tactics Regiment.  It'd be great to get some explanation for how he can possibly be "the longest-serving member of the Liberation Army," given that the Army was generations old already when Re-Destro was just a child.  (If we do get that information, I imagine my own explanation will be jossed hugely, so I would also be happy to take time with Sanctum that doesn't explain the discrepancy but also doesn't invalidate my headcanon.)  

In the context of the regiments reforming, I'd also like to see Nimble and Aster, both because this manga needs more women, and because I'd like to see more of how Spinner and Toga interact with the people they were nominally commanding.

Media Attention: Trumpet's my number one hope here--the lack of any look into the state of the government in HeroAca Japan has been a total let-down since his introduction**, but I was particularly annoyed that the last time we saw him he was smiling (albeit in a fairly haggard way), giving me hope that we might next see him doing his part to portray all of this in a light that would sway public opinion.  And then literally one chapter later, we get prison guards talking about how the Hearts & Minds Party, a perfectly legitimized political party with representation on the national level, has been perfunctorily dissolved less than twelve hours from when the raid started.  How is there even an argument that the system heroes were upholding desperately needs to change?

I'm very tired of the media in BNHA only ever showing up to beg for/demand that heroes tell them what’s going on, particularly those damn press conferences. Journalists do investigative work! Newspapers employ reporters to actively seek out news!  Reporters in free countries don't just sit around waiting for the government or heads of major industries to graciously hand them press releases!  For heaven's sake, Trumpet was the head of a major political party.  People should be foaming at the mouth trying to get a statement from him!  

Especially with public trust in heroes breaking down, there should absolutely be intrepid reporters out there looking to get to the bottom of any of the layered conspiracies the public's just been hit with and told to just write-off as a bump in the road on the return to normalcy.

Anyway, Trumpet's the obvious choice, but if I could be sure the manga would validate my headcanons about Nimble and Scarecrow's disabilities, I'd be happy to put them in this position, too.  Trucker Toad would be another good candidate, if there's any basis to my idea that he is or used to be a transport driver who's seen a lot of the country outside the areas e.g. the Top Ten Heroes are patrolling.  He's obviously a good candidate for getting back to that idea of anti-heteromorph bias, too.  But really, I'd take anyone who can give a cogent explanation of the MLA's position on self-determination and the various ways Hero Society has exacerbated quirk-based discrimination.

Anyway, that's about where my thoughts are on where I hope the MLA people are and what we might see of them.  Thanks for the ask!

--------------

*Or as many as 100,000 more than that, depending on how through the statement, "Their bases around the country were also attacked, and their supporters rounded up," was meant to be.  An influx of 116K people, incidentally, would triple Japan's current carceral population.

**Why! Why would you introduce a politician and then never even glance at your setting's political situation??

[makeste]

One thing I really don't get about the so-called fulfillment of the potential quirkless bakugou is that narratively, it's all good and dandy, technically (i disagree but anon doesn't allow for long asks) but when it comes down to it, it's impossible. How is he supposed to overcome being quirkless? Had deku not received ofa, that would've been the end of the road for him. Literally. It's impossible to be a hero, especially the kind they want to, without their powers. There's no practical progress

historically I’m not the most reliable at answering very long asks, so I appreciate the brevity in this case lol. I anticipate that this is going to be something I’ll be discussing a lot more next week, if things go as I suspect they might (and hey, they might not. I got burned by Horikoshi on the whole Hawks killing Twice thing, so for all I know things might play out in a completely different way than I’m predicting), and so for now I’m saving up most of my Bakuessaying energy for then, even though I’ve gotten quite a few asks about it. I have a feeling I’d end up repeating myself a lot, and at this point there doesn’t seem to be any point in discussing it more until we’re sure one way or the other that this is actually happening.

that said, speaking of repeating myself, I do have a quirkless!bakugou tag, as well as a list and description of all my quirkless!bakugou posts over in my post index, and a lot of the asks people have sent me have already more or less been answered in the essays there! I’m kind of obsessed with this theory lol. I haven’t talked about it in a while because I got the vague sense that it was possibly starting to annoy people, and also because I had already kind of emptied out all of my thoughts on it and felt like I was circling around the same points over and over again. anyways, regarding your specific ask though, I’ve posted my thoughts about how Bakugou would make out without his quirk from a strictly practical standpoint here, although it’s buried a ways down. if you want you can just skip to the last three paragraphs lol. and there’s also this post, which probably best sums up my very vague and incomplete theory of how he might actually get his quirk back. mind you, this involves another highly controversial Bakugou theory, and some crucial pieces of said theory are still unknown to us. it’s more of a vaguely theory-shaped idea than anything else right now, but it’s something I keep coming back to and trying to turn over in my mind every so often in hopes of it eventually clicking for me further lol.

lastly, fwiw, I received an ask a few months ago that had a very different perspective on this. it was from someone who had a disability, and they were very excited at the prospect of a quirkless Bakugou. I’m trying to find it now but it’s buried like a hundred asks down sob.

...okay it took some digging but I finally did find it!

anyway, so let me first extend my very sincere apologies to this second anon for taking FOREVER to answer your ask and then finally only doing so as part of another ask. I suck at answering asks. (;-_-)/ that’s all there is to it. but anyway, so bringing this back around to the first person, I just wanted to mention this, because for me it was a reminder that perspective makes such a huge difference in how we view things, and that a development which doesn’t connect for some people might actually be hugely personal and inspiring for others. and for me it was also a reminder to check my privilege as well! anyway, so this definitely shifted my own perspective on things a bit. I do think he will more than likely get his quirk back just because of the kind of story this is and because I think the groundwork has already been laid out for that, but honestly, if it doesn’t happen then you know what? that’s fine too.

and what I’m hoping is that fandom will pounce on this development either way, and go to town with it in fic and art and such, because that’s one thing that fandom has always been great for. it’s something I would love to see explored more in depth, and I think there’s a very real chance of that happening both in canon and in fic, and that’s exciting! hell, if he doesn’t lose his quirk in canon I would probably go ahead and just write a fic about it myself at this point, because I just have so many thoughts and ideas about it that I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself lol. I have honestly been ruminating over the possibility of Bakugou losing his quirk ever since I first read chapter 59 two full years ago, and realized the framework was there for that to actually be a possibility. and so I am beyond excited at us being this close to it finally happening for real. pump that character development into overdrive, baby. and Horikoshi is the one and only manga author I actually trust to be able to do something like this right. he’s batting 1000 when it comes to redemption arcs imo. so I will place my child’s future in his hands and let him do as he will.

[thyandrawrites]

Do you think Dabi feels empathy? I like to argue that he does, mainly because of the panels at the end of chapter 191. But a lot of people I’ve talked to on twitter seem to disagree.

Well, a lot of people also write Dabi as a rapist for kicks, so I generally tend to form my own opinions instead of trusting a widespread fanon portrayal ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it saves me a lot of arguing

To answer your question, I don’t think there’s any reason to believe he doesn’t have empathy. The thing people seem to forget a lot when they talk about how problematic Dabi is… is that Dabi is literally a villain. What else is he supposed to do? Dance the conga? Villains have skewed morals by definition. Of course he’s not gonna be your usual morally white protagonist. He’s gotta bring conflict into the story and oppose the main cast in some way, otherwise he wouldn’t serve any narrative purpose. But having skewed morals doesn’t necessarily mean he is morally black. Or that he likes killing.

As a matter of fact, Hori likes to write his villains with a lot of nuance. With the single exception of Afo, who is a megalomaniac power-hungry bastard, and a really morally black villain, everyone in the Lov is portrayed as a really human, layered individual. Dabi is no exception. 

Dabi is a follower of Stain. Stain didn’t kill for kicks, for relishing in the despair of his opponent when they realized they had lost (like, say, Afo). Stain killed for a motive, which means he had a moral compass. A really skewed one, but still a moral compass of sorts. Dabi is the same. 

He recruits Hawks because he sees worth in him that sets him apart from the lowlives from the underworld. Hawks is a hero who saves people. The lowlives Dabi executed were ready to gang up on him and kill him because he looked at them wrong. Good morals vs senseless violence: guess which one Dabi prefers? 

He didn’t even try to kill Apocrypha until the latter started spouting off quirk essentialist bullshit. There are two entire panels dedicated  to the shift in Dabi’s demeanor when he realizes his opponent’s true colors. Only then does the killing intent, the spiteful resentment, make an appearance. Until that moment, he was just desperately trying to melt off all the ice that kept coming for him. 

Honestly, what both of those occurrences tell me is not that he lacks empathy, but that he has issues with people who misuse their power to harm others because they think of themselves as above others. 

I’m not saying that he’s right in doing those things, or that his actions are justifiable. But he’s indeed a villain, and villains are not exactly morally upstanding. Dabi falls in a gray area, and implying that he has no empathy because he’s murdered people before is kinda a stupid argument imho. Again, you gotta keep in mind nuance. 

There are strong hints that Dabi embraced violence as a result of growing up in an environment that was violent. There’s this parallel with Tomura; there’s the fact that quirk society idealizes hypermasculinity, while Dabi is a disabled character who’s been called worthless on screen for having a weak body; and that’s without taking into account how he’s likely a victim of abuse, and thus him getting back at people who misuse their powers is his way of getting back in control of his narrative. The once powerless kid who makes them pay, even if he literally has to burn himself to death not to be ‘weak’ anymore. This hardly speaks of someone who is evil just for the sake of being evil, or for harming other people for fun. His entire character trait is that he loathes people who hurt others for fun. 

It would’ve been really easy for Horikoshi to make him grow a big head as a result. To make him relish in his newfound upper hand and think that he himself was justice. Instead, what we get when he’s confronted for the first time with the reality of what he did, is a scene that shows us the direct opposite of that. 

This is not a man who cannot feel remorse. This is a man who doesn’t even know where he stands on the moral front anymore. This is a guy who is so torn up by the decisions he’s made that he lost his sanity. 

This is a guy who has issues, who is broken, and has never had any healthy coping method to move past his self-destructive behaviours. This is a man who compartmentalizes to keep himself focused on an end goal. Kinda like how Tomura keeps focused on the end goal of destroying everything he dislikes even though he’s perfectly aware that it’s not gonna make him feel better, but he still gotta do it to keep the itch at bay. 

The bottom line of his character is that violence cannot fix violence. Selective cleansing of rotten heroes isn’t going to stop people like Enji, who are obsessed with status and with strength, from obsessing over status and strength. Killing Enji won’t give him any closure just like making All Might retire didn’t make Shigaraki feel less empty inside, less depressed. 

People who argue against the fact that Dabi is a redeemable character by appealing to his crimes and how “too far gone” he is not only don’t understand the first thing about Dabi’s character, but are also completely missing the point. It’s the system that made him “too far gone”. Fixing that is what will give back credit to the hero system. 

Besides, when people write Dabi off as an unempathetic irredeemable character are just perpetuating a trope that makes for reaaaaally bad writing. To quote from TVtropes: 

Good victim, bad victim

A morality trope about the arbitrary distinctions writers make between certain sorts of victims. If a character in fiction has a problem or ailment or social situation, and the creators intend him to be sympathetic, the character will have acquired the problem in the most socially acceptable way. If the character isn’t sympathetic, then he will have contracted the illness through “your own damn fault”. Compare and contrast Loser Protagonist.

Note that for some people this trope can be justified. They consider a person who gets carpal tunnel syndrome from writing a Nobel prize winning novel is a bit different from someone who gets it playing World of Warcraft is a bit different from someone who gets it by spending too much time whipping slaves. Regardless of how they got it, they are still victims. Whether you have sympathy for them is another matter.

People who want to push the agenda that Dabi is a ruthless villain and a problematic character, are usually either fiery asshat stans or end//kws stans.

Dabi and Shouto are brothers. Saying that one of them is the good egg while the other one shouldn’t be perceived as a victim because he’s Evil and Bad and Problematic just makes you an abuse apologist tbh. I advise you be really careful around those people on twitter 

[lemongogo]

You know, I'm honestly curious about one thing, people in the bnha tend to dislike Endeavor (including me) but seem to like villainous characters like the members of the lov, who aren't good people themselves, what do you think makes a character likable or not?

yeah definitely !!

from the beginning, you’ve never been able to align yourself with endeavors goals or ideologies. at the most basic level, he derives a person’s worth based on the power of their quirk; aka people who have issues with their quirks (or even low profile powers) are inherently seen as “failures”(similar to what geten talked about during the mla battle). he’s abusive and selfish. his sole purpose for having children was so they could replace him in the battle to defeat all might and take the #1 hero position in his name for his honor. he beat his wife and kids. he emotionally manipulated them for years and didn’t give a damn about it. his very character goes against what it means to be a hero, yet here he is at the top. 

then, endeavor (rather, horikoshi) tries to kickstart a redemption arc despite not deserving it. the only catalyst that motivated his “desire” to change was the fact that he jumped into the number 1 position against his own terms, not because he realized he was a shit human being (although that train of thought does develop afterwards). he still hasn’t made any actual, concrete efforts to “atone” for his actions (as he puts it). all he’s done thus far is provide a vague apology because he’s upset that his family is at a point where they can personally confront him and call him out on his bullshit. even then, fuyumi is still holding the family together in his presence. he hasnt seriously tried to understand natuso’s emotions or viewpoint and he has yet to actually apologize to shoto about his behavior (not that it’ll change much). if you think about it, not a lot of time has passed between him telling shoto “this is why i created you” vs “my family hates me and is so much happier when im not around :’(” (maybe a few months in canon?). either way, it doesnt feel genuine and it doesnt replace the fact that he intentionally terrorized his family for personal gain. i think his character is so purposely flawed that we’re not supposed to like him (thus allowing us to sympathize with shoto, especially during the sports festival)

the league, however, have turned to villainy because of external factors. shigaraki, as we’ve come to find out, aspired to become a hero, for it was his desire to reach out and save people like nana did. but he was an unfortunate victim of circumstance, and he lost his entire family when he was just a child due to a spontaneous quirk mutation. worse yet, no one was there to save him. all for one, to shigaraki, resembles a hero in the sense that he was the only person to to help him out. it’s obvious that afo and ujiko groomed him into villainy by encouraging the development of maladaptive behaviors and unhealthy coping mechanisms. we can sympathize with him, mourn for him, and celebrate his achievements when he gets closer to acting on his own volition. dabi is also another good example, for he’s the result of all that is wrong with hero society. he was pushed to the brink of death by the hand of his own father and was continuously told he was too weak, that he “failed” in his “purpose”, etc. and that he has no worth in a society that only values strong and powerful quirks. obviously, the league isnt going to be perfect and you’re not always going to be able to agree with certain actions, but i think that’s sorta the point.

so the difference is definitely in ideology and circumstance imo. endeavor, a 46 year old man, consciously made the decision to harm his entire family for YEARS on end whereas characters in the league like shigaraki and dabi are the result of environmental and external influence (endeavors and afo’s abuse, spontaneous quirk manifestation, quirk disability, etc). 

i think what makes a character likable is either your ability to relate to them or their capacity to demonstrate change, neither of which endvr possesses 

[codenamesazanka]

I think i fell into the trap of villains being more interesting than the heroes in bnha. I find tomura more entertaining. The kids in 1-a aside from bakugou and maybe todoroki are too nice? What are they’re flaws?

Hiya! Thanks for this cool question! I’m sorry, but you’ll be getting a looong essay from me! 

And yeah, same!! Though I don’t think its that the UA kids are boing/too nice/flawed. When I first started watching MHA, I was on the lookout for a favorite character to stan. Uraraka, Iida, Eraserhead, even Snipe(???)… I actually didn’t care for Shigaraki Tomura at first, tho I did like his creepy vibe. When I finally did take notice, it was a delight trying to figure him out because he’s so contradictory and still mysterious. Making sense of it all/using all of the pieces to discover a characterization that made sense, was just fun and rewarding. 

IDK exactly what changed to make me like him, but I think it was that I got interested in the worldbuilding, how exactly quirks and heroes and villains exist. Villains are a really cool perspective to look at the society from, and who better to use as an example than hand man? 

…Which is also the main flaw I perceive about MHA. 

(Everything here is my opinion! I’m a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan so that’s the angle I’m most interested in, and also I read the non-villain arcs like once and that information has largely been crowded out by the ever-expanding and all-consuming thoughts of the League of Villains, so I will get somethings wrong)

IMO, Worldbuilding is a bit weird, in that it’s not enough to establish the norms - which is hard enough - but often you must also establish the taboos. Figuring out how things function includes examining the dysfunctions. Sometimes you create a world only to tear it down. 

But that’s the heart of speculative fiction - imagining different ways of living, different ways the world could be, taking aspects from our world and dissecting it. “Fantasy — the fantastic, the imagination that I love so dearly and that I’ve used to try to construct my own work — is everything that helps to expose more clearly and more powerfully the reality that surrounds us,” Julio Cortazár said. The classic sci-fi stories of exploration and invasion, othering, transhumanism - all are already issues irl: colonialism, discrimination, disability. The lives and conflicts in those stories can exist because of the lives and conflicts of real people as sources to build upon. 

@dabistits​ has said this much more eloquently and comprehensively than I ever could, so go read her meta!!

It’s obvious Horikoshi has put a lot of thought into figuring out his world, with all sorts of details to flesh it out - he writes into it issues like the accommodation of bodies that deviate from the supposed norm; what if people had innate differences, some of which are seen as dangerous; discrimination; self-determination and the right to bear arms affecting the social contract. You can say, ‘Nal, you’re looking too deep into this, it’s a comic for 8-year-olds’, and it’s true! But the first words the begin the story are ‘People are not born equal’; I’m taking it as invitation to examine that. 

So we have a world with its many dysfunctions and flawed systems. Everything that happens hinges pretty much on quirks. I think a great way to explore that is using plot and characterization. It’s not characters being plopped into the world; the world produces the characters. Development occurs as a response to trying to live under these conditions, trying to grow and push the boundaries, or accept and pass it on. 

But I feel like Horikoshi haven’t done this with the UA kids? 

These students are in the contained environment of school and not really interacting with the people they are to protect and serve, and their goal is to get stronger and more powerful but that’s kinda indistinguishable from any other shonen manga and not Hero-specific. Instead of just ‘use my quirk to punch a bad guy and save the day’, I wanna see situations where the kids learn that they cannot use physical methods, I wanna see the moral dilemma of arresting a person who punched out someone discriminating against them, I wanna see them having to accept failure and death as part of the job, dealing with the compassion fatigue. The Hero-specific things. Also, we don’t get to enter the headspace and background of the rest of Class 1A. It’s not the kid’s flaws. 

So the questions Horikoshi brings up about society isn’t actually usually answered by the heroes (some of the exceptions are, as you point out, anon, Todoroki and Bakugou). They’re answered and navigated by the Villains. The Villains are the ‘failed’ products of the world, their grief and discontent is due to being unable to function in this specific society. Their motivations are specific to Hero-society and quirks. And I love that! I love that we get a better sense of the setting and society through their stories - Twice is the one who gets to show us the effect of All Might’s retirement, Spinner introduced us to mutant discrimination, Detnerat gave us some important info about the economy and quirk-usage rights. 

The Heroes don’t get that? Not really? At the beginning of the manga, we do, though! Todoroki and his family, Shinsou and his quirk, Tenya and his brother. But after that, iirc, an issue is brought up, then usually quickly resolved. Kouta hates heroes? Midoriya becomes his hero and Kouta has a change of heart. The media rightfully rips into UA for the camp fiasco and the public agrees? The AFO and All Might fight overshadows that. Aoyama and Midoriya share a moment over quirk-incompatibility, but nothing more than that. 

It’s not that I just side with the Villains completely. I love Vigilantes, and I love the characters that try to do good. Vigilantes explores the dysfunctions and idiosyncrasies. Doing good despite breaking the rules; the desire to use your quirk but having to suppress this innate part of yourself; questioning the Hero system but keeping the ideals.

Koichi, the main character, is very sweet, ‘too nice’ as you might describe, very mild-mannered, his adventures limited mostly to the streets of his neighborhood. He is not flashy like Shigaraki, but I like him a lot. His growth is in response to him learning to be a citizen of his world - what it means to do good, having to interact with the community and its people, finding a niche to make use of his quirk. Making a lasting effect on the every day of the streets. The ‘trigger drug’ storyline works really well because it’s both giving us some insights about how official investigation works and the legal definition of ‘Villain’ (Tsukauchi), the use of social media and Pop’s influence to detect the villains, the biological mechanism of quirks and things people use to enhance it, along with Knuckleduster’s history and developing the relationship between the vigilante trio. 

So yeah! I feel like the full potential of the story Horikoshi wants to tell - this world that’s still dealing with the consequences of quirks appearing, the law enforcement system that arose from having to govern millions of individual with a million different abilities and needs, all of who has to learn how ‘great power comes with great responsibilities’ applies to them, and villain created by these circumstances, who is fated to be in a century-old battle that came to be because of the advent of the extraordinary, a wild fantastical full circle - hasn’t been shown through the UA kids and heroes. Instead, it comes across better from the Villains, and that’s why imo I find them more interesting. 

[wordcubed]

Your about told me to ask for a MHA Hot Take, so: what drew you to the series at first and what would you retcon about plot/worldbuilding/theme/characters if given the reins?

What drew me in? Honestly, the fandom.

MHA got super-popular, and I started seeing fanart all over the place. I thought TodoDeku looked cute, so I looked up fanfic for them. A week or so later I started the manga (while I kept reading fanfic). By this point I’ve watched the anime, too. (Though I’ve fallen behind on the manga, and I’m too “meh” about the direction it’s going to want to keep reading.)

What would I change though? I’m going to sidestep all the stuff I’ll be changing for my upcoming fanfic (because, like my Naruto fic, it’s turned into an over-ambitious worldbuilding-heavy rewrite of the series). I’m also going to sidestep the really obvious stuff, like the female character designs.

What I’d do, if I had the reigns, is actually make MHA address all the themes and issues it’s already brought up.

Izuku’s quirklessness is a clear metaphor for disability. Do something with that. Have him meet other characters who are quirkless. Show how they struggle compared to Izuku, who got his wildest dream handed to him. Show Izuku struggling with his own history, and how he can make other quirkless people’s lives better in a way that doesn’t involve punching things.

Actually address Bakugou’s behavior. Bakugou is very obviously Horikoshi‘s favorite, and he constantly rewards Bakugou, to the point of undermining the narrative. His “arc” is an up-arrow. He starts strong, and simply becomes stronger. We’re constantly told he’s a good (potential) hero. He is constantly told how strong he is, and is never humbled. He never suffers long-term damage due to his recklessness (like Izuku or Tenya have). He hurts people, and never even acknowledges that he’s done so. This must change.

Endeavor’s actions towards his family need to revealed. Hero society needs to grapple with the fact that it created a monster and somehow nobody noticed, or nobody cared.

Also, stop with the extremely forced (and one-sided, last I saw) “romance” between Ochako and Izuku. It’s not compelling, and it’s such a forced afterthought plastered on top of what could be a decent friendship. Like a lot of shonen writers, Horikoshi keeps tripping on rocks labeled “how write female character???” and planting his face on the ground.

[franeridart]

Do you have any favorite bakushima artists?

YAH! I have a whole bunch tbh, but if I have to pick my most fave it’s @syblatortue, definitely, she’s amazing in everything (blog’s n sfw so careful about that).  I’m also a huge huge huge fan of @gonecrabbin, @bakushima @losassen and the couple arts @m-arci-a and @l1ng have done left me really really effin soft so special mention to them too, but my fav is syb for sure. Absolute fav writer is @newamsterdame by the way, in case writers were included in the ask! Right after followed by @kiribakus god do they leave me weak

Anon said: What do you think of the hc where bakugou has to wear hearing aids in the future bc of the explosions and stuff?

The secret is that I’m always up for disabled characters, so deaf or hoh Bakugou are A+++ in my book and always welcome as an idea and as an AU - but as far as canon goes, I don’t think that’s likely? That’s just my opinion, obviously, and you’re free to see it how you want to! But just like I’m not a fan of the idea that Denki could permanently damage himself through his own electricity by simply using his quirk, I don’t think Bakugou could suffer unintentional harm from his own quirk either - his body is built to deal with it, after all! Just like it’s specified that the skin on his palms is harder to avoid getting hurt from the explosions, I think his ears are built to deal with the constant detonation noise too... 

Of course if he were to really overdo it, that could happen! Overusing a muscle is gonna make you hurt it too, after all, and Bakugou himself told us that quirks work just like muscles do. But as far as “simply using his quirk will in the end make him hoh or deaf” goes, I don’t think that’s likely!

Anon said:I love your art, it gives him tje feels. Also, I like how you included Mineta in Denki's friend. Always thought that not adressing the issue of them being canonly friends was hypocritical from the fandom.

I wouldn’t call it an issue, but I do find it weird when people pretend their friendship isn’t a thing and I really don’t wanna do the same. Thank you, by the way!!! I’m glad you like my stuff!!!!

Anon said:One day theres just going to be a completely casual, fluffy arc like the name choosing one where everything is Fine and Good and then they're gonna drop Kiri's backstory and it is going to /hurt/

That would be horrible - but honestly I’m still clinging to the idea that we could get his backstory by the end of this arc? Like, you know how we got Bakugou’s origins after his fight with Deku? And it served more as an opening to Bakugou’s growth than as a way to solve the whole issue in one arc, I feel like something like that could happen with Kiri. Maybe after we’re done with this arc we’re gonna see him in the hospital, and maybe he’s gonna talk about some of his issues or thoughts or something like that? And while at it Horikoshi will show us his backstory too, and then the actual dealing with his past is gonna start. Maybe. Who knows.

Anon said:so i have this headcanon-- kirishima has a love-hate relationship with action movies, because on one hand they're such a terribly unrealistic portrayal of fights BUT on the other hand he likes explosions a lot because they're manly as shit (also because bakugou).

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes, but also I imagine that he’d go through a phase of “everything is wrong and suddenly I see it and I can’t enjoy this anymore” and then decide that it’s a movie about giant robots and monsters and explosions anyway so whatever it’s not like it was beliavable to begin with (probably everyone feels the same about that in the class, lbr haha)

Anon said:Is it okay to tag you in post that remind us of you?

Sure!!! And I’ll for sure see them always, but I can’t promise I’ll actually reblog them and when I like them it’s gonna be with my main blog’s url! The eventual reblog is also gonna be on my main blog - if you’re fine with that, go for it!! I love knowing people thought about me hahahaha

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 5/22/17

Ace of the Diamond, Vol. 3 | By Yuji Terajima | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Although the first years finally manage to score in their game against the upperclassmen, victory eludes them. Still, Eijun’s ability to fire up his teammates does not go unnoticed and his performance on the mound sees him promoted to the Junior Varsity squad. He’s not satisfied with the catcher he’s paired up with for practice, though. After attending the first game of the Kanto Tournament and seeing how much better a pitcher Furuya is, he accuses the morose catcher (Chris) of having given up on getting to Varsity, something he will never do. And then after he learns how completely wrong he was, he actually humbles himself and starts seriously trying to learn about baseball. Sniff! Our little shounen hothead is growing up! – Michelle Smith

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 2 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I am probably liking this a lot more than I should, really. I am far too old to really be drawn in by teen angst, and there’s a lot of soap opera-ish stuff happening here. But I’m a sucker for untrained singers who make up for the lack of training through passion, mostly as it’s the sort of thing that in real life always sounds awful—but on the printed page it’s fine. Nino and Yuzu are drawn to each other in both healthy and unhealthy ways, and when we finally meet Momo again, he’s being just as unhealthy. These are three kids who have hit their teenage years with a whump, and drama is the watchword. But I dunno, something about the writing and characters makes me like this a lot. We’ll see how long it lasts. – Sean Gaffney

Bloom into You, Vol. 2 | By Nakatani Nio | Seven Seas – For parts of this volume, Bloom into You feels like a fairly standard yuri manga. There’s the part where a fellow student council member happens to see Touko and Yuu smooching, and the part where the vice-president clearly thinks she’s the only one Touko needs by her side. But towards the end of the volume, it veers once more into darker and more fascinating territory, as we learn that Touko is so driven to appear perfect due to family pressure to live on in the place of her amazing older sister who died seven years ago. She can’t bear for anyone to love either the real or the fake her, which is why she’s chosen Yuu, who ends up swearing never to fall in love with her even though she privately wishes she could. It’s nice to be reminded what turmoil lurks beneath the pleasant surface! – Michelle Smith

The Full-Time Wife Escapist, Vol. 2 | By Tsunami Umino | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – While there is still a lot of goofy charm in this title, mostly due to Mikuri’s imagination (we get a Les Miz takeoff here, as well as an enka number and some cheerleading chibis), the reality of the arrangement she’s entered into with Hiramasa is starting to fall apart at the seams. It’s really hard to pretend to be married, as there’s a lot of little details you can miss. Plus there’s also house-hunting (but do they really need one?), dental cavities (yes, she really does need a filling but what kind?), and Hiramasa’s growing feelings, which are… not really mirrored all that much by Mikuri, who sometimes seems almost asexual. We’ll see how well the marriage holds up in volume three, as there’s a nasty cliffhanger here. – Sean Gaffney

The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, a Rún, Vol. 2 | By Nagabe | Seven Seas – The Girl from the Other Side loses just a teensy bit of its luster in this volume by actually trying to provide, or at least hint at, some answers. When Teacher catches an Outsider touching Shiva, he protects her valiantly, over her own protestations. Later, though, they seek out the creature again because it had hinted that it knew the whereabouts of Shiva’s aunt. It doesn’t, but leads them to a giant lake where Teacher encounters a mysterious hole in the ground and hears the Outsiders’ perspective on why the humans are the source of the curse. He doesn’t know what to believe, and meanwhile examines Shiva daily for symptoms. Then those odious humans get involved again and another volume ends with Shiva in peril. This time, Teacher’s seemingly not in a position to protect her. Still bringing the love, sorrow, and loneliness! – Michelle Smith

Haikyu!!, Vol. 11 | By Haruichi Furudate | Viz Media – This volume consists of Karasuno High’s team failing over and over again, trying things that don’t quite work, and getting pissed off with each other. But that’s as it should be, because you can’t stay static if you want to make it to the next level. The author does a very good job of showing a team that’s on the cusp of being great, if they can just pull everything together. And we’re beginning to see it… but it’s not quite there. And this being training camp, they can get advice from other teams, showing off super secret special moves that allow Hinata and company to add new talents to their repertoire. The goal here is to combine volleyball talent and instinct with intelligence. I wonder what will happen next. – Sean Gaffney

Interviews with Monster Girls, Vol. 4 | By Petos | Kodansha Comics – The whole point of this series is to see Takahashi-sensei interact with his demi students and see how they tick, and a lot of this happens outside of the classroom, so the reader may be forgiven for thinking that there are only demis in the school. But there’s lot of normal kids as well, and the charge comes down that Takahashi is not paying enough attention to them. While this is true in a sense, it’s also true that the demis do need more attention than the other students in various ways. What’s more, the “normal” students realize that treating the demis as if they’re just normal students as well may not be the best way to go. The metaphor for disabilities doesn’t always work, but this is still interesting for monster girl fans. – Sean Gaffney

My Hero Academia, Vol. 8 | By Kohei Horikoshi | Viz Media – While Midoriya is the star of this series, it’s very much an ensemble show, and this volume gives us a chance to see the entire class show off their smarts—or not in some cases. Sometimes you have to get over jealousy and dislike, sometimes you need to regain the confidence you once lost, and sometimes you’ve got to rely on your instincts (as well as being in denial about your feelings for the hero). But of course Midoriya is the star, and so a lot of the back half of the volume goes to him, as he’s accosted by Shigaraki, who’s ironically even scarier when he takes the severed hand off his face. In the meantime, more training, more horrible situations designed to make a hero stronger. Also, Mineta is the worst, y’all. – Sean Gaffney

My Neighbor Seki, Vol. 9 | By Takuma Morishige | Vertical Comics – Seki is down to twice a year, but this is still a good solid volume, relying very much on the core plot of My Neighbor Seki—what is he doing this time, and how will Yoroi react? As with volume eight, there seem to be more examples of Seki’s games rebounding on him rather than making trouble for Youko. The best chapters see him working with transparent glue, taking the bear family for a helicopter ride gone horribly wrong, and getting so caught up in roleplaying that he loses himself in the role (twice). Best of all, Yoroi ends up at a sweets shop where Mrs. Seki works, and has to hide the increasingly desperate artwork apologizing for her son’s antics, showing that such tactics do run in the family. – Sean Gaffney

Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Vol. 3 | By Akiko Higashimura | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – This volume made me seriously consider giving up on Tokyo Tarareba Girls. Not because it is bad, but because the three main characters keep making such awful decisions. Koyuki finds out that her married boyfriend lied about being separated from his wife and failed to mention he had kids, but forgives him. Kaori knows she’s not even the only woman on the side for her ex, but she still comes when he calls. They’re both so desperate for someone to be nice to them that they’ll accept something that isn’t real. It’s so depressing! And then there’s Rinko, who botches a big assignment and makes a total lush of herself and UGH. They’re all making their own problems worse and it’s hard to watch. That said, I get creepy vibes from Rinko’s new boyfriend, so will at least have to check out volume four to see what his deal is. – Michelle Smith

By: Michelle Smith

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 259: Jakku General Hospital

Previously on BnHA: We chilled with Hawks and Twice, who filled us in on the various different facets of Pliff’s plan to fuck over the world. For starters there are like a dozen new bad guys who are each heading different Pliff regiments, just in case anyone forgot that this is a literal army we’re dealing with here. Hawks also reminded us of the fact that Twice can clone basically any one of the bad guys as many times as he wants now, so that’s a nicely terrifying thought to sit and mull over. We learned that once Tomura is done powering up, the villains intend to attack all over the country simultaneously and basically destroy society as we know it. Oh and also kill all the heroes of course. But I think we already knew that. Anyway, so the one bright side in all of this is that Twice naively let it slip to Hawks where Tomura was currently undergoing his Frankenstein procedure. And so the chapter ended with basically all of the heroes in Japan launching a surprise attack in the mountains of Kyoto, while the kids waited on standby to help with the evacuations. And I know that doesn’t sound very safe, but... well... shit.

Today on BnHA: A quiet morning in the Kyoto suburb of Jakku. All is peaceful -- or so it seems. Little does the elderly CEO of Jakku General Hospital (a stand-up citizen, philanthropist, and caretaker of orphans all across the country) know that lying in wait just outside his doors is a group of wicked and immoral HEROES ready to -- okay lol you know what, I can’t. Not sure what I was really going for there anyway. So! Meanwhile in the woods outside the ol’ villain hotel, a second group of heroes led by Edgeshot and featuring several child heroes in training, including KAMINARI WHO WAS LITERALLY JUST BORN YESTERDAY AND SHOULD BE AT HOME IN HIS NURSERY WATCHING PAW PATROL AND NOT OUT HERE IN THE WOODS WHERE HE IS IN TERRIBLE DANGER, is gathered and ready to attack the League’s main forces. So things kick off with Death Arms apprehending the traitorous Slidin’ Go, while elsewhere the heroes bust into Jakku General Hospital to capture Ujiko. Show of hands, who here thinks this is going to go smoothly? ...Yep. Yeah. That’s what I thought.

okay guys, before we get started I’m gonna answer a couple of relevant asks from last week. first:

I’m almost hesitant to talk about this, because I’m paranoid that Viz and co. could pounce on these sites again at any moment, and so I feel like this sort of thing is better left to private messages and discord servers. but I guess one little mention of it won’t hurt. so the site currently doing the scanlations is readheroacademia.com, which has been around for a while. and there are several other sites which also host the new chapters and have all of the old chapters archived as well. kissmanga is a big one which I know a lot of people use, but my personal favorite is readmha.com (idk, I just feel like its layout is... cleaner? if that makes any sense)

also do keep in mind that all of these sites are pretty ad-heavy, so I wouldn’t recommend visiting without a good adblocker at the ready (I generally use Chrome on both desktop and mobile, and have uBlock Origin and Disable HTML5 Autoplay enabled on my desktop browser). that being said, I’ve never had any issues myself

good question! I was actually thinking about doing a weekly follow-up post on Sundays after the official Viz translation comes out, but obviously I did not end up doing that last week lol. so now I’m thinking it might be easier for me to just post any subsequent thoughts/remarks in the following week’s chapter recap, since I’m already committed to doing those anyway and so it makes it harder to flake out

so that said, my one follow-up thought about chapter 258 is that the fan scanlation seems to have mistranslated that whole “AFO’s resurgence” part. in Viz’s version Hawks was instead saying that the PLF’s plans would “throw the world into chaos and enthrone Shigaraki atop the rubble.” and he then referred to Tomura as the second coming of All for One. sooooo, pretty much exactly the opposite of the other translation lol. this is a big blow to my continued effort to search for evidence that AFO is gonna come back and be the final villain, but I am still not deterred. we will continue to fight on until AFO either actually dies, or does come back like I keep predicting he will! please try to work with me a little better here, AFO

one other thing, instead of “New World Movement”, Viz used the same “Vanguard Action” regiment name that was used during the forest training camp arc. Caleb said that the wording (“kaibyaku koudou”) was exactly the same. so I’ll be using that too moving forward. I guess that means that Pliff is still on the menu though, pity

anyway so let’s get started now

so it’s a house... no, holy shit, wait, it’s the house!

THE NEW TODOROKI HOUSE OH MY GOD. ahhhhh lol what the fuck is this. Todofeels coming up to slap me in the face out of nowhere?! here I thought we were gonna just dive right into the Shigaraki raid and the resulting carnage

I’m... not really sure how I feel about this? like, right now I’m not trusting anything Horikoshi does lol. “quiet beginnings” you say? this is just a sneaky new way to bring me more pain. isn’t it

(ETA: I guess “quiet beginnings” also summarizes the other activities of this chapter pretty well. also is that Natsuo’s girlfriend??! at first I thought it was Rei, but those look like quirk-related ears? so Natsu then really is living his best college life huh.)

oh hey everyone it’s a brand new character!

(ETA: wait, is he actually quirkless? or is that just another LIE. you big LIAR.)

I’m so curious what the kanji is for this latest name. can’t wait for Caleb to enlighten us. I wonder if it’s “shi” as in “death”, just like with Tomura/AFO’s name. and no idea at all what “Maruta” means. basically I just want to know if there’s some pun or something, since yet again he’s obviously using a fake alias here

(ETA: so someone informed me in an anon ask that this is a reference to Unit 731, which was a Japanese unit that undertook lethal human experimentation during WWII. basically the people who conducted the experiments referred to their human subjects as “logs” to dehumanize them. and the Japanese word for log is, you guessed it, maruta. so that’s an extremely powerful and disturbing association for this name, and it’s obvious now why Horikoshi went with it.

that said, the anon said that some people were really upset by this name choice, and while I guess I can understand that, I also think that’s kind of the point, though? like, it’s supposed to be horrifying. anyone with a human conscience and any kind of empathy whatsoever should be horrified. and atrocities like that shouldn’t be forgotten, and I actually think that for someone born and raised and living in Japan like Horikoshi to be making a reference to this is fairly ballsy. because my understanding is that, like a lot of Japan’s other war crimes, it was more or less hushed up by the government afterwards, and isn’t really taught in schools or mentioned in history textbooks other than in passing. so while I can understand people maybe finding it disrespectful, I don’t think it was meant as such. it seems to me that if anything, Horikoshi wants people to look into it and be educated about it. and again, obviously he’s associating it here with easily the most reprehensible and morally sickening character in the entire series, which is fitting I think. anyway so those are my thoughts on that.)

anyway, guess what guys? looks like we’ve got ourselves another Star Wars reference! let’s just hope this particular Jakku doesn’t wind up as wrecked as its namesake when all’s said and done. it’s gonna be a loooooong day

you guys. Maruta is such a nice guy

he’s a philanthropist! and he runs orphanages all over the country! wow! what a great person!! and nursing homes as well, where residents presumably die on the regular (of old age and other natural causes no doubt), at which point they are presumably cremated, and I wonder who runs the cremation facilities? I’m sure whoever it is is definitely on the up-and-up

and “quirk-based community healthcare.” I wonder if they’re selective about who they treat based on what their quirks are. all the better to make sure people with particularly strong and/or unique quirks get the specialized treatment they need!

anyway. see, this is more like what I expected. some super dark shit, and finally some answers to a few long-established questions as well, but not without a price. that price being the churning feeling in my gut right now lol. oh man. well I just ate, so that might have something to do with it. but I tell ya, nothing makes you vaguely queasy like trying your best not to think about a massive conspiracy to kidnap and torture innocent children in the pursuit of ultimate power! so anyways I sure do hate this!

fffff like, really hate it. I HATE IT SO MUCH

[reluctantly goes ahead and slides AFO down one notch on my list of people I need to see die the most] well there it is. we have a new champion

so now we’re cutting to a hero briefing!

y’all is that THE SHERIFF. PLEASE. IT’S BEEN SO LONG. BUDDY I MISSED YA

so Nao says he had one of his guys go undercover to investigate, and they found that this hospital’s blueprints included a giant suspicious unlabeled place that nobody knows anything the fuck about

oh my god. you guys. forget Tomura, could that also be where they’re keeping the Noumus?? omg. omg omg omg. omgggggggggggg. omg

-- AHHHHHHHHHH

IF THE NEXT PANEL ISN’T JUST A CHORUS OF EVERYONE IN THE ROOM ALL SAYING “WHAT THE FUCK” SIMULTANEOUSLY, I’M GONNA DEMAND SOME ANSWERS, BECAUSE LET ME TELL YOU, HAVING ALREADY KNOWN ALL ABOUT POOR JOHN-KUN AND ALL THIS FUCKED UP SHIT MYSELF, I STILL AUDIBLY SWORE OUT LOUD. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? I’M GONNA DO IT AGAIN TOO, BECAUSE WHAT THE FUCK

come on, is Pixie Bob the only one of you here with normal human reactions or what?!

RIGHT?! YOU ALL ARE LOOKING AT A TINY MOUND OF FLESH WITH VEINY BULGING EYES JUST OGGLING BLANKLY OUT FROM ITS EXPOSED BRAINS. NOT TO MENTION IT’S GOT TWO OF WHAT VAGUELY RESEMBLE EARS, BUT WHAT I’M PRETTY SURE ARE ACTUALLY NOSES?? AND A SEVERED SPINAL CORD TAIL DANGLING OUT FROM BEHIND. ALL OF WHICH IS PLASTERED TOGETHER LIKE A LUMPY MOLD OF CLAY ATOP TWO CHILD-SIZED LEGS, which are wearing fucking sneakers, with fucking velcro and shit. fuck. fuck

lol Nao

oh yes, not difficult at all. I’m sure he’ll come along real quietly. hey, let me know how that one works out, okay

“we have the trauma of Hosu and Kamino still haunting us.” thanks for that reminder. gonna have another city to add to that list real soon aren’t we. preemptive r.i.p. Jakku

oh man you guys. can you feel this tension building up

interesting how he says “destiny.” I wonder if that’s the actual dialogue. at any rate this overconfidence is terrifying and I would really like for you all to stop jinxing shit my dudes

-- WHAT DID I JUST SAY

holy shit. please tell me this is a separate group from the Endeavor group we saw at the end of the last chapter

but that doesn’t make any sense though, because this group has Midnight and Kamui, two of their deadliest and most efficient capture specialists. not to mention Edgeshot the literal ninja who can break into anywhere. so this really should be the vanguard here based on what I’m seeing, but if that’s the case why are the eighteen-year-old Tamaki and the sixteen-year-old Toadette right there with them?? can we not, you guys. can we not

fucking shit. at least they’ve got Ms. Joke there too to back them up. if we actually get to see her quirk in action I can die happy. and so, presumably, will the villains

so the “hospital team” (is that the Endeavor team??) said they’re gonna eliminate the villains’ warping ability, which presumably means John-kun. do they even know it’s him that does it?? they don’t seem to actually know who Ujiko fucking is so I have my doubts?

on the bright side though, it seems like this Midnight team is actually going to be raiding the mansion, and won’t be involved in the hospital raid. but on the less bright side, the mansion is arguably almost as dangerous. :/ that’s where Twice is!! and probably most of the League! but at least they don’t have a dozen Noumus in the basement just waiting to be unleashed

god. people, if we don’t get moving on this action soon I am going to give myself a damn heart attack. this is way too much suspense for a chill Friday night

son of a bitch that guy behind Toadette is Honenuki, I just realized. what the fuck, U.A. ?? “hey kids! guess what! we’re going on a field trip!!” ...

-- NO!!!!!!

IT WILL NOT BE ALL RIGHT!! DON’T YOU LIE TO THEM!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!! Tamaki, fine, okay, he’s experienced, and arguably more powerful than half the people there. Toadette, she’s just a kid, but she also tried to kill Tokoyami back during the joint training arc and I’m still not sure how I feel about that so whatever! Honenuki is probably the most responsible person in this entire group so fine. Tokoyami needs to be there to have a lot of angst about Hawks

but Kaminari. Kaminari fucking Denki. no. no, sir. excuse the fuck out of me. how fucking dare you. he is a five-year-old boy in the body of a high-voltage adolescent. and he’s maybe, just maybe, more powerful than anyone else in this fucking group but that still doesn’t give you the right to put this little baby boy RIGHT ON THE FRONT FUCKING LINES!! holy shit! HIS BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!! I DON’T LIKE ANY OF THIS

OH MY GOD

RIGHT?!?!? omg omg omg omg omg

he’s literally wailing “I miss class 1-A” so loudly that it’s echoing all the way through the forest. see now that’s why you DON’T TAKE KAMINARI WITH YOU ON YOUR SECRET STEALTH ATTACK MISSION!! would somebody please point me towards whoever’s fucking idea this was so that I can go kick their fucking ass please and thank you

and here are the rest of them oh my god

Momo, Mina, Jirou, and Kiri at the forefront. okay, fine. this, I do like

so Edgeshot says they’ve surrounded the villains on all sides. man, no wonder they’re so worried about their warping capabilities. this is basically their one chance to capture all the bad guys in one fell swoop. I guess it makes more sense why all their capture specialists are in Edgeshot’s group, then

now I’m starting to wonder exactly what task lies in store for the Wonder Trio’s group, though? because they said evacuation, but is that really all there is to it? it’s no secret that Bakugou, Deku, and Todoroki are the three strongest interns they have. so you’re really expecting me to believe that they put baby Denki there on the front lines and yet plan on keeping their heaviest hitters in reserve? Nao is there more to this plan that you’re not telling us

oh shit Endeavor wants to know where his adopted chicken son is at

it genuinely does warm my heart to see Endeavor worrying about Hawks. I’m glad Hawks has at least one person out there who actually gives a shit about him. even if that person is mister father of the year here. the plot thickens

I wonder if Enji would actually die to save Hawks, if it came to that. which I’m not saying it would. but we all know some fucking shit is about to go down so I’m just having these thoughts here okay!

Nao always looks so tired nowadays. man

so he clearly does know who Endeavor’s talking about, though. one of these days I’d like to get a clearer understanding of what exactly Naomasa’s rank is and how high he is in terms of clearance, because the idea that he’s actually privy to more information than the number one fucking hero is kind of bonkers to me, ngl. this guy is literally just a detective, right?? not even a commissioner or anything. and yet he’s involved in everything. I used to suspect that he might be the traitor lol, and while I’m pretty sure by now that’s not the case, I’m still curious as to exactly what his deal is. does he even have a quirk?? anyways

so now Endeavor is hmphing and stomping off, and meanwhile there are some closeups of Mic and Aizawa

is that a whistle. do you guys think Mic could literally kill a man with his voice. shit. why do I kind of want to see it happen

as for Endeavor, I wonder if he was the one who made sure that his son and his friends weren’t on the front lines with the rest of them. sometimes it’s good to have some influence in these things

looooooool as if on cue

well. that sure doesn’t sound like he intends to keep them out of harm’s way. does he really have that much faith in them??

serious question, why exactly are all of the heroes seemingly so confident that this is going to work? it scares me because it makes me feel like in spite of Hawk’s intel they still don’t have a clue what they’re truly up against

so now we’re cutting to some random street somewhere and WOULD YOU LOOK WHO IT FUCKING IS

Slidin’ Go Suck An Egg. oh how I hate this man

look at him

I hate his stupid face!

OH SHIT

TRAFFIC CONE MAN, ARE YOU FINALLY GOING TO REDEEM YOURSELF FOR NOT RESCUING KACCHAN ON THAT DAY TWO YEARS AGO BECAUSE YOU WERE AFRAID OF A LITTLE SLUDGE? BECAUSE I’M HERE FOR IT! IF YOU WANT TO JUST GO AHEAD AND SNAP HIS NECK, I WILL TURN THE OTHER WAY AND ACT LIKE I DIDN’T SEE, I PROMISE

wow, Burnin’s team really is just evacuating people

I mean they’re obviously going to run into a Noumu, and just like that they’ll be in more danger than anyone, but at least for now it really does seem like the minds behind this raid wanted to keep them relatively out of danger. so yeah, for now I’m gonna chalk that up to Endeavor’s influence that they’re here rather than in the forest with the rest of their class

and here comes the hospital team!

well that answers my question about Nao’s rank. so he’s not even a chief. that really is fucking ridiculous but whatever

and why do I feel like this poor undercover subordinate is mere seconds away from becoming the first casualty in what I think is about to become the most violently snafued situation we’ve seen in this manga to date. like this shit is going to make Kamino look like the fucking state fair. fuck

...

I really wish I could believe that he was about to go down and it really was going to be just that easy

HERE WE GO!!

(ETA: so then they do know that he’s the guy who made the Noumu? including the one that nearly took him out in Kyushu? and they’re still acting like this is going to be a walk in the park? ?? what??)

knock knock, who’s there, JUSTICE

YESSSSSSS

(ETA: sure hope Endeavor’s light here doesn’t go summoning any darkness. welp.)

YOU’RE UNDER ARREST FOR CRIMES OF BEING TOO HORRIBLE TO EVEN FUCKING CONTEMPLATE, LET ALONE JOKE ABOUT! YOU SON OF A BITCH, GET FUCKED

oh my god. we’re really just gonna end it like that. well I guess next chapter we can all play a fun game of “let’s all count the pages until everything goes horribly wrong.” won’t that be a laugh. 10 to 1 the Noumu really are in the secret room and they’re all gonna be set loose by next week’s cliffhanger. remind me to have “Into the Trap” by John Williams cued up and ready to go lol