#and it's a long ass reply to someone who didn't ask for anthg

[bokunowtv]

This post is interesting and well-researched, so thank you for putting in the effort to try and understand the character.

That said, I disagree with several points. I hope you're open to discussion? If you're not feel free to ignore this reply.

First of all, I think you might be confusing the tumblr echo-chamber (sorry to put it like that but I do think it's a problem with this site) with western culture. For example, you say stuff like this:

"In the west many feel Enji did nothing for Touya or did too little because the little he did is a given in the west"

I've lived almost my entire life in a western country with western values, and I really disagree that what Enji is doing for Touya would be "a given" anywhere in the world.

Touya is not some kind of petty criminal. He's a mass-murderer and serial-killer who was in cahoots with quirk-supremacists and human traffickers. He sent a suicidal madman after his own family, attempted multiple times to kill his little brother, and succeeded in destroying his father's career and body.

99% of fathers would have dropped his ass. Renounced him. You cannot tell me that you really think that in the west, a guy can gleefully try and murder his brother then put his father in wheelchair, without showing an ounce of remorse, and that it is "a given" that said father will react not with anger, but with love and commitment like Enji did. Idk I remember checking lists of serial killers and it seems like you might have an idealized view of western dads because they're not that forgiving.

Enji is promising to drag his disabled body every day to talk to Touya. He doesn't feel sorry for himself. He doesn't blame Touya. He's praising him. He's trying to comfort him. He's willing to take his poison every day if that's what would make his son happy. He doesn't see him as a monster, in spite what Dabi did to him and the absolutely atrocious crimes he committed. He sees only the boy he wronged. He's giving him a love that is truly unconditional (because there's literally no way Touya could make himself a worse human being than that, and Enji still loves him), when by law, and even by most cultural mores, Enji doesn't owe Dabi anything at this point. Dabi took his own revenge, he made his father suffer. Nobody owes love and kindness to someone who took so much satisfaction from torturing them to this extend (including by attempting to murder their kids, it's fucked up). This would be considered beyond even parental duty.

Second, to me and I believe most people in the western fandom, it was absolutely not "crazy" that Enji "gave up" on saving Touya???? I've honestly only seen this opinion from Dabi fans (same ones who are always trying to blame every single thing he does on his father).

The thing is, the story is just not written like Enji had another out there. He had none. Touya was saved because of miraculous (and to be honest, extremely contrived) circumstances. Touya turned himself into a nuke. He was going to die and take a shitload of people with him. His brain was so fried he couldn't understand what Enji was saying to him. These are just the facts of the story. Enji had no means at his disposal to reverse the effects. Nothing. His only options were to try and explode Touya from a distance or die with him, and as a father he chose the second option. It was an enormous coincidence that Rei, Fuyumi and Natsuo's underground car was sabotaged, it was an unpredictable spur-of-the-moment decision from Rei to jump into the fire, it was an extraordinary feat that Shouto managed to catch up to them just in time.

It seems like you're arguing that Enji had a better choice here, when the author went out of his way to show he didn't. The overwhelming majority of the western fandom understood that this was a father moment for Enji, that he was showing love for his son and atoning in the only way he could. It worked for most people. It didn't work for the small subsection that seems to think the heroes not coming up with magical solutions to save the villains is their fault. *shrug*

(To be clear, I do not love this conclusion for the Todoroki. They were all driven into a corner and succeeded because the "masterpiece" overpowered the "failure", twice. Meh.)

As for Enji's decision to visit Touya everyday... I'm really sorry but I can't for the life of me take the complaining about this seriously. I just can't. People who criticize Enji for this are just not making any effort at his point. They don't want to understand the story, they're haters who want to rage at a character. I'm sorry, I understand that you may think I'm being a jerk or overly aggressive here. But I swear, I'm just being honest. I do not think it's possible to misread that moment to this extend in good faith:

Enji is obviously, very explicitly doing this FOR Touya because it's what TOUYA WANTS. Touya made it abundantly clear that he wants his dad to watch him???? Like he couldn't have been more clear???? And why do people act like Touya has no choice but to accept his presence? Touya had no problem acting sassy just moments earlier. If he didn't to see his dad everyday, he'd have just said so???? And Enji has made it very clear with Natsuo that he would accept that graciously, that it was his kids' right to choose not to be in his life anymore. But that's not what Touya wants. Touya wants Enji to visit him. Touya's heartbeat started acting up the moment Enji said he'd come back because he was so touched.

The problem is not that the story wasn't written for westerners, it's that some people just don't read the same manga as everyone else at this point.

And at the end of the day, I think this is the crux of the problem. The difference between your part of the fandom and mine. It's not a matter of western vs Japanese culture. For me it's first and foremost a matter of sympathy:

From what I saw, plenty of western readers thought Enji was punished enough, felt sorry for what he had to go through, everything he lost, and the hell he is promised. And there are Japanese fans who hate Enji and thought he got off easy (though not as many as in the west). For me, it feels like the fans who dislike Enji's arc often dehumanize him, project their own abusers on him, see him as just a vehicle for atonement for their favs, do not regard him with any sympathy. For these people, his arc is not satisfying because 1) they didn't want it in the first place, and/or 2) they only care about results. But Hori wrote Enji's arc to be about Enji - his struggle, his change, his failures, his internal resolutions. It doesn't matter if he succeeds externally, what's important is the endeavor: that he tries and keeps trying even after he's been beaten down. It's consistent, dynamic, real, mature and so very human that it resonated with loads of fans from Western, Middle-eastern and Asian countries. I'm always seeing western fans (not even primarily Endeavor fans) say that his arc is one of the best they've read in Shonen. All that in spite of the cultural divide, because the themes his character carries are universal.

So, for many of us, it was touching to show that he won't be alone in his suffering - that his good deeds, efforts and sacrifices are seen and appreciated. Hori gave Enji the harsher ending out of all his heroes (main characters), so to me that touch of compassion even felt essential to uphold the BNHA message. I do not think it was necessary to show him still atoning, because tbh we've been told over and over for 100s of chapters that he will. The whole of 426 was about stating that he'll keep atoning to his family. We know.

For the fans that don't enjoy his arc - a lot of them hold contradictory positions. Untenable positions tbh. It's honestly more than fine to dislike Enji and love the villains. And it's ok to be sad, disappointed and hurt when characters we love don't get happy endings. But I personally think that if they want to write valid criticism of the story (as opposed to just ranting to friends who already agree anyway), you need to be able to first view your own positions from a critical point of view.

This last part isn't directed at you specifically. The reason I replied to your post is because I do recognize a genuine effort to try and understand, even if I personally disagree with some of the premise (that understanding Japanese culture is essential to appreciating Enji's arc).

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Boku no Hero Academia has a grave 'flaw'. The fact that's strongly tied to Japanese culture and Buddhism makes it a very interesting work but also makes it a hardly international work because way too many cultural things are left unexplained because they're assumed to be a given. Only they're not when the work is read by foreign readers. And this lead to confusion.

The Todoroki plotline is an example of this.

In the west many feel Enji did nothing for Touya or did too little because the little he did is a given in the west. The point is... it's not a given in Japan. In Japan is a BIG DEAL. So let's go though it.

First, the fact that he doesn't want to kill Touya even though he's a criminal

Todoroki Enji ‘Ore wa ikinobite mo... ENDEAVOR wa shinda. Tairyō satsujinsha (read: musuko) to tatakaenai.’ 轟炎司「俺は生き延びても...エンデヴァーは死んだ。大量殺人者（むすこ）と戦えない。」 Todoroki Enji “Even if I survived... Endeavor is dead. I can't fight against a mass murderer (read: my son).”

Let's compare it to these two scenes of "Death Note" and see how Yagami Soichiro, a policeman, is taking the idea his son might be a killer and how, although Misa protests, the story doesn't present it as him being crazy but as it being his duty.

That's why Hawks doesn't want to send Enji, who's on an atonement path, to face Dabi, because Enji might end up in a situation in which he would have to kill his son and he would refuse... which is more or less what happens.

Second, Enji acknowledges that what Touya said is true, Touya is his son and Enji did what he did. In such a situation many would lie. Dabi's video proves nothing. He is a Villain, they had a doctor in the team who could create Nomu, the paternity test could be fake, even if Dabi were to provide a sample of his blood or skin they could insist that's fake.

Society didn't want the truth, they don't want Enji to confess, they wanted him to reassure them, they even commented he should have lied because yes, that's what's done often.

Basically he put his honor on the chopping block. A public apology like this one is a BIG DEAL in Japan. It's much more serious than in western countries and he does it when he could have spared himself and say Dabi lied but that would have meant to deny his son.

Third, it connects to the first in a way. While Enji is unwilling to kill Touya, he's willing to die with him. It's ‘shinjū’ (心中 Lit. “Mind/heart center/inside” but more likely means “oneness of hearts”, probably reflecting a psychological link between the participants) and it’s a word used in common parlance to refer to any group suicide of two or more individuals bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. People who commit shinjū believe that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in Edo period Japan, which taught that the bond between loved ones would continue into the next world, and by the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism wherein it is believed that through shinjū, one can approach rebirth in the Pure Land. By volunteering to die with him, Enji is basically agreeing to remain with him in their next reincarnation.

For us it's crazy, it's Enji giving up on saving him. In Japan it sounds like 'I love you and I want to be with you'.

Forth, he'll apologize to Touya. As said before it's a BIG DEAL, especially since Enji is the family head and, although for us most of what he did is wrong, in Japan most of what he did is well within what he can do. Marrying a woman you don't love in a combined marriage to expect the child who'll be born from it will fulfill your ambitions and not really bothering to raise it because that's a mother job, well, things are changing in Japan but none of the above is a crime. In a not so distant past it was actually the norm. Yet Enji apologizes even though normally a family head wouldn't.

Fifth it's a bit in the first point and in the second but it'll drag on through all the story, Enji won't reject Touya. He's the only one (except Fuyumi who however doesn't get to say much) who never calls him Dabi after the reveal, and he won't strike him out of the family register but will keep on considering him his son.

Look at the Tobitas instead and at how they kick their son out.

Don't think Hawks is cutting strings with his parents solely because they were abusive, the Tobitas show us how you should just cut strings with a criminal. Same as the Togas.

Have "Theseus no fune" in which a man accused to be a murderer, send a birthday gift to his son and watch the reaction of his wife.

They don't want to keep contact with a criminal. It's scary because they'll be mistreated if they are discovered to be related to him.

And, in this vein, the fact he wants to go see him, that he'll keep on seeing him till the end instead than turning his back on him, is seen as important. It's seen as him being his father.

To many of us it seems as if he's forcing his presence upon Touya. Actually, from a Japanese perspective he's instead not abandoning him like many others would.

And since Touya is dying, very likely the talking will be the talking that's done in a Buddhist culture when someone is dying. Death should occur in a calm and peaceful environment, with close friends and family in attendance. Together they should reflect on the good deeds the dying person has done throughout their life, in the hopes it will help them in their next reincarnation. Additionally, family and friends can perform good deeds on behalf of them, which they believe will be of merit to the deceased.

So, since Touya is dying he won't get a scolding like Chisaki, they'll all only tell him nice and soothing things so he'll die peacefully.

Now... in the west all this is absolutely way too little, and in some points even feels wrong. Dying together instead than insisting in trying to save him? Deciding unilaterally to show up every day? Not our thing...

We can totally say 'thanks, I hate it' because we grew up with Darth Vader who instead gave his life to SAVE his son. All this accepting that Touya instead is going to die so Enji can at best die with him or keep him company until he does... well, it's mostly not our cup of cultural tea.

In in Japan though, all Enji does is important. Enji is doing something for Touya as a father, something important many fathers wouln't do for their sons.

Does it would satisfy a Japanese audience? They'll get the message better than us... but things are changing and anyway it can still feel too little. "Death Note" is dated 2005/2006 and back in it Misa was already questioning the idea of a father killing his son and then killing himself. BNHA is more innovative as Enji doesn't think to kill Touya but he still goes for the 'let's die together' route... and Horikoshi subtly criticizes it by having the rest of the family decising they'll try to stop the fire before just giving up. They're willing to die, but not before trying.

Enji represents plenty of old theories after all, which Horikoshi acknowledges were moved out of wrong beliefs, not moved by mean intents... which, is possible, would still not be enough for Japanese readers either because among teenagers, the target audience, there's an increasing number of teen who, in Japan, are forced to leave home (the Toyoko Kids) and often ends up committing crimes to survive and the league seems to be based on all the kind of homeless people Japan has.

While for a kid at home with a loving family being told that your father will die with him if he messes up instead than just dumping him might be comforting... for a kid that was abused and forced to leave home this might feel not enough.

People want to be saved, being told it's too late to save them, might be a lesson for those who hadn't done anything wrong yet so that they won't do it, but it's surely not a hopeful message for who instead got himself into troubles.

But well, that's something for the Japanese audience to ponder.

There's also to point out that, even though the message is not hopeful, Horikoshi is seeing the homeless people and acknowledging they should be helped.

Japan in regard to the Toyoko kids is mostly like the old woman who pretended not to see Tenko but that, in the end, helps that new boy.

I think Horikoshi's message desperately wants to be hopeful even for them, that he wants BNHA be like Midoriya's final stand, something that will push people to acknowledge they exist and reach out to help them.

It just that... it gets lost in what I'll call the 'litteral translation'.

No one explains us how we should jusge the scenes and, since we lack the cultural background, to us they are perceived differently because to us things work differently.

And, personally, even when I think I figured out the author's intent and can see the positivity of it, the cultural filter is still too tick and the picture gets blurried.

It's like being beginner at speaking a foreign language and having to constantly translate it in your head. The message loses its natural beauty, get simplified and not fully grasped.

I think I understand how Enji's atonement work in regard to Touya... it still doesn't feel fulfilling to me. But enough about Touya.

'Now,' you might rightfully say, 'fine, I'll bite, let's assume what Enji has is an atonement arc for Touya. It doesn't work at all in the west but let's give it a pass. What about his other kids?'

Natsuo and Fuyumi's wishes are in conflict.

Fuyumi wants the five of them to be a family (at the time she doesn't know Touya is alive), Natsuo doesn't want to be part of a family with Enji.

Enji's solution is giving Fuyumi a house in which she can welcome her mother and live with Natsuo (and Shouto when he comes home), while he removes himself from the equation. The solution fulfills Natsuo's wish of not seeing Enji because it makes him feel bad. It only partly fulfil Fuyumi's wish because it'll allow her to have her mother back (Rei couldn't bear meeting Enji either) and to stay with her siblings... but Enji takes responsibility for it, he doesn't tell her it's due to Natsuo that he can't live with them, so, in theory, it won't be Natsuo the one who's stressed to be at home when Enji is there and the one who has to leave home because he can't stand the sight of Enji.

There are many things I can say on how this is not a good solution (it doesn't make Natsuo feel better, it just stops him from feeling worse), but there are two points to consider. The first is that Enji is getting old and it would be his children's duty, due to filial pity, to take care of him, instead he's basically giving them the means to leave and take his wife with them.

Actually, since Natsuo is now the oldest MALE, it should fall on him specifically. Yes, Enji always intended to have Shouto inherit his mantle but this doesn't free Natsuo from his duties. Instead Enji is letting all his children free.

Even with Shouto, he doesn't insist anymore for Shouto to learn Flashfire Fist as his heir but just as an intern.

I take this is big in Japan.

Here again, not so much, especially in the countries in the west that think kids should leave their parents' home as soon as possible and we don't think our children are obliged to inherit our mantles.

Note how the story implies that this was meant to be the end for the Natsuo/Enji arc.

Natsuo made clear he didn't want to meet Enji again, he does it solely because they've to stop Touya and, once they've stopped Touya, he makes clear he doesn't want to see him again.

If we want though, the fact he's leaving the family can be seen as a concession in a way.

Since apparently Rei wants to stay with Enji (and likely their old house was devasted because that's what happens to relative of criminals) Enji can now move with Fuyumi and Rei and Natsuo won't have to see him because he'll leave home... to make his own home.

As for Shouto... Horikoshi answered his request by basically showing him Enji being a father for Touya and then promising he would protect them from the fiery fallout, which Horikoshi doesn't show at all because it's another thing that's a given in Japanese culture, it'll be hell for Enji to protect them, but not for us.

Just to get an idea of the fiery fallout here are some images from "Theseus no fune" again showing you how bad is this sort of thing.

Back to Enji, Horikoshi gives us verbal confirmation that Enji is now being a father by being willing to do this, by having Natsuo, who never called him as such, calling him father for the first time.

For Horikoshi that's Enji being a father.

Again, we've no idea of which hell Enji will suffer because that's not part of our culture. I've posted above screencaps of "Theseus no fune", that's how the fallout should be so not pretty at all.

So the fact that Enji will try to protect them from it is, again, BIG.

So yeah, Enji did do BIG things to atone and keeps on doing them and if he'll ultimately get forgiven by Natsuo (the rest of his family wanted to forgive him way before he were to do something), that's up to Natsuo... Horikoshi likely left this as open ending because he wanted to let it up to readers so as not to make them feel they were forced to forgive Enji.

In the general hopeful theme of the manga and with Natsuo acknowledging him as a cool father I guess his idea is that Natsuo too will eventually forgive him because he's kind.

I don't want to say that Natsuo forgiving Enji would be a culture clash because there's people even here that forgive their horrible parents and that's valid. Forgiving is a personal choice and one has the right to make it even if said horrible parent did nothing to deserve it.

It's up to you.

But sure is, if again we take the story at face value and not in its cultural contest, we can't see what Enji does to atone, because for us is nothing big.

It's even made worse by how Horikoshi doesn't show at all the hell Enji will go through (as for him is a given) so for us IT DOESN'T EXIST. We see Enji as having it easy, talking big but not having to face anything at all.

Honestly though... I think this is a bit of a flaw of the manga as a whole.

Way too often it prefers to focus on the good than on the bad so that the bad gets sidelined to much to the point people forget it.

There were horrible Heroes who committed crimes and had no intention to repent or stop... and we never met them. Nagant killed them off but we never met them.

Mountain Lady, who became a Hero for money and fame, then sticks to the job even when it's bad. Desugoro, who left the job when it turned bad, then came back to help. Enji is on an atonement path and, anyway, on work he was always a good Hero.

In the same way Horikoshi prefers not to show Enji's hardship but focus on how he'll have the support of his sidekicks, driver and Hawks... partly also because it ties in so well with the general message of everyone reaching out.

The result is that the Midoriya plotline of everyone reaching out becomes more important of the Enji atonement arc and overshadows it.

Enji's atonement arc ends in 426, chap 430 doesn't feel the need to tell us if Enji is keeping up with it despite the hardship, nor how his family is doing. It feels the need to reassure us that people will reach out for him even if he's in hell, that even if he had to give up on his family, he now as a new found family.

It's thematically consistent with the theme of reaching out but... the fact it overwrites the atonement arc honestly FOR ME doesn't work so great.

I think it's an overall problem of the 'reaching out message'.

While in itself is beautiful... it saves nothing I was lead to care about.

In Enji's case I was interested in his atonement arc, in how he could help his kids. I wanted more of that, partly because his atonement arc is so far from my culture, partly because it touched characters I cared about, I wanted to be reassured he would keep on working on it and that his family would be well.

Yes, he should be in hell, but the story didn't really work hard on trying to make me worry for him as it established already a support network for him. The story made me worry for the kids, for Touya, who was dying, for Fuyumi, who wanted back her family and won't have it, for Natsuo, who's marrying an unknown character so young, for Shouto, who has to cope with the loss of the brother with whom he wanted to connect.

I don't really care Burnin, Onima, Kido and Hawks are willing to continue to protect Enji, to reach out to help him, I knew they would, I wanted to be reassured Enji's kids are safe, well and protected. I wanted to see ENJI reach out and help them.

In this vein I don't really care the old grandmother saved a nameless abused kid, or, at least, not as much as I cared for Tomura to be saved. It's nice she saved him, it's nice he gets to live the life Tomura was denied but honestly, he's a mob character with a super tragic backstory created deliberately to force us to emotionally connect to him.

The message he now will be saved is good, but my emotional investment to him is too little.

The same applies to Uraraka's Quirk counsueling program, we knew next to nothing about the Quirk consueling previous program beyond that it didn't work (a real problem in Japan as they have a school consueling program that didn't work... and changes are in progress) and that now it supposedly does.

To how Shouji now solves peacefully plenty of conflicts caused by Heteromorph discrimination, which Horikoshi tossed in later and never really showed how to solve (and, don't take me wrong, it's not solved even by Shouji, he just solves peacefully the conflicts, how is up to everyone's speculation).

Long story short, I think Horikoshi worked really hard for BNHA to have an optimist, hopeful message... but part of it goes lost in cultural differences and part of it goes lost in how the story didn't try to get me invested in the things it's now saving.

So yeah, I'm still sad for this little panel in chap 430

I guess I'll eventually get over it. Today though, it's not that day.

On a positive note... if we count the pages of all the chapters that should go in vol 42 they're only 132. The chapters that were meant to go into Vol 39 had 165 (which yes, Horikoshi further expanded once the volume was released).

So yeah, unless Vol 42 will be slimmer than usual or that he'll add to it some sidestory or extra story, it's possible we'll get more plot in terms of epilogue. We'll see.

(also yes, I'm not touching Rei in this post. Rei is another can of worm entirely and one, I fear, Horikoshi doesn't care about. The poor woman doesn't even get a profile while Ikoma Komari does. And really, I do think Rei is much more important than Ikoma Komari)