By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
My Hero Academia has its share of detractors, and even those who have followed the series since the beginning have had trouble keeping up with the superhero saga. Yet, with Season 7, the anime has proved it’s worth the journey of watching Deku and the students of Class 1A from the very beginning. “The Chain Thus Far,” Episode 16 of Season 7, and Episode 156 overall, was one of the most satisfying and cathartic episodes of any anime, with one moment, one bullet, that turned it from an anime I thought was pretty good, to one of my all-time favorites.
Their Darkest Hour
In “The Chain Thus Far,” Deku is facing off with the awakened Shigaraki, while the other heroes, scattered across Japan, are about to be defeated following Spinner’s successful mission to free Kurogiri. At the darkest moment in My Hero Academia, Deku is weakened form using Gearshift and can’t react to Shigaraki in time, while Skeptic, the villain’s expert hacker, has infiltrated U.A. High School and is going to crash the floating island, when suddenly, La Brava, the villainous girlfriend of Gentle Criminal, hacks Skeptic’s system and takes control.
Where La Brava goes, Gentle Criminal follows, and the villain from one of the most disliked arcs of Season 4 makes a grand entrance to stop an entire floating island from falling into the ocean. Gentle Criminal wanted nothing but to be a hero, and it was only Deku who saw this, reaching out back during the “School Festival” arc and giving him a chance, which finally paid off in one of My Hero Academia’s greatest moments. As satisfying as it was seeing the two villains return on the side of the angels, it paled to the sudden shock of Shigaraki’s hand, moments from touching the ground to spread his decay for miles, being shot from miles away by the world’s greatest sniper.
The Greatest Hero
Even My Hero Academia’s manga readers, who knew about her return, took to social media after the anime’s reveal that Lady Nagant, her limbs covered in bandages, sniped Shigaraki from miles away on top of the hospital she’s been in since barely surviving All For One’s booby-trapped quirk during the “Dark Deku” arc. The sudden rescue by a character we thought was dead and would never be seen again needed one second to justify the entire theme of the anime. Deku doesn’t become the world’s greatest hero because he’s the most powerful, he’s the greatest hero because he inspires everyone to be better.
Deku has been a controversial character among anime fans since the series first premiered, from those saying he cries too much to others trying to insist Bakugo is the real hero, but the arrival of La Brava, Gentle Criminal, and Lady Nagant proves he’s right. Since the very first episode, My Hero Academia viewers have seen Deku trying to raise others up, insisting that they are all in this together, winning over even the jaded Pro Heroes, like Sir Nighteyes, with his boundless optimism. By choosing to see the good side of everyone, even Shigaraki, Deku was able to get three villains to change their ways when the world needed them the most.
My Hero Academia has been behind its contemporaries, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer, for years, but with a prequel series, Vigilantes, on the way and the cathartic roller coaster ride of Season 7, the superhero series finally deserves to be considered one of the best anime of all time. When hope is lost, the heroes are losing, and the world’s at its darkest moment, the World’s Greatest Hero saves the day not with a Detroit Smash but by being an inspiration. All it took was one bullet.