My Hero Academia Season 7

Episode 154

If I had to describe our heroes' situation last week, it would somewhere between “screwed” and “turbo-screwed.” Seemingly everything that could go wrong did, leaving our major fighters scrambling to handle three power-houses simultaneously, while Deku was about to face a fully active Shigaraki. As if that wasn't enough, this episode's opening minutes introduce some new problems, just to make it clear how much the good guys are about to get wrecked six ways to next Saturday. Deku is hyperventilating under the stress of Gearshift. Skeptic has disabled UA's flight capabilities, and the entire flying fortress is plummeting to the ground. It's the perfect picture of peril for our entire cast. The night is truly at its darkest.

So of course, that's when a hero arrives.

I don't know that I have the words to describe the sheer, unadulterated joy I experienced when Gentle and La Brava arrived on the scene. One of my favorite things in any kind of shonen story is when a minor character introduced forever ago arrives at the just the right moment to shift the tide, and Horikoshi couldn't have picked a more lovable duo to do it with. If you're one of those fun-hating squares who called the Culture Festival story line “filler” and didn't experience the bittersweet story of these down-and-out YouTube menaces, then you sadly can't appreciate how affirming it is to see them arrive a the last moment and – if not turn the tide of battle – add that little spark of hope our heroes need to keep on fighting.

More importantly, these two are a prime of example of what Deku's trying to accomplish in this whole conflict with Shigaraki. Gentle and La Brava could have easily been tossed behind bars and forgotten about. Yet the compassion they were shown – alongside their stalwart love for one another – kept them moving towards the light, until they arrived at just the right time and place to make a difference. Sure, in the grand scheme of things it's a stretch to call either of these Team Rocket rejects “villains” with any conviction, but what Tsukauchi says still stands. Every “villain” started off as a regular person, and if we want to build a more compassionate world, where violence and prison aren't the only two option for people, it's up to the heroes to acknowledge it. It's a beautiful moment, bringing together a crowd-pleasing character turn, an exciting action set piece, and a wonderful thematic link to continue chaining this battle and the ultimate story of MHA together.

And then they do it again.

That's right boys and girls, the one and only Mommy Gun, Lady Nagant, is back with a vengeance and if you ain't hootin' and hollerin', you ain't breathin'. It's a perfect closer to this episode, punctuating the highs and lows, and the ultimate sign that Deku's true power as a hero isn't One For All or his ability to mix those quirks together. All those abilities still left him having a panic attack with Shigaraki moments from obliterating countless lives. No, what saved him here – and may have just saved the world, was that when he saw somebody lost in the darkness, hurt and exploited by the people they trusted, he reached out a hand to appeal to their better nature. Here, that resulted in a perfectly placed shot to keep the fight alive. Whether or not that can work with Shigaraki is another question, but like the rest of this episode, it's proof that abandoning “villains” isn't the only solution.

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My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.