Boku no Hero Academia 76 Review: Over Nine Thousand

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 76: My Hero

Boku no Hero Academia likes to put its title at the end of the chapter of significant events, and it's a great move, where a super-awesome character defining moment takes place and the title is just absolutely appropriate for said moment. Like this chapter. "My Hero" indeed. 

Also, we get a colour page showing all the villains against all the students. There are at least two more villains that haven't shown up in the story, the multi-armed black-bodysuit ninja man next to Magne, and a psychotic masked magician next to Dabi. We get to see the official hair and clothes colours of most of the characters too, what with the manga getting an anime soon and everything. Having the hands around Shigaraki be white just isn't as creepy as having them the same colour as his skin. Dabi's weird stitched-up skin parts are purple. Momo's insane cleavage (she's like 17 or something dammit) is far, far more noticeable in colour. No idea who that orange-haired Chinese-clothed girl next to Momo is. Is that Invisible Girl?

Ahem. The chapter itself is pretty straighforward, having Midoriya fight the still-unnamed Muscle Man. It's pretty basic, just showing a crapton of Heroic Determination, but the way its done is just perfect. Midoriya seems to have won initially with his 100% Punch, but Muscle Man ends up absorbing all of it with a muscle shield (ewww) and that kinda confirms that Midoriya's 100% isn't quite anywhere near All Might's 100%. Midoriya's desperation is absolutely well-portrayed here, from the art to the panicked dialogue to the hurried-sounding lines of Midoriya's monologue as he tries to think of a way out. 

Mr. Muscle is just psychotic and gets serious, putting a creepy artificial eye on, and Midoriya is just trying his hardest to survive and it just portrays the danger quite well. Muscle Man is a horrifyingly insane antagonist and even if Midoriya is the main character the writing and art really makes it unclear if Midoriya will be able to triumph or if he'll need to be bailed out. We get moments of determination, how Midoriya tells himself silently that helping others is why he became a hero. He tells Kouta to run away as soon as he engages Muscle, and even when they are broken, tears in his eyes, Midoriya still summons enough strength to do another 100% Detroit Smash. 

The expressions as Muscle just overwhelms Midoriya, Midoriya screaming, Mr Muscle noting that this punch is weaker than before, the gross muscle fibers just overwhelming Midoriya, the short mental farewell to his mother and to All Might... and then Kouta shoots some water at Mr. Muscle that does jack shit, because, y'know, it's water. Not even high-pressure water or whatever, but just a spray of water. This distracts Muscle enough, though, for Midoriya to summon enough strength to do... a 1,000,000% Delaware Detroit Punch. How exactly did this happen, how exactly did he summon this strength -- if it's some quirk of One For All, if it relates to the spirits of previous users, if Midoriya just surpassed his older limit, or if it's just good ol' fashioned Goku BURNING SPIRIT, it's still awesome. Midoriya literally slaps Mr. Muscle onto a mountain, Kouta is all "why would you go that far to save someone you don't know" and all that, and Midoriya just screams in victory as Kouta flashbacks to Mandalay telling him that heroes will risk their lives to save the innocent.

Great chapter. Nothing overtly creative or mould-breaking, but sometimes a well-written version of a well-known trope is still good stuff to read. Like this one.