Tuesday 26 April 2016

My Hero Academia 87-88 Review: Pizza Delivery

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 87: Clash


A good chunk of this chapter is just dedicated to Team Midoriya just skulking around the warehouse where Yaoyorozu's tracker thing leads to, and after some urban sneaking around scenes upon which a bunch of drunk perverts pervs on Yaoyorozu, they discover that the warehouse contains, well, Noumus in tanks. 

Meanwhile, Shigaraki tells Blackmist and Compress to take Bakugou out... and then someone knocks the door and goes all "hello, this is a pizza delivery!" After which All Might pulls the mother of all dynamic entry. SMASSSHHHH indeed! Black Mist goes off and tries to make a gate, but these are professional heroes with the element of surprise. 

In the time it takes for All Might to hit the floor, Kamui Wood has spidermanned into the room and binds every single villain with wood tendrils. Dabi tries to burn the wood, but before he can even flame on, Gran Tourino whacks him in the head. All Might announces all three of them with a dynamic "for we are here!" Well, this would be awesome to see animated, I am sure. Edge Shot, the dude with the crazy looking Shouji-Yugi hair, can apparently squeeze through the door crack though next chapter would make his power apparent. And apparently a very pissed-off Endeavour and an entire police army has held things up outside.

All Might talks to Bakugou and tries to comfort him, and the poor kid looks like he's going to cry out of happiness, but he brushes it off with a bit of dickery. 

Shigaraki goes all 'last boss' and is angry, and demands Black Mist summon all the Noumus he can, but, well, Black Mist isn't able to. 

Because, as All Might notes, the professionals' wrath is no fun and games. Mount Lady has shown up at the storage facility, rendering all the students' snooping around useless. She uses a truck to smash the building apart, and Best Jeanist apparently has string powers and had strung up and even cut apart a couple of Noumus. Tiger has recovered poor Ragdoll, who's naked. Um. Also All Might looks scary as hell in that panel.

Yeah. For all the blustering and 'we need to act now' that the students did, y'know, these adults have been superheroing for longer than they have. These aren't the incompetent higher-ups that are so common in these kind of settings. This chapter is awesome, and really makes great use of these exoteric-looking dudes we've seen a bit of here and there. Kamui, Mount Lady, Jeanist... I always love it when B-list characters get a moment to shine. 

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 88: All for One


Shigaraki rants about how this is just the beginning, even though Stain is scared shitless of All Might. He goes on and on for a good page and a half and is about to tell Black Mist (Kurogiri, whatever) to do something when, well, something lances from off-screen and stabs the shadow butler in the chest. Again, pros. Magne and Toga are freaking out, and we get the revelation that this is Edge Shot's quirk, which allows him to manipulate the thickness and thinness of his body. Basically an Elongated Man/Plastic Man/Mr Fantastic style ability, but instead of being rubbery he turns into very thin paper. Which can lance out like a spear. He can apparently transform like the speed of sound. And is a ninja otaku and goes all 'Ninpo' and all like Naruto.

And, hell, the heroes have even found out the real names of all the villains there (Magne is Hikiishi Kenji, Compress is Sako Atsuhiro, Stain is Iguchi Shuichi, Toga is Toga Himiko, Twice is Bubaigawara Jin; damned if I'm going to remember any of these). We get a short flashback of a kid Shigaraki Tomura... or, rather, Shimura Tenko. We know All Might's predecessor was a Shimura. So, uh, yeah, Shigaraki's probably his kid or something. 

As Shigaraki rants about how it's 'not like this, vanish, nonsense', an unknown figure (All for One, I suppose) in the flashback talks about how all the heroes have ignored Shigaraki, how someone made the world like this, and he shouldn't end  up like this, but "it's okay now. I'm here", in a twisted parody of All Might's catchphrase. 


And as Shigaraki roars I HATE YOU, two Noumus appear from goopy portals in the air. It's definitely not Black Mist since it's goop instead of mist, and the heroes there ascertain it immediately. But while everyone is distracted by the Noumus, the same black slimy goop come out of Bakugou's mouth and envelop him, before blooping out to nothingness. They seriously just gave us a Bakugou rescue chapter only for the villains to kidnap him again? Can't even be mad, really. All Might is distraught, but has no time to really think about it, because Endeavour and the police army outside are attacked by a Noumu army as well.

Their attempts at contacting Best Jeanist fail, and we everyone goes 'oh shit...'

We get to see what's going on two minutes ago, where Team Midoriya witnesses the aftermath of Best Jeanist, Mount Lady, Tiger and, uh, orca-suit dude's attack. Best Jeanist's power is confirmed to be manipulation of fabrics, and he notes the importance of their mission, however easy it was. Tiger tries to talk to the naked Ragdoll, but she's apparently quite addled in the head. All for One steps out of the shadows, or well, I assume that's him. He talks about how he thought she had a useful quirk, and had taken it. Ragdoll's quirk is 'radar', I believe? Well, we have our first victim of All for One's quirk pillaging, I guess.

All for One notes how his stock has 'fallen quite a bit'. Best Jeanist immediately attacks and binds the unseen figure with his own clothes, talking about preemptive strikes. Then we cut away to a two-page spread of utter devastation with All for One floating in the air, with bodies strewn around everywhere. A 'time passes' panel is on the right side of the page, so apparently All for One just wiped the floor with everyone present no effort at all. 

We get Midoriya and company being absolutely scared shitless, noting that in a single instant everyone is fucked up and the man's aura made them see death itself, and the final page portrays him as, well, this giant mass of darkness and evil. I'm pretty sure it's just a bit of a symbolic imagery, but damn, that's awesome. 

So yeah, after a 'heroes win' chapter, we have a 'villains win' chapter. Shigaraki is definitely just an unstable kid with a particularly powerful backup in All for One, who is just a force to be reckoned himself, wheelchair bound or otherwise. 

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