Boku no Hero Academia 124 Review: Phasing Powers 101

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 124: The Quickening

Mirio is awesome, isn't he? Todoroki isn't joining in because he hasn't gotten his provisional license yet, and neither is Bakugou because I forgot he's still in house arrest, but Mirio still manages to take down everyone else. Yes, there is Midoriya not shaking in his boots and going "we need to figure out his powers!" which impresses both Mirio and Emo-Kid (who likens the other students' panicking to someone who's all 'holy shit it's awesome' when presented with an athlete's skills without knowing the proper workings of it).

There's a cool moment where Mirio sinks through the ground and pops up behind Midoriya, phasing through his Full Cowl strike, blinding him by phasing his fingers through his eyes, and punching him in the gut with a solidified punch. Yeah, all of them goes down from single punches, and they all note how OP Mirio is, please nerf. There's actually an interesting theory posed by Ashido, that maybe Mirio is a hybrid like Todoroki, having both teleportation and phasing-through-matter powers. 

Mirio then explains that his power, Permeation, allows him to phase through objects, but if he cancels his powers while being submerged in the ground, the mass can't overlap and he gets catapulted out instead. It's one of the more curious applications of phasing powers, addressing very neatly something that many other superheroes with phasing powers just prefer to ignore -- what happens if the power cancels out when you're stuck inside a solid object? 

But Mirio reveals that his quirk is a pretty shitty one, which is a theme in this series -- like Midoriya, who's gifted with a powerful quirk as well, Mirio's quirk actually hides a lot of disadvantages, and he has practiced very, very hard to overcome them. How when he's phasing, he truly is phasing, obeying the laws of Physics that come with that. His ears and eyes no longer conduct sound or light, his lungs can't breathe, he can't feel anything, yet he still has mass so he can fall. And even phasing through a wall is shown with a diagram of how he has to activate and deactivate his quirk on different parts of his body... and he has to be able to control such minute-management in combat.

Mirio notes how he wants to show off not his power, but his experience, and it's this experience he wants Class 1A to seek, basically. Mirio also notes to his fellow Big Three that Midoriya might like this enigmatic 'sir'. 

We get some hilarious scenes later on in the dorm -- namely Bakugou going "BRING YOUR TRASH TO MEEEEEE!" in the background with Tokoyami raising his hand, while everyone else is talking and discussing about internship. Midoriya tries asking Gran Tourino, but he's busy and unwilling, and after a brief discussion Gran Tourino directs Midoriya to All Might's former sidekick.

So yeah, apparently the sidekick business is alive and well in the world of My Hero Academia. All your Robins and Wonder Girls and Superboys and Buckys and Aqualads, you still have a job here. I think the dude in the suit is supposed to be the aforementioned sidekick? He's the leader of a squad that's chasing down Overhaul (dude with the plague doctor mask and the creepy powers we saw briefly before)... who's apparently made contact with Twice (hilarious as ever) and Shigaraki. Well, time for more villains to have fun together. That's always good.