My Hero Academia, Chapter 188: My Father is the No. 1 Hero; Chapter 189:
More of a catch-up read than an actual review, honestly. This pair of chapters have been focusing solely on Endeavour and Hawks fighting against this mysterious High-End Noumu, and it's been a pretty fun set of chapters! Endeavour is in a pretty interesting character right now because he's given the audience equal amounts of reasons to hate and root for him. On one hand, he's such a huge prick towards his family, and the abuse he did to his wife and his children isn't something that is going to be handwaved aside with a "oh he feels bad so it's okay". This isn't Fairy Tail. And there's a neat bit where the characters themselves even note this fact.
But on the other hand, as Hawks notes, Endeavour is the Number One Hero, and is where everyone in the world is looking at right now. Plus, we love to root for heroes who doesn't give up, and god damn the sequence of scenes as Endeavour continues to ignite his flames over and over just to get closer to the Noumu and deliver a blow... it's pretty damn badass, and even as someone who's far less willing to forgive Endeavour compared to the majority of the fandom, I can respect his sheer balls and badassery in these scenes. Definitely some shades of the generic shounen protagonist in the Endeavour scenes, but this is a case where tropes aren't bad when done properly, and allowing the characters adequate screentime and organic progression.
Plus, that scene in 189 where we get that monologue from Hawks about how everyone has treated the chasm between everyone else to All Might as this insurmountable gap, but Endeavour is the only character who dares to try and breach that gap, even if he has to resort to putting planks over the chasm? And that everyone's just waiting for All Might to be replaced (which might genuinely not happen) instead of rooting for the one man trying his best to be Number One? It's a pretty badass scene, and best of all it doesn't feel like an asspull because, yes, Endeavour has been trying to become Number One despite the insurmountable gap between him and All Might. But now he's the struggling hero trying to do his best instead of the prissy jackass rival.
Oh, and the badass artwork really makes it pretty damn satisfying to read, too. Between the pain on Endeavour culminating in that bloody wound on his face, or the scenes of Hawks being a badass motherfucker and the uber-Noumu regenerating, it's genuinely impressive.
(And also, not trying to be a dick to Fairy Tail, but in two chapters My Hero Academia has done more with the concept of a character with fire powers than the entire series of Fairy Tail has ever done)
We even get a fair chunk of world-building in 188 about just why Endeavour wanted a kid with ice powers (because his own fire powers will burn his stamina out), Hawks powers (control over the feathers, as well as being pretty damn badass) as well as the Noumu being an amalgamation of multiple powers.
Overall, a pretty damn impressive series of chapters. I genuinely wasn't ready for this when I came into these two chapters knowing that they're going to be Endeavour-centric, since I came out of these chapters actively rooting for Endeavour. He's a horrible father and husband, but god damn if he isn't a badass superhero.
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