#bnha 295

[iarts165]

[great-cats]

I will not be held accountable for the person I become when 294/295 get animated.

I'll be talking about it for weeks

[codenamesazanka]

So there’s Spinner. and it’s the end of March. and in the past two, three hours he’s survived a massive ambush of Heroes, learned that Twice died, and rode Machia who plowed through several cities to arrive at a barren wasteland where Shigaraki - Spinner’s friend, his leader, his gaming buddy, the boy that’s become the most important person in his life - and who Spinner hasn’t seen in months - is a comatose, charred wreck. It’s probably not how Spinner imagined their reunion to go.

One of Spinner’s remaining teammates suddenly reveals he’s the son of the Number 1 Hero (who for the sake of Pro-Heroics has use eugenics and abused his own family, all to be at the top of the system) and now Dabi is seeking to commit fratricide and praticide in one go, ready to burn himself up for it. Thankfully Dabi got stopped at the last second; unthankfully that’s because another Hero has shown up with steel cables to tie them all up tight enough to suffocate them. Machia has fainted. Shigaraki still isn’t waking up.

There’s no good options here, so Mr. Compress attempts to sacrifice himself - fully expecting to die - by gouging out chunks of his body in order to give Spinner a chance to wake Shigaraki and escape with the rest of the League because Shigaraki is literally the only person capable of doing anything about this situation. Mr. Compress is counting on Spinner (who is the most devoted to Shigaraki, who knows Shigaraki best, who Compress trusts and believes in to save Shigaraki and the rest of the team)

Basically everyone that’s left in their rapidly depleting League is counting on Spinner.

The Heroes’ backup have started to arrive and if they capture the League, the best case scenario is that they will throw Spinner and everyone in the indefinite detention that is Tartarus where he’ll literally never see the light of day - much less his friends - ever again for as long as he live.

Worst case scenario, Heroes will just kill him and everyone he cares about; they’ve already done so to Twice, and judging by the current state of Shigaraki, they’ve also tried really hard here too.

With only seconds left, Spinner has to try something. So he takes a gamble and his very last ditch effort to wake up Shigaraki - friend, leader, gaming buddy, someone he does not want to lose; and the only person capable of doing anything to save everyone - is to remind him of his rage—

Not because Spinner thinks rage is cool. But because Spinner himself knows and understands and empathizes with that rage - he feels it himself. It’s what motivated him to do something about the hell of an unjust society he’s living in; it’s what barely staves off the gaping and agonizing emptiness inside of him but hey, it’s something. It’s rage that keeps him going, has made Spinner finally feel alive after years of barely-living. Spinner know this and understand it and so does Shigaraki, how it’s the only thing left in both of their hollow shells when everything else failed, that rage—

So Spinner puts the hand on Shigaraki.

That's why he puts the hand on Shigaraki.

-

I think. if the hand must stand for afo’s toxic control and nothing else, then I think one must consider the additional relevant symbolic meaning that turning to AFO is a life-or-death decision of the hopelessly scared and desperate, because Heroes offered nothing else, or something even worse.

[scarlettcryptid]

tfw you think of eri running away and deku hugging her, wanting to help her and then you remember shigaraki walking around the streets being ignored with no one bothering to help him

[sattosugu]

“it looked like you needed saving...”

bnha 6.13 & ch. #295 - “final performance” 

[ihatetaxes99]

 Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, it is I, everyone's favourite favourite part-Irish, part-English, part-Welsh twat with yet more demented rambles to indulge in. I wish to talk about a problem I have felt with Boku No Hero for quite some time, one that I feel above all else has tarnished the series in regards to its quality of writing. So, here I am, jotting down my thoughts lest my head combust with it all. I shall try my hardest to keep the vociferous language to a minimum, if not outright eliminated, for I don't have much interest in hyperbole tonight. A basic little rundown of what I think may well have been the nails in BNHA's sacred palms.

 Spoilers below the cut. But I'm sure you knew that already.

 I would argue that this particular issue has been present in the manga persistently since Bakugo's non-sacrifice in Jaku. However, it only became truly evident to me in Chapter 295. The return of Mirio Togata. And hence, I introduce the problem.

 Horikoshi has taken to writing scenes based on their emotional appeal- or 'cool factor'- first, and logic second. Yes, BNHA is a superhero shonen set in a far-future Japan, but that does not excuse it from following its own logical consistency. Every fictional world has its own logic, and that can be as different from ours as it could desire, but it must stick to that logic. In BNHA's case, Quirks have had relatively little impact on society as a whole aside from the obvious, it's still very much a world that can be compared to our own twenty-first century experience. This is all to say that yes, prioritising grandiose set pieces over common sense is not something that can be hand waved away, as this is not a series such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which is built on an inherent silliness.

 To better explain my point, I want to take a look at a few scenes that in particular highlight my frustrations. First of all, Togata's return. It's cool, he's kicking ass and taking names (not that poor Sako has any ass to kick at that point), and it's a huge moment for fans of his character. However, upon relatively brief inspection, it falls apart. Togata recovers his Quirk by having Eri rewind his body, a rather ethically questionable act that can further the already-established questions into the morality of UA and the Japanese government that this arc did serve to push. However, the act itself is never shown, nor are any potential consequences. Eri, a girl who is far too traumatised to use her Quirk, is never shown actually overcoming that fear. Neither character seems to struggle in any way with what happened. Furthermore, Togata just appears on the battlefield from nowhere, conveniently at the best possible time. What compelled UA to make such a choice? It's implied that Aizawa is now her legal guardian and with him on the front lines, who gave consent for Eri to undergo this process, in spite of the dangers to both herself and Togata? All of this to send one extra soldier into the war, a soldier who, for all his flash, only served to arrest a man who most likely would have died had he not been captured and hospitalised. Mirio Togata looks cool, his Quirk is cool and seeing him in action again is no doubt intoxicating for his fans; But the simple fact of the matter is that the terms of his return make absolutely zero sense. This is also without mentioning the fact that him reattaining his Quirk spits in the face of BNHA's main themes of taking life's harshness and making the most out of a bad situation, even when you've lost everything. Togata faced a tangible loss in the Hassaikai Arc, a loss that could have haunted him for the rest of his life. But he was content, and he refused to indulge in self-pity. He made the most out of his bad situation. Now, none of that matters anymore. And he hasn't even done anything of any relevance since then. 

 Exhibit B, Kaina Tsutsumi's death. I am aware that she technically is not dead (somehow; Clearly Horikoshi never realised that giving everybody absurd plot armour doesn't do anything to reduce the distraction of the protagonist's), but let's face it, she won't be returning again, so she may as well be. Tsutsumi is a character I rather enjoyed while she was around. A former government agent, the same breed as Hawks, who realised the depraved depths of her indoctrination and fought back against the system, only to be tossed into Tartarus for it. It's a fascinating idea, one that capitalises upon my love for gritty, grounded government conspiracy plotlines. What becomes of it, then? Well, Tsutsumi is blown up by All for One for disobeying his orders. How does she disobey them? After making clear her distaste for the blind optimism in the hero system displayed by indoctrinated youth, she is swayed to the side of 'righteousness' by Midoirya's blind optimism in the hero system. It is well established that Midoriya is the exact kind of person Tsutsumi despises, with his blind faith in what has been preached to him as justice and his somewhat self-absorbed hero complex, so for him to convince her, a hardened nihilist who had spent the last decade in one of the worst prisons in the country, of the light in the world by demonstrating exactly that is… Well, there are words to describe it that I'm not willing to say right now, so let's just settle on frustrating, shall we? A falling, burning Tsutsumi, caught by Hawks, the shot of her rain-swept face smiling warmly as her head blows apart is a catching visual, and that visual is what the whole scene is built on, once again sacrificing any actual internal or external logic, as well as what has been established for the characters involved. 

 For the final example, I want to illuminate the events of Chapter 377, the most recent to be leaked. I shan't be sharing any direct spoilers for this chapter here, but I wish to bring it in, for it perfectly embodies my point. A certain character reappears, a character with a relatively loyal fanbase, who has not appeared in many years. This character's return is no doubt cause for jubilation for some, but once again, the shock and awe of a beloved character coming back to the story is a mask for the lack of underlying logic for their return. This character's return was not in any way foreshadowed before the final few pages of the chapter. Considering that they are seen next to Tsukauchi, one would think that he would have bothered to at least hint at this at some point in the setup for the current war (even just a vague line like "We've got a few bargaining chips we can use, some strings to pull…" would be preferable to nothing). The fact of the matter is that their return has one purpose; The story's writing explicitly failed in that it made Skeptic too powerful of a threat. He is far away from any of the battlefields, has complete control over UA's systems and is clearly insane enough to kill everyone inside if given the chance. This is not something the story can allow, so it pulls out this character to correct how Horikoshi wrote himself into a corner. Of course, one should also note that, while they were shown to be fairly tech literate, to suggest that they are on par with Skeptic is utterly absurd. Once again, the wow factor is given more care than the quality of writing and internal consistency.

 There are many more examples I could call upon. Bakugo's death and subsequent revival, the explosion of the Creature Rejection Clan mansion, anything involving All for One lately, the Stars And Stripes fight, I could go on. It's sloppy and it's lazy and it's killing the series that once stood at the top of the world. BNHA, like so many other shonen manga, is going out with a depressing whimper. It's almost as bad as Beastars. I said it. While it was never a perfect series, it did once have strong writing and consistency and that is why I still cherish a lot of the manga prior to the Jaku/Gunga Raid Arc. 

 For that reason, I wish to give an example of how in the past, Horikoshi avoided these pitfalls. The My Villain Academia Arc is heralded by many as the peak of the manga, and I am inclined to agree. Although not perfect, it has the strongest characterisation, world building and emotional draw of the series. So, I would like to take a moment to discuss how it ends. A powerful image. The great Re-Destro, always well-dressed, always immaculate, reduced to a naked, exhausted old man, bowing down to an angel of death, Tomura Shigaraki, the being he towered over mere minutes prior. It's a powerful image, one of my favourites in the series. In spite of that, Horikoshi does not use this image as a substitute for substance. Everything behind it is logical. It is well established that Yotsubashi's two key loves are for his ideology and human life, so in ceding control to Shigaraki, he is, in his mind, preventing further deaths and handing his future to who he sees as a fully liberated individual. As we soon see, this was a fatal mistake, for Shigaraki used the MLA as another tool in his path and ultimately discarded them once he was done, but it is clear to see why Yotsubashi saw it as the best option. The internal logic is consistent and sound. It's an example, one that wow factor does not have to be a substitute for satisfying storytelling, and that Horikoshi is far better than his recent output suggests. The man is ill, he's exhausted and he no doubt wants this Godforsaken series to end so that he can start writing something that he has passion for once again. I cannot blame him one bit. The reason I have written this is not to point and laugh at Horikoshi's failings; It is put into writing the heights that BNHA as a manga has fallen from, to its current point of mediocrity. No matter what, it will always be a series with moments that I shall hold dear. It was once something special, under that façade of bland shonen garbage and as much as that façade becomes the true face in the current state of the manga, I shall never forget how much it has helped me in the past.

 Thank you very much for reading and I wish you a pleasant day. If you disagree, please don't hesitate to share why; Healthy discussion on opposing viewpoints is how media thrives.

[antiquity1111]

Sorry to trouble you but was curious if you’re still doing MHA meta and work? Your stuff is amazing and insightful, always a pleasure to read and re-read, but it seems a lot of meta-writers for the fandom have slowly been disappearing.

Welcome to my Tumblr page! :) Thank you so much for your kind words and for checking in. You're not bothering me, I promise. I've definitely noticed a decline in the number of fans creating meta and translations for BNHA. There are all kinds of reasons for why people decide to take a step back from the fandom or abandon it altogether. Some are disappointed by the direction the manga has taken and is taking and are finding it difficult or impossible to enjoy the series the way they did in the past; some find certain narrative choices unforgivable; some have grown disillusioned with the manga, the fanbase, or both; some have found other series they're more emotionally invested in and giving more time to; some have become lurkers, consuming content from the shadows and avoiding direct interaction with other fans; and some have just been distracted with, well, life. Things have been rough on the home front for a while now, and I've been feeling absolutely drained by all of it. I've also spent the past month applying for jobs, and one finally came through! I'm working part-time Monday through Friday as an assistant preschool teacher for infants age 6 months to 13 months at a child development center in my area. Between work, family, and doing my part to keep my household running smoothly, I've been busy. I know it's been a minute (a month? more?) since I last shared anything BNHA-related, but I can assure you I'm working on more content to share with you all! I had originally planned to upload four different posts--direct Japanese to English translations for No.375 and No.376, an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for Spinner's 288 speech to Toga, and an English vs. Japanese translation comparison for No.294 and No.295 for Mr. Compress--all at once, but I've been dragging on that last one. It's taking longer to finish than I ever anticipated it would because of everything else going on. My new plan is to upload the other three posts as soon as possible. With any luck, I'll have at least one up tonight! Fingers crossed! They'll all be uploaded to Tumblr first. The links will then be added to the ever-evolving Google doc pinned to my Twitter page and shared in a separate tweet announcing the uploads. I hope you enjoy them as much as you have the others! <3

P.S. You're my first ask. <333

[whiskerteeth]

BNHA SPOILERS

This was a pivotal moment in their friedship. Where Bakugou thought Izuku offering his hand meant that he thought Bakugou was weak. From here on, Bakugou never wanted to accept help because he thought that made him weak or that others saw him this way. Beyond this, it was the start of their strained relationship.

BUT THIS:

Guys, this is GROWTH. He’s finally accepting the hand that is being offered to him after all these years.

[betchyoubetter]

WHAT

[eri-cheri]

Hori’s been on fire with the memes lately.

[colleen191]

What's next?! We find out who the UA traitor is?!!

[niks-minion]

Hello, here is your weekly load of pain

Enjoy ...