#chapter 392

[everyitachi]

[algumaideia]

Okay there is a lost century, people can't study them for at least 800 years

Paul is a giant

Robin os adorable

Her mother is like her but blonde

I like Paul

[giuliano-fan-account]

hxh chapter 392

This chapter is a little crazy I have SOME WORDS ON IT!!! 

Obviously spoilers ! 

Alright so it starts out normal and continuing from the last chapter, a little confusing cause the guy is still alive.

People thought that the Misha person was the cat apparently, but no, Hinrigh sadly did not name the little guy... but... we did get THIS

HI MISHA?!?!?!?

This ability is pretty sick and cool and awesome if i do say so myself, and I love the name. It also carries on from her original life because she was a cleaner, and her dedication for the Xi-Yu family must have been pretty strong if she developed this.

I cant wait to see more uses of this ability later on.

Speaking of Xi-Yu, I was NOT AT ALL PREPARED FOR THE NEXT PART. 

We get back to Lynch and Zakuro who are punching these poor people above 6′2 and then once they start to doubt their tactics... GUESS WHO SHOWS UP.

I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS AT ALL!? The fact that he has the audacity to dress in a similar fashion to how he did before says a lot. He is definitely waiting for the Phantom Troupe to come and find him, and is most likely not interested in any of the families associates at the moment.

My heart dropped when I saw this scene and I could feel Zakuros fear. He’s obviously grown considerably stronger if his very presence is intimidating.

I really love the depth into post mortem nen in this arc. It’s been a pretty reoccurring thing over all. Iirc the first callback is the fact that the seed urn ceremony was a product of an ancestors post mortem nen, then we have the highlight on the meteor city elders post mortem nen (sun and moon), then obviously here we have hisoka, then we have camilla and the curses AND also kachos nen beast, and NOW we have Misha!! whew. There’s probably more that I haven’t listed... I feel like post mortem nen will be even more important later. (especially with Kurapika really pushing his lifespan) 

Im begging for him not to kill them PLEASSEEEEE DONT KILL ZAKURO AND LYCNH. PLEASE. 

Also I’m just thinking though. Hisoka is building up to be an unbelievably strong character. At this point after death, I think he has become stronger than all of the troupe members, so that’s trouble when they are the ones wanting to kill Hisoka a lot, and when he is going to kill them on sight. I think thats why he made his desicion, to really test his strength with his post mortem nen... if he thinks hes that strong, he very well may be. 

And I’m just thinking. Who else is unreasonably and inhumanely strong that really no other character (probably other than the chimera ants lol) could compare to?

Tserriednich, of course. We have to tie the threads somehow, don’t we? 

I believe that if Hisoka even lays his eyes on that man he will have a new target. His whole power scaling thing will be out of the roof. 

You could also say Ging, but first of all, he’s completely occupied with another endeavor, so I doubt he would be very interested in fighting anybody, and second of all, if he is going to fight somebody, he most likely wouldn’t be interested in fighting somebody like Hisoka. Unlike Chrollo, he would not let him have his way and let him fight him. He’s already getting under Pariston’s skin by doing a similar thing by getting in his way.

Tserriednich is much different... he’s... interesting for sure, and would probably find Hisoka very intriguing (specimen worthy).

Anyways, Moving on we have even more people looking for Hisoka. I wonder what they’ll do once they realize that Xi-Yu was the first to find him, whether they still have him by the next time we see them. (please let lynch and zakuro live please let lycnh and zakuro live plea-) I wasn’t very interested in that though.

We’re back to Phinks, Feitan, and Nobunaga! It looks like theyve established a back and forth bond of some sort with Cha-R, so the last thing they want to do is kill them, and a search party went out.

Also fun fact I guess, Franklin is probably claustrophobic. I love how we just get these random facts like we didn’t need to know that Shizuku is left handed and that she forgets everything but we do.

They know of Luini and I really dont think they like him lol.

Luini is a super fan and I think Togashi was trying to do commentary on toxic fans/parasocial relationships with him which is interesting but im sorry this is just so funny.

“THE WIKI PAGE” THE WIKI PAGE???????????????????? THIS ISN’T AN OFFICIAL TRANSLATION BUT STILL.

Does this mean what I think it means, that the hunterpedia wiki exists IN CANON?

Most likely not the actual wiki but like still. This implies that there’s like forums talking about characters that we know about, and there’s probably some community of people who fans over and romanticizes the troupe in that world like we have here now for serial killers... oh boy. That means that those Chrollo stans are real. Thanks Luini. I really didnt want to think about that but thanks Luini.

I’m gonna try to get that imagination out of my head. Anyways, I loved this chapter, it was awesome as always and so are you.

Keep being awesome. (I don’t have any image to show you sadly)

[ishouldgetatumbler]

Post mortem nen is fucked.

Hisoka used post mortem nen to revive himself, but only so he could pursue Chrollo anew for revenge or pleasure, however you interpret his obsession. Basically what I'm saying is that Hisoka refused death to pursue his own selfish goal.

Contrast this with Misha Hao.

Her ability post-mortem serves entirely to protect the Xi-Yu family on their climb to the top. While Hisoka rebelled agienst his death for himself, Misha "accepted" hers for the organization.

This contrast tells us a lot about Misha and a little more about post mortem nen; namely, how it interprets goals and intentions differently. I would say that Hisoka's goal is to survive, but only by the skin of his teeth. While Misha views her life as less important than avoiding suspicion on the Xu-Yi family. These aspects of their characters are explained beatifully by how nen interprets their wishes.

[jyuanka]

i didnt expect hisoka to appear so soon but im not complaining.

[progg]

Chapter 392 Breakdown

Another week, another exciting chapter. These are my thoughts on the latest installment of Hunter x Hunter. (Spoilers below)

Chapter 392 is entitled “Information”. Turns out, the “Clash” sequence of chapters didn’t run that long. It seems they were centered around the initial conflict between the Xi-Yu and Hei-Ly, while 392 shifts to broader strokes. I still get the sense that everything is building up to a major chaotic outbreak between the mafia families.

On the first page, similar to “Clash: Part 2”, emphasis is placed on the panic brewing belowdecks. I probably sound like a broken record here, but this all relates back to Mizaistom’s speech in Chapter 380.

Amidst the confusion, a guard approaches Hinrigh and offers him information on Morena’s hideout. This is likely the information referred to in the title. The guard in question is extremely suspicious, and not just because of his appearance. He uses knowledge of the Xi-Yu hideout as leverage.

He also accepts Hinrigh’s request that he personally escort him to Morena’s hideout.

Why would this self-serving guard offer to take part in the police raid? I’m not sure if he’s working for Morena, but his actions certainly don’t add up.

After this conversation, we learn the identity of the mysterious “Misha”, who was name-dropped at the end of 391. She is, in fact, a member of the Xi-Yu. Less expectedly, she is dead, and we get to see yet another instance of post-mortem Nen.

Post-mortem Nen has become extremely common since the Dark Continent Expedition Arc—a trend I’ve discussed in many of my posts.

From here, we jump once again to Zakuro and Lynch. We get to see their search strategy at work as Lynch knocks the wind out of some poor guy. Soon after, they make a fortunate (or unfortunate) discovery.

It’s Hisoka! All those theories about him being other people and he ended up being hidden in plain sight. I do want to acknowledge the possibility this is Illumi or maybe even a Troupe member in disguise.

Lynch’s question never actually goes through, which should at least make us question whether this guy is really Hisoka.

For now, however, I’m going to assume it’s actually Hisoka, since anything else would require considerable mental gymnastics.

Lynch is knocked out, and we’re left not knowing if Hisoka will cooperate with the Xi-Yu and listen to Zakuro. I suspect he will, since the Cha-R underboss, Ken’i Wang, remarks on Hisoka’s tendency to “put himself in unfavorable situations” almost immediately after.

From here, we cut to Tsudonke, the Cha-R’s supervisor, in conversation with a shopkeeper. There are a few takeaways from this conversation. For one, there isn’t perfect communication between the Xi-Yu and Cha-R. This shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve been following how they operate. The Cha-R isn’t really sure what exactly happened in Chapter 391, and I doubt that information would be readily shared by the Xi-Yu.

Next, the shopkeeper makes a comment that is eerily relevant to Hinrigh’s action’s at the beginning of the chapter.

It seems like Hinrigh might not be making the best bet.

The shopkeeper goes on to explain the predatory nature of her business, further reinforcing the idea that the lowest tiers of the boat have it the worst. They’re being heavily exploited by the Kakin royalty and merchant class. The class divide is a major theme of this arc with major implications regarding the Phantom Troupe.

Maybe this discussion about addictive substances could tie into Luzurus and Basho's?

The last takeaway in this conversation is a motivation for Tsudonke. He wants an autograph board, but perhaps more importantly, he wants an item only available through a high-class delivery system.

It seems important that we learn about this system, not just with regards to Tsudonke’s quest. Kacho and Fugetsu’s failed escape attempt can make it feel as though the ship is closed off from the outside world. That isn’t the case, however; it’s only the princes who are trapped. This allows for the retrieval of Kacho’s body. So, if somebody wanted to return to the mainland (such as a Zodiac or high-ranking official), I’m certain they could.

Next, we get a glimpse into the thoughts of the Cha-R underboss, Ken’i. As previously mentioned, he notes Hisoka’s tendency to put himself in unfavorable situations, then commends the Phantom Troup’s decision to stay at the Cha-R hideout instead of splitting up.

Hisoka, he claims, is the key to this whole situation and will enable the mafia families to destroy the Hei-Ly and the Spider, maintaining balance.

I’m not sure how Ken’i plans to negotiate with Hisoka, but the alliance between the Xi-Yu and Cha-R is sketchy at best. I expect things to go downhill very quickly.

In the last scene of the Chapter, we get to see Phinks, Nobunaga, and Feitan completing their rotation at the Cha-R hideout. Funnily enough, they’re discussing the exact thing Ken’i was commending them for not doing.

I don’t have much to offer in the way of analysis here other than I absolutely love how Luini is portrayed.

He trolls the hell out of the Troupe, then follows it up with a panel that is pure horror fuel.

Can’t wait to see where this goes!

[melljam]

i love this interaction an ungodly amount

[bloopy-writes]

Fukurodani you will always have my heart 🥺

(This is by far my favorite chapter and one of the only manga chapters that has ever made me tear up)

[epickiya722]

The bit with Toga's parents in this chapter reminds me of how some family members won't accept someone because of the gender or sexuality they identify with and even go as far as to force them to "be normal".

[everyitachi]

[identittycrysis]

“that kid just doesn’t speak on the same wavelength as us”

[mettywiththenotes]

I have not seen anyone talking about Tsuyu’s development, which is a shame considering that she’s made a leap from how she used to be to how she is now

Her development centers around following the rules and when it is right to disobey them for the sake of someone’s needs

When I say this has been building up since Kamino arc, I MEAN it. Ever since then, it’s been established that she will not budge to help someone if it means breaking the law

And even though she later expresses the guilt and regret she has for the way she acted, she does not comment on whether her mind has changed about their rescue squad or not. Of course, it is not important in the moment (if at all later), but note how she does not say whether she agrees or still disagrees - she acts on her feelings of regret but, as mentioned before in the story, is pretty level-headed in her beliefs

I feel this establishes how determined she is to follow the law, even if she ends up not doing something that could help someone, even if she ends up feeling upset by what she has refused to do herself. But see, even her determination to follow the law would not stop her upset and therefore would not stop her trying to make up for not supporting them

The experience is brought up again later in the story

She specifically remembers that vulnerable moment, of all her regrets and horrible feelings, and says she’s not going to dwell on that anymore. She won’t regret, she won’t get into her head about nasty thoughts, because she wants to be happy with her friends no matter what. She won’t let them go it alone like she did last time

It’s also to be noted that when Aoyama was revealed as the traitor, she did not argue against him despite him breaking the law. As Izuku and Kirishima expressed, Aoyama obeyed AFO because he thought he was helpless, he clearly didn’t want to do any of it and tried to convince his parents to put an end to the deal. And at the end of the scene, Tsuyu joins the class in their anger, showing that whether she can let his actions slide or disagrees with it, her overall concern is AFO making her classmates and the people she cares about feel helpless and cry

Then this is continued over to the Final War Arc

It is very clear from the moment she enters the battle in 348 that she’s focused on the mission. She expresses that they shouldn’t be talking about romance at a time like this and lays out their plans like a reminder of what they should be doing - a reminder that opposes what Ochako needs to do to save Toga at that moment. But that is obviously not on Tsuyu’s mind in the war, she doesn’t know about it

And again, implying that not ignoring the cries of the enemy is something they don’t need to do right now - basically what she said: “getting the job done”

But when she sees Ochako’s desperation to talk to Toga, she is surprised

And despite her feelings about “chatting about romance (and in general)”, she helps Ochako through the portal. I think this shows her support of her friends feelings in the face of them wanting the opposite of what they should, breaking the law and so on, as it has been shown previously in the series her loyalty to her friends

Much like Ochako wants to do, Tsuyu then ends up talking about love in relation to Toga. Not in the way she should, but it’s a start - she begins to think about the way Toga sees the world

Part of what she says makes Ochako think more about Toga’s reasonings. In a way, she and Tsuyu are bouncing off of each other, now a team effort to figure Toga out and save her (tho Tsuyu’s feelings resonate more with helping Ochako rather than helping Toga herself)

Finally, in this chapter, Tsuyu talks to Toga directly, trying to actually convince her to listen to Ochako. Basically, she wishes to not necessarily break the rules herself, but help her friend do so

Which is a BIG step considering she went from telling Izuku and the rest of 1A that breaking the law would make THEM Villains so she didn’t want to help them do that, to outright trying to help and convince a Villain to listen to her friend

I’ve said before that Tsuyu is a person who regrets hard. In that moment in the ward, where she wears her heart on her sleeve like she always does and speaks her beliefs clear, then finds out they went to rescue Bakugou anyway? The way she talks about her feelings in the dorm, it’s so clear that her refusal to join them when they needed help most broke her heart

Ever since then, Tsuyu has prioritized her friends feelings over her own beliefs of following the law. That’s not to say she shoves everything aside for them, but she isn’t stepping away from her classmates and leaving them to do things on their own like she did before. She is now beside them every step of the way, determined that even if she doesn’t agree on what they want to do, she wants to stay with them regardless because they are important to her

And she knows Ochako isn’t just calling out to Toga for nothing. Tsuyu sees that Ochako is doing it because her feelings are caught up in Toga’s cries that she can’t ignore. Her desperation, the way she doesn’t give up when trying to find and talk to her in the middle of the battle, shows that

All this to say, I really like how Tsuyu’s development has been building up to possibly becoming involved in the saving of a Villain and I love how it is shown through these moments with her friends. Kamino really made her despair and regret so Tsuyu then undauntingly showing her loyalty to her friends from then on and now showing support, trying to convince Toga to listen to what Ochako has to say? Chefs kiss

It has been said before that Tsuyu is “the perfect pillar of emotional support” which, considering all of these events from Kamino and how hard her actions hit her to Rogue Arc to now, definitely fits her personality and development. Figures that the one who decided to step away from the rescue team and regretted acting harshly learns from that experience and basically doubles down in the support she gives her friends from then on

It makes me wonder what will happen now that Toga has stabbed Ochako and what Tsuyu will do next. I’m excited to see

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 391: Rejecting the World + Chapter 392: Villain Name

On Toga’s Accusations

I am somewhat wary that two-thirds of Toga’s accusations towards Ochaco—you’ve never wanted for anything; your life was perfectly easy to live—are worded in such a way that they’re very easily parried by a reminder that Ochaco grew up in poverty.[1]  No, Uraraka never struggled with quirk-based compulsions like Toga did; she always seemed to fit easily into her social surroundings; that doesn’t mean she’s never wanted for anything and has always had an easy life.  It feels extremely akin to the Spinner fanboys yelling at the Black dude that he has no idea what it’s like to be judged by his appearance; it makes the accusers look wildly self-centered, oblivious to hardships suffered by people other than themselves.

That said, Ochaco’s already done the thing where Toga expresses that she finds her life difficult and Ochaco responds by ignoring that statement completely in favor of moralistic scolding about actions having consequences.  One would hope, given the contents of these two chapters, that we’re not due for yet another speech of that sort.  At most, I’d like to see Ochaco use their shared difficulties—different in nature, but both still present—as a basis for empathy rather than an excuse to chide Toga for not trying harder.

A while back, I criticized the Flamin’ Sidekickers for feeling the need to justify their continued association with Endeavor to Dabi—as if their reasoning makes any difference to Todoroki Touya!—and I feel similarly about this. True as it is that Ochaco has faced her own share of problems, her firing back about those problems and comparing her and Toga’s responses to them would not actually be helpful right now in de-escalating the situation.  It’s not always about you and your own problems!  Especially not when you’re trying to talk someone down!  As was the case with the Spinner fanboys, Toga’s in a very bad place right now, and has been for a long, long time.  Ochaco doesn’t have to validate her crimes, but I do think it’s important to validate her pain.[2]

(Hit the jump for more on Toga—her flashback and the intersection of her emotions with her quirk mechanics—as well as some musings on the broader implications of the quirk counseling scene, and the usual assortment of odds and ends.)

   

On Toga’s Emotional Quirk Mechanics

O Nice to finally get a hard confirmation that the doubles are clones of Toga-as-Twice, not clones of Twice himself.  Makes sense, given the speed with which she’s replicating, and makes it slightly easier to justify her own emotional hang-ups interfering with the way Double normally functions, though I’m by no means rescinding my complaints about that whole thing being hella arbitrary. Also, confirming that these are all Togas would seem to make it less probable for Uraraka to be able to pick out the real thing by her tears, right?  If they’re all Toga-masquerading-as-Twice, shouldn’t they all be crying?

O I like the Zeno’s Arrow-esque nature of the problem with Toga’s time limit on her transformation here.  Like, yes, any given double, and Toga herself, will run out of transformation time eventually, but she’s making exponentially increasing numbers of doubles every single second; each one of those doubles is created with the same amount of blood stock its creator had at the moment it started the creation process.  Each double thus comes into existence with one second more time than its creator now has.  So, how thin can Toga slice those seconds?  How infinitesimally close to the timer reaching zero can a double still snap out a new copy, which now has that tiny fragment more time remaining to make a copy itself? Real life doesn’t operate on philosophical time, of course, so she’ll run out of time eventually, prompting a huge tidal wave of Twices turning back into Togas, but it’s a neat thought exercise.

O DELIGHTED that Tsuyu’s guess was off-base, so all the ice-cold, “Toga doesn’t really love the League,” take meta from the people who think the League are toxic and bad for each other is rendered just hilariously short-sighted in retrospect.  Because, hey, maybe you shouldn’t take Tsuyu’s word over Toga’s about Toga’s own feelings!  Imagine that!

O Interesting that, despite the whole horde moving with the feeling of, “All heroes must die!” when they overrun Tsuyu, they don’t kill her on the spot, but rather just bind her and hoist her up as a hostage.  I assume there’s at least some influence from Hori not wanting to kill off any student characters, but extra-canonical explanations being what they may be, it still reflects interestingly on Toga’s own desires and intentions, and certainly her (underutilized) affection for Tsuyu.

   

On Toga’s Flashback

O So like, Toga’s dad definitely hit her in the flashback, right?

His hand is outstretched, specifically visible against the black silhouette of the rest of his figure; he could have just slapped the bird out of her hands, but I don’t think that would have been enough to spin her all the way in the opposite direction from when her parents first discovered her with the bird.  Further, she’s on her knees and hunched over, one arm raised towards the left side of her face, and if you look closely at her cheek in the next panel—

              —you can see a mark on the left side of her face that isn’t there on the right.

I don’t have a particular observation about this to discuss further—just wanted to point it out.  Toga’s father’s first response to seeing his three-year-old daughter holding a dead bird was not to tell her to put the bird down, or to hit it out of her hands, but to slap her so hard it spun her around and knocked her over.  Oh, and then to accuse her of killing it.

The three-year old.  Killing a fully-grown sparrow with her bare hands.  I couldn’t kill a fully-grown sparrow with my bare hands because a fully grown sparrow wouldn’t let me in touching range without flying away!  What is wrong with Toga’s father, exactly, that that’s the assumption he jumps to??

Incidentally, one of the bright little changes the anime made to that sequence back in MVA—one I actually overlooked in the In Memoriam posts—was to specifically animate him slapping the bird out of her hands and then leave her standing there grinning, arms lowered, as her parents continue berating her.  It’s truly astounding that we are still uncovering new issues stemming from the anime’s butchering of My Villain Academia!

O Speaking of Toga material the anime wildly fucked up, let’s talk about ~~quirk counseling.~~

So like, I tried for so long to maintain a layer of skepticism about what Curious said about quirk counseling.  After all, Curious was a villain, a member of a free-quirk-use cult, violently against the current social order.  She was categorically not a reliable narrator about the intentions and outcomes of quirk counseling!  All the same, it seemed safe to assume she was at least partially right, if only because, in a meta view, no one ever showed up to contradict her!  If we were meant to understand that she was wrong, why allow her words to stand uncontested?

Well, it turns out it’s because she was 100% right!

“They attempt to hammer out any bumps in your understanding of the world and program you to fit neatly into society’s little boxes,” she said, and, “The counseling ends up emphasizing the inherent differences among us all.”  And here we find a counselor saying, “Let’s get you all reformed, nice and normal,” thus emphasizing that Toga is very much not normal.

Of course, the counselor then immediately turns around and reveals that Toga’s desires are normal, at least in the sense that “deviant” desires are quite common in “children with powerful quirks.”  It happens all the time, apparently!  Despite the frequency of the problem, though, the best answer Hero Society has come up with is to preach repression, to strictly control who is allowed to use their quirk—and thus alleviate any natural urges that might accompany it.

Remember what Re-Destro said back in Chapter 227?

Wow!  It’s almost like this was an entirely predictable outcome!

O My perennial gloating about the (MVA-era) MLA being justified and correct aside, it’s interesting and, I think, promising that Horikoshi made time to include that bit on quirk counseling here.  Firstly, it reinforces the idea that Toga did not become a villain due to the actions of one discrete villain like AFO; she was failed by society at large, so simply offering her the sanctified blessing of The Sympathy of One (1) Teenager is not going to do a thing about the problems that created her, and will go on creating others like her unless real change happens in the attitudes of the current society.

(Of course, all of that is also true for Spinner, and we saw how the confrontation with the societal problems that created him went, thanks but no thanks, Shouji.)

Moreover, though, it’s yet another element that points in the direction of the Quirk Singularity Theory looming on the horizon.  If quirks are getting stronger and stronger as generations pass (and we’ve got plenty of evidence that suggests that they are) and psychological issues like Toga’s are common in those with strong quirks (and I don’t see any reason for a professional counselor to misstate something like that[3]), then it follows that such issues will also become more common as quirks increase in strength.  Indeed, an irresistibly strong desire to use one’s quirk would be a logical expression of Ujiko’s conclusion that quirks will eventually go out of control!

This is the dark side of Second’s conflation of a person’s intent with the term “quirk” back in Chapter 369.  It’s a place where the translation of the word kosei as “quirk” obscures the sentence somewhat.  Recall that the word Horikoshi uses translates more literally as “personality.”  So, Second says that a strong intent is what makes a person fearsome, and this is why meta-abilities were given the name they were[4]: the power is merely a vessel, a weapon to be used to carry out the intent in question, a characterful, personalized expression of one’s inner will.  In other words, a “personality.”

But the inverse also becomes true.  If a quirk, a “personality,” is reflective of one’s will, then to suppress one’s quirks is to suppress one’s will.  To condemn someone’s quirk becomes the same as condemning them.  To label a quirk deviant is to label the person’s will deviant.  And if a quirk grows too strong to control, then the will-as-embodied-by-the-quirk also goes out of control.  Hence, Toga snaps after too many years of suppression.

So how does that problem get addressed?  The MLA, of course, wanted free quirk use, because Destro foresaw a time when quirks would grow too powerful for suppression to be effective.  Even radical self-acceptance and an even more radical restructuring of society are still just kicking that problem down the road, though, assuming they’d be effective at all—not that it looks like Hero Society is on the cusp of embracing that particular point of the MLA’s ideology regardless!  Indeed, as Team Hero still regards the problem of quirks increasing in strength as “fringe thinking reserved for cults,” they don’t seem to have any intention at all of addressing the problem.  Time will tell if the story itself will do so.

O It’s striking that even after some years of emotional abuse, Toga was still barefacedly begging her parents to please explain to her what made her so different from everyone else.  It’s a telling parallel to her willingness to actively seek out Ochaco and Deku to ask their opinion on things, and makes it not terribly surprising that she reacts so negatively to being rebuffed by them.  Her whole question in the wake of Jin’s death was whether heroes viewed villains as human—when heroes go on to reject her, like her parents did, of course she’d assume that it means those heroes also view her as inhuman.

   

Stray Notes

O ‘Eeeeeey, people picked up on the Death part of the Parade name this time!  I notice it hasn’t been corrected in the online version of 375, though; I wonder if the volume release will fix it?

O One thing I wasn’t clear on from the leaks/scanlation—the former of which are too fuzzy, the latter too murky—but am very happy to see here is that the Himijin Horde is definitely visible on the horizon for Hawks.  You can tell from the difference in the shading: fuzzy, gray, irregularly sized trees on the right and left, but a long black line of much more regular height in the center:

They’re heading for the Todorokis and Iida, too, of course, but Hawks is obviously the confrontation I’m most interested in.  (Read: GET ‘IM.  GEEEET ‘IM.)  Very much hope we get to see that before Uraraka completely defuses this whole situation.

O Love the acknowledgement from both Ochaco and Tsuyu that Ochaco’s efforts here are late, and that’s worth an apology, worth Toga being upset about.  I’m thrilled that the story is finally, explicitly folding villains into that idea expressed by Nedzu that it’s difficult but necessary for someone to be the first one to hold out a hand if society is to meaningfully advance.  I extra love that Ochaco is holding out that hand while also taking a huge risk: offering her thoughts on why Toga’s having problems with making quirk-use-capable clones.

As I said about Chapter 382, Toga resolving that issue would be incredibly dangerous for Team Hero, and I love that Uraraka is still—despite being very aware of that danger—willing to try to help Toga with it.  With no guarantee of reciprocity, with everything at stake, Uraraka still takes the time to carry on that conversation because it’s what her heart tells her is the right thing to do.

After all, if she can resolve Toga’s issue, that stands to win her back at least a degree of Toga’s faith, at which point a Toga-made clone of Shigaraki obliterating this whole stretch of countryside would no longer be what Toga wants.[5] More than the strategic considerations, though, it's plainly apparent that Toga struggling with Jin's quirk is causing her great anguish, and that's really what Uraraka wants to soothe.

Taking the talk-no-jutsu gamble is how Shinsou should have handled Machia; it’s how Deku should have been handling Shigaraki instead of drowning him in his Fist Ocean.  I praised Mirio for making at least a game attempt at it, and Shouto took a crack at it before slipping back into castigation; if Spinner had been coherent enough to hold an actual conversation with Shouji, we might have gotten it there.  This conflict, though, is where I expect the tactic to finally work, as Toga has both the emotional investment in Uraraka[6] and the presence of mind/free agency to actually respond.  I can’t wait to see how it goes!

O Toga’s spitting-mad injunction that Uraraka not dare to pity her based on societal standards that never made room for Toga to begin with is an excellent echo of Jin's indignance that Hawks would dare to say Jin led an “unlucky” life, as well as Toga’s own fury at Curious for trying to paint her as miserable.

----------------- FOOTNOTES -----------------

[1] So far as I can tell, there’s not an officially recognized difference between “being poor” and “living in poverty”—they’re just different parts of speech describing the same condition—though it seems many people feel instinctively that there’s a difference in severity there.  Still, I’ll stick with “poverty” in this case: while Uraraka’s family never seemed so destitute that they were worried about keeping a roof over their heads, we know that, as of the beginning of the manga, she was skipping meals to save money.  I doubt she would have been so blasé about going hungry that it could be used as grist for comedic volume extras if she didn’t have prior experience with it, and not having enough money to have regular meals is right there in what it means to live under the poverty line.

[2] Elsewhere in this same angle, Deku’s frank empathy for and validation of Gentle and his motivations is what made Gentle’s return feel so much more earned compared to Nagant’s, and Shouto scolding Dabi for involving innocent people proved ineffective.  Shouji, meanwhile, took a stab at validating the mob’s pain, but didn’t have a single word of sympathy for Spinner.

[3] You know, assuming she doesn’t turn out to have been secretly on AFO’s payroll or something.

[4] Setting aside Second’s rampant historical revisionism about the origin of the term, of course, because not a lick of what he says lines up with the actual story of the Mother of Quirks.

[5] Though, you know, the clone Shigaraki would probably still want it!

[6] Dabi’s emotionally invested in Shouto, but in an inverted way, not one that primes him to listen to anything Shouto has to say.

[ishouldgetatumbler]

Inconspicious Psychopomp

The user must be dead¹.

Whenever an ally of the user kills another character², the user's soul appears to dispose of the body¹. The user may manipulate the target's corpse to walk or talk as needed². Then, as soon as this task is finished, the user's soul dissapears again³.

[hawkssucks]

Funny it happened twice

[everytobito]