The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 361, “Abnormal Happenings” by Kohei Horikoshi, available in English from Viz Media.
In this chapter of My Hero Academia the heroes are finally able to turn the tables, and the one in charge is the big three from UA high school. The teamwork of Mirio, Tamaki and Nejire is fully reflected in this chapter, as they not only successfully protect Bakugo and the other heroes from Shigiraki, but also have a chance to pressure him. On the other hand, Shigiraki is ruthless, after being triggered by Lemillion’s words, his frenzy follows, and even if he is outnumbered, he is still a force. The conflict continues to escalate in this chapter and continues to get more complicated as the excitement builds.
Last chapter of My Hero Academia the squad was successful in protecting Bakugo and keeping the fight going, but most of the effort was led by Lemillion and Hado. Tamaki’s single attack failed, while most of Mirio’s tactics had to be defensive. Hado’s energy could pierce the skin, but couldn’t get past the wall of fingers and hands, but since Lemillion could walk through it, he wielded her energy as a weapon and used it to hit him. Now we can see if those blows, as well as his words, had any effect on Shigiraki.
Tenko Shimura has friends
The chapter opens with the child Tenko Shimura with some hands interlocking around him as they reach for him. Tenko, who is deeply trapped in the recesses of Shigiraki’s mind, remembers that Mikkun and Tomo used to play together in his childhood. With this childhood memory bubbling to the surface, Shigiraki snaps at Mirio while yelling that he has friends and that he should take his dog Tomo on walks.
Mirio is shocked by the response he received and clumsily apologizes, clearly disturbed by the change in tension. The next panel isn’t even about Shigiraki unleashing an attack, just Mirio being overrun by the hands. No context for how the hands ended up there, but it’s clear that the apology given to Shigiraki did nothing to quell his anger.
Mirio thinks he’s struck a nerve, but is more concerned that his blow barely touched him. Shigiraki’s primary body is more durable than the growth he continues to experience, and they have to change tactics to hurt him. Meanwhile, in the mind of Shigiraki, we see All For One talking. Unbeknownst to the readers, Shigiraki’s ghost had already been taken over by All For One until now and has been in control the whole time. But the small remnants of Tenko Shimura, Shigiraki’s identity from before he went down that evil path and threw behind his original self, still remain inside awaiting someone to rescue him. Since wasting time on Mirio, whom he can neither kill nor hurt him, would only keep him from removing the one he really seeks, All For One turns its attention to Bakugo.
Nejire and Mirio trust Tamaki
Mirio knew, however, that he could offer nothing but distraction. That was all part of the plan. Initially, Hado and Suneater were to lead the attack so Mirio could get in and save Bakugo. His idiosyncrasy is capable of being fast, moving around to save others and jumping from location to location.
He was also good at avoiding damage, but realizes they can’t win without a solid way to hit him, and so he would grab All For One’s attention and attack him just enough to be worth a distraction , so Suneater could get ready to get the job done. Best Jeanist is ready to defend his student with his life, even though he is barely conscious, but Hado launches energy spikes at him to pierce All For One. However, to no avail.
All For One is too powerful, saying that the facility he’s built is essentially just a self-built tomb for the heroes, and he relentlessly launches appendages to pierce Hado. Hado has a flashback to when she was at UA and how others thought she was cold and arrogant because of her powerful quirk, but in reality she just wanted friends. It turns out that Tamaki, yes, the shy kid who was inspired by Mirio, reached out to her by asking the same question Mirio asked him: “Who’s your favorite hero?”
That’s why she says she’s gotten stronger. Both Miro and Nejire have always seen Suneater’s potential and power and claim that his idiosyncrasy has no upper limit because as long as he eats it, it will go into his body. So he eats. He eats Hado’s energy and begins to manifest a body made of all the food he has eaten and more than a dozen are written on the page. So many of the words are blocked by the actual transformation itself and it’s clear that Shigiraki’s body growth may finally have a rival as Suneater steps forward to challenge him.
Conclusion
It’s a little disappointing that a chapter that was so exciting was also incredibly short. Most chapters are somewhere between 15 and 19 pages, but this chapter was only 11 pages. It’s worth noting that this chapter was still very entertaining despite how short it was. The art itself was very good, but especially that last panel. The double page spread was, as usual, stunning and the action shown in this chapter was decent. The main parts of this chapter were the tension of the unstoppable monster that is Shigiraki and the character development of so many characters.
Learning that All For One’s possession of Shigiraki was virtually complete gives readers a chance to reread the last few chapters with Shigiraki and see it from his perspective. It also pushes the story of Deku wanting to save Shigiraki from All For One as the remains of Tenko Shimura still there means someone can be saved. Probably the best part is what Mirio has predicted since he and Tamaki had their conversation in season three. Tamaki is the one who can devour the sun, meaning he is the strongest part of the big three. Lastly, seeing Tamaki’s character being so brave and now knowing how he approached Nejire and their relationship was adorable. The chapter wasn’t the best in terms of action, but a solid look at the character’s development and seeing their growth so far.
0 Comments