My Hero Academia Episode 76

Infinite 100%

I know we all wanted Lemillion vs. Overhaul to be the big fight of the season, but it wasn’t. Deku vs. Overhaul is. And as I’ve mentioned in multiple previous episode reviews, that’s unfortunate because Deku doesn’t really have an interesting quirk.

Yeah, he can move fast and punch (and kick) hard, but that’s not fun to watch for the most part. Fights involving more unique quirks, such as Lemillions, are much more interesting because we get to see these quirks used in creative ways. When was the last time Deku did something creative?

But, even though I don’t like Deku all that much, I still have to admit this was a good episode. And, no, me saying I “admit this was a good episode” doesn’t take away from the rest of My Hero Academia. I do think it’s a good anime, just often not quite as good as most other people do.

So, with all that said, there’s a lot to get into this week. And if I happen to forget to mention something from this episode which you thought was important, let me know in the comments. These episode reviews are supposed to be discussions, so your input is always welcome.

The Battle Above

At the very start of the episode we catch back up with the heroes left at the surface — specifically Ryuukyuu, Uravity, Froppy, and Nejire-chan. When we catch up with them, they’ve just captured Rikiya Katsukame of the Eight Bullets. However, thanks to his quirk, he doesn’t remain captured for long.

Rikiya’s quirk allows him to inhale the life force of those who he touches. It’s important to note the touching part — he cannot inhale their life forces unless he is currently touching them — it’s not a one-time thing. And when he inhales life forces, it allows him to physically bulk his body up, kind of like Muscular.

But, after he’s been captured is when the quirk enhancement drug finally kicks in. This upgrades his quirk to the point at which he can inhale the life force of those surrounding him without even touching them. It’s almost like having an awakened devil fruit in One Piece how it expands the capabilities of the quirk.

So, this awakening of quirks is what I want to discuss briefly. We’ve already seen this in the past when the Class 1-A students were training with their quirks in order to awaken upgraded powers. It seems like this drug simply bypasses the training needed to do this.

That also means that if Rikiya had trained with his quirk to the extreme, he would be able to use it in this way naturally.

And this brings up the question of how many pro heroes and villains actually have their quirks awakened? We can assume Overhaul does based on the area of effect of his quirk, but what about someone like Rock Lock? He’s a pro hero, but he can only lock things in place that he’s touched.

Chisaki’s Plan

Moving on, we already knew what Overhaul’s plan was. He wants to wipe out quirks and reset humans back to their “normal” state. However, exactly why he wanted to do this wasn’t entirely clear. I mentioned that it partially had to do with making the Yakuza great again, and partly because he views quirks as a disease.

Well, thanks to the information we got in this episode, it looks like the former reason is the main one. Yes, he still seems to hate quirks, but not exactly in the same way I thought he did. His hatred of quirks mostly stems from them making the Yakuza obsolete — he doesn’t seem to have a problem with himself having a quirk.

And although he wasn’t born into the Yakuza, he reveres Shie Hassaikai, and its leader, for taking him in and giving him a place in the world. He wants to do everything he can to thank his boss/father figure — not unlike Shigaraki with All-for-One.

However, Overhaul takes things even further than Shigaraki does. He has no issue with going against the wishes of his boss as long as he believes the ends justify the means. In fact, this whole thing with Eri was explicitly against the boss’ wishes.

Eri is the granddaughter of the boss, and the orders Overhaul was given were to look after Eri and also determine what exactly her quirk is. However, Overhaul decided to take it upon himself to experiment on the girl, and eventually turn her body into a biological weapon.

Oh, and his plan is to sell drugs that eradicate quirks and drugs that restore quirks to both heroes and villains alike. He wants to pit them against each other while controlling the market.

Eri’s Quirk

Alright, so there’s been a lot of speculation on my part, but we finally know what Eri’s quirk is — and it doesn’t really make sense. Basically she can rewind time for anyone she touches. But she doesn’t know how to control this power, which leads to problems such as the death of her father.

However, when we see her paired up with Deku, Eri’s quirk allows Deku to use the full power of his quirk. When he uses his quirk at full power, it completely obliterates his bones. But thanks to Eri touching him, his broken bones are instantly healed due to his body reverting back in time to before the bones broke.

That’s all well and good though. The issues I have with Eri’s quirk really come down to how Overhaul claims it works and then how we see him actually use it.

According to Overhaul, Eri’s quirk has the capability to revert humans back to their “original,” quirkless state. That makes perfect sense to me based on the fact that her quirk turns back time for humans. However, what I don’t get is how this also enhances quirks.

It was stated, or implied (I don’t remember), that both drugs were made using Eri’s blood. How is Eri’s quirk used to boost the effects of other quirks when it’s also stated to remove quirks by turning them back?

I could understand it a bit if quirks worked like chakra in Naruto — where with each successive generation chakra is diluted — but that’s not the case. Will this ever be explained? Probably not.

Conclusion

So, what did you think about My Hero Academia episode 76? Do you think Deku is defeating Overhaul too easily? Will we see more awakened quirks as the series progresses? And how does Eri’s blood boost the effects of quirks? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.