My Hero Academia Episode 91

The Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 91 was a decent enough episode. Most of it was setup, and the little action we got at the end of the episode was full of exposition. But, I think it was important setup for the next few episodes — assuming these exhibition matches last that long.

The topic I want to discuss from the first portion of the episode is the idea of the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory. I’m sure this idea has come up before in the series, but I don’t remember when it would have been. It sounds familiar, at the very least.

As Deku explains, this theory is that over time, through reproduction, quirks mutate, combine, and become stronger. Eventually, this will lead to a point at which quirks become so strong that their users are unable to control them, thus the doomsday part.

The original wielder of One-for-All tells Deku that the singularity is already upon them. And to his credit, we do see evidence that this theory is at least somewhat correct. Shouto Todoroki’s quirk is an example. It’s a combination of his parents’ quirks that’s theoretically stronger than they are individually.

If you think about it, it’s kind of like how One-for-All works, but it applies to all quirks. The main difference between the two that I can see is that it’s not necessarily guaranteed. Shouto has older siblings who didn’t manifest a combined quirk as he did.

But, Shouto’s limitations may actually be evidence against this theory. While we see that his father can effectively use his flames indefinitely, Shouto can only use his fire or ice powers for a limited time. And he can’t use them at the same time. So even if quirks become extremely complex and powerful, there’s a human limitation.

A New Hero Student

Until this episode, I actually forgot that Shinso wasn’t a student in Hero Class 1-B. He’s a student in the regular Class 1-C. But, just because he’s in the regular class doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a powerful quirk. In fact, you could argue his quirk is more powerful than some of the hero class students’.

Shinso’s quirk allows him to control anyone he speaks to. If he tells someone to give him their lunch money, they’ll give him their lunch money — that sort of thing. But, it can also be used in much more powerful ways, such as Shinso telling a villain to stop or turn himself in.

In a lot of ways, this is a great quirk for a hero to have because they can diffuse situations without a large fight. He can stop a villain without damaging the surrounding area. That’s something not every hero can do because they actually need to fight.

But, what are the limitations of Shinso’s quirk? We don’t actually know that yet. We know that Deku was able to break out of it, but that seemed to have to do with One-for-All. I don’t think most people would be able to do that.

We also don’t know if Shinso’s quirk is always active or not. Think of Toge, the cursed speech user, from Jujutsu Kaisen. He has a very similar quirk, but it can’t be disabled so he always needs to watch what he says. And, his quirk can even backfire if his opponent is too strong.

Overall, I do like Shinso more than most of the hero students, though. I think his quirk is more interesting than most of theirs. And I like how he has to deal with people always thinking he’d use his quirk for evil when in reality, that’s not the kind of person he is.

Clash! Class A vs. Class B!

The exhibition matches that began toward the end of this episode have potential if they’re done right. I think team-based combat in shounen battle series like this is pretty interesting most of the time. I like seeing how characters work together with their abilities.

It’s like how my favorite parts of things like Pokémon (both the video games and trading card game) or Fate/Grand Order is the team-building aspect. I have more fun building teams that work together in unique ways than I do with the actual gameplay.

So with that in mind, I think these 4v4 matches between the hero students could be pretty cool to watch. What roles will each character play within their team? How can their quirks be used in conjunction with each other to achieve things they couldn’t on their own?

Unfortunately, we haven’t really gotten to see much of that just yet. There’s been a bit of it, such as both teams identifying the quirk they view as the biggest threat. And we saw how they each developed basic strategies around that information.

But basic strategies aren’t interesting. The Class 1-A team simply decided to stick together to protect Denki. And the Class 1-B team just opted to use Shiozaki as a decoy while they charged in. I guess you can’t expect too much from randomly selected teams, though.

However, the worst offense of this episode, by far, was how Jurota decided to dump some exposition on us during his surprise attack. He did the classic “explain to the enemy how your strategy works while you’re performing said strategy” tactic.

That really made me lose interest in the fight.

Conclusion

What do you think of My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 91? Do you think the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory stands up to scrutiny? Does Shinso have what it takes to become a hero? And which exhibition match are you most looking forward to? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 92 is available.