My Hero Academia Episode 77

My Hero Academia Episode 77

Bright Future

The first half of My Hero Academia Episode 77 wasn’t the best. It’s not quite the conclusion episode of the arc, that seems like it’s going to be next week, but it might as well have been. Arc conclusions are generally bad episodes because there’s little action, no new information, and they recap things.

But as I said, this wasn’t really the arc conclusion episode. And that’s made clear by the second half of the episode which focuses on Sir Nighteye. That half of the episode was actually really good — well, except for the part where Deku becomes Madoka Kaname, but I’ll get to that later on.

There are three big takeaways from this episode. The first is that Deku defeated Overhaul, though that was basically finalized in the previous episode. The second is that Overhaul is truly defeated by the League of Villains. And the third is that Sir Nighteye has died.

So with all that in mind, my main question coming out of this episode was, who’s going to be the next major antagonist? Overhaul had been defeated, and Sir Nighteye — the main pro hero for this arc — is dead. Additionally, nobody new was introduced, so where does that leave us?

It looks like we’re finally going back to the League of Villains as the main antagonists for the series. Sure, someone else could be introduced in the next episode or two, but that seems unlikely. We’ve taken a break from the League for a while, and they’re finally becoming relevant in the story again.

The League’s Revenge

Deku’s defeat of Overhaul isn’t actually that interesting because we knew it was coming. The fact that the League deals the final blow wasn’t something I was expecting, so that’s what we really need to talk about.

But before we get to that, I have to mention the Sand Hero, Snatch.

When you think of characters with sand-based abilities in shounen battle series there are two names that really stand out: Gaara from Naruto and Crocodile from One Piece. Snatch is like a bootleg combination of the two. He can turn into sand like Crocodile, and control sand like Gaara, but only with the upper half of his body.

Dabi (Villain) and Snatch (Pro Hero) from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Dabi (Villain) and Snatch (Pro Hero)

So after Dabi kills Snatch (or at least claims that Snatch likely won’t survive), the League can move on to their main objective: capturing Overhaul. Snatch was the hero in charge of escorting Overhaul to the villain hospital, co they had to take him out first.

But what’s interesting is that they don’t simply capture or kill Overhaul. They figure out the one thing that would hurt him the most — having everything stolen from him and then being left out like trash.

The drugs he manufactured are stolen, and then so are his arms. Mr. Compress removes his left arm in retaliation for Overhaul destroying his own, and Shigaraki disintegrates his right. With this done, Overhaul can never use his quirk again because it requires him to touch things with his fingers.

That also means that Overhaul can’t simply heal his missing arms.

For the first time, I now think that maybe Shigaraki could turn out to be a good antagonist after all. I still think he’s basically a lesser version of Overhaul due to his quirk, but he’s certainly capable of doing villainous deeds.

Mahou Shoujo Midoriya Magica

If I had to pick one point of the episode to call the worst part, it would probably have to be when Sir Nighteye explains why he thinks Deku was able to alter the future. I figured it had something to do with Eri’s time reversal ability messing with possible futures, but Sir Nighteye has a different theory.

And it’s unfortunate to say, but Sir Nighteye’s theory is probably the canon version.

He claims that Deku was able to break free from his own future thanks to the hopes and dreams of all his comrades. If you think that sounds familiar, that’s probably because a very similar thing happened towards the end of Naruto: Shippūden, and was even prominently featured in the 13th opening.

Deku carrying everyone's hopes and dreams (and Eri) from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Deku carrying everyone’s hopes and dreams (and Eri)

However, the fact that Naruto carried the hopes and dreams of all his comrades didn’t actually make him stronger, give him a special ability, or help him alter the future. But, there is an anime in which this is the case, and you may have heard of it: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.

Now, this is spoilers for Madoka Magica (sorry), but I do need to spoil the series for the sake of this explanation.

At the end of the original series, Madoka Kaname is able to alter the past, present, and future of the entire universe with her wish. This is all thanks to her massive magical potential, which was built up due to Homura creating thousands of timelines with Madoka at the center of them.

So basically, Deku’s ability to break free from his own future thanks to his friends is the same as Madoka’s ability to alter the course of the universe thanks to Homura.

Sir Nighteye

Finally, we get to the death of Sir Nighteye, and I actually think this was good for the series. I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed by Sir Nighteye’s death, but it was for the best. His death will help both Deku and Mirio grow as characters, and his ability was useless anyway.

I’m also pretty sure this is the first time we’ve had a major character in the series die. Mag of the League of Villains died, but I can’t exactly call her a major character. Aside from her though, I don’t think any pro heroes or villains who were actually named ever died until now.

All Might hasn’t died yet somehow, All-for-One didn’t die, I don’t think anyone from Shie Hassaikai died, none of the pro heroes or students from U.A. have died. Really up until now it’s just been background characters and Mag.

I actually thought one of the Wild, Wild Pussycats died, but I just looked it up and apparently that’s not the case. In one of those mid-episode cards, it actually says that the member of the Pussycats who I thought died was merely seriously injured and now retired.

And the last thing I want to mention about Sir Nighteye is that right before he dies, he uses his quirk one last time on Mirio. We don’t get to see what Sir Nighteye sees, but he claims that Mirio is going to go on to become one of the greatest heroes.

This is important because we know that Mirio’s quirk was “permanently” disabled. Is Sir Nighteye implying that Mirio will regain his quirk at some point? Or will he go on to become one of the greatest heroes without a quirk?

Conclusion

What did you think of My Hero Academia season 4 episode 14? Will Shigaraki become an even better villain than Overhaul was? Can Deku save all the magical girls in the universe? And will Mirio ever get his quirk back? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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