My Hero Academia Episode 98

My Hero Academia Episode 98

The Fifth Match Begins

Considering My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 98 is a Deku-focused episode, I wasn’t expecting it to be all that good. I get that some people like Deku. But to me, he’s probably the most boring, bland, and uninspired shounen battle series protagonist.

Luckily, this episode wasn’t all about Deku using his One-for-All quirk in the same ways that he always does. In fact, the only part of the episode in which Deku is actually fighting involves him relying solely on his new air burst attack. That’s way more interesting than him punching and kicking things.

I went over the composition of Deku’s team at the end of the previous episode review. So rather than doing that again, let’s take a look at the strategies that both teams are using to get the edge. Just as in the previous match, one team is outgunned and so will need to fight from the shadows.

Deku preparing to use his air burst attack from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Deku preparing to use his air burst attack

The Class 1-A team, despite having a very similar composition to the previous team with Bakugo, opts for an opposing strategy. Rather than making Deku the star of the team and having everyone else support him, Deku is going to be the support.

Thanks to his speed and the fact that he knows the Class 1-B team will see him as the main threat, Deku is a great distraction. And if the other team is paying attention to Deku, Uraraka, Mina, and Mineta can be more effective.

Class 1-B’s team is similarly using an opposing strategy compared to the team from round 4. Rather than focusing on the powerhouse that is Deku, they plan to take out his teammates first so that he can’t be supported.

The Last of the Class-B Quirks

With Episode 98, we also get to see the final four Class 1-B quirks in action. Monoma’s quirk was already known to be that he can copy other quirks, so that’s not new. But, we learned that he can only copy one quirk at a time. So if you know what quirk he has copied, you don’t have to worry about him using others.

The way I see it, Monoma’s quirk is kind of like a mini All-for-One. And, his hero name being Phantom Thief is because he’s “stealing” quirks from others, even if he doesn’t actually remove the quirks in the way All-for-One does.

Reiko Yanagi’s Poltergeist quirk is pretty simple. She can control objects as if possessing them. This is the quirk Monoma copied. Also, Reiko’s hero name being Emily is likely a reference to The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

Yui Kodai - Quirk: Size from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Yui Kodai – Quirk: Size

Yui Kodai is my favorite character from this group for two reasons. First, I really like the simplicity of her Size quirk. She can shrink objects and then return them to their normal size at will — just like Goldburn in yesterday’s episode of SSSS.Dynazenon.

The second reason is really why I like Yui, though. Her last name, Kodai (小大), is written with the kanji for “small” and “big.” So, her last name is describing exactly what her quirk does. It makes things small, and then it makes them big again.

Finally, we have my least favorite of the group, Shoda and his quirk Twin Impact. Shoda’s quirk name is basically just the English translation of his given name Nirengeki (二連撃). His quirk allows him to create a second impact wherever he hit something previously. So if he punches you in the face, a second “phantom punch” would follow.

If you’ve seen Jujutsu Kaisen, you can think of this like how Itadori’s jujutsu technique works.

True Nature of One-for-All

The reason I think this Deku-centered episode was pretty good is that we finally learned the true nature of his One-for-All quirk. Not only is One-for-All cultivated and passed down between wielders, but so too are all the individual quirks of those wielders (sort of).

We all know how the basics of One-for-All work. Every new wielder of the quirk cultivates it so that it’s stronger when they pass it down than it was when they received it. Since Deku is the 9th wielder, he has the strongest version of the quirk so far.

However, up to this point, we’d only seen the cultivation of the quirk manifest via physical strength. That’s only part of what One-for-All is. You could say that the true nature of the quirk is that it cultivates and passes down all of the quirks of its users.

One of the previous One-for-All holders showing Deku his quirk from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
One of the previous One-for-All holders showing Deku his quirk

If a previous user of One-for-All had another quirk before receiving One-for-All, then their original quirk gets added to the pool that gets passed down. The only problem is that, until now, those additional quirks were locked away for an unknown reason.

The first of these other quirks that Deku has unlocked is Blackwhip, which seems to function in a similar way to the tape guy’s quirk. It’s great for capturing people, and maybe Deku will even be able to swing around with it like Spider-Man.

An important thing to note is that there are a total of 7 of these additional quirks — 6 more to be unlocked. The reason there aren’t 9 for the 9 users is that Deku and All Might were both quirkless before receiving One-for-All.

So if you think about it, Deku in particular is really just reaping the benefits of everyone’s hard work without adding anything of his own. All Might didn’t add a quirk either, but he didn’t have access to all the previous quirks.

Conclusion

What do you think about My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 98? Is the strategy Deku’s team is using better or worse than Bakugo’s? Which Class 1-B quirk from this last batch is your favorite? And what other quirks do you think Deku will awaken? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 99 is available now.

3 Replies to “My Hero Academia Episode 98”

  1. I think there might have been a mistake with the stated number of quirks Deku has available to unlock. He’s the 9th user and All Might was quirkless which means there were 7 other users with quirks. However the first user’s quirk was One-For-All as far as I understand it. Unless the first user had a second quirk then Deku shoud only eventually have access to 6 quirks from previous users.

    By my count there should only be 5 quirks left for Deku to unlock now that he’s unlocked Black Whip.

    1. I may be misremembering, but I thought the original user of One-for-All had 2 quirks. I thought he had One-for-All, and then his brother (All-for-One) forcibly gave him another quirk because he was thought to be quirkless since One-for-All was so weak back then.

      1. According to what we’ve been told the brother of All-For-One had a useless quirk. From the description you could probably say it was a stunted version of All-For-One. Basically the brother’s quirk was a quirk that could pass itself from one user to another and that was it.

        Then All-For-One gave his brother a “power storage” quirk. The two quirks merged together and formed One-For-All – a power storage quirk that could be passed from one user to another getting stronger with each generation.

        Given what we know now it’s possible the brother’s quirk also had the ability to absorb/merge with other quirks but because that could only happen after being passed on or having a second quirk no-one knew that at the time.

        When I first saw the description of the origin of One-For-All I assumed that multiple quirks in the same body just naturally merge together but now I wonder if that was a specific aspect of the brother’s “useless” quirk.

        It would also tie into my idea that the brother’s quirk was a stunted/limited version of All-For-One’s quirk. All-For-One can take quirks off people and use them for himself but he can also transfer quirks to other people as well. Whereas his brother’s quirk could absorb/merge with other quirks and be passed on.

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