My Hero Academia 98 was the long-awaited one and finally, it cleared up some questions. It starts on a very ominous note where see All For One saying out loud how he can hear his younger brother’s voice. Does he already know about the vestiges? Or maybe he can feel the change that is coming which will lead to most likely a significant battle.
My Hero Academia 98 starts when All Might receives a call from Gran Torino. He learns that his predecessor had a similar dream experience to Midoriya and she was told that the time has not come yet. This perplexes All Might he wonders if the time will come sooner looking at Midoriya. The fifth match of the training has started. Looks like Midoriya decided to draw the attention of their opponent team so that this can help them uncover their location. And then the Class A team can take care of them.
Monoma and Shinso have an interesting conversation. Since this season has started Monoma has been a very vocal character throughout the training matches. I felt curious about what he will bring to the field when it comes to fighting. It feels like he has a lot of things at stake. His quirk allows him to copy others’ quirks for 5 minutes. But would that be effective when fighting against a stronger opponent ? This is why this match is important to him and Shinso as Midoriya is a strong opponent. And they want to see if they can be the heroes they want to be by fighting Midoriya.
Monoma faces off Midoriya and tries to provoke him by telling him that his teammates have already been captured. Midoriya realizes it could be a trick to get him to speak as Monoma most likely copied Shinso’s quirk. Monoma is good at manipulating people’s feelings, He goes back and forth trying to make Midoriya doubt his actions. But Midoriya keeps calm and gets on with attacking Monoma. Monoma responds by using Yanagi’s quirk to launch his attack.
On the other side, the rest of the Class A team is trying to hold on until Midoriya gives them the signal. But suddenly objects fly towards them and Ashido stops some of them with her quirk. Looks like there are too many of them and we see Shoda from Class B tracking them. It becomes even more problematic as Kodai from Class B uses her quirk to increase the size of the objects Yanagi is moving at Class A team. Uraraka with the help of her quirk stops the movement but suddenly Shoda uses Twin Impact on the objects. This makes the hits by the objects more powerful causing the Class A team to worry.
As Monoma keeps getting chased by Midoriya he keeps on provoking him more. This leads to a shocking sight when we see black waves like structure coming out of Midoriya’s hands. It looks like a new power. This surprises everyone. But what’s worrisome is that we see Midoriya hitting his hand trying to stop the movement. He has no control of the power he has unleashed and he asks Monoma to run away. When Midoriya hits a building, we find Shinso there looking at him with a shocking expression. Midoriya tells him he cannot control the power and asks him to run away too. This power is too strong. The black waves hit the surrounding destroying anything that comes in the way.
We see Midoriya is controlled by the hand that is unleashing the power and he cannot stop it. He thinks back to all the work he did from the start to make the quirk his own. It’s frustrating to think after so much he still is back to square one where he has no idea how to handle this side of his quirk. When it feels like Midoriya is losing his calm and you start worrying about what will happen next Uraraka shows up. She goes on to tightly hold on to Midoriya asking him to calm down even trying to withstand the powerful forces coming off from Midoriya.
We get a flashback from her past where her true purpose of wanting to help others is revealed. We see how she notices that heroes are capable of helping others and leaving them happy. She wants to be a hero like that but after meeting Midoriya her thoughts have grown to a much larger perspective where she knows she can help the heroes too when they need it. And that’s why she chooses to hold Midoriya and asks Shinso to help her in subduing Midoriya.
Shinso’s aim for this match is clear that is to fight against Midoriya. To prove that he is capable of becoming a hero. We see with this clear determination in mind he calls out to Midoriya asking to fight him, to which Midoriya responds. This activates the brainwashing quirk and cuts off Midoriya’s power. But then we see this takes Midoriya to a dream state where he meets someone who is one of the predecessors of One for All. The predecessor explains to him the power that was unleashed from Midoriya was his quirk. It activated when he wanted to catch Monoma badly.
He tells Midoriya the actual meaning behind ‘You are not alone.’ They did not mean it just in spirit they’d guide him but they also meant the power One For All has cultivated so far making Midorya able to access not just one quirk but all the power moves from One For All’s past predecessors. As these powers have been cultivated over the years they are extremely powerful and need a strong calm heart to guide them properly. He asks Midoriya to be calm and not get consumed by his emotions and let his power astray. He assures Midoriya that they are with him and lets him know he will be the one completing One For All. Looks like the time All Might was wondering about has come.
As soon as Midoriya comes out of the trance-like state, Monoma comes to attack him and Uraraka. The rest of the members of both teams follow and they start fighting head-on. Even though All Might is concerned, Aizawa lets the match go on. The next episode will be very interesting to watch. My Hero Academia 98 showed a lot about Midoriya’s power. As we will see whether Midoriya will be able to get a hand on his new power or do something unexpected to win against the Class B team. And of course, Shinso has a score to settle, things will get exciting!
You can watch My Hero Academia 98 on Crunchyroll
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