‘My Hero Academia’ Delves Into Endeavor’s Origin Story

My Hero Academia‘s latest episode brought with it many changes to the series going forward, but it was also a smart balance of new revelations about the characters that fans had been wondering about for a while.

The Number Two hero Endeavor’s been one of the most interesting characters fans wanted to know more about, and after seeing All Might’s fight with All For One, fans learned more about what kind of hero Endeavor wants to be.

When he sees All Might’s fragile state after All For One’s attacks, Endeavor is furious. He asks what’s up with All Might’s weak body because it turns out he’s clawed his way to the number two spot because he’s been one of the many heroes who have lived in All Might’s shadow.

All Might’s status as a symbol pushed Endeavor to do terrible things in order to catch up to him, especially with his family, and he’s been searching for his own strength all this time. It just goes to show just how much influence All Might has over his world of heroes.

He was such a symbol, Endeavor automatically felt inferior and started to regress into himself in order to eventually surpass All Might. But in this moment, Endeavor sees that all his effort may have been for naught as All Might was hiding his weakness all this time. It’s definitely a frustrating situation for Endeavor, and paints him in a much more tragic light than before. His acts of abuse still aren’t forgivable, but they indeed come from a place of hurt. Thus continuing the cycle of pain.

For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

My Hero Academia‘s first movie, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, is scheduled to open August 3 in Japan, but will hold a special World Premiere at Anime Expo 2018. The film is expecting to hits U.S. theaters this Fall. The film will cover a story not seen in the original manga with series creator Horikoshi noting that, “Of course the movie will be filled with Class A’s great efforts, that character’s past that hasn’t been in the manga yet, flashy action scenes, and much more.” The film also previously revealed its first key visual depicting a character fans have never seen before, and a trailer revealing an All Might in his prime.