My Hero Academia Reveals the Winner Between Shigaraki and Re-Destro

My Hero Academia‘s villain focused arc has finally reached the end of the massive battle between Shigaraki’s League of Villains and Re-Destro’s Meta Liberation Army as the two of them vied for the top spot on the food chain. The latest chapter of the series has shaken things up in a pretty significant way, but there was an admittedly surprising turn as to how it got there. When these two villain groups started fighting, there wasn’t really a clear indication as to which side would win.

But with Shigaraki’s origins being explored throughout the arc and unlocking new levels of his power with each new resurfaced memory, Chapter 239 has completed Shigaraki’s growth by making him the decisive victor in the fight against Re-Destro.

The Meta Liberation Army was introduced at the start of this arc as a new villainous faction poised to take the series in a new direction. Re-Destro was introduced as the mysterious leader of this group that was fighting for the “noble” goal of freely using their Quirks without being held down by the current rules of this hero society. But in fighting Shigaraki, Re-Destro began to realize something.

As Shigaraki grew more powerful, Re-Destro began to respect the part of Shigaraki that was just pure chaos. His wild nature is what Re-Destro thinks is “true” freedom, and was continuously surprised by how Shigaraki was willing to destroy everything with the full potential of his quirk. Seeing him at his most primal strength, Re-Destro came to the conclusion that they shouldn’t fight anymore.

Realizing that Shigaraki came face to face with Destro’s passed down will of pure freedom and brushing it aside with pure chaos, he relents and admits his defeat. He was prepared to die for Destro’s will, and notes how his army was going to do the same. But in seeing Shigaraki being a full representation of this ideal, Re-Destro completely forfeits the fight and gives the full command of the Meta Liberation Army to Shigaraki.

With the heroes poised to return to the manga after this arc, the total dissolution of the Meta Liberation Army into the League of Villains is going to be a major factor going forward. There’s a literally and metaphorically stronger Shigaraki heading into the coming chapters.

My Hero Academia 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 powers, even though 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 licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. My Hero Academia is gearing up for an even bigger end of 2019 with both a fourth season of the anime and second big anime film too.