My Hero Academia has reached is climax, as the battle between Izuku Midoriya and archvillains Tomura Shigaraki and All For One finally came to an end. And, given how the final battle ended, it’s more clear than ever that the opposing superpowers of One For All and All For One only had one inevitable end to their respective arcs.
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(WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
In My Hero Academia Chapter 423 Deku is making his final blow attempt against the All For One/Shigaraki’s final form. In order to land the hit, Izuku needs help from all of the allies he’s made along the way – including his biggest competitor, Katsuki Bakugo. The objective is achieved, and All For One takes the ultimate hit; however, as Izuku’s blow lands, something profound takes place on the mental/spiritual plane of the AFO and OFA powers.
Why One For All & All For One Needed to Reunite
Izuku Midoriya’s final words to All For One are, perhaps, the best insight into My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi’s overarching theme to OFA and AFO’s respective and collective roles in this story. Deku screams that even though All For One purports himself to be the “Demon Lord,” in reality, he’s just a very “lonely man.”
All For One proves Midoriya’s point when the final blow delivers the final vestiges of his brother, Yoichi Shigaraki (OFA’s First User) for All For One to converse with before they both vanish from existence. In his last moments, All For One breaks down and cries, proclaiming love for his little brother and confessing the only fear he’s ever had is being alone.
OFA and AFO were always more than the typical “ultimate powers” you see in superhero lore. The powers were always grounded in the lives, experiences, and relationships between the Shigaraki brothers – a story that always contained clues about All For One’s psyche. All For One tried to be his brother’s keeper (read: jailer) since their tragic birth, and the entire chain of OFA started with All For One forcing a quirk into Yoichi whom he saw as weak and powerless. It is peak karmic circling, then, to have Yoichi can out alone and gather together so many allies and powers to finally come back around and put a stop to his evil brother.
The image of Yoichi, Izuku, and OFA’s other users all landing the killing blow against All For One in the spiritual plane is as epic and fulfilling as a shonen series climax can get. All For One dies knowing that his selfish pursuit was empty and hollow, while Yoichi’s OFA journey was aggrandizing and fulfilling, is the resolution that the series always needed.
Horikoshi’s ultimate thematic message – that our (sustained) power as a people united for good is greater than any one person’s will to commit evil – no matter how intense that will is, or how evil the acts committed are. It’s a timely message to convey, and one that My Hero Academia earned the right to tell.
Now, all that’s left is for Deku to get one last ember of a new AFO/OFA hybrid power to start rebuilding towards the future.
My Hero Academia chapters can be read online at Shonen Jump.
