My Hero Academia’s Massive New Villain Threat May Bring All Might Back to the Fight

My Hero Academia is heating up summer 2020 with its new “Paranormal Liberation War” arc, which is, in some very important way, the culmination of everything the series has been building towards. The next generation of heroes and villains are having to come of age in a truly dark and troubling time, as the Pro Heroes and police have recruited Class 1-A to do all-out battle with the League of Villains’ new army. However, the two big pillars of the Hero / Villain worlds, All Might and All For One, have remained on the sidelines – but it seems they won’t be for long.

Here’s why My Hero Academia‘s Massive New Villain Threat Could Bring All Might Back to the Fight!

Evolution of Shigaraki

The big turning moment of the Paranormal Liberation War has been the re-awakening of Tomura Shigaraki. All For One’s disciple Dr. Ujiko has boosted Shigaraki’s quirk and removed the handicaps (and hands) placed on the boy; we also learned that Shigaraki has the true All For One power inside of him. That new power has called out to Izuku Midoriya’s One For All ability as Shigaraki awakens – it’s fair to assume the same could be happening to Toshinori Yagi / All Might.  

Gigantomachia

All For One’s giant, rock monster Gigantomachia has been on the sidelines of this conflict between the League of Villains and Pro Heroes all along. He’s All For One’s bodyguard, but is all but catatonic without his master’s orders – as he’s been during the war. But that’s about to change. Now that Shigaraki is awakening with the power of All For One alive in him, Gigantomachia has come out of his catatonic state ready to fight for his master’s protege. That alone is a power that may require the greatest hero ever to suit up once more. 

The Intelligent Nomu

Even if the Pro Heroes deal with the threat of the new villains, somehow, they’ve barely managed to put a dent in the new gang of Intelligent Nomu that All For One’s disciple Dr. Ujiko has released. These new Nomu aren’t just enhanced with multiple quirks and incredible regeneration abilities – they’re highly intelligent and tactical threats. They’re still just learning, but Nomu always end up being a threat to general public, meant to inspire fear and break confidence in heroes – and there may be only one person that can stand against this new dark tide and be the symbol people need. 

Dabi

If a newly-powered Shigaraki and his Giant Monster weren’t enough to overwhelm the current Pro Hero force, and get All Might back on the battlefield, there’s also one major new X-factor: Dabi. The league of Villains firebug has revealed that’s he’s not actually part of the team: he’s a revolutionary trying to shatter the status quo, in the spirit of Hero Killer Stain. If Dabi truly wants to end the era of pro heroes as we know it, then there may be several ways of doing it that for All Might to fight again:

1. Try Kill the Old Symbol of Peace (All Might)
2. Try to Kill the New Top Pro Hero (Endeavor… his dad?)

PLF Elite

It’s not just the new Shigaraki, his pet monster (Gigantomachia), and his army of intelligent, unkillable beasts (The Nomu) the pro heroes have to worry about: it’s also the League of Villains’ new army of allies. The Paranormal Liberation Front is organized into divisions, each of which has commanders – one for the League of Villains, the other from the former Meta Liberation Front. These PLF commanders are each formidable (see: iceman Geten), and are major X factors we haven’t really seen yet. Given the size of the villains’ forces and power, the heroes are going to need all the help they can get. 

All For One

…And let’s not count out the no. 1 reason that All Might would show up to fight one last time: the return of his greatest nemesis. Since All Might defeated All For One at the Battle of Kamino, it seems the archvillain has been on lockdown; however, we’ve just learned that one of All For One inherited quirks (from Dr. Ujiko), may turn his current immobility into a major advantage. It’s also been revealed that All For One and Shigaraki both currently hold the All For One quirk power: that’s too in sync with All Might and Izuku’s shared One For All power to be coincidence. This tag-team rumble needs to go down! 

The Power (Re)Awakens

We should probably address the elephant in the room: All Might has exhausted his One for All power defeating All For One – so how would he even return to the fight? Well, the answer is connected to any number of subplots already coming to a head in the war arc – such as how One For All is reacting to Shigaraki’s All For One awakening, for instance. As the power of All For One enters this next phase, Izuku Midoriya is hearing One For All call to him in warning, and it looks like the quirk could unlock new powers in Deku we haven’t seen. Since Toshinori is still a living user of One For All, he is clearly on deck to have some kind of new awakening of his own powers. As for what he does with them…

The Flag Has Been Planted

The deeper subtext and foreshadow of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc has been building toward the idea that All Might will have to return to the battle field – but he may not walk off of it again. Before the war kicked off, Toshinori Yagi was telling Eraser Head that he is finally ready to start living life after his hero career – which is pretty much anime-speak for “you’re about to die, bro.” If there was ever a time in My Hero Aacademia for All Might to battle to the death, this pretty much seems like it. 

Do you want to see All Might fight in My Hero Academia‘s Paranormal Liberation War? 

My Hero Academia has finished airing season 4 of the anime on Hulu and Funimation. Online chapters of the manga can be found HERE.