My Hero Academia Explains How Re-Destro’s Meta Ability Works

My Hero Academia explained exactly how Re-Destro’s meta ability works with the newest episode of the anime! The fifth season has reached its final stretch of episodes, and the final moments of the My Villain Academia arc with it. These last few episodes have seen Tomura Shigaraki and the League of Villains challenged by the supreme leader of a new villainous group, the Meta Liberation Army. As we have seen Shigaraki and the others fighting back against this new threat, we have begun to learn much more about them and their mysterious pasts. 

But while we have started to learn much more about Shigaraki and the other known villains, we have also learned much more about the Meta Liberation Army’s desires as well. After being dragged into the fight with the previous episode of the series, Re-Destro began to reveal his own quirk (which the series notably dubs as a “meta ability” instead to coincide with the Liberation Army’s connotation of their powers and desires to use their abilities freely). With this newest episode, we got a full explanation of his “Stress” power. 

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Episode 111 of the series picks up in the fight between Re-Destro and Shigaraki, and it’s revealed that Re-Destro’s real name is Rikiya Yotsubashi. His meta ability is known as “Stress,” which allows him to build stress within his body and use it as power. The more stressed he gets, the bigger his body becomes as a result. The episode shows that it gives him a huge boost in strength, and he can even use this as an energy projectile attack as well. 

Re-Destro believes that meta abilities are reflective of the user’s personalities, and that’s an interesting perspective to have with his own power. He’s the stressed businessman who has always needed to hold himself back in polite society, and thus now desires to overthrow the current system to use his powers as he truly desires. Oddly enough, while Shigaraki is only after destruction, the two of them are really after the same thing. They both want a freedom that can only come about by destroying the current order. 

It’s just that Re-Destro has thought about what to do after the destruction that sets the two villains apart for now, but we’ll see how the fight between the two shakes up with the remaining episodes of the season. But what do you think? Let us know all of your thoughts about Re-Destro and his ability in the comments!