My Hero Academia is setting forth a reckoning for the Todoroki family with the cliffhanger from the newest chapter of the series! One of the long running threads throughout Kohei Horikoshi’s series thus far has been Endeavor’s abusive relationship with his family. The series has spent quite a bit of time exploring how Endeavor chased after All Might, and that frustration led to him taking it out on his family that he really only bore to accomplish his own ends. While he has made improvements, the fight against Dabi (and the resulting reveals) really shook him.
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The newest chapter of the series continues the fallout of the fight between the heroes and the Paranormal Liberation Front, and Endeavor is at his lowest point yet. After finding out that Dabi is indeed his long thought dead son Toya, and the pressures of the hero world continue weighing on him, the cliffhanger for the chapter sees that he’ll finally come to grips with what he’s put his family — and most importantly Rei — through over the years.
Chapter 300 of the series revisits Endeavor as he wakes up following the massive fight. Still brewing over Dabi’s reveal, he’s cracking under the weight of it all as he realizes that his son has essentially become a mass murderer because of his past actions. He even goes as far to say that Endeavor has died even if he gets to live on. He begins to cry as he knows he can’t fight his son, and that’s when Shoto sees him.
Shoto has come with the rest of the Todoroki family, including Rei who has come to the hospital as well. Her tries to cry about his guilt, but Rei confronts him about the fact that they have been dealing with that same kind of trauma for much longer than he has. It’s here that she ends the chapter with a declaration that they have to talk about their family, and most importantly, talk about their son Toya.
Following all of this exploration into the complicated history of Enji Todoroki and his family as a whole, it seems that now they will be on the true path to recovery that Endeavor tried to force on his own during the Pro Hero arc. It’s not redemption that he needs, it’s full on forgiveness and acceptance from his family.
But that’s not something that happens overnight, and it’s certainly not something that comes easy. But what do you think? How do you feel about the way My Hero Academia has handled such a complicated story of familial abuse? What’s the way forward for this trauma stained family? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
