My Hero Academia Announces A Top Hero's Retirement
My Hero Academia's manga continues its epilogue by revealing that one of the top pro heroes is truly done for good.
My Hero Academia's epilogue continues unfolding in the manga, and Chapter 426 has revealed that one of the top pro heroes is ending their career for good!
My Hero Academia Chapter 426 SPOILERS Follow!
Chapter 426 of My Hero Academia's manga is called "The Hellish Todoroki Family: Final" and true to its title, it focuses on the final status quo of the Todoroki Family, after the war with All For One. The Todoroki Family gathers to speak with Dabi (Toya Todoroki), who is still hanging onto life imprisoned in a life-support restraint device. There are multiple resolutions folded into that family reunion with Dabi – including the reveal that patriarch Enji Todoroki – aka no. 1 pro hero Endeavor – has retired from pro hero duty.
It wasn't just the All-Out War and Final War arcs that broke Endeavor's spirit via the reveal that Toya had become Dabi: the final battle where Hawks and Endeavor teamed up to face All For One in his main body left Endeavor maimed with an amputated arm, and injuries so extensive that he's permanently confined to a wheelchair.
Enji tells his son Toya that "Dabbie" was ultimately successful in his campaign of vengeance, since "Endeavor the hero is dead and burned away."
Endeavor accepts his crippled body and the end of his career as a hero as penance for how he treated his family, and how obsessive he was about becoming the top hero over All Might. Enji also decides to pay off his Karmic balance by doing the one thing that Toya never got from him but always wanted: his attention:
"From now on, I'll come here every single day to talk with you," Enji tells Toya. "I realize it's far too late, but let's talk." Endeavor offers the rest of the family the same, proposing they use "the time that Shoto made sure we'd have together," to talk things out. He shows the most vulnerability and compassion ever, telling his kids and wife, "If you hate me? So be it. Speak your mind. Lay into me! Let me have it!"
Later on, Endeavor gives a final monologue that provides a final resolution to his arc. His son Natsuo doesn't accept the new era of Enji's fatherly love, proclaiming he's going to marry his girlfriend and remain estranged from his father. Endeavor makes it clear that he's not expecting everyone to suddenly fall in love with him, saying in no uncertain terms that:
"I'll be making amends and apologizing for my sins for the rest of my life – whether you're all around to see it or not. And I'll shield you kids from the fiery fallout to the best of my ability. If there's a reason I survived, that's got to be it."
There was a lot of fan debate about whether or not Endeavor had to die a heroic death in order to balance out his many wrongdoings as a father. Instead, MHA creator Kohei Horikoshi has arguably taken a more mature route to Endeavor's arc, by forcing him to leave the "hero" behind and finally take up his responsibilities as a man.
My Hero Academia's manga epilogue can be read at Shonen Jump.
