‘My Hero Academia’ Special Teases All Might’s Tragic Origin

My Hero Academia knows how to hit fans right in the feels, and All Might is never once to pull his punches. The Symbol of Peace has brought around some serious angst over the years, but nothing can compare to the hero’s next outing.

After all, My Hero Academia is about to explore All Might’s past, and its big special just hinted at one of the hero’s darkest memories.

Soon, Japan will welcome the release of My Hero Academia‘s first feature film, and the project will hand out a gift to audiences. A manga will be released with the movie in limited quantities that tells a never-before-seen piece of All Might’s past, and the team behind My Hero Academia put up a teaser for the special.

And, as you can see above, it shows All Might coming face-to-face with a nightmare.

In one panel, fans are shown a much younger All Might as the man reaches out before him. With tears in his eye, All Might looks horrified and beat up as he screams out. It turns out his mentor Nana Shimura has stepped into a major fight to rescue him, making fans wonder whether this scene shows her fated battle with All For One.

Still, the teaser is plenty angsty on its own, but its last panel makes it all the worse. A close-up of Nana is shown, and she is seen looking forward while pointing behind her.

“You’re next,” she says, motioning to All Might. So, yes — you are more than okay to start sobbing at that little reference.

Penned by creator Kohei Horikoshi, this special 9-page manga is slated to dive deep into what made All Might the No. 1 Hero. Fans have known for some time that All Might’s connection to Nana was fundamental with his hero philosophy, but it looks like he took more from his predecessor than audiences knew. So, if you want to scope out this special, then you best be sure to load up on tissues beforehand.

For those unfamiliar with the My Hero Academia juggernaut, the series was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 15 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.

Are you emotionally prepared for this backstory drop? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!