My Hero Academia Finally Settles Kurogiri’s Change of Heart

My Hero Academia’s final arc is set to continue in the anime’s seventh season next month, but the manga is preparing for the end of UA Academy’s story. Creator Kohei Horikoshi isn’t just giving readers some of the biggest battles of the franchise to date, he is also making sure to give many characters on the sidelines their chance to shine. The latest chapter sees Kurogiri taking some extreme actions that many readers might not have seen coming when it comes to the crime fighters of Hero Society.

Warning. If you have yet to read the latest chapter of My Hero Academia’s manga, Chapter 420, be forewarned that we’ll be diving into serious spoiler territory. Before we get into the actions that Kurogiri took during this latest chapter, we need to understand the villain’s origin story. Perhaps there is no more tragic character in the shonen series than Kurogiri, who was originally a young hero named Oboro Shirakumo. The crime fighter was classmates with the likes of Eraserhead, Midnight, and Present Mic, but fell in battle. Unfortunately, All For One and the League of Villains got their hands on his body and transformed him into the teleporting villain Kurogiri, who was originally tasked with protecting Shigaraki at all costs.

Is Kurogiri a Hero Now?

In the previous manga chapter, we witnessed Aizawa and other heroes teleport their way to the battlefield thanks in part to Kurogiri’s teleporting abilities. Our latest installment sees Aizawa and Present Mic attempting to get through to their former friend, and while the latter writes off the idea, the former sticks with it. In believing that his friend isn’t entirely lost thanks to his new status as a Nomu, Eraserhead delivers a speech that solidifies the return of Oboro,

“That day in Tartarus, we reached toward him and drew out a bit of light. It blended with his darkness and shut him down, no amount of light can ever reverse all that dark. But darkness works differently, that’s what activated him again. I know you know this, Yamada, we’re educators in the Hero Course. It’s our job to make sure U.A. students reach graduation. If that’s where his origin lies, those memories ain’t ever gonna fade.”

Do you think other villains might join UA Academy’s cause before the series finale? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Class 1-A.