My Hero Academia Season 6

Episode 127

After a week off for the holidays, MHA is back with a bunch of souvenirs. We've got a shiny new ending animation, an even shinier new OP, and an episode that's roughly 60% recap. You win some, you lose some.

Granted, considering just how busy and chaotic this past arc has been, it's not the worst idea to get everyone back up to speed, even if it's through an awkward framing device of Deku reading the reports on the whole event sometime in the future. At the moment, he's still unconscious with all his limbs broken, but he'll get up to some reading after his body is no longer a meat sack filled with pain. But if you've got a good memory and don't need a refresher course, there's nothing new between the cold open and the eyecatch this week.

So instead, allow me to use that space to gush about the new OP/ED combo we got. I've not the biggest fan of EVE, but he's made some good anisongs before, and “Bokura No” is pitch-perfect for the arc it's attached to. It's somber enough to fit the darker tone of the post-battle destruction that the new material of this episode covers while marrying that melancholy to a song that's fast-paced enough to still complement the action on display. And that action is rendered beautifully, bringing in several animators who have previously contributed major highlights to MHA and letting them run wild. Last cour's OP eventually grew on me, even if it still felt a little too optimistic once cities started crumbling, but this is an instant, perfect fit. The ED is less remarkable, but I appreciate it being such a callback to the show's first ending, showing us the journey Deku's continuous running has taken him through all these years, yet having him hesitate ever so slightly before choosing to take his next step. They're just about the best I could ask for as a pair.

Meanwhile, there's not much to be happy about in the actual show, as the back half of “Hellish Hell” makes good on its name. Nearly all of the non-recap material is just witnessing the bloody reality of the countless civilians caught in Gigantomachia's wake, with any heroes left standing desperately trying to save as many lives as possible. In a way, it's honestly more devastating than any of the major injuries or sacrifices in the previous battle because it's so much more grounded. These aren't superheroes punching each other across the sky and shaking it off – they're normal, everyday people in crisis, desperate and alone and calling out for help. Uraraka and the others do an admirable job answering that call, but they're still only human, and there are nowhere near enough hands to reach out to everyone.

It's pretty demoralizing, and that's before we find out Midnight's ultimate fate, which is all the more heartbreaking when it's her students that find her body. Which, Jesus, I can't even imagine how any of them will handle that going forward. The societal pillars these kids have grown up with are crumbling one after another. Their closest mentors are dead or maimed. Trust in heroes is shattered, not just among the populace at large but even among their own ranks. It's an impacting display of how much the heroes lost this war, and it's hard to see how they'll pick up the pieces. It hits hard and heavy and is almost enough to counterbalance the recap half of this episode.

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My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.