My Hero Academia

Episode 33

It's finally time to learn a little something about One For All. I've been missing All Might in the spotlight ever since the beginning of season two, so it's nice to see him back at the teaching gig as the hero internships come to a close and we get back into the swing of things with our studies. Although, it does come with some foreboding inner monologue about our number one hero's fate as the story barrels forward.

There's definitely a nice vibe around getting back into everyday life as a student, where we get to see the kids hang out and interact once again, but it also reflects well on Midoriya's physical growth as he uses his new and improved One For All to surprise everybody during training. Even if he's only using a small percentage of his Quirk, the way he's able to maneuver his super strength to improve his speed and mobility makes for a power that bolsters the imagination. One For All parkour looks really fun.

From here we get into the real meat of the episode, where All Might sits Midoriya down and tells him the story about how One For All came to be. It starts with its inverse, All For One, a Quirk from the early days of superpowers that had the ability to steal and redistribute other people's Quirks. I had to double check this part a few times because some of the details just blazed by, but One For All came from the All For One user's brother, who unknowingly had a Quirk whose power was to pass itself on, and when the All For One user tried to put a super strength (or 'stockpiling') power into him, the two Quirks basically fused and became the One For All we know today. I think I got that right.

If you stick around for the after credits scenes, you'll see that the ominous All For One appears to still be around behind the scenes of the League of Villains, threatening to revive himself from his sickly, decrepit state as soon as he can. He's got stock in Shigaraki's ability to unite the wannabe villains who are arriving in the aftermath of Stain's capture, so there are a lot of parallels between him and All Might, and then Shigaraki and Midoriya. The fact that this episode teases All Might's eventual death so heavily makes this All For One stuff some great edge-of-your-seat storytelling. I really want to know more.

What we get in this episode is a nice balance of the smaller stuff—Midoriya proudly claiming “I'm Deku!” to Gran Torino as they say farewell is a cute moment, and there's a peeping-on-the-girls-in-the-locker-room gag that ends about as well as you could expect for Mineta—on top of some fantastic intrigue for the bigger picture as we learn of an evil from ye olden days of superpowers, and the weight of this story translates into the direction of the episode strongly. Everything's more dramatic if you say it during a glowing orange sunset.

It looks like we're getting ready to pick up a new arc for My Hero Academia this week, and looking at the remaining episodes of the season, this might be the last one before the break. It's a little sad, since it's just piqued my interest with the All For One story, but I trust that season three will come soon enough.

Rating: B+

My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw