My Hero Academia Season 7 Eps. 11 & 12 Review: Playing For Time

Crunchyroll's My Hero Academia S07E11: "Light Fades To Rain" was an emotional punch to the gut. This episode really does a great job of conveying the feeling of being a race against time. The Heroes at the floating prison going against Shigaraki are not above sacrificing themselves to get a good shot at him. The episode lands heavily on emotion and thankfully spares us any silly moments.

Let me preface this by repeating something very important: I hated Bakugo. I never understood why anyone could like such a bully who would make someone's life miserable so consistently the way he would Deku. That said, I am seldom not impressed by the character arcs that characters like him are given. However, the movies and slow build have really developed the character into understandable and sort of likable, more near Inosuke type.

Things take a turn since Shigaraki does not want to let go of Bakugo. The Big Three take their turn and come to his aid. It was a fantastic scene that left me tearing up: the story of how their friendship came to be was short but insanely sweet. Tamaki has been one of my favorite characters since he was introduced and the most relatable to me. I feel his social anxiety. I love that his friends reminded him how important, special, and loved he is. And did the three of them shine! They manage to rescue Bakugo and put up a fight. However, when Mirio calls out Shigaraki for hurting people because he has no friends, he somehow seems to rattle Shigaraki to the point where he reverts to being Tenko. It was kinda creepy the way he lost his cool. Even Mirio realized there was something off and apologized.

After Tamaki successfully fires and his Shigaraki. It was wonderful, but unfortunately, it did not do anything. Bakugo leaves Jeanist and prepares to go again. For a bit, it looked amazing— sparks of fire firing up around Bakugo, and the eyes looked just the same as when Deku shared One For All with him. However, things do not go well as Shigaraki strikes, fatally hitting Bakugo. Did I cry? Damn right, I did. Especially after the scene of him talking to the vestige of Toshinori inside of him and confessing all he ever wanted to do was ask for his autograph. And then Bakugo pulled the All Might collectible card, and I lost it. My heart…

This episode really felt like a punch. It was so insanely sad to see all their reactions, especially Jeanist. I loved seeing how he grew to respect the boy and how hard Bakugo worked to earn it. It is so hard to be so emotionally stunted and so much harder to start voicing how you care and showing it in actions. I cannot imagine how badly Deku will react to this. It definitely has been so much more emotional to see how things play out rather than reading them. Somehow, it has been hitting so much harder.

Episode 12 of My Hero Academia, "Those Who Defend, Those Who Violate," starts exactly where things left off. All supporting heroes at the Coffin in the Sky are in shock, with Bakugo's body ready to be a surprise for Deku from Shigaraki. While the latter keeps filling his mouth with all the destruction he has caused. This was a very dark scenery. I still cannot get over how much the series' tone has evolved throughout the years, along with the characters and what they have been through.

Just as this is happening, we see Dabi at Kamino, having come back to life and becoming more powerful. It seems he copied Shoto's special power, Phosphor, at the last minute during their fight. As he is destroying everything in his path, he communicates with Skeptic to get Endeavor's location. However, we see skeptic is trying to hack into UAs system. Though at Gunga we see All For One has fully regenerated and slowly rewinding out of existence. As he is currently in his prime, he confesses he will make the most of it to guarantee Shigaraki's win. Does not matter what way you look at it, it seems like a very messed up way to die.

As things continue to get bad, the outside world seems to be struggling with where to stand. We see in America that the President and Commander Agpar are arguing where America stands as issues develop. The president emphasizes that due to Shigaraki's power, they might side with him to avoid as much destruction as possible. However, Commander Agpar pulls out a picture of Star to remind him what she fought for. It got me a little choked up. I am still so art what a short span they have us to make us love her so much.

However, when Edgeshot volunteers to save Bakugo from the inside, everyone goes hard against Shigaraki to keep him away from Bakugo. It was pretty heartbreaking to see this losing battle as they try to save time for Deku to show up, and it is Mirio who finds a way to distract Shigaraki long enough for the shields to go down for Deku to come in. I definitely teared up when I saw Nighteye again. There was no hesitation. Deku came in guns blazing, and just this little snippet of the fight we were about to have went as extra as we could hope. I cannot wait to see how bad things will get for Shigaraki and AFO. Here is to karma finding them and biting their behinds.