Wounded Hero, Burning Bright and True!! is the one hundred and forty-eighth episode of the My Hero Academia anime and the tenth episode of the seventh season.
Summary#
Despite the major blow they were just dealt by All For One, the Heroes continuing the fight against him stay strong. Earphone Jack yells at the man that she doesn't care about his speech about them not being strong or special enough to face him directly, as all that matters to her is that he made her friends, Deku and Can't Stop Twinkling, cry.
Channeling her anger, she uses her last remaining jack and its Amplifier Jack to fire a Heartbeat Surround: Legato at the Villain. While it keeps him stunned for a bit, All For One easily resists her technique and swings his arm up for a counter. But then, he is suddenly stopped by the vestiges of the Quirks he stole, holding him back from making a move.
Hawks then moves in to strike All For One's helmet once more, as he channels the vibrations sent out by Earphone Jack onto one of his feather blades. With one last powerful strike, on the same spot he's been hitting to create a weak spot on the life support system, Hawks flies in and hits All For One with a Soundwave Vibration-Enhanced Flight Feather Blade, shattering the blade and the right portion of the device.
Earphone Jack tells Tsukuyomi to move in, as she covers Dark Shadow with her jacket and leaps off him, while firing more sound waves alongside Hawks' feathers at All For One to keep him further immobilized. Tsukuyomi dives down at the Villain, as Dark Shadow snakes his arm over its host and the boy covers it with his cloak. With no time to evade thanks to the vestiges restraining his will, All For One is struck in the head by Tsukuyomi's Fleeting Blow, destroying his life support device and causing him to fall out the air.
Hawks then swoops down and brandishes his last remaining feather blade in preparation for a killing strike to the Villain. His attempt is cut short by All For One's vestige breaking out of his hold and allowing him to send out a massive web of Rivet Stabs outwards and using the spikes to piece his helmet back together and skewer the three Heroes.
Earphone Jack, Hawks, and Tsukuyomi are shielded at the last minute by a now reinvigorated Endeavor, at the cost of his shoulder armor being crushed to bits and his right arm being impaled. All For One calls out how much the No. 1 Hero's persistence has warped his life and character, as Endeavor punches back the attack and rips off his right forearm before rushing furiously toward his opponent, about to prepare to prepare the ultimate attack.
A few moments ago, Endeavor imaged what his younger self might think of him in his current state and pictures the boy he once was chastising him for showing his inner weakness that was dragged out in the open thanks to the weight of his position, atonement, mistakes, and responsibility, finally beating him down to an unimaginable low standard.
"Enji" tells him to remember the start of his journey to become truly "superhuman", after witnessing his father die in an attempt to save a girl from a Villain attack, starting to chase the unrivalled gold-standard of a Pro Hero that was All Might, and taking on the Hero name 'Endeavor' once getting into U.A. to fully embody the massive effort and resilience he has to take on to pursue his goal. While the boy's neck is grabbed by "Endeavor", he ends off on saying that deep down he knew he can never reach the same heights as All Might or Deku, and the only thing he was and still is fighting to keep himself going was his own weakness.
Endeavor then generates a Vanishing Fist from his arm stub and furiously strikes All For One, who barely manages to shield himself from it with a barrier. The Hero tells the man that he's well aware of how persistent he is, to the point where he never wants to congratulate or find solace in himself by complimenting his own work. As he lights up his severed arm once again, Endeavor promises to see the end of this fight per his duty as a Hero.
All For One recoils a little after rebounding from the earlier clash, as while he anticipated the massive strength behind Endeavor's move, he never expected it to make him recall the pain he endured from his first fight with All Might. As Endeavor powers up his flames and readies himself, All For One notes that wounded Heroes are the scariest to deal with.
Propelled by Hawks' feathers, Endeavor quickly blitzes All For One and gets the drop on him with a Vanishing Jet Burn, which smothers the Villain's anticipatory barrier and sends the man plummeting to the ground while torching the surrounding battlefield. Hawks reprimands him for the move as the plan was for his ally to finish off All For One with a Prominence Burn, which he retorts after cooling his body down a bit. He explains that he can't use that move repeatedly, and due to the fact that All For One is focusing on defense now, he has to make sure his options for that are chipped away to guarantee a clean hit.
On the ground, several heroes think about attacking All For One, taking advantage of the opportunity, but Kamui Woods yells at them to get out of the way immediately, as he saw Endeavor blasting himself downward after All For One, causing a blast upon impact that sends many of them flying. Using his flames at full power, he manages to pierce All For One's barrier, grabs him by the throat, and in an unstoppable rage and hatred, begins flying through and scorching the wooded area while dragging the Villain through the forest.
All For One struggles to retaliate, in part due to the failure of his life support, but takes the opportunity of Endeavor's close proximity to try and steal Hellflame. Endeavor easily picks up on the attempt and roasts his free arm with concentrated beams of fire from his eyes, telling the Villain that the only thing his hands are good for are stealing other people's futures.
All For One throws that comment back in the Hero's face, which Endeavor openly agrees with as he pulls up and starts rocketing him and All For One into the sky. The Hero assures to himself that while the past will never die, all the ugly things that created it have come together to pave a better future. One where the youth roam free to explore themselves on paths that lead to several bright outcomes.
As Endeavor thinks of his youngest son and friends walking to the light as fully-fledged Pro Heroes, he tells himself to secure the win, so the mistakes that he and other adults have made won't plague them once they set off on their own.
Endeavor grapples himself on to All For One and begins to concentrate and build up his firepower and promises himself to keep watching his oldest son as he takes on all these burdens himself and wins this fight. The man hits his adversary with a furious Prominence Burn, turning All For One into nothing but a burnt, smoking corpse in his grasp.
Endeavor's relief in the fight's conclusion doesn't last however, as Hawks tells Endeavor to quickly get away. He flinches as he hears the charred body of All For One ask him if the Hero really thought that he would go down without any final tricks up his sleeve, and whether or not he believes only Heroes were the type to put their lives on the line.
The corpse is seen smiling as a fresh eye and ear sprout out of its head, as All For One has appeared to use one of the Quirk-Destroying Drug rounds produced from Eri, which slowly starts undoing all the hard work the Heroes have put themselves on the line for.
Meanwhile, within the Coffin in the Sky, the team of Heroes dealing with "Tomura" currently struggle to combat against his swarming mass of mutated fingers. Best Jeanist tells everyone to keep their composure and focus on targeting the main body, as "Tomura" has taken a huge hit in mobility that they can capitalize on if they maintain their momentum.
The Villain, on the other hand, takes his precious time to monologue to the Heroes about how his power and new body will help him further his goal of having everyone under his sole subjugation, creating his own twisted sense of "equalization" where misunderstanding doesn't breed fear and rejection, and likens to the world the Heroes are fighting for.
Dynamight tells him to shut it with his endless talking, as he lands on a safe stretch of ground allowing a device to unfurl itself from the back of his costume: the Strafe Panzer, a Support Item he requested to further weaponize the massive amounts of sweat he just accumulated.
Dynamight blasts himself up as the gear fires an armada of small bullet-like Explosions at the wave of fingers, while providing cover for his other teammates to zero in on the main body. He thinks about Tomura's earlier comment about misunderstandings, while simultaneously reflecting on how this notion framed a lot of defining moments in his messy relationship with Deku: the time he was saved from the Sludge Villain by him, their Final Exam against All Might, his outburst during their fight after their Provisional Hero License Exam, and his apology after he and his classmates fought to bring him back to school following the first war.
Dynamight begins to dive into the cover, and he starts gyrating himself with light explosions from his palms, as he acknowledges how he's already taken that fact to heart in the past and has frequently seen others made steps beyond from that mindset, even if change isn't immediate. He tells "Tomura" that he doesn't need people like him sticking his nose in that progress, as the kid burrows though the ocean of fingers and rams straight towards the Villain with his new Ultimate Move: Howitzer Impact: Cluster.
The attack violently collides with a barrier conjured by "Tomura", and causes an enormous, cone-shaped explosion that reverberates through the side of the Coffin's electromagnetic barrier, causing the structure to shake, which was already facing severe structural issues due to "Tomura's" finger growths weighing down the area. This event, and everything else is also being recorded by U.A.'s Business Course, as they want proper documentation for their eventual victory in this defining war against Heroes and Villains.
However, in the clash, the Villain grabbed ahold of Dynamight's arm and commends him for maximizing his power output while keeping others safe by condensing his explosions. In rejected disinterest of his talks and demonstration of his growth and path to power, "Tomura" crushes the student's right arm with a single squeeze. Seeing Dynamight in danger, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot and Mirko rush to aid him, but "Tomura" throws the boy aside and uses a mass of fingers to generate a shockwave powerful enough to knock the three heroes in the dirt.
Dynamight is in disbelief, as his last move, the strongest attack in his arsenal, was shrugged off so dismissively by the man. "Tomura" looks down at Dynamight and says the only thing of interest to him is the fact he's the closest person to Deku, and with his childhood cohort present on the battlefield, it will guarantee his reunion with One For All soon enough.
Characters In Order of Appearance#
All For One Hawks Earphone Jack Tsukuyomi Can't Stop Twinkling Yuga Aoyama's mother Endeavor Shoto Natsuo Todoroki Toya Todoroki (Flashback, Picture) Enji Todoroki's father (Flashback, Corpse) Kamui Woods Gale Force Masegaki Primary School students Uravity (Fantasy) Eri (Fantasy) Tomura Shigaraki Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight Mirko Best Jeanist Suneater Nejire Chan Edgeshot Manual Phantom Thief Eraser Head Yuyu Haya Comicman Chargebolt Mei Hatsume Lunch Rush Creati Sludge Villain All Might Inko Midoriya Kota Izumi Ordinary Woman Anima Ingenium Tentacole Pinky Tailman Grape Juice Red Riot Froppy Invisible Girl Sugarman Cellophane Futo Nagashira Komako Masu Ronaudo Keage Maina Furasu Mandalay (Mentioned) Cementoss Power Loader Deku
Quirks#
All For One (Duplicate) Various Unnamed Quirks Infrared Vibration Detection Rivet Stab Spearlike Bones Fierce Wings Soundwave Vibration-Enhanced Flight Feather Blade Earphone Jack Heartbeat Surround: Legato Dark Shadow Black Fallen Angel Black Abyss Ragnarök: Fleeting Blow New Order (Mentioned) All For One (Original, Mentioned) Hellflame Vanishing Jet Burn Flashfire Fist: Prominence Burn Arbor Half-Cold Half-Hot Whirlwind Hula Hoop Super Regeneration (Mentioned) Rewind (Drug) Explosion Howitzer Impact: Cluster Rabbit Fiber Master Wave Motion Foldabody Ninpo: Pulp-Thread Throttle Manual's Quirk Copy Erasure Erasure (Original) Yuyu Haya's Quirk Comic Electrification Creation Telepath (Mentioned) One For All Full Cowl Float
Locations#
Gunga Mountain Villa Ground Zero U.A. High School A.V. Room Unknown Classroom Coffin in the Sky Ground Beta Makeshift Fortress: Troy (Mentioned, Screen) All For One's Vestige Realm Takoba National Stadium (Mentioned, Screen) Jaku General Hospital (Mentioned, Screen) Central Hospital (Mentioned, Screen) Okuto Island (Mentioned, Screen)
Battles & Events#
- Final War
- Endeavor, Hawks & Trainees vs. All For One (Continued)
- Pro Heroes & Trainees vs. Tomura Shigaraki (Continued)
BGM#
- All For One
- About Your Resolve
- The Power of Endeavor
- We'll put a stop to them for sure
- Let you down
- We'll be everyone's heroes -Plus Ultra ver.-
- Allmight with U.A. Students
- All for my sake
- Mysterious villains
Anime & Manga Differences#
- A few of All For One's sensory Quirks are visualized in the anime, such as using infrared vision and detecting vibrations, while they are only mentioned in the manga.
- The anime slightly extends the scene of All For One breaking out of the hold the vestiges put him in.
- Deku's reaction to the American fleet is not shown in this episode.
- In the anime, Dynamight starts setting up his Strafe Panzer when he lands on the ground. In the manga, he does it while running on more of "Tomura's" finger growths, with the device being fully set up by the time he lands on the ground.
- In the anime, Dynamight's reflection of himself is expanded on with flashback scenes of him and Izuku's interactions.
- The anime cuts the flashback of Katsuki explaining why he's strengthening his Cluster technique with Izuku, just before Howitzer Impact: Cluster's first appearance.