The Chain Thus Far is the one hundred and fifty-fourth episode of the My Hero Academia anime and the sixteenth episode of the seventh season.
Summary#
As the rest of the Doubles in Himiko's Sad Man's Death Parade began to spill out of "Kurogiri's" Warp Gate and onto the Gunga Mountain Villa Ruins, Uravity pops out of the portal with Froppy hanging on to her, thanks to the latter pushing her friend through with her tongue. Himiko then partially transforms her real face out of her Twice transformation and looks up to Uravity in disgust, saying that there's no one left to talk about romance with her anymore.
The Doubles waste no time in attacking the other Heroes, as they struggle to contain the horde and the massive amount of Blueflames being spread by Dabi. Uravity floats herself and Froppy above the ruined battlefield to survey the area and are soon joined by Earphone Jack and Tsukuyomi. Both girls show concern when they see that Earphone Jack has lost an ear, but the girl was lucky that was all she lost. On the other hand, Tsukuyomi states that the strategy to divide the Villains has failed and there is little they can do now.
On the ground, Endeavor, who is trying to fight off several Doubles, is soon greeted by a flying Dabi. Noticing his oldest son copying his youngest son's Phosphor technique, Endeavor asks what happened to Shoto. Dabi says he couldn't bring his ravaged little brother as a gift to their dad thanks to his strength and tenacity, but he'll settle for destroying everything else their father holds dear.
All For One, satisfied with how things are unfolding, then flies off to meet "Tomura", but is quickly stopped by Hawks, who has deduced that he's not in complete control of the situation as he wants them to believe. He then yells for Endeavor to stop Dabi, now that Operation Troy has been completely compromised due to the unstable battlefield and the threat of all the Villains heading straight for Deku and "Tomura" if the Heroes are defeated here. Dabi flies down to engage with Endeavor, as the man prepares to face his son once more.
At the Coffin in the Sky, some of the Twice Doubles made by Himiko are sent there and swamp the platform where Phantom Thief, Eraser Head, and Manual, are stationed. Despite their best efforts to fight them off, all three are outnumbered. Phantom Thief is then separated from Eraser Head and pinned to the ground, and causing him to instinctively shut his eyes and disable Erasure on the transforming "Tomura". As a result, the ball of flesh exiting "Tomura's" chest hole shreds open and reveals a screaming face, followed by a massive explosion blowing up the electromagnetic barrier and sending the underground support team into a panic. This also shuts down the Coffin's levitation system, and with the school's central command now fully hacked by Skeptic, U.A. begins to plummet towards the ocean.
Deku looks at the now recovered "Tomura", who has molted out of his old body into a fresh one and now has "Kurogiri" at his side. The Villain, now baring Tomura's unfiltered persona, tells the boy that it's pointless to try and save the spirit of himself from this body and to get over it, because he's "Deku's Villain".
The Hero debates with himself over whether he should help stop the school from falling or keep Tomura and "Kurogiri" from escaping. Deku also is unable to move at the moment since the cooldown from using Gearshift hasn't timed out yet and he needs to catch his breath. The Second User's vestige tells Deku that Tomura's molting might give him some time to regain his energy, since the Villain also can't move due to his incomplete fused consciousness still fighting itself.
As Skeptic begins targeting the evacuation system, one of his monitors start displaying live webcam footage of La Brava, who was recruited by the Police Force and traced him as the source of the hacking from the control room where Naomasa and All Might are overseeing the battles. She then begins spamming Skeptic's database with looping, overlayed GIFs of Optic☆Kitty doing "The Pump", similar to a prank she pulled on Feel Good Inc.'s inefficiently coded servers back when the man worked there. Skeptic then disconnects and grabs the system unit that controls the school and its evacuation system and before making a run for it.
Despite crippling Skeptic's control on the school, La Brava struggles to get its levitation system up with their remaining parts and has to try and write a new program since Skeptic wrecked the old one beyond repair. While one of Naomasa's men expresses regrets on the idea to entrust Villains as their last line of defense, the detective sees something human in her despite the crimes she committed, much like he did with Yuga. He says Villains are still people at the end of the day, and they deserve the same right to have their hearts looked at for their origins.
On the ground, Skeptic and his puppets are blocked by a group of Heroes including Ms. Joke, Grand, and Hound Dog. The latter takes off his muzzle and says that he would've never believed that there would be day they would entrust the two people he apprehended during the School Festival with their futures.
Just above the ocean and angled below the plummeting school, Gentle is shown preparedly bouncing on his Gently Trampoline, with a preemptively applied power boost from La Brava's Lover Mode. After some quick encouragement from La Brava and Naomasa, Gentle readies himself to pay back Deku for helping him during their fight and pay forward the gratuity given to him by the Police Force, after they saw the aftermath of him apprehending all the potential Jailbreakers from his prison and gave him the chance to see La Brava again.
With a mighty bounce, Gentle propels himself upward and underneath the falling campus and uses Gently Super-Lover to catch and slow it down with a giant elastic barrier. As Gentle stays strong, he wonders if Deku is still fighting for the sake of seeing someone smile like he said back then.
Mandalay telepathically relays to the Heroes that the school was caught by some kind of air trampoline, which grabs Deku's attention as he immediately realizes who's responsible. The two shed several tears; Gentle for finally being able to be of use in helping people like he's always wanted, and Deku out of gratitude for the man's return and aid.
The relief is cut short by Daigoro warning Deku that Tomura is starting to move and turns to find the Villain lowering his hand to the ground so he can use Decay. Deku is still too worn out to attack, but another save for the Heroes flies in from the distance. Tomura's head is nailed in the skull and has his hand is blown off the wrist by two pink and purple cone-shaped bullets.
Several kilometers away from the nearest stretch of land is a conscious and heavily bandaged Lady Nagant, perched on a rooftop in the rain with her transformed Rifle arm, and lending another unexpected hand to help the Heroes.
Characters In Order of Appearance#
Twice (Doubles) Hawks Kurogiri Dabi Himiko Toga Shemage Uravity Froppy Endeavor Luminescent Baby (Mentioned) All For One Meryl Hope Pixie-Bob Kamui Woods Shishido Shoto (Mentioned) Tentacole (Mentioned) Earphone Jack Tsukuyomi Present Mic Manual Phantom Thief Eraser Head Tomura Shigaraki Deku Power Loader Mei Hatsume Lunch Rush Creati Mandalay Skeptic Futo Nagashira Ronaudo Keage Komako Masu En Nana Shimura Third User Hikage Shinomori Second User (Vision) La Brava Naomasa Tsukauchi Can't Stop Twinkling Comicman Chargebolt Yuyu Haya Ethan Drive Gentle Grand Hound Dog Ms. Joke Ectoplasm Near High-End Nomu Muscular Gori Daigoro Banjo (Vision) All Might Lady Nagant
Quirks#
Transform Double Infinite Doubles: Sad Man's Death Parade Blueflame Flashfire Fist: Phosphor Fierce Wings Warp Gate Frog Rewind (Drug) Earth Flow Arbor Lion Zero Gravity Earphone Jack Dark Shadow Black Fallen Angel All For One (Duplicate) Rivet Stab Warping (Mentioned) Various Unnamed Quirks Hellflame Manual's Quirk Copy Erasure Erasure (Original) One For All Full Cowl - 100% Telepath Creation Blackwhip Smokescreen Gearshift Overdrive All For One (Mentioned) Anthropomorph Comic Electrification Yuyu Haya's Quirk Love Lover Mode Elasticity Gently Trampoline Gently Sandwich Gently Super-Lover Dog (Hound Dog) Clones Muscle Augmentation Rifle
Locations#
Gunga Mountain Villa Toga Family House Okuto Island Brazil (Mentioned) Texas (Mentioned) Washington U.A. High School Coffin in the Sky A.V. Room Forested Area League of Villains Cave Hideout All For One's Vestige Realm Central Hospital Feel Good, Inc. Tartarus (Mentioned) Mikuzu Prison Police Station
Battles & Events#
- Final War
- Pro Heroes, Trainees & Gigantomachia vs. All For One (Started)
- Pro Heroes & Trainees vs. Himiko Toga & Doubles (Continued)
- Deku vs. "Tomura Shigaraki" (Continued)
BGM#
- Second Coming
- The Mission Of The Stealth Hawk
- Second Coming
- Iron Battle
- U.A. High
- DIVISION
- Might-1
- Nine's Craving
- Mysterious villains
Anime & Manga Differences#
- The opening of Chapter 377 from the manga where an unknown person (alluded to be All Might) mentions how the Heroes withered and the Villains thrived is cut from the episode.
- The scene is later adapted for the intro of Episode 160 in the following season, with a new context and also featuring a grown-up Izuku.
- This is the first time Skeptic's Anthropomorph Quirk is seen in action on-screen, as the scene when he used it in the manga was omitted in the anime.
- It is also slightly different, in the manga he'd use a liquid substance that'd appear from his hand, whereas in the anime he touches an object and it begins to glow, with a puppet appearing out of it.
- Gentle and La Brava's reunion is shown in the anime.
- The anime extends the debut of Gently Super-Lover, showing Gentle jumping from the first trampoline and reaching the school before using the move.