My Hero Academia Appreciation

[Inversed]

Finally got around to reading School Briefs vol. 6. Overall I'd say it falls somewhere in the middle, with a few highlights.

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The two Eri focused chapters were real delights. I especially appreciated seeing more of training and her bonding with Shinso, they're two natural fitting awkward beans. It helps bridge the gap between the school festival and Lemillion getting his powers back. And I always appreciate Eri getting character development. Bakugou largely failing to connect with her in the first chapter was a hoot. The valentine's chapter was pretty fun, with a kind of predictable ending. My favourite bit was Jiro getting chocolates due to her performance at the concert. And the three class B boys discussion was neat to. The camping trip to hellish exercise was probably the weakest chapter. Besides Bakugou being put in a vulnerable state not much interesting happened in it. I love the idea of the buisness course trying to film commercials for the hero students and showcasing them to the school. But I felt the execution a bit lacking. For one thing, there were too many entries. I was pretty satisfied when class A's presentations were done and got tired of the bit when class B rolled out. Even with some students getting grouped together. I think it would've been better if there had been fewer entries that mixed students from both classes, and give each entry more time to let their characters shine beyond a single spoken line. The punchline to the chapter was funny though and fits how U.A. generally teaches things. And the traditional faculty chapter was really nice this time around. Or at least bittersweet. Short and too the point with wistful reflections from Midnight, before her gruesome death.

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So yeah. Mixed bag, but generally good stuff.

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Yeah, pretty much the same feelings. The Eri spotlight chapter is definitely great on the level of "This should've actually been in the main book!" The oni and Valentine's Day chapters were fun. The camping trip mostly just an excuse for a bit more Bakugo introspection. The commercials were all funny, though yea I think they went a bit too long in trying to give basically every character a spot. And the faculty chapter was essentially a good conclusion for Midnight. The spin-off still technically hasn't "concluded", so I'm hoping this means we will still get a 7th School Briefs book sometime in the future.

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[Inversed]

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All For One destroys All Might's destructive gauntlet, preventing him from sacrificing himself. He then uses Bloodcurdle to paralyze All Might, having him completely at his mercy. Gentle and the American jets each attempt to jump in and help, but AFO attacks U.A. to prevent Gentle from leaving, and easily dispatches the jets. AFO holds All Might above himself, about to rip him apart in front of everyone, while those watching the broadcast react in despair. While Deku cries out for anyone to save him, an alive Bakugo emerges from the smoke on top of U.A.

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We get to see a quick little panel of All Might as a child with his mother, so that was really cute. Art was absolutely stellar as usual, whenever they do spreads with U.A. floating in the background it always looks amazing (plus the colour spread looking very good too). AFO smiling so hard his mouth turned into the Joker made me laugh. And of course, Bakugo is back. It was something I think everyone was expecting, so it's not a massive surprise, but it will be interesting to see what he ends up doing, and what his current physical state is (and what happened to Edgeshot).

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[leokearon]

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Really disappointed that All Might didn't get to finish AFO off. And Bakugo has finally been resurrected. I can see him saving All Might and taking on AFO while Deku focuses on Tomura

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[Dark Soul # 7]

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We get to see a quick little panel of All Might as a child with his mother, so that was really cute. Art was absolutely stellar as usual, whenever they do spreads with U.A. floating in the background it always looks amazing (plus the colour spread looking very good too). AFO smiling so hard his mouth turned into the Joker made me laugh. And of course, Bakugo is back. It was something I think everyone was expecting, so it's not a massive surprise, but it will be interesting to see what he ends up doing, and what his current physical state is (and what happened to Edgeshot).

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Baby Toshinori with his mother was a surprise, and an absolute delight. AFO disrupting All Might's explosion and putting him into a hopeless situation is great villain stuff. And I prefer that over him tanking the explosion or revealing that he had an anti-bomb quirk for just such a situation. This is just him predicting All Might's sacrifice and being a dick about it. Bakugo's revival had been spoiled to me, and at the time I was a little annoyed since I thought he wasn going to get in on the Deku/Shigaraki fight. But it seems like he's going to save All Might and then, hopefully, sit on the sidelines. If Bakugo's last big thing is to make a big save instead of defeating a villain then that'll be a nice full circle for him. And I'm much more ok with that.

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[Dark Soul # 7]

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The world watches on as AFO holds up All Might in triumph. Bakugo launches himself at Deku who swings him in All Might's direction while accelerating him with gearshift. Shigaraki taunts that it won't be enough and that he dream All Might represents will die with him. But as if spurned on by the hopes and wishes of the rest of the world, Bakugo makes it time. Not only saving All Might but ripping AFO's arms clean off. And declares that it's time to win.

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A simple but dramatic chapter. The prayers turning into energy thing has been reference before, so it's not an unknown concept. And though it is kinda cheesy, it works for the dramatic rescue. And I appreciate how it gives Bakugo a chance to make peace with his guilt for "ending All Might", even if that wasn't ever his fault. So while I still have issues with Bakugo in general, this was a nice chapter for him. I also like how it references Deku and Bakugo's team up move from the second movie. Hopefully AFO disappears soon, seething that he doesn't get to kill All Might or take over Shigaraki.

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[leokearon]

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The world watches on as AFO holds up All Might in triumph. Bakugo launches himself at Deku who swings him in All Might's direction while accelerating him with gearshift. Shigaraki taunts that it won't be enough and that he dream All Might represents will die with him. But as if spurned on by the hopes and wishes of the rest of the world, Bakugo makes it time. Not only saving All Might but ripping AFO's arms clean off. And declares that it's time to win.

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spoilers:

A simple but dramatic chapter. The prayers turning into energy thing has been reference before, so it's not an unknown concept. And though it is kinda cheesy, it works for the dramatic rescue. And I appreciate how it gives Bakugo a chance to make peace with his guilt for "ending All Might", even if that wasn't ever his fault. So while I still have issues with Bakugo in general, this was a nice chapter for him. I also like how it references Deku and Bakugo's team up move from the second movie. Hopefully AFO disappears soon, seething that he doesn't get to kill All Might or take over Shigaraki.

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I agree hopefully this will be the end from AFO, especially since he just lost his arms. While Bakugo's resurrection was coming, it was still well done.

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[Inversed]

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I also like how it references Deku and Bakugo's team up move from the second movie. Hopefully AFO disappears soon, seething that he doesn't get to kill All Might or take over Shigaraki.

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It's also the classic X-Men "Fastball Special". I do think this is a well done moment, but I am feeling tired with All For One and just want to get back to Shigaraki finally, so hopefully he's done within the next few, or if he is gonna stick around at least give us the rest of his backstory that's left.

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[Dark Soul # 7]

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The world watches on as Bakugo has saved All Might, and the older hero offers up the last piece of his armor as a brace. Edgeshot slips out of Bakugo and explains that he kept him together. But it was a bead of Bakugo's own explosive sweat that lit the spark of life in him. AFO decides to focus on getting into Shigaraki and reflects on everything has gone wrong for him. Just in time for Bakugo to challenge AFO as his final boss.

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Pretty nice chapter all things considered. I like the discussion All Might has with his imagined version of Nighteye, and the little references in the first couple of pages. With Mahoro and Katsuma as the peak of that. And I appreciate that the story is making it clear that AFO is as weakened and beat up as he is because he's run through a gauntlet of heroic effort to stop him. Bakugo is just the last stop gap in that effort. Will be interesting to see how this fight goes down, but hopefully it won't last too long. I REALLY want to get to Shigaraki vs Deku.

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[Inversed]

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I feel like this explanation for Bakugo's survival is both better and worse for me. It's better cause I think the overall explanation works, that Edgeshot merely provided the threads to stitch him up, and that it was Bakugo himself who managed to wake himself up. But seeing this just makes me more annoyed that Jeanist wasn't the primary one helping with doing the stitching and helping bringing him back to life, cause that would've been far more impactful than just Edgeshot doing it on his own. Plus also if they made the damage done to him far less severe looking. I liked seeing the Shimano's from the 2nd movie calling out to Bakugo, that was cute. Seeing Bakugo smiling after being given the Dynamight gauntlet (we all called it obviously) was also really nice. AFO getting riled up is always good to see, but at this point I'm mostly exhausted with him and hope now that Bakugo's fighting him we can for real switch over to Shigaraki and give him the spotlight.

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[leokearon]

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From the moment it started, I never liked that it was Edgeshot, a hero with no personal link to Bakugo that was going to risk themselves to resurrect him and the fact that Best Jeanist is nowhere to be seen makes it worse. Still with Bakugo taking on AFO maybe Bakugo will finally make good on his threats and actual murder him

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[Dark Soul # 7]

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Updates come in from all the battlefields. Most fights are finished with a battle at the National Takoba arena still going and Aizawa, Mic and Kurogiri still being MIA. All Might is amazed by Bakugo's speed. Deku figures that he'll be immobilized after the next time he uses Gearshift. So he has to use it at a tactical moment. All For One is determined to ignore Bakugo, deeming him of little significance, and rushes toward Shigaraki and Deku. But thanks to his new understanding of his quirk, Bakugo can easily catch up to AFO. To AFO, Bakugo's appearance resembles that of Kudo, the second OFA holder. A person who AFO hates with a vengence. And he forgets his goal to unleash all his hatred towards Bakugo.

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Still with AFO. But it's nice to get an update from all over the battlefield. My main concern is how much of the Deku/Shigaraki fight we'll actually be able to focus on once all he side objectives are over. It's funny that AFO feels the same as the fans, that Bakugo and Kudo share a resemblence. I wonder if that was planned from the start. While I wish he would go away sooner than later now. It's nice to see AFO fall to pieces emotionally. And of course, Bakugo refering to himself as Ka-chan, showing that he's really let go of his fear towards Deku in these decisive moments is good touch.

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[Jman27]

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Updates come in from all the battlefields. Most fights are finished with a battle at the National Takoba arena still going and Aizawa, Mic and Kurogiri still being MIA. All Might is amazed by Bakugo's speed. Deku figures that he'll be immobilized after the next time he uses Gearshift. So he has to use it at a tactical moment. All For One is determined to ignore Bakugo, deeming him of little significance, and rushes toward Shigaraki and Deku. But thanks to his new understanding of his quirk, Bakugo can easily catch up to AFO. To AFO, Bakugo's appearance resembles that of Kudo, the second OFA holder. A person who AFO hates with a vengence. And he forgets his goal to unleash all his hatred towards Bakugo.

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Still with AFO. But it's nice to get an update from all over the battlefield. My main concern is how much of the Deku/Shigaraki fight we'll actually be able to focus on once all he side objectives are over. It's funny that AFO feels the same as the fans, that Bakugo and Kudo share a resemblence. I wonder if that was planned from the start. While I wish he would go away sooner than later now. It's nice to see AFO fall to pieces emotionally. And of course, Bakugo refering to himself as Ka-chan, showing that he's really let go of his fear towards Deku in these decisive moments is good touch.

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should be a lot aint he using his "final" gearshift and I think he has to get a quirk awakening eventually

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[Inversed]

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Still with AFO. But it's nice to get an update from all over the battlefield. My main concern is how much of the Deku/Shigaraki fight we'll actually be able to focus on once all he side objectives are over. It's funny that AFO feels the same as the fans, that Bakugo and Kudo share a resemblence. I wonder if that was planned from the start. While I wish he would go away sooner than later now. It's nice to see AFO fall to pieces emotionally. And of course, Bakugo refering to himself as Ka-chan, showing that he's really let go of his fear towards Deku in these decisive moments is good touch.

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It feels pretty obvious that the Second/Kudo was always intentionally made to look like Bakugo in order to parallel his relationship to Yoichi, who resembles Izuku. Which of course instead made people twist it and instead go BAKUGO IS THE SECOND USER WHO TIME TRAVELLED which will still always make my brain hurt. If finally getting Kudo's name means we're actually going to get the rest of the AFO/OFA backstory, including the rest of AFO's past and who the 2nd and 3rd really are, then I'll be okay with all this attention being focused on him. With how well Dabi, and especially Toga's, conclusions ended up being, I really hope he's just getting through all the AFO stuff so that Shigaraki can have all the time to himself to get a fleshed out conclusion, cause that really will be the determining factor in how this finale sticks the landing.

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[leokearon]

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Getting tired of AFO now just let Bakugo blow him away already. There is no point dragging it out.

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[Dark Soul # 7]

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In the past, a pregnant prostitue has bony protustions growing over her body. When she dies a lonely death on a riverbank, after giving birth to twins, the protustions are gone. One baby is larger than the other, and they are both swept away by the waters. And yet, they survive as quirks begin manifesting all over the world. The brothers live on, with the older being a dominant presence and killer who wants to own everything. The younger is a gentle person who reads comics to learn how to read and to find inspiration. Years later the older brother reveals that he's also been inspired by the comics. Inspired to murder the glowing child who, as an adult, was using his influence to quell the quirk riots. All For One asserts his dominance over his brother but can only watch as he's taken away by another. Another who looks exactly like the annoying little brat in front of him now.

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This chapter was pretty freaking great. I appreciate the world building and context we get here. AFO and his brother were born one year before the glowing baby (wonder how many other quirk kids were missed). A lot of the wriots started out due to quirks being labeled as a disease or a sub-branch of humanity. Basically creating humanity creating another "other" to fight against. And the first quirk AFO ever stole was his dying mother's. Oh, and AFO has always been a twisted individual. Granted, he didn't exactly live in anything resembling good conditions. But he always wanted everything for himself, and even went so far as to kill the glowing child for daring to have the followers that should be his. Yeah, it mainly reaffirms that he's a bastard. But I like the additional details and knowing where he started. It also nicely ties back into the current events by clarifying just what kind of twisted affection he held for his brother and why he's now dead focused on murdering Bakugo. Also, I really want to know just how AFO and his brother survived. I get that they both had strong wills to just live. But somebody must've picked up the babies from the river. I want to see every detail of the horror story that is AFO's early life.

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