English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Symbol of Peace”

All Might vs. All For One. The clash of the titans begins here.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

All For One has finally come out of the shadows, and he swiftly reveals himself to be more of a threat than anyone could have imagined. In one blow, he knocks out the entire team sent to take care of the Nomus, while Midoriya, Yaorozu, Todoroki, Iida, and Kirishima watch helplessly, paralyzed with fear.

The other villains are warped in along with Bakugou, and it becomes clear that All For One is head and shoulders above all of them in terms of power level. Soon, though, All Might shows up to save the day and starts going toe-to-toe with All For One.

Their battle rages on, but Midoriya, realizing that All Might can’t use his full power unless Bakugou is safe, devises a plan with the others to try and save the rambunctious young hero. With their powers combined, they manage to use a giant ice wall to slide up and grab Bakugou. With their quick escape, All Might can finally give All For One the business. But, when his powers give out, he realizes that All For One might actually be able to beat him.

Our Take:

So, naturally, this is a very important episode for the series so far. Readers of the manga know that All For One is not just a villain, but the villain; the ultimate antagonist, evil existing in its purest form in opposition to All Might in theme, form and power set. This episode does a good job of portraying that, especially with his frighteningly operatic theme, but I do think it comes up short here, especially with All For One’s voice. He just sounds a little generic; a vague criticism, I know, but a valid one. I’ve heard his voice before when with a character like this, you want to hear something that sticks with you. Something haunting, that embeds itself in the dark crevices of your mind. To that end, this episode comes up short a little but is still not bad.

My Hero Academia is a show that gets consistent praise from me for its excellent writing and characterization, and this episode is no exception. As someone who watches a lot of visual media both good and bad, I really very much enjoy it when characters aren’t stupid; when they do things that are thought and make sense, beyond just what the plot demands. To that end, I loved seeing Midoriya and his allies find a way to save Bakugou that both works from a strategic perspective and as a culmination of their character developments thus far. In particular, the fact that it had to be Kirishima who called out to Bakugou to convince him to escape with them, really spoke to Midoriya’s intelligence and indicated a lot of respect on behalf of the writers for the audience. Details are everything, and even in these big moments, My Hero Academia doesn’t forget to do its due diligence.

Not to mention, there were a ton of little moments in this episode that just filled me with a sense of righteous joy. All Mightadmonishing under his breath those “damn teenagers” was a nice little moment as well as seeing an injured Mt. Lady take one for the time by blocking the villain league’s advance on Midoriya, quite literally using her head. These are the things that I love about My Hero Academia, and why I keep watching. If more episodes like this are in store for the future, then I think this series will be running for a long, long time.