English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Fighting Fate”

Overview:

Midoriya and Mirio have a moral problem.

Our Take:

This brings up two important points, one especially necessary for the superhero genre, and for heroes in general: sometimes, it’s not the right time to charge in, trying to help people. Most superhero stories have the gallant hero charging in to save the day, even against all odds. People are in need of help, so they are here to save. However, here, and it’s a pretty painful moment, it’s not the right time to save someone. Midoriya encounters Eri, who is running away from Chisaki. She is clearly frightened, and in a horrible situation if she goes back. She also asks Midoriya for help, albeit weakly. However, Mirio and Midoriya have been instructed by Nighteye to not engage with Chisaki at all. Not only is Chisaki extremely dangerous, but letting him know that he is under suspicion will make it harder to move on him. The best course of action for the two heroes is actually to do nothing, and pretend like nothing is wrong– even though someone is asking for help in front of them. Long term over the short term.

Also, sometimes victims refuse help. Eri clearly went back to Chisaki because she knew he would kill Midoriya and Mirio if given the chance, but that is still her turning down help. Even if she doesn’t want to go back, and is clearly in a very harmful situation, she is unwilling to cooperate. For Midoriya, who has a lot of goodwill and doesn’t have any crisis training, this is a hard blow to swallow. It’s a rough situation with a not easy moral solution, and unfortunately, things like this can occur. Things aren’t always clear-cut.

We also finally get a glimpse of what caused the rift between Nighteye and All Might. All Might, when he was likely injured by All For One, was very conflicted about finding a successor, especially since he believed that he personally was the symbol of peace and the only symbol. Nighteye, on the other hand, had seen into All Might’s future and saw disaster, that All Might will fall to great evil and die. When All Might finally announce that Midoriya, a quirk-less child, would be receiving his power, Nighteye found that unsuitable. He made his reasons why pretty clear last episode, but now it’s obvious that he’s had these thoughts for a long time now. From Nighteye’s perspective, he’s not wrong either– Midoriya will grow to be a great hero, but those in the present don’t know that.

A lot of meat in this episode, and a good setup for future conflict.