English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Katsuki Bakugo: Rising”

Overview:

Deku takes the fight to Shigaraki, manifesting a new power from Shigaraki’s grandmother no less. If he keeps Shigaraki off the ground then he can save the world from another tragedy if he uses his decay. Bakugo knows that Deku can’t last and jumps into the fight with Endeavor and Todoroki in tow.

Our Take:

I have to gush about Justin Briner for a second here. I’ve long felt that this would be the role he would be known for but after hearing him in other roles I had to admit he could sound same-y a lot of the time. His whiney Deku has almost become a meme at this point. But this episode? Oh, man in this episode our boy grew up. No more whining, no more feeling sorry for his enemy. I’ve always loved Briner but this episode was without a doubt the best performance by him.

Not to be outdone I would say Clifford Chapin put in an equally impressive performance. We start to see a Bakugo who has come to terms with his own weaknesses and realizes that is why he bullied Deku so much. You can feel the pain and regret in his voice, and in that last line of the episode? That one is going to leave me with goosebumps for a while.

Everyone was seemingly badass in this one. Aizawa was shot with a quirk-erasing drug, the same one that Mirio was hit with back in season four. It hit Aizawa in the leg and you can probably guess what he did. Our favorite teacher did what needed to be done and chopped off his leg, ya know the rational thing. If you didn’t love Aizawa already then this episode will boost him into that tier.

This sixth season of My Hero Academia is doing the manga justice and dare I say improving it. A lot of the action is so hard to follow in this manga but not in the anime. Bones constantly knocks it out of the park with the fight scenes. This has become a modern-day shonen masterpiece, a worthy successor to Naruto and Bleach before it.