My Hero Academia: Shigaraki and Toga Strike Back

Featuring Tomura Shigaraki and Himiko Toga, the latest chapter of the My Hero Academia manga gives us a shocking reversal in the war against the Villains, and it’s not in the Heroes’ favor. Spoilers abound here, so stop reading if you don’t want to spoil yourself here.

Shigaraki Awakens (Seriously, Spoilers Ahead)

On May 31, 2020; Shonen Jump released Ch. 273 of the My Hero Academia manga, and it was a doozy of a chapter. To give you all some background info: the Heroes had been in the middle of an assault on Kyudai Garaki’s (known by his public alias of Daruma Ujiko) Jaku hospital where he’d been running his Nomu experiments. At the same time, the Heroes were also hitting the Meta Liberation Army’s headquarters, hoping to arrest the entire army. Unfortunately, the hospital was also where Garaki had been “tinkering” with Shigaraki. More specifically, enhancing his pre-existing Quirk, and adding a very scary new one in the process.

Apparently, Garaki had been working to boost Shigaraki’s decay Quirk. Said boosts consists of vastly increasing the range at which Shigaraki is able to decay things. He wouldn’t even have to directly touch the things he wants to experience entropy anymore. All he’d have to do is be within a kilometer or so of his target, and his decay Quirk would rot it, spreading along the ground like a tidal wave of Ruin. To top it all off, the previous chapter released by Shonen Jump also revealed that All For One had somehow managed to find a way to bestow his Quirk on someone. Said Quirk is the ability to take anyone else’s Quirk and transfer it to anyone, including the Quirk user. Unfortunately, that someone turned out to be Shigaraki.

In short, Shigaraki is now practically Ati himself, but with the added bonus of being All For One too.

Scared yet? There’s more, but not from Shigaraki.

Toga Hears the Call of Khorne

The oddly adorable serial killer, Himiko Toga, also grabs the spotlight here.

Earlier, Twice had died for real. In fact, one of his clones was able to stumble to Toga and say his last goodbyes to her just before he dissolved into goo. This did not sit well with her, surprisingly enough. It seemed that at that moment, Toga finally realized what death finally meant when it happens to someone she cares about.

It might’ve actually opened her up for character development, had it, you know, not been the result of Twice’s death. Unfortunately, Twice did die, and although Toga now knows that losing someone she loves is a really big deal, she’s also mad as hell and she can’t take it anymore.

So now Toga has taken up her metaphorical chainblade and is out for blood, much blood. Toga starts by disguising herself as one of the Heroes Twice killed, and infiltrating a group of Heroes. Once done, she then lashes out with a knife, mortally slicing several Heroes’ throats and nonfatally-but-still painfully slashing others before anyone could react.

This is suicidal for a number of reasons, and even fellow Villain Mr. Compress notes that “jumping into the fray [is] tantamount to suicide”. Toga, however, no longer cares. All she wants is revenge for Twice’s death, and everything else is a secondary concern, including her own life. All Toga needs to do now is paint a Khorne symbol on herself and start screaming about a Blood God, and she’d be a worthy devotee of Chaos.

And given that Gigantomachi chooses that moment to rise up from below, she might very well live through this in the chaos. Potential character development for Toga incoming? We shall see.

Conclusion

My Hero Academia is definitely reaching a climax in the story here. With Endeavour about to face off against Plus Ultra Shigaraki and Toga going on a rampage with Gigantomachia’s support, it looks like much blood will be spilled.

Stay tuned for more in the next chapter on Shonen Jump, coming presumable on June 7. See you then.

Source: Shonen Jump