Season 7 of My Hero Academia is already in full swing and the plot is already moving at a breakneck pace, which is exactly what the series needs. After the never-ending setup of season 5, seasons 6 and 7 are delivering incredible plot twists one after the other. Season 7, on the other hand, started off strong with Star and Stripe’s battle against Tomura Shigaraki. Their fight ended in episode 3, but the plot twists are still to come – and they are a delight to watch.

Episode 3, “Villain,” explores All For One’s villainy in two different ways, some more compelling than others. Right now, All For One is competing with his own heir, Tomura Shigaraki, to determine who the true supervillain is, which could lead to a rather confusing narrative. On the other hand, All For One’s plans also involve the traitor at UA, a subplot that the My Hero Academia anime is finally exploring it once again. It also helps that everyone from Class 1-A is there to see it.

Episode 3 Confuses Tomura and All For One's Narrative

Related

REVIEW: My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 2 Ends Star’s Tragic Struggle and Rekindles Hope for Everyone

Episode 2 ends Star's battle against Tomura with a bang, as All Might rallies Class 1-A for the final fight to come.

All For One was established as a major supervillain early in My Hero Academiain the anime, with him being the big bad of the Kamino Ward incident and nearly defeating All Might in a fight that the entire world saw. Much like his heroic nemesis All Might, All For One is quickly fading and in need of an heir. Tomura Shigaraki is set to be the villain Izuku Midoriya, the inheritor of an older man's persona as a symbol of society, and he's more than happy to become the next symbol of evil that all villains can look up to.

However, My Hero Academia began to contradict themselves about who the real supervillain should be. Tomura is less All For One's heir and more his living vessel, not unlike Orochimaru in Naruto entering new bodies to stay young and gain new abilities. On the one hand, it's typical of a villain like All For One to exploit people for his own selfish gain, including his heir. It's typical of him to do something so exploitative and resourceful. Then again, it makes the story somewhat confusing. Who is the real villain? My Hero Academia Should fans be worried?

It's possible that this confusion is where Tomura and All For One fight for the throne, but it actually makes the narrative a little less compelling, as shown in Season 7, Episode 3. This kind of fight would have been more appropriate in the My Villain Academia story arc, when Tomura had an anti-hero training sequence and faced off against the leaders of the Meta Liberation Army to realize his potential as the new symbol of evil. MHAThe story is now in the endgame - it's a bit late for the villains to have a power struggle like this and force fans to juggle Tomura and AFO as the potential demon king.

Class 1-A gathers for the final battle, but it's nothing new

Related

REVIEW: My Hero Academia Season 7, Episode 1 Is an Explosive Start for America's #1 Hero

My Hero Academia Season 7, Episode 1 opens with an incredible fight scene and increasingly high stakes as the war continues.

After Tomura and All For One's scene in Episode 3, the plot shifts back to its heroes—more specifically, Class 1-A. With Star and Stripe out of the picture, it's up to Class 1-A, and presumably Class 1-B and the "big three" UA, to take on the remaining members of the Paranormal Liberation Front in the upcoming battle. A few pro heroes are still active and ready to fight, like Endeavor and Best Jeanist, but any shonen fan would know that it's the relatable teen heroes—and not the pro heroes—who will deliver the final blow in the upcoming battle.

To set this up, Episode 3 spends some time showing everyone in Class 1-A practicing their Quirks once again, from Deku and his shonen-style rival Bakugo to Mina, Mineta, Kyoka Jiro, and Eijiro Kirishima. Otherwise, this brief training montage doesn’t really tell you anything new about the members of Class 1-A or what they can do. It’s just a refresher on everyone’s Quirks and personalities, from Mina’s acid to Momo’s Creation to Denki’s lightning powers. No major personal growth occurs here either, with the dialogue being symbolic of “we’re in this together” sentiments, and so on.

Still, the scene with Class 1-A reinforces the fact that Deku can't defeat the supervillains alone, despite his power with One For All — even if One For All has extra Quirks built into it. Deku's 19 classmates won't be the ones to take down All For One or Tomura Shigaraki, but they can still play a supporting role in the final fight with the power of friendship, and that's exactly what Deku will need. The days of the Dark Deku persona are over — Class 1-A is in this together, and it's good to see, even if it was 100% predictable.

Episode 3 brings heartbreak with UA traitor subplot

Related

10 My Hero Academia Characters Who Need More Screen Time in Season 7

Shonen anime like My Hero Academia often have a large cast of characters, so favorites like Eijiro Kirishima rarely get enough screen time.

My Hero Academia Anime fans have been wondering for years who the suspected traitor at UA could be, a plot point the series first brought up in the first season. Not long after the villain’s attack on the USJ compound, the UA teachers suspected a traitor Tomura Shigaraki had helped from within, but the anime seemingly forgot about this subplot for a few years. Finally, Season 7 brings this subplot back to the forefront, and with good timing too. Author Kohei Horikoshi didn’t forget about this subplot – he just needed the right context for it, and that context is right here, when the heroes are at their most desperate.

All For One boasts about his many plans and subordinates, saying that even if some fail in their mission, many others are available to help AFO achieve their goal in one way or another. Right now, AFO's best bet is the traitor at UA, and Toru Hagakure, the invisible and silly girl from Class 1-A, has finally discovered the truth. Toru finds Yuga Aoyama having a tense discussion with his parents in the forest surrounding the UA campus, and then Deku arrives to intervene in the second half of episode 3. The truth becomes clear with a rather blunt but also fascinating exposition – that Yuga Aoyama was born without a Quirk, just like Deku himself. The episode also builds strong emotional and thematic resonance with Yuga and Deku in this topic, as Yuga always sympathized with Deku when he was a boy born without a Quirk. It's true, the former My Hero Academia The film featured Quirkless Melissa Shield, but this subplot does much more to move the story forward.

Yuga's desperate parents turned to All For One to give their son a Quirk of his own so he wouldn't be so horribly different, with mixed results, as the exposition in Episode 3 states. Yuga fit into Quirk-based society with Navel Laser, but that Quirk stretched his body and came with strings attached. Now, Yuga and his parents are tools of the AFO, giving him inside information on things like USJ security and the timing of the forest training camp with the Wild, Wild Pussycats. None of the Aoyamas liked this, nor did they identify as villains at first, but Yuga internalized it to the point where he now calls himself a villain out of pure guilt. He's confused about whether he's a hero in training or just a criminal, but the resolution of that will have to wait for future episodes.

This subplot helps to remember My Hero Academia fans about the strong humanistic themes that make the anime so appealing. The quirks aren't just an excuse to make everyone a X-Men hero with cool powers and allows fight scenes in each arc. MHA makes a strong point about how such powers would reshape society and people’s perceptions of themselves and each other, and it’s quite effective. It’s a resonant commentary on the lengths some people will go to in order to meet society’s expectations of them and not be “weird” or “wrong” according to social norms. It’s another argument that Quirks are more of a curse than a blessing for the human race. Even after generations of Quirks, people haven’t fully reconciled these supernatural gifts with what it means to be human.

Episode 3 ends on a tense but hopeful note with the Aoyama family

Related

My Hero Academia Season 7: Deku is out of the spotlight in episode 1, and that's where he should be

Deku doesn't steal the show in the Season 7 premiere, and My Hero Academia is all the better for it.

​​​​​In his opinion, Yuga Aoyama is a villain who doesn't deserve the trust or friendship of his classmates, but Deku and the rest of Class 1-A think differently. They still believe in the power of friendship, which leads Yuga to slightly happier tears during this emotionally turbulent period of his arc. Fans may remember Yuga's moments of genuine kindness and support for his classmates, such as his selfless moment at the provisional hero license exam or his subtle emotional support for Deku as a quirkless person deep down.

The members of Class 1-A are shocked that Yuga Aoyama has been forced to be All For One's double agent, but they will not give up their friendship with him, and may even use him to make Yuga a force for good this time. The members of Class 1-A and their adult allies cannot easily find All For One with their current resources, but Yuga Aoyama and his parents can change that. Class 1-A urgently needs to strike the first blow in the inevitable battle that is to come, so in order to get the information they need, Class 1-A will use Yuga himself. Through him, the heroes can lure All For One into a trap or find his location, or whatever else they need to gain the upper hand for once.

It's still unclear exactly how Class 1-A will do this, but the situation seems cautiously hopeful as Episode 3 ends, leaving My Hero Academia fans are eagerly awaiting what comes next – with Yuga Aoyama, the traitor/friend, at the center of it all.

My Hero Academia Season 7, Episode 3

Tomura and All For One fight for the title of Demon King while Class 1-A prepares for battle. Meanwhile, UA's traitor is finally revealed.

Release date

May 5, 2018

Cast

Daiki Yamashita, Justin Briner, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Ayane Sakura

Seasons

6

Production company

Bones

Number of episodes

145

Pros

• Class 1-A reunites as friends, just like old times.
• The UA traitor reveal has strong emotional and thematic depth.
• The ending leaves fans excited about how Class 1-A will use the traitor to their advantage.

Cons

• Confused about who the real villain should be.
• The training scenario is routine and does not bring anything new.