This week’s episode of My Hero Academia was full of surprises. As we mentioned in our review for Episode 6. Shigaraki and Overhaul have now met with each other once again, this time to discuss their agreement before joining forces to wreak havoc in Japan. To quickly backtrack to last week’s episode, in the stinger scene we see Shigaraki making a phone call to Overhaul’s partner, Mimic, arranging the meeting. Shigaraki reveals that he agreed to join forces but some conditions would have to be set before making things official.
As the two villains engage in their meeting Shigaraki reveals the terms in which the League of Villains would contently join forces with Overhaul. Shigaraki reveals that the League of Villains will not fall under the control of Overhaul. The League will move and do whatever is it that they want. A chess move that everyone, including Overhaul, should have been expecting. Not to say Overhaul WASN’T expecting that, I’m sure he was, we all know that Shigaraki won’t bend the knee easily. He is the mentee of All For One after all.
But his conditions don’t end there. Shigaraki wants Overhaul to reveal to him, his plans to take over. Plans that Overhaul presented as an offer back in the premiere episode of this season. Shigaraki uses this as a way of testing Overhaul and his plans. While Overhaul is certainly no pushover, The League of Villains do have a high reputation and it’s a name that instills immediate fear when spoken! And Overhaul, well, he’s, in theory, a lone gun, even with his crew behind him.
But tensions are now high!
Mimic and Kurono literally and figuratively jump the gun in the assumption that Shigaraki is here to attack, as Shigaraki reaches into his jacket. Kurono and Mimic state their threats. Shigaraki stands his ground as he minimalizes the value of their lives compared to the life of his now-dead team member, and the high value of Compress’ arm, which was blown own by Overhaul during their initial encounter back in Episode One. In hindsight, Shigaraki wants recompense for what happened to Compress and if he does, then he doesn’t see the value in partnering up with Overhaul. He reassesses, what is Overhaul’s plan…?
So it begs the question, what does he want to achieve in joining forces with The League of Villains, other than using them for the firepower that he and his crew do not have? I keep harking back to Episode One of this season and that’s because this episode gives us the viewers, more exposition to what’s really at play here, and what Overhaul REALLY wants.
As mentioned in the review for this episode, both Suneater and Kirishima are shot with this quirk canceling dart. Unfortunately for Suneater, he not able to harden himself like Kirishima enabling him to make the dart bounce off of his head.
Harking back again to Episode One, we first saw these darts being shot at the League of Villains, which cost the League one life and Compress’ arm.
Overhaul reveals that he wants to break the status quo. Aware of how All For One was able to control and rule over Japan, by stealing quirks. Overhaul states that he has tweaked that way of thinking, and due to his connections across the country, little by little his plans are starting to take shape. It appears that Overhaul, instead of stealing quirks to gain more power like All For One, wants to remove quirks entirely by using both the “firepower” of the League of Villains and the darts.
Following the fight between the criminal and Kirishima, which marked the anime debut of Red Riot Unbreakable. We learn that the drug the criminal injected into himself during the fight was around in the past. A drug that was predominant in the United States, which was used to at one point to help those with weaker quirks in order to increase that quirk’s strength. We also learn that the version seen in this episode was a knockoff version of the original drug, this is determined by how long the dosage lasted within the user of the drug.
The U.S. version lasted two hours max and the version seen in this episode lasted at least 60 seconds give or take.
Overhaul wants to control and wants to remove quirks from the world, but how was he capable of reverse-engineering a drug that was proposed for good use, as a new drug to inflict evil, and to what means is he willing to take in order to achieve his overall plan?
My Hero Academia Season 4 is now streaming on Hulu, Funimation, and Crunchyroll