My Hero Academia Chapter 316 Review

In the last chapter of My Hero Academia we saw Izuku Midoriya figure out how to maximize the different Quirks he now has access to further power up One For All. That allowed him to defeat Lady Nagant in their fight. In the process Izuku as Deku was able to show Lady Nagant that there can be true heroes in the world. As everything looked like it was turning to the positive side of things All For One reminded Lady Nagant that she works for him by blowing her up. Now with things looking dire once again what is next for this series? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 316.

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: As Hawks catches Lady Nagant charred body Endeavor shows up right behind him, informing Deku that All Might told them his location.

Hawks struggles to stay in flight because he doesn’t have enough feathers. Deku uses his Blackwhip Quirk to catch Hawks and Lady Nagant while maintaining his Float Quirk. Deku tells Hawks that All For One booby-trapped Lady Nagant’s body.

Hearing this Hawks tries to get Lady Nagant to regain consciousness by explaining how he was her replacement so he knows her well and its to early for Lady Nagant to throw in the towel to All For One. Hawks begs for Lady Nagant to tell him what All For One is doing, reminding her that she is a hero.

As she slowly regains consciousness Lady Nagant, having heard Hawks and Deku’s words, remembers dreaming of being a hero. Lady Nagant then tells Hawks that she was supposed to bring Deku to a mansion located in Haibori Woods within two months. Lady Nagant goes on to say that she was not the only one given this contract as All For One also contacted other villains to do the job as well.

Lady Nagant then asks Hawks as her replacement how he didn’t end up turning like she did. Remembering looking up to Endeavor as his hero, Hawks tells Lady Nagant that he is optimistic to a fault.

Endeavor then shows up having captured Overhaul, who keeps on yelling about wanting to see his boss to apologize to him. Deku asks Overhaul if he remembers Eri. Overhaul is about to say that she was the key for his takeover. Deku interrupts by saying that if Overhaul can have the same energy in apologizing to Eri he will honor Lady Nagant’s deal with Overhaul.

As All Might shows up Endeavor says that they need to call the cops to put Lady Nagant and Overhaul into custody while giving the former medical attention she needs. As that goes on Deku’s mind is only on All For One.

Sometime later Deku leads Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady to the mansion in Haibori Woods where Lady Nagant was supposed to bring him to All For One. Deku enters the mansion believing that All For One and Tomura Shigaraki still can’t steal One For All from him.

Inside the mansion as soon as Deku enters the empty living room a projection with a pre-recorded message from All For One that would activate if Lady Nagant failed. All For One gloats about loving to predict and read people’s futures. He goes on to state Lady Nagant choose to follow him out of her free will. All For One then talks about how even though Quirks were seen as another form of individualism that if a person did not conform to society’s rules they would be labeled villains.

All For One then tells Deku that he took the thorny path of being a hero that will grind away at his soul for the rest of his life. All For One then reveals that he is no longer interested in All Might. Instead All For One is only interested in Izuku Midoriya by saying “Now it’s your turn!!”

After All For One says this an explosion is set off that destroys the mansion Deku and the other heroes entered. End of issue.

The Good: After an intense action heavy chapter My Hero Academia Chapter 316 takes time to focus on the main characters of this arc. Slowing things down a bit more to focus gave us a better chance to feel the impact of how All For One once again showed he is still several steps ahead of all our heroes.

One of the big things we dive deeper in is on how Lady Nagant was Hawks predecessor in more ways than one. Specifically, Hawks does not shy away from connecting with Lady Nagant through the fact that they both have been used by the Safety Commission of Japan to do the dirty work the normal heroes wouldn’t ever be asked to do. Bringing that up was a good way to get across how even though Lady Nagant and Hawks never interacted as senpai and kohai there is this type of connection that runs with them.

Hearing what Hawks said being that final push to spark the hero side of Lady Nagant made her breaking and helping our heroes out was a great character moment. Showing us Lady Nagant as a young dreamer looking forward to her future as a hero added to how Lady Nagant’s heroic side came out. It made her sacrifice hit home even more as you are left hoping that she is able to eventually able to recover. Her development has been some of the best we have had in My Hero Academia and it would be a shame if this was it for Lady Nagant.

This also did good to highlight why Hawks was able to not given into the darkness that the Safety Commission led him to live within. Even though he was deep undercover with the League of Villains it was his optimism thanks to always looking up to heroes like Endeavor that allowed him to not give into that darkness. It was a strong continuation of Hawks’ character arc to add to how he is one of the more compelling characters on the hero side of things.

Overhaul’s whole situation has been an unexpected part of this story. Seeing him desperately want to go apologize to the yakuza boss he worked for was honestly getting repetitive. But what turned this entire part of the story around was Izuku Midoriya telling Overhaul he’ll honor Lady Nagant’s deal if he apologizes with full honesty to Eri as well. This brings it all back to the sub-plot involving Izuku looking out for Eri and knowing that for her to be fully free of the demons Overhaul created in her mind she needs to hear him apologize for all he did. This goes to show how well planned out Kohei Horikoshi has structured this entire story so each character has a role in one part of the greater narrative in this series.

Going from there to Izuku Midoriya leading Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, Edgeshot, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady to attempt to corner All For One was great to see. Specifically having Izuku in his full Deku costume leading things further made the visual stand out even more. Horikoshi’s artwork really shined in this moment as you felt how Deku wanted to end things with All For One

This made the entire reveal of All For One being prepared for Lady Nagant revealing their meeting spot was excellent. Once again we see how even in defeat All For One is still several steps ahead of our heroes. His entire speech being directed to Deku drove home how confident the villain is. You are once again reminded how he is in fact the most evil character in this series. We see how his warped view on the world is based on the reality of how society is set up in he world. But even as he is stating facts there are parts in his dialogue that show that at the end of the day everything he is saying is to justify why he should ultimately control the entire world.

Ending his entire speech to Deku by saying he no longer cares about All Might as Izuku is the only one that interest him now further shows big of a target Izuku has on his back. All For One emphasizing this by turning All Might’s words from My Hero Academia chapter 94 by pointing at Deku through the video message and saying “Now It’s Your Turn!!” was a fantastic way to end things. It made the explosion at the mansion mean even more. Now there are even more questions as to how Deku will handle the situation he is if he survives this explosion.

The Bad: The only knock that goes a bit against My Hero Academia Chapter 316 was Endeavor’s involvement. Endeavor just felt forced into the beginning part. While he did capture Overhaul it did feel like he was not needed as Overhaul would’ve shown up to yell at Lady Nagant anyways. The explanation for why he showed up made the entire timing with him and Hawks showing up come across as a little too convenient plot device.

Overall: My Hero Academia Chapter 316 kept the momentum going strong with a chapter that provided a meaningful aftermath story to the fight between Deku and Lady Nagant. Lady Nagant’s character arc was done extremely well and this is hopefully not the last we see of her character. The ending of this chapter drove home how big of a target Izuku Midoriya has on his back with the declaration All For One makes in the final few pages.

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