My Hero Academia Chapter 361 Review – “Abnormal Happenings”

Things have certain escalated with the All For One controlled Tomura Shigaraki taking out the majority of heroes assigned to battle him in the floating U.A. High School. All that’s left standing to face him until Izuku Midoriya is able to make it to this battlefield are Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki, the former Big Three of UA High School before they became Pro Heroes. We already saw that The Big Three were a formable force for All For One Shigaraki to take on. But will they be enough to hold Shigaraki back? Let’s find out with Chapter 361 of My Hero Academia

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

Hearing Lemillion calling him out for not having friends what remains of Tenko Shimura comes out of Tomura Shigaraki and hysterically yells out that he does have friends like Mikkun, Tomo, and Mon. The way Shigaraki reacted causes a shocked Lemillion to apologize.

Shigaraki decides to stop wasting time and once again turns his attention to targeting Dynamight.

Knowing his attacks won’t damage Shigaraki given his last attack lack of impact Lemillion says he will instead focus on buying Suneater time to get ready to be the lead attacker.

Nejire Chan appears to launch a continuous stream of her Pike attack to hold Shigaraki back from reaching Dynamight and Best Jeanist. Nejire Chan is able keeps up her Pike attack while fighting through the pain of Shigaraki’s counter attacks.

While fighting through the pain of her injuries Nejire Chan thinks back to how Mirio Togata and Tamaki Amajiki becoming her friends helped open her up after feeling isolated during her early school days.

Noticing that Suneater preparations are almost complete Nejire Chan provides Suneater an added boost with her Wave Motion energy. This added power boost gives Suneater the push needed to reach a new level for his Manifest Quirk to create the ultimate fusion of all his animal forms. End of chapter.

REVIEW

My Hero Academia chapters average page count is about 15 pages. Sometimes we get shorter chapters and that is what we get with My Hero Academia Chapter 361 that is 11 pages. But while My Hero Academia Chapter 361 is shorter than normal Kohei Horikoshi shows how to maximize the page count for a story.

Opening up with what remains of Tenko Shimura spirit coming out of the All For One Tomura Shigaraki was chilling way to kick things off. Seeing how Lemillion’s words about Shigaraki being alone having the side effect of Tenko coming out in such a hysterical fashion was surprising twist. This provides yet another hint at how Shigaraki will ultimately be defeated isn’t by physically overwhelming him. Izuku Midoriya and the other heroes will need to find a way to draw out Tenko from within Shigaraki to have any real hope of overcoming the monster he has become as All For One.

The unstoppable monster that All For One Shigaraki is at the moment is put over well with how Lemillion takes the shock and asses how his own attacks not putting a scratch on Shigaraki worked well in conjunction. Because while Lemillion is the only one that can get close enough to land attacks before Shigaraki activates his Decay Quirk he lacks the power to do any real damage. Even being powered up by Nejire Chan had little effect on Shigaraki. It certainly put over how terrifying Shigaraki is if someone we know as strong as Lemillion is ineffective as an attacker.

Understanding that makes Lemillion quickly switching buying time for Suneater to switch roles with him was an excellent character moment. This quick thinking showed true leadership from Lemillion as he knows for them to buy time for Izuku Midoriya to show up they can’t just rely on one plan. To be successful they have to adjust to how All For One Shigaraki is attacking them in such a wild fashion.

The quick flexibility in thinking also shows how deep the trust that Lemillion, Nejire Chan, and Suneater have. They don’t have to do a lot of talking it out to understand how they need to switch up their attack strategy. It all further puts over why they were considered the Big Three during their U.A. High School days, as they do represent the leaders of the next generation.

Nejire Chan getting some of the spotlight in My Hero Academia Chapter 361 was long overdue. Like this entire chapter, it wasn’t very long but effective as we see how powerful Nejire Chan is both physically and mentally. The visual of her fighting through the pain of All For One Shigaraki’s attack in order to continue her own Pike attack was handled well. The pain triggering the memories of how valuable of friends that Mirio and Tamaki are to her did a great job at giving us a better understanding of Nejire.

That flashback made the transition to Tamaki as Suneater completing the ultimate fusion of all the animals using his Manifest Quirk was a sight to behold. The addition of Nejire Chan’s Wave Motion energy provided even greater power to this ultimate fusion that Suneater created was the cherry on top to complete this chapter. It all builds up even more hype for whatever happens next in this fight with Shigaraki.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While My Hero Academia Chapter 361 is a shorter normal it is just as impactful as any of the major chapters we have gotten in this series so far. Kohei Horikoshi does an effective job continuing to showcase why Mirio Togata, Nejire Hado, and Tamaki Amajiki are known as The Big Three. All the while there is yet more examples as to why All For One Tomura Shigaraki is such a terrifying villain. It all comes together for a great new chapter of My Hero Academia.

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10