My Hero Academia Chapter 373 Review – “Friends”

My Hero Academia is back after a week’s break. Kohei Horikoshi certainly picked his spot as this is the hottest My Hero Academia has ever been as the race to Spinner from breaking Kurogiri out of his hospital containment has reached its climax. With the entire focus of the heteromorphs rampage now reaching the hospital we still don’t know if Mezo Shoji and Koji Koda’s efforts were enough to stop this rampage. And even so can Present Mic, as the only one there, stop Spinner from breaking Kurogiri out? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 373.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

One of the heteromorphs on All For One’s side tries to take out Tentacole but is stopped by another heteromorph.

This heteromorph, with tears running down their face, speaks on how the call to action got them pumped after all the beatings and hatred they suffered throughout their life. They go on to say that even with that they cannot bring themselves to hurt the people in the hospital, much to the anger of the ranting Liberation soldier.

When they wonder if this is a wrong feeling to have Tentacole states it is not. Tentacole goes on to say never stopped thinking that it makes them a bright and shining example of how they will use the light to show society they should be ashamed of how they’ve treated heteromorphs for so long.

Seeing another hero apologize to the heteromorphs for not hearing them out sooner Rock Lock thinks about how blinded the heroes were in simply defending themselves.

Elsewhere Present Mic knocks down Spinner with one of his Voice attacks. Seeing that Kurogiri hasn’t moved Present Mic tries to make it to his former friend and make sure he won’t break out.

At the same time, Spinner returns to his original form and starts thinking about how all he wanted to do was stand proudly next to Tomura Shigaraki. This gives Spinner the power to stand up and tell Kurogiri to save Shigaraki.

Hearing this Kurogiri breaks out of his confinement and stands up while holding one of Shigaraki’s hands. With part of Oboro Shirakumo’s facial features coming through his face Kurogiri declares “I AM THE PROTECTOR OF SHIGARAKI.”

REVIEW

Kohei Horikoshi does not miss a beat in returning with My Hero Academia Chapter 373. There is an immediacy felt with how we are put right into the hectic situation at the hospital. Kicking off with giving us some resolution to the heteromorph revolution created a lot of questions as to how this entire chapter would go.

Through this entire heteromorph story arc within “The Final War Arc” Horikoshi has tapped into the anger, pain, and sadness that the heteromorph has carried throughout their lives. My Hero Academia Chapter 373 emphasizes this once again with the nameless heteromorph pouring out his heart and soul when talking about why they joined All For One’s army. Having to deal with so much hate the way All For One’s message was received was one of hope for things to change. The destruction in All For One’s message was not what was heard, instead it was for things to be better for heteromorphs to finally find their place in the world.

But in ignoring the dangerous and destructive part of All For One’s message and chosen Messiah in Spinner we have the situation we have now. Which highlights the importance of Mezo Shoji’s voice throughout this arc. He is the counter to All For One and Spinner which was not expected in any planning for this war. But as someone who represents what it means to use the pain, they’ve dealt with their entire life and turn that into a light that will make those who hated and abused him simply for his appearance see they were wrong was handled well.

This brings us back to the nameless heteromorph who spoke to all of this. Even though they showed through their words and actions in this chapter they know this is wrong they are still confused. It made Shoji’s own words of encouragement even more meaningful. You can see reached heroes like Rock Lock who were so blinded by defending themselves in this war they didn’t see the bigger problem they were actually dealing with. This all creates hope that once everything is said and done in The Final Act Saga that we will see the positive change that Shoji spoke for.

Having the conflict with the heteromorphs take up the first half of My Hero Academia Chapter 373 worked into how we still didn’t know how the Kurogiri plot would go. There was hope in how Present Mic was able to stop Spinner from delivering All For One’s message. At the same time, we still weren’t sure how well that worked since Kurogiri could get up at any moment.

Present Mic’s internal monologue throughout this second half was key. Because even though he was successful in knocking Spinner out we saw a lot of uncertainty if he could tap into the Oboro Shirakumo side of Kurogiri. And even if he could we didn’t know if Oboro Shirakumo would even want to side with Present Mic.

That all made Spinner’s rising back up even more dramatic. Once again being friends with and wanting to stand next to Tomura Shigaraki is the thing that is completely fueling Spinner. That drive is strong enough to make Spinner stand even when he has brutal injuries. It all works to get you to understand Spinner as a character even more while keeping him in the role of the villain through the actions he is committing.

This made Kurogiri finally break free and declare he will protect Shigaraki oozes game changer from the moment he stands. Now we can throw everything else out in how “The Final War Arc” can go as Kurogiri easily changes the entire direction of this war. Even after everything the heroes have done to stop Shigaraki from buying Deku the time he needed to fight the final boss that all changes now. What Horikoshi has planned from here will be exciting to find out.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Kohei Horikoshi knows how to turn up the drama. From how he handles the conflict with and history of the heteromorphs along with the tension around Kurogiri possibly breaking out Horikoshi was on his A-game. Now with Kurogiri rising up, there is no telling where Horikoshi plans to go with after the end of My Hero Academia Chapter 373.

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10