My Hero Academia Chapter 376 Review – “On Knife’s Edge”

Kohei Horikoshi is ending 2022 with one final chapter of My Hero Academia before the year ends. As things stand now The Final War arc is still far from over. Rather, this story arc has entered a whole new gear as Kurogiri return has turned the tide of the war to All For One’s villain armies favor. In particular, Himiko Toga using Twice’s Quirk and Dabi being teleported to the battlefield where Endeavor and Hawks were leading heroes against All For One is the immediate game changer. Now that things look like they are at their worst can the heroes overcome all the odds? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 376.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

As Himiko Toga unleashes Twice’s Sad Man’s Parade move on the Gunga Mountain Ruins battlefield she completely ignores Uravity attempt to talk.

The heroes scramble to deal with Himiko’s Sad Man’s Parade and Dabi intense flames covering the forest area. Dabi uses this opportunity to confront Endeavor, motivated to take whatever his father holds dear while he has the chance.

Seeing all the chaos All For One takes the chance to head to Tomura Shigaraki’s location. Hawks quickly gets in All For One’s way.

With All For One sudden stop Hawks uses this chance to yell out to Endeavor to put a stop to Toya and the villains attempt to converge on Deku and Tomura’s location. All For One laughs at what he sees as Hawks cruel command to Endeavor. Hawks fires back saying Endeavor already beat All For One once.

Hearing all this, as Dabi charges at him, Endeavor reflects on how he is seeing Toya this time around. End of chapter.

REVIEW

My Hero Academia Chapter 376 emphasizes the chaos caused by the changing battlefield landscape for the heroes and villains. Kohei Horikoshi drives home that Kurogiri was a game changer simply by using his Warp Quirk. Even without being physically present Kurogiri his actions are what drive everything we see take place in My Hero Academia Chapter 376.

Addressing the cliffhanger ending of the previous chapter with Ochaco Uraraka and Tsuyu Asui making it through one of Kurogiri’s warp gates to join the battle Gunga Mountain Ruins was a good tone setter. This pushed the idea of how Himiko Toga and Dabi’s mindsets have changed over the course of the story. With Himiko, because of the trauma of losing Twice and other things, she isn’t the same person that fell in love with Ochaco and Izuku Midoriya earlier in the series. There is a full belief that a simple love talk won’t turn things around this time around.

This plays in well into how Horikoshi has been exploring how the lead villains are much more layered characters than in their initial appearances. We saw that in Spinner’s arc that led to all this with his history as a Heteromorph Quirk user and friendship with Tomura Shigaraki. Here we see that Himiko is similarly driven by much more than what we saw from her initial appearances.

All of that manifested in how she is going all out using Twice’s Sad Man’s Parade to unleash the chaos on the world she is determined to unleash. The one thing we haven’t seen brought into play in this chapter is the time limit Himiko has with Twice’s abilities. We know the time with using Twice’s Quirk is limited for Himiko so how much that comes into play in future chapters could either help or hurt our heroes.

Similarly, we see with Dabi that his body being at the point of no return as it appears his lifespan has been cut to be minutes left has just pushed his sanity beyond its breaking point. Dabi is completely consumed by his own revenge that now he just wants to take whatever he can from Endeavor with the time he has left. Horikoshi definitely nails how Dabi’s monstrous form as his entire body has been damaged by Shoto’s earlier ultimate attack makes him even more dangerous than before.

Being the end boss villain, he is All For One understandably tries to use all the chaos Dabi and Himiko are creating run off to Tomura Shigaraki’s location. All For One had the opening created for him. But at the same time because All For One loves reveling in the chaos he creates by using others he ended up waiting seconds too long to escape. In his own way All For One gave Hawks the chance to get in his way.

Now it appears we have several races against the clock in place for the battlefield in the Gunga Mountain Ruins. There is Dabi with his lifespan, Himiko limited time using Twice’s Quirk, and All For One needing to get to the UA High School battlefield since Tomura Shigaraki body is still incomplete to maximize the All For One Quirk. All these things working against the villains is the hope that our heroes need to use.

The question is if Hawks, Endeavor, Uravity, Froppy, and the other heroes can use all these time limits to their advantage. Because while Uravity and Froppy could be seen as fresh combatants the same can’t be said for all the other heroes. Everyone is dealing with serious injuries, including Uravity and Froppy’s classmates. There are a lot of concerns if the Hawks, Endeavor, and the others injuries will keep them from stopping or even holding All For One back long enough for Deku to defeat Tomura Shigaraki. All these sets things up for The Final Act Saga to final parts of My Hero Academia in 2023

FINAL THOUGHTS

My Hero Academia Chapter 376 ends 2022 for the series on a strong note. The various time limits when for what All For One, Dabi, and Himiko Toga are trying to do through the chaos they are creating was handled well. Now there is a lot of momentum Kohei Horikoshi can build on for My Hero Academia in 2023.

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10