My Hero Academia Chapter 379 Review – “Hopes”

Things have continued to grow more and more unpredictable with how things go with our hero vs villain war in My Hero Academia. The last chapter alone had two big returns as Gentle Criminal and Lady Nagant returned when they were needed most by our heroes. Kohei Horikoshi turned two side villains into characters who were given important roles. Two side villains that Izuku Midoriya had fought became meaningful parts of Midoriya’s growth. Now will things continue to turn around for our heroes or will All For One and Tomura Shigaraki get things back in their favor? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 379.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

Sometime earlier Rock Lock sees how determined Lady Nagant is to fight alongside Deku while powering through all her severe injuries and gives her information on where U.A. High School Flying Fortress and All For One-Tomura Shigaraki will be.

In the present Lady Nagant deals with all the pain and blood loss by taping into the hope she felt as a kid to fire off another shot that cuts All For One Tomura Shigaraki’s arm off.

With these injuries, All For One is shocked by Tomura Shigaraki, within the Vestige World, revealing he knew what All For One’s plan was for him and made sure to hide the Tenko Shimura side deep within his soul.

All For One quickly tries to get Kurogiri to teleport Tomura’s body to where All For One is physically. Kurogiri is unable to do this as the Oboro Shirakumo part of his soul starts coming through and causing his power to get disrupted.

From there Tomura and Tenko fought their way through how All For One locked them up to take back control of their body and continue their goal to destroy the world that created his family home.

Seeing that Tomura Shigaraki is back Izuku Midoriya quickly uses his Blackwhip Quirk to drag Shigaraki out of U.A. High School. Midoriya takes Shigaraki takes to an abandoned and destroyed part of the city knowing that everyone else would be in danger now that Shigaraki got his Quirks back.

Midoriya then faces off against Shigaraki alone still determined to not forget witnessing Shigaraki’s tears. End of chapter.

REVIEW

Kohei Horikoshi has found a great flow to each chapter in recent months. My Hero Academia Chapter 379 is yet another example of this as multiple characters get an important focus. In the process, all the various character arcs complement one another to create a chapter that creates greater excitement for what is going on.

Starting out My Hero Academia Chapter 379 with how Lady Nagant was able to show up when Izuku Midoriya and the other heroes needed help set the tone for the entire chapter. Horikoshi maximized the first two pages to show how much of an impact Midoriya had on Lady Nagant. Through their fight and Midoriya’s own words, Lady Nagant rediscovered the hope she once had. Using this newfound determination Lady Nagant showed she wants to pay Midoriya back for giving her hope again.

Rock Lock being the one to give the okay for Lady Nagant to get medical leave and give her the location of the UA High School fight was a great surprise. Rock Lock is a character that has always made a great impression with every appearance. He has been one of the Pro Heroes that maximizes his appearance and he does so again here with his show of support for Lady Nagant. He’s definitely a Pro Hero Horikoshi could use more.

All that build-up made Lady Nagant power through all her injuries and the constant blood loss to fire one last sniper shot a fantastic moment. Horikoshi nailed the moment with how impressive this was not just visually but how much it paid off the character building around Lady Nagant. She is no doubt a breakout character that you just want to see more stories about.

Making Lady Nagant’s return even more impactful was how she and Gentle Criminal appearance broke All For One. Lady Nagant and Gentle Criminal were two people that All For One never thought would appear again so he never factored that into his planning. Because of that, we saw how All For One’s greatest weakness is dealing with unexpected events. Everything up to this point has gone his way that even when things like All Might defeating him twice or Star and Stripe using her New Order Quirk against him that All For One had backup plans in order to get his ultimate endgame back on track.

In the process of freaking out All For One created the exact opening that Tomura Shigaraki revealed he was waiting for his master to make. Up to this point, we’ve seen that no matter how much agency Shigaraki believes he has had Horikoshi has always made it a point to show how All For One has manipulated every aspect of his “protégé’s” life. Because of that, it made Shigaraki’s own revelation that he buried the Tenko Shimura part of himself so deep within his soul that even All For One didn’t detect it. That character turn is exactly the development Shigaraki needed to show he does indeed have agency in this story.

In the process, Horikoshi gave Shigaraki his true rebirth into the Demon Lord that All For One has been talking up his protégé to become. Seeing how Shigaraki made it a point to say that both Tomura Shigaraki and Tenko Shimura have the same goal of destroying the world that created the home of his origin a stronger character moment. It delivered on how it did come across that we just witnessed the birth of the true form of the end boss of My Hero Academia.

This in turn worked well to have the battlefield change once again as Izuku Midoriya instantly recognized that Shigaraki was back in control and healed so he had to get the villain out of the area. The timing by Horikoshi worked well to show how all of the things La Brava, Gentle Criminal, Lady Nagant, All For One, and Shigaraki were doing in these last few chapters was giving time for Midoriya to recover. Now we are in a completely new battle with Midoriya and Shigaraki equally in control of the Quirks they have access through One For All and All For One, respectively.

One story angle that is left up in the air of whether it will pay off well is what happens next with the character arc for Kurogiri and Oboro Shirakumo. The reappearance of Oboro within Kurogiri came across as random rather than a big moment it should’ve been. That could change depending on how Horikoshi follows up on this aspect of the story.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My Hero Academia Chapter 379 is one of the best, balanced chapters of the series we have gotten. Kohei Horikoshi is able to balance multiple character arcs, giving them all time to properly get their individual stories over. Everything Lady Nagant, Tomura Shigaraki, and Izuku Midoriya did in particular built greater hype for what comes next in My Hero Academia.

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10