My Hero Academia Chapter 387 Review – “Congealing”

My Hero Academia is back after Shonen Jump was on break for Golden Week. Last we left off with the series Kohei Horikoshi set up a new, and possibly final, battle between All Might and All For One to go down. Given all that is at stake the All Might vs All For One rematch could have a lot of consequences for the entire Final War Arc. This is just one of many battles Horikoshi is currently juggling. How will things turn out? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 387

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

After revealing his surname as Himura, Geten talks to Mr. Compress about how the Himura Family (Rei Todoroki family bloodline) diluted their family bloodline due to their desire to maintain their wealth and pride within the family. Geten believes once the main branch of the Himura Family started to sell their kids off to be married it was the end of the family and what led him to be recruited by Re-Destro. This led to the belief while Quirks evolutions could lay dormant that a person’s heart can’t evolve.

Meanwhile, about 800 miles from the Gunga Mountain Villa Ruins, Endeavor starts running out of energy to continue to lure Dabi away from everyone. Endeavor desperately tries to talk to his son Toya but Dabi is completely obsessed with having his father watch him explode.

In that moment, Endeavor realizes that Rei’s Quirk has awakened within Dabi in his near-death state. With no other option, Endeavor grabs Dabi and flies up as high as possible so Dabi’s explosion to only kills them but no one else.

As Endeavor does this Rei appears and uses her Frost Quirk in an attempt to cool her son down. End of chapter.

REVIEW

There has been a common problem of too many character arcs needing a payoff during The Final War Arc. On the positive, this really is a credit to Horikoshi’s ability to build so many great character arcs that as fans we are invested in more than just Izuku Midoriya’s journey. There are characters all over My Hero Academia that fans want to see their arcs have the payoff Horikoshi has been building since the series started. Though, as we see with My Hero Academia Chapter 387, it is getting tough to juggle everything in a cohesive manner.

It is certainly a major disappointment that the epic cliffhanger of All Might vs All For One was completely ignored in My Hero Academia Chapter 387. There is no avoiding how it did feel as though Horikoshi ripped the rug right from under us. This has become a common trend during The Final War arc as Horikoshi knows that he has so many character arcs to payoff that are all important. But because of that importance, we are seeing the attention of The Final War arc be all over the place from chapter to chapter.

That is where the story in My Hero Academia Chapter 387 doesn’t hit as hard as it could’ve if Endeavor vs Dabi had more momentum during this arc behind it. Specifically, up to this point, the focus of Endeavor’s narrative in The Final War arc has been about stopping All For One. The Dabi side of the story has been mostly at a standstill since Shoto and Dabi had their big fight.

You wouldn’t get that with how Horikoshi tried to frame things in a way that made it look like Endeavor has been focusing on stopping Dabi this entire time. It’s not as though Horikoshi couldn’t have given a more natural transition from our heroes stopping All For One to Endeavor vs Dabi. Dabi being more present when the heroes were trying to stop All For One by taking Endeavor’s attention away from the fight would’ve changed everything. But because there wasn’t that transition it does highlight how Horikoshi has struggled with the pacing of the story in The Final War arc.

The problem with pacing is further spotlighted by how Horikoshi rushes bringing Rei Todoroki’s Himura Family lineage back into play. The way it was done through Geten in the opening of My Hero Academia Chapter 387 was just awkwardly done. It felt completely forced to give sudden importance to Rei’s part in the story, even though Horikoshi has done a poor job building up Rei as a key character in the story. More so than anything, Horikoshi brought attention to how he has way too much going on in The Final War arc that he needed to rush Rei’s part in the story.

On the positive side, Horikoshi has continued to do a good job of putting an emphasis on how Quirks evolve with each passing generation. The addition of there being hidden parts in Quirk evolution does make sense with what we have come to understand of how Quirks evolve over time. The Himura Family bloodline Quirk suddenly manifested when Dabi fatally pushed his Quirk and body beyond the breaking point was handled well. This added to how Dabi has reached this Demon Lord-like form that no one can stop until he exploded.

Endeavor deciding to use his remaining strength to take Dabi as high as possible to avoid anyone else suffering from his son’s final act did come across as the only option. Endeavor running away just to get more distance was doing nothing but making Dabi want to make sure his dad was caught in the explosion he was creating. Along with Rei’s appearance at the end, it does leave us wondering if we will see Shoto make it in time to not only save his family but stop Dabi once and for all.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The further we get into The Final War Arc the more we see how there may be too much for Kohei Horikoshi to keep the story arc’s attention in one place for very long. This is once again the case with My Hero Academia Chapter 387 completely focusing on the Endeavor vs Dabi fight. In the process, you wouldn’t be blamed for forgetting the epic cliffhanger from the previous chapter. At some point, Horikoshi needs to end some story arcs so others can progress at a natural pace.

Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10