My Hero Academia Chapter 390 Review – “Shoto Todoroki Rising”

The focus for The Final War arc has shifted over to dealing with the Todoroki Family drama. Rei, Fuyumi, and Natuso joined Endeavor in the effort to stop Dabi from taking out a large portion of Japan with the explosion of his Quirk. Their efforts don’t appear to be enough but we know that Shoto Todoroki is racing, with Ingenium help, to help his family stop his big brother. Will he get there in time? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 390, titled “Shoto Todoroki Rising.”

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kohei Horikoshi

SYNOPSIS

Utilizing Shoto Todoroki’s Flash Fire Fist: Phosphor to reduce drag Ingenium is able to reach transonic speed that makes him as fast as a fighter jet. With this speed Ingenium gets to where the rest of the Todoroki Family are battling Dabi but his Engine Quirk run beyond its limit and stop.

Powered by thoughts of how his friends helped to be better Shoto reaches his family. Shoto immediately unleashes his Great Glacial Aegir Ultimate Move. Amplified by Frost Quirk moves his mother and siblings are using Shoto’s Great Glacial Aegir successfully stops Dabi from exploding.

With his remaining strength Dabi continues to curse his family and wishes they were dead. Endeavor weakly crawls to his son and apologizes to Toya for not reaching Sekoto Peak in time. Even with Dabi still saying he hates him Endeavor also apologizes to the rest of the Todoroki Family. End of chapter.

REVIEW

“Shoto Todoroki Rising” is one of the more important chapters for My Hero Academia as Kohei Horikoshi further hints that we are near the end of The Final War arc, and the series. My Hero Academia Chapter 390 is something we needed. We’ve seen how Horikoshi seemed to be overwhelmed in more ways than one with how many storylines were happening at the same time. It created a serious timing issue that is somewhat fixed thanks to the battle against Dabi coming to an end.

The last three chapters of My Hero Academia have all been building towards Shoto Todoroki having his biggest moment. Horikoshi did not hide the fact that the one that needed to be the one to defeat Dabi was not Endeavor but Shoto. This was all part of Shoto’s own heroes journey.

In the process Horikoshi made sure to show how far Shoto has come as he didn’t defeat his brother alone. And it wasn’t something that was simply his family helped him accomplish. He had Tenya Ida there to give him the push to further push the idea of he is no longer alone. He not only has family but friends he trusts that have his back.

The chapter opening with Ida pushing his Engine Quirk beyond its limits, with help from Shoto’s Flash Fire Fist: Phosphor move, was also a great payoff for his character. His narrative in My Hero Academia has shifted to being more of a supporting character since the end of the Hero Killer arc. We’ve seen how he’s been there to help Izuku Midoriya and others who have been more at the forefront. And it was fitting that pushing beyond his limits to reach a new top speed came from his desire to help Shoto resolve things with his family.

This all further pushes the idea that no hero can do it alone. We are long past the time where carrying the weight of the world peace and safety can fall on All Might’s shoulders. Shoto even recognizing that if Rei, Fuyumi, and Natuso weren’t there already using their respective Frost Quirks his Great Glacial Aegir wouldn’t have stopped Dabi. It all added to how it took the entire family to resolve things with Dabi as it wasn’t just Shoto and Toya’s story. This was the Todoroki Family story as a whole.

With all that went down Dabi in his own way showed that due to his own history he ultimately did represent Endeavor’s masterpiece creation. Even in defeat and near-death state Dabi could not let go of his hatred for Endeavor and his family. While Shoto represents becoming something more than his father’s previous training wanted him to be Dabi was the opposite. Dabi sadly exemplifies the path Endeavor’s abuse and desires to surpass All Might led to.

Given how things ended in My Hero Academia Chapter 390 ended it does feel the Todoroki Family story does need at least one more chapter for all of them to move forward. With all their injuries this may come during the epilogue of The Final War arc. Though we could still see one final goodbye to Dabi since we could see All For One react to the death of one his most prominent villainous creations.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My Hero Academia Chapter 390 is one of the strongest chapters we have gotten this year. Kohei Horikoshi delivered a ton of emotional impact to go with the eventful way the Todoroki Family conflict centered around Dabi concluded. Now with this part of the story arc resolved it’ll be interesting to see which battle Horikoshi chooses to focus on next.

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