My Hero Academia Chapter 423 Review – “One For All vs. All For One”

With each passing chapter of My Hero Academia it has felt like we are close to the end of Kohei Horikoshi’s epic manga series. The previous chapter certainly made it seem that we are at the end with Izuku Midoriya and all the remaining heroes giving it their all to finish off All For One permanently. With Midoriya seemingly able to use the remaining embers of One For All to hit the villain will we see the end of this war? Let’s find out with My Hero Academia Chapter 423.

CREATIVE TEAM

Writer & Artist: Kōhei Horikoshi

MY HERO ACADEMIA CHAPTER 423 SYNOPSIS

All For One befuddled by how Deku landing a point-blank attack reacts hard to Deku’s point blank attack and how Super Regeneration isn’t working on the body. All For One comes to terms with every hero who helped Deku pooled their powers together to shatter Tomura Shigaraki’s body.

All For One attempt to transfer his Quirk and himself into Deku. Kurogiri, after apologizing to Eraser Head and Present Mic, teleports himself between All For One and Deku.

Suddenly Katsuki Bakugo, who arrived with help from Shoto Todoroki, and uses an Explosion to destroy Kurogiri. This provides Deku the chance to nail All For One with another punch. With that punch Deku is able to transfer the embers of One For All inside All For One

Inside the Vestige World Yoichi Shigaraki reveals Midoriya was able to transfer the last of his embers to complete One For All within All For One. All For One is in complete disbelief over this.

Yoichi then reveals that by doing what he did Midoriya was able to awaken the other vestiges of One For All. Suddenly Deku, all previous One For All users, and Tomura Shigaraki strike All For One, completely shattering the villain.

Back in the real world, as Tomura Shigaraki’s body disintegrates admits he was just a crying kid who couldn’t destroy anything. Deku responds by saying he couldn’t let Shigaraki destroy everything and wanted to stop him from spreading misery and grief further.

Shigaraki laughs and asks Deku to tell Spinner that “Tomura Shigaraki kept fighting to destroy.” Deku replies that it’s already been destroyed as the last of Shigaraki ashes are scattered through the sky. End of chapter.

REVIEW

Based on how things went in My Hero Academia Chapter 423 it certainly feels like we only have a handful of chapters left in this series. The way Kohei Horikoshi got there will certainly bring a lot of questions that make all the chapters that follow this one even more important. That importance comes from what exactly the results of the ending of the battle All For One will mean for Izuku Midoriya and the world of My Hero Academia.

With how things ended Horikoshi certainly made sure to tap into the classic “power of friendship” theme prevalent in manga, especially the Shonen genre. While it did come down Izuku Midoriya finishing off All For One it was thanks to his friends help. Given how important Class 1-A and other Pro Heroes have become to My Hero Academia’s narrative this was a cool payoff. It added to how much Horikoshi has invested story time to develop so many characters during this series.

This is where the visual storytelling was most on point. Horikoshi made sure to pack as much as possible to make every page and panel dynamic. The second page with all of Midoriya’s friends backing him up spiritually is a great example of this. Midoriya’s power came from these bonds he has made. That was once again seen with how All For One was ultimately taken out was the combined might of all the users of One For Al and Tomura Shigaraki. That splash page visual was yet another payoff to how much work Midoriya put into making everyone believe in him and have his back. That was Midoriya’s real Superman power.

In this way Midoriya ultimately became All For One’s direct opposite. Whereas All For One was singularly focused on becoming a Demon Lord who ruled the world Midoriya wanted to lift others up and provide the world hope. This proved to be All For One’s downfall as he became blinded by his desire to be a Demon Lord. Even when All For One tried to state it was partially out of love for Yoichi even that was part of his warped mind.

Out of this Tomura Shigaraki getting one final goodbye gave his character an ending as well. The decision for him to be Tomura Shigaraki rather than speak as Tenko Shimura was a smart one. While part of Midoriya’s goal was to save Tenko’s soul that would be a too obvious route to end Shigaraki’s character arc. It is more appropriate that even until the end he was still Tomura Shigaraki. This spoke to how far gone he was based on his trauma, decision making, and All For One’s manipulation.

That said, the way the ending happens did feel sudden and incomplete with how satisfying it was. The story ending with Midoriya being left without One For All creates questions as to what his story will be moving forward. A key part of why My Hero Academia became so beloved was that we were seeing the start of Midoriya’s rise from Quirkless to the #1 hero. Midoriya accomplishing that through saving the world from All For One shouldn’t be the end of that story. Rather this should be the start of a whole new era of heroes led by Midoriya and his friends. The final chapters of My Hero Academia, however many they may be, hopefully provide a satisfying conclusion to the series.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My Hero Academia Chapter 423 did a good job at concluding the All For One battle. Though the way it ends does create a lot of questions as to how Kohei Horikoshi plans to end this series for Izuku Midoriya. The way these final chapters are handled will ultimately decide how My Hero Academia’s ending is perceived.

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

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