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My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 111 Review – Best In Show

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Quick Summary • Best Moment • Setup • Delivery • Other Posts

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 111 Review – Quick Summary

In My Hero Academia Season 5 episode 111, “Tenko Shimura: Origin,” Jin Bubaigawara/Twice struggled to keep Himiko Toga alive, going so far as to create a copy of her to use for blood transfusions. But he’s not a doctor, and Himiko seemed to be fading fast. Meanwhile, Tomura Shigaraki fought against a gigantic Rikiya Yotsubashi/Re-Destro, whose Quirk allowed him to turn stress into offensive attacks. But Re-Destro had not counted on Tomura evolving. Nor had he counted on Tomura remembering his past, in crisp, horrifying detail. Re-Destro could not understand the danger he had just awoken. Nor did he count on the danger that Doctor Daruma Ujiko had sent to support Tomura. How will Re-Destro react to these multiple threats?

Note: This post may include spoilers, so be cautious.

Favorite Quote from My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 111

Re-Destro has no idea what he just unleashed. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Do you know why hostage negotiators don’t back hostage-takers into a corner? It’s because there are few things more dangerous than someone without hope. A hostage-taker without hope might do anything — shoot themselves, shoot the hostages, blow up the building, anything. 

Same thing with wild animals. Most (not all!) wild animals will escape a threat, if they can. But corner them? Make them think they’re done for? Then “flight or fight” goes out the window. Raw desperation takes over. They become wildly dangerous. 

Tomura because wildly dangerous in this episode.

Re-Destro had become aware that Tomura had evolved. After all, Tomura inflicted serious damage using only two fingers, not all five. One of the taunts Re-Destro leveled against Tomura was that he only wanted to destroy; that he could not create. Before Gigantomachia arrived, after Tomura had remembered his past, he approached Re-Destro and said “You were right. I just want to destroy.”

“Then disappear!” Re-Destro shouted at him, preparing to strike. “A world with no creation has no future!”

Tomura said (13:04), “I don’t need a future.”

I think Re-Destro just had a hand in awakening the most dangerous individual on the planet.

Best in Show Moment for My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 111

Damn. Just, damn. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Setup: That Little Voice in My Head

When I watch a show, I’m a willing participant in the suspension of disbelief. When it’s a show I like, I will even actively ignore structural problems to remain engaged. The net effect of being a willing participant is that if I have a sense of the world, and the characters, and the situations, I can react to moments emotionally. I’m invested in these shows. I want to feel something watching them.

I can count on one hand the number of times this has happened, but if a show is headed in a dark enough direction, there’s a part of my brain that wants to pull away. It’s not that I mind gore. I watched the beginning of Saving Private Ryan without flinching. Same thing for Black Hawk Down. For the former, all of the military veterans I’ve spoken to confirmed the movie’s realism, at least in terms of combat. For the latter, the response was similar, though one veteran said the movie was too real.

Well-crafted fiction can get through defenses hardened to protect against reality. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

But as hardened as my emotions have become, there are still certain conditions that I find it terribly difficult to witness. Children in danger is tough for me, and that explained a lot of the tension in The Promised Neverland (first season). Pets in danger, like dogs or cats, are also hard for me to watch. I’ve watched too many of my own pets die over the years. You’d think I’d get used to it, but I never have. 

I’ve watched MHA since the beginning. I have a good idea how this world works. By the time Hana said (15:41), “I’m cheering you on!”, I had become emotionally invested in the backstory. Around the same time — I wasn’t paying close attention because the show had riveted me — a little voice in my head starting saying, “No no no no no…”

I should have listened to that little voice.

Delivery: Inevitability

By the time his father had struck him for daring to look at a picture of his hero grandmother, the voice had gotten loud enough that I heard it. A part of me wanted to walk away, but the narrative held me in place. As Tomura sat frantically scratching himself, his hand on his dog Mon for support, I knew what was going to happen. It was logical. It was the outcome of everything I had learned about this world. I could see how it was the result of a callus parent, and it was the logical progression of a world that didn’t take onboarding young Quirks seriously. 

It was inevitable.

Yet, I couldn’t look away. I think my jaw dropped when Tomura realized what he had done to his dog. Then Hana came outside to apologize. That’s when I knew my jaw had dropped, because now it snapped shut. I honestly wanted to scream for her to run for her life, but in that instant, the story’s flow was the world. Nothing existed apart from it. I could only watch and emotionally react as he killed his sister.

The animation was horrifyingly restrained. That left my imagination to fill in the blanks. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

I’m calling this my favorite moment of the episode, but in this case, I think it’d be more accurate to call it the most powerful moment. It was when his mother and grandparents came out to see what was going on. They saw Hana’s remains. They saw Mon’s remains. But his mother didn’t retreat at the sight. In fact, even when he reached out with his power, even as her body disintegrated, she lunged towards him and tried to hold him.

She died trying to embrace her son.

That hurt about as much as any work of fiction I’ve experienced. Everything about the world at a macro level, everything about the scene at a micro level, came together in that terrible instant. I have no idea how they’re going to top that. But I’m going to watch to find out.

What did you think of Shuuichi Iguchi/Spinner’s resolve? What were your favorite moments? Let me know in the comments!

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