I’m Going To Need 10 Years To Heal From That ‘My Hero Academia’ Episode

There are several truly iconic scenes in the wide world of anime and it’s wild to have the privilege to witness one happen in real-time. This week, My Hero Academia provided us with a sequence I will probably think about for years, if not the rest of my life.

Major spoilers for episode 149 of My Hero Academia, “Light Fades to Rain”

A little over a year ago, I remember logging onto Twitter and being greeted with a very distraught timeline. Someone major had died in My Hero Academia. Mercifully, I wasn’t spoiled on who. But ever since season 7 started, which meant the kickoff of My Hero‘s final arc, the specter of death was on my mind. “Will this episode be it?” I’ve wondered ever since my girl Eijiro got maimed two episodes ago.

“Light Fades To Rain” was it. And oh my god.

One hell of a character arc

In the grand story of My Hero Academia—the series that went from “high school romp” to “weekly tearjerker”—Deku’s personal evolution is tied at the hip to the evolution of his relationship with Katsuki Bakugo. Trying to save Bakugo from the monster at the beginning of the series led to Deku getting his Quirk. Bakugo getting kidnapped led to All Might’s famous “You’re next” moment. Deku and Bakugo’s big fight happened just as Deku was hitting a developmental wall. Bakugo’s incredible apology is what brought Deku back to himself after spending too long as “Dark Deku.”

Deku’s development simply doesn’t happen without Bakugo, and vice versa. That relationship starts with Bakugo hating and bullying Deku, who he felt he should be superior to, and it turns into a deep friendship. That relationship’s evolution, and therefore the evolution of Bakugo as a character, is the core of the series.

To be honest, I hated Katuski Bakugo at the beginning of My Hero Academia. He was a haughty, self-centered, belligerent little shit. But true masters of their storytelling like mangaka Kohei Horikoshi know how to slowly change people’s minds. Bakugo’s character arc is simply one of the best in modern shonen.

He transformed from a character who thought his rightful place was at the center of the world to someone who would throw himself into harm’s way for the sake of someone he spent years mercilessly bullying. He grew into someone who could own up to the error of his ways and apologize for all those years of cruelty.

“Light Fades To Rain” builds on that growth even more. Bakugo has been forced to confront the gap in skill between himself and Shigaraki / All For One—and therefore, Deku. Bakugo has officially gone from posing as superior to Deku to praising him, wondering, “Hey, Deku. Can I still catch up to you?”

In thinking back on the time he met All Might, Bakugo even concedes he was “kind of a brat.” He realizes that the ways he has grown enable him to now voice the desires he’d been unable to voice back then, such as simply wanting All Might’s autograph.

And as an even deeper tell to the true self he’s come closer to, he still has the card on his person.

Speechless

Major spoilers ahead for … Steven Universe. Trust the process.

This growth doesn’t squash his personality. Bakugo is still able to have his Bakugo bravado—after all, his hero name is Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. He’s still got an angry streak. But that’s why, when the visuals in the episode shifted and Bakugo’s voice became soft for the first time ever, you knew something was up.

There’s a moment towards the end of Steven Universe which I think of often. After a character-defining heroic moment, Steven goes to check Lars’, a main secondary character’s, pulse—and then gasps sharply, his hand quickly going to his mouth, his eyes tearing up. The rules of the series change in that moment. Lars ends up reanimating (not “reviving,” there’s caveats). But in that moment, Steven Universe became a different series from what it was before.

I thought about that exact moment in “Light Fades To Rain.” Bakugo realizes new ramifications of his Quirk abilities and seeks to take advantage of them, launching another attack on Shigaraki. He’s repelled. Best Jeanist immediately goes to him, but stops mid-sentence with a sharp gasp.

“His heart… ” is all Best Jeanist can say.

That’s when we see: Bakugo, pale, with a hole in his chest. His eyes, which just a moment ago were gleaming and fiery, are glazed over and pink. It’s the eyes that really f**ked me, that made me realize the series’ new reality: Bakugo is dead.

It’s a shocking image. I’m still too shocked to cry. I’ve spent all day thinking about it, feeling stunned. Bakugo is the deuteragonist of My Hero Academia. And yet …

I’ll need some time with this one.