What’s up guys? The latest chapter of My Hero Academia was anything but thrilling. We see heroes like Mount Lady and Kamui go all out against the invincible, colossal titan Machia. We also finally get to see a hero who has been hyped up for more than 30 chapters. But what stood out this chapter were the fearless UA students( especially the brilliantly resilient Kirishima) who stood their own, not only against Machia but the League too. Unfortunately it will be more than a week long wait till My Hero academia 281 reaches us and as we wait let’s talk about the what this chapter and the involvement of the UA students could mean for the future of the story!My Hero Academia is centered around Deku and his classmates, the UA students.
So their involvement in battles against dangerous villains like a full powered Shigaraki and the never defeated Machia was inevitable. From the reader’s perspective it’s a wonderful opportunity to observe how some of our favorite characters have grown both in terms of their power as well as their hero mentality. We see Bakugo and Deku warming up to each other and Tokoyami being a GOAT and not only battling Re Destro but also saving his mentor Hawks from certain death.
We see Kaminari overcoming his insecurities and taking out a whole bunch of villains and the previously under confident Momo leading a full on support attack against one of the most frightening villains of the series. In a striking call back moment to back when Kirishima and Mina were middle school students, this chapter sees Kirishima valiantly protecting Mina and keeping his promise. On the other hand we have our main three facing Shigaraki along with the likes of Endeavor, Aizawa, Torino etc. While the involvement of students serves as entertainment for us, it’s also possibly a very important plot point that dictates the direction the manga might take.
THE UA STUDENTS’ INVOLVEMENT IN BATTLE AND THE FUTURE OF THE HERO SOCIETY:
We saw a lot of UA students fight in the battle and ones like Kaminari get seriously injured in the process. We might see more of them getting injured in My Hero Academia 281. The experienced pro heroes had to endure crippling(Mirko) and life altering injuries(Hawks) to death(X Less, Crust etc.) so it wouldn’t be a surprise if even some of the students do not survive this arc. Other than this imminent danger to their lives, this may very well have long arching consequences on the future of the hero society.
The hero society works with the basic rule of trained pro Heroes protecting the civilians from harm. Over the course of the manga, we get to see the workings of the hero system which shows us that the Hero Commission can engage in shady tactics to achieve their goal. An underlying theme of the manga is how the hero system is not perfect, that heroes are not perfect.
Many of the heroes are even shown to have become heroes just for fame and money while others like Endeavor are shown to abuse their families. It is implied that this is all build up to the moment when Shigaraki pulls some stunt to make the public distrust the hero society. And it is speculated that the UA students’ participation in the battle will be last straw which will cause the public to lose their trust in heroes.
Why so?Simple. Will the public support a hero system which requires teens to fight against terrifyingly dangerous villains? Initially when the arc started, it was stated that the students would simply evacuate the civilians or just be backup but will not actively fight villains face to face, especially ones as dangerous as Machia or Shigaraki. But everything went wrong with both Shiggy and Machia waking up from their slumbers. The fights are still on going but it might end in a lot of students getting hurt. This might cause a lot of parents to lose trust in the system and prevent their children from becoming heroes.
While the students had their moments to shine, remember that Tokoyami barely escaped with his life from a maniacal Dabi and Kaminari is severely injured. How will their parents and the public react to this? Add on to it, the revelation that Hawks who killed a villain, was basically taken away from his family and trained to be a spy from a very young age. It’s being speculated that Dabi/Touya was also a part of a similar training program. This revelation will create chaos among the public.
If say something as horrifying as a student getting killed in a villain battle happens, this might be enough for the public to call for the disbanding of the hero commission which in turn will be a big blow to the hero society. All in all, the participation of the students in the battle has probably done enough to cause massive public distrust in the capability of heroes to protect them.
MY HERO ACADEMIA 281 AND BEYOND:
The latest chapter saw the arrival of a much awaited hero, Majestic(He first appeared in MHA 263 but was not shown in action). This hero who is Momo’s and Tokage’s mentor was hyped up for more than 30 chapters and was even thought about my Midnight as someone who could possibly stop Machia. So My Hero Academia 281 could very well see Majestic in action along with heroes like Gang Orca, Fatgum, Takami etc. who he’s bringing along.
Or we could see the story shift to Shigaraki where he looks like he’s about to do something sinister. Something notable is that the characters all around are Shigaraki are some of the most prominent ones in the series be it our main characters, Endeavor or Aizawa. All of them have plot threads to complete. So it will be intriguing to see where Hori does there.
MY HERO ACADEMIA 281 Release date:
My Hero Academia 281 will be released on the 23rd of August.
So what do you think will happen in My Hero Academia 281? How ill the story progress? Can Majestic stop Machia or will a student fall victim to his rage? What is Shigaraki planning? Will Endeavor stop him? Share your thoughts in the comments below! don’t forget to check our latest posts: One Piece 988 & Black Clover 261