Mirio and Izuku - The Next Allmight and Nighteye? Review Boku No Hero Academia Chapter 162: One Who

Okay, background first. If you’d like to hurry up and get to the review, then you’re a terrible follower for not appreciating my amazing backstories, but as an impatient person myself, I understand you. The review starts at the green line, go ahead - ignore me.

And if you don’t know what I mean by followers, this is my cult (without the blood, sacrifice, and death) for weird people, get in or stay out.

Anyways, I have an obsessive friend that always tries to introduce me to new anime. They're into all the blood, gore, death, and other stuff I could do without. I don't mind blood, but every single episode is a bit much. I've only liked like one other anime they've shown me. Luckily, they occasionally do find amazing anime for me. Over thanksgiving. I went to visit them in Florida and spent two days binge watching Boku No Hero Academia and then one more reading the manga.

So yeah, I'm addicted.

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Anyways, I recently read chapter 162 of the manga (the latest chapter) and I've gotta say: it wasn't the most exciting, but it kinda made me internally sob.

I'll be covering favorite characters of this chapter and their best scenes, predictions for the next chapter, and my overall thoughts. Obviously spoilers.

First off, this chapter totally crushed my amazing theory about the UA traitor. My friends in Florida and I actually had post-it notes of all the characters stuck to her wall and stayed up until two working on conspiracy theories.

And my initial suspicion was that Gran Torino was the traitor. Although it didn’t fit with his character at all, his mysterious cop-out of the Eri rescue mission alerted my extremely cynical side.

But, like every idea in my life, it was crushed.

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The best scene was obviously Mirio and Izuku’s meeting in the hospital. Look, these guys are in my top three favorite characters, I started crying. Until this point, I was literally begging for Mirio’s power loss to be a fluke - maybe I’d misread? - but no. And now my soul is crushed. Thanks for that.

There are two important points I want to highlight in this meeting.

One, the incredible sort of resolution to both of these character’s arcs. It really captured their reactions perfectly.

This scene provided a direct confrontation and conclusion of sorts to Izuku’s own struggle with being gifted with One-For-All and his insecurity that he didn’t even deserve to be a hero. The kind of rivalry between Mirio and Izuku was really kinda one-sided. Remember, Izuku was the one that knew all the details.

One huge criticism I heard from fellow fans was Izuku yet again showing intense insecurity about being gifted his quirk and his offer to give up One-For-All.

However, I actually thought this was well played. Mostly because this was the first time he was actually called unworthy by a famous adult hero and after he realized he actually knew - and respected - someone Allmight was considering choosing. This established the internal rivalry mentioned above for Izuku personally, which he ultimately felt he failed because he used Eri’s powers to win, while Mirio fought even without powers.

As this is the first rivalry directly centered around his quirk that Izuku felt he lost, as well as the one with the highest stakes as it was a battle that resulted in Nighteye’s death and Mirio’s lost quirk. He chose to offer a huge sacrifice to try and match the huge losses.

Hopefully, this is a resolution to Izuku’s insecurities and heightens his ambition again. In this case, I feel his offer was played well, but if it continues into useless angst I’ll be severely disappointed.

But back to Mirio, this scene really displayed his own sense of sacrifice tested and his values coming through. When I read this chapter, I realized being a hero was kinda like adopting a new routine. You can’t just chose to do it at only one point of your life. It’s a choice that you have to keep making - and sometimes it’s a lot harder to do than others. Like when the quirk you’ve worked on forever and is the key to what you’ve always wanted to be is taken away by a evil villain. Mirio - that freaking awesome dude - made a very conscious, very deliberate choice in this scene to pursue his ideal of a hero, even though he couldn’t do the actual job.

At least we know he’s safe from Stain.

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Also, by choosing to smile and be optimistic, Mirio is honoring Nighteye’s memory and it’s totally heartbreaking.

“You know, even though Nighteye acted the way he did towards you, he’d smile quite a lot when he was talking to me. So that’s why you won’t catch me sobbing anymore. After all, I’m ‘going to become an outstanding hero’ from here on out!”

-Mirio

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I’m just glad the author’s didn’t cut him off from his powers forever, cause I might’ve died.

The similarities AND contrasts between Nighteye and Allmight’s friendship and Mirio and Izuku’s friendship is actually incredibly fascinating. I'm incredibly interested to see if Mirio decides to take up Nighteye's mantle - his quirk is subtle, like Nighteye's, and would be fascinating to see less in direct combat and more in espionage.

As for the number two moment in this chapter, it features another of my favorite characters. Can we just take a moment to appreciate Eraserhead’s care for his students? It may be hidden under his sleeping bag, but it’s super moving to see.

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Lastly, this chapter did some pretty major foreshadowing. It continues the mystery of what plans All-For-One set in motion before his capture, as well as setting up potential fights and another battle for the evidence the police lost.

And can I mention I’m so ready for Todoroki and Bakogou’s interactions as they retake their hero liscene exam? It will be epic.

While Chapter 162: One Who Is Worthy was pretty slow in terms of actual plot development, there was incredible character moments and really good introspection on what it really means to be worthy of being a hero.

#new