My Hero Academia Episode 88

My Hero Academia Episode 88

His Start

My Hero Academia episode 88 was the final episode of season 4 (with season 5 confirmed), and I think it may have been the best episode of the series so far. I know a lot of people are still going to point back to the episode with All Might vs. All for One, but I actually think Endeavor vs. Nomu was better.

All Might is definitely cool, but the problem is that his fighting style is basically the same as Saitama’s — just punch your enemy. Sure, they can still hype up a fight like that, but in the end a fight with more going on is always going to be better in my opinion if it’s hyped up to the same extent.

Pro hero Endeavor from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Pro hero Endeavor

It’s kind of crazy how this one episode can completely turn around opinions of Endeavor. Before this I didn’t really like him all that much, but now I think he really is on par with All Might. And I’m sure there are others who feel the same way I do.

Of course, this transformation was coming for a long time; ever since All Might retired we’ve been seeing hints that Endeavor is trying to become the new symbol of peace. It’s just that all of his effort culminated in this one episode.

And I know I’ve said this before, but I don’t really care about the hero students in this series. Or at least those from Class 1-A. So it’s kind of surprising to me how the same author can write characters I don’t care about, yet as the same time write pro hero characters I’m fully invested in.

Endeavor and Hawks

It’s only been one week and I can’t remember whether Hawks is the number two or number three ranked pro hero. But either way, the point is that he’s a high ranking pro hero, and Endeavor still makes him look like nothing more than a sidekick.

Of course, as we know, this is sort of what Hawks wants anyway. He doesn’t actually want to be a sidekick, but he does want to be second to Endeavor so that Endeavor will do all the heavy lifting for him. You could call Hawks lazy or sleazy for using Endeavor like this, but I think he’s just realistic.

In this episode the difference in power and ability between these two heroes was put on display. Yes, Hawks is a strong hero with a pretty good quirk — he can freely control the feathers which make up his wings. But he knows the limits of his quirk, which is why he needs to rely on stronger heroes.

Endeavor fighting the Nomu from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Endeavor fighting the Nomu

When Endeavor was blasted through that building and Hawks needed to save everyone inside, he realized that it simply wasn’t possible for him. So instead he prioritized saving those who were in the most danger. For a lot of people, this decision makes sense.

But, what that decision really shows, as I’ve mentioned, is the gap in ability between Hawks and a true top level hero. Do you think All Might would have settled for saving those most in danger? No. All Might would have saved everyone even if it was impossible.

So for this reason, I wouldn’t say that Hawks is trying to take advantage of other pro heroes to do all the dirty work. He definitely tried to make it come off that way last week when he was attempting to recruit Endeavor to his cause, but that’ doesn’t seem to be who he really is.

The Symbol of Peace

Did anyone else notice that the kid who’s an Endeavor super fan looked just like Natsu from Fairy Tail? I’m assuming that was on purpose considering Natsu is a fire-based character in that series, so it makes sense for him to be a fan of a fire-based hero like Endeavor.

Anyway, that kid gets mad at the news reporter for saying that “this” (the attack on the city by the Nobu) is what happens when there’s no symbol of peace. As the kid says, there is a symbol of peace, and he’s risking currently risking his life fighting against the villain.

Endeavor is the new symbol of peace. He’s not the same symbol of peace that All Might was, but that doesn’t matter. As Hawks said, Endeavor was the only pro hero not content with following All Might — he wanted to surpass him. So it’s only natural for such a hero to take up All Might’s mantle.

Endeavor using his ultimate move: Prominence Burn from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Endeavor using his ultimate move: Prominence Burn

One problem I think Endeavor had in this battle was the fact that his opponent was the same size as he is. Obviously the Nomu is dangerous. It has multiple quirks, intelligence, and higher strength and speed than Endeavor has. But to people on the ground, it probably didn’t look that impressive.

Yes, it was causing a decent amount of damage, but the fact that Endeavor was shown to be struggling in a fight against something relatively small probably didn’t help his image as the new symbol of peace during the actual fight. If he was fighting against Gigantomachia like I thought he was going to, this would have been different.

It would have been obvious to everyone watching the battle just how strong Endeavor is and how much he was doing to save the people of the city.

A New Hope

At the end of the fight, after using his ultimate move, Prominence Burn, Endeavor is the standing alone with his fist up in victory. This was the big moment for him, because by copying the gesture All Might made upon defeating All for One, Endeavor is telling the world that he’s going to pick up where All Might left off.

It sends a message to the civilians that they don’t have to worry anymore, and it sends a message to the villains that they once again have something to worry about. This is the start of a new age for people everywhere, including Endeavor himself.

When he defeated the Nomu, he mentioned that the Nomu was like a version of himself from the past, or possibly even an alternate future. What he meant by this is that he’s no longer simply going to seek power — his path has been altered and he now has a new purpose.

Endeavor putting his fist up in victory from the anime series My Hero Academia season 4
Endeavor putting his fist up in victory

Also, while I’ve been discussing Endeavor a lot today, I need to also mention the other hero of this new age, Deku. He didn’t do anything important in this episode, and I still don’t really care about him all that much, but he’s the protagonist, so I guess I should mention the important scene involving him.

After the credits we’re shown a dream Deku has in which he meets the previous holders of One for All who have since died. Apparently he’s the ninth holder of this quirk, which means there are seven of them who have died. And in this dream he sees someone who looks like All for One defeating the first user of One for All.

We already knew that All for One defeated All Might’s predecessor, but does this dream imply he was actually the one who defeated all of his predecessors? Is All for One immortal? Or can this quirk be passed down just like One for All? It’s hard to say right now, but I think it’s clear we haven’t seen the last of that villain.

Conclusion

What did you think of the final episode of My Hero Academia season 4? Do you agree that this was the best episode of the series so far? And what are your thoughts about Hawks now that we’ve had a chance to see him fight alongside Endeavor? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 90 (the next real episode) is available.

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