My Hero Academia Episode 50 Review: End of the Beginning, Beginning of the End

This episode of My Hero Academia is the equivalent of finally letting out the breath you’ve been holding for such a long time! The past events have been such a train wreck, so it’s good that we can finally breathe a sigh of relief, even if the aftermath isn’t pretty and there’s a lot of things needed to be fixed. It’s not exactly being out of the woods yet, though, because those things are why this became quite a dramatic chapter of the story.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 始まりの終わり終わりの始まり

Plot

All for One has been defeated but at the cost of the Symbol of Peace’s ‘death’. This forces a huge question to loom over hero society, ‘What’s going to happen now?’ Even U.A. had to deal with the backlash due to the villains’ attack and think of a better way to protect their students. Meanwhile, the retired All Might met up with his successor, reprimanding Deku for being too reckless, and making him a very important promise at the same time.

Episode Highlights

Aftermath: The good guys have technically won, but they lost so much! They didn’t get any new leads on the Nomus, the League of Villains have escaped, and the society was now more vulnerable than ever! It wouldn’t be a surprise if a lot of new, powerful villains rose up, just because their biggest hindrance, the Symbol of Peace is gone, huh? Sure, Endeavor has become the No. 1 hero by default, but we can all agree he’s no pillar. Heck, even he’s not happy getting the position he’s worked hard to achieve all these years just because his rival’s out of commission! There’s Shigaraki as well. With his teacher getting defeated and taken away from him because of All Might, his hatred for him, his successor Deku, and all of hero society must be off the charts! Everything truly worked in All for One’s favor, huh?

The Shimura family: It might be heartless of me to say this, but it’s a good thing Nana isn’t around anymore because she would’ve definitely been devastated to find out that her grandson became a villain! Her family still ended up becoming embroiled in the very thing she wanted to protect them from. No wonder All Might despaired when he heard about it, and why he wanted to look for Shigaraki. I wonder if Gran Torino will be able to keep his composure if he meets him… He was closest to Nana after all. Well, at least he looked at it objectively, that no matter who Shigaraki is, he’s now a villain and should be accountable for his actions.

Teacher and student: I’m honestly at a loss for words. All Might and Midoriya’s meet-up just got me so emotional and made my heart cry! For me, it was the perfect transition, the perfect way to pass the baton without anyone dying, but it still was bittersweet. The dramatic, slow motion run with a matching Texas Smash was so amusing, but overall it was still dramatic, period. All Might survived to fulfill his need to scold Deku, and got to praise him as well! I hope they’ll become even closer from here on out, especially since I can’t see All Might as anything other than Dad Might now. Actually, I can’t see anything through my tears; please hold.

Teachers’ visit: Kacchan’s family was so crazy! Who knew he got his temperament from his mother (who’s very pretty, don’t you think?), while his father was nothing at all like him, except for the hair! But the most shocking thing of all was that they weren’t the least bit angry at U.A. and the teachers for letting their son get kidnapped and put in so much danger! Aizawa’s belief in Kacchan made that much of an impact on them, huh? Whew! At least that was one hurdle solved. However, it seemed like Katsuki was having suspicions about All Might and Deku’s relationship. I’m sure it didn’t only start with Deku crying at All Might’s words, but as many of us can remember, Deku somewhat already revealed his secret to him back in the first season! While it’s interesting to see Bakugo being mellow for a change, seems like he didn’t buy All Might’s answer, and that’s another hurdle that could pose a problem in the future.

A mother’s worry: We’ve known Izuku’s mom to be such a supportive and loving mother to her only son, so it’s not surprising that all of her worries since the past season piled up and finally exploded! You could see how much she was struggling against herself because she wanted to both protect and support Deku! That’s why I loved that Deku didn’t get angry at her for it; thanks to Kota’s letter, he was instead willing to walk his own path as long as he still got to be a hero, even if it meant leaving his dream school. And to All Might, who knew that Izuku idolized him a lot, made him want to support his successor even more, enough to prostrate himself in front of his mother and vow to never let him walk that same bloody path he did. Izuku sure is loved, huh?

Themes & Trivia

Bryan the Sun: Kyoka’s dad did a shoutout to the singer of MHA‘s first ending song back in the first season, HEROES. He also sang theme songs for 3-gatsu no Lion, and Sweetness & Lightning.

Best Jeanist and Ragdoll: If you saw the commercial bumper (or the hero info shown during half-time), you’d know that Best Jeanist was revealed to be alive! However, both he and Ragdoll are taking indefinite leaves on Hero work.

Comments

There’s not much else to say. I still think it’s amazing how this show can just suck you right into everything! As usual, the story’s so well-written and it tied together all the loose ends, making you feel satisfied with how the arc ended. And even if the intensity was already dying down, the visuals AND the voice acting were still super-duper incredible! My Hero Academia really never lets you down.

Looking towards the future!

I’m quite excited for the next episode because we’re back to the students being students! If that wasn’t enough, they’re gonna start living together in the dorms! I wonder what hijinks they’ll all get caught up with!

Feel free to share your thoughts and reactions in the comments section! Plus, a lot of shows are starting to come to a close this Spring 2018 season, so you better check out them!

NEXT: Moving into Dorms (入れ寮)