The aftermath of the plan that went horribly wrong is upon us. My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 was the start of a very dark path for the show. Let’s see how it went in this review!
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 Overview
If you haven’t at least heard of My Hero Academia, I hope that the rock that you’re living under provides plenty of space and sunlight for healthy living. My Hero Academia, or Boku No Hero Academia if you want to be all proper about it, is one of the most popular anime going on right now. The series returns to us after what is widely believed to be its weakest season yet, which you can read more about here. Also, click here to read the review of the previous episode of the season.
My Hero Academia is based on the manga series of the same name by Kouhei Horikoshi, and the anime is produced by Studio Bones, which is also is also known for working on anime like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and Mob Psycho 100, so you know that My Hero Academia is in outstanding company. Season 6 is directed by Kenji Nagasaki and Masahiro Mukai. The episode is also known in original Japanese as Boku no Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14.
– Boku No Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 Review does not contain spoilers –
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 Review- Darkness
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 featured one of the worst tropes in shonen anime and one that made all of My Hero Academia Season 5 as unbearable as it was. It also did not have the production values that we have come to expect from modern anime and fell short even when compared to the previous seasons of the show. It is thus a testament to the contents of this episode that despite all of this, this was one of my favourite episodes of this season, and I absolutely adored what the showrunners did with it.
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Most of the first half of this episode was a recap, which is where the Season 5 comparisons are coming from. However, they worked perfectly well in My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 with the events of the first half of the series. It is easy to look past the fact that we had an entire season of an anime’s worth of episodes based on just 6-7 hours of real action in the show’s world. The show will never be the same again after those fateful six hours, and this episode gave us some valuable time and insight to truly fathom how much the entire worldview has changed since this season started.
The world will never look at the heroes the same again. With the number of losses they suffered here, the amount of humanity that was lost because the heroes just weren’t strong enough to protect them, and with what Dabi managed to reveal about Endeavor and Hawks, the #1 and #2 heroes, there has been a fundamental change inside the show’s perspective and how it represents the heroes and the work they do. The current direction of the story feels so refreshing and nuanced that it makes me incredibly excited for the show’s future.
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But what about this episode? Should this episode be judged on the basis of what is going to happen in the show in the future or the recap it featured of what happened in the past? That would be disingenuous because the episode was pretty great on its merits. Everything except the production was fantastic, which is disconcertingly weird. Studio Bones have this extremely popular and highly profitable property, which they refuse to do much with. If half of what a regular Mob Psycho 100 episode got were invested into this one, there would have been no complaints. Instead, we got an episode which doesn’t look much better than your regular new studio affair.
The fear and unease that set in the aftermath of the battles were unlike anything I’ve ever seen in anime. My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 used our sentiments of the previous episodes, that of always feeling safe and reassured when heroes were around, and of this being a generally good-spirited show, to give us a gut punch so intense that it is going to stick with us for ages. These are dark times, and this episode did a tremendous job of showcasing the show’s future. Let’s hope that with Mob Psycho 100’s end, there can be some extra budget for My Hero Academia.
Verdict
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 14 was hampered by weak animation and a recap at the start of the episode but recovered remarkably with some fantastically told stories and some great new directions for characters.
Click here to read the review of the next episode!