My Hero Academia: Winners and losers of Episode 77

The aftermath of Deku and Overhaul’s fight is a bit of a reprieve from the non-stop intensity of the last several episodes, but that doesn’t mean it was lacking in emotion. Here are the winners and losers of My Hero Academia Episode 77.

Caution: There are spoilers from My Hero Academia Episode 77 in this post.

The events that transpired in the last episode of My Hero Academia were, to put it eloquently, completely off the rails, bro. Overhaul was looking like Venom the Duck (thanks to his absolutely broken quirk) and Deku did what a best boy would do and pummeled him into oblivion.

By comparison, the Jan. 18 episode was a lot more reserved, but it still resulted in the devasting death of Sir Nighteye. How sad was it? Well, my friend nearly teared up on our Facetime call after the episode, which is certainly something. I’d like to dedicate this recap of My Hero Academia to him.

Winners

Shota Aizawa/Eraser Head

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Despite finding himself in a rather precarious situation two episodes ago, Aizawa manages to escape from Chrono’s grasp thanks to a timely reappearance from our friend Amajiki. Good thing, too, because Aizawa then proceeds to cancel out Eri’s quirk in order to save Midoriya from its uncontrollable nature. Since Eri’s quirk is so unstable and Overhaul is no longer in the picture, it falls on the shoulders of Aizawa since he’s the only one that can stop her if things get out of hand. This responsibility practically makes Aizawa a dad, which is adorable and must be protected at all costs.

Izuku Midoriya/Deku

While the last episode was, perhaps, the epitome of what gets you into the My Hero Academia winner’s section, Midoriya still had a couple of small things go in his favor. Namely, he was actually given proper credit for taking down Overhaul and essentially salvaging the entire mission.

A huge shout out to Ryukyu and Hado for actually referencing what a great job he did. This is a big deal because I don’t want another Naruto situation where the main character, after defeating a gargantuan threat, somehow doesn’t get any credit. Good job by you, Deku!

The League of Villains

Speaking of credit, the League really decided to embody the whole “kid in the group project who does nothing but gets an A” mentality. The League ambushes the police accompanying Overhaul and his supply of quirk-canceling bullets and easily put them down like the 49ers did to the Packers on Sunday.

A truly remarkable bandwagon performance by the League here, especially since you know they would never have tried to mess with Overhaul if he was actually able to defend himself. Also, I’m sure having those bullets will come into play at some dramatic point in the future of My Hero Academia. 

Mirio Togata/Lemillion

Aside from the League’s antics, the biggest thing to happen this episode was the aforementioned death of Sir Nighteye. I can’t overstate how devastating and surprising of a loss this was—plus Mirio’s breakdown is hard to watch. However, I put Mirio in the winner’s because, just before he passes, Nighteye uses his foresight on Mirio and, with a smile, says that Mirio will be just fine.

It’s a touching a moment, and while his death is a true tragedy there’s something beautiful about him resolving his own inner struggles of his foresight. Knowing that Mirio will be okay and that Midoriya somehow managed to change what he thought was an immutable future gave Sir Nighteye a sense of peace. Not everything is set in stone, which is an important note, I think, for everyone to keep in mind. My Hero Academia always brings the feels.

Losers

Kai Chisaki/Overhaul

I mean, could it have gone any worse? After the league ambush, Shigaraki not only takes the bullets and, in effect, ruin Overhaul’s ambitious plan, but he also chops off the guy’s hands!

In effect, the tremendous powers that Chisaki had at his disposal are no more, and I almost felt bad for the guy. First, you get your butt kicked, then some group of villains far less stronger than you come and spit in your face and make you a powerless schmuck. That’s a tough one to swallow.

The Police

Look, I’ve never been one to lecture people about how they should do their job. It comes off as being exceedingly arrogant, most times, and you just don’t want to be that person. But again, that’s most times and this, my friends, is not one of those times.

After seeing what Overhaul could do, and that they’d just perfected a drug that can destroy quirks, you’re going to leave the responsibilities of transporting them in the hands of, like, two police cars? I understand that not all of the heroes from the raid were in the best shape, but you couldn’t get a few more reinforcements? Like, to guard the guy who can literally warp matter with his hands?

Okay, fine, that’s cool. Yup, absolutely foolproof plan, guys.

As always, remember that you can tune in every Saturday for new episodes of My Hero Academia on Funimation and Crunchyroll followed by breakdowns here on Hidden Remote.