’My Hero Academia’ Season 7 Episode 17 review: “hopes”

Despite the carnage and the dire situations in which the heroes have found themselves, characters maintain that things could be much worse in My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 17. Spoken like an omen, we anticipate the final shoe to drop as the war wages on, the signature blue skies shrouded in smoke and decay. And despite this, despite the looming, pressing threat of the untitled “more to come,” “hopes” offers just that — hope. And it does so again by eagerly championing the infectious spirit of Midoriya while providing a rallying cry from all the heroes we’ve witnessed come to age throughout the series. 

Directed and storyboarded by Tomo Ōkubo, “hopes” continues to deliver cinematic visuals by offering depth and scale to crucial moments. While the anime struggles to capture the immensity of Kōhei Horikoshi’s work entirely, it finds new, invigorated means to deliver the same euphoric tone through heightened visuals and color schemes. This is most prominent in My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 17 in the continued showdown between Shigaraki and Midoriya. 

In an unlikely moment of catharsis, Shigaraki breaks free of All For One’s influence, recognizing he’s been groomed since a young age to become little more than a pawn. But Shigaraki has his own destructive desires, still teeming with rage and bitterness over the hand he’s been dealt. He’s freed himself from his captor, but his need for bloodshed and revenge remains intact. At the very least, Midoriyia knows precisely who he is fighting now. And while determined to take him down, he can’t help but still recall the crying boy he saw when looking at Shigaraki before. 

Due to being inverses of one another, their greatest foils all the way down to the signature red shoes they once wore, their fight conjures the greatest thrills. If anything, we’ve gotten too little of it as the series bounces between different combat areas as heroes try to hold back new waves of villains. But “hopes” delivers one of the best manga panels, captured in a tremendous wide shot that pivots the perspective, angling up at Shigaraki and Midoriya. The former is disfigured and hunched, laden with the weight of his burgeoning self and enshrouded by darkness as his anger consumes him. In contrast, Midoriyia stands strong and upright against the monstrous figure he faces. 

Midoriya has the wherewithal to charge Shigaraki out of the Coffin in the Sky. With Shigaraki’s quirk back in full effect, the results could be devastating if they were to remain. It also means that the landscape changes, allowing for a fresh, dynamic setting for the characters to trade blows on. The direction by Ōkubo beautifully captures Midoriyia’s power and its impact on Shigaraki as they hurtle out of the airborne arena. 

One of the greatest attributes of Season 7 of My Hero Academia is its ability to leave us constantly breathless. Chief director Kenji Nagasaki and director Naomi Nakayama imbue this season with electrifying pacing and thrilling, epic-scale hero moments that honor the source material. As is the case with Gentle and Lady Nagant, no character is too minor. Every person who steps up to put their life on the line for the sake of their friends or loved ones, or a boy who altered their point of view on life, gets the cinematic, heroic treatment. We saw it last week with Gentle and see it again in the opening moments with Nagant. 

It doesn’t stop there. Members of the Shiketsu High School arrive just in time as Hawks is about to be dealt a devastating, likely fatal blow by All for One. Yuichi Nakamura (Gojo in Jujutsu Kaisen) delivers a tremendous performance as Hawks. Hawks who arrived on the scene of the series as a character who stayed calm and collected, whose desperation rings through in his standoff against All For One. It makes the arrival of Camie, Seiji, and Inasa all the more integral as it alleviates the pro-heroes stress, albeit momentarily. 

And while these three are hardly prominent characters, we did get to know them, and it means their selfless acts sing with the same level of poignancy as Gentle or Nagant. Inasa, in particular, gets a standout moment with his quirk. His control over the wind lends a major hand to the heroes as All for One unleashes even more quirks. 

However, the most significant moment of triumph easily arrives with Tokoyami. Through some aid of the elements and the darkening skies, he can utilize Dark Shadow to the fullest extent. It’s the greatest use of animation in the episode, highlighting dense and kinetic line work that lends itself to the intensity of Dark Shadow’s overwhelming power. But the thematic potency comes from the young hero himself. Who better to charge down All For One’s claims of everyone fearing the dark than someone who, at a young age, reckoned with an intrinsic link to darkness? Of making friends with the shadows that linger in our imaginations — behind closets and underneath beds — as children? 

Throughout, “hopes” manages to marry that sense of triumph with the ensuing dread that we’re still waiting for the worst to come. Toga’s laying waste to the battlefield as Twice, but had she taken on Shigaraki or Dabi’s form it would’ve been apocalyptic. Kurogiri is free, but instead of warping Shigaraki to All For One, he, influenced by Shirakumo, saves Aizawa and Mic as they tumble out of the sky coffin. Outside forces are stepping in to help, but the leading players are at the end of their rope, relying once more to push through the limits of their abilities. There is no clear victor; by all accounts, the villains still have the upper hand. 

My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 17 maintains its adrenaline-inducing stakes. The direction and animation remain steady and invigorating even as the characters suffer. Despite the busy nature of the story with its many characters and relationship threads, we stay locked in. The confidence in storytelling is evident with artistry that follows suit. 

My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 17, “hopes” is out now on Crunchyroll with new episodes each Saturday.

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Images courtesy of Studio Bones/Crunchyroll.