’My Hero Academia’ Season 7 Episode 7 review: “Inflation”

While My Hero Academia Season 7 Epiosde 7 is good it’s at its best in the set up. Season seven continues to excute well-done table setting installments, as heroes ready themselves for war and launch themselves full tilt into battle. However with so much going on and so much action being suggested and teased at, it makes “Inflation” one of the only midly disappointing episodes of the season so far. Still solid, still delivering superb animation, but it lacks the same emotional depth and heightened stakes as the previous six.

The episode splits itself into three narratives though only one gets the full focus. With an over-reliance on narration, we’re reminded of where each hero is pulled to through the portals. And through Eraser Head, we’re reminded that Midoriya having been yanked through the wrong portal could spell doom for all of them. While the team up of Best Jeanist, Mirko, and Bakugou is certainly formidable, they needed Midoriya as the true might of the team. Currently, it’s only Monama’s ability to copy quirks keeping true devastation at bay as he uses Eraser Head’s erasure quirk to cancel out Shigaraki’s decay.

We only spend a little time in the “coffin in the sky,” but it’s enough to realize the reality of the situation. Shigaraki’s body morphs, his hands growing and filling up their confined bubble. If he were to regain his decay, it and the multiplied limbs could take out more than just their current arena. It would be near-apocalyptic. Despite the situation’s stress, Bakugou and Mirko make for a fantastic onscreen team-up. Their reticence at being told to hold back and their fighting styles are so complimentary to one another that they’re magnetive in their repelling. They’re too alike — of course they’d butt heads.

The majority of the episode takes place at Toga location. Caught by surprise due to his danger sense not warning him, Deku arrives alongside Uraraka and Tsu rather than his predetermined location. The sequence sets up both the upcoming fight between Toga and Urakaka as well as serving as a reminder of Uraraka’s crush on Deku. Romance has never been the strongest element of My Hero Academia. To to a degree hasn’t been as present in the story since Season 4 and the Overhaul arc. But “Inflation” reminds us of Uraraka’s feelings which are far less interesting when viewerd fully from a romantic standpoint.

Uraraka deserves so much more as a character. On the one hand she gets better material then many other female characters in big name shonen titles. On the other, that bar is impossibly low. Her dynamic with Toga is endlessly engaging as the two dance around one another and their drastically opposing views at the world. If Shigaraki is Midoriya’s mirror and Dabi, Todoroki’s, then Toga too represents the perfect foil to Uraraka. But it’s a shame that, even now, it boils down to feelings over a boy. The only relief is that, at least, Toga harbors those emotions for Uraraka and even, to an extent, Tsu too.

The fight between them is tremendous, however. The sunny beach they fight on does little to lessen the blows dealt, and Studio Bones has rightfully added extra action to broaden the scope and world-building. Sequences such as Deku deflecting an attack, his boots digging into the water, and Urakaka bodily tackling Toga away from Deku demonstrate appealing fluidity as they tumble across the ocean. Even in one of the sleightest episodes, My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 7 captures the kineticism of the battlefield. That, plus the character designs, continue to impress. Like Monoma’s face transforming into glee in Episode 6, Episode 7 beautifully captures Toga’s menace through a frame of her face as she confesses her feelings to Midoriya.

Luckily the episode doesn’t draw this side excurtion out, with Mirdoriya instantly leaving to return to his necessary post, leaving Toga in capable hands. This, plus the introduction of Dabi and Todoroki’s fight is a strong conclusion to the episode, the latter of which promising a major showdown in the upcoming episode. With Iida and the rest of Endeavor’s agency by his side, Dabi still taunts Todoroki for coming in Endeavor’s stead. Endeavor is too busy working with Hawks in a fight against All for One, though Todoroki’s assures Dabi that he wanted to be here, with or without Endeavor’s approval.

The Todoroki family drama hasn’t always stirred up the amount of emotion that it wants to, as evident in Dabi’s reveal in Season 6. But when it’s at its best, the execution is immaculate. This is just the start of their battle, and even so, the animation is already impressive, along with a subdued score that helps imbue their standoff with necessary melancholy. Because Dabi, like Toga and Shigaraki, are tragedies in their ways. Murderous tragedies, but villains who were once little more than broken children let down by the hero-obsessed society around them. As the skin peels away from Dabi’s face from the strain and heat of his flames, he risks his life to gain his father’s attention one last time.

My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 7 might not hit the emotional highs and narrative momentum of the first six episodes, but it remains as gripping as ever. It’s frankly incredible that, with seven seasons in, the series still manages to surprise us and stun us with visuals that convey the characters’ mounting stakes. “Inflation” might be a homerun as a standalone, but it works beautifully as one piece to the overall puzzle.

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

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Images courtesy of Studio Bones/Crunchyroll.