REVIEW: Chapter 49 (Midoriya and Shigaraki)

Midoriya using OFA against Gran Torino.
Forgive me for the lousy photo collage.

As the title of this chapter suggests, Midoriya and Shigaraki Tomura are the obvious characters that will signify Hero and Villain in the future. They are both undergoing a phase of character growth as what was implied by their masters on the preceeding chapter.

Last week, we were left with a cliffhanger of Midoriya channeling OFA in his entire body. As a continuation to this week's chapter, Gran Torino challenged Midoriya my boy to maintain the state of OFA and be able to move at the same time. The old man gave Midoriya three minutes to maintain Midoriya's power level and try to land a blow on him.

Due to his speed, GT was able to hit Midoriya causing his grasp with OFA to snap. GT said Midoriya's reaction time was paltry and he won't be able to save a person with that kind of speed. I think the reason for Midoriya acting slow was because he was overthinking too much about his current state.

Midoriya noticed the downside of Old man Torino's ability. His blows were not heavy so he compensates that by his speed.

Because OFA was snapped off when GT landed a hit on Midoriya, he immediately hid under the sofa to gather himself and to draw out GT to break his movements. Through this, Midoriya blew the sofa towards the direction he knew GT is going to be. He used OFA to blast off the sofa and channeled it through his entire body and became so blindingly fast that Midoriya was immediately on the ceiling about to attack GT who was caught by surprise.

GT was able to dodge Midoriya's surprise attack but hid the fact that he managed to graze him inspite of being earnest in his evasion. He told Midoriya that he's the sort of kid who thinks things through.

I admit that I am prone to praise Midoriya and I will do so again. one week is a very short period for a person to obtain a huge amount of change, but Midorya my boy is an exception. In just two days, he managed to atleast get a grip of OFA. I think Midoriya will be a character whose power development will be so quick, Bakugou and Todoroki will be surprised once the classes starts again.

Stain being able to pin down Shigaraki

Of course let us not forget my two favorite characters with super badass character designs who happened to be both villains - Shigaraki and "Hero-Killer" Stain.

Inspite of being super-fast, Stain managed to pin down Shigaraki. Black Mist was seen unable to help Shigaraki because he said he can't move his body. This is obviously Stain's quirk but it wasn't revealed how he can be able to use it against a person and activate it.

Stain was telling Shigaraki about having a creed to accomplish something. It was another reference to chapter 47 and Stain's dialogue about the sense of bloodlust without a cause. The readers might've forgotten about that so here's a repeat for you. But NO, I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN, Stain (and Horikoshi).

Stain goes on about how the word hero has lost all its meaning and a society overrun by fakes. However, Shigaraki was able to move his hand and touch Stain's blade and corrupted it.

It hasn't really been confirmed but most people believe that Shigaraki's quirk is to make everything he touches wither and rot. I personally thinks this is true.

As Shigaraki freed himself from Stain, he said he doesn't need a creed. He just wanted the society where All Might stands so high and mighty, destroyed. He doesn't need any other dramatic reason for that.

Apparently, Stain just want to test Shigaraki before he decides to join them. Stain told Shigaraki that a person's true color is only revealed when they know they are about to die.

They are polar opposites but both of them had similar objective and that is destroying society.

For that, Stain joined Black Mist and Shigaraki Tomura's club. Although I'm pretty sure Stain is not the sort of fellow who would obey anyone. He will still do as he pleases and only cooperate if it's to his advantage.

After all the ruckus, Stain told Black Mist to take him back to Hosu because there's still something he needs to do there.

It's interesting that Shigaraki mentioned that they don't have a healer in their party. I'm expecting to see another new character whose quirk is about healing.

As we all know, Iida happened to be undergoing his on-the-job training at Hosu. It was revealed in this chapter that the reason he selected the hero office (and not just because he can patrol the streets and might happen to bump into Stain) was because he found out that Stain had been on seven places and always injured atleast four heroes. Stain only had a single victim at Hosu (Ingenium) which means he'll definitely come back and injure more heroes.

What disturbed me was Iida's dialogue. He said he'll dispose Stain by his own hands. And by dispose he means he'll kill him. Something big is about to happen. Will Tenya be gravely injured by Stain or will Stain corrupt his mind and make society the evil that did that to his brother? Will Iida turn villain? I miss the old Iida. This grim expression really gave me the chills.

Revenge and Hate: Written across Iida Tenya's face.

As usual, packed chapter and fast pacing. The art is beautiful. I definitely appreciated GT and Midoriya's fight (if you can call it that). Super mention to Shigaraki and Stain and Black Mist for the wonderfully executed character designs. Very unique indeed. Can't wait what's going to happen next chapter.