REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia,’ Episode 106 – “The Unforgiven”

My Hero Academia is a superhero-shonen anime produced by studio BONES. With dinner wrapped up, Midoriya, Todoroki, and Bakugo prepare to head back to the dorms. But before they can leave, an unwelcome complication takes the night in a disastrous direction. Can the boys and Endeavor save the day like the heroes they are on My Hero Academia Episode 106?

One person can mean a great many things to different people. Take Endeavor. To the larger superhero society, he is becoming a symbol of hope following his recent battle with the Nomu. But to his son Natsuo, the only thing Endeavor can embody is a painful past filled with neglect, disapproval, and loss. How Endeavor can be seen as both things and have both viewpoints be perfectly valid is an excellent reflection of the complexity that exists in people in real life. Such complexities are what make fictional characters compelling. And while I still hold some reservations about my feelings toward Endeavor, I love how the series continues to portray the man and his struggle to reconcile the various aspects of who he is, what he has done, and what he strives to do.

My Hero Academia Episode 106 opens with a flashback to a moment in Endeavor’s past. We see the hero turning over an apprehended villain to the authorities for detainment. It seems like just another day in the life of a hero that is striving to be number one. Fast-forward to the present, and the villain has returned to face Endeavor once more. But why has this figure appeared? Is it for revenge? Or does he have his own vision of who and what the number one hero is?

This new villain’s introduction only further complicates the image surrounding Endeavor. What the villain expects of the hero is something surprising too say the least, but the mental images people form in their minds of those they’ve never actually talked with can become pretty warped. Especially when they have their own goal and simply need someone, anyone, to fit the narrative they have composed in their own minds. The tactics the villain decides to utilize in his plan are particularly bad, leaving Endeavor’s hands tied in the fight. Luckily, Endeavor isn’t alone for once.

After the last episode’s relative calm, My Hero Academia Episode 106 jumps back into the action. The fight with the villain serves as the epicenter of this story, and studio Bones delivers the action with lots of flash and bang. All the heroes are given their moment, and the villain’s power delivers some interesting curveballs for the heroes to deal with. It is also another example of the show using a particularly weird-sounding quirk and showing how dangerous it could be, despite sounding rather limited.

With the blending of action, character growth, and the continued exploration of how the society around heroes manifests different views of them, My Hero Academia Episode 106 delivers an all-around strong episode that gets the narrative of the Todoroki family to a good place. While it doesn’t resolve their many issues, it gets their current situation to a satisfying conclusion so the show can move on to other stories.

My Hero Academia Episode 106 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.