REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia,’ Episode 116 – “One’s Justice”

The battle between the heroes and the Paranormal Liberation Front continues in My Hero Academia Episode 116, with Edge Shot and his team taking center stage this week. Studio BONES continues to hit it out of the park with this incredibly popular superhero anime, delivering excellent action and higher and higher stakes every episode.

While the last few episodes primarily focused on Endeavor and his team, My Hero Academia Episode 116 puts the spotlight on Edge Shot and his team’s invasion of the mountain villa where the Liberation Front’s main army is gathered. There is an incredible action sequence that starts right away when Edge Shot leads his team on the initial assault. Denki, also known as Chargebolt, has a particularly great fight with a villain with similar powers at the beginning that I especially enjoyed. The battle also features heroes like Midnight, Gang Orca, and Mudman in some really fast-paced action.

The real highlight of My Hero Academia Episode 116 focuses on Hawks and his interactions with the Liberation Front. When Hawks infiltrated the Liberation Front he developed a friendly relationship with the villain Twice, and their confrontation after Hawks is revealed to have been a double agent is quite dramatic. Their conversation about why Hawks infiltrated the Liberation Front and why he is betraying Twice is really interesting, and it almost makes you feel bad for Twice. Almost. Hawks is a really neat character too, who took a while to grow on me, but he has quickly become one of my favorites.

My Hero Academia Episode 116 gives us some scenes with two of the most fearsome villains: Dabi and Toga. There is a really great fight between Dabi and Hawks that I loved and Twice gets away in time to save Toga only to have to confront his failure after being tricked by Hawks, someone he considered a friend. Top-notch animation drives home the impact of these battles, as well as the more emotional moments. Hawks’ betrayal of Twice hits especially hard when you can see the sadness and pain on Twice’s face. The ensuing battle between Hawks and Dabi is exquisitely well done as well, even if it is not a terribly long one

My Hero Academia Episode 116 doesn’t quite make the villains sympathetic, they’re still terrible and viewers definitely want to root for them to lose, but there are some really good humanizing moments that add to the emotional stakes of the entire series. The orchestral score in the first half of the episode also really helps make the dramatic scenes more dramatic and the action scenes even more excellent to watch.

My Hero Academia Episode 116 is a continuation of one of my personal favorite story arcs, and it delivers from start to finish. The emotional weight is buoyed by some amazing action sequences, a combination that has long been a staple of the series. I can’t wait to see how the rest of the war between the heroes and the Liberation Front pans out in the episodes to come.

My Hero Academia Episode 116 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll