REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia’ Episode 120 — “Disaster Walker”

This season of My Hero Academia has been an emotional one so far, and Episode 120 is no different. Shigaraki poses an incredibly dangerous threat to Deku, Endeavor, and the rest of the heroes, but will they be able to prevail?

With the city in ruins and Shigaraki singularly focused on obtaining One For All, My Hero Academia Episode 120 sets the stage for a truly epic battle. Episode 119, and really the season as a whole so far, has been building towards the high-stakes fighting we see in My Hero Academia Episode 120. Starting off the episode with Endeavor struggling to keep Shigaraki at bay shows how truly dangerous this villain is.

The only reason Shigaraki isn’t able to completely dominate the heroes is entirely down to Aizawa and his incredible determination. Using his Erasure quirk to stop Shigaraki from using Decay, Aizawa is the last wall between Shigaraki and victory. Since Endeavor is struggling on his own, Deku decides to selflessly throw himself into the fray along with Bakugo to help keep Shigaraki from eliminating Aizawa from the battle. While the battle stakes there are really interesting, the best part is getting to see the relationship between Deku and Bakugo continue to grow.

While My Hero Academia may be an action-packed show about superheroes, the real reason it stands out as it does is because of the character development and relationships shown throughout. Deku and Bakugo started off the show as rivals, with Bakugo hating Deku for the longest time, but My Hero Academia Episode 120 shows that their relationship has changed as both have grown into their roles as heroes. Bakugo doesn’t hesitate to throw himself into battle with Deku to protect his friend and help save the day, even if he would never admit he was doing it to help Deku. Their relationship will never be “best friend” level, but watching it grow and seeing how that growth plays out on the battlefield has been my favorite part of the entire show.

Shigaraki may be the intimidating villain viewers are mainly focusing on, but My Hero Academia Episode 120 brings a new threat back to the stage that is going to be quite a lot for the heroes to handle. Gigantomachia has appeared a few times already in My Hero Academia, but now we’re seeing him enter a fight where the villains already had the upper hand, and all he does is add to the dread the heroes are feeling. The heroes are genuinely frightened, and it is really hard to see how they will emerge victorious with the addition of Gigantomachia.

My Hero Academia Episode 120 had me on edge from start to finish. I’m glad we got to see the relationship between Deku and Bakugo continue to grow, but the danger for the heroes is very serious, and Deku and Bakugo are going to need help from the other student heroes if they want to help the heroes win this war. Not only are the stakes incredibly high, but the action is non-stop and only getting better each week. I can’t wait to see how this arc continues to unravel.

My Hero Academia Episode 120 is streaming now on Crunchyroll, with new episodes airing every Saturday.