REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia,’ Episode 133 – “Hired Gun”

Now that Deku is away from his friends working with the top three heroes to defeat All for One, My Hero Academia Episode 133 tells a grim tale of the world Deku is fighting so hard to save. The effects All for One and his chaos have had on both the heroes and civilians alike have been nothing less than devastating.

It is clear now that My Hero Academia is no longer an upbeat story about a plucky kid who just wants to be a hero. Instead, Deku is met with the harsh reality that there is genuine evil in the world, and being a hero means confronting it face to face. The last two episodes specifically have shown just how much Deku has changed. Even his costume has changed, giving off the appearance of a dark, tortured figure instead of the bright and happy version of him we had seen previously. He is essentially trying to close himself off completely from the world, and the new mask just further drives home how he wants to disconnect himself from the world while he seeks to save it.

Part of this change in Deku comes from the fact that he is drawing on all of the previous users of One for All and their experiences. He knows the gravity of the situation because he is spending time with previous iterations that have already failed, and that weighs on him heavily. The idea that the weight of the world would be put on the shoulders of a teenager makes for a really interesting story, and the way Deku and the other heroes around him handle it has felt quite realistic. Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and All-Might all know Deku really is their only hope, and they are willing to sacrifice themselves to help him. Still, they also see how messed up it is that this all comes down to a kid instead of one of them. I love the way that dynamic works between Deku and the adult heroes, and really appreciate how hard they’ve worked to keep it feeling grounded.

My Hero Academia Episode 133 also spends some time continuing to show how ordinary citizens are handling everything that is going on. There is a scene where Endeavor, Hawks, and Best Jeanist are confronted by an angry crowd convinced that the heroes are still holding back information. They aren’t wrong, since the heroes are trying to protect Deku by keeping his identity and status as the main target for All for One a secret, but it’s clear the distrust of heroes is making a bad situation even worse. Hearing things like the fact that just seeing heroes brings back the pain of losing loved ones was brutal, and it shines a light on the oft-overlooked impact of heroes versus villains battles on the regular citizens.

To tie all of the grim feelings and setpieces together, My Hero Academia Episode 133 features an incredible scene between Deku and a villain whose identity I don’t want to spoil here. Set among dark buildings in the pouring rain, this battle has an almost Batman-like feel to it from start to finish. There is a genuine fear present not only from Deku, but from the other heroes who suddenly lose contact with him. It was a harrowing few minutes that the rest of the episode did an excellent job of building up to.

My Hero Academia Episode 133, like the rest of this latest season so far, was incredible. The way Deku and the other heroes have grown while the threat has too has been so perfectly captured on screen. I’m looking forward to seeing how Deku is able to find a way to unlock the full powers of One for All and defeat All for One once and for all.

My Hero Academia Episode 133 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.