REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia’ Episode 166 — “From Aizawa”

The battle against Shigaraki continues, and Izuku Midoriya is doing everything he can to stop the villain and save the day. My Hero Academia Episode 166, “From Aizawa,” has Midoriya diving into Shigaraki’s past, looking to learn everything he can about his foe.

My Hero Academia Episode 166 continues the final season’s theme of using flashbacks to explore the context surrounding ongoing events. Instead of just saying that All for One and Shigaraki are villains, this final season explores what made them the way they are. It is important to get this additional context because it makes Midoriya’s journey and the choices he makes stand out. 

Shigaraki is shown as a young kid discovering Decay for the first time. This tragic discovery shakes him to his core, and it permanently changes his relationships with those around him. It is traumatic to watch, but it helps viewers understand that, unlike All for One, Shigaraki was not evil from birth. His choices and circumstances made him who he was.

My Hero Academia Episode 166 shows the audience exactly who All For One and Shigaraki are.

That doesn’t mean All for One doesn’t play a vital role in My Hero Academia Episode 166. It is revealed that All for One preyed on a shattered Shigaraki, using his insecurity and fear as a means to gain access to his mind and manipulate him for his own evil purposes. If someone else, someone good, had been there to walk alongside Shigaraki, maybe his path would have been drastically different.

Seeing this all unfold through Midoriya’s eyes is particularly impactful, as his commentary adds a great deal to what is happening on screen. He sees a young, struggling Shigaraki and is desperate to help. But, as Shigraki succumbs to the influence of All for One, Midoriya realizes he won’t be able to stop All for One as easily as he thought.

The dive into Shigaraki awakens All for One, and his interactions with Shigaraki are eye-opening. All for One is evil without restraint. He rips into Shigaraki in a deeply personal way, which also reiterates how he was always just a tool for All for One to use.

The evil on display in this final season makes the audience understand the stakes.

Shigaraki was groomed to serve evil purposes even before his birth. This makes his path more understandable, since he never knew he had the option to take a different path.

This all sets up a final confrontation between All for One and Midoriya. Both are weaker than expected, but Midoriya is missing his hands and seemingly has no chance of getting back up to fight, let alone winning. That is, until My Hero Academia Episode 166 has its own little Avengers: Endgame moment, mysterious portals and all.

Just when it all seems hopeless, Midoriya’s allies come in to save the day with the help of Aizawa. Seeing the hero course teachers join the fray brings everything full circle.

The ones who taught Midoriya are now the ones to help him in his final fight, giving everything to earn a vital victory. Seeing countless heroes, big and small, show up on the battlefield to help Midoriya is an emotional high point, and it shows the impact he has had on everyone he interacts with.

My Hero Academia Episode 166 has one fault: its pacing.

The one issue with this sequence is the pacing. My Hero Academia Episode 166 cuts back in time to show how the heroes all got together and found a way to get to Midoriya, but most of this just serves to pad the episode’s runtime.

It does add important context, especially when it comes to the significant help Midoriya receives from Eri. Still, the timing of these moments detracts from what is supposed to be the big turning point before all hell breaks loose.

My Hero Academia Episode 166 does a great job of bringing all of the major players together before one final, epic battle for the fate of the world. The utilization of backstory and internal monologue helps make the episode impactful, but pacing issues continue to keep the most important moments from reaching their full potential.

My Hero Academia Episode 166 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.