As My Hero Academia reaches its final moments, it’s tough not to reminisce on the greatest highlights throughout the series. From the Sports Festival that engineered some of the most significant character introductions, to the first interactions with the League of Villains, and All Might’s big battle with All for One, there’s been no shortage of explosive sequences.
Beyond the big battles, there’s been plenty of intrapersonal and reflective storytelling that highlights one of the series’ many strengths and often fuels those same fight scenes. The evolution of Midoriya’s relationship with Bakugo and how they move from embittered ex-friends to rivals to friends again, flipping the script on who saves whom and how. There’s Bakugo’s major stand in Season 7 and then his iconic return in Season 8. Each character, from Midoriya and All Might to, of all characters, Mineta, gets their moments to shine that are organic to the series.
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We spoke to the English voice cast about their journeys with their characters. Christopher Sabat, Clifford Chapin, Justin Briner, John Swasey, David Matranga, Jason Liebrecht, Patrick Seitz, Luci Christian, Leah Clark, Christopher Wehkamp, J. Michael Tatum, Colleen Clinkenbeard, and Justin Cook highlighted their favorite moments of their characters.
Justin Briner – Izuku Midoriya/Deku
It is hard because I feel like I get a new one every season. But one that sticks out to me is Season 6, when Deku is going through his darkness arc, and how he turns away from all his friends and mentors.
The episode where the entire class is trying to drag him back, who are like ‘you’re not yourself, you need to come back to the people who get you’ – the emotion behind it and everyone’s performance, it just really swept me away.
John Swasey – All for One
For me, Season 6 was very similar, where he’s working with Shigaraki and bringing him under his wing. I’d never recorded anything with that much weight and gravitas in an anime script, and it was really moving to me. I remember very distinctly recording those episodes and finishing and going, ‘That was a lot.’ It was heavy and very emotionally draining, but very rewarding to me as an actor and hopefully to the audience as well.
Christopher Sabat – All Might / Toshinori Yagi
I still have a soft spot for the early episodes. The ones that set up the series, such as when All Might reveals his injury to Midoriya, and Midoriya’s mouth is flapping in the wind as he’s still holding on to All Might as he’s flying away.
But I think the thing that got to me most in recent seasons is at the end of Season 7 and the beginning of Season 8. I keep mentioning this because I love it so much, but here’s All Might, and you’re so excited because he’s got his black suit on, he’s got Hercules, the car that Dave’s daughter built for him.
And then when he starts throwing out the names of his attacks, they’re all named after the kids’ attacks, and I was dying on the inside. As a dad, I think of all those kids that he oversaw at school as his little family and children, and he got to see them grow so much that while he doesn’t have a power anymore, he’s using attacks that he’s named after all these kids. It really got to me. I don’t know if you were meant to cry at that part, but I was a mess.
Luci Christian – Ochaco Uraraka / Uravity
I have three! First, it’s the Sports Festival arc with Ochaco versus Bakugo. There’s the end of Season 6 with her on the top of that building with the megaphone and yelling at everybody. And Ochaco and Toga in Season 7. It’s peak!
Leah Clark – Himiko Toga
I have a few also. The first introduction with Tsuyu and Ochaco in the woods was one of my favorites because she’s just so excited and thinks, ‘I’m going to trap some friends.’ I still love Season 5 with Curious, and we learn the extent of Toga’s quirk and how far it can go. And then yeah, Season 7 with Ochaco and Toga.
Christopher Wehkamp – Shota Aizawa / Eraserhead
For me, it’s a recurring thing with Aizawa, and it’s at least occurred a dozen times over the last eight seasons. And that’s any “Dadzawa” moment. Any time we see his true heart come out, and when we see him being vulnerable with his friends or students, those are the moments that will stick with me more than any fight or funny line.
Though he does have a lot of funny lines, those moments will stick with me the most because they’re the most unexpected to me compared to my initial conception of Aizawa. He seemed so cold, calculating, and logical, and then to see these tender moments he has with his students, Eri, Shinso, and his friends, was such a wonderful little surprise for his character.
JustinCook – Eijiro Kirishima / Red Riot
I don’t know if it’s a favorite moment, but it’s a moment I fell in sync with the character. At the end of Season 3, Tsuyu puts Kirishima in his place for having put her in a position to lie. He’s apologizing to her and feeling so horrible for putting her in that position, and that was the moment for me where I felt like every time I see his animation, I know what he’s thinking. So again, I don’t know if it’s my favorite moment, but the one where the two of our souls started to sync together.
J. Michael Tatum – Tenya Ida / Ingenium
For me, the Stain arc is just beautiful, and I love it, and it really changed my relationship with him. But if I had to pick a moment that I’m the most nostalgic for in terms of being like ‘oh, I love playing this guy,’ it’s when he’s standing on top of the exit sign telling everyone to calm down. It’s just a perfect little moment that tells you so much not just about who he is and where he’s going but also contains his whole arc in this one little metaphor.
Colleen Clinkenbeard – Momo Yaoyorozu / Creaty
Now I want to go with a silly moment. It’s when she makes the costumes for all of her friends when they’re undercover, and you get to see her be super helpful and also super neurotic at the same time. I love seeing that anxiety come out in a way that doesn’t damage her standing in her class, just in that safe zone with her friends. We get to see her personality and how useful she can be there. I just love that moment because it’s really funny.
Jason Liebrecht – Dabi
It’s Dabi’s dance. That was a long time coming. I knew about the event three and a half years prior, courtesy of a lovely spoiler whom I met – I don’t blame him – but yeah, I was very ready for those words to be spoken.
Patrick Seitz – Enji Todoroki / Endeavor
A lot of what went down in Season 7. I’m also a big fan of the high-end Nomu fight, the one that Endeavor and Hawks fought in Season 4. That felt like his first big, ‘oh man, I’m number one. It might not be the way I wanted, but it’s not just the leaderboard spot; there are responsibilities that come with it. A little bit of ego death is going to need to happen if I want to be a symbol of peace for people.’
David Matranga – Shoto Todoroki
For me, because it’s the beginning of something for Shoto, Season 2, the Sports Festival fight with Deku. You have Endeavor’s presence looming there, and then you’ve got a friend who he’s not sure he trusts yet, who is challenging him to accept himself. That it’s not (his power) something to deny, so that moment was a beautiful moment for all three of those characters.
But then it comes to actual fruition in Season 7 when he’s describing how he’s using the powers together and talking to Midoriya again. It was a full-circle moment when he fully accepted himself. It was very emotional. That journey from Season 2 through Season 7 is just beautiful.
Clifford Chapin – Katsuki Bakugo / Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight
For me, I’m very lucky, as playing Bakugo for this many years, I’ve gotten to portray many cool character moments. But I always find myself going back to the second movie, Heroes Rising, because that whole movie felt like, until the series moved past it, the culmination of everything that Bakugo and Deku’s relationship had gone through. Learning how to fight together and be combatants that were complementary to each other and able to read off of each other, counter, and move and fight together.
There’s a lot of meta tied up in the movie for me. We were recording it at the same time we were recording Season 4, and while we were recording one of the video games. We were swamped with My Hero Academia recording at the time. And then they had us do a huge movie premiere for it, which was an incredible experience.
And then, like two weeks later, the world shut down because of the pandemic. So the fact that we got to have this moment together before the world stopped being the world we knew, honestly, carried me through the pandemic. I just lived off that high of how wonderful that experience was. It still beats in my heart until this moment.
My Hero Academia Seasons 1-8 are available now to stream on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
