My Hero Academia Season 6 episode 21 proved to fans everywhere that this season is just on its own level and that comes in thanks to series music composer Yuki Hayashi. While My Hero Academia has proven in the past to deliver high-quality intense moments and heart-wrenching emotional ones as well, this past week’s episode seemed to just hit in a different way than I’ve yet to feel from previous seasons. It’s not just this episode, it’s the entire season that leaves very little wiggle room for an argument against just how amazing it has been. And if this episode wasn’t enough to convince the critics, then there will truly be no pleasing them.
Yuki Hayashi Shines
This will be the first time covering this season that I’ll actually give an entire section of praise to Yuki Hayashi and after this episode I feel like it’s needed. For those of you who don’t know, Hayashi is the one who composed the unreal soundtrack that our ears have been lucky to listen to all season long. We had the moment of Twice’s death, Shigaraki’s awakening, and now we had the fall of Lady Nagant and the rise of Deku’s rage all lifted to another stratosphere thanks to Hayashi’s pure genius as a music composer.
There’s no denying the animation and camera work in this episode were admirable. It was smooth for the most part, the shots were near-perfect and the composition looked great. Not to mention, the voice acting could be argued as the best we’ve heard since Daichi Endo gave an unreal performance earlier this season as Twice. But Hayashi’s music is the one that shined in this episode for me. The soft piano as Hawks was screaming at Lady Nagant after an intense exchange between her and Deku after the incredible build-up to the moment she exploded left me speechless. Soon as that “BOOM!” hits, it goes straight to silence and then that piano just cranks the emotions to 11. To sit here and say I can describe in detail how perfect the soundtrack was in these moments would be a total lie because I simply can’t. I have no words. And while it was shortlived, the choir singing to the heavens as we see All Might at the beginning of the episode was utterly perfect in every sense of the word.
Animation purists can go ahead and find pointless flaws for all I care. I’m going back to watch this episode again for the soundtrack alone thanks to Hayashi. I haven’t been this impressed with a soundtrack since Hiroyuki Sawano’s work for 86 Eighty-Six. A ton of different elements have made My Hero Academia Season 6 my favorite of the series by far, but Hayashi undoubtedly deserves all the flowers. Just the pure talent and dedication that it takes to uplift what is argued as some of the best moments from the manga goes to show that Hayashi is giving it his all for this season.
The Rise and Fall of Lady Nagant
Lady Nagant is an interesting character to me. She’s someone that hit such a high peak in hero society among her peers and civilians only to be brought down to the lowest of the lows. No, I don’t mean what she did that landed her in prison. Her lowest of the low was when she made a deal with the devil himself and broke that deal, almost forcing her into an early grave. Lady Nagant went from being admired by kids to someone that is hired to hunt one of them. To have her be saved by the one kid she was ever ordered to hunt and find that motivation to continue being a hero in her last moments of the episode goes back to what I said before earlier in the season–those who walk along the chainlink fence between good and evil will always prove to be the most interesting characters.
The only disappointment regarding Lady Nagant is that her story wraps up when it’s getting interesting. But that’s a testament to her as a character. She was a small part of this current arc yet it felt like she was a much bigger part at the same time. From heroes praising her to villains fearing her, to making a deal with All For One to being saved by the successor of One For All really gives her such an overall amazing dynamic as a character. Twice was one of those characters who walked along the fence with her and in the end he chose the side of villains while Nagant remained a hero to the very end. Atsumi Tanezaki deserves her praise as well for doing such a wonderful job of bringing Lady Nagant’s character to life. The story of a young girl with the heart of a hero who grew up and lost her way then found her way back to the light all thanks to a certain green-haired, young hero reaching out his hand to her. A true story of a hero saving another hero told through both words, actions, and visual storytelling (just look at the pictures in this article from first to last).
My Hero Academia Season 6 Episode 21 Wrap-Up
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve given praise to staff and cast members of My Hero Academia Season 6. At this point, I no longer care about the criticism it receives nor do I question why it receives any in the first place. The fact of the matter is episode 21 of My Hero Academia Season 6 just proved to us all what makes this season special and unlike any other before it. This isn’t an anime at this point, it’s an experience. And thanks to those like Hayashi, it’s an experience I look forward to every single Saturday.
Episode 21 rating: 10/10
If you enjoyed My Hero Academia Season 6 episode 21, be sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Episode 22, titled “Friend” will air on Saturday, March 4.
Images via Crunchyroll
© Kohei Horikoshi / SHUEISHA, “My Hero Academia” Production Committee
