Episode 109 of My Hero Academia aired on Saturday focusing primarily on Himiko Toga and her backstory. The episode marks the second of the highly anticipated My Villain Academia arc of the series, leaving us with only four more episodes left of season five. This week portrayed Toga’s sinister mentality as best as it possibly could while giving us a quick look at her quirk’s new ability.
Toga and the rest of the League of Villains encounter the Liberation Army in the town of Deika, where 90 percent of the population is full of dormant liberation members. From there on, chaos ensues.
While the fight between the two sides began, it turned into a Toga-focused episode just as Tomura received last week. While the rest of the League of Villians was busy with their own individual fights, Toga came face-to-face with Chitose Kizuki, whose quirk allows her to turn anything she touches into bombs. She begins to interview Toga mid-fight and it turns into learning about Toga’s backstory.
Toga is a 17-year-old girl born on August 7th who is the eldest daughter of the Toga family that went missing after her high school graduation. The episode flashbacks to her classmates calling Toga a “kind and obedient” person. Toga herself even explains how the world around her was a little kinder when she put on this normal-girl mask in high school.
Well, that was until she attacked one of her high school classmates and drank his blood through a straw.
She was called a “demon child” growing up and learned to mask her urge for blood until she finally snapped. And now? Well, the picture below tells it all. The scene portrays her bloodlust perfectly.
It’s worth noting that in the manga, Toga went through a process known as “quirk counseling”. It’s basically a brainwashing program so that if you have any “bumps in your understanding of the world”, you’re able to come out the other side ready to blend into society. One “bug” of this programming is that it “emphasizes the inherent differences” among everyone in society.
This was a rather large portion of Toga’s backstory they did leave out. While it’s understandable for time reasons in the anime adaptation, it still leaves out some information on why Toga views the world as she does.
The one thing Kohei Horikoshi consistently succeeds at is writing incredible villains. While it’s far-fetched to say that Toga is the best character in the series, she still remains a fan favorite. During Toga’s fight with Kizuki, there was a moment where she uses her quirk to transform into Uraraka.
Kizuki was about to end the fight but Toga instantly uses Uraraka’s quirk to send her flying in the air. Kizuki believes that facing death caused the level-up in her ability to not just transform into the people whose blood she drinks, but to also use their abilities as well.
Toga sends everyone around her flying into the air and releases Uraraka’s quirk, ending the fight before passing out.
Episode 109 of My Hero Academia received its fair share of criticism and censorship, especially during Tomura’s scene near the very end of the episode.
Next week’s episode will air on Saturday, September 4, on Crunchyroll and Funimation. Episode 110 will focus heavily on Twice, who has become a person of interest for the Liberation Army, unlike Toga.
If you thought Episode 109 was great, make sure to vote for it in our weekly poll!
All images & video via Crunchyroll
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