Note: This article contains spoilers for the most recent season of ‘My Hero Academia’.
In the 8 years it’s been since the release ofMy Hero Academia, it’s become one of themost popular anime out there.It’s taken over Western culture and a huge reason for that is because of how absolutely awesome the fight sequences can get.The animation from Studio Bones is typically really well doneand has resulted in some of the best looking anime action scenes in the last few years.
Not only do the visuals ofMy Hero Academiaaid the fight scenes' quality, but the emotional and story stakes within them as well. Becauseif there’s anything about the series that people truly fall in love with, it’s the charactersand how we’ll they’re written. Everyone has their favorite member from Class 1-A and each member of Class 1-A has an incredible fight under their belt.
My Hero Academia
10Deku vs. Lady Nagant
Dark Hero Arc
It’s safe to say that fans and critics lovedMy Hero Academia’s Dark Hero Arc. To get to see Deku (Daiki Yamashita) go off on his own and down a pretty dark path was unique and thrilling. Especially with how great that costume looked. But the standout moment of the Dark Hero Arc was his breathtaking fight against Lady Nagant (Atsumi Tanezaki).
Not only was this the debut of another great character with a unique quirk, but it was another moment in whichDeku got to show off just how absurdly powerful he was becomingat the time. Combining one of his new quirks, Fa Jin, with One For All at 45%, Deku traveled at speeds he’d never gone at before to save Kai Chisaki (Kenjiro Tsuda). Aside from this, it was the first time Deku had actually been truly challenged during this arc.
9Deku vs. Overhaul
Shie Hassaikai Arc
The conclusion to the Shie Hassaikai Arc inMy Hero AcademiaSeason 4 was the first time fans truly got to see Deku use One For All at a controlled 100%. That is, of course, thanks to the help of Eri (Seiran Kobayashi) and her Rewind quirk. After Lemillion (Tarusuke Shingaki) gave his everything to keep Eri out of Overhaul’s hands, it was up to Deku to reach out to her and give her one last chance to escape the evildoer’s clutches.
But it’s after this emotional moment that things get serious.Deku finally gets to go all-out to face a newly upgraded Overhauland puts on a display of power unlike anything viewers had seen before this moment in the show. With the young hero’s potential fully unlocked, Overhaul comes to regret all he did to young Eri.
8Deku, Shoto Todoroki and Tenya Iida vs. Stain
Vs. Hero Killer Arc
There is no villain in the series like Stain (Go Inoue), the Hero Killer. When the young and vengeful hero, Tenya Iida (Kaito Ishikawa),seeks to take down the serial killer that put his brother in the hospital, he needs saving from classmates Deku and Shoto Todoroki (Yuki Kaji).This incites a three-on-one fight between the young heroes and this blood-licking villain,which ended up being one of the best team-up fights in the series.
The fight served as a big moment for most of the characters here, too. Deku had just learned to truly control his powers (thanks to Gran Torino (Kenichi Ogata)),Iida learns a lesson on heroism that changes how he makes decisions for the rest of the show,Todoroki begins to finally use his flames out in the field and Stain shows that he approves of Deku by saving him from a Nomu.
7Shoto Todoroki vs. Dabi
Final War Arc
The Final War Arc easily has the greatest fight match-ups in the entire show. Everyone gets paired with characters that perfectly suit them or the character arc they’re in the midst of. Todoroki gets one of the best of the arc when he’s set up to face his long-lost brother, Toya Todoroki (Hiro Shimono), aka Dabi.It’s the debut of Todoroki’s new ultimate move, Flashfire Fist: Phosphor.An ability that allows the cold and hot factors of his Half-Cold Half-Hot quirk into one ability.
This new way to regulate his body temperature sets off what is considered a “cold fire”, which both burns and freezes his enemies at once. The fight seems to end with Todoroki besting his brother after an intense battle of cold and hot. What proceeds, though, isDabi making an escape after copying the Phosphor abilityfor himself, giving him a chilling new look.
6Deku vs. Shoto Todoroki
U.A. Sports Festival Arc
One of the most popular fights in the entire series takes place while the students of U.A. High go head-to-head tournament-style. Deku and Todoroki face each other and the moment that is born within the fight is one of, if not the most, popular scenes of the entire series. The standoff between the two young aspiring heroes features the green-haired studentpushing his peer to move past his mental limits and dissociate the fire side of his quirk from his father,Endeavor (Tetsu Inada).
He continues to pest Todoroki, saying he’s not giving the fight his all and not trying harder. This culminates in one of the best and most famous quotes from the show where Deku screams,“It’s yours! Your quirk! Not his!“The moment that follows of the flames finally emerging from Todoroki is chill-inducing and forces a smile onto anyone watching.
5Deku vs. Bakugo: Part 2
Provisional Hero License Exam Arc
The character dynamic betweenDeku and his childhood friend/rival Bakugo (Nobuhiko Okamoto) lies at the heart of the series.After the events that got him captured and subsequently ended with All Might (Kenta Miyake) losing his embers of One For All after defeating All For One (Akio Otsuka), Bakugo summons Deku out to the U.A. Training Ground Beta. Once out there, he decided that Deku and he were going to settle their rivalry right then and there.
The fight that ensues is not just well choreographed and animated, but has large emotional stakes. The tension that had been building between the two finally culminated here and not only is it a physical battle, but a mental one as well. This fight would serve as one of the biggest moments in Bakugo’s character arc in the entire series. His breakdown that came through the fight wasthe first time in the series he had been truly vulnerable to anyone, and it marked a big turning point for the character.
4Deku vs Class 1-A
The end of the Dark Hero Arc led to the students of Class 1-A actively rejecting Deku’s sentiments in his goodbye letter and seeking him out.Knowing that their friend is strong-willed and stubborn, they came ready for a fightwhen they arrived to take him back to school. With all of Deku’s new quirks, it was going to take almost every member of the class to put a stop to his tough guy act and get him to take care of himself.
To see the now immensely powerful student face off against all of his classmates at once was a sight to behold. Not to mention, they came with a plan. The fight is emotional, as well, asit features every student telling their friend why they need him in their lives,and he deserves to go back to school. As if things couldn’t get better with this fight, the wildly phenomenal “You Say Run” track, the most popular song in the show’s score (and in recent anime music history) is playing throughout the fight.
3All Might vs. All For One: Rematch!
Hideout Raid Arc
From the very first episode of the series that included All For One, fans knew that the day would have to come in which All Might and his nemesis had their glorious rematch. So, it had to be good if it was going to live up to everyone’s expectations. Wheneveryone raided the hideout of the League of Villains to save young Bakugo,All Might needed to be the one to hold All For One backwhile everyone else tried to get the explosive student out of there.
The real fight came when Bakugo’s friends finally came through to save him and the Number One Hero no longer needed to hold himself back to protect the boy. The fight that followed was brutal andshowed audiences exactly how it was that All For One hurt All Might so badly all those years ago.But just barely, the blond-haired titan managed to pull through and deliver one last smash to take down the evil mastermind. But lost the power of One For All in the process.
2Endeavor vs. Hood
Pro Hero Arc
If there is a character inMy Hero Academiathat needed to prove himself and atone for his sins, it’s been Endeavor.The show never pulls its punches when discussing the mistakes the Number Two-turned-Number One hero has made as a man.He created a living hell for his entire family andled to his wife getting sent to a mental hospital, his son’s eye getting burned and the creation of one of the world’s fiercest villains, Dabi.Endeavor is an abundantly flawed man and the sins of his past were always going to come back to haunt him. Little did he know, he’d meet them in the form of the strongest Nomu any hero had faced at the time.
It should be noted that Hawks (Yuichi Nakamura) did have an active role in this fight, but mostly in support. The legitimate fight was held between the flame hero and the first highly-intelligent Nomu, Hood (Tsuguo Mogami). So much so, that he could even speak. This intelligence, paired with the typical strength of a High-End Nomu, makes Hood one of the deadliest villains of the entire show. Not only was this fight the best animated sequence of the entire fourth season (right next to the Overhaul fight), butit was the moment in which many people turned around with their opinions on Endeavor.It was here he finally decided he was going to burn away the past and atone for everything he’d done. He was going to move on and attempt to be a better person.
1Deku vs. Tomura Shigaraki & All For One
With Tomura Shigaraki (Koki Uchiyama) and the mind of All For One slowly fusing into one being, they took on a whole new, terrifyingly powerful form. In doing so,they massacre the heroes left in U.A.’s “Coffin in the Sky” and murder Deku’s dearest friend/rival, Bakugo.So, after an unexpected detour, when he finally arrives at the Coffin in the Sky, the young hero loses his cool when he sees what Shigaraki was able to do in the time he was gone.
Managing to regain his composure, Deku faces the new Lord of Villains with an almost perfect combination of all his unlocked powers. Shigaraki may have been astoundingly powerful, but they weren’t ready for the likes of Deku’s last quirk to be unlocked: Gearshift. A power that allows him to change the speed and momentum of whatever he chooses, including himself, which he does to hit the villain at the fastest speeds he’s ever gone in the series. Lemillion himself directly says thatDeku punches Shigaraki hard enough at one point that he caused the villain to break the sound barrier when flying upwards from it.It’s an astonishing fight that is sure to go down in history as one of the best. Even thoughnext year, the final season will certainly comeand add much more to the list of best fights.
