“The heroes declined and the villains flourished.” The words of our protagonist are calm, and they resound as we move among flourishing cherry blossoms, like youngsters hearing a tale of old. The voice describes how dire the situation was, how tiny the sliver of hope, how risky the plan for victory. And yet, “A powerful wind was blowing.” The hand of an old man touches the falling flowers. “A powerful wind.” We see flashes of all the villains who are wreaking havoc upon Japan, and the efforts of the heroes and the police to stop each of them. We jump back into the fight we left off with in season seven. In a scene reminiscent of the climax of The Dark Knight Returns, a heavily armored All Might fights a nearly all-powerful opponent with no trace of his power left. We follow his tactical reasoning, noting his every wound, the increasing strain written in his body. Each tactic is a homage, an acknowledgment of where it comes from: these are moments that we have lived through these years. All for One is mighty, young, and brimming with power. It is All Might who is a deformed husk of a man now. Meanwhile, Yuga Aoyama, the Shining Hero, faces his own nightmare. Surrounded by bodies impaled in a garden of deadly plants, he must face an escaped serial killer whose power becomes greater as more flowers bloom…

So this is it. The Avengers: Endgame, the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows of anime, is finally here, using every tool in the extensive toolkit it has assembled all these years. Apart from the luminous beginning, all is darkness in this episode’s color palette, but what light there is, shines all the more brightly for it. This show started in 2016, when I was first getting into anime. Season after season, it built a legion of inspiring characters and loathsome villains, and showed the cracks of a world that is now crumbling into dust. It also built a visual language that was based on Marvel and DC superhero conventions, but which was able to become distinct very quickly, while still giving nods to its inspirations in an unobtrusive way. It also gave us a way of thinking about superhero tactics, and a Japan-wide map of allies and stakes. Now, the operatic finale can begin to unfold. I know and love each of these heroes, yet I keep finding new things about them as they reflect during the impossible ordeal. When the spectators pray for their safety from afar, when they cheer them on, I am there too. This episode was all I could have hoped for, and there’s no way I’m going to miss any part of this story, which is constantly living up to its own ideal. Go beyond! Plus Ultra!

My Hero Academia FINAL SEASON is available on Crunchyroll.