Quirk: Explosion!! (“個性”‼︎ 爆破‼︎ ”Kosei“!! Bakuha!!?) is the one hundred and sixty-third episode of the My Hero Academia anime and the fourth episode of the eighth season.
Summary[]
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A woman on the streets pregnant with twin boys.
One evening, a young man and a woman are walking through a busy street, before they spot an older woman with white, disheveled hair and a cold expression sitting on a square of cardboard and sipping on a bottle of alcohol. She also has a pair of peculiar, spiked growths located on her left arm. The female passerby walks up to her to ask if she's alright, which causes the older woman to throw the empty bottle at her and shout at them to get lost and leave her alone.
As the pair run away for their safety, the older woman continues keeping to herself and clutches her pregnant abdomen that's harboring its own breed of oddities. She's carrying a pair of twins that appear to be sharing an umbilical cord, and one is around five times the size of the other, as it is sucking out every last nutrient from their mother and leaving none for its twin sibling.
The larger of the twins feeds off his mother's corpse.
Sometime later, the woman lies dead by a river in the middle of the pouring rain, with the two twins being carried to term and living on without her. The bigger one, with an insatiable, almost inhuman greed, proceeds to start gnawing on his mother's flesh and ingesting the spiked growths, while clutching the hand of his puny and sickly, yet still kicking little brother. Eventually, the two are swept away from their mother by the flooding river water.
Shortly after their birth, news begins to spread about another peculiar one: a glowing baby from China. The story spreads like wildfire, and what swiftly follows are more reports of people being born with mysterious superpowers, with some getting them as late as puberty. These "Meta Abilities" were thought to be caused by a disease of some kind, with most experts believing their existence caused a new genetic subbranch of humanity to spawn. With time and dissolution of ignorance, this move would be seen as rash and irresponsible, as the report plummeted society into endless chaos, as those with and without powers began to wage war on each other to define what it means to be truly human.
The child kills anyone who doesn't pay attention to him.
Living among and adopting that chaos was the older twin brother, who would grow into a young boy. It would turn out that he had one of those Meta Abilities too: one that allowed him to steal other abilities and potentially pass then down to others, with the first one in his collection being the growths he ate from his mother's flesh, which turned out to be a more passive version of what would later be known as Spearlike Bones.
While all the adults in the world were stirring up chaos in the name of their "correct" beliefs, so was the older brother, but for less "reasonable" goals: same as he was since birth, he was selfish and cruel beyond all metrics of morality, and thought that everything in his sights belonged to him and him alone, and anyone who didn't provide him with anything, even if it's something as little as looking at him as he cried out for his wants, was someone to be distrusted. His preferred method of dealing with his "opposition" was brutal murder, and occasionally taking their Meta Abilities for his own, whether it be of anti-Meta Ability mercenaries, or even something small like a gaggle of common street thugs.
The younger brother is powerless to stop the older brother.
During one confrontation with the latter, his little brother throws a beat-up drink can at him and begs him to stop hurting people. With zero emotion on his face, the older boy walks up and kicks his sibling to the ground, before grabbing his victim's shivering, outstretched hand and dragging him across the pavement as they take their leave. Despite the younger brother having nothing to offer him like the rest, he still viewed him as one of his possessions, so he has no intention in parting with him. Although their relationship was cruel and the world they lived in even more so, the brothers would still stick together and grow up, as the world slowly started adjusting to the presence of Meta Abilities.
One day, the younger brother is reading a stack of books, and the older brothers asks him what he's reading and why he didn't tell him personally about it. The younger brother tells them that he's reading comic books, since his literacy skills still aren't sharp enough for more complicated printings. He can't stop reading them because of the illustrations, as he feels he can tell the exact hopes and dreams of the people who make them without much reliance on text. The malnourished boy looks a picture featuring the main character of the "Captain Hero" volume he's reading and says he wants to be just like him someday.
The brothers bond over comic books.
He then asks his older brother if he wants to read some of the comic with him, as the other boy sits down and joins him. Despite the younger one's disapproval of his brother's behavior, he too doesn't want to let him go, as he believes the giant hand that held his at birth was a sliver of the kindness that he has deep down.
Three years afterward, the sickly boy, now an adolescent, is once again interrupted by his brother as he's reading. The older brother floats down to his sibling in front of the moon, saying that the glowing child from China, who has now grown into a prominent figure that rallied for peace and a return to safer times, has managed to amass ten million followers. As he comes into view, his younger brother notices that he's glowing as bright as the moonlight, as the older brother comments that the whole situation is strange. He notes that the glowing ambassador was only the first person registered to have a Meta Ability and recalls a rumor that about fifty people in India who were born with superpowers two weeks prior to that person.
The true birth of All For One.
The flabbergasted younger brother asks why the older one is glowing and covered in blood, to which he admits he killed the peace advocate and stole his power, as he finds it odd that a story like his would cause so many people to come together. When further questioned, the older brother points to the "Captain Hero" comics they would read, and a prominent quote that came up in them: "One for all, and all for one". He grew fond of the phrase, as while the Hero in those stories will fight evil alone and hide his identity from those he saves, the main antagonist, a Demon Lord, would be infamous across the land from how his fearful presence forces people into submission. He likens the dynamic to the one he has with his little brother and declares that he too has gained a dream from reading those books with him: a world where everything exists for him and nobody else.
Eventually, by the time they're adults, the older brother would live out his dream and cultivate a massive, unruly stranglehold on the entire country of Japan, all under a moniker he ripped straight out of the phrase from those old comic books: All For One, a name he would also share with his power. His younger brother, through all this time, still stayed strong in his beliefs that Meta Abilities shouldn't be used selfishly and resisted all of his sibling's attempts to make him submissive.
In trying to stop his escape, All For One kills his brother.
All For One could only pity his brother and his attitude, asserting that it's because he was born without a power, so it's impossible for anyone to take him seriously. All For One then gropes his brother's face and says that since his dreams have become reality, he's about to remake the one where his brother keeps resisting him. Despite the decrepit man's fierce protesting, the man forces onto him a Meta Ability that even his underwhelming body can allegedly handle. As the brother keeps screaming, the Villain says he's finally decided on a name for him after all this time: Yoichi, since his sibling is the first thing that was ever given to him.
One day, Yoichi is found by two uniformed All For One resistance soldiers: Kudo and Bruce. They soon try to flee through the sewers with the rest of their army as All For One pursues them, while calmly asking why his brother is leaving, as he is his property that he "graciously" blessed with a Meta Ability not too long ago. As Kudo and Yoichi keep running, All For One starts getting fed up that they're ignoring him and that Kudo is keeping him away from his possession and says that he's had enough of the fact that Yoichi is no longer his.
All For One realizes that Yoichi's spirit lives...
With a brief swipe of his hand, All For One shreds Yoichi's body into pieces, as both the man and Kudo get his blood splashed on his face. The only physical remnant of Yoichi is his left hand, which drops into the wastewater as Bruce picks up Kudo and the soldiers continue their escape. As Kudo tears up at Yoichi's sudden death, he locks eyes with All For One and notices his lack of feeling and reception to light, to the extent where the man can't see his own reflection in the other's pupils.
Back in his personal skyscraper, All For One clutches the loose hand of his now deceased brother and senses something stranger: the power he forced onto him has mysteriously disappeared. He initially confirmed Yoichi had no Meta Ability by using his own collection of them and assumed at some point in life he stole it from him without noticing. However, it turns out that Yoichi did have a power, but its Factor was so small and weak, likely disfigured from its host's malnutrition, that his older brother didn't know it existed until he performed a more rigorous examination. He then wonders if his brother's secret Meta Ability somehow activated before his death and soon realizes that Yoichi's original Meta Ability absorbed the Factor transplanted into him in order to strengthen itself. To his surprise, the essence of his brother lives on in another person.
...while Kudo finds out there are two Meta Abilities inside him.
Meanwhile, Kudo and Bruce come to similar conclusions after the latter ran some tests on his leader, following some complaints from the former that his body began feeling odd after their last run in with All For One. Bruce tells Kudo that he now possesses two unique Meta Ability Factors: his original Meta Ability, and Yoichi's weaker one. Kudo then stares at his hand and realizes that Yoichi's will is a part of him now.
As both men brood, they recall their own unique perceptions of the ill-stricken man: Kudo sees him as the strong-willed person who wants to stop his brother and make up for his own failed efforts to do so, and All For One as the sickly, yet obedient family member that believes he has some good in him deep down, and once said that a Meta Ability like All For One could be the kindest power in the world with how much it could help others.
All For One kills anyone who harbors his brother's Quirk.
With time, All For One's influence and followers kept growing to astronomical proportions, but the one unchanging constant in his life would be the miracle in what Yoichi passed on to Kudo. Even when the man killed the soldier, his entire bloodline, and anyone who was remotely close to him with tears in his eyes, the last spiritual scrap of his brother would be the one thing he couldn't manipulate into his hands, which drove him mad. When he found out that the ability, which would later be named "One For All", was passed on to Bruce, All For One hunted him down, but would find nothing to steal before killing him. Once he tried the same on the eventual fifth user, Daigoro, the Quirk somehow strengthened to the point where it couldn't be forcefully stolen, and it too managed to be passed on before the man's death. The same applied to the sixth user, En, and even after getting his arm chopped off and his body cleaved in two by the Villain, the man passed down One For All in his dying breath to its seventh user: Nana.
The chase likely would've ended earlier thanks to his second-to-last battle with the eighth user: All Might, after the Symbol of Peace punched his head into a puddle of blood and viscera, if not for the divine medical intervention of fanatic-turned-ally Doctor Kyudai Garaki.
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All For One uses his last-ditch effort to finish the fight.
In his current fight with Dynamight, he can't help but claim that all this failure and running around was and still is at the hands of Kudo, and the boy he's fighting couldn't help but remind of that thanks to his vague resemblance and near identical willpower to the soldier. More than aware that he's running out of time to transfer his Quirk stockpile into Tomura, All For One decides to combine and weaponize every single Quirk stored in his body while saving just enough energy to complete his plan. He then morphs his body into an eldritch, building-sized mass of superpowered flesh: his Omni-Factor Unleash. The Villain proceeds to charge a massive amount of energy to propel himself forward, with All Might and Edgeshot noting that using this much power will rewind him back to a baby, so this attack is an all-or-nothing gamble.
In the sky, Dynamight stands his ground and outstretches his splinted arm, and remembers what he said to Izuku about getting strong after their second fight, and his declaration to Endeavor about his Explosion Quirk allowing him to do anything he put his mind to. Dynamight then recalls Izuku's state, after he attacked him in class at the start of their third year in middle school, and promises that he will no longer get in the way of his victim-turned-rival.
Dynamight's explosions set off inside All For One's mouth.
As he says this, the Omni-Factor Unleash mass takes off, and All Might begs Dynamight to dodge as he's swept away in the wind. Dynamight stays put and repeatedly yells at All For One to blow up, before the Villain is pelted in the face by a seemingly invisible onslaught of Explosions. While weak, it's enough to disfigure his main body and send his Quirk stockpile crashing to the ground.
Dynamight was able to achieve this by firing delayed explosions made of his nitroglycerin-like sweat coated in regular sweat, which reacted to some sweat he got in the Villain's mouth earlier in their fight. The boy shouts out that he's always been great at thinking on the spot and declares that one Quirk is all he needs for this fight. Not giving the Villain time to breathe, he begins gyrating in the clouds with his explosions.
Dynamight completely barrages All For One with endless explosions.
All For One tries to charge once more, screaming that this is his story, and that Dynamight is just an insignificant side character. Dynamight then rockets down while enveloping himself in a ginormous Howitzer Impact, before detonating the fuelled explosion right on All For One's head and blowing up the surface of the Omni-Factor Unleash. Both student and Villain fight through their pain, but Dynamight manages to overpower All For One's retaliation by raining a blanket of explosions all over the giant mass.
As All For One is getting incinerated, he realizes that his Quirk Factors aren't working in his favor and struggles to figure out why. From his vestige realm, Hawks' vestige reveals that his negative emotions consumed him and weakened control of his Quirk, courtesy of the intense hatred of his own successor.
Hawks and the other Vestiges defy All For One.
Soon, All For One is reduced to nothing but his beaten upper torso, as Dynamight moves in for the finishing blow and grips his face. Despite the Demon Lord's tantrum, Dynamight asserts this is their story, while thinking of all the people who've helped, supported, and kept him alive all this time. The boy unleashes one last point-blank blast on to All For One, as his remains crash into the street and burst into flames, and the splint on his arm shatters to pieces.
All Might gapes at the sight, noting that this wouldn't have been possible if not for everyone's involvement, and lets out a sigh of relief that his archenemy is finally down for the count. Dynamight comes to the same conclusion, as he tries to collect himself after the tiring battle.
All For One, reduced to a baby, is stopped by Dynamight.
Appallingly, All For One is still alive and crawling in the dirt in pursuit of One For All and his brother's essence, and just as All Might predicted: the fighting and the recoil has rewound him down to a snivelling infant. Dynamight lands and tries to finish him off, but unlike the Villain, his strength is completely sapped and it's a massive undertaking to even stand on his own two feet.
In his mind, All For One tells the kid to move, and as much as Dynamight wants to rest, he keeps standing and maintaining his guard, as the battle's not over until victory is formally spelled out. Frustrated, All For One fires a Spearlike Bone from his mouth and aims it directly towards Dynamight's face, only for the Hero to catch it with his teeth and blow it up with some of his sweat.
All For One cries out in frustration as he is finally defeated.
With that, All For One starts to rapidly rewind as he curses himself for acting on emotion, with his stolen Quirk Factors going along with him. Soon, he can only mentally scream in defiance, as he regresses back to a fetus, down to a zygote, and eventually to a mass of light that pathetically plunks into the dirt and dissipates into nothingness.
With the battle truly over, Dynamight too collapses on the ground, raising his unbroken arm in victory, though regretful that he can't stay up like All Might would. Taking in his much-needed rest, the fate of the war between Heroes and Villains now lies solely on Deku and Tomura, as Dynamight tells his classmate to give his opponent hell.
Characters In Order of Appearance[]
- All For One
- Yoichi Shigaraki (Flashback)
- Luminescent Baby (Flashback)
- Toshitsugu Kudo (Flashback)
- Bruce Lee (Flashback)
- Kyudai Garaki (Flashback)
- En Tayutai (Flashback)
- Nana Shimura (Flashback)
- All Might
- Katsuki Bakugo
- Tomura Shigaraki (Flashback)
- Hikage Shinomori (Vestige)
- Daigoro Banjo (Vestige)
- Edgeshot
- Izuku Midoriya (Flashback)
- Hawks (Vestige)
- Sludge Villain (Flashback)
- Eijiro Kirishima (Flashback)
- Mitsuki Bakugo
- Masaru Bakugo
- Hanta Sero (Flashback)
- Fumikage Tokoyami (Flashback)
- Denki Kaminari (Flashback)
Quirks[]
- Spearlike Bones
- All For One
- Spearlike Bones
- Unnamed Mouth Quirk
- Omni-Factor Unleash
- Luminescence
- Fa Jin
- One For All
- Blackwhip
- Smokescreen
- Explosion
Locations[]
- U.A. High School (Flashback)
- Endeavor Agency (Flashback)
- Aldera Junior High (Flashback)
Battles & Events[]
- Dynamight vs. All For One (Concluded)
Anime & Manga Differences[]
- Before All For One and Yoichi's mother is introduced, the anime precedes with a new scene of her aggressively shooing two tourists away after they try to talk to her.
- The anime cuts the first portion of the narration, which details the life and death of All For One and Yoichi's mother, the circumstances of her pregnancy and their eventual birth, as well as her being a carrier of Spearlike Bones. It's replaced by a brief comment from All For One about him vaguely remembering his own birth.
- The anime adds some additional shots of the inside of her womb, and has a short scene of All For One opening his eyes inside.
- When showing the babies being swept away by river water, the anime doesn't depict the horde of rats that would try to eat them beforehand.
- The anime doesn't mention any passage of time in the narration, both for Spearlike Bones' appearance, and the timeskip after the babies were carried away by the water.
- During the explanation of the societal divide caused by Meta Abilities, the anime adds a visual of the two main factions being split up.
- The anime shows the full scene of All For One killing thugs in the city, instead of only the aftermath. Additionally, it shows All For One stealing the Quirk of the man on the ground before killing him using Spearlike Bones.
- Before All For One kicks Yoichi in the face, the anime shows the other boy smiling in relief before getting attacked.
- When Yoichi is reading comics, the manga shows All For One floating in the corner. In the anime, he's sitting on the shelf and drinking from a beverage can.
- When Yoichi tells All For One about his love for comics, the anime shows him asking his brother to read with him before they do so.
- The anime shows a re-edited scene of All For One granting Yoichi the Power Stocking Quirk.
- This also includes All For One naming Yoichi in this moment, instead of it being said by the narrator after Yoichi's death in the manga.
- The anime omits the mention that it was two months between the moment that Yoichi was found by the resistance, and his death at the hands of his brother.
- The anime extends the scene of Kudo and Yoichi running from All For One in the sewer and adds additional shots of the Villain pursuing them.
- In the manga, Kudo and Bruce conduct their research in an unknown, nondescript building. In the anime, it's done inside a bar.
- All For One is shown to be wearing his typical black suit during his battle with Bruce. In the manga, All for One is wearing a striped suit.
- All For One is shown using his Unnamed Mouth Quirk against Daigoro in the anime.
- En's death is slightly censored in the anime, with the blood from his mutilation being replaced by large amounts of his smoke.
- The corpses of Kudo's friends and relatives are shown in the anime.
- The anime adds the other Vestiges in the scene where Yoichi notices the formation of Omni-Factor Unleash from the vestige realm.
- After Katsuki grabs All For One's face before the finishing blow, the anime follows it with a short scene of Katsuki acknowledging that he couldn't do this alone, with a short montage of some of people that helped him over the series, like Izuku, Eijiro, Edgeshot, and All Might. The scene of his birth is also moved here.
- When Katsuki breaks the Spearlike Bone with his teeth, the anime shows the full catching and detonation, instead of just the aftermath. It also shows Katsuki spitting the tip out.