How My Hero Academia chapter 390 ruins the Todoroki storyline

With the release of My Hero Academia chapter 390’s spoilers, raw scans, and unofficial translations this week, fans have a good idea of what the upcoming issue has in store. While there were plenty of high hopes for this chapter, it looks like fans didn't get everything they were hoping for.

Considering how Dabi-centric chapters 190 and 290 were, fans were expecting My Hero Academia chapter 390 to be all about the villain, bringing his story to a conclusive end. While many believe he would eventually be reborn as Toya somehow, others anticipated his life as Dabi to end in the upcoming release.

Unfortunately, this was not the case, with My Hero Academia chapter 390’s title “Shoto Todoroki: Rising” telling fans all they needed to know about the issue’s focus. Likewise, many are now questioning whether or not the installment (pending official release and translations) ruins the Todoroki family storyline.

Note: Parts of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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My Hero Academia chapter 390 has fans debating merits of focusing on Shoto to conclude Todoroki narrative

Brief spoiler recap

My Hero Academia chapter 390 opens up with Tenya Iida’s Engine Quirk seemingly failing, his mufflers exploding and tearing apart. He tells Shoto that this is as far as he can take him, prompting his classmate to activate Phosphor and use it to fly. It’s said that the pair eclipsed the sound barrier as Iida thanks Shoto for letting him become the person he wanted to be, thinking that it’s time for him to go and do the same.

The issue then recaps the letters Shoto once sent to his mother, where he explains how he’s doing everything he can to catch up to his classmates. While he argues with them, it lets them understand each other better. As he says this, he arrives at Dabi’s location, thinking about his and Dabi’s origins and how there’s so much he still wants to say to his brother.

My Hero Academia chapter 390 then sees Shoto use Great Glacial Aegir, successfully cooling off Dabi’s heat sphere. He then says how it’s good that everyone’s there since he might not be able to stop Toya’s flames himself, saying he’s not a masterpiece after all.

As Dabi mumbles about how he wishes everyone would die, Endeavor apologizes to everyone, and Shoto passes out. The issue ends as Toga wonders if Toya could smile in the end.

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How chapter 390 ruins the Todoroki family narrative, explored

Before diving into how chapter 390 ruins the Todoroki family drama story, it’s worth addressing the two predominant schools of thought for Dabi’s character arc. The first is that he simply dies, atoning for his sins which are irredeemable. The other is that Dabi and the Dabi persona die, but Toya is somehow reborn, whether by Eri’s Rewind Quirk or other yet-divulged means.

With this in mind, My Hero Academia chapter 390 seemingly takes a middle-of-the-road approach to the Todoroki family narrative (assuming this is the climactic conclusion). Toya gets to live, but without atoning for his sins by first dying as Dabi, paying for the people he hurt with his own life.

It’s a truly infuriating approach that leaves almost no fan of the series happy, again under the assumption that this is the narrative’s climactic conclusion. For Dabi to live on as a charred, disfigured, and likely immobile version of himself is simply an underwhelming end to his character arc, which is heavily intertwined with the Todoroki family drama.

Likewise, My Hero Academia chapter 390’s title tells fans all they need to know about how the narrative could possibly progress from here. Any additional focus on this family drama B-story will undoubtedly be Shoto-centric, as this was clearly the narrative’s purpose all along. Even if Dabi does die and Toya is eventually brought back to life, it’ll no doubt be used to develop Shoto and Shoto alone.

While it’s impossible to say that every fan is disappointed with this outcome, a vast majority have expressed distaste for such a tweener ending. Although there is an opportunity for this ship to right its course, time is undoubtedly running out, especially with author and illustrator Kohei Horikoshi seemingly set to shift perspectives in the next issue.

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