My Hero Academia chapter 388: Creator Horikoshi sacrifices plot integrity for family feels

My Hero Academia chapter 388 spoilers and raw scans were released earlier in the week. With how exceptional recent chapters of author and illustrator Kohei Horikoshi’s manga series has been, fans awaited this week’s spoilers with bated breath.

However, My Hero Academia chapter 388 also illustrates a core issue with how Horikoshi writes his series. While he has the right to create, add to, and conclude his story however he wants, there’s seemingly a better approach to take regarding the Todoroki family drama than is currently being taken.

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My Hero Academia chapter 388 sets up a good, but not great, finale to the Todoroki family drama

Brief spoiler recap

My Hero Academia chapter 388 allegedly begins with Itsuka Kendo restraining All For One’s spies at U.A. High. The Pro Heroes present in the evacuation blocks then start evacuating civilians to the surface upon realizing the blocks have been immobilized. U.A. robots also assist with evacuations and share that they’ll follow any orders given to them.

The Todorokis then see Dabi’s heat sphere, with Rei having a worried expression on her face. She asks Natsuo to protect his sister before jumping into a bike robot and asking to be taken to the source of the heat. The flashback then ends, returning to Rei, Endeavor, and Dabi in the present, with Endeavor telling Rei to leave or else she’ll burn to death.

My Hero Academia chapter 388 then sees Rei say the same to him as Dabi starts mumbling about his mother, prompting Rei to apologize to him. When Dabi next says his siblings’ names, it’s revealed that Natsuo and Fuyumi have arrived. After brief conversation, the chapter’s final panels see Endeavor hope his family doesn’t die, with the chapter ending by showing an alternate version of the Todoroki family, with a happy and healthy Toya present.

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Why Horikoshi needs a more focused plot

Before diving into the main argument of this article, it’s worth emphasizing that My Hero Academia is a good series by any measuring stick. To reach 388 chapters and counting is an incredible feat and representative of the narrative and artistic quality of the series. This is true considering Shueisha’s cutthroat approach to new series lately, such as Aliens Area’s cancelation, which fans considered premature.

However, the Todoroki family drama is emblematic of how some aspects of the series could be tightened up. My Hero Academia chapter 388 embodies this in a way by having all of the Todoroki Frost users show up to help Endeavor with Dabi, except Shoto. While Horikoshi likely wants to build drama before the eventual (presumably) happy payoff, this may not be the right way to go about it.

One alternative approach Horikoshi could’ve taken was to have Shoto switch roles with his siblings Natsuo and Fuyumi. In such a scenario, it would be the “core four” of the Todoroki family drama at risk of dying, which would have created more meaningful and poignant drama. During the climactic moment, Fuyumi and Natsuo could’ve also joined, giving fans a sense of family unity in the end while also allowing Horikoshi to write a suspenseful story.

Such an approach for My Hero Academia chapter 388 would, in turn, create a more focused narrative for the Todoroki family drama. By keeping Shoto in the spotlight alongside his mother, father, and eldest brother, it emphasizes their being the stars of this show. While one can argue that such emphasis is unnecessary at this point, it’s somewhat of a cop-out argument that relies on every single reader recognizing this without such obvious visual cues.

However, at the end of the day, it is Horikoshi’s story, and the expectation of readers for the story is not his responsibility. In the same breath, no artist of any medium is immune to criticism, despite how well one’s art performs. At the very least, Horikoshi seems to be making the right call for the ending of the Todoroki family storyline, regardless of exactly how he gets there.

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