My Hero Academia ends with Deku following in All Might's footsteps one last time, and it's perfect

Modified Aug 14, 2024 08:30 GMT

Deku and All Might as seen in the anime (image via Bones)

Izuku Midoriya, aka Deku, began his journey as a hero in My Hero Academia by following in the footsteps of his childhood idol, All Might, who served as both a guardian angel and the one true Pillar of Hope for people all over the world.

Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia manga officially concluded on August 5, 2024. Although the ending of the series left a lot of fans dissatisfied with the events of the final chapter, it can be said with absolute certainty, that the story's conclusion poetically brought Deku's journey full circle.

This is because the manga quite literally ended with Deku once again following in his childhood hero's footsteps for one last time, which was undoubtedly the perfect sendoff for his character.

How Deku's ending paralleled All Might's fate in My Hero Academia

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All Might, once hailed as the lone Symbol of Peace, was eventually forced to retire from being a professional hero following his second battle against All For One during the Kamino Incident arc. During this arc, All Might exhausted almost the entirety of his One For All Quirk, which resulted in him reverting to his original emaciated and feeble form.

However, this did not stop All Might from putting his life on the line on the battlefield once again, as he resorted to using an armored suit to fight against All For One last time during the Final War arc. All Might had drained almost his entire fortune while developing the suit, which was powerful enough to allow him to go toe-to-toe against All For One even without having a Quirk.

Many fans were quick to point out that the suit took inspiration from the Marvel superhero, Iron Man's armor, as it even came with an AI named Hercules and embodied the Quirks of Deku's classmates at U.A. High. Although both the suit and its AI ended up being destroyed in the battle against All For One, the data from the fight was utilized to create a new and more advanced armored suit, that was given to Deku in the final pages of My Hero Academia's final chapter.

Deku and All Might as seen in My Hero Academia (image via Bones)

Defeating Tomura Shigaraki and saving Tenko Shimura's soul, Deku willingly sacrificed One For All and transferred it to the former's body during their battle. Although his plan ended up being successful, he lost almost the entirety of his Quirk in the process and was left with only a tiny fraction of his power to fight All For One.

Fortunately, Deku ended up defeating All For One with the combined efforts of his friends as well as the previous users of One For All and Tomura Shigaraki's vestiges. After the war was over, Deku admitted that he was now in a similar state as All Might, as he was left with only a few embers of his Quirk after transferring it and would soon become Quirkless.

In My Hero Academia's final chapter, Deku became completely Quirkless after the final embers of One For All died out, following which he decided to contribute to the Hero Society by becoming a teacher at U.A. High and mentoring a new generation of heroes. That said, towards the end of the chapter, Deku was given a second chance at becoming a hero by All Might and his former classmates.

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According to All Might, his former classmates had funded the creation of a new armored suit, which was said to be an improvement of the suit All Might had used in his final battle against All For One. Therefore, Deku is finally back to becoming what he had always desired - a hero, despite being Quirkless once again.

What's poetic about the conclusion of Deku's character arc, however, is that he quite literally followed in All Might's footsteps - from becoming the most powerful hero after receiving One For All and subsequently losing almost the entirety of it in battle, to becoming a full-time teacher after becoming Quirkless for the second time and eventually returning to action in an armored suit.

From the beginning of My Hero Academia, all Deku wanted to do was become a great hero like All Might and follow in his footsteps. The fact that he managed to accomplish exactly that, that too, in almost the same manner as the former Symbol of Peace, made Deku's journey come full circle, and sent his character off in the best way possible.