Touya: Father, Why Have You Forbade Me From Entering The Delicious Chamber?

久しぶりにヒロアカの絵

BNHA 356 - Thoughts

First the leaks confused me, so I thought I'd wait for the scanlation. Then the scanlation confused me, so I waited for the official. But tbh, I'm still confused a bit with the central part of the chapter - Young Enji's appearance and what it all means.

It was a visually pleasing chapter, and I get why many people like it, but to me, it still feels a bit meh' because of how messy that middle part feels.

Tokoyami getting a big smash looked cool. And that's all it did. I wish this fight would bring back my immense love for the Hawks & Tokoyami content that I adored during the war arc, but so far, it just feels like an echo of the hype I felt then.

AFO eating the vestige. OK? I guess. AFO vestige stuff is so non-sensical at this point, that there is no point to comment.

Hawks is growing on me again. Him moving from wanting to score a killing blow to shielding the kids - this little featherless chicken certainly is pulling his weight in this fight. His expression as he turns to look back at Endeavor really got me.

He's not even surprised, because he knew that Endeavor would get back up, but also it's sad seeing Endeavor's sacrificing his arm.

4. I'm glad Endeavor is back up and trying to protect the kids who stepped in when he faltered.

5. On the one hand, his young self doesn't say anything shocking, but on the other, it reveals a deep self-hatred, that ties somehow to the loss of his own father, who died trying and failing to save a girl. We don't know much else. Whether he was a hero or a civilian. Whether he had the same quirk. Whether he was a good dad or another abusive asshole. Whether Enji watched it happen helplessly or learnt it later. It's all left open.

But what it gives us is a reason for Enji's endless thirst for power and strength, his obsession with All Might and how he turned to power to try to shield his heart.

It is tragic and sad and ironic how young Enji's loss of his family because of weakness leads to Endeavor's obsession with strength, which then leads to the destruction of his family at the first sign of his son's weakness. It gives context, but not an excuse. It doesn't lessen Endeavor's responsibility towards his family.

As the resident weakness expert said - there is more to strength than a strong quirk. Endeavor should have listened more.

I have to admit, Endeavor growing a flaming arm is a pretty cool visual - even if this is not the moment I'm waiting for. There ought to be a more emotionally resonating closure - something where it really feels like Endeavor is letting his "ugly heart" to be fully exposed and vulnerable, and fall to pieces, and where he lets himself grieve and accept and embrace both his own father's memory and his family who suffered so much on account of his "ugly heart".

The fight obviously continues, so maybe it will all makes sense in a few days. Until then, I keep believing that the story won't let Endeavor punch himself into redemption, because clearly his weakness has nothing to do with his quirk and everything to do with his heart.

(I this context also see Shouto's Phosphor coming from the center of his heart, and Touya's mystery glowing, which is also in the center of his chest.)

Thinking about the parallels between how much red is in each Todoroki's kids hair and their opinion of the father they got it from.

It's not a direct comparison based on quantity, but that does play a factor. The more key element is the placement.

Shoto's is the most obvious. His white and red hair is literally split down the middle and after his revelations at the sports festival, he starts feeling more torn about his feelings surrounding his father. Eventually settling on seeing him as a good hero but a flawed father that hasn't been forgiven but has room to change.

Natsuo as all white hair, which makes sense. He's the one that's the most vocally critical and hostile to Enji in the household and is never shown to have fond memories of him. The red isn't there and never was, and neither is love for his father. ..or is there.

Natsu did have red in his hair, at least for a time. But I believe it is still there, hidden and tucked away in his current hairstyle. It's always been there, even if it stays a few small strands, care for his father will always be there whether he wants to acknowledge it or not.

At first glance Fuyumi is a similar way, her care about Enji being small and understated. She has less red than white afterall. But Fuyumi has red strands integrated throughout her hair. She is clear that she doesn't support what Enji has done but she has clear memories from before that point and that has colored her perspective. What she wants, more than anything, is for Enji to be integrated back into the family, for the family to be whole. Her red hair is inseparable from the rest of it because to her, more than any of her siblings, their father is an integral part of their family. And she's not ashamed to say it.

And then there's the juicey changes with Touya. He was born with a full head of red hair, very obviously symbolizing his adoration of Enji. He was eager to be the prodigy Enji wanted and their relationship was positive, at least at the start. It's not an accident that Enji commenting on the first few strands of white in Touya's hair comes right before the first time we see him burn himself.

As his relationship with Enji strains, he gets more white hair until there's nothing left, until their relationship has completely decayed and Touya sets himself on fire. It's gone further than Natsuo's aggression and dismissive attitude. And that hatred spreads to the entire family. His white hair isn't enough to show that, so he breaks from the family completely, with pitch black.

But it's not the whole truth. At the end of the day, it's still artificial dye and by removing that dye when he comes clean about his family ties, he also leaves himself open to that family coming back into his life.

I wonder if that red might come back too.

They're so shape

quick todoroki fam sketches

BNHA chp. 300

Decided to sketch Enji in commemoration of the new bnha chapter. And his ass ofc

Last in my backlog of MHA fancomics. Tread lightly, I did this to hurt myself 🫠

In pinterest I found a photo with kids sailor dresses and thought about Todoroki children.

this is actually like redraw of my old fanart from 2021, when I had just started watching the anime (haven't read the manga) when I drew them. So I didn't know their age gap, that touya in this age allready had white hair and of course didn't know about their height difference