There’s another Vigilantes/Toya crossover with AFO watching Six dance as he burns away, and then Six is reborn from a partial skeleton. In Vigilantes, AFO has no idea how this is happening. BUT, while the doctor in MHA tells the gorilla cop he didn’t know how Dabi survived at the time, he then says it was hatred and resentment, meaning AFO learned something critical about survival and the singularity between Dabi’s escape, Six’s fight, and now. Makes sense given AFO wants to live forever.
This Vigilantes scene happens within 6-7 years of current MHA because AFO is potato-faced and Small Might exists, so maybe it’s a year or two after All Might fought AFO? When Dabi woke up from his coma at age 16, it seems AFO was limited to being a voice from a box, so that’s also within 6-7 years of current MHA, making Dabi 22-23 now. But child Shoto seems younger than 10 when Dabi sneaks into the Todoroki house??? And I think Dabi is a bit older (24ish?) in MHA? That makes me think the Dabi scene was slightly earlier than the Vigilantes scene. But it could go either way. It’s unclear which event happened first, but it IS clear that both gave AFO critical information to help him crack the quirk singularity conundrum and “perfect” Shigaraki.
Chapter title: SKYCRAWLER RISING!!!! I am SO happy to see Koichi is still Koichi! Still saving people, still awkward, still struggling with public image. Bless his grit.
Pop is in a new city herself. Still recovering, still friends with Koichi. Not “together,” but in touch, and I love it.
Finally we see Knuckleduster, still kicking ass in the dark alleyways.
Yeah, we got a happy ending for our main 3, plus all the MHA characters we know and love (retiree Tanuma is there too). Knowing All Might is watching Koichi makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
My only complaint? There’s so little Shonen Jump fanfare!! I mean, I know they can be brutal about axing a series, but I didn’t get any email blast or anything about the finale. And Sakamoto Days gets the headline spot on the app. Hideyuki Furuhashi and Betten Court did fantastic work on Vigilantes and deserve to be celebrated for enriching the MHA world.
