My Hero Academia Volume 10: “All For One” (Chapters 81 through 89) Manga Review
Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.
On July 28, 2020, I started and finished reading My Hero Academia’s Volume 10. So far, I’ve been having a good time reading the manga. For those interested in my other My Hero Academia reviews, the link is here for all my other volume reviews I had written prior in addition to my anime season and movie reviews. Please check them out when you have a moment.
Starting with this manga review onward, I will be looser with the spoilers for the manga series because this is Volume 10, and it’s hard to discuss things at this point without spoiling content that happened in the previous volumes.
If you are behind on the series at this point, consider this a warning—there will be Major Spoiler Content following the synopsis paragraph.
Synopsis: Written and drawn by Kohei Horikoshi, the main series follows Izuku Midoriya—nicknamed Deku—and his dream to become a hero someday. In a world where 80% of the superhuman society had powers—dubbed Quirks in this series—the dream to become a superhero became way more common. Sadly enough, Deku fell into the 20% category, effectively making him average—or Quirkless. After a fateful encounter with the number one hero All Might though, Deku’s fate changes forever.
Volume 10: “All For One” picks up where the previous volume left off… with the League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad—consisting of Dabi, Himiko Toga, Twice, Spinner, Mr. Compress, Magne, Muscular, Mustard, Moonfish, and a Nomu—invading U.A.’s summer campsite. This volume pulled out all the stops—whipped out all the intense action—to keep the readers on the edge of their seats, raising the stakes higher than ever for our heroes-in-training and their teachers.
In the opening chapters of this volume, Mr. Compress had just captured Bakugo—the main target for the attack—and retreated with the rest of the remaining Vanguard Action Squad after completing their main objective. The League of Villains are interested in recruiting Katsuki Bakugo to their ranks due to his violent—borderline villainous—behavior during the “U.A. Sports Festival Arc”. Deku, Todoroki, Tokoyami, Shoji, Uraraka, and Tsuyu did everything they could to save their classmate, but the villains ultimately prevailed over them.
The ending to the villain invasion is both suspenseful and heartbreaking for all of Class 1-A—particularly Deku, who had to witness Bakugo getting kidnapped right in front of him. Deku’s emotions—rage, pain, torment, panic, sorrow, and desperation—ran strong across the pages, and his inability to do anything was palpable.
Volume 10 packed more emotional content through the writing and Horikoshi’s artwork, as the fallout of the attack weighed on everyone involved. In the aftermath during Deku’s hospital stay once the adrenaline rush was over, Deku looked broken with empty white eyes—expressionless—and haunted with few lines of Dialogue. His classic “mutter mutter mutter” and initiative to inspire others were gone.
The teachers of U.A. also suffered the consequences of their gross negligence, getting attacked by the general public and TV media, who were all outraged that another villain attack happened under their watch. While most superhero shows tend to ignore or dumb down this aspect of the genre, My Hero Academia doesn’t do either and allows the consequences to have a profound effect on the characters and plot.
While the police and Pro Heroes—like All Might and Endeavor—plan a rescue mission during the public televised interview, the students—Todoroki and Kirishima specifically—plan a high-risk plan of their own that would ideally not violate the rules of their superpowered society. Discussing this instinctual plan was an intense debate among the students of Class 1-A—the ones not hurt or hospitalized anyway—about following the laws and allowing the Pro Heroes to do the work, mainly driven by Tenya Iida due to his recklessness during the “Hero Killer Arc”.
Speaking further on consequences having a profound effect on the characters and plot, the damage done to the students of both Class 1-A and 1-B wasn’t overlooked or brushed over. While most suffered minor injuries, Momo Yaoyorozu endured a bad head injury during the attack on the camp and barely managed to place a tracking device on one of the villains without getting caught or killed. In addition, Deku was told by his doctors officially—after multiple warnings from Recovery Girl and Eraser Head in the previous volumes—that if he continued on this self-harm path, he could risk losing his arms. Deku was truly reaching his limit.
Despite this, Deku joined the student rescue mission alongside Tenya Iida, Shoto Todoroki, Eijirou Kirishima, and Momo Yaoyorozu.
In the second half of the volume, tensions ran high with both rescue missions playing out side-by-side: the arguments, and then the fight scenes between heroes and villains to save Bakugo. While the villains and general public believed Bakugo would turn on the heroes to join the villains due to his personality, Bakugo proved them wrong by committing to his admiration of All Might, the basis of his strong-willed resolve to become a hero. There was a lot of payoff happening in this volume.
Overall, My Hero Academia Volume 10: “All For One” ends on a cliffhanger that is heavily related to the title of this volume, setting-up an inevitable battle between All Might and All For One, the mastermind behind the League of Villains. I would highly recommend this manga if you’re into superheroes and action-packed scenes filled with emotions. Thanks for reading my manga review, everyone! Let’s keep it reading!