The word "peak" gets thrown around a bit too loosely these days. Peak is supposed to be, well, the peak, the single highest achievement anything can achieve. But it feels like we're just slapping that label on any old movie, TV show, game or whatever that has the courage to Not Suck in today's media landscape. And frankly, that isn't fair to the fiction in question! There are plenty of good, great, and excellent stories that might not be flawless or life-changing, but still offer a valuable experience all the same. Yes, I love a masterpiece as much as anybody, but something shouldn't have to be the literal Greatest Of All Time to be worth watching. And we do ourselves a disservice when we only engage with fiction through such hyperbolic terms. Trust me, the more you learn to appreciate art without needing it to be "peak," the better off you'll be.

With all that said: My Hero Academia is fucking PEAK.

In retrospect, it's kind of a miracle how perfectly timed my experience with this series was. After getting sucked into anime in 2017, the very first two ongoing series I decided to follow were Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia. Both were still in their second season at the time, only just starting to show how spectacular they would end up being. But they were far and away the most popular anime at the time, so I dove in head-first and resolved to follow them to the bitter end. And over the years that followed, I've watched them both blossom into not just the best possible versions of themselves, but some of the most staggering, awe-inspiring, and meaningful stories to ever come out of this medium. Growing into a young adult alongside Deku and his friends in class A-1 has been like discovering and re-discovering an old friend over and over again, only falling more and more in love as I realize just how special it truly is. I may have missed out on growing up alongside a long-running series like Naruto or Bleach, like so many of my peers did, but having this series by my side has more than made up for it.

I've already written extensively about MHA in my reviews for the other seasons, so I'll avoid rehashing myself too much here. Suffice to say, it's a triumph of shonen storytelling that elevates its simple storytelling with fantastic action setpieces, stellar long-term character work, and a gripping exploration of the nature of heroism and its role in building a better world. Last season kicked off the final battle with every conceivable character involved, and with basically every other plot thread and character arc resolved there, the final season can jump straight into the true endgame clash: Izuku, Shigaraki, All Might, and One for All. The greatest of heroes and the greatest of villains locked in an epic brawl for the fate of society itself. It's nothing but one massive conclusion for the hundred-plus episodes we've spent getting here, the grand finale to everything MHA has been exploring with its themes. If this wasn't an absolute slam dunk of an ending, the entire show would be weaker for it.

Luckily, as we established last season, Horikoshi is really fucking good at endings.

There's no other way to say it: My Hero Academia's finale is a triumph. It's a bombastic, fist-pumping, utterly transcendent firework rocketing into the sky and exploding in rainbow colors. It takes all the show's commentary, all its build-up toward a greater understanding of heroism, and funnels it into a knockout blow as powerful as the strongest punch All Might every threw. Every episode is a masterpiece. Every episode had me shrieking with joy and/or bawling my eyes out. And watching Izuku finally smash through the old world and redefine what makes a hero matter is confirmation that this truly is one of the greatest shonen series ever made. I always had faith in this show, even when the rest of the anime community turned on it, and this finale has proven my faith justified. My Hero Academia was always great; why wouldn't its ending stick the landing so incredibly hard?

Of course, it helps that season 8 is far and away the best the show has ever looked. I'm not one of those snobs who thinks MHA's inconsistent production turned it into garbage, even in the admittedly rough stretch from seasons 4 to 5. But it does help when the animation is able to fully capture the grandeur of the story being told. And with only eleven episodes and no movie to steal away talented staff, Bones has polished this finale into a spectacle worthy of such an apocalyptic climax. Every action scene roars with kinetic joy, superpowers smashing across the screen in spectacular sakuga cuts and razor-sharp editing. The cinematography is better than ever too, with some of the most evocative shot composition we've ever gotten from this show, heightening even its quieter moments to gut-wrenching emotional heights. Add to that a much more expressive lighting palette, and the end result is a visual feast that nails every moment, big and small, with the drama it deserves. And when it reaches its absolute peak in episodes 3 and 8, the end result isn't just the best episodes of the entire show; it's a landmark achievement of visual storytelling sure to go down in anime history. I. Am. In. AWE.

But as obviously incredible as those big action shots are, it's the smaller beats and more subtle emotional threads that tie everything together. This finale has to do so much heavy lifting in tying together the complexities of the hero system's failures and Shigaraki's place as the hero for villains. How do we sympathize with the forces that drove Shigaraki to darkness without forgiving the blood he's spilled? How do we acknowledge the humanity of the villains who knew this world wasn't enough while building something better instead of tearing it all down? For a show that started so simply, My Hero Academia has painted an incredibly nuanced picture of a society's responsibility toward its citizens, and what responsibility those citizens have to society in turn. And I think a lot of manga readers were sour on the ending because they just weren't prepared to grapple with that level of nuance. So many people would rather pick a side and complain about their faves being "done dirty" than acknowledge that storytelling is more than seeing your favorite blorbos get glazed.

Luckily, I already went through this song and dance with Attack on Titan, another manga crucified by fans because the ending asked them to face questions with no easy answers (though obviously to a much greater extreme). And just as AoT's anime ending proved the haters wrong, the complexities of MHA's finale are why this story was worth telling in the first place. No, this is not a universally happy ending, and it will leave you with uncertainties to ruminate on instead of wrapping absolutely everything up in a neat little bow. But those solemn notes are just as essential to its message as the final, glorious return of You Say Run. They're reminders of what was lost, suggestions of what could have been, and proof of why this society needed to change in the first place. It's only in grappling with those imperfections, of trying to understand and untangle where the world falls short, that MHA makes its statement on heroism so damn powerful. And the final conversation Izuku and Shigaraki share will linger in my mind for a very long time to come.

Most of all, though? What My Hero Academia offers is hope. Hope that things, however bleak, can get better. Hope that people are capable of radical change on an individual and social level. Hope that if we truly come together and fight for a better world as one, there's nothing we can't accomplish. The hero system's great failure was instilling the belief that ordinary people are meaningless, that only the select few Great Men and Woman can enact change for all of us. But no matter how strong he becomes, Izuku Midoriya is no Symbol of Peace. He's not a god among men standing above the rest of the world. He's just... a boy, scared and uncertain, but trying to do the right thing regardless because every bit of good he can accomplish matters. And watching him live up to his hero name, doing his best no matter the odds, is proof that everyone, no matter how insignificant they feel, has what it takes to become a hero. The power to change the world for the better does not belong to the elite few; it lies in US. We alone, with our own two hands, can fix what's broken and transform society into a place where everyone truly belongs.

All we need is the courage to do our best.

It's that message that stays with me now that My Hero Academia is finally over. In the 8 years I've been watching it, I've graduated college, moved to a foreign country, watched the world fall apart in so many different ways it feels hopeless even trying to fix it. I'm not the same person I was in 2017; I've grown older, wearier, more disillusioned than I'm comfortable admitting. But as I finally say goodbye to this show I've spent so much time with, I realize I believe in its vision for the future now more than ever. I may not have "grown up" with MHA in a literal sense, but it has shaped my understanding of the adult I want to be and the world I want to pass on to the next generation. This show has made my life better. It's made ME better. And now that it's finished alongside Attack on Titan, I can say goodbye to the person I was when those shows brought me into anime, looking forward with the lessons they taught me to the person I know I can still become.

Are there flaws? Sure there are. All for One is still a boring final boss whose master plans are so overwrought he might as well have an Author's Immunity sticker slapped on his forehead. Some of the side characters remain underutilized to the end, while others probably should've been focused on less. There are countless nits to pick if you go looking for them. But just because it's an awkward, gangly show at times doesn't make this finale any less of a home run. So rarely do these long-running shonen series pay off every single promise this perfectly, or make you feel like every step of this long journey was worth taking. But that's what makes anime so damn special; when it's done right? It makes you believe anything is possible. From now on, this is the bar all future shonen will be compared to. Forget Jujutsu Kaisen, or Demon Slayer, or any other wannabe series that's pretended to hold the crown; My Hero Academia is the kind of magic that will stand the test of time for many, many years to come.

So thank you, Horikoshi. Thanks you, Studio Bones. Thank you Bakugo and Endeavor, for two of the best redemption arcs I've ever seen. Thank you Shoto, for showing how we can rise above the demons dragging us down. Thank you Iida, for your endless compassion and loyalty. Thank you Ochako, for being the best goddamn shonen heroine ever written.

And, of course, thank you to one Izuku Midoriya, a crybaby weakling who showed the entire world what it truly means to be a hero.