My Hero Academia is quickly approaching its final chapter, and despite how much is happening in the current arc, Kohei Horikoshi has managed to balance his story-telling with impeccable artwork and beautiful spreads that can be seen throughout Chapter 382, aptly titled “Don’t Let Him Go.” Written and illustrated by Kohei Horikoshi, translated by Caleb Cook with lettering by John Hunt, Chapter 382 continues to explore the horrors of war, and the restrictions of Himiko Toga’s quirk.
As the narrative rapidly swaps perspectives from the ongoing battle with All For One, who’s seemingly become invincible, and Uraraka’s hunt to track down the original Toga after transforming herself into Twice and creating a hoard of duplicates, it becomes increasingly clear that the heroes are running out of time. Ending with a heart-pounding cliffhanger, My Hero Academia Chapter 382 does an excellent job balancing its characters, setting, and action.
My Hero Academia Chapter 382 has every hero and villain exactly where they need to be in this climactic arc, balancing the ensemble cast shockingly well. While My Hero Academia has been criticized in the past for having poor character writing, this chapter does an excellent job at showing the distinct personalities and feelings of each character featured, choosing to spend an especially beautiful spread dedicated to Toga, a fan-favorite villain whose character arc has been heavily spotlighted in the past few chapters.
Being able to pull off diverging narratives — especially while trying to wrap up a series — is no easy feat, but each page does an excellent job adding exposition to a brilliantly illustrated battlefield. This chapter is filled with incredibly detailed spreads and panels that prove just how skilled an artist Horikoshi is. The intensity behind All For One’s face in this chapter is downright haunting, a testament to the villain’s looming presence from the beginning of the story.
The lettering in this chapter, courtesy of John Hunt, helps keep this action-packed chapter readable. The fonts chosen for All For One and Gigantomachia are perfectly menacing. Additionally, despite how dialogue-heavy the pages dedicated to Toga are, the lettering work makes every discussion easy to follow. Given how the parameters and restrictions of certain perks featured throughout My Hero, being able to absorb the influx of information thrown at readers is crucial.
The translation for this chapter reads incredibly smooth. Caleb Cook has done outstanding work on My Hero, juggling different dialects for the large cast of characters and localizing terminology that doesn’t translate well to English. Chapter 382 is no different, with all the dialogue being easy to read.
Concluding with an exciting cliffhanger, Chapter 382 of My Hero Academia does an excellent job at preparing readers for the future of this climactic story arc and developing beloved characters.
New My Hero Academia Chapters Release every Sunday at 10AM EST through Viz Media’s Shonen Jump imprint.
