The Meta Liberation Army arc turns My Hero Academia on its head, comically switching to My Villain Academia and featuring the League of Villains as its protagonist. The Meta Liberation Army takes center stage as the true villains of this chapter, upset about the many quirk restriction laws in My Hero Academia's universe. They aim to lure the League of Villains into a trap and wipe out their numbers, gaining notoriety in society as the ones who were more potent than humanity's greatest threat. The League of Villains may have yet to be aware of their looming threat, but Tomura Shigaraki has been tasked with taking on a near-impossible mission that may sway the odds in their favor if he is successful.

The story of the Meta Liberation Army butting heads with the League of Villains takes place from chapter 218 to chapter 240, serving as one of the shorter arcs of its time. In the anime series, this arc is broken into three sections — beginning with episode 100, continuing from episode 108 to episode 112, and concluding with episode 126 as part of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc. While this portion of My Hero Academia begins with Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo earning their provisional hero licenses, the episodes and chapters don't feature many of the heroes at all — save for a few appearances from the number two hero, Hawks, who is undercover as part of the League of Villains.

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The Meta Liberation Army Arrives

During the U.A. Sports Festival arc, fans of My Hero Academia receive the first mention of the Meta Liberation Army with the discussion of Destro's child. Though there is no word of the child after that, it is brought to light during the Meta Liberation Army arc that his son, Re-Destro, is the army's leader. Re-Destro is a middle-aged man with a tall and slender body, sporting a comically long nose and protruding chin. He carries himself like a politician, wearing a pinstripe black and white suit and putting on a facade of being a humble and understanding person, softly spoken when conversing with the public. On the inside, he's a dark and plotting character, believing in the ideals of his ancestors that quirks should be celebrated and not criminalized.

His quirk, Stress, allows him to build up and bottle a high amount of stress and fear, which is used to increase his strength and endurance during battle significantly. It also boosts his size and muscle mass, making him faster. Re-Destro's Stress quirk is one of the strangest quirks in My Hero Academia, and it also leads to his early male-pattern baldness, which is a direct effect of his pent-up stress and fear. At 100% Stress, Re-Destro becomes a behemoth, standing to the size of Gigantomachia, and can emit large waves of black matter-energy from the palms of his hands.

However, it wouldn't be an army if it were just one person, and Re-Destro had power in numbers. While he remains the strongest of his group and the only A-ranked villain, he can rely on his higher-ranked officials, such as Curious, Trumpet, Skeptic, and Geten. These four range from B-rank to C-rank villains but come with a variety of different quirks that are powerful on their own but work more efficiently as a collective group. Curious' quirk, Landmine, can make anything she touches explode, and although one attack isn't enough to do significant damage, she can land multiple blows quickly. Paired with Trumpet's Incite, a quirk that can call upon waves of army members, the two can overwhelm anyone in their way.

Looking Back At Tomura Shigaraki's Upbringing

One area My Hero Academia does exceptionally well is introducing a character's backstory at a pivotal point. Shigaraki gets his moment in the spotlight, rewinding to when he was a child, still exploring for his quirk to activate. At five years old, Shigaraki aspired to become a hero despite his physical ailments and allergic reactions that caused him to scratch his skin constantly. Unfortunately, his father resented heroes and their disregard for family, abandoning them to pursue criminals and live a life of fame. The big reveal comes when My Hero Academia viewers learn of his grandmother, a previous inheritor of One For All and the hero to pass the quirk off to All Might.

Once Shigaraki's father learns of his son entering the office to find this secret, he beats him in front of the rest of the family. Though his painful screams call out for help, Shigaraki's family is too fearful of getting in the way. Later that evening, while Shigaraki is consoling his lashings by hugging his dog, his Decay quirk activates, causing the animal to turn to dust. This event sets the chain in motion, leading to the deaths of his sister, his father, and grandmother, and eventually, his mother, too, the one person who believed in him. The heart-wrenching final moment with his mother and seeing her reach out for him as she falls apart turns Shigaraki from a child to a cruel monster, having lost everything dear to him.

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Sadly, the destruction of Shigaraki's home and family leads to him becoming an orphan, which leads to disastrous results. All For One discovers a young boy on the verge of desperation, who also happens to have an exceptionally destructive force and uses his need for love to his advantage. Taking him under his wing, All For One turns Shigaraki into one of the greatest villains of My Hero Academia and the leader of the League of Villains. As a way of coping with the loss, the hands that Shigaraki places over his face and body are those of his lost family members, as a way to carry them with him wherever he goes.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

At the peak of the Meta Liberation Army arc, Re-Destro and his group go head-to-head with the League of Villains for ultimate supremacy of the villain underworld. As Shigaraki fights Re-Destro in a one-on-one battle, the likes of Dabi, Toga, Twice, and Mr. Compress spread out in the city, tasked with wiping out the army. Though the numbers are not in their favor, the confidence of the League of Villains members couldn't be higher. What lies ahead is no easy feat, and the eventual turn and reveal of Hawks as an undercover spy doesn't bode well for their chances either.

The action-packed episodes highlight the many strengths and profound lore of characters like Twice and Toga, who do well in their development, concentrating on what makes them more human than initially seen. Toga transforms herself into Ochaco Uraraka, thanks to some blood she had in a vial, and uses her Zero Gravity quirk to escape a sticky situation. Meanwhile, Twice learns how to disassociate himself from his multiple copies, gaining the ability to understand that he is the original version of himself while controlling the copies he creates to attack the numerous Meta Liberation Army members. At one point, he rescues Toga from a near-death experience, showing one of the first signs of humanity between two villains.

Shigaraki defeats Re-Destro after discovering his true latent power of Decay, harnessing it to get the upper hand in combat despite Re-Destro's achievement of 100% stress. The wave of attacks Shigaraki sends toward the Meta Liberation Army catches Re-Destro's legs, forcing him to amputate his limbs to survive the decay effect. Re-Destro and the Meta Liberation Army are forced to surrender with the battle won by the League of Villains. Instead of dissolving the army that attacked them, Shigaraki forms a bond between the two forces, creating the Paranormal Liberation Front.

A Villain's Heartfelt And Tragic Death

Twice overcame his inability to tell whether he was the original version or if that mantle belonged to one of his copies. During this arc, he manages to overcome that obstacle, creating a much stronger Copy quirk for him to use. Using this newfound strength, Twice could make dozens of copies of himself, manipulating and controlling them at a whim to launch attacks against the Meta Liberation Army. This revelation was noticed by Hawks, who had been working undercover with the League of Villains. Preventing Twice from becoming any stronger and learning of his secret, Hawks used one of his feathers as a dagger to slay Twice.

While the death of a villain doesn't usually get the spotlight of a hero, Twice's passing was heartfelt and painful to watch. While his copies remain for an undetermined amount of time, they eventually turn to mud and lose their memories. As Toga was making her escape, thanks to the help of a Twice duplicate, the copy eventually began melting away. Revealing he was a copy and that the original had since been destroyed, Toga was left holding the last remaining remnants of her friend. Despite Twice's involvement with the League of Villains and criminal activity, his real-life struggles and well-developed persona left many grabbing for a tissue box during his final moments.

The My Hero Academia manga is available to read on Viz and the Dragon Ball anime is available to stream on Crunchyroll.

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My Hero Academia

In My Hero Academia, Young Deku is born into a world where people commonly have something called quirks, also known as superpowers. He himself is born without any, but circumstances lead to that changing. He enrolls at the UA High School, a prestigious academy where the worlds future heroes learn how to use their powers.