My Review Academia S5 E23: The Tragedy of Tenko Shimura

Buckle up, everyone. This is a gruesome one.

The League’s battle continues. Spinner faces off against a power-boosting politician in a desperate attempt to help his friends. Meanwhile, Shigurake’s power continues to grow as he faces off with Re-Destro. More terrifying yet: his backstory finally comes to light.

Right of the bat, this episode has stronger animation than most from this arc. It doesn’t have any mind-blowing sakuga, but it’s all above average. Especially so in the latter half of the episode, when things get really dark and gruesome.

We open up with a scene starring Spinner. We see small hints at his backstory and we finally learn why he’s stuck around with the League. It gives the character some much needed depth.

Immediately after that, we get our first true battle between Shigurake and Re-Destro. It’s a slowly paced battle, but the animation is pretty solid. Plus, it leads pretty nicely into Shigurake’s backstory.

Which leads me to the childhood of Tenko Shimura. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the most gruesome scenes in the entire series. Seeing the slow escalation of the young boy’s troubled circumstances explode into a bloody tragedy unlike anything we’ve seen to date is truly horrifying. The full consequences of Nana Shimura’s decision to leave her son behind are seen here, in the full mental collapse of her grandson. It’s honestly kind of uncomfortable to watch.

And more horrifying yet: it’s only half finished.

Overall, this was a fairly strong episode. Not a whole lot happened, but all that did was extremely powerful and memorable. We have waited years to see this character’s backstory, and it did not disappoint. Out of all of season five, this is easily among its strongest episodes.