This article contains spoilers up to the end of My Hero Academia season 7

My Hero Academia may be a series renowned for its lovable cast of characters and unique aesthetic, but it's also become greatly admired by fans around the world for its incredible action scenes too. Deku and the other powerful heroes from UA High have all clashed with strong villains countless times in the story, and while all of these small battles would eventually lead up to a Final War, which takes place after more than 400 chapters, it seems as though the story wasn't originally supposed to run for this long, at least not technically.

Kohei Horikoshi, the author of My Hero Academia, has been pretty open about his approach to creating the manga ever since he first began publishing the series. While he has made it no secret that he didn't initially plan for My Hero Academia to run for as long as it did, he has also made specific mention of a particular battle in the story that would have acted as the perfect ending point for the series, and when looking back at the battle in question, it's honestly hard to disagree.

A Fiery Clash Between Rivals Almost Marked The End Of The Story

Talk About Going Out With A Bang

All Might and All For One clashed early on in the story
This fight forced All Might to sacrifice the remeaining embers of One For All

No My Hero Academia fan will ever be able to forget the first time All Might and his arch rival All For One traded blows in the story. This inevitable clash occurs when All Might and a group of other Pro Heroes embark on a mission to save Bakugo from the League of Villains. Considering All Might was already holding onto the last few embers of One For All by this point, he realized this would be his final chance to defeat the man who had been terrorizing the world for so many years, resulting in what many fans consider to be the best fight in the entire show.

While All For One is able to deal a considerable amount of damage thanks to his large arsenal of deadly Quirks, All Might, using every last bit of energy still burning in his body, delivers a barrage of hard-hitting attacks to take down the maniacal villain once and for all. While All Might barely manages to secure the victory, it comes at a steep price, as the fight forces him to sacrifice the last remaining remnants of One For All, essentially turning him into a regular civilian after it's finished.

Considering this fight takes place in an early story arc, it was surprising that the strongest hero and villain in the world would get to duke it out at full force when there was still seemingly so much more story left to cover. However, while My Hero Academia would continue long after this flight concluded, Horikoshi himself hinted that this may have been his original end point for the story when he first started writing.

My Hero Academia's Success Pushed Horikoshi To Go Further

Much To The Joy Of Fans, The Author Continued Expanding The World And Characters Thanks To Positive Feedback

During a 2018 interview, when the My Hero Academia anime was still in its early years, Horikoshi was asked whether he felt that the clash between All Might and All For One was a particularly dark or tense scene for him to write, and also how it felt to finally see it in motion, now that it had been fully animated. The author's response is quite telling, as while he does suggest that he wanted to make this fight as big and memorable as possible, due to the implications it would have on All Might's character, he also reveals that he wanted fans to feel like this was the end of the story as a whole.

"My goal was to make readers think that My Hero Academia would end during this fight...at that point during the poll, there were really good reviews, giving me the feeling that this manga isn't going to just be tossed aside as a one shot" - Kohei Horikoshi

To be honest, this explosive fight definitely would have served as a neat and tidy ending placed on top of an already incredible story, but with that being said, it was clear that Horikoshi had already created a world that was just begging to be explored in so many more ways. As part of the same answer, he admits that the series was receiving an overwhelming amount of positive feedback and reception from fans at the time, which encouraged him to continue working on the story to see which direction he could take it in next.

It's important to remember that My Hero Academia is the third manga series written by Horikoshi, with the previous two failing to make an impact when they released in Shonen Jump. As a result, it's highly likely the author probably believed the series wouldn't end up going all that far, but thankfully, it turned out to be a smash hit. While this epic moment is therefore extremely important to Horikoshi's story as an author, it's actually a fight that's been directly referenced in the latest season of the anime.

All Might And All For One Are Facing Off Once Again

And This Time, It Really Is The Final Showdown

All Might and All For One duke it out once again in the Final War
All Might may be Quirkless, but he's got a deadly suit of armor to help him out
All For One is powerful, but his body is reverting too quickly

It seems only fitting that the fight that almost marked the end of the story would only happen once again in the final arc of the series. While he may now be Quirkless, All Might has been able to power himself back up to speed thanks to his Support Gear, giving him the strength and durability required to face off against his arch rival one final time. By integrating a bunch of devices into his suit which replicate the Quirks of the Class 1-A students, All Might proves at the very end of season 7 that he's got more than enough weaponry to take down the man who murdered his mentor, no matter how much damage he needs to receive in the process.

"To be of service to others...What a joy!" - All Might

However, All For One has also become incredibly powerful by this point in the story, though with the Rewind Quirk going out of control, his body is still probably a lot more fragile and susceptible to damage than he would have initially liked. That being said though, the dangerous villain still has a cocktail of dangerous Quirks hidden up his sleeve that can be thrown out at a moment's notice, so even All Might, with his gigantic mech of sturdy armor, will have a difficult time landing even a scratch on his longtime opponent.

While this fight isn't technically the final one of the series, it is still clearly a heartfelt homage to their first battle that took place many years ago. In a way, it's not only All Might and All For One's final opportunity to reflect on their rivalry, but the fight also acts as an indication for Horikoshi to acknowledge just how far the series has come since its humble beginnings.

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Release Date: 2016 - 2025-00-00
Network: TBS, MBS, Nippon TV
Directors: Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki Yamamoto, Yohei Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano