#ch246

Ok so I’m supposed to be doing a group project today but I went home halfway through the day because I feel like garbage so now I’m back in bed and I thought I’d put my two cents into the new movie trailer, specifically with regards to the most recent manga chapter.

So first things first, WE GET NEW SHIGGY CONTENT!! Honestly if we didn’t get any Shig whatsoever I’d be seriously disappointed. Now his only line in the trailer is this:

Accompanied by this shot and Nine’s response:

Now, I’m noting the long hair, the new coat, the presence of only Father and the fact that he appears to be wearing a glove on his left hand, which suggests that this movie might actually be set after the MLA battle (bold move- could mean some serious spoilers for anime-only watchers). Considering the most recent couple of chapters, I’d place this movie after the Deika incident but before the internships began. That would also explain Hawks’s presence- this could be before he’s been bugged and monitored. But that’s not really what I’m focused on. What really got my attention is that we now know how Nine got his name:

He’s got an ability similar to AfO’s. Now, we don’t know exactly what the parameters of his abilities are, though considering later in the trailer he appears to be threatening to take one of the heroes’ quirks it may be safe to assume nine isn’t the limit and he does have the capability of acquiring more. But also this:

Ujiko made Nine. 

Dr Ujiko has clearly been researching methods for piling multiple quirks onto a single human body, first with the barely-sentient Nomu, then with the High-Ends, and now with Nine. In the most recent chapter, we found out exactly what it is he’s focusing on.

He’s researching ways to adapt the body’s ‘hardware’, as he calls it, to be able to run the ‘software’ of rapidly evolving and mixing quirks in order to minimise or prevent quirk backlash like we see in Shigaraki’s damaged arm.

I reckon what we’re seeing here with Nine is the immediate precursor to his offering to Shigaraki. With Nine we appear to have an individual who is able to take possession of and use multiple quirks without mental (and possibly physical) backlash. He is the last and most successful test subject before Ujiko is willing to try it on Shigaraki. 

Shigaraki’s opening line suggests he (and possibly by extension Ujiko) believed the test to be a failure and for Nine to have succumbed to the long, painful adaptation process. Nine’s survival is a major success for all three of them. 

I think this is the process Shigaraki is about to undergo in the manga, and I think the fate of Nine in the movie will have heavy implications for how Shigaraki is going to fare after his four-month metamorphosis. 

If Nine fails or is defeated because his body reaches this ‘quirk singularity point’ during the course of the movie... I think we should be concerned for Shigaraki. However, if it succeeds, then I think we know exactly what power Ujiko is granting him: the ability to take and control any quirk (including, as mentioned, One For All) without any physical or mental blowback. 

initially they were both seeking family-- red wanted to feel accepted, mana was looking for nea, but either way this is what prompted red to be vulnerable for the first time in his life. and mana's response changed him--originally a cynic, red begins to see the beauty and love in the world despite it all.

this connection, the first emotional bond he made with another person, is lost when mana loses his memories. red says it himself:

or, well, the bond is there-- but it can't be fully reciprocated. you can see it in how red despairingly tries to get mana to remember his mission: "you were looking for your little brother, you were so desperate you nearly got run over, didn't you want to see him that badly?" mana's story resonated with him-- finding family when red never had one. now, mana doesn't even know he has a family.

red took that from him. just as mana said love opens up a path, red destroyed that path, destroyed mana's ability to have what red had always wanted, ability to hope and inspire red to hope in turn.

allen (human) is therefore born as an apology, a replication who exists to give back to mana what red stole. allen lives not just to provide the sense of family-- but also to be a vessel to impart unto mana his very identity, his values. "remember[ing] it all" in his stead.