Get ready, My Hero Academia fans – the final season is almost here, and October 2025 can’t come fast enough. After seven amazing seasons, we’re finally headed into the ultimate showdown that will determine the fate of Hero Society. Season 8 promises to deliver everything fans have been anticipating: the final clash between All Might and All For One, and of course, the Deku vs. Shigaraki fight that we have all been waiting for.
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But let’s be real, it’s been nearly a year since Season 7 wrapped up, and even die-hard fans might be a little fuzzy on some of the key moments. With just a few months left until the premiere, there’s just not enough time to binge the entire series from scratch. So we’ve got you covered with ten of the best My Hero Academia episodes to refresh your memory and get you all excited for Season 8. Let’s dive in!
10) Shoto Todoroki: Origin (Season 2, Episode 10)
My Hero Academia often explores generational trauma, and Shoto Todoroki is the perfect example of this with how he was forced to carry his father’s dream of surpassing All Might. This episode focuses on his intense semi-final match against Deku during the Sports Festival. The match begins with Deku breaking his fingers one by one to counter Todoroki’s powerful ice attacks, but it quickly turns into an endurance test as Todoroki keeps using his ice blasts, wearing Deku down even as he tries to hide his pain.
The turning point comes when Deku stops trying to win and starts pushing Todoroki emotionally, calling him out for holding back his fire side just to spite his abusive father, and you can see it’s getting under Todoroki’s skin because he knows Deku is right. When Todoroki finally snaps and unleashes his flames, the animation goes absolutely insane. Shoto wins the fight, and his victory symbolizes Todoroki beginning to free himself from his father’s shadow and truly own who he is.
9) His Start (Season 4, Episode 25)
For most of the series, Endeavor is a self-absorbed, abusive father obsessed with surpassing All Might. But this MHA episode changes everything as he nearly dies fighting High-End and finally begins the path from irredeemable villain to a complex hero. The way he refuses to give up, even when his body is falling apart, shows there’s something heroic buried under all that anger and abuse.
The animation in this episode is on another level, with Studio Bones going all out to make every moment feel explosive, from Endeavor basically turning into a UFO mid-fight to Hawks sprinting backwards across rooftops. They clearly saved their boldest animation choices for this finale, really saving the best for last. By the end, you’re somehow rooting for the guy you’ve spent three seasons hating, and honestly, you’ll probably want to rewatch it just to feel it all again.
8) Infinite 100% (Season 4, Episode 13)
From the very beginning, My Hero Academia established that Deku’s quirk came with a heavy price: the more power he used, the more his body would tear itself apart. We watched him slowly work his way up from 5% to 8%, then 10-15%, and finally 20% in the previous episodes without completely destroying himself. So, when Deku realizes he can use 100% of One For All without breaking every bone in his body, it feels like watching a kid discover they can finally ride their bike without training wheels.
The episode also reveals that Eri’s quirk doesn’t rewind time like everyone thought, but actually rewinds people themselves. And suddenly, Deku realizes he’s got a human cheat code strapped to his back, letting him push his body way beyond what should be possible without consequences. The fight against Overhaul’s final monster form is every fan’s dream come true, and you can really feel Deku’s relief and excitement at finally being able to protect someone without holding back.
7) One’s Justice (Season 6, Episode 3)
In this MHA episode, the heroes launch a coordinated attack on two fronts: Gunga Villa and Jaku General Hospital. At Gunga Villa, Edge Shot’s team including heroes like Ms. Midnight, Kamui Woods, Mudman and Kinoko take down the villains’ defenses step by step. But the real heartbreak comes when Hawks corners Twice and gives him one last chance to choose redemption.
Despite being a villain, Twice was never actually evil and genuinely believed Hawks to be his friend before the latter betrayed him. As such, the battle between Hawks and Twice is one of the most intense fights in the series, as Twice’s love for his League of Villains family leads him to create an army of doubles, even as Hawks threaten him. On the other hand, the winged hero struggles with having to kill someone he knows is redeemable. When Dabi arrives with his blazing flames and Twice uses his final moments to save his friends, we see a villain’s heroic sacrifice that proves that sometimes, the line between good and evil is blurry.
6) League of Villains Vs. U.A. Students (Season 6, Episode 8)
After months of training, the U.A. students finally get their chance to prove how much they’ve grown. Led by Momo Yaoyorozu, the heroes-in-training face off against Gigantomachia, working together to deliver a sedative into the giant’s mouth. The battle scenes are absolutely stunning, especially when the students soar through the air like the Survey Corps from Attack on Titan, working together to bring down their own colossal enemy.
But this episode isn’t just about teamwork and animation; it also delivers one of the most chilling villain speeches in the entire series. Shigaraki’s words about how society shaped him make viewers question everything they thought they knew about heroes and villains. It’s a perfect example of how My Hero Academia can make you cheer for the heroes while simultaneously making you understand why the villains feel the way they do.
5) One for All (Season 3, Episode 11)
This episode covers the iconic showdown between All Might and All For One. We see him pushed to the brink, physically and emotionally shattered, as the world watches their Symbol of Peace face his greatest enemy. At his lowest point, All Might’s body reverts completely to its weakened form, revealing his true state to the public for the very first time.
During the battle, All For One tries his best to break All Might’s will, going as far as to reveal that Tomura Shigaraki is actually Nana Shimura’s grandson. But with the cheers of the citizens and fellow heroes behind him, this fight reminds us why All Might was the Symbol of Peace to begin with. It’s because he sacrifices everything to protect others even when his body is failing him.
4) Symbol of Peace (Season 3, Episode 10)
In this MHA episode, it seems like the heroes finally have everything under control. Until All For One steps onto the battlefield, reminding everyone why he’s the most feared man alive. Even Deku and his friends, who had been so brave just moments before, are frozen in fear as they watch All Might face his greatest enemy.
This episode is absolutely worth rewatching because there’s so much layered into every scene. From All For One’s voice acting to the subtle way fear is written across each hero’s face. It’s one of those episodes that gets your heart racing every single time, no matter how many times you’ve seen it.
3) Light Fades to Rain (Season 7, Episode 11)
In Season 7, Episode 11, UA’s Big Three finally gets their moment to shine as a proper team. Mirio gets his Quirk back, Tamaki pulls out bigger and more creative combos of food-based weapons, and Nejire gets some much-needed backstory. Fans had been waiting since Season 3 to see Mirio, Tamaki, and Nejire fight together like this, and watching them coordinate their attacks against Shigaraki feels like a long-awaited payoff.
But just as the energy is soaring, the episode pulls the rug out from under you when Bakugo gets mortally wounded by Shigaraki. The voice acting during Bakugo’s final moments is devastating, and you can hear the pain and desperation in everyone’s voices around him. The soundtrack kicks in at just the right moment, too, especially since this is happening right when Bakugo has finally become the hero we always knew he could be.
2) Dabi’s Dance (Season 6, Episode 11)
When this manga chapter first dropped, it completely broke the internet, and its anime adaptation did not disappoint either. The episode centers around Dabi as he finally reveals he’s Toya Todoroki, the long-presumed-dead eldest son of No. 1 Hero, Endeavor. In a pre-recorded broadcast, he exposes Endeavor’s abusive past to the entire world. Revealing how his father’s obsession with surpassing All Might led him to force his mother into an illegal Quirk marriage.
Dabi also claimed Endeavor had children solely to fulfill his dream and continued forcing his wife to have more children until Shoto was born. And considering how he witnessed Endeavor abuse Shoto too, it makes sense for Dabi to call him a selfish man unworthy of being called a hero. The villain taunts Endeavor, saying he never forgot what happened and had been watching the Todoroki family from the shadows all along. It’s an episode packed with emotion and action, the kind you’ll want to rewatch just to take it all in again.
1) A Chain of Events, Across the Ages (Season 7, Episode 3)
The moment every fan had been waiting for finally arrived as Deku rushed across the ocean, determined to face his greatest enemy. With help from Star and Stripe’s fighter pilot squad, he rocketed through the sky using his Blackwhip quirk, but nothing could prepare him for what he found at the battlefield. There, lying broken and bloodied after fighting Shigaraki, was his childhood friend and rival Bakugo, and for a second, it felt like Deku’s entire world stopped.
But the heroes don’t stay down for long, and with Mirio’s words echoing in his ears, Deku wipes away his tears and steps into the fight of his life. This time, Shigaraki was unable to use his quirks, and Deku finally let loose, unleashing everything he had learned. Using Gearshift for blinding speed, Smokescreen for stealth, and his power to drive each blow home, Deku fought like someone who’d trained for this moment his entire life, making it a must-watch episode that will get you excited for the season ahead
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