My Hero Academia Season Four Episode Eight, Suneater of the Big Three Review: The Parallel of Hero and Villains.

After episode seven of My Hero Academia‘s fourth season “GO!” promised a followup, action filled episode with its cliffhanger, that episode “Suneater of the Big Three” delivers on this.
As the title suggests, the main character of this episode is Tamaki Amajiki, AKA Suneater, who goes on an emotional journey in his fight this episode, with plenty of parallels between him and the villains he fights.
These three villains are members of the eight expendable bullets, Toya Setsuno, Yu Hojo, and Soramitsu Tabe.
Thrown out and left for dead by society, these three were eventually taken in and brainwashed by Overhaul to fight for him to the bitter end.
“Even trash has its pride,” Yu states at one point, showing the extent that they have been influenced by their boss.
And, just as these villains are influenced by Overhaul, Tamaki is influenced by Mirio in a clear parallel.
As a child Tamaki had no self confidence until Mirio came along and inspired him to believe in himself, just like the villains were lifted out of their situation by Overhaul’s brainwashing.
This presents a two sides of the same coin parallel, where Tamaki has been correctly influenced and the villains negatively, leading to to conflict.
Tamaki’s battle with the villains is absolutely fantastic with both sides utilizing their quirks with ingenious tactics.
Toya and Yu make a great combination, until Tamaki uses his Chimera Kraken technique, forcing them to call in Tabe to even the odds again, only for Tamaki to outwit them and finally take them down.
The constant back and forth on who was winning this fight made for an intense battle where the viewer would have been unsure of who would win right to the very end.
As for other moments in the episode, they are also very well done, with another great display of Sir Nighteye’s quirk and plenty of heart warming flashbacks to Tamaki’s friendship with Mirio.
All in all, “Suneater of the Big Three” is the best episode of season four so far.
However, it will almost certainly be overtaken next episode, which will see an even more intense fight with Kirishima, along with revealing his backstory, which I am very excited to see animated.