My Hero Academia Season Four Episode 11, Lemillion Review: A Hero’s Sacrifice.

For a long time, the tenth episode of season two, “Shoto Todoroki: Origin” was my favourite episode of My Hero Academia. 
Well, I can easily say that the episode just got beaten by the eleventh of season four, “Lemillion”, which features the heroic sacrifice of Mirio Togata.
Not of his life but his quirk.
The build up to this moment is excellent, with the opening of Overhaul revealing the bullets that can remove a quirk forever serving as sinister foreshadowing for what is to come.
Before this tragic moment occurs, though, the episode picks up from where “Temp Squad” left off with Mimic attempting to crush both the heroes and the League of Villains.
However, this does not go well for him because Deku manages to expose his hiding place, giving Aizawa enough time to disable his quirk and take him off the playing field.
With Mimic out of the picture, the episode then cuts to Mirio catching up to Overhaul and his right hand man Chronostasis, who have Eri.
However, before he can do anything, he is attacked by the two remaining members of the Eight Bullets of the Hassaikai, Shin Nemoto and Deidoro Sakai, who both have pretty tough quirks to get through.
Nemoto’s is confession, which allows him to make any person answer his questions truthfully; a quirk that he uses pretty humorously on Twice and Toga in a flashback.
As for Sakai, his quirk is Slosh, which means he can transfer his drunkenness to other people.
For the brief time the two minions of Overhaul are on screen they have a pretty comedic dynamic, with one gag of Sakai throwing a bottle at Nemoto leaving me in fits of laughter.
The laughter fades quickly, however, as Mirio fights past them and reaches Overhaul, ripping Eri from Chronostasis’ arms and declaring to Eri that he will be her hero.
This leads to Overhaul chastising Eri, cruelly calling her cursed.
Mirio is outraged that he would say that to his own daughter, leading to one of the most chilling moments in the episode where Overhaul removes his glove, coldly reveals that he has no children, and then immediately going on the attack.
On a side note, while I do believe the sub of My Hero Academia is better than the dub, the English voice actor of Overhaul, Kellen Goff, does a great job here, especially with the chuckle of amusement he adds to his voice.
The following fight between Mirio and Overhaul is fantastic, with both of their quirks being brilliantly used.
From Overhaul deconstructing the ground and then reconstructing it as deadly spikes, to Mirio using his permeation to pass through Eri to kick Chronostasis and then shield Eri with his cape only to ambush the two.
Mirio would have beaten Overhaul had it not been for Nemoto who, through his blind devotion to Overhaul, managed to crawl to the battlefield.
Receiving a quirk removing bullet from the young head, Nemoto realizes the only way he will be able to hit Mirio is to trick him into shielding Eri.
And so Mirio’s sacrifice commences, with him taking the bullet for Eri with a smile on his face, comforting her.
We then get a flashback to Mirio’s journey to becoming a hero and Overhaul’s gleeful cry (completely ignoring Nemoto’s pleas for recognition) makes us think that Mirio’s dream is over.
Until this perception is completely shattered as Mirio keeps fighting, despite losing his quirk, and manages to hold Overhaul off and protect Eri until help arrives.
As Mirio says, no matter what he’s still Lemillion.
This is by far the most inspirational scene of My Hero Academia with everything coming together from the voice acting, to the animation, to the music, it’s all fantastic.
The episode really shows why I placed Mirio at number eight on my top 10 My Hero Academia characters list.
“Lemillion” is, without a doubt, my favourite episode of the entire series so far.