WARNING: The following contains spoilers up to My Hero Academia #290, by Kohei Horikoshi, Caleb Cook and John Hunt, available now in English from Viz Media.
For My Hero Academia, 2020 has been the year of the War Arc, one of the longest and most intense arcs yet in the series. Not only have many characters died -- among them Twice, Gran Torino, Crust, Thirteen and possibly Midnight -- but Japan's best heroes have been decimated. Endeavor lost his reputation thanks to Dabi, Hawks has been burnt to a crisp and may have lost his Quirk forever, Aizawa lost a leg, Mirko lost both an arm and a leg and both Bakugo and Deku may have permanent injuries. It's hard to imagine where My Hero Academia will go next because things can't go back to normal.
Speculation about the series' future has spread like wildfire online, with fans predicting everything from the typical shonen time skip to a sudden end. The latter is pretty much impossible; Weekly Shonen Jump announces when a series is entering its final arc, and too many plot threads like Deku unlocking all his Quirks haven't been resolved. However, in Chapter #289's Japanese preview, it was announced that Chapter #290 is the start of the War Arc's finale -- meaning that it won't be long until we see what a post-war My Hero Academia looks like. Ahead of the War Arc's remaining chapters, let's consider the various ways that the fallout of the war could affect the future of the series.
Regardless of how the War Arc ultimately ends, it's clear that the villains have already won the moral victory. Dabi's maniacal, Joker-esque identity reveal will shake the public's faith in the number one hero. With Hawks and Best Jeanist both injured, society's left without a pillar of heroism to rely upon. Gigantomachia has already devastated the lives of thousands of civilians in his path of destruction en route to Shigaraki, and the heroes have suffered more losses than the villains -- a trend likely to continue considering the Japanese preview of the next chapter simply says, "The nightmare continues!"
It's almost a given that the next arc will tackle how characters are dealing with their various traumas and tragedies. The Todoroki family will need to talk about the fate of Toya Todoroki with one another. The media's reaction to the wide-scale destruction will need to be portrayed, alongside them likely turning on Endeavor and even Shoto. Deku will need to deal with the potential loss of his arms. A final list of the dead will need to be tallied. On the hero side, the story will be grim.
The villains will need to deal with the aftermath of this arc as well. It's still possible they'll be arrested here, but it's more likely that they'll escape with only a few relevant members captured by the heroes. It's not their losses that they'll need to deal with -- aside from Twice's death -- it's the increasing conflict between Tomura Shigaraki and All For One.
Shigaraki clearly resents All For One's intrusion in his body this arc, even if it was to save his life. Right now, there's uncertainty over whether Shigaraki or All For One is the series' true final villain. That will need to be resolved, and with All Might having mentioned an upcoming visit to Tartarus, the "Special Prison For Villain Criminals," Shigaraki and All For One may have a confrontation in an arc revolving around a prison break.
Between the shell-shocked reactions of the heroes and the villains figuring out how to capitalize upon their victory, there's little room for the lighthearted content series' creator Kohei Horikoshi likes to include after darker arcs. However, Japanese schools typically begin their academic years in April, meaning Class 1-A will soon enter their second year of high school and become Class 2-A. It's also been promised that Shinso will be joining the hero course as part of either Class 2-A or Class 2-B once his second year begins -- if U.A. High School still exists as we know it.
U.A. 's fate is a looming uncertainty. There's no easy answer to whether classes will continue after the war -- while the story is titled My Hero Academia, it's unclear how normal classes and work studies would go on if the Paranormal Liberation Front is on the loose and too many pro-heroes are injured. Some may use this as an argument for why a time skip will happen, but ironically it's also a good argument for why a time skip can't happen. Would the villains really just sit around and wait for a few years while the heroes train offscreen? It's more likely that Horikoshi will simply continue his method of having smaller time skips of only a few months.
There's justifiably much uncertainty about where the story in My Hero Academia is headed next but rest assured that no matter what, the adventures of Deku and his classmates will continue for many years to come.
