The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 6, Episode 8, "League of Villains vs UA Students", now streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation and Hulu.
Eight episodes in, Season 6 of My Hero Academia is shaping up to be the anime's most exciting yet. The Paranormal Liberation War is well underway, featuring surprise twists and villains more dangerous than anyone the young heroes in Class 1-A have dealt with before.
What was expected to be a clean sweep for the heroes became a disaster rivaling the Kamino Incident as soon as Gigantomachia awoke, and now the behemoth villain has undergone a monstrous transformation. How did he manage it, and what does it mean for our heroes moving forward?
Gigantomachia’s Debut in the Paranormal Liberation War
When Gigantomachia began his single-minded rampage to reach Shigaraki Tomura, it quickly became apparent that no amount of force the heroes could muster would be enough to take him down. Before her untimely death, Midnight suggested to Yaoyorozu Momo that Class 1-A focus on putting the monster to sleep instead. With barely five minutes to prepare, Yaoyorozu and her classmates bravely rose to the occasion and formulated a plan to bring Gigantomachia to his knees.
Through stellar teamwork on Class 1-A’s part and a display of sheer bravery from Kirishima Eijiro and Mina Ashido, Gigantomachia was forced to ingest the sedative that Yaoyorozu created. However, instead of the desired effect the monster collapsing right away, he went sharply in the other direction and transformed into an even more terrifying form that took his leviathan appearance to the next level. He manifested giant claws the size of multi-story buildings and his impossibly thick hide grew even more armor.
Gigantomachia achieved his monstrous transformation with the effects of two of his seven Quirks. The first is Gigantification, which allows him to increase in size the more excited he gets. The drastic change in appearance was achieved by his Mole Quirk -- another gift from All For One that allows him to modify his body to help survive the pressures of subterranean movement. The Quirk’s derived effect allows Gigantomachia to burrow through the ground at incredible speeds.
Gigantomachia Is Finally Prepared to Fight MHA's Pro Heroes
Underground travel is out of the question for Gigantomachia with the League of Villains riding on his back, but his transformation still doesn’t bode well for the heroes. Until now, he’d been focused on returning to Shigaraki Tomura’s side as quickly as possible and was content to ignore the heroes trying to impede his progress. Following Mt. Lady’s and Class 1-A’s attack, Gigantomachia redefined the “shortest route possible” to mean destroying any of the heroes who stood in his way.
Even while Gigantomachia was ignoring the attacking heroes, the trail of destruction he left in his wake was enough to jeopardize their invasion of Gunga Villa. Now that he’s decided to actively pursue them, there’s no telling the level of carnage he’s about to unleash as My Hero Academia continues. Until Yaoyorozu’s sedative takes effect, all the heroes gathered are probably in for a literal fight for their lives. Since they’re up against a villain nicknamed the “walking natural disaster”, their chances of survival don’t seem very encouraging.