I've been on an old Adult Swim hyperfixation recently and it got me thinking about CO09 since it's around the same era. I know Jecka made fun if it once by mocking the "snarky text with white hip hop music" but do you think any of the girl characters in the games would actually watch adult swim?
I started watching MHA in 2021 around when Season 5 was airing. It was one of my first anime and certainly my first anime that had significantly more episodes than the others. I had heard of and seen Toga just through cultural osmosis of being on the internet, but I never expected what this would turn into.
I typically really like the yandere/crazy women archetype anyway so she was always bound to be one of my favorites, but she became so much more than that and grew into essentially the heart and soul of the show, and in a show with like 100 other characters no less. I've never related to a character more in my life than her. Obviously not in the sense of drinking blood or stabbing people but as someone on the spectrum, I always felt like I was born in the "wrong way" and destined to be an outcast. Even during high school all through today, I have somewhat "niche" interests like anime, golden age cartoons, B-horror movies.....I guess I just always gravitated towards things that are deliberately "unmainstream", weird, experimental, excessive, psychological etc etc.
Regardless, I related to her own story so much despite the clear difference in severity. Then we came to Season 7, and this might sound completely crazy but, I have never cried harder in my life at THOSE two episodes. It quite literally ruined my day.....but at the same time, she was happy. She went out on her own terms and saved another's life, and I can't just stay depressed at that, and the epilogue reinforced those feelings. Himiko Toga changed my life and taught me to be unashamed and cherish the people close to me who actually understand. Thank you Toga, thank you Horikoshi, and thank you My Hero Academia.