The following article contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Chapter 363!

While My Hero Academia’s final arc has been great at establishing high stakes and difficult enemies for its protagonists, the series just made a major mistake by bringing back one of its more popular villains. The manga’s latest arc has been a great chance for author Kohei Horikoshi to showcase the series’ many villains. And feature fights that fans have been eagerly anticipating, like the fight between Dabi and Shoto.

Dabi has been one of My Hero Academia’s most popular villains ever since he was first introduced. Readers latched on to his incredibly cool design, awesome powers, and extreme ruthlessness before his backstory and ultimate motivations were even revealed. And his backstory just increased interest in him, given how deeply connected he is to the series' main characters. Dabi is actually the estranged son of My Hero Academia's powerful hero Endeavor and the brother of Shoto Todoroki, one of Deku’s most important classmates at UA. This gave every battle with him more depth and stakes, making him an even better character. In this final arc, he and Shoto had a climactic battle that enabled them to air their grievances with each other and brought both of their character arcs to a satisfying finish, with Dabi being ultimately defeated by his brother. However, My Hero Academia’s latest chapter seems set to undo this outcome.

Related: My Hero Academia's Dabi Has Actually Been a Nomu All Along - Theory

In Chapter 363, Dabi reveals that he has not actually been put down for the count by Shoto’s final attack in My Hero Academia's chapter 352, having copied one of his brother’s ultimate moves before being hit, which enabled him to withstand the attack. This was slightly foreshadowed in chapter 353, when a spark of light was seen in the apparently unconscious Dabi’s chest. So this development wasn't completely out of the blue. However, it still doesn’t quite make sense in the context of chapter 363. The chapter implies that Dabi revives himself after Bakugo’s likely death at the hands of Shigaraki, which takes place sometime after the announcement of Dabi’s apparent defeat in chapter 353. But there’s no reason why Dabi would wait that long to rejoin the fight, except to make chapter 363 even more dramatic.

Dabi revives himself

Beyond the incongruities of the timing of Dabi’s revival, it also doesn’t bode well on a narrative level. Dabi and Shoto’s character arcs were neatly concluded by their final fight, so their renewed battle isn’t as compelling. In addition, a renewed focus on their fight is likely to draw attention away from other conflicts that have been neglected for far too long, like Uraraka and Himiko’s fight that was teased at the very beginning of this arc. While it’s not impossible that Horikoshi will be able to make Dabi’s return work well, it is still disappointing that he is undoing a great resolution of one of the series’ many dangling plot threads.

While Dabi’s return does underscore the dire situation that the heroes find themselves in at this point, its negative implications easily outweigh what it adds to the story. That being said, at least super fans of the character can enjoy his presence for a bit longer. But for everyone else, Dabi’s sudden return is likely to be one of My Hero Academia’s biggest narrative mistakes.

My Hero Academia Chapter 363 is now available to read from Viz Media.