Warning: Spoiler for Mha anime.
My hero Academia is one of my fav anime and manga. From this story of a society of superpowers, we know from experience that now more than ever, a villain is at the end of the day, a rebel who wants to cause change. And while many villains have stuck to that definition, these two, in my opinion, have been able to exemplify the phrase better than almost anyone else. What they may lack in brutality they certainly make up for in their pure villainy and style. And I'm, of course, talking about the ultimate duo: Gentle and La Brava!
Story
For those of you who want to catch up, I'll be brief. Shortly after the Overhaul arc, it was revealed that due to his abuse, Eri couldn't smile. Saddened by this, Deku realized that the upcoming U.A. culture festival would be just the thing to raise the young girl's spirits. Unfortunately or fortunately given the circumstances, he accidentally meets up with the two recent villains who seek to live in infamy and carve their mark into society, by ... pranking U.A! And just like that one of the best fights in the series starts.
Overview/Personality
Gentle and La Brava are designed to be similar to Silver and Bronze age comics, an era where villains were a lot more eccentric silly and weird, and it shows. While villains like Shigraki and Chisaki wanted to change society and the world, these two literally want to do one thing really: two make their mark in an unfair world. Befitting his villain name and design Gentle and La Brava is based on well, cartoonishly extravagant clothes that befit his honor as the not only man who detests violence but also a man who likes to put up a performance as well with La Brava in tow to show off their unity. While their crimes do vary, they all have in common the sense of pitifulness, eccentricity, innocence, and vapidness as he posts them online.
Gentle himself is seen almost as a gag villain by the fandom through his interactions with Deku and the relatively down to earth stakes, but he still proves to be a rather formidable villain through his sheer determination. And that theme fits very well with Gentle's quirk: Elasticity. This underrated ability grants the user the blindingly infuriating power of adding elasticity into anything he touches, including the air itself. While at a glance the quirk can be quite silly Gentle more than proves through his actions that it's anything but that as he can use it to gain mobility throughout the air, stop his opponents dead in their tracks with ease, gain complete mastery over the environment, mess up his opponents and even provide this dashing duo with a much-needed getaway. Hell half of this fight is Gentle trying just to get away as the 2 do everything they can to just convince each other to drop it. Making this less a battle of good and evil, but more a battle of 2 driven men are fighting for ambitions that have touched others, which brings us back to La Brava.
When there is Gentle, La Brava is never far behind as the two are not only partners in crime, but life as well. La Brava fully supports Gentle's dream of becoming infamous, doing everything they can to see "their" dream come true and to make sure Gentle is safe when things get hectic. And this devotion carries into her quirk, which I will explain later.
History
MHA has never been privy to showing the scenes of how the seemingly perfect society is quite cracked beyond belief, with the Paranormal Liberation Army showing many of the examples I speak of now and Gentle and La Brava are no different. Growing up Gentle or Danjuro Tobita wanted to become a hero that could be remembered by everyone, but because of his lacking grades and poor school system, he was constantly told every day that his dream was impossible. Dan remained undeterred until he saw a civilian falling from an incredibly tall structure. Using his quirk, Danjuro tried to save him, only to get in the way of another pro at the time. And from this misstep and getting in the way of said Hero Dan's parents kicked him out of the house, unable to bear any longer with his failures.
For years Danjiro wasted away still trying to hang on desperately to his dream until he sees one of his old classmates, now a full-on Pro. But as he tries to get his former friends' attention, he hears something that shatters him.
"Do I know you?"
With those four words reverberating in his soul Danjuro fell into despair, wondering if he would live a meaningless life with no legacy to speak of. But after reading about the themes of Meta-Liberation, Gentle decides that he would much rather live in infamy and stomp down on the dreams of others to achieve his goal.
La Brava or Manami Aiba, by her classmates, was, in many ways, a similar case. You see, ever since she was born, she has gifted the power to boost the respective power of others depending on her feelings towards them by saying I love you. However, when she did tell this to a boy in her class, all he did was completely make fun of her and leave. From that moment forward, Manami decided to lock herself in her room and watch videos online, never planning on letting the pain of heartbreak loose. But luckily enough, she sees him, another soul that is trying to battle a cruel, cruel world. And just like that, La Brava was born as she decided to devote her life to her hero. Together with becoming the light that they needed
Themes/Relationship
No other villain in the world of MHA has ever come close to making me feel the way I feel about Gentle, if only because he relates to me harder than all the rest. Gentle is essentially what Deku would be if he had never met All might if he never had anyone that truly loved and supported him. And if he is supposed to be what happens when you take a chance for all, it's worth Gentle represent us, the hero of his own story, the rebel that accepts the limitation, whether it be physical mental or financial that our wildest dreams will never come true. That others will try and might succeed in stepping over us, and that in the end, we will just have to settle in to mediocrity, that we all can't be celebrities. A theme that I try even now to fight against as I try to be someone that I myself can love, in whatever path I decide to choose amongst so many others.
But yet despite all of that despite all odds, these silly goofy rebels were able to find each other, inspire each other, love each other and say the words that they always needed to hear.
"I am here. For you."
And despite all that build-up, they still lose because they are not the hero of the story, just a stepping stone for another one; Because not all men are created equal. But in this defeat we at least learn Gentle's true colors and devotions, as he does everything he can to protect the one who has been with him the entire time from further harm, only to realize that they been given a second chance by the law, and take it for all of it's worth. And thus ends the story of two adversaries that gave Deku the hardest battle he ever fought, as he realized that to rise to become number one, he must first push down everyone else.
I've never been much of a shipper, but there's something about this duo that just made me want to root for them halfway through the arc. I truly hope that they take that second chance and that we get to see them become the heroes I know they can be. Because in this world filled with a constantly rising dominance that will never cease, the two managed to do work despite all and give each other something that we all desperately need on Valentine's Day, a little love. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed me shining a light on my two favorite villains. Let me know if you want more!