Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 137

 Uraraka is getting an A on her speech course this year, I can feel it. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 136

Chase the green kid! 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 135

 Izuku is hitting walls but also hitting THE wall. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 134

Izuku vs. Nagant, ready? FIGHT!  

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku had his first run in with a villain in his vigilante era. Working with All Might, Hawks, Best Jeanist, and Endeavor, and with the blessing (and scarf) of Gran Torino, Izuku ran off to use himself as bait for the League of Villains. Knowing that neither Shigaraki would let him run free so long as he has One-For-All, Izuku made himself as visible as possible. He did his best to draw attention to himself while still trying to help others in his spiffy, edgy new costume. They’d been working on this plan for a few weeks without any bites. The pro heroes assume All-For-One is resting and waiting for Tomura’s modifications to settle so he can fully possess his student and come at Izuku with his full power. That time wasn’t completely wasted, though, as the Vestiges of his predecessors have helped train him in the new Quirks he’d been manifesting. He finally got a hit when, on a rainy day with his help far away, a purple haired woman started taking shots at him. This is Lady Nagant, a former wet-works hero that served as an assassin for the Public Safety Commission. Her Quirk allows her to manifest a full sniper rifle from one of her arms, and to mold her hair into bullets of any type she needs. She’s an amazing shot, according to another gun-based hero Snipe, and it’s all skill, no power. She was hired by AFO as the elder Shigaraki freed himself from Tartarus, and was paid with an additional Quirk, Air Walking, that does what it says. So Izuku has to dodge bullets while chasing a woman that can effectively fly. That’s not going to be fun for him. Also Overhaul is there, Nagant having dragged him with her for some reason. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with All Might’s car getting hit with a grenade that causes him to skid out. He realizes that this is a planned hit, trying to keep him from helping Izuku. A pair of thugs attack him, causing his car to crash, but the retired hero rolls out at the last moment. The thugs recognize him, but prepare to fight him anyway as that was what they were paid to do. All Might remembers the promise he made to Inko Midoriya to protect her son and all the growth Izuku has had since he met the boy. He gets the thugs to back down based on sheer force of will as he says that he will protect Izuku however he can. Izuku has been carrying a burden that All might gave him, and he’ll be damned if Izuku will have to carry it alone.

 

Izuku uses his agility to run around the empty skyscrapers to make himself a harder target to hit. He’s confident that he’ll be able to outmanuever Nagant’s shots, and plans to capture her and force her to tell her where Shigaraki and the league are hiding. He’s thrown off when his Danger Sense kicks in and has just enough time to dodge a bullet coming at him from behind. He kicks the bullet away, but is hit by a second bullet from his blind spot. Izuku is flabbergasted by her being able to sneak behind him and hit him without a search type Quirk. As he falls, he sees Nagant running on air and realizes that she’s been given additional quirks. She’s closed the distance to make it easier for herself to predict where he’s going, and to give Izuku less time to react to each shot. She’s basically trying to attack with enough speed that Danger Sense can’t trigger fast enough to warn him of multiple shots. Izuku lands and uses the Sixth’s Quirk, Smokescreen. He creates a cloud of smoke around himself, obscuring him completely and much of the city block around him. En Tayutai (6^th) manifests and scolds Izuku for not using his Quirk properly. He reminds Izuku that it’s dangerous to put out this much smoke, and that it won’t even be much help. Nagant is basically a mobile rifle, she’ll tag and shoot him the second he leaves the smoke cloud. Izuku says that he’s not running and starts… doing squats in place? Bruce Lee manifests and says this plan is stupid, that its beyond Izuku’s current abilities. Izuku remembers Endeavor telling him during his work study that Izuku needs to learn how to do multiple tasks at once. Lee reminds Izuku that parallel processing like that takes practice, and he’s not very experienced with Lee’s Quirk. Izuku says that doesn’t matter, Nagant has info he needs, so he’s going at her with full force. He says he’ll learn how to use this quirk on the fly. He announces that he’s using the 3^rd, Fa Jin as he finishes his squats.

 

Nagant is watching Izuku’s smoke cloud. She sees something dart from the cloud and fires, but it was just Izuku’s scarf. He throws out a few more decoys, which distracts Nagant long enough for him to rocket over her (through a build) and attack her from behind. He explains in a quick flashback that he used Black Whip to send out his decoys, tricking Nagant into firing on them so he could figure out where she was based on her shots. Izuku announces that a sniper is useless at close range, so she should surrender and spill what she knows. She retracts her rifle into her body and then whips it out again at high speed, using it as a club to knock Izuku aside. She tells him that the Safety Commission trained her well. As Izuku falls he asks why she’s helping AFO, as he’s a petty tyrant trying to control the world, and she used to be a hero. Nagant tells him that the world he’s living in, a world of justice, is a fantasy as she falls back to line up another shot. Izuku admits that Lee was right and that using multiple Quirks at once is much more difficult than he’d thought, right before Nagant hits him again. This grazes his hip and destroys one of his pouches.

 

The bullets Nagant fires have speakers built into them and she pontificates about her job for the Public Safety Commission. She says she killed dozens for them, just to keep people in the dark about how the world really works. She fires more shots, making Izuku dance around. She says that her job was to take out problematic elements, Heroes that go rogue, terrorists that target heroes, the sort of people that need to be removed for their hero system to work. She calls herself a ‘cog in the machine’ of hero society, that it has a ‘public’ face and a ‘secret’ face. Three guesses as to which face she was part of. We see her take out several targets and how it started to chip away at her mental health. We’re shown a bunch of kids running up to her wanting to get her autograph, and when she goes to offer her hand to them, she sees it absolutely soaked with blood. She pulls back but tries to put a brave face on it. We cut to another mission, she’s told a pair of heroes are secretly convincing people to commit crimes, only for the heroes to eventually stop them, and turn their victims in for clout. Her handler tells her to take them out. Nagant points out that covering up this kind of thing doesn’t actually fix anything, that if they want to stamp out corruption in the system, they have to acknowledge it exists. Her handler tells her to follow orders. Nagant pulls her rifle on him, reveals that this guy was the former commissioner and executes him.

 

In the present Izuku points out that contradicts what he’d read about Nagant, as it was reported she killed fellow heroes, not the PSC Commissioner. She says that they shifted the narrative to her killing other heroes to hide their shame and to hide that she’d rebelled against orders. She calls the hero world as nothing but an illusion. She thinks that if the world goes back to what it was, someone else will get pulled in and have to do the dirty work again. We see a flashback to Nagant when she was a high schooler no older than Izuku getting her job with the PSC and how happy she was at getting to do her part. She says that AFO’s future just makes more sense and fires another shot at Izuku. He fires a Black Whip tendril at her. She dodges, but he uses it to yank himself towards her. He admits that he knows the real world is shades of grey, not black and white, and that is exactly why he has to reach out to help. Nagant fires on him, but Izuku dodges in midair. Realizing that she has to change tactics, she turns her gun to her right. Izuku follows the barrel and sees Overhaul standing on a roof and shouting. Nagant, I guess, powers up her rifle and prepares it to fire. She makes her gun arm swell, and it looks really gross.

 

We flashback to Nagant stealing some new clothes for herself and Overhaul. Overhaul tells her that he met the boy once, and that he’s got an overinflated sense of ideals. Nagant says that this makes it feel like fate. She says that she’ll keep bringing Overhaul along so he can confirm the target to her. Overhaul agrees on the condition that she take him to his former boss and tell him he’s sorry. … Bro, you used his granddaughter in horrible experiments AND put him in a coma… if he wakes up I’m not sure sorry is going to cut it!

 

Back in the present, Overhaul is demanding Nagant hold her end of the bargain and take him to the boss, not realizing she’s about to shoot him in the face. Nagant has Izuku pegged, realizing that him failing to save someone, regardless of who it is, will eat at him. She’s going to give him too much to process at once, and when he breaks from the stress, she’ll take him down. Izuku dodges her shot with Fa Jinn. He explains the power this time, it allows him to build up kinetic energy by repeating movements. So those squats earlier, combined with him constantly bending and stretching his legs while dodging Nagant’s shots built up a handy stockpile of kinetic energy. That, plus OFA Full Cowling at 45%, and good ol’ fashion physics allowed Izuku to do what All Might used to do. (And a certain Big Blue Boy Scout still does) Move faster than a speeding bullet. He knocks Overhaul aside at the last moment. Nagant is astonished that Izuku is able to move faster than a bullet. Izuku is able to swing around in the time it took her to line up another shot. Lee narrates that Izuku had trouble using all of his powers at once, but he narrowed his focus down to Fa Jinn, Float, and Black Whip which greatly improved his ability. He used the last bit of Fa Jinn gathered force and OFA Full Cowling to do a full power Manchester Smash and shatter Nagant’s rifle arm as he rockets past her. Nagant slips in the air and starts to drop. She analyzes herself, thinking that she doesn’t hesitate, she identifies a target and fights like it was predestined to be. She asks herself when she started to feel sick when she heard empty sentiment. She remembers the PSC Chairman saying that she’ll save a lot of people with her right arm. As she drops, Izuku grabs her by the hand. Izuku says that he understands her, she shot towards Overhaul but not at him, and if she was as ruthless as she says, her first shot would have hit his spine and paralyzed him. He thinks that there’s still the heart of a hero in Nagant and begs her to help him stop the dark world AFO is planning to make. Izuku’s earnestness seems to reach her, Nagant saying that Izuku Midoriya is a real hero. Unfortunately, her skin starts to crack and then she explodes.

 

We cut to AFO, the eldest Shigaraki says that a hero’s heart is a fickle thing, and because of that he put a few contingency plans in play. He obviously implanted a quirk that would cause her to self-destruct if she ‘breached’ her contract. He says that she lived a truly pathetic life, being used to the very end. Izuku can only scream impotently as Nagant drops, but Hawks flies in and catches his senior. Endeavor also flies in and apologizes for being slow. Izuku tells him about Overhaul on the roof. He goes to grab the crime boss. Hawks starts to drop because his feathers aren’t fully recovered. Izuku grabs him with Black Whip and tries to slow their fall, telling Hawks that he thinks she didn’t do that on purpose. Hawks tries to talk to her, saying that he was kind of her replacement and that he understands her and begs her to remember that she’s a hero. Nagant hears this and is confused how both these boys still have such hope and optimism in their eyes. She tells them what she knows; that AFO told her and several other hunters to meet him at a mansion in the woods in two months with Izuku. She tells her replacement that she fell apart after all the things she did and asks how he can keep going. Hawks says that someone helped him out, remembering his Endeavor doll, and that he’s an optimistic guy. Endeavor flies in with Overhaul, and the crime boss is furious that she failed. Izuku tells the psycho that if he apologizes to Eri, he’ll hold up Nagant’s bargain, which stuns him. All Might comes running up and asks what happened. Hawks and Endeavor give him the summary and add that Izuku was roughed up by all this too. The episode ends with Izuku angrily saying All For One before the credits roll.

 

Well, that was an emotional rollercoaster. I think Nagant was an excellent mini boss for Izuku to come up against in this dark period. She represents the corruption within the old hero system; the sort of people that must dirty their hands over and over again to hide the cracks and broken places that their system has. It is sad to see the younger version of Nagant, who seemed to be a very bright and optimistic person as compared to the cold nihilistic person she became from years of having to do bloody work. The system broke her, it used her up and then covered it up when she crashed out to hide that breaking. And I like that Izuku has grown to the point where he understands that the world isn’t a simple black and white binary, but rather than reject morality like Nagant seems to, he takes it as a reason to keep trying to protect others. If the world is shades of gray, be the one that adds more light than dark sort of thing. And I like that Izuku added that bit about how Nagant isn’t fully into the worldview she’s espousing, with the example that she was clearly not going for lethal or maiming shots. She was less broken than even she thought, it seems. AFO sticking a self-destruct quirk in her along with air walk is classic villain stuff. And screw Overhaul. You don’t get to apologize to the old man when you tortured his grandchild. I think I’d have told him to shut his mouth and enjoy prison, but he’s a kinder man than I. Next time, Izuku pushes himself harder than before and seems to refuse to accept he’s cracking under the pressure. Fun times. Have a god night and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 133

 Izuku's dodging bullets, our little hero is grown up. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku faced off against an old foe. Izuku, who has left UA high and is now operating as a Vigilante trying to draw out the League of Villains, face off against Muscular. The villain was freed from Tartarus when All For One, Shigaraki, escaped the prison, and was given orders to run amok, but not much else. Izuku hit him with 45% of his full power and ended up defeating him. This saves two of the students he took the licensing exam with, Yo Shinto and Tatami Nakagame, who Muscular was beating on when he arrived. Yo recognized Izuku, but thought he fights completely differently now. We see through flashback that Izuku and All Might told his mother about what is going on, and that Izuku plans to drop out of UA after getting out of the hospital to hunt for the League of Villains and Shigaraki. She’s against it, but Izuku convinces her that it’s the right thing for him to do. He gets Gran Torino’s blessing to handle this, and heads out with All Might, Endeavor, Best Jeanist and Hawks to hunt villains. Enough recapping, lets get to it.

 

We begin with Izuku explaining what he saw in the Mindscape to Gran Torino. The elderly hero is in rough shape at the hospital. He isn’t surprised to hear that the Vestige of Nana is still the sort of person to cry and apologize for their choices. Torino gives Izuku his blessing to do what he has to in order to save Tomura Shigaraki, whatever that means to Izuku. And reminds him that sometimes killing someone is the only way to do that. He gives Izuku his tattered cape, and Izuku adds that to his Hero Costume. Outside, he’s met with Endeavor, Hawks, Best Jeanist and All Might. He tells us that they’re working together to stop All-For-One, Izuku adding that he “has to” be the one to do it. We get a glimpse of his Vigilante costume, which is a much angrier, tattered version of his original costume.

 

We cut to a large green fox-looking woman, the fans have dubbed her Ippan Josei or Ordinary Woman in most material, as she’s running from a group of vigilantes. One of them uses a water cannon on her, shooting her multiple times as Josei screams that she wasn’t doing anything and she’s just trying to get to the shelter. Looks like these guys are operating under non-human racism, because this lady is just a big green fox, she’s got no offensive powers at all. The cannon prepares to shoot her point blank, but Izuku aka Dark Deku leaps in to block the attack. Despite his new aggressive look, Izuku still tries to be a voice of reason. He tells these guys to back off, he understands why their nerves are on high but Josei isn’t hurting anyone and leaves her to him. The vigilantes run off, muttering about how it’s Josei’s fault they attacked her because idiots.  Izuku gives her back her umbrella and then asks why she’s out in this weather. Josei admits that she tried to stick it out at home when the first evacuation order occurred, but things got bad fast and she tried to move to a shelter, but then got attacked. So, ya know, she’s just having a rough day. She drops her umbrella again, but Izuku grabs it and casually floats up to give her cover. She’s like seven-ish feet tall, so he’s not just flexing his new powers. Izuku swears that he’ll fix things as All Might pulls up in his car. Izuku asks All Might to take Josei to the shelter. He thinks he’s been in one place too long. All Might stops him long enough to give his student a lunch box before flying off.

 

Izuku does the superhero thing of watching the landscape from a tall building. Banjo manifests next to him and says that this is like time travel. He explains that in his day heroes had to lay low and fight from the shadows as that was during the height of All-For-One’s evil empire. And it was like that for the original Quirk users as well. Izuku narrates for us that the Shigarakis and the League of Villains are in the wind, and that the chaos the escaped convicts are causing has made it impossible for anyone to investigate that looming but currently quiet threat. Izuku notes that Tomura is more dangerous than ever now that he has All-For-One, citing that even with multiple pros help, they were still overwhelmed by his powers. Izuku resolves to master every facet of One-For-All to stop him.

 

We flashback to when Izuku was in the Mindscape. Shigaraki, the younger, tries to get the second and third wielders to agree to help train Izuku and stop staring at the wall of their Mindscape. Neither reacts, so Banjo breaks the tension by telling Izuku to train with the other powers until those two come around. Especially Smokescreen and Danger Sense since they’ll be a big help when he wakes up. The third finally speaks, a fella named Bruce Lee, saying that he and the second, Toshitsugu Kudo, lived during the worst years when Shigaraki the elder was at the height of his power. He says that most of Shigaraki’s minions back then didn’t even know they were being used, but the leader of their resistance, Kudo, knew. Kudo says that they had to fight and sacrifice a lot of their allies to get to Shigaraki the elder. They lived with the mindset that they had to either kill Shigaraki or the world would die. Kudo can’t believe that they have to put their faith in a kid that wants to save their enemy. Shigaraki the younger points out that that’s a bit of flawed logic, as they risked trusting him when the two found him. And in doing so set everything in motion. He says that they have to leave everything to the ninth. He says that One-For-All exists to defeat All-For-One, the power was born out of him defying his older brother. But it only exists as it does now because Kudo trusted him. The previous wielders all agree to train Izuku, and in the present they resolve to finally put an end to this… while Izuku finishes his lunch. Way to kill the mood buddy.

 

Endeavor faces off against some minor criminals holding up a convenience store. One of them is using a high powered nail gun to hold him down, which Endeavor angrily curses Re-Destro’s company for selling such an obvious weapon as a ‘support’ item. He takes out the nail gunner while Hawks and Jeanist capture his buddies. The gunner says that Endeavor has no right to stop him, as the No 1 hero’s crimes are worse than his. Endeavor doesn’t disagree but says that’s why he has to stop them. Jeanist comments that they didn’t get any new info about Shigaraki from these escapees and how frustrating that is. They prepare to leave when they’re met by a mob that angrily tell them to get out of town. The heroes leave without comment, but we hear that the civilians have heard that Shigaraki was after someone besides Endeavor, so the populace knows he’s still keeping things from them. The trio follows Izuku from a distance. They’re trying to use Dark Deku as bait to draw out the league, but so far no one has bitten. They know that the villains are biding their time and will try to nab Izuku and OFA in the chaos. Endeavor thinks that AFO is waiting for Tomura to recover and complete his metamorphosis so he can fully possess his protégée. Hawks wonders why Tomura’s hate seems to be such a big part of the plan, but Jeanist thinks that the villain needs that raw hate to overcome the will of the eight wielders within OFA. Hawks wonders why AFO’s hate isn’t enough to get the job done, considering that he’s been hunting OFA’s wielders for generations at this point. Jeanist thinks that one man’s hate just isn’t enough, Hawks wonders if there’s any real hate in the guy at all considering he’s always laughing, and Endeavor thinks he might just be empty inside. Jeanist says that regardless, they need to increase their efforts while the League is laying low.

 

All Might is also following Izuku in his own car, wondering if his successor has gotten any sleep at all. He remembers Nighteye advising getting sleep whenever possible and says that he’s trying to get his student to rest. Izuku stops to call up his allies, but his phone is shot out of his hand. Both cars race to his last known location, but All Might is slowed down by a grenade being tossed at him. The sniper tells Izuku that he’s coming with her, and if he doesn’t struggle he gets to keep his limbs. Izuku realizes that this is the lead he’s been looking for, that she was hired by AFO.

 

We get a better look at the sniper. It’s Lady Nagant, the purple haired woman from the Tartarus prison break. She took Overhaul with her after the escape, apparently, as the armless man is passed out by her. Her power is rather interesting. She’s able to manifest a full sniper rifle from her right arm, which she loads by twirling her hair between her fingers and molding it into her bullets. Izuku remembers speaking with Hawks before he went on the run. Hawks explains that they have captured all of Dr. Garaki’s tech after the raid, so that the League doesn’t have the ability to steal and store a Quirk factor like they did before. So, their main goal will probably be to try to take Izuku alive. Hawks thinks that with his experience and powers most of the Tartarus escapees won’t be able to catch him. Except one woman. Hawks says that she and him were colleagues, though she was the senior between them, and that he’s trying to track her himself. Izuku looks over his shoulder, and Nagant fires on him. He dodges and uses Black Whip to Spider-Man swing away. He confirms that this is Lady Nagant. He grabs his phone as he swings away but it’s busted. He tries to figure out what to do when Nagant says “Why bother running when you’re already mine?” and a bullet whips around the building at Izuku. He catches it, and her follow up shot, but they clearly hurt him.

 

Izuku remembers an interview the sniper hero Snipe had talking about Nagant. He says that he’d be the best shot in Japan if it wasn’t for her. He explains the difference in their powers, that he can hit targets from about 600 meters that he can see thanks to his Quirk Homing. Nagant can make the same shot from 3 kilometers away with just skill alone. He also explains how her quirk lets her mold her hair into whatever bullet she wants, hollow point, curving bullets and so on. Her Quirk is called Rifle. Izuku says that without his danger sense he’d be dead. Her shots lead him to figure out where she was, though, atop a building about 1 km away. He knows that’s well within her range, so evasion isn’t much of an option, so he needs to go on the offensive.

 

Nagant is impressed that Izuku was able to dodge her shots, saying no one has taken two before. She’s distracted for a moment by Overhaul muttering where ‘Pops’ the Shia Hassaikai Yakuza’s boss is. Nagant says that she will once this is over and sticks Chie into a building to hide him for now. She mutters that maybe she should have ditched him before. We flashback to the prison break where she helps the armless man escape. AFO finds them and the Demon King greets her. She admits that until recently he was her main target. He asks her to bring Izuku to AFO, advising her to take Izuku when he’s alone. She asks why her freedom comes with a price. AFO says it’s because she isn’t like the others, she’s a hero that killed an ally, and that she also desires the destruction of Hero Society. Overhaul draws attention to himself by saying Pops. He asks if they’re friends, but Nagant says that something is broken in him. AFO hires her for the job and gives her a second Quirk as an advanced payment. We see what it is in the present, Nagant leaps into the air and bounces through the sky on her toes, the quirk is Air Walk. She mutters that she has a mission to complete as the credits roll.

 

Well, damn. Things aren’t looking good with how quickly order is crumbling in Japan. Heroes are stretched thin battling escaped criminals, rampaging civilians, and civil unrest. And Izuku is clearly running ragged trying to be bait and still help others. We see a few shots under his mask, and he’s got deep bags under his eyes and the raggedness of his costume speaks to how hard he’s been running himself lately. I imagine that his mom and friends are beside themselves with worry. I do like that we took a moment with him saving Josei to establish that despite his more aggressive look he’s still the earnest young man we’ve been following. FYI, don’t google Ippan Josei without safe search on. Some fans have… thoughts about this large woman. Lady Nagant is a great antagonist as her combination of skills will put Izuku’s new suite of powers to the test. She’s efficient, deadly, skilled, and with her additional Quirk she’s extremely mobile as well. Her original quirk is really cool and unique as well. Just a sniper rifle arm and hair she can turn into bullets and she’s one of the deadliest characters Izuku has gone up against. Her skill basically speaks for itself when she’s able to hit Izuku when at this point he’s basically Spider-Man with extra bells and whistles. Do you realize how hard it is to hit Spider-Man? It’s canon that most of the hits he takes are because he intentionally got hit to protect someone else. Izuku might not be that dexterous yet, but he’s up there and as far as we can tell the whole area around him is clear of civilians. So this lady is an insane shot to hit him on the move just with her eyes. Izuku has got a massive fight on his hand even if she wasn’t able to more-or-less fly. But we’ll see how that fight develops next time. Have a good night and stay safe.  

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 132

 Old foes, but new, Dark Deku.

               Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku met his predecessors. In the Mindscape of One-For-All, he met the previous users in the form of their vestiges, the mental imprints that each of them left within the power. There’s obviously Shigaraki the Younger (One), Daigoro Banjo (Five and Blackwhip), Nana Shimura (Seven and Float), and the incomplete Vestige of All Might (Eight) there were also Hikage Shinomori (Four and Danger Sense), En Tayutai (Six), and the Second and Third wielders that are actively ignoring everyone else. The vestiges help Izuku learn a fairly disturbing side effect of One-For-All, that the Quirk drastically cuts the lifespan of whomever is wielding it. This took a while to figure out as like the first seven all died extremely young before they past it on. It took them ages to figure this out as most were killed fighting Shigaraki the Elder aka All-For-One. The only one to hold onto the power for more than a decade or two has been All Might, leading to everyone to conclude the only person who can safely take on the power is someone who is Quirkless. And since Izuku is one of the few people on earth with that designation, they are on something of a time crunch to defeat Shigaraki the elder once and for all. Nana asks Izuku if he’ll be able to do the hard thing and kill her Grandson, Tomura Shigaraki. Izuku says that he will if he has to, but he believes that Tomura can still be saved and wants to be saved even if he can’t admit it. Outside the mindscape, All Might is approached by Hawks and Jeanist whom ask him for the full picture of what’s going on, to which the former hero agrees. Later, Endeavor holds a press conference confirming that Dabi is in fact his son, and gives the press his side of the ugly history that is his family. He swears that he will keep fighting to stop Dabi and atone for his sins however he can. Dabi, who watches the press conference and sees his father shout “just watch me” thinks he hasn’t suffered enough pain yet. And we learn that upon waking up, Izuku ran away. He gave all of his classmates letters explaining his powers, his ties to the Shigaraki’s and All-For-One, and that he’s leaving to protect them from this monster who can take their lives or steal powers. Izuku ‘Deku’ Midoriya has entered his vigilante era. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with Izuku’s classmates all reacting to his goodbye letter. No one seems happy to hear that their friend has run off to try to protect them from AFO, a villain that is going to try to steal his true quirk. Remember, Izuku was operating under the lie this whole time to his fellow students that his quirk was “Superpower,” just a pretty standard strongman strength quirk. He tells them that meeting everyone and being with them has made him happier than he could ever describe and he ends with a simple goodbye. Uraraka calls him an idiot. She takes over narration duty and says that Japan has been devastated by the destruction caused by the League of Villains, Paranormal Liberation Front, and the random psychos they freed from the super max prisons. She says that in the wake of all of that, Japan has become lawless. A solid example of how bad things have gotten are the wrecked buildings, but a bigger gut punch is seeing All Might’s statue with the sign “I AM NOT HERE” put over it.

 

Dark Deku, what the fandom calls him during this era, sees an explosion in the distance and thinks it’s a huge villain. We cut to Ketsubutsu Academy seniors Yo Shindo, the kid with seismic vibration powers that looks like he could be Izuku’s half-brother, and Tatami Nakagame, a girl with the much dumber power of being able to retract any part of her body into herself like a turtle. The two get a call to help evacuate an area that is being menaced by a huge villain. Both aren’t stoked about trying to get a bunch of stubborn folks to evacuate the area, but Yo thinks he’ll be able to get them to leave by channeling Ms. Jokes energy. They reach the building and try to get the civilians to come with them to their academy to hideout. The civilians aren’t moving and tell them to get lost. Yo says that the thinks they probably can handle normal crooks, but they won’t stand a chance against some of these escapees. They refuse to listen, in no small part because the local pro heroes are quitting in droves. They’re kicked out and they head out. They get a call from one of their classmates, Makabe, who tells them to run, NOW.

 

A villain comes crashing it. It’s Muscular! He’s one of the original villains from the League that attacked the UA training camp. He faced off against Izuku, was defeated and captured. He reattaches his muscle fibers to his body to hulk out. Yo tells Tatami to get Ms. Joke and other back up, while he handles Muscular. Tatami runs in and tries to hold the civilians back, but they shove her aside and go to fight Muscular.

 

Muscular pins Yo in seconds, mocking the hero student’s lack of strength. I’d say that this is just a poor type match up, a mid to long ranged fighter like Yo vs. someone like Muscular who is a short range type that excels in closing distance is just not a good situation for him. Muscular mocks him, asking where the other heroes are, quoting an adage about how in their world if you see one hero there are ten more nearby. He spies Tatami and the civilians in their building, and Y uses his distraction to try to vibrate his muscles into oblivion. Muscular is confident that his layers of muscles will protect him. Yo unleashes his full power to try to shake Muscular’s brain right out of his head. Unfortunately, Muscular covers his head to protect himself. He goes to finish Yo, but a smokey purple bullet slams into him and knocks him back. Muscular is super excited to see him again, as he wants to have a real fight with Izuku. He claims this isn’t about revenge, he just got hooked on the rush of a real fight that Izuku showed him last time and no one else has given it to him. He molds a bit of rubble into a prosthetic eye that he sticks into his empty socket… I guess to fully mimic their original fight? Weird.

 

Muscular rips the build clear off its foundation to try to throw Izuku off, but he leaps away and fires off a smokescreen to cover their tracks. He returns Yo to Tatami and tells her to fall back and abandon the building as its no longer safe. As he runs off, he draws out the Vestige of En Tayutai and asks his opinion on how Izuku is using his quirk. En tells him he’s putting out too much smoke, and he exceeded the controllable limit. He warns Izuku to not overuse his power and accidentally give his opponent an advantage. He says to pull back and remember that none of their powers are ultimate moves on their own. Izuku fires off a Smokescreen and floats into the air. Muscular launches at Izuku, but he senses him with Danger Sense and dodges. He uses Black Whip to throw him aside and wrap him up. Izuku demands to know where AFO and the League are. Muscular isn’t interested in that, saying that he was just told to run wild. He wants to live life to the fullest, and to Muscular, that means having as many bare-knuckle brawls as possible. He wants Izuku to stop trying to empathize with him and fight him full force already! He really should be introduced to Rappa from the Shia Hassaikai. Muscular breaks free with his strength. Izuku tries to find an emotional in with Muscular, thinking that maybe if he understood his enemies better, maybe he could reason with him. This is obviously the practice round for that when he tries to talk to Tomura when they face off again. Unfortunately, Muscular isn’t willing to let him play shrink, so they just have to brawl.

 

Muscular tries to charge, but his muscles start break and pull back. Izuku says that there are gaps in Muscular’s muscles and they pull back into his body when he overuses them. Izuku theorizes that Yo’s tremor did more damage to Muscular than he thought and that his body is starting to collapse. Izuku charges and hits Muscular with 45% OFA Detroit Smash. The hit was more than enough to knock Muscular back.

 

Two more Ketsubutsu students, Itejiro Toteki and Shikkui Makabe run in to try to find their classmates. They see Izuku rocketing up into the sky, dragging Muscular after him encased in Black Whip. Tatami sees Izuku fly off and says that she didn’t even get a chance to say thanks. The civilians run out and offer a stretcher, saying that after all the students just did to protect them, the least they can do is help Yo and hear them out. Yo remembers Izuku from the licensing exam and notes that he fights like a different person now.

 

We jump to the Daina Police station. Izuku lands, kicking up a smokescreen to protect himself as he drops off Muscular. He tells the guards to get an iron maiden and restrain him before leaping away. Izuku meets up with All Might. All Might asks if Izuku is okay. He says he is, revealing he’s using compression gauntlets to reduce the muscle strain on his arms and legs. He thanks All Might for ordering them from the US before trade was limited. All Might gets a call from Hawks. Izuku gets a danger sense ping and leaps away. Hawks is impressed with Izuku’s decision to try to isolate himself and prepare for the villains attack. Hawks says that he knows this is hard on All Might, but he’s glad the former hero is there to support Izuku.

 

We flashback to Izuku in the hospital with his mother and All Might. The Doctor notes that Izuku used to hurt himself when using his power like this before, but Izuku has gotten stronger since then, so while he’s fighting at a higher level the damage is about consistent with when he was fighting with 5% power. This is Horikoshi handwaving away why Izuku’s arms haven’t gotten worse when that was once such a huge threat to Izuku he switched to kicking, me thinks. The doctor tells him to be careful. Inko asks to know what is going on. All Might explains to her what has happened. She’s obviously terrified at bad people hunting her son. All Might says that he should be safe at the school, but Izuku says he’s not going back. He is electing to fun off, to try to protect everyone from the League. Inko, sensibly, tells her son that he’s in the hospital because he couldn’t beat them by himself and to not throw his life away trying. He says he’ll get stronger. Inko admits that she’s loved watching him grow into a hero over the last year, but hearing this is breaking her heart. Izuku says that when he was a kid, she thanked him for ‘saving’ her and smiling when he played pretend and that made him smile. He promises to come home safe when this is over, but he has to fight now. All Might remembers his promise to protect Izuku some months back to convince Inko to let him return to UA. All Might says that Izuku might not want his help, but he is going to give it regardless.

 

All Might tells Jeanist, Hawks and Endeavor about Izuku dropping out of UA and electing to be their bait for the League of Villians. Jeanist says that that’ll work to their advantage and they’ll organize their strategy around it. Izuku meets with Gran Torino and lets him know everything. Torino isn’t shocked to hear Nana’s vestige is apologizing for their choices, and admits he should have killed AFO years ago. He tells Izuku to do what he has to do to stop Shigaraki, warning that sometimes the only way to stop someone is to kill them. He gives Izuku his scarf and his blessing. Izuku heads out to meet his allies and start their plan to stop the League once and for all.

 

Well, that’s sad. Izuku’s decision seems logical to him in the moment, but I think its clear even in his first fight with Muscular that he’s already hitting a wall mentally if not physically. Isolating yourself is hard, as I think anyone who has lived through the 2020 COVID Pandemic can attest to, and it’s harder when you’re putting yourself through the strain of fighting constantly. I like the use of Muscular here. The villain is still incredibly powerful, putting kids with more experience and training than Izuku through the ringer in no time flat. But Izuku has also grown tremendously since they faced off. While Muscular was Izuku’s boss fight during the Training Arc, he’s now just an average Tuesday for Izuku. Remember, when they fought during the camp, Izuku had to hit him with 100% OFA to take him down. This time he didn’t even crack 50% to do it. We also got to see Izuku’s battle IQ has grown quite a bit, as he was able to figure out Muscular’s state in just a few seconds, and was able to use Smokescreen and Danger Sense to hold him off extremely well. I appreciate that they at least brought Inko into the discussion here. While the story might forget about her a good chunk of the time, it’s important to remember Izuku is only like 16 at this point. His mama needs to be involved to some degree. Izuku is going hard after Shigaraki and the League, which is admirable, but its clear even in this early stage that he’s pushing himself harder than he should. Which definitely makes sense for his character, but is hard to watch. So Izuku has taken down an old foe, let’s see how he handles a new one. Lady Nagant has arrived. See you next time, and be safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 42

Not quite 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Last time on Beast Wars, a new face arrived on ancient earth. We’re introduced to Depth Charge, an angry Maximal hunting Protoform X aka Rampage. He was the head of security for Colony Omicron, the colony where Rampage went on his first rampage. He was the only survivor, spending four stellar cycles (years) hunting the creature, capturing him and bringing him back to Cybertron. He wanted the High Council to find some way to execute the mad experiment. Depth Charge was furious at the plan to just dump Rampage somewhere and apparently went hunting for them. He got hit with the Transwarp wave, turned Transmetal and was then sucked to Earth. He crashed in the ocean near the Maximals and scanned a manta ray. Rampage somehow sensed his arrival and ran off to meet him. The two dueled across the ocean floor, and the shore. They fought to a standstill, with Rampage escaping with the help of Quickstrike. Optimus and Cheetor grab Depth Charge and brought him back to base for repairs. After, Optimus tries to convince Depth Charge to join them, but Depth Charge is a bit of a dick and refuses. He leaves in a huff, focused only on killing Rampage. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open in the Ark cavern again. The Maximals are doing their best to get their defenses working at peak efficiency. Which is hard considering most of their walls are made of scrap metal, and their wiring is being cobbled together as they go. Rhinox tries to hook up Teletran-1’s force field to run through their systems and project it out over the bulkhead doors. He boots it up, but it shorts out within seconds. Again, their technology isn’t compatible at the best of times and it’s harder with scrap parts. Optimus sighs at plan A being a failure, so they’re forced to go with plan B. When Rattrap hears what it is, he’s disappointed to hear that its “Salvage Sentinel.” A plan made even more difficult considering the Axalon is in pieces and underwater. Optimus says that they’ll get special help then, before radioing Silverbolt.

 

Silverbolt radios back and reports that he hasn’t found Depth Charge. He thinks the ray might be within Megatron’s jamming field. Optimus orders him back to base, and Optimus thinks there might be another way to make the plan work. Blackarachnia was able to build a stealth submarine. It’s powered by hand, has no energy signature, and should be undetectable by any sort of scanner. Optimus compliments the spider on her work. Blackarachnia asks when she’ll leave, and Optimus tells her she isn’t, and that Rattrap is going. The cyber rat is adamantly against going in the Predacon death ball, but Optimus insists it has to be him. He’s the only one small enough to fit into it besides Blackarachnia and knows what parts they need from Sentinel. He’s still not jazzed, but when Optimus points out that they’re going to be stuck defending the Ark forever so long as they don’t have something like a shield, he finally relents. Rattrap wants back on Cybertron and doesn’t relish guard duty for approximately 4 million years. Cheetor starts laughing, and when Rattrap asks what’s up, the Cat points out that him inside that ball would make an excellent cat toy. Rattrap gets no respect at all.

 

Silverbolt ferries Rattrap to the river. He asks how he’s doing and Rattrap starts muttering about how the next time Optimus asks him for a favor he’s going to jam his blaster somewhere unpleasant when they reach the spot and Silverbolt drops him. Rattrap initially panics but then he starts turning the crank and gets into a rhythm pretty much immediately. Weirdly, the old timey sailing music that plays while he rows seems to be diegetic, or else Silverbolt is reacting very strangely to silence. He asks Rattrap’s status and Rattrap confirms he’s looking around and even compliments Blackarachnia’s design. He finds mostly bits and pieces until reaching the bulk of the Axalon. He heads inside. Unfortunately, a Predacon spy drone sees Silverbolt standing by and heads back to alert the Predacons.

 

Rattrap searches through the wreck of their ship. The Axalon looks extremely spooky with all the holes, water and fish about. Rattrap reaches Sentinel’s core and sees the control console. He extends a grabber arm and mutters that there’s no way it’s this easy. He’s proven right when a Morey eel pops out and makes him jump, and then a moment later he gets a proximity alert blaring. He tries to swim about, but is caught in Rampage’s oversized claw. He says, “How droll, a Rat in a can.”  He starts crushing the pod, his might claws more than powerful enough to shatter the metal. Rattrap tries to radio Silverbolt for help, but can’t reach him. He’s saved by Depth Charge’s timely arrival. He blasts Rampage off the undersea cliff and goes to talk to Rattrap. He tells the mouse to bail as he and X play rough, but Rattrap says he can’t. He promises to scurry away as fast as possible if Depth Charge keeps Rampage busy for a few cycles, to which Depth Charge agrees.

 

Megatron sees Silverbolt start to worry about Rattrap via his drone and is curious as to what is going on. He contacts his other soldiers; Inferno, Waspinator and Quickstrike are playing poker. He tells his subcommander that something has interrupted the Maximals attempts to recover Sentinel and orders his men to their designated positions. They don’t say it, but it sounds like Rampage has been MIA since the last episode and Megatron is eager to get his bruise back under control.

 

Rampage and Depth Charge battle, their missiles causing tremors severe enough that it starts pulling the Axalon from it’s position. Rattrap is thrown around but is able to pull Sentinel from it’s container. He slips free just as the ship drops. Right on top of the wrestling aquatic fighters. Rattrap breaches the water and Silverbolt is excited to see him. Rattrap tells him about Rampage and Depth Charge fighting underwater and begs him to get them out of here. Silverbolt grabs the pod and starts to fly away. He mentions that he pod is heavy, which perfectly sets up Waspinator. The wasp blasts him out of the sky, causing him to drop Rattrap as well. Silverbolt tries to transform, but hits the ground and is knocked out. Quickstrike meanwhile goes to grab Sentinel.

 

Rampage frees himself from the rubble by transforming and thinks he sees Depth Charge buried under some more. He tries to pull Depth Charge free by his tail, but it was a trap to distract him. Depth Charge fires upon the crab, but the hit doesn’t do much damage. They both transform into beast mode, Rampage skuttling away and Depth Charge swimming after him.

 

Topside, Quickstrike gives Sentinel to Waspinator, telling the flier to get it back to Megatron while he mops up the Maximals. Waspinator takes off, he struggles with the weight, but is able to get away. Underwater, Depth Charge caught Rampage and throws him to shore. Rampage’s bulky body collides with Quickstrike before he could finish off Silverbolt. He groans to the crab that he’s been looking for him everywhere. Depth Charge calmly walks out of the water. Silverbolt tries to convince him to go after Waspinator, but Depth Charge refuses, saying that that is their war, he’s got one of his own. Silverbolt tells the big ray to think about what it means to be a Maximal, if he dare call himself that again and the two almost come to blows. Rattrap tells Silverbolt to leave it, Depth Charge got what he wanted, and they’ll go after Waspinator. They take off. Depth Charge prepares an Energon dagger to cut out Rampage’s spark, but the crab again fled during the confusion.

 

Waspinator flies towards the base, the bug happily saying that he’ll be rewarded with a vacation when he brings it Megatron. Rattrap and Silverbolt sneak up behind him, Rattrap asking Silverbolt if he can handle a sudden dive. Silverbolt says he can and Rattrap tells him to get ready. He shoots Waspinator, just as the bug was saying how great, shot-at-free day he’s been having. Rattrap gets Silverbolt to carry him in his claws and they dive for the module, catching it before it can hit the ground. Their victory is short lived as a tree falls in their path, knocked over by Inferno. Rattrap goes flying, but Silverbolt catches the module. Inferno says to hand it over or burn. Silverbolt distracts him long enough for Rattrap to nab the module with his tail and drive away. Inferno chases after him, but Rattrap is extremely quick with his wheels. Depth Charge hears the explosions and assumes Primal’s “bozos” could use back up. He transforms and flies after them. Inferno shoots at Rattrap as he races around, destroying a bridge just before Rattrap reaches it, he falls, but is caught by Silverbolt. Unfortunately, Depth Charge pops right in their way and the three collide. They crash, and Inferno grabs the module and flies away.

 

Back at the base, Rattrap tells Optimus what happened and lays blame squarely on Depth Charge. The fish insists it was an accident. They get into a fight about who did what, Optimus learning about how Depth Charge also saved Rattrap earlier in the mission. He tells Depth Charge that this is what happens when he works by himself, they lost a massive resource to the Predacons. He asks Depth Charge again to join them, so they can hopefully avoid mistakes like this again. Depth Charge says he’ll think about it, and that this crew needs some kind of help. He winks after he says it though, and gives Optimus a high-five to show that he is willing to join.

 

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron has Sentinel incorporated into his ship and powered on. Well, shoot. Megatron laughs maniacally as the shield powers up.

 

Funny how the last episode ended with Cheetor asking if they’d see Depth Charge again, and at the end of this episode he agrees to join up. That’s a thirteen-episode season for ya, gotta fast track those character arcs. I like the general setup of this episode, going to the ruins of the Axalon to hopefully get Sentinel back and get their defenses at least in the realm of functional. The mini-sub was neat, and I liked the implication that Blackarachnia is being integrated into the team in some capacity. Seems like everyone’s willing to trust her craftsmanship at the very least. The underwater segment was cool, like I said, seeing the fish and other aquatic life already taking up residence in the sunken ship was really cool. It definitely gave the whole thing a ghost ship vibe. I think this episode did a good job showing us Depth Charge’s personality. Is he an asshole? Definitely. Is he obsessed with killing Rampage? Certainly. But there are just some Maximal qualities that he is unable to get rid of, like a base line empathy that refuses to let him ignore comrades in arms in danger. Much like with Cheetor last time, he did at least stop to talk to Rattrap before resuming his crab hunt, rather than just chasing Rampage. And while he blew off Silverbolt and Rattrap initially, he did give up on hunting Rampage fairly quickly when he thought that the two were in trouble. I think this ties back to Optimus’ comments about Depth Charge’s personality before Colony Omicron was destroyed. There’s a fundamental goodness to the fishy bot that is deeply buried under a lot of anger and pain, but he can’t just tune it out indefinitely. I like that while he didn’t agree right away, he did accept Optimus’ offer to cooperate fairly quickly. He might like being alone, he might be obsessed with vengeance… but solitude ways on any mind. Final thought… it’s funny to me that this entire time the Darksyde didn’t have any kind of energy shielding. I should have guessed that with how often the Maximals were able to just sneak into it, but like… I just assumed there were some other defenses besides proximity cannons. The more you know. Have a good night, everyone, and stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social