As I said last time, first days are
nerve wracking. Said nerves are made all the worse when you’re reasonably
certain that it might be your last. Trust me, I know. Granted, Mr. Aizawa has
very understandable reasons for being so hard on Izuku. You can’t be a hero if
your every Quirk-related action obliterates the body part that you’re using.
Just saying. Let’s see if Izuku was able to salvage his ranking and not get
expelled. Well, obviously, he does. He’s the main character of this show… so let’s
see HOW he does it.
 |
| Yeah, I'd want him to teach me superhero stuff. |
Continuing right from where we left
off, Izuku used One For All (OFA) to lob a soft ball. He was able to focus his
power to one finger, messing said finger up, but still leaving him on his feet.
So, despite the crippling pain he must be in, he smiles semi-confidently at
Aizawa. Aizawa looks to be about half impressed, half infuriated. He’s impre-riated.
All the students are just impressed, except for Bakugo, who is just infuriated.
Apparently seeing his former punching bag do even one thing exceptionally well
is too much for Bakugo to handle. He flips out and rushes Izuku, demanding to
know what trick he’s using to ‘fake’ having powers. Aizawa is able to stop him
by 1. Canceling out his quirk and 2. Getting Bakugo tangled in his scarf. If
you’re asking how the heck he did that, there is a very simple explanation.
It’s a ‘capture weapon,’ designed to be lightweight and strong. I guess he
controls it with his thoughts, they never really explain how Aizawa makes it
move. He scolds everyone for making him use his powers so much, since his
canceling ability gives him wicked dry eye. I feel your pain, Aizawa. The dry
eye, not over using a super power, obviously. While he’s no longer actively
trying to kill Izuku, Bakugo is still hyper furious. After that situation was
handled, Aizawa posts the results.
After all the scores are tallied,
Izuku is still shown to be dead last. Which surprises me. I know in his class
there’s an invisible girl, a monstery looking but otherwise normal dude that
can talk to animals, a pink girl that can spit acid, and a guy who can create
cellophane tape from his elbows. These guys were able to beat out another kid
that is probably one of the buffer teens, after 10-month training with All
Might, and had a super lob with the softball? Not bloody likely. Doesn’t matter
though, as Aizowa claims that expelling the lowest scorer was a lie. Everyone
breathes a sigh of relief, especially Izuku. Well, everyone but one girl. She
admits, after the fact, she deduced that Aizawa was lying. Way to look out for
your classmates.
When class ends, and Izuku is sent
to the nurse, All-Might confronts Aizawa. He reveals that the claim that Aizawa
had lied about expelling someone was the actual lie. The year before he’d
expelled an entire freshman class that he thought wasn’t up to snuff. Aizawa
brushes him off. He explains that since Izuku has some potential, he won’t kick him out. Aizawa says, as he walks
away, that it’d be crueler to let a student with no potential continue to
struggle pointlessly. Which, once again, I can’t disagree with as he makes a
very good point. All-Might seems to have developed a new respect for his fellow
educator after this encounter. Which is nice.
 |
| A bunch of pretty neat costume designs. And then there's are protagonist, the green bunny... |
Izuku meets Iida and Uraraka after
getting patched up again. Uraraka calls him Deku, believing it to be his name.
Not her fault, as Deku is what Bakugo calls him. She was misled. Let’s see if I
can explain this fast and simply. Japanese uses characters, or symbols, to
denote words. Different symbols have different meanings and pronunciations
depending on how they’re used. The last symbol of Izuku can be read by itself
as Deku. Deku has a double meaning, depending on context. Bakugo uses it in the
negative sense, “someone who can’t achieve/do anything.” That’s a very complex
way to call someone a loser, isn’t it? Uraraka apologizes when she learns that
it’s a mean nickname, but remarks that she likes it as it sounds cute. Izuku is
immediately 100% okay with being called Deku from this point on. Just goes to
show, if you want to make a mean nickname not mean, just get a pretty girl to
say she likes it. Iida doesn’t get it, but then, I’m not 100% sure he can
process non-curricular activities, so there’s that.
We get some quick exposition about how
the school day works. The primary classes, Japanese, Math, Social Studies and
so on are held in the morning, while the more important (for us anyway) Hero
skills are done in the afternoon. Class 1-A’s first Hero Skill course is with
All-Might. Everyone is excited, as it’s 1. Their first bit of hero training, 2.
They get to be mentored by All-Might, and 3. Most importantly of all, they get
to try out their super costumes. Woo! When the students first registered, they
were able to submit a design for a costume. Said costume is then sent to a clothing
company affiliated with UA, whom design it to meet the student’s sketches
and/or ideas. And, while that deal is really nice, Izuku actually didn’t go
along with it. In a flashback Izuku revealed that shortly after he got accepted
into UA, his mother noticed a costume design in one of his journals. Mrs. Midoriya
kind of jumped the gun, as she was so excited for her boy, and made him a
costume herself. I don’t know about anyone else, but if mama makes me something,
I wear it. Izuku is of the same mindset. His design, though, honestly looks really
flipping scary. It’s like a green version of that bunny from Donnie Darko. It’s just an unsettling.
Despite this, most of the students seem to like his look. After All-Might grumbles about how obvious
Izuku’s inspiration was, (his mask is modeled after All Might’s hair and toothy
grin) he sets them up in two people teams. One team is the villains, the other
the heroes. The Villains have a dummy nuke hidden somewhere in a building. To
win, the Heroes have to get in, capture the villains (using tape) or capture
the bomb. The villains win if they capture both heroes, again with tape, or the
timer runs out. First match is Izuku and Uraraka as heroes vs. Bakugo and Iida
as villains. This should be… interesting. And by interesting, I mean painful.
The villains go in first and start
setting up. Iida is a little unsure about being made to be a villain, even for
pretend, but puts some effort into the set up. Bakugo, on the other hand, could
care less about the simulation. His one and only goal is to smack Izuku around.
He’s completely livid at the idea that Izuku had been “lying” about his
quirkless-ness for years and supposedly mocking him behind Bakugo’s back. He
swears he’s going to “Roast that damn nerd!” today. Guy really needs to go to
an anger management seminar or something.
 |
| Yeah, I don't think Bakugo is firing on all cylinders at this point. |
Outside, Izuku and Uraraka prep,
and have a quick chat. Izuku quickly sums up his history with Bakugo, and
Uraraka points out that this exercise then is really a fated encounter between
rivals. Izuku denies this, but, yeah, that’s exactly what’s happening here. All
Might announces that the test has begun, and both sides hop to it. Once Izuku
and Uraraka slip in, they are almost immediately attacked by Bakugo. He goes
right for the jugular, planning to waste Izuku in the first minute with an
explosive punch. Despite Bakugo’s ferocity and his surprise attack, Izuku is able
to predict his movements and flip him onto his back. He gives Bakugo a speech
about how he predicted Bakugo’s movements (he studies everyone, even his
childhood tormentor), and that from now on, Deku is the name of a hero. Despite
Izuku’s claim, he’s trembling slightly at the prospect of a fight. Which only
ticks Bakugo off more. And then the episode ends. My Hero Academia is really good
at teasing, isn’t it?
I pretty much gave all my thoughts
on the ‘pass Aizawa’s first test’ arc in the last post, so I’ll focus on the
second half of the episode. Bakugo is really not taking Izuku’s growth well. It’s
pretty clear that the (stupid) idea that Izuku has been acting weak just to
mess with him is infuriating him. Well go into more detail about this next
time, but suffice to say, he just can’t accept Izuku being good at something.
It’s almost hardwired into him. Izuku, on the other hand, seems nearly giddy at
the chance to take on Bakugo. This exercise is his first chance since the entrance
exam to really try to use his new skills and powers in a ‘heroic’ setting. He
might deny the ‘destined conflict’ between rivals thing, but that really is the
only way to describe it. Well get to see whose philosophy is correct. Will it
be Bakugo, who believes that being a hero is something you’re born to be, all
but preordained at birth? Or Izuku, whom has trained night and day for it for
most of his life? This is sounding a whole heck of a lot like Naruto right now… For those who haven’t seen
it, early on in that long running manga/anime series, series protagonist Naruto
goes up against a semi-rival named Neji. Neji is a big believer in destiny,
believing the elites are elites from birth, and the losers are losers. Naruto,
on the other hand, had worked hard up until this point to prove that he is, in
fact, not a loser and going to be the best of the best. Yeah, this fight is
incredibly similar. Just with two more characters mixed into the action.
Speaking of, I really love Uraraka and Iida. She’s a super chipper, bubbly girl
with a pretty unique ability. And he’s the so-studious-you’re-not-really-sure-if-he-leaves-the-school-at-night
type… with superspeed. That’s pretty much all you get about them right now, but
since they’re important support characters, we’ll be seeing a lot of them from
this point onwards. And, come on, is anyone shocked by this? If you’ve been
watching the episodes, you know that these two have a habit of stealing scenes.
And, while Bakugo v Izuku is obviously the important story for next time,
Uraraka v Iida is by no means pointless. Having seen the next episode already,
I’ll just say that the payoff is pretty awesome for all those involved. See you
next time.
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment