For those that are watching along
with me, have you noticed that a lot of minor characters are getting a fair
amount of screen time in the last few episodes? Of course you have, as I have
been forced to throw a lot of names around that you obviously don’t recognize
unless you’ve watched the show. On the one hand, this is a good thing as it
does help sell the idea that UA is a top hero school. If Izuku and Bakugo are
the only guys doing anything amazing, that is a much harder pill to swallow. On
the other, I’m having to mention a whole lot of characters you have no
reference for. Sure, some like Todoroki and Yaoyorozu have come up before, but
almost none of the others really have done anything besides react to stuff. And
be nice to Izuku, who really does need the positive reinforcement. A lot of
these guys are visually interesting, like Tokoyami who has a head like a crow,
but that is kind of hard to transcribe, now isn’t it? Regardless, it’s happening
so we have to make do. If you’re unsure of a character or are otherwise
confused, let me know in the comments and I will try to clarify. Enough set up,
let’s get to it.
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| Yeah, Todoroki is kind of a monster. And these idiots picked a fight with him. |
We open with a quick situation
summary. Villains are attacking UA high school’s USJ facility, some students
are scattered with said villains in the USJ, and Aizawa and Thirteen are doing
their best to protect the students that weren’t. Izuku, along with Tsuyu “Sue”
Asui and Minoru Mineta escaped a bunch of aquatic villains in the Shipwreck
Zone. Thirteen is battling Kurogiri, which is difficult given the baddies
warping power. Aizawa is singlehandedly fighting a horde of villains. His
Quirk-cancelling power, and super-scarf give him an edge. But, he’s a ‘Batman’
style hero, specializing in stealth tactics and one on one fights. Fighting a
straight fight against a horde is really not something he should be doing. So,
things aren’t going super great, but they’re surviving. Let’s progress the
plot, shall we?
Once away from the villains, Izuku
and co try to think of what to do next. Despite their recent victory, they’re
still in the middle of a warzone, and need to do SOMETHING to rectify the
situation. They at firsts want to go and get help, but once Sue rather stupidly
points out that Aizawa is fighting a bunch of baddies alone, Izuku insists that
they go help him. Future Izuku, who has been an intermittent narrator up until
this point, does admit that this was a dumb plan. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.
In the Landslide Zone, Shoto
Todoroki has learned the baddies’ plan, having interrogated his villain-cicles.
He has also figured out that this ragtag looking group of villains is just
that, ragtag. They have little to no actual training, or teamwork, and were
clearly planning to just use numbers to win the day. Which really doesn’t add
up in Todoroki’s head, since All Might is… you know, All Might. Hard to beat a
guy who can change the weather with a punch regardless of how many people you bring. Ants before
an Elephant, am I right? He notes that the big three, Shigaraki, Kurogiri and
the creature Noumu, are the only true threat here. He threatens his prisoners,
to get as much info out of them as possible. He’ll free them if they tell him
the All Might killing plan. But if they don’t… he points out how quickly nerve
damage develops when one is frozen solid. He might just be the scariest fifteen-year-old
I’ve seen on TV. Right up there with Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Funny, given that both characters have
fire powers, mixed feelings about their fathers, and a disfiguring burn over
their left eye, delivered by someone close to them.
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| Nearly 3 to 1 odds, not great. But, I find myself more curious about bunny girl's backstory. |
Meanwhile, three other students
are… surviving. Momo Yaoyorozu, Kyoka Jiro, and Denki Kaminari are using their
unique set of skills to take on their opponents. Momo is using her creation
power to make weapons, Jiro is plugging her extendable earlobes (yes you read
that right) into her boots to weaponize her heartbeat, and Kaminari is using
his electrical powers to stun a few of them. Quick explanation of Jiro’s
powers, her earlobes end in headphone jacks. She can extend them, plug them
into things to hear things, and such. Her boots have speakers built in, so when
she plugs her earlobes into them, she can turn her heartbeat into a sonic
cannon. It’s a weird, but still pretty awesome superpower. After a few minutes
of struggling, Momo reveals something she’s been working on, a giant sheet of
insulation. She and Jiro cover up in the insulation, letting Kaminari take the
lead. He couldn’t release a massive electrical attack before, as he can’t
control said electricity once he discharges it. But, since the ladies are now
protected, he can cut loose. He lets out a massive electric attack, leaving villains
stunned and slightly crispy. This, unfortunately fries his brain, leaving him
pretty much useless until he recovers.
Izuku and co make it to the
courtyard where Aizawa is fighting. He’s taken out most of the villains, but
Shigaraki and Noumu are still observing. Which is a problem, as they’re the
real threat, obviously. After watching Aizawa a few moments more, Shigaraki charges.
The villain had figured out a few things, namely that Aizawa’s cancelation
window is growing shorter and shorter as this fight continues, and his tell.
Namely, that when he’s using his power, his hair sticks up, and drops when he
stops. He’d been able to hide this to some degree while fighting, as he was
jumping and flipping around, but Shigaraki is an observant SOB. Shigaraki gets
him in a grapple, and pretty much disintegrates Aizawa’s elbow right down to
the muscle. Shigaraki’s power, explained later, is Disintegration. If he can
get all five fingers of one hand onto something, he can destroy it. Not good.
Aizawa breaks free, and takes out a few more baddies, despite his new injury.
Shigaraki gives him a begrudging compliment, and then sicced Noumu on him. Not
good.
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| Like we need more evidence that Shigaraki is twisted. |
Back with the other students,
Thirteen is doing his best to suck up Kurogiri. Kurogiri compliments Thirteen,
but then points out his major weakness. Specifically, that as a rescue
specialist, he doesn’t have much combat experience. Something that he can
easily take advantage of. Kurogiri opens a warpgate behind Thirteen, and causes
Thirteen to suck himself up. Iida tries to make a break for it, but Kurogiri
moves to cut him off. He’s saved, though, at the last second by Mezo Shoji.
Another of those aforementioned background students. He uses his six webbed
arms to completely cover Kurogiri’s warp, temporarily disorientating him long
enough for Iida to make for the exit.
Kurogiri, who recovers fast, tries to rush him again.
Shiguraki explains that his monstrous
sidekick, Noumu, is a bio-engineered Anti Symbol of Peace and is going to kill
All Might. He seems pretty confident that his super monster will do the job.
Noumu, meanwhile just keeps staring blankly. It’s just so damn unsettling.
We leap over to Bakugo and
Kirishima clean up the rest of the villains they were facing. Kirishima wants
to meet up with everyone else, but Bakugo swears he’s going to go and take out
Kurogiri. Kirishima tries to talk him out of it, but Bakugo explains his
rational. Basically, they take out Kurogiri, the baddies are trapped. He also
points out that, if all the rest of the so-called League of Villains suck as
much as their group, the others will be fine. Kirishima, seeing Bakugo’s point
of view agrees to go along with him. Ojiro in the Fire Zone, and Tokoyami and
Koda in the Squall Zone are also having success in taking out their villains. Everybody
is making progress.
Kurogiri nearly catches Iida, but
is stopped by Uraraka of all people. Not dissing her, it’s just she hasn’t come
across as the most combative student at UA. Which she’s not, but, thankfully,
she’s observant. She noticed that, when Kurogiri moved to attack Iida with his
main body, he had some sort of armored collar hidden in his misty form. She deduced
that that must be his real body, and the smoke show is mostly to hide himself. She
grabs him by the collar, cancels out his gravity and tosses him away. Kurogiri
tries to keep after Iida, but Hanta Sero’s cellophane tape and Rikido Sato’s
strength keep him just out of reach of Iida. Iida gets out the door. Once outside
the USJ he’s able to sprint away at top speed.
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| Everything about the next couple of minutes with these two is unsettling and grotesque. |
Aizawa isn’t faring well against
Noumu. The creature shatters his arms, even after Aizawa cancelled out his
powers. Not good. Kurogiri reports to his master. To say that Shigaraki is
upset that someone escaped the USJ is a bit of understatement. Shigaraki starts
scratching himself and is clearly holding back extreme rage. He calms a moment
later, and decides that they’re leaving. No point in fighting a lost cause, as
he puts it, which does seem rational. Izuku notes that this really doesn’t make
all that much sense, as when the villains leave UA will beef up security,
making another assault more difficult. Shigaraki then reveals his sore-loser
qualities, and announces that he’s still going to “Make this hurt.” He rushes
Izuku and co, intending to disintegrate Sue. No! If someone has to die, kill
Mineta. What? He and his antics get really grating. Izuku has only enough time
to picture his froggy friend turning to ash before Shigaraki gets a hand around
her neck. But nothing happens. How is this possible? Well, despite two broken
arms, two broken legs, a bunch of broken ribs, a pretty messed up face, and an
insane amount of pain, Aizawa was able to get Shigaraki in his sights and
cancel out the villain’s power at the last second. Eraser Head, an
uncompromising bad ass. Noumu smashes his face into the ground for this act of
heroism. Izuku seizes the momentary distraction, and tries to use a smash on
Shigaraki. His super punch collides with something, kicking up a whole heck of
a lot of dirt. To Izuku’s shock his arm doesn’t break, for once. Hooray! But
Noumu blocked the punch. And he wasn’t even scratched. So not Hooray.
Noumu grabs him and goes to crush
his skull. I’m thinking that Izuku is really wishing OFA gave him some measure
of invulnerability right about now. Sue, reacting incredibly fast for a frog,
tries to use her tongue to knock Izuku out of the away. Shigaraki, still
wanting to kill these kids himself, goes to disintegrate both Sue and Mineta. Mineta,
I will begrudgingly compliment, has one of his sticky hairballs in hand and
despite his look of utter horror looks like he’s going to use it to defend them…
somehow. But, they all freeze in place when the door bursts open. Light
cascades in as a hulking figure enters the building. All Might has arrived, and
He. Is. Furious! He’s not smiling, this time, he has a look on his intense face
like he’s about to put his fist through a wall. Despite the greatest hero in
Japan suddenly arriving, Shigaraki is pretty happy that the game is going to
continue. Psychopath.
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| All Might's fury level: Over 9000. Wrong anime, but still fits here, me thinks. |
We sure do have a whole lot things
happening at once, now don’t we? We have students battling villains, heroes
battling villains, heroes escaping villains, and one student kind of torturing
villains. Todoroki, you’re pretty darn scary when you want to be. Aizawa’s
battle with the villains was intense, and it’s ending, while satisfying, was
rather heartbreaking. Though, he does prove himself as an uncompromising badass
when, despite being part way though being beaten to death, he still had the
presence of mind to protect one of his students. Imagine that, having broken
bones, lacerations, and constant
pain but still having that level of situational awareness. It’d be pretty
difficult, wouldn’t it? Shigaraki joining the battle was the turning point, and
showcased what sort of villains that they’re dealing with. He’s incredibly
observant, having noticed that subtle tell when Aizawa used his powers, incredibly
powerful (he can disintegrate anything that he wants) and is sadistic as all
hell. Breaking down Aizawa elbow down to the muscle, and going to kill Sue to “make
this hurt,” are just the first few examples of this extreme sadism. He also
seems to have a very… bizarre mentality. He’s constantly making gaming
references, and seems pretty aloof when things are going his way. Sure, he
instantly starts flipping when this go wrong, like when he temporarily lost his
mask, or when Iida escaped and he started scrapping his neck, but at just about
any other time he’s acting like he’s watching a tennis match. That does suggest
his confidence in Noumu, I suppose. It’s well placed confidence, though. The
super monster is immensely seemingly unstoppable, as he’s strong enough to snap
Aizawa’s bones even when the hero-teacher uses his powers on it. The fact that
it is called “the anti-symbol of peace” seems incredibly fitting as, like All
Might, it doesn’t seem like anything can stop it. Izuku has excellent moments,
choosing to risk himself twice to help others and get things back to normal. Sure,
these are borderline suicidal qualities, but hey, the kid kind of has a martyr
complex. The moment when, for a second, he thought he’d successfully taken out Shigaraki
and not broken his arm using OFA is great. Seeing the hope in Izuku’s eyes,
which are immediately dashed when the smoke clears and Noumu’s massive pecks in
the way instead of Shigaraki’s caved in face. All Might’s arrival is perfect,
show casing how much hope rides on this guy’s massive shoulders. Can’t wait to
take on describing All Might vs. Noumu next time. See you then.
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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