I’ve been pondering what I wanted to
do next for a while now. Ant-Man and The
Wasp will be up soon, still need to see the dang thing, but aside from that
I never set my mind on what series I wanted to cover next. I’m feeling a little
burnt out from the Marvel TV shows, so I didn’t want to jump right into Jessica Jones. Not to say that JJ or The Punisher aren’t good, they’re just…
emotionally draining. At least in my experience. So I decided to do a few
episodes of a show that seems to always lift my mood, My Hero Academia. Not going to do the entirety of season two, in
case me talking about Anime makes you grind your teeth, I’ll just do a couple
of episodes to get back in the groove, at most the first story arc. Let’s get
to it.
Since the last time I spoke about My Hero Academia, this little Anime has
been picked up by Adult Swim on Cartoon Network for its weekly Toonami block,
and I believe most of the episodes are on Hulu too. Just thought I should mention
that for those curious about it, but don’t want to pay Funimation for another streaming service.
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| What has to happen to a person for a meeting that involves a gasmask wearing cowboy and a talking rodent to seem normal? |
Quick recap, this world takes place
in a near future where Superheroes are common place and about 80% of people
have superpowers to one degree or another. Despite being initially Quirkless (Quirk
being the show’s short hand for superpowers) Izuku Midoriya dreamed of becoming
a hero. After meeting his idol, the Symbol of Peace: All Might, and foolishly
running in to save his childhood friend/bully Katsuki Bakugo from a slime
villain, Izuku impressed All Might enough that the titanic hero offered the
young man the chance to be his successor. Using a hidden aspect of his power,
One For All, (OFA) All Might transferred his powers to Izuku and agreed to help
train him. Izuku is now studying at UA High, Japan’s foremost hero school and
All Might’s Alma Mater. He’s got a rough road ahead, as he still needs to learn
how to use OFA’s immense power without breaking every bone in his body. It’s going
to be a bumpy ride.
When we last left off with Izuku
and company, they’d just fended off an attack by a group called the League of
Villains on UA High. The baddies had attacked the School’s secluded Rescue training
facility, the Unforeseen Simulation Joint (USJ), in a bid to kill All Might. A
combined effort of the various students, teachers, and the timely arrival of
All Might stopped the baddies, but the groups ringleaders escaped. Thankfully,
they didn’t escape unscathed, as the apparent big boss Shigaraki received some
serious GSW’s before his minion Kurogiri could warp them away.
The episode proper opens with All
Might’s former mentor reading a letter the big guy sent. He just summarizes
what’s happened last season, getting a job as a teacher, finding his successor,
that sort of thing. His teacher, a fella named Grand Torino, is impressed at
that his former student has come so far. Oh, and we learn that All Might’s legal
name is Toshinori Yagi. Yeah, I thought it was going to be something like John
Smith or Brian Cranston too. What? The guy’s a seven-foot-tall blonde guy whose
attacks are all “U. S. State” Smash. It feels counterintuitive he’s as Japanese
as Super Sentai. (That’s the show Power Rangers takes the costumes and fighting
footage from.)
The Teachers have a meeting with
police, chiefly Detective Naomasa, a friend of All Might’s. They reveal that,
aside from the massive monster Noumu, the rest of the captured villains were all
small-time thugs, not an elite fighting force by any stretch of the imagination.
All Might also points out that things felt off about Shigaraki, the group’s
apparent leader. The dude seemed to have a tenuous hold on Reality at best,
constantly whining and referring to this situation like it was a computer game.
Not the sort to inspire loyalty in others, now is it? Principle Nezu (a super
smart weasel/dog-thing) believes that, much like their own students, someone must
be guiding Shigaraki. The thought is disturbing, to say the least.
Back with our protagonist, Izuku is
spending his unexpected day off watching All Might’s old YouTube video. The one
where he bursts onto the scene, cackling like a mad man as he save’s people from
an unexplained accident. Izuku is sulking a little about not being much help during
the fight. I say, Kid, when you’ve already broken bones saving yourself and two
others from a watery grave, you’ve done enough for the day. But Izuku doesn’t
see it that way and resolves to redouble his efforts. His mother is clearly
uncomfortable with all of this but stays silent (yay, Foreshadowing).
The next day, most of Izuku’s
fellow students are riding high about the previous day’s attack. Nearly all of
them had either saw their teachers throw down with the baddies, and/or had a success
or two fighting off several cronies, so yeah, they deserve that high feeling.
They’re all shocked when their homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa aka Eraser Head,
arrives to start the day. Keep in mind he’d hand the skin and muscle of his arms
disintegrated, bones broken, skull pounded into the concrete and all in all had
a major excuse to take a few days off. But, steadfast Aizawa isn’t going to let
a little thing like extreme physical trauma and nearly dying stop him from being
a teacher. He’d gotten the max amount of accelerated healing from the school
nurse, Recovery Girl, and is suffering though the day wrapped in bandages like
the Mummy. Points for dedication,
Aizawa.
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| Probably best to not pick a fight with her this arc... |
He informs the students that, despite
what happened, they need to prep for their next great challenge… the school
sports festival. Chill, it’s much more interesting then it sounds. See, in a
world where your average person can do things like be faster than a speeding
bullet, more powerful then a locomotive, and leap tall buildings in a single bound,
(see what I did there?) traditional sporting event’s like the Olympics have
kind of lost their luster. Instead, events like a Hero School’s sports day have
turned into a big budget spectacle, since it shows young heroes-in-training
over coming insane obstacles and gives folks a peak at what future heroes will
be like. Hey, it makes more sense than the whole world being obsessed with a
children’s card game being played on motorcycles. Yes, that is a thing, look up
Yugioh 5D’s if you don’t believe me. As for the students, it’s a chance to make
their first public appearance, to show off what they can do to the people at
large and to impress current heroes that they may want to train under.
Shockingly, the student most pumped
up about it isn’t violent, attention seeking Bakugo, but Ochako Uraraka. Yeah,
Izuku’s best female friend, the bubbly Uraraka is surrounded by an intense aura
forcing the entire class to chant “We’re going to do our best!” Curious about
her sudden drive, Izuku asks why she wants to be a hero. For her, it’s all
about the money… Okay not really. See, Uraraka’s parents own a construction company
that’s been struggling for the last… fifteen years. Yes, that is how old she is.
As a child, she had the bright idea to use her anti-gravity powers to help with
the work, so her parents could save on things like the heavy machinery that such
work demands. Her parents, however, encouraged her to chase her own dreams and,
if she finds something she loves and makes a little money doing, she can take
them on vacation to show her support. So yeah, she wants to put on a good
showing at the Sports Festival to hopefully put herself on the fast track to
being a hero. The girl has got the right priorities.
All Might rushes in. Why? To ask
Izuku if he wants to eat lunch together. Uraraka and Izuku’s other best friend
Tenya Iida speculate that All Might must have shown an interest in Izuku
because of the oddly convenient similarities in their abilities. Another
student, Shoto Todoroki makes a mental note about this. More foreshadowing!
Over tea, All Might explains to Izuku
about his plans for the Sports Festival. He wants this to be Izuku’s big debut,
his chance to shout to the world “I AM HERE!” Izuku is optimistic, as he had
had some recent successes not breaking
bones during the fight with Noumu. All Might does his best to encourage his
pupil, knowing that the young Midoriya will have to take the mantle of Symbol
of Peace from him… probably sooner then they’d like.
Overall, a good start to the
season. It summarized the events of last season and sets up the next major
story arc. I’m completely up to date on the Anime as well as the Manga, so I
can say that this Sports Festival Arc is the start of a trend with My Hero Academia. The pattern they seem
to go with is a major consequence arc followed by a minor consequence. Or to
put it another way, they’ll go from a situation where death is possible to one
where only serious injury is possible. Follow me? It’ll make more sense as we
go along. And don’t think because the stakes aren't quite as high as fighting for their
lives in mock-disaster simulators that things will be dull, as there is a fight in this arc that was on
a lot of 10 fights of 2017 lists. Just saying. I liked the reveal of Uraraka’s
background, and her desire to be a hero to support her parents. A lot of times
it seems like the secondary characters and/or love interest have to go a lot longer
before we get more reason for motivation besides “we’re friends” with the
protagonist. And, let’s be real, the desire to support one’s parents is a
motivation I think most of us can get behind. It’s also cool that All Might already
has plans for Izuku to start showing off. He has such faith in this kid that he
truly believes that Izuku is ready to show the world what he’s capable of.
Pretty good for a kid who’s only had his powers for a few weeks. And still
breaks his bones with every use.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/20362178
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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