Last time on My Hero Academia, the
Sports Festival started off with a bang as fledgling heroes were given their
first event, an obstacle course race around the stadium. Their first obstacle was
in fact a reappearance of the first obstacle the Hero Course students had to go
up against to get in, the Robot drones and several Godzilla sized Yaruki
models. Temperature manipulating HC student Shoto Todoroki flash froze the lot of
then and ran out ahead as the robots toppled over and our protagonist Izuku Midoriya
watched in shock. Well, crap.
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| Kirishima cries manly tears upon meeting his destined rival Manly tears. |
As it turns out, most of the students
were far enough away or smart enough to avoid the one Yaruki robot drop to the
ground… but a pair weren’t. Thankfully, one was HC student Kirishima, a young
man who can harden his skin into a stone-like form, and the other was Tetsutetsu
Tetsutetsu, a young man that can harden his skin into a steel-like form. …
Instant rivalry! The majority of students, after the shock wore off, start running
across the field. Some, like Bakugo, use their powers to fly or leap over the
vast majority of them, others like Izuku and Iida just run like hell through
it, and some like Yaoyorozu use their powers to smash the robots to clear a
path. Hey, whatever strategy works. Izuku, knowing that using his powers would
be… problematic for him, grabs some scrap metal from one of the bots to use as
a shield or club as the situation dictates.
After running for a bit, the next
obstacle comes into view, a colossal gorge with several ropes attached to both
sides being the only means to get across. This test is made for a student like Tsuyu
“Sue” Asui, who’s frog like adhesion makes holding onto the rope a breeze. A pink
haired Support Course (SC) student uses her tech ‘babies’ to cross. Said ‘babies’
are a pair of hover boots and a set of grappling hooks. Other students like Bakugo
must have once again used their powers to just jump the damn thing. Todoroki
was able to freeze the rope he was on and slide across at high speed. Izuku
elects to just cross normally, though with the added weight of his scarp metal
shield tied to his back.
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| Lesson: It's... unhealthy to get between Izuku Midoriya and what he honestly wants. |
The final obstacle is a minefield.
Literally. They explain that these mines are some kind of special tech that
make a loud boom and concussive force to throw students around… but I have to
imagine the students still had to sign a waiver to do this test. Bakugo
actually is able to pull ahead, using his explosions to fly over the mines. He
and Todoroki start fighting while running to keep first place. Guys like Iida
simply try to out run the detonation. Izuku comes up with a… unique strategy.
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| Izuku's choice in career might just end up killing his poor mother. |
Using the shield as a shovel, he
digs up several mines and places them in a big clump. Using the scrap metal as
both a shield and surfboard he drops onto the mines. The force propels him into the air,
soaring over the competition. While his plan worked, he didn’t think it
completely through and has no idea how he’s going to land. Bakugo and Todoroki
forget fighting each other and chase after Izuku. Bakugo keeps explosion-flying.
Todoroki elects to freeze the ground above the mines, allowing him to skate
over the explosives. Not sure if that’s how that works, but we’ll roll with it.
Todoroki hadn’t frozen the ground initially because he didn’t want to leave a
path for others to use. The two almost surpass Izuku, but he’s able to slam the
shield into the ground again for another bust, knocking Bakugo and Todoroki
aside with the shockwave. After landing hard again, Izuku gets up and has just
enough a lead on the others he can finishes in first place. Todoroki and Bakugo
take second and third respectively. At home, Mrs. Midoriya looks like she’s
having a tear-soaked stroke. I only bring it up because her reactions this
episode are hilarious.
Once the dust settles, it’s
revealed that 42 students were able to pass onto the next round. I won’t bother
listing them, but most of Izuku’s class make the cut, along with the creepy
General Studies student Hitoshi, and the SC student with her Babies. The next
game is a cavalry battle. Think that pool game “Chicken” but with multiple
people severing to hold up the ‘rider.’ The point is to rip off a headband off
of the rider, which earns the holder points. Headbands can be taken multiple
times and the game isn’t over until the time runs out. The points are
distributed based off of who finished when, and the teams total is what’s up
for grabs. The last guy to make it to the finish line has 5, the next guy has
10, and so on up to #2. All except #1… his headband is worth 10 Million points.
Goodness, Izuku just can’t catch a break.
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| That moment when you realize literally everyone is out to get you. |
This episode ended up being a nice
show case of powers for most of the side characters. Guys like Bakugo and Iida,
who’s abilities are really helpful in a race, got to shine while Izuku
struggled along towards the back. Being the one student who really couldn’t
rely on his powers at all to give him an edge, this made things incredibly difficult
for Izuku to manage. Which really made it all the sweeter when he pulled it out
of the bag with a come from behind win. Smashing the mines was a unique, almost
insane gambit, but it seemed to have worked out in the end. That is until the
point totals came out. I swear, it’s like Horikoshi Kouhei (author) is sadistically
torture his protagonist. But hey, Izuku’s been struggling so long I imagine he’d
be more freaked out if he ever had an easy win. It’s also nice to see that things
are progressing more or less like All Might thought, with Izuku grabbing a lot
of attention. Sure, it’s from guys like Death Arms, Kamui Woods, and Mt. Lady,
all of whom were present for that slime villain thing in ep 2, and Tomura
Shigaraki the faceman of the League of Villains, but hey, it’s still good
exposure. Circling back to the other characters, I liked the rivalry that seems
to be forming between Izuku and Todoroki, and between Todoroki and Bakugo. Todoroki
seems to understand that despite Izuku’s own protests, that his classmate is going
to be a major contender someday. Izuku might call it overestimating him, but I’d
say it’s more like Todoroki understands Izuku better then he does. As to the
Bakugo v Todoroki side of the equation, Bakugo seems furious (shocking) that Todoroki
sees Deku of all people as a legit rival. Again, Izuku getting attention pisses
off Bakugo, absolutely shocking. This is building up to something big, so keep
watching.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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