Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 22

I think this fight comes down to who wants it more.

Last time on My Hero Academia, the minor characters got a chance to shine. Plants beat lighting in the match between Kaminari v Ibara, Iida was manipulated by but still “won” his match against Hatsume, Mina outpaced Aoyama’s belly laser, Tokoyami overpowered Yaoyorozu’s defenses before she could react, and the stone fist of Kaminari knocked out and was knocked out by the steel fist of Tetsutetsue. Uraraka, meanwhile, mentally prepped for the single most stressful fight of her life against the ferocious Bakugo. Let’s get to it, shall we?

We open to Bakugo and Uraraka having a stare down before the match begins. Once again, Bakugo shows off that he is completely oblivious to his classmates, referring to her as Pink Cheeks, much to her annoyance. Dude, eighteen names, that’s all you need to memorize, that can’t be that hard. Anyway, he tells Pink Cheeks to back out now if she wants, because he’s not holding back. She, obviously doesn’t and gets into a fighting stance.

In the stands, Iida asks Izuku about the plan he’d come up with to fight Bakugo. Izuku admits that he only had about 11% of a plan. Wow, that’s barely a concept. Guardians reference for the win. Anyway, his simple plan is that she just needs to get in close, null his gravity and shove him up and out of the ring. Simple, but hey, the best plans are.

She's faster then she looks.

The match starts and Uraraka rushes Bakugo. Bakugo confidently announces “Now you die!” and fires off an explosion. Uraraka, despite seeing Bakugo telegraph his usual big right hook, takes the hit and gets blown back several feet. The smoke his blast kicked up hides Uraraka for a few seconds. Something comes at Bakugo’s face and he blasts it. Turns out, it was the jacket of Uraraka’s uniform, she nulled its gravity as a distraction. She lunges from behind, but Bakugo whips around and blasts her again. Despite this, she keeps coming at him, getting around his back and going to use her Quirk. Bakugo keeps blasting her though.

This may come as a shock, but, professional heroes don’t particularly care for seeing a sharp-eyed sociopath seemingly sadistically savaging a single sweet slugger. Alliteration for the win! A group of heroes start booing Bakugo for being a dick and dragging things out when he clearly has the power to win. Present Mic agrees, but Aizawa shoves him over and tells the guys who started the chant to shut the heck up. Why? Because the fact that Bakugo is fighting so hard shows that he respects Uraraka as an opponent and the peanut gallery is doing her a disservice by booing him.

Uraraka shows why Aizawa’s assessment is accurate by showing off her strategy. Well, that dick Monoma breaks it down. It goes something like this. One, Uraraka stayed low with each of her attacks, keeping Bakugo’s eyes on her. Two, she attacked relentlessly so he couldn’t take a moment to view their surroundings. Three, she made sure her moments other then her big attacks were hidden in the smoke Bakugo’s attack kicked up. This was all to make Four, a massive cloud of debris floating above their heads. She releases her hold on debris, causing an artificial meteor shower to come down on Bakugo’s head. Her plan is to get him with an anti-grav jab while he’s distracted either dodging or destroying her attack.

I think it says a lot about Bakugo that he doesn't relax even
seeing her this knocked out.

Imagine her shock when he releases a MASSIVE blast that obliterates her debris field. Uraraka, despite obviously feeling a little depressed her plan didn’t work, tries to keep fighting. Bakugo is happy to oblige her and reveals that she may have actually earned his respect a little bit. Well, he at least bothered to learn her name. Unfortunately, she drops after only a few steps. She tries to keep dragging herself forward, and Bakugo doesn’t lower his guard until she passes out. Bakugo is declared the winner, pretty much to everyone’s dismay.

 Bakugo meets up with Izuku while our green haired protagonist makes for the prep room before is match. He starts berating Izuku for, he assumed, giving Uraraka that strategy she used, but Izuku smacks that right back down. If Bakugo thought it was a hard fight, then it was 100% her doing. Understandably, that just makes Bakugo more irritated. Once back in the stands, the rest of the class tease Bakugo for playing the role of bad guy so well in that fight. Kaminari makes a crack about Bakugo going whole hog against a ‘frail girl,’ to which Bakugo mutters that she was anything but.

In the waiting room, Uraraka is already healed up and is clearly putting on a brave face for Izuku. He compliments her on a fight well fought, but he’s called away before he can do more then that. After he leaves, Uraraka calls her father. He’d tried to call her while she’d been talking to Izuku. Mr. Uraraka compliments his daughter on a fight well fought. Side note… seriously, none of the PARENTS were invited to watch their CHILDREN’S big event? You buy massive flipping robots for them to fight but can’t set aside a small fund to make sure everyone’s parent or guardian is there to cheer them on? Izuku could have seen his dad if you offered to fly him in from Someplace Japan. Whatever. Talking with her father, Uraraka finally starts breaking down, as losing in her first match was kind of a blow to her pride. And it set back her plans on becoming a successful hero and providing for her folk’s retirement. Mr. U gives some of the best Dad advice a fella can give, and reminds her she can her time. She’ll have plenty of opportunities to show off her talents in years to come.

It's a real shame that Mrs. Midoriya only passed on her ability to
sob massive amounts to her boy.

Izuku runs into Endeavor on his way to the area. Goodness, this area’s hallways are right up there with Scrubs’ magic hallway for important chance encounters. Enji Todoroki, like his son before him, notes that Izuku’s powers are very similar to All Might’s. Izuku tries to walk away, but Enji goes on to point out that that makes this a perfect match for his son. He tells Izuku that Shoto is destined to surpass All Might, and since Izuku has All Might like powers, he should do his best to be a challenge for Shoto. His word choice makes it clear that while he’s saying Shoto, he’s thinking My Son. Izuku basically tells the guy to screw off and that neither Shoto or himself are their mentors. He’s way politer about it then that, but I wanted to make you all think of Izuku being a bit more aggressive than usual. Hehe.

Ooo, this is going to be good.

Round 2, Match 1 is about to begin between Izuku Midoriya and Shoto Todoroki. Uraraka joins the rest of the class, having gotten the tears out of her system, just in time. We’re shown everyone on pins and needles waiting for the match to start. That includes the kids in the stands, All Might in the teacher’s box, and Tomura Shiguraki watching from the league of villain’s secret lair. The highlight of these moments being Mrs. Midoriya surrounded by a small mountain of tissues as she watches the match from home.  Match start just as the credits roll.

Hot diggity daffodil that was a good match. I’ll be honest, up until this point while I like Ochako Uraraka, she didn’t especially standout in my mind. Sure, she had some victories, grabbing the bomb in her first team test with Izuku, stopping Kurogiri from getting Iida during the attack on UA, but those were largely in a support capacity. For the test Bakugo vs. Izuku was much more pivotal a moment then actually passing the test, at least to the audience, and while she stopped Kurogiri, it was Bakugo that more or less disabled the villain for most of All Might’s fight with Noumu. This is the first time that we’ve seen her go toe to toe, fist to fist with an opponent and she did a hell of a job. She acted strategically, and was more then willing to take a blast from Bakugo to see her strategy pay off. Sure, she lost, but she kept right on fighting until her body couldn’t keep going. It’s the first step, but this is the first step of Uraraka shifting into a major fighting force. Next up, Izuku is about to get some frost bite. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 21

Who's ready for a few side fights?

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku was nearly defeated by a question. He’s able to soundly defeat his opponent Shinso, but earns some respect for the purple haired mindcontroller. Afterward, Shoto Todoroki obliterated Hanta Sero and moved onto the second round, where he’ll battle Izuku. That’ll be the fight for the ages. But, before that, we’ve got some filler.

For those who are unaware, Filler in Anime refers to any scene, episode, arc or season that did not occur in the source material. These segments are added, either to fill out the overall runtime of an episode or season. This is done mainly to allow the Manga enough time to get ahead of the Anime, as most Anime based on Manga are released while the Manga is still running. This can range from scenes in an episode, like we’re about to see, to multiple seasons. I’m looking at you, Naruto and Bleach. Thankfully, the filler for My Hero Academia flows more or less naturally with the rest of the story. And, better yet, the filler I’ve seen is almost 100% stuff that could be happening. Seriously, in the Anime Bleach, you could skip from episode 167 to 190 and not miss anything because the intervening episodes are a separate self-contained story that has literally nothing to do with anything. I’m getting off task. So yeah, there’s filler in this episode. But, thankfully, this filler is just expanding on fights that were just summed up in the Manga. I’ll see if I can explain it better in a sec.

We open with the match of Denki Kaminari vs Ibara Shiozaki.  Kaminari discharges electricity, and Ibara has tentacle-like vines for hair. There’s some quick banter, Ibara disliking being referred to as an ‘Assassin’ by Present Mic during his intro of her, and Kaminari attempting to flirt with her before the match begins. Kaminari tries to blast her, but Ibara protects herself with a vine-shield composed of her hair and then tangles Kaminari in more vines after his attack stops. With his brain shorted-out and him being effectively caught, Ibara is declared the winner. See, in the manga, we start with Kaminari already captured, and the fight summed up in about two pages. So the banter, the flirting, and the actual fight itself was all stuff that the manga didn’t show, which is by definition filler. Get it? Got it? Good. Kaminari is out and Ibara moves on.

A face that says, "Oh God, the guy I have a crush on is a little insane.

In the stands, Izuku is already analyzing the fight and coming up with counterstrategies for fighting Ibara. His notetaking and muttering once again making everyone uncomfortable, and Uraraka tries to get him to chill. He snaps out of it, and reveals that he’s taken notes on everybody, their fighting styles, their strengths and weaknesses. He also kind of freaks her out by mentioning he’s documented her as well. Dude, I can think of nothing that freaks a gal out more then admitting you’re literally examining her.

The next round is speedster Tenya Iida vs. gearhead Mae Hatsume. Her power is telescope vision, allowing her to see up to 5km away with just her naked eye. Iida, oddly, is bedecked in equipment that he’s never been seen using before. He gets scolded by Midnight for not supplying the paperwork for that gear, but is allowed to use it after he makes an impassioned speech. Apparently, the tech is all Hatsume’s work and she wanted him to use it, for sportsmanship… or something. Yeah, I don’t think anyone who’s spoken with that wacko Hatsume would believe that, but Iida’s a trusting sort.

The fight begins, but not a single punch is thrown. Why? Because Mae isn’t interested in fighting. Using her tech, and a smuggled in mic, she spends ten minutes showing off her gear and using it to dodge Iida’s attacks. She uses the mic to highlight the interesting features of her babies, in the hopes of wooing a future tech company employer’s. Gal has got her priorities. She walks out of the ring after showing off her gadgets, much to Iida’s chagrin. Izuku is so absorbed in taking notes about all of that wackiness that he doesn’t notice when Uraraka gets up and walks away.

Seriously, one of you couldn't at least lift your right arm instead?

The next couple matches finish in rapid succession. Round 1 Match 5 is Mina Ashido vs. Yuga Aoyama. Mina easily skates around Aoyama during the fight, using a non-acid version of the slime she can fire, until Aoyama overuses his naval laser. He doubles over with a stomach ache, allowing her to acid blast his belt and knock him out with… WA Punch! Sorry, flashed back to One Punch Man for a second. Round 1 Match 6 is Tokoyami Fumikage vs. Momo Yaoyorozu. Tokoyami attacks hard, forcing Yaoyorozu to use her powers to create shields to defend herself. She’s forced back until he get’s a ring out. The match lasted only a few seconds, much to Yaoyorozu’s shame. It’s only after this match that Izuku realized that Uraraka left.

Round 1 Match 7 is Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu vs. Eijiro Kirishima. Both can make harden their bodies, Tetsutetsu into steel, Kirishima into stone. To play up the joke about how similar they are, they’re shown in the same fight pose before the match and are given the exact same intro. They have a heavy-duty slug fest, hitting each other in perfect symmetry. They knock each other out, and it’s decided they’ll have a tiebreaker to see which one advances.

Uraraka, I'm sensing some stress for you.

While that is going on, Izuku and Iida both meet up with Uraraka. She’s doing her best to control her nerves, which is impressive since she’s going up against Bakugo. Iida tries to make her feel better, I think, by saying there’s no way that Bakugo would use his full power against a girl. Izuku is certain that that won’t be the case. Bakugo doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘restraint.’ Izuku, trying to be a good friend, offers her his notes on Bakugo and a strategy that he came up with (with her powers in mind) to beat him. She turns the notes down, though. She wants to fight for herself, and tells Izuku that she’ll see him in the finals. We end on Uraraka entering the area to face Bakugo.

While the majority of this episode was either A. filler, and/or B. build up for next time, I enjoyed this episode. This was do in part to the fact that My Hero Academia has stuck to ‘stuff that was happening’ type filler. Some shows, as stated above, go on some bizarre and wacky tangents when they’re stalling for time; the entire fifth, seventh, and ninth seasons of Naruto Shippuden for example. I’m just glad that they have had such restraint thus far. It also helps that, as I’ve stated before, one of the things I like about My Hero Academia is that it has a very large cast and that Kohei Horikoshi does his best to show off everybody to one extent or another. I suppose it also helps that the characters whose matches were expended upon were Kaminari, who has my favorite superpower, and Tokoyami who is one of my favorite characters. I might have been complaining if Mineta was the one getting increased screen time, but thankfully that’s not the case. While the fight between Tetsutetsu and Kirishima was largely played for laughs, I do love a good bareknuckle Strongman fist fight. The fact it ended with a double knockout, further highlighting the physical seminaries between these two did make me smile. The fight between Iida and Hatsume was also fun, and also served to highlight their strongest character traits, an almost idiotic level of trust for Iida, and a borderline psychotic desire to show off her designs for Hatsume. This matters a bit more for Iida, as he’s a main character instead of a support like Hatsume, but it’s good to see that even minor characters aren’t generic in this series. The final point I’ll touch on is the build up to the Bakugo fight. I like that by in large Uraraka’s nerves on this one was largely internal. She wasn’t sobbing, or doing anything really to draw attention to herself, despite the fact anyone with two braincells could tell she was nervous. What? She’s going up against the #1 ranked (both academically and in combat) student of the Hero Course, who has been known to lose control in a fight. If you AREN’T nervous at the prospect of fighting him, your name better be Shoto Todoroki, as he’s the only student I can think of still in the tournament who has that cool of a head. Izuku offering up a strategy to her and her subsequent turning it down is also a good character moment. Let’s be real, Izuku has analyzed no one aside from All Might more then Bakugo. If there was a surefire way to develop a strategy to fight him, he’d be the one to do it. Not saying it would work for sure, but his strategy would be a damn good one. So, Uraraka turning it down does suggest that she’s serious about fighting this battle on her own and winning on her own. It seems like relying on Izuku as much as she has so far has wounded her pride slightly, and now she wants to see how far she can go on her own. A good mentality to have. Next time, we’ll see if Uraraka can put her money where her mouth is.  

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 20

Sometimes, the toughest fights are in your head.

Last time on My Hero Academia, we learned that Shoto Todoroki’s father is a bit of an asshole. Sorry, I couldn’t think of a grander way to say that. Anyway, Shoto explains that his father was incredibly abusive to him and his mother in an attempt to make Shoto the primo hero-to-be. This led to a psychological break in his mother that caused her to douse young Shoto’s face with boiling water, to make him less palatable as Endeavor’s successor. It’s because of Dad’s abuse, and Mom’s break down and subsequent imprisonment in a psyche ward, that caused Shoto to vow to never use his left side’s flame powers in battle. Tough break kid. The kids then get their tournament matches setup, with young Midoriya in the first-round verses Shinso. Once the match starts for some reason, Izuku is suddenly paralyzed after Shinso’s mocking comments about one of Izuku’s classmates and Shinso has already claimed victory. Let’s get to it.

We open to an observation by Mr. Aizawa. He points out that the robot combat trial as the entrance exam is kind of stupid, as it puts a greater emphasis on combat potential, leaving students with useful but less flashy powers in the dust. Case in point, the much flashier Izuku Midoriya literally stopped seemingly by Shinso’s word. Shinso’s quirk, the episode explains, is called Brainwashing. Basically, if one answers a question from him, and he wills it, the answerer is put under his control. They’re in a trance and have to obey any orders given. While this is happening, Shinso orders Izuku to turn around and walk out of the ring. In the stands, Aizawa points out that in a head to head fight, obviously Izuku wins. He’s trained for fighting, and has more overall muscle mass. And if OFA is entered into the equation, forget about it. So, Izuku just needs to fight through his opponent’s control and get into that fist fight. Easy Breezy.

Yeah, shove to victory.

The really creepy thing about this is that Izuku, while not in control of his body, is still aware of everything happening around him. He says that it feels like his mind is in a fog of some kind. We have a quick flashback to Izuku chatting with Ojiro before the match started. He describes his experience under Shinso’s control, and noted that he actually started coming out of the trance in the cavalry battle. Someone bumped into them as they moved around the field, and the jolt of motion help clear the fog away enough for him to start reasserting control of himself. Too bad the match ended only a few seconds later. He tells Izuku to beat Shinso for both of them, and to remember that shock seems to draw people out of the trance. Izuku agreed, but I imagine he did not realizing that that might be a lot harder then it initially sounded. Just a guess.

Izuku does his best to break the control through sheer force of will, but even reminding himself that everyone is watching can’t shake him free. But then, in the shadows around the entryway he came through, he spies several shadowy, ethereal shapes watching him. Somehow, these eight or so shadowy figures appearance seems to have trigger OFA, cloaking Izuku in the red lines that crisscross his body when the power is triggered. Shinso, not noticing the change, comments that even with powers such as Brainwashing he has big dreams of being a hero. He basically orders Izuku to lose so he can attain those dreams. At the last moment, Izuku is able to snap two of his fingers, breaking them and freeing himself from Shinso’s control via the shock and pain. While still a little woozy from that ordeal, Izuku is able to puzzle out that those eight specters might have been the previous holders of OFA. Granted, bit of a stretch but… eight people, he’s been told he’s the ninth holder, no one else seems to have seen them, I can see how his brain might jump to that one.

I think a bleeding nose and two broken fingers officially make this the
least injured Izuku has ever been after a fight.

Shinso, realizing that his goose might in fact be cooked, is furious that Izuku muscled through his power. He starts shrieking at Izuku, trying to force him to respond verbally to his barbs to get control again. But, while he’s about as naïve as a kid can be, Izuku isn’t so easily fooled in a do or die situation. He closes the distance between him and Shinso and the two heroes-in-training start grappling. Shinzo tries to use Izuku’s broken fingers to his advantage, but to no avail. Izuku slams him into the ground, getting a ring out.

We get a quick flashback to Shinso as he entered middle school three years ago. Pretty much from the moment people learned about his powers, they were wary of him. More then one student asked him to swear to never use his power on them. “Sound’s criminal’ was a phrase hurled at him more then once. Despite being suspected of being a potential villain in the making, Shinzo never seemed to give up on the idea of being a hero.

Back in the present, Aizawa compliment’s Izuku’s use of tactics, and Present Mic calls for a round of applause, even though he personally thought it was kind of a bland start. As Shinso makes for the exit, Izuku asks him the simplest of questions, “Why do you want to be a hero?” Shinso shrugs and says “You can’t help the things your heart longs for.” Huh, wanting to be a hero despite lacking a culturally appropriate Quirk to preform said heroing. I feel like these two should be best friends. And, despite losing, Shinso seems to have impressed some folks. Not only his classmates who didn’t realize how strong his power was, to some professional heroes that note that having a guy who could literally stop trouble with a well-placed word would be kind of an asset. There you go Shinso, you impressed Dragon/Lizard man. Baby steps. Shinso tells Izuku he’s not giving up on moving up to the Her Course, and that Izuku should do his damnedest to go all the way to #1 to ensure Shinso doesn’t look bad at having lost to him.

Izuku is taken to see Recovery Girl, who uses her magic smooches to heal his broken fingers. I have to imagine she’s getting a little tired of seeing him by this point, not going to lie. Izuku asks All Might if those people in his vision were real or not. While remaining cryptic about it, All Might does seem to confirm that those were some manifestation of the previous eight users. After Izuku leaves, Recovery Girl makes it clear that there’s more to Izuku’s vision then just phantoms, but All Might remains tight lipped on the subject. How odd.

Yeah, I'd have forfeited after that too...

Meanwhile, Todoroki is on his way to his match against the tape firing Sero. He runs into his father on the way down. Shockingly, Endeavour is a bit of a dick to his progeny. He basically tells his son to stop being a rebellious little brat and use the literal Fire Power he was given. Shoto blows off the elder Todoroki and goes to his match. The match between Shoto Todoroki and Hanta Sero is a quick one. Sero is able to wrap Shoto in his tape attack and starts to try to throw Shoto out of the ring. But, Shoto instead releases an immense cold snap, freezing Sero, the field and a good quarter of the stadium itself in a massive pillar of ice. Sero, unsurprisingly, surrenders. Despite this, a bunch of spectators start chanting “Nice Try!” to try and lift the Tape shooter’s spirits. Damn, Izuku has got his work cut out for him.

I remember working on a project of my own, involving superhumans being created to be used as human weapons by a corrupt corporation (I eventually abandoned it for being too… Young Adult Fiction for my own tastes) and asking a buddy what he thought an ‘evil’ power was. For one of bad guys. He almost immediately said Mind Control. Which, yeah, I have to kind of agree. Not sure if it’s true everywhere, but from what I’ve seen a good chunk of the population seems to have a fear of having their freedoms reduced or removed entirely. And, you don’t get much more freedom reducing then mind control. That being said, I do like how despite being creepy up to his point and a colossal jerk, Shinso is still trying to be a hero despite having an ability that most people associate with criminal enterprise. He wants to be defined by his actions, no by the Quirk he was given. Sure, his tactics were borderline dirty for most of this and he used several students to get to the final round, his is a noble goal, if nothing else. And I like that once he showed off his power a bit, most of the spectators seemed to agree that it was a potentially damn useful skill. Sure, it’s not nearly as flashy or impressive as lot of powers, but it does serve to prove that non-combat powers are still an asset. I think the parallels to Izuku are very good too, as both young men know what it’s like to want to be a Hero with nearly every fiber of their being, but are also constantly told they just aren’t cut out for it. Hell, had things gone a bit differently and Izuku hadn’t inherited OFA, they might have been classmates. That is if Izuku thought ahead and applied for the General Studies Course as well. Just saying. The last few minutes also severed to reiterate that Izuku’s next opponent is worlds different from his last. The fight with Shoto Todoroki is going to be one for the record books.

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 19

Is a professional Hero that abuses his family still a hero?

Sums them up nicely. Cool as ice on the left, and nervous to
the point of giving himself an aneurysm on the right.

Last time on My Hero Academia, our young heroes took horsing around to a new level. I am not apologizing for that joke. Everyone was pushed to their limits to nab enough points to make it to the final round. Despite their best efforts, Team Izuku lost the 10-Million-point headband but were able to scrounge enough points together to advance. Bakugo signal handedly defeated a mouthy HC student named Monoma. And Todoroki was forced to use his fire powers for the first time in a fight to keep Izuku from nabbing a headband. Let’s get to it.

While the rest of the class takes a break for lunch, Izuku is pulled away for a private conversation with Shoto Todoroki. The chilling young man explained that he’d felt Izuku’s power, and instinctively threw up flames to protect himself, breaking a personal promise he’d made to never use the flames in a fight. He claims that Izuku’s power felt a lot like the aura All Might gives off, and then asks if Izuku might be his illegitimate son. Somewhere, Hisashi Midoriya (Dad) is sobbing that someone would believe that his wife cheated on him. After Izuku vehemently denies that accusation, Todoroki explains that regardless, they have every reason to hate each other. Why? While All Might is clearly mentoring Izuku, Todoroki was mentored (and sired) by Japan’s #2 Hero, Endeavor.

While this is going on, said mentors meet. See, All Might still isn’t completely confident in his teaching skills, and decided to ask Endeavor about how he trained Shoto. Enji Todoroki, aka Endeavor, is completely dismissive of All Might and tries to brush him off. All Might continues to pry, as he wants to do his best to train the next generation of heroes. Endeavor, though, isn’t interested in helping anyone other then Shoto. He vows that Shoto will surpass All Might and be the greatest hero of all time. I’m getting a weird, helicopter-parent vibe from this guy, not going to lie. Or worse, a Norman Osborn vibe.

One of these guys is a hero. The other is a superpowered bully
with an inferiority complex clocked in flames.
Whoops, gave it away.

Back with Izuku and Shoto, the younger Todoroki explains his background. A quick refresher about Quirks. Izuku notwithstanding, the Quirks are largely genetic. A man with superstrength will, usually, pass on that superstrength to the next generation. Pretty simple. But, it is also possible that powers from both sides could be passed down, enhancing or completely changing the nature of the next generations abilities. Using the Midoriyas as an example, if things had worked out as they normally did, Izuku should have either developed his mother’s telekinesis, his father’s fire-breathing, or some awesome combination of the two. Huh, seems like Izuku was cheated out of being Japan’s Dark Phoenix. Lame. Anyway, does that explanation make sense? Good. This is kind of the reason why Shoto Todoroki exists.

See, while not super common, there have been cases of folks arraigning marriages around the prospective spouse’s abilities. Such was the case with Enji and Rei Todoroki. Todoroki explains that his father, already a successful hero at the time, paid a rather hefty dowry to Rei’s parents to get her as his wife. Why? Rei has Ice powers. Wishing to create the next generation of hero with both his scorching flames, and Rei’s chilling Ice, Enji went to work creating a successor. This is pretty messed up just on the surface, but I’ll go into the greater details of why this makes Enji “Endeavor” Todoroki an unbelievable monster. Short version, Shoto was physically and emotionally abused during his training, as was his mother. She eventually snapped, and called Shoto’s left side ‘unbearable’ as she threw boiling water onto her baby’s face. Messed up.  

In the present, Shoto tells Izuku that he intends to beat our hero, and everyone else in the tournament, using only his right side, his ice side, her side, as the ultimate screw you to his father. See, he’s smart enough to know that, while mom threw the water on him, it was his father’s emotional and physical abuse that drove her to do it. Izuku is somewhat impressed with his classmate’s determination but refuses to backdown. He claims that, because so many had supported him, he can’t just give up. The two rivals part ways. Oh, and we see Bakugo eavesdropping on this conversation. I can’t imagine that will end well.

After some Mineta shenanigans where he and lightning flinging Kaminari trick the girls of 1-A into dressing up in cheerleader outfits, (why do these girls keep listening to him?) we get on with the show. Almost. Turns out, Izuku’s classmate Ojiro (the dude with the giant tail) and a HC 1B student both withdrawal from the tournament. Both don’t feel right being in the final fight, as neither really remembers participating in the Cavalry battle. Odd, considering they were on Shinso’s team… But, anyway, Ojiro and the other guy’s pride refuses to allow them to participate when they feel like they didn’t earn it. Because of that, two class 1B students get bumped up to fill the spots. After drawing lots, the match ups end up being as follows. I’ll include powers for those that I think are relevant. Izuku Midoriya v. Hitoshi Shinso (powers unknown). Shoto Todoroki v. Hanta Sero (fires tape from elbows). Denki Kaminari v. Ibara Shiozaki (1B student with vine like hair). Tenya Iida vs. Mae Hatsume (telescopic pupils). Mina Ashido (Generates Acid) v. Yuga Aoyama (Naval Laser). Momo Yaoyorozu v. Fumikage Tokoyami. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu (Hardens his body into Steel) vs. Eijiro Kirishima (Hardens his body into Stone). And finally, Ochako Uraraka v. Katsuki Bakugo. Show of hands, who thinks Uraraka drew the short straw? Okay, yeah, that’s everybody. I mean… I’m sure she’ll do great.

Once the matches are all announced, Shinso rather cockily asks Izuku if he’s excited. Before Izuku can answer, though, Ojiro slaps his tail over his mouth and glares daggers at the other man. Pulling Izuku to the side, Ojiro warns Izuku to not answer any question that Shinso asks him. Odd... And Bakugo asks who the hell Uraraka is. Seriously, for a supposed Genius, Bakugo is sure oblivious. While the tournament kids do their own rituals to psyche themselves up, the rest of the students participate in some random games. Fun. Before the main event, Izuku gets a chance to chat with All Might. The mighty hero explains that he clocks Izuku’s OFA power usage at about 5%. It’s not much, but All Might advises for his student to keep working regardless.

While that was going on, another teacher, a monolith looking fellow named Cementoss uses his powers to make the ring. He has power over concrete and cement, allowing him to manipulate it as he sees fit, and quickly shift it from its solid to liquid state and vice versa. Because of that particular power, he’ll also be serving as the ringside referee in case things get too intense. The rules are pretty simple, to win one either needs to KO their opponent, get them out of the ring, or get them to forfeit. Easy breezy.

Did no one tell Shinzo heroes shouldn't have a "I'm about to
murder you," face? On that note, someone remind Bakugo
of that too.

As the match starts, Shinzo immediately starts mocking Ojiro. He mocks Ojiro’s precious pride, the stupid choice to drop out of the final match, and insults Ojiro’s Monkey tail. I think Shinzo might be tail-sist. Izuku, overcome with anger, tells him to shut up. Which was dumb. Why? Because he’s suddenly frozen in place. Shinzo claims victory. Well… shoot.

The origins of Shoto Todoroki hinted at here are so good and so damn depressing. He’s the product of an aggressive, angry father, and a psychologically damaged mother. I like that he’s smart enough to know that, while his mother was the one that burned his face, the blame ultimately lays with his father. He’s taken his scars, both physically and emotionally, as best he can and is now determined to be better then his father without his father’s gifts. He seems to not quite get that the… cold persona he projects probably isn’t much healthier then Endeavor’s burn hate, but hey, he’s got time to figure that out. Enji Todoroki is a pretty vile father. His obsession with defeating All Might poisoned pretty much ever aspect of his life. It killed his marriage, destroyed his relationship with his kids, and even effected his professional life. Endeavor is known for being brutally efficient in taking down criminals, and SUCKING at PR. I believe the term for him is a Hate Sink, someone that we’re supposed to love to hate for his pettiness and selfishness. At least to begin with. I’ll go into greater detail about him in a future post. I like the reveal about Shinso. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to reveal that he’s got a form of mind control. His rather bizarre activities throughout this competition, using other students more then once to avoid obstacles in the first test, and using another set to earn points in the Cavalry suddenly makes a lot of sense. He’s got this really creepy vibe about him, which has nothing to do with his powers I’d say. That’s especially sad given what we learn about him next time. It’s classic Izuku that he knows he shouldn’t do something, but can’t help himself from doing it when a friend is insulted. Still, rookie mistake to fall for a taunt. Take it from Spider-Man’s play book, heroes should be the jibbers, not the jibbed. Don’t worry, he’s not going to be going down easy.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp

It's a microscopic problem.

Sorry that this one took a while, I just never got around to the theater. I know, my bad. I’m already paying for not getting around to seeing Deadpool 2 in theaters. Wade hasn’t returned my calls at all since last month. I shiver to think what he’s planning, but that’s an issue for another day. You’re here to hear about Ant-Man and The Wasp. Let’s get to it.

Marvel makes really cool posters.

We open to a flashback to the 80s, when the original dream team to bear the monikers Ant-Man and The Wasp were working as covert agents for SHIELD. We see Janet van Dyne maskless for the first time, and she looks like Michell Pfeiffer. Neat. For those that don’t remember, our insect themed heroes last mission together was to stop a Soviet missile from nuking part of the US. Being unable to cut through the metal, Jan disables a regulator on her costume, allowing her to shrink past safe levels, to slip between the molecules of the missile and disable it. Unfortunately, she shrank so much, so fast, she was lost in the sub-atomic quantum realm. Hank explains to a now adult Hope van Dyne that he’d given up hope on ever seeing her again, until his successor Scott Lang traveled to the quantum realm and back again. They begin developing a device, a tunnel to the quantum realm to try and save her. This project, along with Scott’s place as Ant-Man and the budding relationship between Hope and Scott is somewhat complicated by the events of Captain America: Civil War. Siding with Cap made Scott a criminal, but he worked out a plea deal to make things work with his family.

We flash to the present day, three days from the end of Scott’s two-year house arrest. He does his best to keep busy, learning things like close-up magic, playing with his daughter on his weekends with her, and helping his crew from the last movie set up their new security business. Oh, and putting up with zealous FBI guys that search his place if he sets a literal foot outside his apartment. He’s obviously losing his mind, but hey, just three more days. What could complicate that? Turns out a lot of things. Upon passing out in the tub, which is super dangerous by the way, Scott suffers from a bizarre dream. He remembers seeing the trippy landscape of the quantum realm, a spectral image of a Wasp, and playing a game of hide and seek with a young Hope. He turns to a mirror, sees a Michelle Pfeiffer face and wakes up. Feeling… disorientated after that dream, Scott pulls out a hidden phone and calls Hank. He just get’s Hank’s voice mail, and just leaves a message.

The next day, he’s knocked out and kidnapped by a clearly peeved Hope. She removed his ankle bracelet and stuck it on a super-sized ant that was trained to follow Scott’s usual routine. Not sure that sciences, but we’ll just gloss over that. Scott’s taken to Hope and Hank’s lab. There, the also peeved retired hero explains the weirdness to Scott. Turns out, he and Hope had built their giant bridge to the quantum realm and switched it on. It shorted out, but five minutes later, Hank got the call from Scott. They theorize that somehow Jan had reached out through Scott and left a message on how to find her. Again, not sure that sciences, but moving on. They’re keeping Scott to see if he can help them once they finish remodeling their device. To protect the lab, and keep Scott in his sights, Hank shrinks his lab down to a portable suitcase size.

Not a villain, but very much an
antagonist.

They’d arrange a meeting with black market tech dealer named Sonny Burch to finish the bridge. Burch had sold them a number of pieces already, they just need one final piece to finish their bridge. Unfortunately, he had recently discovered his customers were the rogue Pym and van Dyne. He, believing their working on an Arc Reactor but with Quantum parts, had arranged a meeting with several interested parties for their work. Dude is trying to sell something he hasn’t even seen. That’s just stupid. Hope tries to turn him down, but Sonny refuses to give them the parts and take the money too. Oh… stupid man, you don’ kicked the wasp’s nest.

Donning her new Wasp costume, Hope beats the hell out of Sonny’s goons. Shrinking and growing, plus wings and her energy blasting Stingers makes beating up goons really easy. She leaves him the money and tries to take the part but gets jumped by this weird woman in white. Said woman seems to shift in and out of phase, allowing her to pass through solid objects. Scott gets into a new Ant-Man suit that Pym had been working on and goes to help. They fend her off, but she slips away, stealing the part and breaking into the van to steal Hank’s portable lab. Side note, I found it funny that they used the pronouns him and it for Ghost, when she’s clearly a she. What? Hips don’t lie.

They try to think of a way to track the lab, but Ghost had disabled the tracker. Without any other options, Scott and co visit an old partner of Hank’s, Bill Foster. He’s a Lawrence Fishburne looking kind of guy. Neat. The hope is that his fresh eyes might help him think of something team Insect didn’t think of. There’s a LOT of friction between Bill and Hank. He apparently took over as Hank’s partner after Jan’s disappearance, under the alias Goliath. After some arguing, and a literal measuring contest between Scott and Bill, Bill gives them the idea to recalibrate a part from the Ant-Man suit to find the lab. After some shenanigans where Scott’s suit starts fritzing out at his daughter’s school, she’d taken a trophy that Scott had stored the costume in, they get the part from Scott’s original suit (new suits didn’t have the part) and they track the lab down.

They break into the house Ghost is staying at, but she gets the drop on them. After restraining all three, and Bill joining them to reveal he’s working with Ghost, we get her backstory. She’s Ava Starr, daughter of a former SHIELD scientist Elihas Starr. Her dad was fired and blacklisted by SHIELD on Hank’s recommendation, but he refused to stop working on his own quantum gate. The end result went haywire, killing the Egghead and his wife, but leaving Ava alive. Unfortunately, she was left with a condition that left her out of phase with reality. The phasing also causes her to feel intense pain, which her suit and a special chamber help relieve. She was essentially adopted by Bill after he split with Hank and spent years as a Wet Works agent for SHIELD on the promise that they’d fix her condition. Turns out SHIELD couldn’t deliver before the organization collapsed. The antagonists explain that they’re going to finish Hank’s bridge but use it to syphon quantum energy from Jan, to hopefully heal Ava. Hank claims that’ll kill Jan, but Bill insists it’ll work.

Love the redesign on both the Ant-Man and Wasp costumes.

Using a heart attack fake out and some expanding ants, the heroes escape and get the lab back. They’re able to get things set up and powered up. This allows Jan to somehow possess Scott. Using Scott’s body, she’s able to pin point her coordinates for them to find her. While they put the finishing touches to their bridge, Scott calls Luis and gives him their location, just to fix an error with their project that’ll make or break their company. Unfortunately, Sonny arrives and gives Luis some ‘not’ truth serum. Luis does another of his hilarious story summaries before being forced to tell them where team Insect has set up, just in time for Ghost to slip in and hear as well. Not wanting to get in the crossfire between superhumans, Sonny calls his contact with the FBI and tells them where to go and that Scott’s involved. Well, crap. Luis calls Scott, who has to bail on the other two to make it home in time, much to their anger. Scott makes it home in time, but Hank and Hope are arrested by the feds. They’re brought into custody, while Ghost steals the lab again. After getting some encouragement from his daughter Cassie, Scott breaks Hope and Hank out of custody and the team reunite to save Jan before it’s too late.

So, the good first. The returning cast is great, with Evangeline Lilly and Michael Douglas’s seriousness to counterbalance Paul Rudd and Michael Peña’s more comedic moments. The new members are also amazing. Do I need to say anything about Lawrence Fishburne? Morpheus delivers as the super scientist trying to save his, essentially, adopted daughter. He serves as a kind of grounding rod for Ava, keeping her from performing the most extreme of actions. It’s his intervention that stops Ava from targeting Cassie to get to Scott. He’s cool with her stealing and even killing to meet their goals, but kids are over the line. Everybody needs principles. Hannah John-Kamen is also great as Ava. She does a good job portraying a character that isn’t evil, just pushed to her breaking point and desperate to just make the pain stop. Pretty good for an original character. Yeah, the Ghost of the comics is an anti-capitalist saboteur, terrorist and a dude. I especially liked the effects for her phasing, they do this thing where you see spectral images of Ava performing several possible actions while she moves and fights. Also, I found it hilarious that Scott’s ex-wife and her husband went from totally distrustful of him to the sort of people that constantly group hug when they meet or leave. It’s cute.

The minimum is bad, but there. The bit with Sonny hunting Scott and co felt really tacked on. Little more then an excuse to work Luis and the X-Con crew back into the plan and give Ghost a heads-up on their location. I also felt that the anger that Hank and Hope felt towards Scott for running off to Germany to help Team Cap just sort of vanished for a while before coming up again towards the finale. I won’t want them constantly screaming at him or anything, just a few more comments about him bailing or being unreliable, all I’m saying. Some of the hijinks also ran on for a little longer then I’d have liked. There’s a small subplot (maybe just a recurring gag) of Scott’s new suit constantly shorting out, causing him to shrink and grow randomly and to random degrees. I glossed over the entire scene at Cassie’s school, where they went to recover Scott’s original suit, just because it was just an overlong short joke. His suit shorted out and left him at about three feet tall. So funny. I’m rolling my eyes, FYI.

Overall, I’ll give this one an A-. This is a much smaller scale (I couldn’t not do the pun) film then we’ve seen from Marvel. For once, the fate of the world isn’t in the balance, or even the fate of a city. All that hangs in the balance are the fates of two women. One lost on the waves of reality, the other being torn apart by the powers she wields. It’s a very human story, I think, which is good. Variety is one of Marvel’s strong suits, and this movie is a good example. Ava and Bill aren’t evil, or not completely, they’re just two people trying to save one of them from a grizzly fate. It’s a no less valid struggle then Hank and Hope’s desire to save Jan, it’s just conflicting with theirs. We also got a good introduction to a new hero, in the form of Wasp. While Hope is no replacement for Jan, she’s a fresh fighting heroine that deserves the credit in the title that she finally gets. Her growth from sideline support of Ant-Man to his full partner is a nice development for her character. We also saw Scott step up as a character, trying his best to be a functioning parent for his daughter, a functioning member of society (to an extent) and to own up for his mistakes in Civil War. It’s real growth, and I’m glad he’s getting it. So yeah, it’s a small-scale bit of fun, but it’s a hell of a ride regardless.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

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