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... |
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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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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