Last time on My Hero Academia, it
was an all-out brawl between our hero Izuku Midoriya, and his freezing rival,
Shoto Todoroki. Our protagonist fought valiantly, both to win the match, and
help his opponent work through some personal issues. Hm… if this hero thing
doesn’t work out, Izuku should consider work as a therapist. And if this hero
thing works out, he should consider teaching during his retirement. Just a
thought. Unfortunately, while it seems like Izuku was able to help Shoto
embrace his full power, at least for a moment, his advice worked too well and
Izuku lost the match. Now he has several broken bones and nothing to show for
it but his wounded pride. Sorry this opener is a bit of a downer.
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| I mean... I think he's had worse. |
After the highlight reel of the
last match, we open for reals on the crowd’s reaction to what they just
watched. Nobody understands why Izuku would have fought so hard while at the
same time trying to push his opponent into fighting harder. The acoustics in
that area must be phenomenal for them to have heard all of that verbal sparring
during the match, just saying. Bakugo is
clearly pissed that Izuku is getting more praise, but hey, what else is new. In
the arena halls, Shoto is approached by his father. Endeavor seems to think
that, because Shoto used his Fire powers, he’s ready to stop being a baby and
learn from his old man. I’m massaging my temples right now at how little this
guy seems to understand how badly he’s screwed up his son. Shoto basically
tells his father, ‘screw you’ he’s not over it, and the only reason he was able
to use his Fire was because while fighting Izuku he was able to forget about
everything. The years of abuse, the mom in a mental institution, all the other
crap that’s come from being the progeny of Eiji “Endeavor” Todoroki. He’s not
sure if that’s good or bad, but it’s the truth.
We then shift our focus to Izuku in
the nurse’s office. Don’t worry, while that phrase might bring to mind less
then adequate budgets and equipment, Recovery Girl has healing powers and is a
trained physician, he’s better off there then in any hospital in the world.
Injury count off, we have 1. Broken left leg, 2. A severely broke left arm and
hand, 3. Numerous cuts, bruises and other minor injuries, and 4. To top it all
off, a right hand that is so severely mangled, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn
that it’s more shards then solid bones. Not a great assessment for young
Midoriya. Recovery Girl is less then pleased with all of this. Izuku had broken
the bones in his right hand so severely that bone fragments have spread
throughout the muscles and cartilage. She needs to surgically remove those
chunks before healing him. And even after that, his hand will never get back to
100%. Hey, it’s quasi-magic healing, not actual magic healing, there are limits.
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| I'm predicting Arthritis in this hand's future. |
Just before Recovery Girl can
really ream All Might for pushing Izuku too hard, Izuku’s friends rush in. That
is, Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, and Mineta. Iida explains that the matches were
temporarily postponed, due to the need to have to repair… completely rebuild
the area. Props to Izuku/Shoto smash. Everyone is able to express their
concerns for our green haired hero just before being ushered out by Recovery
Girl. This gives Izuku and All Might a chance to talk. Izuku apologizes for
screwing up the plan. You know, for him to win the tournament and announce “I
am here!” in his best All Might impersonation. All Might tells him it’s not the
end of the world, while they didn’t get the result they wanted, there’s always
next time, and Izuku did his best to help a friend’s personal growth. Since
Meddling in other people’s business is the essence of hero work, All Might is
still proud of him.
We swap over to a few quick matches
while Izuku gets his hand taken care. Somewhere, Mrs. Midoriya is vigorously
cursing those safety releases she must have signed to let her son into UA. In
the ring, Iida rushes around Ibara’s vine-hair-tentacle-things, and then shoves
her from the center of the ring to the edge at high speed. After that it’s
Tokoyami vs. Mina Ashido. The acid generator fights valiantly, but as Dark
Shadow seems to be immune to acid, it doesn’t work out well for her. She too is
shoved out of the ring.
Izuku’s surgery is finished. He’s
given just enough healing for him to walk. His right hand is now clearly been
broken and sports several scars. Recovery Girl tells Izuku quite firmly that
she isn’t healing any more of these self-inflicted injuries. He needs to either
find another way to fight or retire. As he and All Might leave to return to the
stands, the two have a heart to heart. Izuku, his confidence shaken by the
loss, asks if maybe it’d be better if he passed on OFA to another student, give
All Might a Mulligan on his choice in successor. All Might does point out that
could in theory be a workable idea. One For All, he explains, is a
crystallization of power. Or, to put another way, it boosts everything. In
someone like Izuku, who has no powers, it just enhances his physical strength
for him to function as a Strongman. But, in someone like say, Bakugo or
Todoroki, it would further enhance their Quirks to make their powers neigh
peerless. But, All Might doesn’t want Izuku to do that. Former Quirkless kids
need to stick together. Yep, All Might, Japan’s (possibly the whole world’s)
greatest hero, the Symbol of Peace, used to be Quirkless. Much like Izuku, he’d
impressed the former OFA wielder enough that she chose him to follow in her
footsteps. He’s proud of Izuku, he expects great things, and he wants the kid
to stop beating himself up about this one failure. Izuku seems to agree.
We get a quick scene with Iida, as
he calls his elder brother. Obviously, he wants to know if his brother had seen
and/or would see his next matches. Unfortunately, Tensei “Ingenium” Iida is on
patrol. We cut over to the elder Iida as he finally tracks down his quarry, the
Hero Killer, Stain. He has the sword wielding, long tongued criminal cornered
in an alleyway.
In the matches, we see Bakugo vs.
Kirishima. The two are putting on a hell of a fight, with Kirishima’s hardened
skin absorbing the brunt of Bakugo’s blasts. Izuku and Iida join the rest of
their class to watch. Iida explains more about his brother and how he hopes
that next time he talks to Tensei it’ll be as the champion. Oh dear, never hero
worship a sibling or parent in a dangerous job, it’s just asking for trouble.
Bakugo decides to go with the Son Goku approach, just hit his opponent really,
really hard, until he breaks through Kirishima’s armor and knocks him out. Bakugo
advances to the second Semi-Final round against Tokoyami.
The first Semi-Final match is
between Tenya Iida and Shoto Todoroki. Shoto opens up with an Icewave, but Iida
able to dodge thanks to his speed. He tries a few more waves to box Iida in,
but the speedster is able to leap over the ice thanks to the engines in his
calves. He activates his Recipro -burst. For those who might not remember, this
pushes his body to its maximum speed, but will cause his engines to stall after
ten seconds. He slams a kick into Shoto’s head and tries to run the downed
Elementalist before he can recover. Unfortunately, he forgot that Shoto is
about as skilled at close up work as he is at ranged. He’d frozen one of Iida’s
mufflers during that kick Iida delivered, which slowed him down. He then
encased his opponent in ice, immobilizing Iida. It was a quick match, but Iida
gave it his all. I’m sure his brother will be proud… if he makes it.
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| Heroes don't always get happy endings. |
We flash back to the alley.
Ingenium is lying in a rapidly expanding pool of blood. Stain, the Hero Killer,
stands over his latest victim and pontificates. He claims that all heroes, save
one, are a bunch of glory seeking, greedy, attention whores. They aren’t worthy
of the name Hero. The only one who is, All Might, is the only one that can beat
him. So… Stain is clearly unstable. Lovely.
Back at the Arena, Bakugo has
Tokoyami on the ropes. He is using his explosions to shower Tokoyami’s Dark
Shadow in bright lights, keeping it from releasing its full strength. Izuku and
Uraraka in the stands are unsure if Bakugo is just getting lucky or if the
rage-a-holic figured out Dark Shadow’s weakness. It’s proven to be the latter,
as Bakugo hits Dark Shadow with his very bright “Stun Grenade” blast and
tackles Tokoyami. Tokoyami yields. So, the final match is going to be between
Shoto Todoroki vs. Katsuki Bakugo… I
personally wouldn’t mind being in the nosebleeds for that match.
Iida is just about to join his
friends when he gets a call. He steps away to chat with his mother and give her
the bad news about his loss. Not that it’s a contest, but Mrs. Iida has worse
news for Tenya about Tensei.
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| As if the crazy eyes aren't enough, am I right? |
Stain, the kind of sick weirdo that
he is, watches from the rooftops while police and paramedics check out the
scene of Ingenium’s assault. He continues to muse about how much most heroes
suck and how All Might is great. This feels incredibly hypocritical, as all
that we’ve heard about Tensei Iida is that he is a respected, likeable,
hardworking hero. This is like nearly killing Sir Patrick Stewart and then
preaching about how Sir Ian McKellen is the best actor to ever portray King Lear
and a Mutant. Like, I’m not sure if that’s incorrect, but Sir Patrick doesn’t
deserve to be attacked because of it. Yes, that is a forced and extreme
parallel, but sometimes the weirdest examples stick with you the best. Before
he can move on, Kurogiri appears. He’s got an offer for the hero killer.
I think the big thing about this
episode, other then setting up the final match, is about consequence. Or at
least it is for Izuku. While I’ve enjoyed Anime for years, my background is a
bit more firmly placed in Western superheroes and other animation. The realm
where an injury might be life-threatening, but ultimately recoverable from.
Case in point, Batman’s back being broken fighting Bane. It took him three
months to recover and he has had, to my knowledge, no lingering side effects.
Injures are something a hero gets over, at least so long as they’re popular
enough. Very rarely does a hero take an injury that adversely affects them long
term. Izuku’s hands are permanently damaged, both invisibly and visibly. If you
take the time to notice, anytime his hands get a close up or are shown in
detail you can see the scars on them. That’s dedication. And from this point
onwards, he’s aware that he’s on a clock. Any fight that he could injure his
hands, which is all of them when you fight with your fists, could be his last.
This marks the beginning of Izuku trying to find another way to use his powers
without hurting himself. It takes him a while, but he does eventually find a
way to fight with virtually no risk to his hands. Woo. This also marks the
beginning of a bit of an arc for Iida. See, Tenya Iida worshipped Tensei Iida
as a hero. He respects his brother about all else, he models his costume after
Ingenium’s design, he (I think) hoped to be mentored under and eventually fight
alongside his brother. Ingenium is to Iida as All Might is to Izuku, or pretty
darn close. So, he takes the assault on Tensei incredibly hard. Iida will be
going to some dark places in the near future to see vengeance. Ooo,
foreshadowing. Next time, we’ll see which hero in training reigns supreme, the
explosive Bakugo or the chilling Shoto.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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