Last time on My Hero Academia, the
final round of the Sports festival was set. Shoto Todoroki is going to take on
Katsuki Bakugo. Tenya Iida was knocked out of the running after facing off with
Shoto. Unfortunately, that isn’t the worst thing to happen to the Iida family today.
Iida’s brother, Tensei aka Ingenium, was viciously attacked by a villain and
serial killer, Stain the Hero Killer. He’s alive, but in critical condition. And,
unbeknownst to anyone, Stain has been approached by the League of Villains, the
baddies think he could be a major asset.
 |
| Shoto doesn't look SUPER invested in this fight. |
We get a quick flashback of all the
times that Shoto and Bakugo have been combative over the last season and a
half. It’s mostly to set up that both of these young men are incredibly powerful,
and probably have a few issues that they need to work on. Seriously, these
young men could use therapy. We then cut to Shoto waiting in the prep room. Despite
the, literal, fire he showed off while fighting Izuku earlier, he’s clearly still
troubled about using his flames and conflicted about what Izuku told him. “Are his
flames really his, or his fathers,” that sort of thing. Before he can delve too
deeply into what he’s feeling, Bakugo kicks the door in. He mixed up the
waiting rooms, despite this he tries to still act tough and demands that Shoto
come at him with everything he’s got. Shoto
ignores the barbs and asks Bakugo if Izuku was always so… Izuku. This obviously
infuriates Bakugo, and he angrily demands Shoto forget that stuff and come at
him.
Shortly thereafter, the match
begins, Shoto Todoroki vs. Katsuki Bakugo. Bakugo opens like he always does,
with a massive Icewave. I’d say he was getting predictable, but it’s hard to
mess with perfection. And a colossal glacier of ice expand out from your boot is
a pretty perfect opening move. Bakugo takes the hit, but ends up using repeated
focused explosions to burrow through the ice like some kind of mole man. He
rushes Shoto, who dodges around and slides on an ice bridge. Bakugo grabs him
on the left side, but Shoto can’t bring up his flames to protect himself. He
breaks free, but is clearly rattled. Which just pisses off Bakugo even more. He
knows that he can’t rightfully claim being the best unless Shoto hits him with
the same force that he did Izuku, and demands that Shoto go all out. He charges
at Shoto again. Shoto is about to give up, as he can’t find that clarity of
focus to use his flames again, that is until he hears Izuku telling him not to
give up. He is able to ignite himself enough to take care of the frost on his
body, which gives Bakugo hope that he’ll get a real fight. Bakugo leaps into
the air and hit’s Shoto with his Howitzer blast. Shoto nearly gets his hand up,
but loses his resolve once more. He’s knocked out of the ring and of consciousness.
 |
| I'm legitimately concerned that a school had all that stuff on hand/ |
Bakugo refuses to accept this win. He
goes over to Shoto’s limp form, shaking him and demanding they keep fighting.
He’s only stopped by Midnight’s knockout pheromone. After Bakugo had been
stopped, he’s named the winner. At the award ceremony, we’re treated to the
sight of Shoto and Tokoyami standing on podium’s looking regal… and Bakugo
continually flipping out despite being bound and muzzled. I’m concerned that
the school had such equipment ready… Moving on, Midnight mentions Iida also got
third place, but had to leave due to a family emergency. Izuku and Uraraka were
told by their friend about what happened to Iida’s brother, and are obviously worried
about him. All Might leaps in to hand out the medals. He gives each of the
three young men a medal and a piece of advice. Tokoyami is told to train hard
and learn to fight without his Quirk. Shoto is told to find whatever balance he
needs and to keep moving forward. And Bakugo is told to just take the medal and
treat it like a scar if he has to. With the muzzle off, he keeps screaming that
this isn’t a real win and he doesn’t want the damn medal, but All Might forces
him to take it in his teeth. Hell of an award ceremony.
After the festival, the students
are given a few days off to decompress. Izuku mentions, using his seldom used
Narrator Powers, that this was the first time he felt a subtle shift in the
atmosphere at the school. Something had changed, and not for the better.
In Hosu City, Iida makes it to the
hospital. He’s shown in to his brother, but it’s not looking good. Tensei Iida
is covered in slices and stitches. He’s hooked up to oxygen, and it looks like
he can barely move. Despite this, he’s conscious enough to know his family is
there. He apologizes to Tenya, telling his little brother that he’s sorry he
couldn’t live up to Tenya’s hopes and expectations about him. Tenya just sobs.
On a slightly happier note, the
next day, Shoto goes to visit his mother. He’s advised by his older sister, Fuyumi,
that this probably isn’t a good idea and that he should at least tell their
dad, but Shoto is still in his “screw you” dad mode. He makes it inside to see
her, despite his own reservations about the meeting. He’s decided that healing
whatever wounds may lie between them, and seeing her safely removed from the
hospital is the next step he needs to take to figure out himself and his powers.
That’s a good goal, Shoto.
The credits roll from here, but
stick around as we have a few more scenes to cover. I honestly don’t know why
they rolled the credits despite having several more minutes of content, but
there you go.
 |
| I haven't mentioned them much, but I love the fact that Present Mic and Aizawa are either Besties or just two dudes forever stuck together. |
During the break, Ochako Uraraka is
visited by her parents. This is rather shocking to her, as it’s implied that
the Uraraka’s don’t take much time off and live a fair distance from UA high. Yeah,
in Japan, high school is important enough that it’s not unheard of for families
to get apartments for their teenagers to attend schools outside their home city.
I personally don’t think I could let a hypothetical fifteen-year-old daughter
of mine out of my sight that long for any reason, but there you go. They came
to celebrate, and the Uraraka’s have a grand old time.
Izuku has dinner with his mother, who
admits that she passed out seven times during and after the cavalry battle. But,
two of them might have been from dehydration… I’m not sure that makes that
better, but she seems too. While his mother praises and worries about him,
Izuku mentally goes over everything that happened today. He has a better
understanding about what he wants, and resolves to get a better understanding
and control over his powers.
Finally, we have Bakugo. He’s
taking out his pent-up aggression on his mortal enemy… plaque! Yeah, in a final
gag scene we’re shown Bakugo violently brushing his teeth while shouting “DIE PLAQUE!”
and hearing his mother off screen shouting “KATSUKI, YOU CAN’T SLEEP UNTIL NOON
AND THEN START YELLING!” I feel like the entire Bakugo family might be a tad…
explosive. I am not sorry.
 |
| Compared to fighting his classmates in obstacle courses and arena matches... yeah, this is exponentially harder. |
And with that we bid farewell to
the Sport’s Festival Arc. Overall, it was a good arc. We got to see Izuku and
some of his classmates grow, got a number of good action scenes, and also saw
the start of a few personal arcs to boot. Izuku’s determination to keep going despite
not winning the tournament, and the potential permanent damage he could suffer
is a damn fine sight to see. While he didn’t win the tournament, I think he reaffirmed
in All Might’s, and by extension we the audience, that the Symbol of Peace
chose the right successor. The Mystery of One For All is also expanded
slightly, with that weird vision Izuku had while fighting Shinso, and with the
added information about how the power itself works. The fact that it not only
boosts one’s physical strength but one’s natural Quirk does make that power
just a bit more tantalizing, now doesn’t it? I liked the character growth with
Shoto Todoroki in this arc. Up until this point he’s been a visually interesting
character, but we didn’t get many details about him. We just knew he was a
quite kid with a penchant for cold. Now, we’re quite aware that he’s a
surprisingly well-adjusted individual despite a LOT of baggage delivered early
on in life. He’s getting promoted from ensemble cast to a secondary protagonist
after this point, i.e. he’ll be up there with Iida, Uraraka and Bakugo in terms
of screen time, we’re going to see a lot of his growth from now on. Iida’s
brother’s attack and the anger he feels towards Stain will be a driving force
for the second half of this season. The Hero killer cut him, metaphorically,
deep when he nearly killed Tensei and he’s going out for payback. And Stain has
had a nice intro as well. The Hero Killer is our next major baddy. His desire
to ‘cleanse’ the world of heroes so only someone as perfect as All Might can be
a hero is about to shift into high gear. But, I’ll save the details on that for
when we get back to this.
I think this is the natural
stopping point. While I’d love to keep going with My Hero Academia, if I keep
ignoring the Netflix Marvel Heroes I don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch up.
The way I see it, I’m going to try to knock out Jessica Jones season 2 over
October and November, covering the various movies that crop up, and do a few
more episodes of My Hero Academia over December. It’s not set in stone, but
that’s the general plan going forward. I’m still going to try to post a few
more things by the end of the month, so stay tuned.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/21713145
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment