As I stated back in September,
we’re going to be switching back to My Hero Academia for December. For those
who don’t remember or never knew, I work as a mailman for my day job and
December is easily the busiest month of the year for the US Post Office. Just
in the last week of November I was putting in 10-hour days, and that’s before
all those sales start going into effect. So, my free time is going to be
somewhat limited until the New Year. It’s a lot easier to pump out summaries
and reviews for a half hour show then an hour one, hence the changeover. We’ll
get back to Jessica Jones by the first of the year, I promise.
This was going to be posted last
week, but I was in a minor car accident a week ago Sunday. I was 100% fine, but
my car has been in the shop since then. The kicker was I was on my way to my
own birthday party. Happy birthday to me. Sigh.
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| I'm picturing Papa Bakugo just hanging his head in his hands and sighing when he saw this. |
Last time on My Hero Academia, the
champion of the UA sports festival was decided. Katsuki Bakugo was able to ring
out Shoto Todoroki in order to claim victory. He’d be happier about it, if
Shoto had come at him full force. But, unfortunately, the young man was still feeling
conflicted about using his fire power so he didn’t give the fight his 110% like
Bakugo wanted. An infuriated Bakugo tried force the fight to go on, but he was eventually
stopped, muzzled and forced to accept an award. Not joking about the muzzling,
why does the school have a muzzle for students? Anyway, afterwards, the
students enjoy a little time off, with some reuniting with family for the first
time in a while like Uraraka and Shoto, and Iida visited his severely injured
elder brother. He’d been assaulted in the line of duty by a serial killer named
Stain, and while he survived, he was crippled. Sort of a bittersweet note to
end on, if I’m being honest.
We pick back up again with Izuku
returning to UA just after the sports festival. It seems that after that Icy,
flaming, bone shattering brawl, people have started taking notice of him and
are treating the young man like a minor local celebrity. Which isn’t so bad,
the kid deserves some credit. Out on the street he passed Iida, whom he hadn’t
seen since the sports festival. His friend is putting on a brave face, but is
also remaining tight lipped about what happened to his brother, keeping our
green haired hero at an emotional arms-length.
In class, all of the students are celebrating their own levels of
new-found popularity. Seems like everyone walked away from the Sports Festival
with a new spring in their step, aside from Iida.
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| Once again, I love that these two have been besties for decades. |
Aizawa comes in and is now bandage
free, much to the students’ shock. Turns out he’d been more or less fine after
being healed, but Recovery Girl insisted on some extra coverage until the first
day back to regular classes. He now has a sizeable scar under his right eye,
but is otherwise fine. Which is impressive considering his skull was literally
driven into the ground by a colossal monster. He tells the students that it’s
time for them to pick codenames. Woo! What? Picking a name that’s both accurate
to their powers and intimidating is like half the fun of being a superhero.
Midnight comes in to oversee the name choices while Aizawa naps. Apparently,
he’s not that good with picking names. We’re shown a flashback where teenage
Present Mic picked his name and he just sort of rolled with it. Those guys
really have been besties forever, and I love it.
Almost all the students pick
accurate and fun codenames, like Tsu picking Froppy, Uraraka choosing Uravity,
and Kirishima selecting Red Riot. That last one was an homage to his own
personal All Might, Crimson Riot, so yeah, Kirishima is a fan boy too. There
are a few hick ups, like Ashido initially going for Alien Queen, but it being
reject as being a reference to the James Cameron Aliens monster. Considering this show is taking place about eighty
to a hundred years in the future, that’s some impressive film knowledge. She
bounces back with the simpler Pinkie. Bakugo has a lot of difficulty as his
choices of King Explosion Murder and Lord Explosion Murder are immediately
rejected. Apparently, this is a joke that didn’t translate well, as in the
Japanese his choice in the Japanese characters of the names made both names
really clever puns. But yeah, he isn’t allowed to take either. Shoto chooses to
just go by his given name, as does Iida. Iida was tempted to use Ingenium, as
his elder brother had asked Iida to take up that mantle given the fact he’d
been crippled, but he chickens out. Izuku’s terrible case of the flashbacks
flares up and he remembers coming up with hero names with his mom. They were
all riffs on All Might, which is a name that he couldn’t justify using yet.
They were all also terrible, as they were names made by a four-year-old, just
saying. He goes with Deku, as he feels like turning that mean nickname into the
name of a hero. And if anyone in class is paying attention, it’s a clear sign
that he really values Uraraka’s opinion. Hint hint, subtle hint.
After the names had been chosen,
Aizawa wakes up and explains about the internships that the students will be
partaking in. They are one-week training internships where they will be working
with licensed heroes to gain some on-the-job experiences. This is something
that isn’t normally done until the second year, but given their showing during
the Sports Festival and the USJ attack, it’s looking like the pros want to see
what this new crop can do. Many of the students received personal invites from
existing heroes, with Shoto and Bakugo getting more individually then the rest
of the class combined. Students who didn’t get offers get to pick from a pool
of heroes that just want to train young people. Oddly, Izuku didn’t get a
single offer. The going theory that the class has is that most potential
mentors might have been freaked out by his finger breaking tactics while
fighting Shoto. I’d say that that just shows true grit, but what do I know?
While all of that had been going
on, Cementoss in the teacher’s lounge received an email from another pro
looking for an intern. All Might, who was chilling in the lounge as well, is
quite surprised to hear it’s for Izuku, and then down right horrified to hear
who sent it.
Some of the students had already
made decisions who they’d want to intern under. Mineta is going to work under
Mt. Lady. Oh really, the perv wants to work for the size manipulating woman
that isn’t above using sex appeal to get what she wants? I’m freaking shocked.
No, the real surprise is that Uraraka is going to intern under Gunhead, a
fighting hero. For those who don’t remember, Uraraka had always expressed a
desire to be a more disaster relief rescue hero then a combat specialist. She
says that while rescue work is the goal, after fighting Bakugo, she realized it
might be a good idea to be a bit more well rounded in terms of her skills. Good
on her for realizing that it helps to know how to punch people, regardless of
specialty. Shoto notes that his father made an official request to train him,
and Iida looks like he picked a mentor as well.
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| Oh no, Iida's been practicing his murder face. |
As class ends for the day, All
Might slides in and ask Izuku to come with him for a moment. In a dark hallway,
looking incredibly uncomfortable, All Might reveals that Izuku did get an
offer. The hero in question is named Gran Torino. He’s a former UA teacher,
having taught for a year when All Might was still training. He was also
something of a mentor for All Might, and a good friend of All Might’s original
master, the previous One For All holder. And, it seems, All Might is completely
terrified of this man. While shaking and stammering, he hands Izuku the contact
info and directions to Gran Torino’s agency.
Around the same time as that
encounter, Aizawa is going over the list of internship choices that some
students had already turned in. He’s quite shocked to see that Iida had only
one name on his list, a very minor hero operating out of Hosu City. Crap. Why
crap? Well, as Future Narrator Izuku explains, he and the rest of the world got
the scoop about Ingenium’s maiming on the news a little after the Sports
Festival. He’s been attacked in Hosu City by Stain. Stain is the moniker given
to that villain I mentioned earlier, who is attacking and killing professional
heroes. He’d personally murdered 17 heroes and crippled 23 others before this
point. Number 24 being Tensei Iida aka Ingenium. In Hosu. Where Iida is going.
Yeah, that’s why crap.
The day the internships are set to
begin, the students meet Aizawa at the train station with their gear. After
they’re dismissed to take their trains to their Agency, Izuku and Uraraka
briefly follow Iida. They try to get Iida to open up to them about what
happened to his brother, but he politely tells them nothing is wrong and he’s
fine. You know, those standard lies people say after a tragic incident. Future
Narrator Izuku laments the fact that he didn’t push Iida more to lean on him,
as Iida walks off with murder in his eyes. Double crap.
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| I wonder how many more of these kind of scares Izuku's poor heart can take. |
In a post credit scene, we’re shown
Izuku riding his train to meet Gran Torino. As he walks to Torino’s agency, he
muses about never having heard of the hero, but knowing that he intimidated All
Might he must be incredibly impressive. He opens the door to see a dead old man
laying atop a pile of blood… or so he thinks. No, the old man is fine, he just
slipped on his lunch… I guess. This is going to get weird.
One of the things I really like to
see in this series, and others, is when minor characters get important
character arcs. The minor character I this case being Tenya Iida. Iida’s vendetta
against Stain is an all-consuming hatred that is going to affect his personality,
personal life, and his future as a hero. It’s hard to be a good hero when you
want to murder a guy. Just saying. I also like the concept of the internships. If
being a superhero was a government job, the of course they’d want a LOT of
street time training along with schooling. I am again calling BS on Izuku getting
no other offers, but then this kid’s shtick is getting the short end of the
stick. Gran Torino’s reveal is kind of amazing, as how many mentors are you
likely to meet facedown in their lunch? Despite this… goofy intro, Gran Torino
is going to be a very important trainer to young Midoriya. A fun start to a new
arc.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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