Last time on My Hero Academia our
young heroes chose their hero codenames and began their week-long internships. In
both cases, some look promising, some look troubling, and some look down right
odd. If you haven’t been paying attention, Izuku totally falls into the third category
for his internship. Oh, and he chose his hero name, Deku. Making it clear to
anyone who’d heard his conversation with Uraraka (besides Uraraka) that first week
that her opinion bears an insane amount of weight with him. Hint hint, subtle
hint. His hero mentor, a retired UA Teacher and former mentor of All Might, is
named Gran Torino. Izuku walks into Torino’s office to see him face down in a
buddle of red liquid. Don’t worry, he just tripped into his lunch. Oh, this is
going to be weird. Oh, and Iida is on his way to Hosu City, the site of the
assault on his brother. That’s probably not a good thing.
 |
| Izuku Midoriya, finally looking the part of a hero. Mostly. He still needs to loose the ear-hair-things on the cowl. |
The episode proper opens to Gran
Torino explaining his little slip and just generally acting senile. He keeps asking
Izuku what his name is, despite Izuku answering more then once. Thinking that
maybe the old man is nuts, Izuku plans to call All Might and tell him that his
former master might need to be put out to pasture. Much to his shock, while
Izuku’s back was turned, Torino stole Izuku’s costume case and starts rifling
through it. Before Izuku can tell him off, Torino tells Izuku to come at him
with a full OFA Smash. When he makes that demand, though, he sounds completely
focused and much more threatening than he had before. But then immediately starts
talking like he’s senile again. How odd. Izuku tries to tell the wacky old man
that he doesn’t have time to play around as he needs to get stronger fast. Much
to Izuku’s shock, Torino starts rocketing around the room, jumping from ceiling
to floor to wall and back again. While perched on the wall, he basically tells
Izuku that he’d been reckless with his powers during the Sports Festival and that
Toshi (All Might) despite all his amazing qualities is fumbling as a teacher.
It’s at this point that Izuku realizes that Gran Torino has a dual persona like
All Might, a goofy idiot and a serious fighter, and that All Might probably
learned that trick from Torino. Izuku agrees to show Torino what he’s got.
Before fighting, Izuku decides to
don his costume. It’s the first time he’s seen the dang thing since his fight
with Bakugo in the first season. To his surprise, the clothing company that
repaired it took it upon themselves to give the suit some much needed upgrades.
Which is good. No offense to Izuku’s mother, her original design was filled
with love, but a hero costume needs to be a bit more intimidating. They reinforced
his joints, and swapped out the creepy smile faceguard for one made of metal.
He looks less like a creepy Donny Darko bunny and more like a Battle Bunny. There
is still room for improvement, but massive steps forward have been made. Izuku
and Gran Torino face off. Despite Izuku’s best attempts, Torino is just too
fast for him to track with his eyes. Torino accidently smashes his own microwave
while leaping around. Izuku comes close when he figures out Torino’s strategy
of attacking at Izuku’s back, but still misses. Torino pins him to the ground.
Torino tells Izuku that his biggest flaw is that his idolization of All Might
is keeping him from reaching his potential. That Izuku thinks “One For All is
more special than it really is.” He tells Izuku to think that over while they
get some lunch.
In Hosu City, Iida is on patrol
with his mentor, Manual. Iida is clearly only half paying attention as Manual
tries to mentor and explain the importance of patrol. He’s scanning the area
for Stain. The obsession he has with Stain is going to get dangerous.
 |
| I'd bet Kurogiri is thinking something like "I'm honestly impressed it took this long to draw weapons." |
Speaking of Stain, the villain is
beginning his interview with Shigaraki, Kurogiri, and their mysterious master. He’s
just a blank tv screen with the words “Audio Only” across the screen. Shigaraki
is pretty up front with his desire to use Stain’s notoriety to boost the street
cred of the League of Villains. Stain, though, is unimpressed. He tells the assembled
villains that while he hates the corrupt heroes, he hates villains like them
even more. He draws his blades and prepares to attack.
Back with Izuku, he’s thinking over
what Torino said while his mentor is getting them food. He has an epiphany and
realizes that he’s been treating his powers like his finishing move. Instead of
using OFA like the Kamehameha in a DBZ fighting game, he needs to figure out how
to infuse OFA into the basic punches. Does that make sense? In more basic terms,
in a lot of fighting games, you have to hit a series of buttons in the right sequence
to use a final, much more powerful blow. Like A A B A B B to fire off an energy
blast. Izuku has been treating one for all like that energy blast, when he
should be turning it into the basic A’s and B’s of the combo. Does that make
more sense? Sure. Torino, who’d been listening from outside, smiles and notes
that this new kid is smarter then Toshi had been.
We get a quick look at some of the
other students during their internships. Bakugo’s mentor Best Jeanist tells the
angry young man that he doesn’t particularly like Bakugo and will be spending
the week whipping Bakugo into shape and working on his anger issues. Kirishima and
the similarly powered Tetsutetsu are working with the same mentor, a gangster looking
fella named Fourth Kind. Fourth Kind is also planning to whip them into shape.
Uraraka is on foot patrol with Gunhead, who explains why heroes do stuff like
that. Yaoyurozu and a Class B student named Kendo are basically being used as
extras in their mentor’s, Uwabami’s, commercial. Jiro is working with
Deatharms, Mineta is being used as Mt. Lady’s janitor, and Tsu is working with
a group of marines. We’ll be going over Tsu’s internship at greater length at a
later date. Shoto, meanwhile, is at Endeavor’s agency. He’d decided that, personal
history and their baggage aside, the only better hero he could learn from is
All Might. And since that’s off the table his dad is his best option. He still
thinks Endeavor is a bastard, but he’s willing to learn. Good on ya, Shoto.
 |
| George, George, George of the Jungle, strong as man can be. Watch out for that tree! |
That night, while Gran Torino
slept, Izuku snuck out to do some personal training. His plan is to use OFA to
quickly jump up the sides of the alley beside Gran Torino’s building. The idea is
that quickly switching from using OFA on just his legs to his legs and arms in
rapid bursts will help him figure out how to cycle the power better throughout
his body. Unfortunately, he can’t get the timing down right and spends most of
the night George of the Jungle-ing himself. Is that too obscure a reference? Think
Tarzan if the king of the apes was insanely clumsy and always ran into trees
while swinging on vines.
The next morning, a frustrated
Izuku has a talk with Gran Torino. Torino explained that part of the reason All
Might can’t help Izuku like he should is because All Might is trying to train
Izuku like Torino trained him. The problem was that Toshinori was a natural
user of OFA and didn’t need to have some of the more complex techniques
explained to him. Torino basically just spent his time teaching All Might how
to take hits. And that he did it using his full strength, due to a promise he’d
made to his friend, the previous OFA wielder.
 |
| Smart money is on Old Man with Mad Hops over Green Glowing Kid. |
Their conversation is interrupted
by an Amozan delivery… real subtle guys. It’s a replacement microwave for the
one Torino smashed yesterday. To celebrate their progress, Torino tells Izuku
to heat up some fish shaped frozen pastries. Yeah, I don’t get it either. Must
be a Japan thing. Izuku does so, but Torino nearly cracks his teeth on the
food. Turns out, the food is still frozen on the inside because the plate Izuku
used was too big and the food couldn’t turn in the microwave. This causes Izuku
to have another epiphany. That’s what he needs to do, to instead of focusing
OFA on whatever part he needs in the moment (legs, feet, arms, etc.) he needs
to cycle the power around and through his entire body. Or, using Izuku’s egg in
the microwave analogy, he needs to turn it to spread the heat. He tries it,
first getting OFA’s power lines to crisscross over his body before pushing it
farther into a glowing aura that covers his whole body. Guess Izuku just
invented the Kaioken. The two decide to spar again just before the credit’s
roll.
Start digression. For those who’ve
never seen Dragonball Z, the Kaioken is an ability that protagonist Son Goku
learns early on. Using the technique engulfs the user in a glowing red aura,
which gives them a massive boost in strength and speed, but runs the risk of
over taxing the body and causing massive damage if used incorrectly. Use the
technique at the wrong time can cause muscle tears or broken bones, that sort
of thing. And, as I read the manga first and that was in black and white, the colored
aura that engulfs Izuku looks like the same shade as Goku’s. Even though the
Kaioken is red in the anime and Izuku’s Full Cowling technique is green. Considering
the popularity of Dragonball Z, I like to think of the similarities as a fond
homage to the long running anime. Digression over.
Gran Torino is a very… interesting
mentor. Like his own student, he’s equal parts a goof and super intense depending
on the mood of the room. As I read the manga first, I read Torino’s voice in a
manner similar to Clint Eastwood, so hearing is dubbed voice was a little
jarring. But that’s the nittest of the personal picks. I enjoyed seeing Izuku start
to get the handle on his powers. Sure, his thought process to get to developing
the Full Cowling was… very Izuku, but that is part of his charm. And if
thinking about an egg in the microwave lets him function as a Strongman-type hero,
more power to him. This marks the end of Izuku literally always breaking his
bones whenever he uses his powers, and marks the beginning of him actually
learning to use his powers effectively. Sure, he will still occasionally do
something stupid and end up breaking something, but it’ll be the exception
instead of the rule. The meeting between Stain and Shigaraki went about as well
as I’d expect. What? A sociopath meets another sociopath, of course weapons
would be drawn. The meeting between this monster and the group of monsters is
the start of something... wicked. So yeah, very good episode.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23570616
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment