Last time on My Hero Academia,
Izuku learned a little history about the power he inherited. In brief, the
villain known only as All For One used his power to steal and transfer powers to
give his supposedly powerless brother some. The Quirk he was given, a means of
stockpiling power whatever that means, mixed with Baby B’s own unknown Transference
Quirk to create One For All. And that, despite being at least a hundred years
old and having been thought killed by All Might years earlier, All For One has
resurfaced and is the power behind the League of Villains. Oh, and the students
have their end of semester exams coming up. It’s so weird to see school and
power stuff mixing together.
 |
| This is his fighting face. Yes, it is the same as his angry face. |
The episode proper opens on Aizawa
warning his students to be prepared for their finals, both the written portion
and the practical that will follow. Its at this point we learn most of the
students academic standing. The top five are, in order, Yaoyorozu, Iida, Bakugo,
Izuku and Todoroki. Yeah, I some times forget that Bakugo is actually really
smart, too. The only others I’ll mention is the odd fact that Uraraka and
Tokoyami are both in the bottom half of their class of twenty. Somehow, I also
forget that being high on the secondary character list doesn’t equate to
smarts. Oh, and Mineta is #9. I have no words for that.
 |
| Huh, guess it's also his tutoring face. |
After the kids on the bottom half
of the class freak out a little, they break for lunch. Monoma, that dick from
the other hero class comes over to heckle them, but he’s knocked out by his
class’s rep, Kendo, again. She lets them know that an upper classman friend let
her know that the first semester practical is fighting more robots, which is a
great relief to the dummies. The students break off and spend the next week
training, some in groups, some solo. We then skip over the 3-day written
portion, thank goodness, I’d hate to see an episode centered around filling in
the accused scantron, and get into the practical.
The students gather and are
somewhat psyched for what they think will be a breezy practical. That is until
principle Nezu pops out of Aizawa’s scarf… I really wish we could have seen
that pitch, and tells the students that for this practical, they’re changing
things up and the students will fight the teachers. They’ll be put into pairs
and set against one of their mentors. Alright, care to take a guess as to who
Izuku’s partner will be and who he’ll fight against? If you answered anything
besides Bakugo for partner and All Might for teacher, then you obviously need
to pay more attention.
 |
| Really wish I could have seen Nezu's pitch to get Aizawa to agree to this. |
We get a brief flashback to the planning
meeting for this practical. The teachers were somewhat concerned that the
League of Villains and Stain’s antics will make hero work infinitely more
dangerous for their young charges. They decided that robots were too easy, but
an out and out brawl with teachers would be too hard. They decide to have the students
fight them anyway, but agree that their charges will get a few handicaps.
The teams are as follows: Sato
(Hulks out from eating sugar) and Kirishima (hardens his body) vs Cementoss
(manipulates concrete); Tsu and Tokoyami (Dark Shadow) vs. Ectoplasm (clones
himself); Ojiro (Has a big tail) and Iida vs. Power Loader (Metal claws and
also specializes in designing equipment); Todoroki and Yaoyorozu (can create
objects) vs. Aizawa (power nullification); Uraraka and Aoyama (laser from his
naval) vs. 13 (Black holes at his fingertips); Kaminari (Lightning) and Ashido
(Acid) vs. Principle Nezu (Is a hyper intelligent animal of unknown species);
Jiro (extendable earphone jack earlobes) and Koda (talks to animals) vs. Present
Mic (Can amplify his voice to destructive levels); Shoji (Tentacle like arms he
can create additional appendages on) and Toru (is Invisible) vs. Snipe (controls
the trajectory of his bullets); Sero (Tape firing elbows) and Mineta (can
create super sticky balls from his scalp) vs. Midnight (creates mind controlling
pheromones); and wraps up with Izuku and Bakugo vs. All Might. It’s a packed
day.
 |
| Anyone else feel like the final boss just dropped in? |
The rules are simple, the students
have thirty minutes to either A. Capture their teacher with restraints or B. Escape
the battlefield. Neither option will be all that easy. The teachers are all
also going to wear ultra-dense weights to slow them down. Said weights were
designed by support course student, and weirdo Mei Hatsume. All Might basically
tells the boys that he’s going to enjoy fighting them.
The matches start with Sero and Kirishima
vs. Cementoss. The students are given the option to either watch the matches
before their own, or strategize. Izuku and Uraraka end up being the only two to
start watching. Their partners being… difficult to work with, but for different
reasons. Meaning Bakugo is too prideful and Aoyama too vain to work with them, which
is kind of sad when you think about it.
The match begins with Sato and
Kirishima both powering up and rushing Cementoss, believing defeating a teacher
will earn more points than running. They both put in a valiant effort, but are
quickly overwhelmed and defeated. The fight lasts less than four minutes. The
issue was that neither student’s power could outlast Cementoss. Sato’s power will
run out after three minutes, and eating more sugar fries his brain, and
Kirishima’s hardening will wear off from too much use. They’re told that they
need to learn their limits.
The second match of Tsu and
Tokoyami vs. Ectoplasm is next. Within seconds of the match starting they’re
surrounded by clones. Oh this should end nicely… next time.
So, this was a good build up episode.
The life and death stakes of the last arc make a hard test a nice change of
pace… even if the risk of injury in this test is still high. I liked seeing where
the students fell academically and how they each reacted to the stresses of
cramming for tests. Takes me back to my college days… which started ten years
ago, now that I think about it. I never thought that I’d feel old at 28. Sigh.
Anyway, seeing them prep for the tests was fun. Not shocked at all to see that
Bakugo tutored Kirishima, and spent most of that time seemingly yelling at and
hitting him with a book. I also liked how seeing how the students broke up the
groups. They stated that the pairs are based on either complimentary
weaknesses, or other issues. Todoroki and Yaoyorozu are both smart, and have long
names, but Todoroki relies too much on brute force while Yaoyorozu has trouble
adapting to situations. They’re pair off against Aizawa so they both can learn
to think and act on their feat without their powers. Make sense? Good. I’ll
save the reasoning behind the Izuku and Bakugo team for their episode. Seeing Sato
and Kirishima both go down in under five minutes was a good story telling
choice. They’re both minor enough that them losing and potentially missing the training
camp isn’t too devastating, but their strength has been shown off before, so
the fact they were taken out so fast is a word of warning to the other students.
The fights coming up, by the way, are great. Even the handful of other losses.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. See you next time.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/29528782
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
It is quite beneficial, although think about the facts when it reaches this target. one piece
ReplyDelete