Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 42

The Strongman's credo is Hit and get Hit. Izuku is really going to wish to do more of the former and less of the latter after this one.

Last time on My Hero Academia, the students began their rigorous training course under the Wild, Wild Pussycats. They only have a week to train, so everyone is finding ways to power up their quirks or find ways to overcome their weaknesses. Izuku tries to connect with Kota, the nephew (second cousin) of Mandalay of the Pussycats. He’s got some real baggage against heroes after his pro hero parents were KIA fighting a powerful villain two years back. It doesn’t go well. The students try to have a fun night doing a Test of Courage, it’s like an impromptu haunted house sort of thing, but it’s ruined by the opening salvos of the League of Villains next attack. Let’s see how things progress, shall we?

Two new fighters have entered the ring!

We open on Kota hiding at his “secret base” on a cliff side. He’s remembering a conversation he’d had with Mandalay earlier where his guardian tried to tell him that one day, he’ll understand why heroes do what they do.  She claims one day someone will save him at the risk of their own life and it’ll make things click. He’s drawn out of these thoughts by Dabi’s explosions in the distance, and we’re shown a shadowy figure moving up behind him.

Back with Izuku, two members of the league of villains have Pixie-Bob unconscious at their feet while everyone looks on in horror. The lizard-man, as I mentioned last time, is called Spinner. He’s a “disciple” of Stain and is trying to emulate the hero killer, to the point of dressing like him and trying to adopt his philosophy of killing fake heroes to expose the true ones. The one in sunglasses with a giant something covered in cloth is Magne, a trans woman who seems to just be here to cause some damage.

We jump back a few minutes to what Aizawa, Kirishima and the other remedial students were doing just before the attack. Aizawa dragged the students back to the main building where he and Vlad King were going to go over extra lessons with them, along with Monoma from 1B. He seems to think somehow that there being five failures from 1A is somehow more embarrassing than him being the only failing student from 1B, but that’s neither here nor there. The lesson is interrupted before it can really begin by Mandalay sending a telepathic message out to warn everyone of the attack. One of the other students mentions that Mandalay can only broadcast her thoughts, not receive anyone else’s. Super inconvenient that. Aizawa tells Vlad to stay with the students and rushes out to help. He makes it outside to see the smoke and fire, seconds before getting hit pointblank by Dabi’s fireblast. Oh no.

Detention Cancelled? Yeah
Because of Villain Attack? Boo

Spinner officially introduces himself as part of the League of Villains Vanguard Action Squad. Damn, that’s a long name. To show he means business, he pulls out his massive sword… which is made out of random cutting implements like smaller knives, cleavers, and such strapped together. There’s no way that thing is structurally sound. Tiger, clearly barely suppressing his anger, chastises the two for attacking his friend and implies he’s going to screw them up in a second. Mandalay tells the students to fall back and leave this to her and Tiger. The others do so, but Izuku tells Mandalay he knows were Kota is and is going after him.

In the forest, we’re show Kendo running through the mist, using her large hands to try and shield her classmates from the mist while doing her best to breathe through her shirt sleeve to filter the air. She runs into Tetsutetsu (steel shifter from the Sports Festival) and Ibara (Vine haired girl from Sports Festival). They have gas masks that they got from Yaoyorozu, of which they hand out the extra’s to Kendo’s group. Tetsutetsu tells them all to head back, but he plans on staying and fighting. When Kendo objects, he points out that the reason 1A is better than they are is because they have real battle experience and he refuse to miss out on getting some of his own.

It's safe to say that the Water Hose heroes left their mark on him.
I'll just show myself out.

We cut over to Kota. Mandalay, clearly frantic, tells her nephew to get back to the main building immediately. He’d have some trouble with that, as the giant cloaked member of the League of Villains is menacing him. The villain takes off his mask and shows off a horribly scarred face with a freaky looking fake eye in the left socket. Kota remembers the news reports about his parent’s death, and that this guy is the one that killed them. The villain called Muscular. A fitting name as we see muscle fibers grow out of his skin, visibly bulking Muscular up before he rushes in to crush Kota. What sort of sociopath tries to kill a kid for literally no reason? Thankfully, Izuku leaps in and pulls Kota out off the way at the last second, at the cost of his phone. Knowing that he can’t call for backup, Izuku vows to defeat Muscular and protect Kota.

Meanwhile, Bakugo and Todoroki are wandering through the mist as well. They seem to be on the outer edge as it isn’t as thick near them. They come across the other black clad League of Villain member, this one also sporting some weird headgear, crouched over a severed hand. Todoroki remembers that the two ahead of them were Tokoyami and Shoji… that’s probably not good. This villain is known as Moonfish… because reasons. Bakugo smiles menacingly as he asks Todoroki if the rule was “No Fighting” or not.

We cut back over to the Pussycats vs. Spinner and Magne. Mandalay is able to use some pretty weak flattery and her telepathy to keep Spinner off-balance, before she’s pulled off her feet by Magne’s magnet quirk. This will be explained next time, but for clarification now, Magne’s power lets her give a person a strong magnetic polarity. That coupled with her large magnet lets her push and pull people around with relative ease. The polarity is based on gender, with women getting polarized north, men south. Suddenly I wonder how it’d work on Tiger… A thought for another day. Tiger attacks Magne and lists off her surprisingly full rap sheet as they battle. She’s been involved in a lot of assaults and murders. Mandalay and Tiger note that it’s odd that Ragdoll hasn’t checked in, with the Leaguers implying something happened to her. We’re shown a lot of blood on top of the altar that Ragdoll was last seen at, so yeah, she’s probably not okay.

Okay, note to self, if you really want to motivate Izuku Midoriya,
threaten a child near him. It's a little unethical, but just look at the
results!

Back with Izuku, he’s getting the crap kicked out of him by Muscular. His ability to enhance his strength and speed with his super charged muscle fibers is making it impossible for Izuku to keep up with him. Izuku keeps getting back up, but he’s knocked down harder and harder each time. Muscular mocks Izuku’s inferior enhancement quirk, claiming Izuku is just an inferior version of him. Remembering that he does have a job to do, Muscular asks Izuku if he knows where Bakugo is. Izuku doesn’t answer out loud, but internally panics when he hears his “friend” might be targeted. Kota ends up throwing a rock at Muscular to distract him. Muscular starts mocking Kota’s dead parents because he’s a monster. Izuku rushes him, getting his hand under one of Muscular’s muscle fibers as it reconnects. Tied now to Muscular, Izuku unleashes a full power OFA smash to Muscular. This causes a small explosion, launching Kota into the air, but Izuku saves him at the last second. His arm is looking pretty beat up at this point, first time we’ve seen it badly broken like this in a while.

Muscular, unfortunately, gets back up. He threw up layers of muscle in front of him before Izuku hit, forming a meat shield, literally, around himself. He’s pretty pissed off at this point, and decides to come at Izuku for real. To show case this change in attitude he swaps out his fake eye for another one. Izuku is able to dodge out of the way with Kota, but just barely. He get’s hit again a moment later and knocked to the dirt. Izuku tries to think of a plan, but he doesn’t have any good options. He tells Kota to run when Izuku has Muscular distracted. He rushes the villain and unleashes another full power smash. He hits Muscular’s meat shield again, his impact being completely absorbed. Caught again, Muscular starts forcing Izuku to the ground, intent on crushing him this time. Kota hits Muscular with a spray of water. His attempt at helping Izuku seems to strike a chord with the young hero and he’s able to force Muscular up again. He triggers OFA again and hits Muscular with OFA 1 Million percent. This was a more symbolic number than literal, just an FYI. He knocks Muscular to the side, leaving him unconscious. Kota looks on at Izuku with tears in his eyes, remembers what Mandalay told him and realized that Izuku was “[His] Hero.” And the credits roll.

Overall, this is a great battle episode. Compared to his other two attacks, this League strike is almost scarily coordinated. The pro heroes are cut off from each other, two of the four Pussycats are KOed, Aizawa (arguably the most important hero for controlling this battle) has either been temporarily or permanently neutralized by Dabi, and a good percentage of the students are either out cold or lost in the mist. And there are still Leaguers that haven’t gotten into the fighting yet! Spinner and Magne are an interesting pair, with one being a disciple of Stain and the other being more of an agent of Chaos. While Spinner will spout off about hero cleansing, Magne seems content just beating the crap out of people. It’s a good dynamic. Izuku’s battle with Muscular is intense. While it isn’t wholly unique, the “hero goes up against a better version of himself” fight is a treat when it’s done well. The fact that he and Muscular are both Strongmen style fighters, close combat specialists that hit like trucks, means you know that each of the punches that land on Izuku are probably cracking bones at the very least. The visual of seeing his muscle fibers poke out from his skin and reconnect to his body to show his physical power increase is creepy but a kind of cool visual. The fact that he’s literally the villain that killed Kota’s parents is a little coincidental, but the fight makes up for that big of coincidence pretty easily for me. It was all worth it for the 1 million percent smash and seeing Izuku roar with triumph. Too bad that’s only 1/10 of the baddies present disabled. The fight is just beginning, but we’ll talk about that next time. Have a good night, everybody.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 41

The students try to focus on their training, but get... interrupted by a new League of Villains.

Last time on My Hero Academia, our young heroes went out to begin their summer training camp. After meeting some of their special instructors, Mandalay and Pixie-Bob of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, they were dropped into their training ground. They had to battle their way through the Beast Forest to get to the actual site of their training camp. Which they did, combining their powers and exhausting themselves over an 8 hour stretch. Izuku got a punch to the family jewels for trying to be nice to Mandalay’s nephew (second cousin), Kota, a little boy that hates heroes. And not without some reason, as both of his parents were heroes that were KIA two years prior. Meanwhile, Shigaraki’s new team of Villains began to prep for their next attack on UA. So odds are this camp will go to Hell in a handbasket soon.

Yeah, now that I see the full team, I'm getting a STRONG
Power Rangers Vibe.

We open with class 1B getting up with their homeroom teacher, Vlad King, explaining the basic premise of the training camp, to push the kids quirks to the next level. We’re then shown some of what the 1A students are doing to power up. Bakugo is dunking his hands in near boiling water to build up his sweat glands and make larger explosions (not sure if that sciences). Todoroki is sitting in a tub and rapidly freezing and incinerating the area around him to build up his heat tolerance. Guys like Aoyama and Sero are using their powers constantly to try and build their endurance. And Tokoyami is training in a cave to get better control of his dark shadow at night. Those are just some of the highlights. We’re then introduced to the full Wild, Wild Pussycats team. There’s Mandalay and Pixie-Bob, whom we’ve already met, as well as Ragdoll and Tiger. Two things, 1. Aside from Tiger, all of the other Pussycat’s names are based on Cat breeds, so that’s why they seem kind of random; and 2. While it’s not stated in the episode, Horikoshi has revealed that the intense Tiger is in fact a trans-man, having gone through gender reassignment at some point in the past so his body would better match how he feels. I give props to Horikoshi for including some Trans representation. Though if I have trans readers, I would like to know if Tiger falls under Good representation, or Bad representation.

The Pussycats explain their quirks to let 1B know why their group is uniquely qualified to help the students train. Ragdoll’s, the green haired one’s, quirk is called Search, which lets her track and understand the weaknesses of up to 100 people around her. Pixie-Bob, the blonde in blue, has Earthflow, which lets her manipulate the land to create the perfect training areas for each student as well as monsters for them to fight if need be. Mandalay, the one with burgundy hair in red, is telepathic, which will let her communicate with multiple students at once to fine tune training. And Tiger, the very large intense man, is there to beat them up. His words. His power is Pliabody, which lets him bend, flatten and contort his body in a variety of ways. It also comes with enhanced strength, so he’s in charge of training the close combat types. Like Izuku. It’s not going super well for young Midoriya, but he’s making progress.

Izuku tries to bond with a small child. I hope this doesn't become
a trend with him. ;)

After training, the Pussycats provide the students with the facility and ingredients, but true to their word make the kids prepare their own meal. They’re at least able to use their Quirks to speed things up. As the kids eat ravenously, Izuku notices Kota wander off in a huff. He follows the child to his “secret base,” a cliff side cave overlooking the mountain’s forest. He, while maintaining a safe distance from angry tiny fists seeking his sensitive areas, offers Kota some curry, which the kid rejects. He’s a bit of a dick to Izuku, claiming he and the others are just using their powers to show off. Izuku, being a dumbass, asks if Kota’s parents were the heroes using the shared name of Water Hose. He mentions having read about their deaths a few years back, which obviously just pissed Kota off. Izuku Midoriya, can’t read the room ever. The angry child goes so far as to call his parents idiots that’d still be alive if they weren’t showing off. Izuku then believes that Kota might actually have a problem with quirks in general. He tries to relate to Kota using his own experiences as a quirkless person, claiming he’s talking about a friend of his, and how frustrating it can be to be normal in a world of extraordinary people, so rejecting Kota’s own powers might not be the way to go. Kota just yells at him to leave, which Izuku does but leaves the food. As we pull away from the shot, we’re shown a crater covered in water, probably implying Kota hasn’t reject his powers as much as Izuku thinks.

As the night darkens, we’re shown the League of Villains team gathering nearby. Several of them are outfitted with Gas masks, and most are antsy to get their operation going. Dabi, the burned guy, is clearly in charge and tells them that they’re waiting for the remaining members. It’s a seven-man team currently with three more on the way. Dabi scoffs at Shigaraki’s original plan of trying to overwhelm the USJ with a bunch of wannabes. It’s much better to use a quality team. He plans on tearing these wannabe heroes from their pedestals. This guy seems to really hate heroes.

The next day, the kids are back at their training. Though Kirishima and his fellow test flunkers are even more exhausted, as their remedial work kept them up until 2 am. Aizawa isn’t interested in hearing their complaints, and even tells Uraraka and Aoyama to work harder as they just barely passed their final. Izuku asks Aizawa if All Might… and the other teachers will join them. Aizawa dashes those hopes, pointing out as All Might was more than likely the League’s main target and that the location of the training site was kept super hush hush, All Might and any other teacher will have to stay away. Izuku is clearly dejected by the answer. Pixie-Bob, sensing some unease with the students, promises that they’ll all have fun after hours doing some kind of game. This only seems to make the students more nervous. Izuku continues to get smacked around by Tiger.

This is a very, very bad group.

The kids make dinner again, where we learn that Bakugo is actually really good at slicing vegetables. Huh, Bakugo has some food prepping experience, who knew? Todoroki goes over to Izuku and asks why he was hoping All Might will show up. Izuku explains the problems he was having motivating Kota, and had hoped All Might could succeed where he failed. He asks Todoroki how he would have handled talking to Kota, to which he said he’s not sure, but that he’s pretty sure actions would mean more to Kota than words. Which obviously depressed Izuku further. He could really use someone telling him that he can’t help everybody.

Dabi's not going to stop until the whole world burns. Given his
scars, I think that might be ironic.

After dinner, the students gather to take a Test of Courage. My understanding this kind of game is somewhat popular in Japan. Basically, the classes will take turns walking through the spooky woods and try to get a marker with their name on it and return to start. Meanwhile, the other class will hide and try to scare the travelers, using their powers to make it more intense, obviously. The students are broken up into teams of two, with Izuku being left by his lonesome. That’s what happens when five of your classmates have extra work in a class of 20.

We’re shown Uraraka and Tsu entering the woods, both rather nervous despite, you know, having superpowers. A few of the 1B students, including Kendo, get together to congratulate themselves on scaring some 1A guys. Considering their act spooked Bakugo and Todoroki, I think they deserve that. Their revelry is interrupted by a thick mist rolling in, which almost instantly knocks out one of them. Kendo reacts fast, taking a deep breath of clean air as she grabs her friend in her giant hands to keep her up and out of the mist. At the same time, Dabi starts burning trees on another part of the mountain, mentally promising himself this is how it begins. And Pixie-Bob is specifically attacked and knocked out by a dude wielding a giant magnet and his creepy lizard friend. Oh dear.

Small Child? Mysterious cloaked figure sneaking up on him?
Yeah, this does not bode well.

Oh, and to make matters worse, Izuku and Mandalay realize that Kota isn’t there, he’s probably at his hideout, and we’re shown a shadowy figure is there with him. Well, this night went to hell in a handbasket.

           This was a solid build up episode. I liked seeing how each of the students went about their training. Sure, Bakugo’s probably doesn’t actually work in real life, but seeing him dose his hands and then throw upward a massive explosion was pretty cool. I also enjoyed seeing some of Izuku’s combat training with someone other than All Might or Gran Torino. It’s good for a young fighter to get plenty of practice with multiple opponents. The Pussycats are pretty fun characters. I really enjoyed seeing the dichotomy of the three female members acting all cutesy and catlike, with the hulking Tiger just irradiating angry alpha male all over the area. You might not think a man in a belly shirt and skirt can be scary, but let me tell you, Tiger is. I’m not sure if I like or dislike Horikoshi not addressing Tiger’s situation in the story itself. On the one hand, that’s very realistic as I doubt a teacher would address his/her/their sexual orientation and/or gender identity with the students at large. And on the other, addressing it would make Tiger a more obvious Trans character, instead of coming across as just an intense dude in a dress. Again, if I have any trans viewers, I’d like to know your opinions on him. And now let’s talk about the new League of Villains. Dabi is one scary looking dude, with his severe burns on his face and arms, multiple piercings and black attire. I don’t think he was ever officially made a commander, but from this point on, he’s pretty much Shigaraki’s #2 in the field. I don’t think he’ll be happy until the world figuratively and literally burns. Toga, the school girl, hasn’t done much, but in a couple of episodes she’s going to be one of the scariest creatures on the field. She’s dangerously unstable and has an obsession with a certain student that might make things awkward for the 1A girls we know are in the mists. Foreshadowing. Magne, the villain with the plump lips and giant magnet isn’t overtly threatening but has a pretty nifty power that she will throw around to great effect. I should also point out that Magne is a trans woman, she hasn’t gone through gender reassignment surgery, but refers to herself as a woman and only uses female pronouns. It’s clearer in Japanese where they have a masculine and feminine I. Figured if I’m talking about Tiger now, I should bring her up to. Same question, good or bad representation (for a villain). And there’s her partner, the lizard man Spinner. He also hasn’t done much, but will standout more next time. And then there are the creepy guy in black leather, the kid in the gas mask, and the mysterious cloaked man coming up on Kota, they’re less important overall but will definitely earn their keep next time, along with the three other members that haven’t appeared yet. This training camp is going to SUCK. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 40

This summer camp starts with a boom... because mudslides.

Last time on My Hero Academia, the students took a filler episode and relaxed at the pool. What followed were some plot related flashbacks of the events of the last two seasons, and an ominous promise that the League of Villains will be on the move again shortly. Well, that puts a real damper on the mood going forward.

How is his face creepier than the actual hand mask?!?

The episode opens on Shigaraki building a house of cards while he and Kurogiri discuss their next plan. It sounds like they threw it together more or less on the fly, but are confident their new team will be able to handle it. I guess they got a big step up in members from those henchmen they threw at the USJ back in season one. Their supply contact Giren arrives and tells them that he got their order prepared, despite the short notice. He promises his supply group, called the Union, will be happy to continue supplying the League of Villains if their plans work out. That’s not ideal…

We then jump over to the UA students as they’re getting ready for their week long summer training camp. Aizawa explains that this will probably be even harder than their usual course works and that they should be prepared. Uraraka runs over to Izuku and gushes about her excitement over the camp. This causes Izuku to blush furiously, what a shock, three months later and he’s still not used to attention from a girl.  Uraraka, remembering Aoyama’s question from their test, also starts blushing furiously, runs off and starts the class on chanting Camp to get out of there. So… it’s been a while since I was a teenager, so, I have to ask, are these kinds of tells super subtle now or are both Izuku and Uraraka just incredibly dense? Whatever, the kids are briefly interrupted by the dick Monoma from class 1B coming over to harass them for having guys in the remedial extra training, but gets quickly knocked out by his Class rep, Kendo. Could they just expel him already? Anyway, the kids get on the bus and ride out.

So like, everybody knows these two are into each other, right?
Like even Aizawa's going "Oh just make out already."

Aizawa tries to tell his students about the general plan… but he’s trying to talk to teenagers on a long bus trip. That just isn’t going to happen. They finally stop after about an hour at one of those scenic overlooks of a large forested mountain. They’re met by part of the hero team training them this week, the Wild, Wild Pussycats. The members are Mandalay and Pixie-Bob, along with Mandalay’s nephew Kota. Technically he’s like her second cousin, but nephew I think makes the relationship a bit clearer, Mandalay’s an adult, Kota a child. Get it? Got it? Good. Izuku rather excitedly explains that the Pussycats are a mountain rescue team that’s been active for about 12 years, before an Irate Pixie-Bob cuts him off. She apparently isn’t super chill about being reminded how old she is. Given that I think she’s not much more than 30, I think that says a lot about how women are viewed in Japan, just sayin’. Mandalay explains about the training camp, namely that it’s this small building in the distance. The kids get it about .5 seconds too late. Pixie-Bob uses her powers to cause a mudslide, sending the kids into the forest below. They tell the kids that they should be able to make it to the training camp by noon if they hurry through the Beast Forest.

Hm... am I the only one getting a Power Rangers vibe from
this group?

Mineta tries to run into the woods to find a place to relieve himself and instead runs headlong into some giant monsters. Classmate Koda tries to stop the creatures using his animal controlling voice, but it has no effect. The more combat orientated students destroy the creatures. Don’t worry, Izuku deduced that they’re actually earth constructs controlled remotely by Pixie-Bob. Up top, Mandalay asks Aizawa if he isn’t riding the kids too hard. He admits the training camp will be rough on them, but since they’re trying to fast track the students to be ready for a hero license exam, they’ll need to be pushed. The students battle their way through the Beast’s Forest. They combine their powers to devastate Pixie-Bob’s creatures. Even Koda gets a chance to shine, summoning woodland critters to help their distraction teams. He’s getting to be useful way earlier in the season this time.

They finally make it to the training camp… eight hours after they started. It’s only then that Mandalay admitted that that “three hours to get there” thing was based off if the Pussycats were trying to get there through the forest. Izuku finally asks about the child with them, to which Mandalay explains the whole cousin/nephew thing. Izuku tries to introduce himself to Kota, who immediately punches Izuku in the balls for his trouble. Hey, show some respect to other people’s property kid, those belong to Ochako Uraraka. What? This is my forum; I get to push my ships. Anyway, Kota mutters about hating heroes and how stupid it is for people to want to be them. Kids got anger issues… so obviously Bakugo is a little impressed with him. The students, presumably, get Izuku some ice and then sit down for a massive buffet dinner. After that, they take a dip in the hot spring… because this is Japan and every place has a hot spring. Oy. Mineta tries to do something pervy, get’s stopped by Kota who’d been on guard duty, who almost falls to his death because he gets… well, overstimulated. He’s saved by Izuku’s Full Cowling leap.

Izuku is going to need some ice. Like a lot of ice.
Todoroki should probably be on standby all night.

Izuku brings him to Mandalay, who thanks Izuku for saving the boy. She explains that Kota was the son of her cousin and his wife… I don’t think she ever says which of the two were her relation, I just always assumed Kota’s father was her cousin. Anyway, her cousin and his wife were a pair of pro heroes that were KIA about two years ago. Obviously, explaining to a child that his parents had noble deaths saving people was kind of impossible to do, so Kota’s been living with a lot of anger the last few years. She doesn’t think that he actually even likes her all that much, you know, despite being his primary caregiver. Kota’s anger reminds Izuku of Shigaraki’s insane rambling he suffered through at the end of last season. Probably not a good sign.

The next day, the students are up at the crack of dawn. Aizawa tells them that they’ll spend the next week pushing themselves to the limit. He claims that while the student’s have improved immensely over the first semester, it was in largely intangible ways. They fight more strategically, smarter, and harder, but their overall force hasn’t improved much. He has Bakugo explosion-throw a ball to demonstrate. It goes about 700 meters, which isn’t much better than the test they did at the beginning of the year. Smiling creepily, Aizawa tells the students that their training is going to be about pushing their quirks to the next level. Hopefully this will go smoothly. Whoo.

In an after-credit’s scene, Studio Bones please stop doing these, we learn that probably won’t be the case. Shigaraki’s team, consisting at least of Dabi (the scarred and pierced guy from the last season), Toga (crazed school girl) and at least two others have gotten their gear and are prepping to move out. Dabi promises that they’re going to pull the heroes-in-training off their pedistals and bring about a new world. That’s flipping ominous.

Ya'll probably won't believe me, but seriously, the schoolgirl
is the second scariest person in this room. .. After Dabi, obviously.

Alright, this was a solid, official start to the season. We got to see the student’s show off their powers a bit, have the tension about the training camp be built by Aizawa, and have it pushed even higher with the implication that the League of Villains will attack soon. I don’t want to oversell it, but Shigaraki’s new team is going to but his original band completely to shame… except for maybe Beak Noumu. The Pussycats are a fairly fun team to be introduced to. They’re fairly flashy and have a habit of acting almost cringingly cutesy, but they have a charm to them. The cringingly cutesiness will get much more interesting when we meet the last two members. Only real complaint about them is the several jokes made about Pixie-Bob being insecure about her age and anxious about her marriage prospects. Like, why did those even need to be there? Why do you have to be so mean to unmarried adult women, Japan? See, this isn’t specifically a Kohei Horikoshi thing, lots of Japanese media have a thing about presenting 30, hell even 25+, unmarried women as being super insecure about that fact to the point of absurdity. I saw one gal be driven into nearly murderous rage if she even heard separate words she could mentally string together that remind her that she’s a "spinster" by Japan standards in another series. It’s a pretty scummy way to treat your ladies, Japan, All I’m saying. I’m getting off task talking about Asian culture. Focus. Kota is an interesting kid. It’s clear that he’s really angry about his parent’s death, and lashing out in a lot of ways because of it. Izuku’s poor testicles are a testament to that. It’s a side of the hero life that hasn’t been touched upon yet, but will be thoroughly explored later on, how the loved ones of heroes may have to get on if said hero dies. Next time, we’ll see how the training goes. Spoiler, not super well. Have a good night everybody. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 39

Nothing like a good swim to get your nostalgia juices flowing.

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku and his friends celebrated finishing their exams with a group shopping outing for their big summer training camp. Things started off well, but quickly spiraled out of control, starting with Uraraka running off because she’s having difficulties accepting that she’s got a crush on our green haired protagonist, and hitting the figurative pile when Izuku is kind of kidnapped by Tomura Shigaraki. The weirdo covered in hands, disintegrates people, if you’ve forgotten the name. Shigaraki was still smarting over Stain being more popular than him, and that said popularity actually netted him some new followers. He coopted Stain’s message, in case you forgot. After conversing with Izuku, he discovered his “conviction” and decided to go back to his evil lair and start plotting how to kill All Might. Izuku escapes, thankfully, but is clearly shaken up by the experience, though not as much as his mother. Not the best way to start a vacation, but what are you going to do?

I should preface this one by saying it’ll probably be pretty short, as this is a filler episode that’s only here to refresh memories, or inform new viewers, of the general timeline of events for My Hero Academia. I’ll mostly focus on the framing device and new information, as all the things that are going to be touched on in the episode I’ve already spoken of at length.

They'd probably look back on today fondly the next time a
murderous psychopath went after them... you know, if this
wasn't filler.

We open on the hand covered Shigaraki and his shadowy minion Kurogiri at the villain bar. Shigaraki is musing about his recent revelation as to why he hates UA, Izuku, heroes and All Might so much. Basically, they’re connected to All Might, and that All Might’s always got a big smile on his face. This motivation will make more sense later, just saying. As he leaves to do… whatever Shigaraki does with his free time, I assume torturing small animals, Kurogiri goes over what they know about Izuku. Namely that he was a quirkless nobody until last year, and is now a powerhouse somebody. Out in the alley, Shigaraki vows to show the world how fragile their beloved peace really is.

Finishing with them for a bit, we leap over to Izuku. My favorite superhero fanboy is just working out in his room while watching the old All Might video, I think his mother is right about him adding a million views on his own, when he’s interrupted by two classmates. No, not Uraraka, Iida, Bakugo, Todoroki or someone that might have a “good” idea, it’s Mineta and Kaminari. They convince Izuku to come with them to spend the day at the school pool, for endurance training they say. Yeah, right.

We then cut over to Aizawa discussing his students with his fellow UA homeroom teacher, Vlad. He’s, obviously, in charge of class 1B, the other hero class. Aizawa rapid fires over his students and their powers. I’ll only point out that Izuku’s power in all the UA documentation is called “Superpower” and that it just makes him function like a strongman. IE, he hits hard with it. The trio of boys then come in to double check that they got permission to use the pool, which Aizawa gives, but stipulates they need to be out by 5.

The boys get changed, and then we hear what the idiots had planned. Namely, Mineta had overheard the 1A girls deciding to use the pool as a sort of mini-vacation before their training camp. They came to leer at the girls, and brought Izuku along as cover, knowing no one would believe that these two were doing something other than being creeps. Izuku accidentally foiled this plan in part by secretly inviting all the 1A guys to the pool to also train, and the girls foiled it further by wearing school one-piece suits. I just need to take a moment to savor the fan service bullet dodge here. Ah. All right. Iida, being the trusting sort, congradulates the two on having such a good training idea and drags them off to get started.

What? The three winners of this impromptu race are arguably
the three most important characters? What are the odds?
(Sarcasm!)

The dudes go though what’s implied to be a fairly hard workout while the gals play pool volleyball. This is an enjoyable bite to the ass for the two perves, all I’m saying. Izuku and Iida have a quick bro moment where Iida admits that he’d never have guessed he and Izuku would be such good friends at the start of the year, and then the two both remember all the times Izuku did something heroic and also broke his bones. Bakugo leaps in at that moment and swears he’ll defeat Izuku. Kirishima explains that they’re late because he spent most of the day convincing Bakugo to come along. The red head is a way better friend than Bakugo deserves some times. Iida, trying to defuse the situation a little, proposes they do a friendly 50 meter race. Only the dudes, though, the gals are cool with watching. I don’t see why they would want to miss out on the… wait… fit young men, swimming, shirtless, no I can totally understand logistically why the gals might just opt to watch.

Heat one has Bakugo winning, by leaping and flying over the water. When they try to call him out on this, he angrily claims that this counts as free style. Heat two has Todoroki win, as he pulls and Iceman and slides on an ice-slide. These two really need to learn what constitutes swimming. The third heat has Iida almost win by sliding along the dividing buoys with his recipro burst, but Izuku is able to pull ahead with his OFA full cowling. Making him the only winner that actually got into the water. Jeeze. Todoroki also takes a minute to remember how Izuku’s resolves was able to convince him to stop being a dick. While he wrecked his hands during their bout in the Sports Festival. Good times.

We cut over to All Might and his cop friend, detective Tsukauchi, watching the videos they have on the various League of Villains attacks. They both seem pretty certain the next attack will come soon.

Seriously, how has no one caught him yet? He walks around
with a SEVERED HAND ON HIS FACE! I can't think of a
less inconspicuous head covering than that!

The final race will be between Izuku, Todoroki and Bakugo. The three young men all leap into the air planning to win, only for all of their powers to cut out and they feebly hit the water. Aizawa came in to inform the students that it’s 5 pm, so they better get their S#%T and get out. He’s a real stickler for cut off times, who knew? Izuku goes to the beachfront he cleaned up and coincidentally meets up with All Might. He remembers meeting All Might and clearing the beach of debris and resolves to keep doing his best.

In an after credits scene, I don’t know why they insist on doing those, we learn that the location of the training camp the students are going on has been changed. Principle Nezu is still worried about a mole in the school so only disperses the information to those in the know, like Aizawa and Vlad. We then end on Shigaraki making a call and telling someone to prep for something big, thus implying that the League already knows where they’re going. Well, crap.

Alright, well, that episode… happened. As far as filler goes it wasn’t bad or anything, it was just kind of meh. I think I’d have enjoyed it more without the actual flashbacks and had it just been about the kids at the pool. What? I like these characters and am fine with seeing them do something mundane and relaxing every now and then. And I’m an obsessive nerd who watches some shows repeatedly to the point where I could quote some scenes verbatim, so obviously I don’t need a crash course refresher. … If any of my college or high school friends are reading this, yes, this habit did probably feed into the fact that I didn’t talk much. It did do a good job at implying at what will go down next with our young heroes, namely another league attack. This time Shigaraki is going to be coming with quality minions, not a quantity of them. That’s probably going to suck for Izuku and company, but we’ll see how much next time. Have a good night and stay safe everyone. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Review: My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

Student and Master take on a... threat.

Well, this March has been going by swimmingly. Three months into 2020 and we’ve got a pandemic on our hands. Stressful. Let’s forget about that for a little bit and talk about something fun. Anime!

No, I’m not talking about My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. Instead, I’m going back to its first movie, Two Heroes. Why? Because I’m trying to do this more or less chronologically, just in case some of you read my stuff before reading/watching the series, and while Anime movies are largely self-contained, Heroes Rising contains a number of spoilers for the series overall. I’ll probably do Heroes Rising during the gap between season 3 and 4, as the biggest spoiler will be covered this season. Just so you know.

Anime movies, at least ones based off of Manga, are largely self-contained original stories. Example, all of the Dragon Ball Movies. None of those connect to the source material, even ones like Cooler’s Revenge, where the antagonist of the film is the sibling of a main series baddy, evil emperor Freeza’s older brother Cooler. While the characters within the film are the same as they are in the show, and may even refence events that happened prior in the show, no one will bring up what happens in a movie within the show. With few exceptions at any rate. Two Heroes is largely the same, but unlike many others, they try to fit the story in where it could work. The movie itself takes place sometime after the sports festival and yet before the semester final arc. That enough preamble? Let’s get to it.

Also, this movie isn’t available on Funimation.com for some reason. But you can rent it on a few streaming sites. I went with Amazon.

Oh my God, you can see his face soo clearly!

The movie opens with a pair of villains robbing a casino before running through downtown and causing as much damage as possible. One’s a giant monster, the other fires missiles. What a mismatched pair. They’re only stopped by a young man in a “Plus Ultra” jacket. Holy crap, we can see All Might’s pupils!?! Yeah, this is All Might at around 20 or so, back when he was more as Toshinori than All Might. He’s intimidating enough to scare off the villains, they run off before he can hit them but thankfully, he is given a ride by his friend in a turbo speed car, a fella named David Shields. They race after the villain pair, Dave’s tech disabling the smaller villain’s rocket attacks, and All Might punching at and finally disabling the pair with a California Smash! All Might laughs his manic laugh as Dave explains to the watchers that he’s All Might, a hero from Japan, and that the world will one day know his name. They end up skipping the lecture they were frantic to get to during the first attack to stop more villains.

We then flashforward to present, where sickly All Might is waking up, he was apparently dreaming about this event on a flight. He and Izuku are landing on I Island, a mobile artificial island where scientists and inventors of the Hero world work and live. All Might was heading out to the island to see an old friend, and offered Izuku to come along as the kid was on his summer break. Or so he says. Izuku suits up and All Might bulks up for the cameras as their private jet starts landing.

Really not sure if the blow to the face or hitting the ground is
going to hurt more...

After Izuku gives a quick schpeel about the background of My Hero Academia, world of heroes, no powers, got All Might’s powers, and all that jazz, Izuku and All Might disembark. All Might quizzes about what Izuku knows about I Island; It’s a mobile island that scientists and researchers in the hero field can work without fear of villains, it’s got security on par with Tartarus Prison, and that no one has ever successfully attacked it. I added that last part, but Izuku pretty much said it with how impregnable the island is supposed to be. Oh, and people are allowed to use their quirks freely so there are a lot more displays of power.

After All Might gets through the mandatory “OH MY GOD IT’S ALL MIGHT!” mob, he tells Izuku about wanting to meet up with his old friend Dave. Before they can do much else, they’re met by a young woman on a pogo stick. Okay, as far as entrances go that’s not THE weirdest, but it’s certainly in the top ten. This is Melissa Shield, Dave’s daughter. She and All Might are fairly close, with her calling him Uncle Might. Turns out, she was the one to invite him out and she did so to surprise her dad to celebrate the latest breakthrough of his. It’s after this short back and forth that All Might introduces Izuku to her. Like another tech geek he knows, she immediately looks over his costume. Close attention from a woman causes Izuku’s “male” to flare up slightly, causing him to turn red with embarrassment, before All Might gets her to focus again. Good thing Uraraka isn’t there, or else she’d probably start being passive aggressively annoyed at another gear head that gets too close to her favorite green head. The three go to meet Dave.

Meanwhile, a mysterious group has arrived on I Island, claiming they’ve infiltrated it and are here to “pick up the goods.” Well that’s ominous.

All Might sure has a soft spot for passionate quirkless kids.
No idea why. :^P

Melissa meets her father and his coworker Sam at his lab. She gives All Might a set up line and he rush in and delivers with gusto. Dave is completely astounded with his arrival. Once again, after a few hellos, All Might introduces his protegee. Izuku gushes about Dave a bit, as he knows the man designed all of All Might’s costumes. Dave has Melissa show Izuku around the Island while he and All Might have a private talk. As the two teens walk off, Izuku tells Melissa to call him Deku.

All Might reverts back to his sickly form as Sam leaves as well. He’s coughing pretty bad but thankfully not coughing up blood in front of his old friend.

Melissa shows Izuku around the island, mostly showing him tourist stops and the tourists themselves. Lots of pro heroes are in town for the expo. There’s even one that looks like Godzilla! Melissa shows him an expo of new hero gear, and the two kind of geek out a little. Most of the machines she shows off were based in part on tech her father designed. She admits to wanting to be a support scientist like her father. She laughs a bit about how Izuku was fanboying out, much to his chagrin, when who should show up but Uraraka of all people. The girl you have a crush on is seeing you alone with an attractive older girl, Izuku, now is the time to Panic!!!! They’re saved from a somewhat awkward moment by Yaoyorozu and Jiro’s polite cough. How odd that they’d all be there. Izuku introduces Melissa to the girls. Melissa start’s mentioning All Might, but Izuku cuts her off and convinces her to try to keep his connection to All Might on the downlow. That whispered conversation probably doesn’t help Uraraka’s nerves. While the group gets tea, they find out lightning shooting Kaminari, and sticky ball throwing Mineta are working at a café on the island. Iida is there too, as his family got tickets due to the Iida house being long time heroes. And Yaoyorozu explained that she got tickets the same way, and brought Jiro and Uraraka as he guests after they won a big rock-paper-scissors tournament the Class 1A ladies had for the honor. The other ladies are there, but they can’t go to the expo. This is getting pretty convenient, next Bakugo is going to …

Izuku might have a rival for presidency of the All Might Fan Club
... Other than Bakugo.

Bakugo totally shows up along with Kirashima. They’re fighting robots on a tournament course. And, low and behold, 5 seconds after seeing Izuku, Bakugo leaps at him and starts demanding what he’s doing there. The calmer Kirishima explains that Bakugo got invited because he won the Sports Festival, and he kind of sniped the rage-aholic’s plus one. Izuku ends up getting forced into trying the villain course, in which in his full cowling form gets 16 seconds, just below Bakugo’s 15 second record. Which obviously infuriates Bakugo almost as much as Izuku beating him would have. The green haired lad is saved by Todoroki popping in, because of course, and freezing the course to get the new 14 second record. Right, he’s there because his dad got an invite, snubbed it because he’s a dick, and obviously Todoroki isn’t passing up on a free trip. The boys all rush in to restrain Bakugo’s freak out at being bested.

The baddies picked up the goods and learn that All Might is there. That can’t possibly be good.

Oo, this could have gone horribly. Thank god for other friends
to break awkward tension.

All Might meanwhile is getting a body scan from Dave, who’s clearly freaked out by the results. He’s terrified to see that All Might’s strength is waning, and even faster than before. All Might hides that he passed on his quirk and that’s why his power is dropping so much. Dave explains that Japan’s crime rates are so low because of All Might, he keeps it around 6% while the average is around 20%. I suppose knowing the person you believe to be the guardian between civilization and chaos getting close to a forced retirement would put anyone on edge. All Might tells him to keep hope as he believes the new generation will step up.

The UA students agree to meet up before the party and go as a group. They got Mineta and Kaminari tickets too, to reward them for working hard. Melissa asks to show Izuku something.

Dave tries to tell All Might something as he hulks up and walks away to attend the party. But chickens out. Dave thinks back to how he met All Might, when he saved him from a lab explosion when they were in school. He made All Might his firsts costume in thanks and went on to Support All Might through most of his early career in America. Is it any wonder he grew to idolize All Might as much as he did, given how connect their young adult lives ended up being? 

The baddies start infiltrating the main building where the party is going to be help. Oh, that can’t be good.

Melissa takes Izuku to her room to show her something. Why do I sense that Uraraka wouldn’t be down for this? It’s because I ship them and any obstacle to them hooking up annoys me, that’s why. Anyway, Melissa shows him some of her academic awards and mentions she’s actually quirkless before showing Izuku her invention. She made a support item, a wristband that could become a full glove that should reduce the strain on Izuku’s hands when he uses his power. She thinks it could sustain three of All Might’s punches, so it should work well with Izuku, since they seem to have similar powers. How convenient. Iida then calls and yells at Izuku for being late.

Hahahahahahaha, two goons, against these three, and they act
like the goons have a snowballs chance in hell. hahaha

Izuku meets up with the crowd. Iida is irate that Izuku and the ladies are late. To which I must point out, while most stereotypes about women are just that, I’ve yet to see one arrive on time to a party. Ladies got to primp and primping takes lots of time. Just saying. The girls do show up shortly after Izuku, and then only ones that are missing are Bakugo and Kirishima, whom are revealed to be wandering around hopelessly lost. Crap. That said, I think they’re all going to be thankful for being late in a second. During the event, All Might is called up to give a speech. Just before he can speak, the security system goes off. Everyone is required to return to their loggings while they’re under lockdown. We’re shown that most of the rest of 1-A are on the island, but didn’t swing invites to the party. That’s a fun little Easter egg. A moment later, the lead villain in an iron mask, Wolfram, walks in with his goons, announcing that they’ve taken over I Island. The security drones will start shooting civilians if the heroes don’t cooperate. He then activates emergency restraints to capture All Might and the other heroes. All Might could probably have broken free at his full strength, but obviously he’s running on fumes at this point.

 The teen heroes decide to go for the party as All Might is there and can help them. Wolfram nab David Shield and his assistant Sam for reasons unknown. All Might struggles against his bonds, but sees Izuku from the skylight. Using Jiro’s earphone jack, they learn what has been happening. Iida suggests that the students make an escape, but Todoroki and Izuku refuse to just give up. Izuku gives an impassioned speech that all they have to do is free All Might to save the day. Melissa tells them that they just need to reach the top floor of the tower to reactivate the security system. The students agree to try and stay out of sight and reactivate the security system. Izuku tries to get Melissa to stay behind, you know because no powers, but she’s the only one who knows how to fix the system so they agree to take her. Izuku goes back to the balcony and gives All Might “The Look” to let him know he’s not running. He’s annoyed, but not surprised.

The bad guys take David and Sam to the top and force them to get working. They’re supposed to open a special vault for the villains.

The students start running to the top. They’re on only about floor 38 of 200 when they start getting winded, but they soldier on. They’re able to keep running all the way to floor 80, where they discover the higher floors are blocked off. Mineta, the idiot, opens a side door that alters the baddies to their presence. Wolfram tells his goons to lock them in on the 80^th floor. They’re able to go deeper into floor 80 into a “plant factory” thanks to Todoroki’s freezing and Iida’s high-speed kick. Melissa explains this lab is about seeing how different plants react to quirk usage. They hide in the flora when they notice the villains coming up an elevator.

Sigh, shame he's like 97% looks.

The students watch in fear as some of the goons walk by. They call out the students, causing the hidden kids to tense up, but it turns out they actually only spotted Kirishima and Bakugo. One of them lobs a blast wave of some kind at the two. Todoroki protects them from the villain’s attack with an ice wall, he lets the others escape on an iceberg and tells them to keep moving. He, Bakugo and Kirishima will handle the goons. I actually feel a little sorry for the idiots that will have to face off against this trio. The baddies are a dude that hulks out into an ogre form and a dude who can fire off a destructive wave of energy.

The others discover the next level halls are locked down as well. They notice a hatch that could lead them to the outside, but they’d need someone to open from that side. They force Mineta to do it as he’s small enough to fit and climb on the outside with his sticky balls. He climbs along the outside at high speed for the promise of girls loving him. Obviously, the actual group of girls present just give him a “good job” as the little creep doesn’t deserve much else despite his usefulness.

The baddies notice the kids on the higher floor, but can’t really do anything about it as their two free goons have got their hands full with the other three. Kirishima takes a heavy hit protecting the other two as they dodge around the villains. Bakugo uses his Howitzer Impact on the purple Ogre, knocking him out cold. Maybe. Or maybe he’s dead. Who knows? The other guy tries to blast Bakugo, but only gets some of his shirt and sweat. Which works like Nitro Glycerin. Todoroki blasts him with a fireblast and knocks him out too. They get Kirishima out of the hole he was knocked into, and Bakugo actually thanks Kirishima for protecting him. The villains activate the drones, and open up the floors from 100-130. At 130, they run into rooms filled with robots. They try taking out a bunch of drones by having Kaminari blasting them with electricity, but they’re too insolated. When that doesn’t work, they throw a much of some kind of grenades to confuse them and try to stick them Mineta’s balls.  That only slows a few down, so Iida and Izuku try their hands. Well, hands and feet. Izuku puts on Melissa’s gauntlet and unleashes 30% of his power, highest amount to date. He sends robot’s flying. Iida grabs Kaminari and they run for the exit.

"I am here! You may commence wetting your pants at any time"
Ha, he didn't actually say that but you totally read it in Chris
Sabat's voice.

Back with the heroes and villains, Wolfram gets told about the kids escaping the bots. They make it to floor 138 before even more drones attack them. They have the added issue of not being able to go ham because this is the server room and damaging the servers could cause harm to the city. Melissa, Uraraka and Izuku try to circle around while the others hold off the robots.  Sidenote, Super impressed Uraraka is doing so much running in sensible heels. The kids hold the bots off for a little while, but then Iida’s engine’s stall, Yaoyorozu runs out of raw materials to make ammo, and Mineta’s scalp is bleeding. Give that that only leaves Jiro, who left her combat speaker boots at the hotel for more party appropriate shoes and Kaminari who’s mind is still fried standing, the kids are captured fairly easily.

The three remaining kids go out to the outside to the wind turbine generators the lab has. At this point, I’m not even going to ask. The plan is to jump up to the top and use an emergency access door to get inside. Using her quirk, Uraraka makes them weightless and throws them skyward. More drones arrive to attack, with Uraraka on the ground by herself. She has to keep her powers active on Izuku and Melissa, so she has no defense. They almost make it to the top when the drones attack Uraraka! Whom is then saved at the last second by Bakugo. You go, angry kid. The other two join Bakugo. There’s a mad scramble to fight the bots and make sure that Izuku and Melissa make it to the tower. Izuku unleashes a full powered punch to knock themselves through the wall and into the tower. Wolfram gets an update on the status and starts to rush to the top to intercept them. Izuku is attacked by one of the goons with knife hands, but is saved by Melissa distracting him and then Izuku knocks him into the stairs.

In the Dark, Evil stirs.

The duo make it to the top, to find that Dave and his assistant are working on something in the storage room. They pop open one of the vaults, and we learn that Sam and Dave were working with the villains to get said device. It’s revealed the device is a power amplifying device. The device was taken by the board of directors at I Island and sealed away for fear of what the device could do. Sam is the one that suggested hiring goons to steal the device. Melissa is obviously a bit stunned to hear that her father might count as a criminal mastermind, but is even more surprised to hear his reasoning. Dave designed and build the power amplifier to use on All Might. He knew his friend’s powers were waning and seems truly terrified at the thought of living in a world without All Might to protect it. Melissa counters with saying that All Might wouldn’t approve of using villains to help him. Dave is somewhat shocked to hear about the methods the group of “actors” Sam hired crossed ethical lines. That’s when Wolfram walks in and reveals that “PSYCH” they really are villains. He uses some kind of metal manipulation power to capture Izuku. Sam brings the device over to Wolfram, as he was in on the whole thing. As his reward, he gets shot in the shoulder by Wolfram. What? Criminals betraying their mole? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Oh, that’s painful sarcasm. He’s saved from execution by Dave jumping in the way and taking the next shot, and they’re both saved by Melissa distracting him long enough for Izuku to break free and rush him. Wolfram tries to bury Izuku in concrete and metal. Young Midoriya tells Melissa to run while he’s distracting Wolfram and restart the security system. Which she does. Realizing things are going haywire, Wolfram buries Izuku and grabs Dave, telling the doctor that he’s going to mass produce the amplifier for him.

It's weird to see the phrases "It's working perfectly" and "Damn it"
so well illustrated.

Izuku frees himself and runs to the roof to stop the villains escape. He leaps and grabs the helicopter, before being knocked off back to the ground again. Thankfully, he slowed Wolfram long enough for a freed All Might to leap to the roof and slam the helicopter back down to Earth. The Other students also arrive to give backup. Unfortunately, Wolfram is a bit of sore loser, and elects to use the Amplifier on himself. So, it’s Izuku and All Might, with a little backup from the other heroes-in-training vs. an amplified villain. Can they do it? Watch the film and find out.

I was tempted to give the full-full breakdown, but this is six pages already without my final thoughts, so I should probably finish.

So, the good first. The film is visually impressive. It’s animated by Studio Bones, which does the main anime, but it’s clear that they threw a ton of money at the animation so it looks spectacular. I enjoyed seeing the students that they focused on in this one. Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima and Kaminari are great and I’m always happy to see more of them. I also enjoyed the addition of the Shields. Melissa is a fun character, being kind of an alternative to Izuku. Both are powerless individuals that are still trying to do the right thing and be heroes in their own rights. I was also happy to see that they didn’t do too much “fan service” with her. I get enough of that in the main show. And her Dad’s motivation was rather interesting. Doing something evil for money? Boring. Doing something evil to help your friend and/or the world, much more interesting. I just wish they could have focused on that plot line a little more than just have it as something hinted at in the beginning and revealed at the end. But then this is only an hour and a half movie, with credits, so they obviously had a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time.

The end of All Might is pretty scary in universe, but out, we know
someone is getting ready to step into his giant shoes.

I think there’s very little bad here, but there is some. I rolled my eyes so hard at how hard they contrived to get everyone onto I Island. Here’s the breakdown, Iida, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki being there, plausible. They’re all part of respected hero families and would probably get invites. Bakugo being there, a little harder to swallow, but he did win the Sports Festival which is a big deal in their world, so it’s feasible. But Kirishima, Uraraka, and all the others? You’re letting upwards of a dozen random high schoolers onto your highly secure government facility? Da hell! I don’t hate that they’re there, just maybe next time make it a class activity if you want them all there. Which they do in the next film, just saying. As far as villains go, Wolfram is kind of boring. He’s more or less an extra for most of the movie, only popping in to yell orders when things start going off the rails. Sure, his powers are cool, and the *spoiler* reveal that he has multiple powers and is in league with All For One was interesting. But when your most interesting feature is proof of working with a more dangerous big bad, you did something wrong. And finally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the Gauntlet. I’m fine with it in principle, but the fact that a high school senior was able to design something that powerful in her free time boggles the mind. If it’s so relatively easy to make, I’m shocked Izuku hasn’t ever received a replacement. I know, it’s an anime film and I went at length to describe how they’re almost never canon, but typically when a McGuffin like the Gauntlet breaks, it’s a rare or one-of-a-kind item. Not something a seventeen-year-old can whip up on the sly. And don’t give me the, oh, her dad was revealed to be criminal so she lost all her privileges on I Island explanation. She’s proven to be an incredibly talented student, was instrumental in getting the island back into working order and is the de facto niece of All Might. A school board would have to be high on schrooms to think expelling her would be a good idea. All I’m sayin.

So yeah, overall, it’s a fun movie. There are weaknesses to it with its lackluster villain, the contrived arrivals and one-use power item, but it’s not enough to make me dislike watching the movie. Its problems stem from being a side story that was made to fill in some character background and to just highlight our heroes on a big screen adventure. So long as you treat it as a fun bit of filler, you’ll be fine. If, somehow, you saw this movie without seeing the series, I’d highly recommend it as it’s just more of the films good stuff and significantly less of the bad. Oh, and you should also see Heroes Rising at some point, as it improves on the My Hero Academia film formula in every way imaginable. But I’ll get to that in a year or two. We’ll finish out March and probably continue through April with some My Hero Academia Episodes, so look forward to those. Or stop reading my stuff for a few weeks as I get my anime kick out of my system. Whichever you want to do. Have a goodnight, and stay safe. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero