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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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