How’s everybody doing? I’m sure you’re
stir crazy but you’re surviving, so that’s a win in any book. Let’s lose
ourselves in anime for a while, shall we?
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Izuku got his bell rung by a powerful villain called Muscular. The two Strongman
type fighters duked it out in a battle of fists. While Izuku put in a valiant
effort, Muscular’s defensive powers and immense strength almost finished him.
Thankfully, Kota used his water manipulating power to distract Muscular long enough
for Izuku to unleash One For All (OFA) 1,000,000 percent (figurative not literal)
to defeat him. While that was going on, the Wild, Wild Pussycats were being attacked
by two more of the League of Villains Vanguard Action Squadron, I’m going to
shorten it to VAS after this, Spinner and Magne. The two villains had taken out
Pixie-Bob of the Pussycats, sending Tiger into a muscular, murderous rage. The
rest of the students ended up being hunted by the rest of the VAS, as the
villains are targeting students… well… one student in particular. Care to
guess? Everyone who guessed Bakugo gets a thumbs up. Let’s get to it, shall we?
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| Izuku Midoriya dreams of the day where he can win a fight without breaking 15 bones and getting a concussion. But it is not this day. |
We open with a quick recap of Izuku
first almost losing to, and then ultimately defeating Muscular with Kota’s aid.
At this point, judging from Izuku’s arm, he’s got more splinters than solid
bone left in it. That’s very bad, but far from the worse thing happening here.
We cut over to Shigaraki and Kurogiri
relaxing at the villain bar. The shadow man asks if Shigaraki shouldn’t be with
his VAS, but Shigaraki has decided to shift strategies for this attack. He explains
that he’d been playing the “game” as he put it like an RPG, gathering a team, getting
them gear and then throwing them at the meat grinder of a boss at lv. 1 in the hopes
of winning with numbers. That didn’t work out, so now he’s treating it like a
real combat simulation. He’s sent his pieces out to disable and capture as many
of his opponents as possible. But before the big attack, he’s sent them on this
errand to create cracks in the hero world. He’s weirdly confident in his new crew,
if I’m being honest, and heavily implies that they’re going to try and recruit
someone they feel is also being “repressed,” meaning Bakugo.
Back with Izuku, Kota tries to
convince the young hero to sit down before he collapses, but Izuku refuses. He knows
he has to get info to Mandalay and the other teachers, both the power of Muscular
(and the implied power of the VAS as a whole) and that the VAS is targeting
Bakugo. He’s fairly confident Muscular is down for the count, but worries that
the others will be overwhelmed if the other villains are at his level. He also
wants to take Kota towards the fire so he can use his water manipulation powers
to put it out. He picks up Kota and leaps across the mountain, while stating in
his head that he has a bad feeling about this.
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| Well, this image would haunt my nightmares forever, were I Aizawa. |
We then cut back to the main campus
of the training camp, and back five minutes to when Aizawa ran outside and was
seemingly napalmed by Dabi. Turns out, he was able to leap up and out of Dabi’s
way thanks to his scarf/reflexes, and then disabled Dabi’s power. The two fight
for a moment before Aizawa gets him wrapped in the scarf and pinned to the ground.
He tries to interrogate Dabi, breaking his arm in the first few seconds to
imply how serious he’s being. A massive explosion and Iida’s group making to
the main building distracts him enough to let Dabi slip out. He tangles him up
in the scarf again, but Dabi breaks apart into goo, asking Aizawa if he’s “Worried
about your students?” as he falls to pieces. Well, with a creepy exit line like
that, how could he not? Aizawa tells the students to get inside as he runs off.
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| I'm 90% certain you'll fall in love with this nutjob by the end of the next season. |
We cut back over to Dabi and are
introduced to Twice. He’s a bit bonkers, often speaking in contradictory
statements and in a general “Deadpool” style. He’ll do stuff like do somebody a
favor, and then when they try to thank him, he’ll say, “It was nothing,” and “PRAISE
ME!” in rapid succession. So yeah, he’s unstable. Get it? Got it? Good. It was
his power that made that Dabi look alike, and Dabi orders up another to keep
the heroes distracted. I’ll note that Twice’s copies are about as strong as the
original, but not nearly as durable. Odds are the Dabi copy was within a few
seconds of falling apart from the broken arm, if future examples of his cloning
are any indicator.
Izuku meets up with Aizawa as they
both run through the forest. He quickly explains what he’d learned, where he’s
going, and leaves Kota in Aizawa’s care. His teacher calls him back. Aizawa notes
Izuku’s extensive wounds and figuring the kid is running on very few fumes at
this point, but also knows that there’s very little he can do to stop Izuku
from running. He gives Izuku another message to pass onto Mandalay.
Speaking of, Mandalay and Tiger are
holding their own against Spinner and Magne, but the two villains are tough.
Apparently, despite not having a physically based power, Magne hits with about
the same force as Tiger, which shocks me just a little. Spinner goes into
cleave Mandalay in half, but Izuku zooms in and shatters Spinners hodgepodge sword
into pieces with a kick. He relays that he saved Kota, and that Mandalay needs
to contact everyone via telepathy. She is instructed to tell them that Aizawa
has used his status as a pro-hero to authorize the students into using their powers
to defend themselves.
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| Not sure Izuku needed a One For All empowered kick to break that sword. It was held together with belts! |
We jump back to Aizawa, who is
kicking himself metaphorically for not telling Izuku to fall back immediately
after relaying his message. Kota, who’s scared and feeling like dirt for
damaging the Midoriya family jewels, asks if Izuku is going to be okay and if he’ll
get the chance to apologize. Aizawa tells him that Izuku will, as that kid is
not one to give up.
Mandalay tries to tell Izuku to fall
back, but he charges onward to find Bakugo. He tells her to tell “Kaa-chan” via
telepathy that he’s a target and that he should stay low. Magne, recognizing
Izuku, tries to take him out, but she’s stopped by Spinner. Why? Because while
Shigaraki has Izuku on his “Kill on Sight” list, Izuku was named a hero by
Stain, so Spinner won’t allow him to be hurt. Okay, so while Spinner dresses like
a wannabe, it seems like he’s holding hard to Stain’s credo. Tiger and Mandalay
use this distraction to knock out their respective opponent. This is why you
don’t fight with your allies while enemies are still conscious, fools.
What a shock, telling Bakugo to
stay low just puts him into a frenzy where he’s at. He and Todoroki are
battling Moonfish, an escaped death row inmate. The black leather clad
psychopath uses blades generated from his teeth to lift himself into the air,
dodge around and slice his opponents. He seems to be fixated on cutting meat,
as he puts it. Bakugo somehow knows without proof that it’s Izuku’s fault that he
was told to defend himself but then to run and hide in such rapid succession.
His clairvoyance is scary sometimes.
We then cut over to the class 1B students
Tetsutetsu and Kendo. Tetsutetsu is just kind of running around in circles
without a real plan, before Kendo stops him and explains something that she noticed.
Namely, that Mandalay didn’t mention the fog in her report, and that the fog
doesn’t seem to be spreading beyond a given area. She deduces something is
creating the fog and spinning it around in a given area like a super slow
hurricane. Tetsutetsu, catching on, figures out that that means someone is
making the fog with their Quirk, and that taking him out will stop it.
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| Wow, that's a spooky image. Too bad Mustard really isn't. |
We’re then shown Mustard, think the
deadly gas not the condiment, a kid in a WW2 era gasmask and a school uniform
of all things. He’s manipulating the fog and senses the two coming in it. He
easily dodges around Tetsutetsu as the steel-shifter attacks, pulling out a six-shooter
revolver and starts taking potshots at him. His first shot destroys Tetsutetsu’s
gas mask, and the follow ups seem to weaken his armor. That or the inability to
breath does. He takes a shot at Kendo too, having sensed her approach and
figured out their pincer attack. The kid starts ranting about how he hates UA
and how the school’s students are treated as elite, I think someone has an
inferiority complex, and shooting Tetsutetsu repeatedly. Kendo takes a swing at
Mustard, and even hits the little gremlin by using her Quirk to expand her fist.
He mocks her for her weak power, before she schools him. Kendo expands both her
fists and uses the supersized hands to whip the fog around them up. This is
actually a very well-timed distraction, as it gives Tetsutetsu time to get up,
and keeps Mustard from sensing his movements, as the gas is being shifted
around too much for him to feel it. Tetsutetsu knocks him out with a punch, shattering
his gas mask for good measure. Go team!
So, if you’re keeping score, that’s
Muscular, Mustard, Spinner and Magne of the VAS taken out and/or restrained,
with Dabi, Toga, Twice, Moonfish and two others still at large. The VAS had ten
members, if I hadn’t made that clear yet. That’s half the attack group down, so it’s progress.
Izuku, unaware of this, is running
towards when he believes Bakugo and Todoroki would be at. He’s rushed by something,
tries to dodge, but his broken arms make him too slow. Thankfully, he’s saved
by Shoji, the dude with six tentacle arms. Well, five right now. He was hit earlier
in the fight, and explains that is what caused this issue. Driven into a fury
by seeing his friend attack, and the darkness of the night, caused Tokoyami’s quirk
to go into overdrive. They’ve got a very angry, very powerful Dark Shadow
standing between them and Bakugo. Not good, but I think Izuku has handled worse
odds before… I just remembered most of his limbs are broken, so maybe not.
Okay, so this episode is mostly a buildup
episode. It’s mostly Izuku forcing himself to keep running through the pain,
and seeing how the other VAS members measure up. Obviously, Mustard isn’t quite
up to the same level overall as Muscular or Dabi. I mean, his ability is useful,
but on his own he was fairly easily schooled by two heroes-in-training without
much real-world combat experience. Spinner and Magne are obviously much more
impressive, but they were taken out like punks. It was interesting to see that
they have a few different types of followers in the new League of Villains. You’ve
got guys like Spinner, Dabi, and Toga that were drawn in by the apparent
connection between Stain and the League, and others that are there for other
reasons, like Magne. Sure, that division in ideals got them captured fairly
easily but it was still interesting to see. With about half their group taken
out, we’re about to see how their heaviest hitters act on the mission. Oh, and obviously
Izuku is going to have a hell of a time stopping Tokoyami’s Dark Shadow from
rampaging and slicing everyone to pieces. Fun times. Have a good night.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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