Final half of the test starts ramping up with some rescue practice.
Last time on My Hero Academia the UA
students struggled to get into the last few passing slots of the first phase of
the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam. Bakugo and Kirishima were almost taken out
by Seiji Shishikura, a student that could manipulate flesh from Shiketsu high,
but Kaminari was able to hold it together long enough to weaken him. Seiji is
taken out by Bakugo and Kirishima, and the three reap the benefit of Seiji
disabling multiple students without eliminating them. Izuku, Sero and Uraraka
were able to trap several examinees, and earned the pass as well. The latter
half of the class, including Iida were able to pass when Aoyama used his naval
laser. He’d intended to sacrifice himself, he only had one target left, so Iida
could pass in the confusion, but instead it drew the last nine members of UA
class 1A together to get nine of the final ten slots. The last one went to
Camie of Shiketsu. And in an after-credit teaser, it’s revealed that part two
of the exam is going to be in a rescue simulation. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open with the bombing of the
buildings and scenery of the first testing area, setting the stage for the
rescue simulation they’re about to go through. They’re encouraged to treat this
like the real thing. Some of the students are a bit freaked out when it seems
children and old folks are on the field as well, but they’re revealed to be
professional actors from the Help Us Company, or HUC. Mera explains that the
students are going to be graded on how well they handle the situation. If they can
keep their scores above a failing benchmark, they’ll pass. Iida and Izuku are
reminded of the Kamino Ward incident, but Iida points out it’s a little
different as they actually have to help the rescue effort this time instead of
peacing out with Bakugo. Izuku resolves to do whatever he can to save people.
While they’re still waiting for the
test prep to complete, Sero goes over and tells Kaminari and Mineta about
finding Izuku with a naked (?) Camie during the test. Class 1A’s horniest
students are quite upset to hear that Izuku was getting some hanky panky during
the test, as Sero told it, and yell at Izuku for it. Camie doesn’t help the situation
by waving at Izuku when they draw attention to her. While Izuku is dealing with
that, Uraraka is looking miffed again.
Bakugo is approached by some Shiketsu
High students, lead by Nagamasa Mora, go to talk to Bakugo. Yes, Mora does look
like Cousin It from the Addams Family if he had noticeable arms. He basically apologizes
for the fact that he’s reasonably certain Seiji was being a dick when they met
in the test. He wants to forge a better relationship with UA, and for once
Bakugo doesn’t shout obscenities at someone for apologizing. Personal growth!
As the convo is going down, Todoroki notices Yoarashi again, remembers the
glare from earlier and straight up asks him if Todoroki did something to offend
him. Dude, Shoto, I know you’re new to the interpersonal stuff, but that’s not
the sort of question you spring on a guy! The jovial Yoarashi gets super
serious for a moment, and glares at Todoroki. He tells the heterochromic young man
that he hates him and his father Endeavor. That while Todoroki isn’t as bad as
before, he still has his father’s eyes. He leaves to jovially return to his class
after telling Todoroki something as awful as that.
Mineta and Kaminari resume
attacking Izuku with questions when they see Camie wave to him again as she
leaves. Uraraka, getting tired of feeling like this, goes to talk to Izuku… but
then Mera starts setting up the test’s backstory. Sorta, he didn’t even bother
to think up a name for the town. He does tell the students to save as many
people as possible and treat it like a real situation. He then drops open the
walls and the heroes in training rush out.
Match, Start!
UA Class 1A decide to work as a
group… mostly. Bakugo runs off again, with Kirishima and Kaminari in tow. When he
demands to know why they’re always following him, the two saying “we just
wanna.” Izuku hears someone crying and goes to have a look, everyone else following.
They find a “Kid” crying about his bleeding scalp and injured grandpa. Izuku
reacts with “that’s bad,” which causes the HUC actor to instantly freak out. He
critiques Izuku for not being able to assess his injuries, and for not being
able to put his mind at ease during a stressful situation. In the stands,
Aizawa comments that experience does help. We’re shown several students doing
tasks to help the injured, like that dick Yo Shinto setting up a first aid area
with his team, and Mora using his locks of hair to clear space for the emergency
vehicles when they show up.
Izuku, motivated by the yelling and
his memories of All Might’s debut video, slaps himself and gets his mind in gear.
He puts on his best All Might smile to reassure the HUC Actor. He instantly shifts
back into the injured kid persona, and starts crying. Izuku volunteers to carry
him to safety while the others keep searching. Uraraka walks Izuku run off and
finally seems to come to terms with her feelings. Fact 1, she’s attracted to
him. Fact 2, he’s hyper-focused on becoming a hero. Fact 3, said focuse means he
probably doesn’t have room in his life for distractions like romantic entanglements.
Fact 4, she also wants to be a hero and achieve her goals. She resolves to bury
these feelings, work hard and become a hero… for now anyway.
Izuku, buddy, talk to her! You can’t
be so stupid that you’ve missed the signs she’s into you, right?
What’s that, he’s still fifteen?
Oh, yeah, then he’s got no idea. Sigh.
Mera watches the test from the
observation area. He notes that after ten minutes and only a few minor hiccups,
the test is actually running rather smoothly. That’s of course why they’re
going to prep a curveball for the students. It’s not a Hero Test without a few
surprises. This surprise seems to a large suited man and a ton of goons, FYI.
Yoarashi uses his wind quirk to move
a few survivors and debris around. While the HUC guys are impressed to see his
level of control with the wind and how easily he’s moving both rocks and people,
they deduct points for him being reckless with civilians. While he catches the
two HUC guys he was moving, one of his classmates points out Camie ran off on
her own again and comments that’s unlike her.
In the stands, Seiji is watching along side his homeroom teacher… I assume. He might just be talking to a rando, no idea. Whomever he is, the older guy advises that Seiji learn from his mistakes and not get swallowed up by Stain’s rhetoric. Seiji is affronted, but the teacher explains. He points out that Stain’s message and All Might’s retirement made a lot of folks want to reevaluate the hero system. And while that’s good, getting too obsessed with separating the wheat from the chaff is dangerous. It’s that reason why Seiji didn’t advance, because he focused too much on that separation process.
The UA students find another man in
debris. Uraraka runs up to free him. Which is revealed to be bad, as the HUC guy
is going to deduct points when she does for not surveying the field and putting
him at unnecessary risk. He’s denied this by Yaoyorozu, who stops Uraraka and
points out the precarious nature of the debris. If they move too much too fast,
it’ll all come tumbling down. She makes some scaffold and Sero and Sato set it
up with tape and superstrength to brace against the big pieces. Uraraka then
slides in and starts removing the debris piecemeal, slow but efficiently. The HUC
actor muses that, while it isn’t the best method, the students are learning that
working with teams and finding the most efficient use of skills is a corner
stone of hero work. The students realize that they might work better in smaller
groups, and break into teams. Iida even suggesting that they help other schools,
it might be a test but they need to treat it like reality.
We jump over to the mountain zone with
Bakugo’s group. A pair of HUC actors come up, yelling about their injuries and
demanding help. Bakugo tells them to shut up and save themselves. Kirishima and
Kaminari both scold him for his crap bedside manner, but the HUC people wonder
if he didn’t make the right call. They were told to act like people with minimal
injuries but be loud and obnoxious. They decide while Bakugo telling them to
look after themselves might be right, his bedside manner sucks so deduct points.
Iida rushes around the area trying
to find people that Shoji’s tentacles find. Tsu, Todoroki and Hagakure are in
the river area fishing people out of the water, and everyone else is finding
odd jobs to help people.
Izuku makes sit to the first aid
area, and drops his HUC actor off with someone acting as a de facto nurse. But
then the test gets harder. The large man that we were shown earlier points out
that while rescue work is important, a real hero often has to multitask and
adapt to new situations. More explosions are triggered. Mera announces that another
wave of attacks has started and the villain responsible is taking the field.
This ‘Villain’ is the hero Gang Orca, a large, well dressed human/animal mix hero.
He’s ranked 10th overall of heroes in Japan, and 3rd on
the “looks like a villain” list. You might remember him as one of the heroes that
was on Best Jeanist’s team when they had that fairly disastrous raid on the
Noumu factory. He sends his squad in. Aizawa in the stands mentions that this
scenario would be hard even for pros. Gang Orca gives a villainous speech asking
what the heroes will do. Will they attack or defend? Rescue, or try to stop the
villain? We’ll find out… eventually.
This was another solid episode. I
might have to stop saying that, as My Hero Academia episodes are rarely “misses”
for me, ha. I liked the scenario that the kids are being put in. Obviously with
their job, rescue work is probably going to be a huge part of it. Natural disasters
and villain attacks will always cause collateral damage, so being able to work
in a disaster setting is crucial. I liked that Izuku was reprimanded for giving
a very… Izuku response to hearing about the injured kid, before switching to a
Deku mentality and being a hero. I’m only slightly annoyed that Uraraka’s
recent arc of ‘do I or don’t I like him?” ends with a realization that it’s an
emphatic YES, but that she won’t do anything about it. Not that her reasoning isn’t
justified, Izuku is very career focused and it might be unfair to try and add a
relationship to the tasks he’s focused on. And that she needs to do well in her
career and she should be as diligent as he. No, I’m just annoyed that it’s
another case of two leads that are clearly intended to be romantic at some
point dragging it out because it’s easier to write two characters in a “will
they/won’t they” situation than as a functioning couple. And/or this is a Shonen
series focused on boys, and people continue to think guys don’t want to read
about romance. They can, some do, and if you include it in an immensely popular
series maybe they’d warm up to it. Just saying. I love the design of Gang Orca.
He’s a whale, but also with unnatural eyes and claws, so more like a demon whale.
He’s also known for having immensely loyal and well-coordinated sidekicks, so
we’re going to see some interesting group tactics in a couple episodes. Yeah,
sorry to break the tension, but the next episode is a filler episode designed
to promote the then upcoming first My Hero Academia film. Not sure why they
couldn’t put it at the end of the arc, but no use crying over spilt milk and
all that. It’s a… unique episode, at least. But we’ll cover that later. Have a
good night, everybody.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/42224299
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment