Last time on My Hero Academia,
Izuku and Bakugo had a rematch. The long-time frenemies faced off outside of
ground beta, Bakugo forcing the confrontation because he wanted to know why All
Might chose Izuku as his successor. In actuality, this was a therapy session
for Bakugo, who needed to work through his guilt of believing that he caused
All Might to retire by being kidnapped. And the only way Bakugo knows how to
vent feelings is through combat. Probably not healthy, but it is what it is. During
the battle, Izuku increases his capacity to use One For All in his Full Cowling
from 5% to 8%. Despite this increase in speed and power, Bakugo ended up the
victor by pin. All Might then joined them and did his best to apologize for not
noticing the mental trouble that Bakugo was going through simply because the
kid puts on an aggressive face. He then tells the angry young man the whole
back story on One For All and why he chose Izuku to be his successor. For a
closely guarded secret, All might is gabby about it all of a sudden… Back at
the dorm, Aizawa is less than pleased at this latest bout of rule breaking from
these two. They’re put under house arrest, Bakugo for four days, Izuku for three;
have to write a formal apology, and naturally heal from their injuries. So, a
mix bag night for Izuku and Bakugo. But enough about the past, lets talk about
the future. Let’s get to it.
We open on the villain Twice as he has
a morning cigarette and people watches from his apartment window. I think this
was supposed to be a big reveal in the manga, but it’s kinda hard to hide the
fact that this guy we haven’t seen before sounds an awful lot like Twice, just
sayin’. He philosophizes about how important a sense of self is, and talks about
how the world is doing post All Might. Two weeks later, and everyone is still
talking about it and wondering if Endeavor is really up for the job. Weirdly,
as he thinks to himself, he’ll occasionally interrupt his own train of thought
with contradictory statements. How odd. He finishes his cigarette and goes for
a walk. As he walks, he passes a villain stealing the cash register from a convenience
store, counter and all. A pirate themed hero tries to stop him, but a buddy of
the thief knocks him out and they get into a truck to drive off, claiming they’re
a villain team called the Reservoir Dogs and that heroes better watch out.
Twice rolls his eyes and keeps his walking.
As he walks down an alley, he gets
a call from Giren. The black-market arms dealer is chipper, as his business is
booming. Every criminal and their mother are looking for villainous gear or
supplies now that All Might is out of the picture. He asks if Twice knows where
Dabi is, as he can’t track the flame user and tell him that Shigaraki is
looking to have a team meeting soon. Twice starts talking in contradictions,
and seems to be having a major anxiety attack. He hangs up on Giren. Twice
tells us that the League of Villains have spread out across Japan, laying low
and looking for new members. We’re shown Dabi napalming a group of Villains
that he’d run across but decided weren’t up to snuff for the League. Creepy weirdo.
We get back to Twice, who puts on
his mask. That apparently is like his safety blanket, once it’s on, he calms
down significantly and says he’s now whole again. He then gives us his
backstory. Classic cloning story, he used to make a bunch of copies of himself
and live as a king over his clones, clones revolted, he got tied up and for
nine day watched his duplicates fight over who is the “real” one, killing each other
until he was the only one left. He was left with a scar on his forehead and an
irrational fear that he might be a clone too. Hence why he doesn’t copy himself
anymore. He continues walking, coming upon what’s left of the Reservoir Dogs. The
group had been horribly mutilated, pieces of them merged into inanimate objects
by a group of guys in plague doctor masks. The leader of this group, a fella
called Overhaul is disgusted by these kinds of retches, and seems to catch Twice’s
attention.
Back at UA high, Midoriya is
training in his room while still on house arrest. It still seems weird to me
that his punishment involves him not going to school for three days… Just odd.
He notes that his hands don’t feel particularly painful or weird, and come to
the conclusion that he can still punch during a fight, he just has to be cognizant
of when he goes all out, as that’s when he’s most likely to hurt his hands again.
So his hands aren’t entirely off limits, he just needs to remember to up the
kicks when things get serious.
Imagine having to come to this guy for guidance.
At school, class 1A is making its
way to the first of the semester opening ceremony. While on their way, they run
into Monoma, the dick from class 1B. He’s there to laugh at them for class 1A
having two students fail the PHLE. Kirishima assumes Monoma was the only one to
fail, like with the summer training program, but it turns out he and everyone
else in 1B passed. While he’s a dick, gotta let him have this win. The
conversation is broken up as Shinzo, the general studies student Izuku battled
in the final tournament, comes by. Interestingly, he seems to have bulked up
since his last appearance, how odd.
Principal Nezu begins his speech
talking about his fur health, explaining it’s not as nice as it used to be due
to stress and not getting enough sleep. He shifts his speech to telling his
students to be prepared for what comes next and all that jazz. He mentions a
hero work study program as something the older students should focus on,
surprising the 1A kids. While he’s talking, All Might remembers meeting with Nezu
when the talking weasel convinced him to come to UA, both to ease into retirement
and to scout the talent for a potential successor. After Nezu finishes his
speech, they turn the mic over to the school guidance counselor, Hound Dog, who
makes a bunch of incoherent growling noises. Vlad King then takes over and
translates that two first years were caught fighting last night and everyone should
try not to do that. While 1A is a bit embarrassed by the latest bit of
attention Izuku and Bakugo are getting, a third-year girl seems quite excited
to tell her large blonde friend what she heard about the rumors and the big guy
seems quite excited about it too.
Back in their homeroom class,
Aizawa tells his kids that they’ll get back into the swing of things and restart
normal class work. Tsu asks about Work Studies, voicing the question on the
whole class’s mind. Aizawa gives them a vague explanation that it’s an extracurricular
activity. Basically, students with a PHL, typically second years and above, are
allowed to work with heroes in a sidekick like capacity along side their
typical school work. The Sport’s Festival is supposed to help give the students
exposure and let them network these jobs more effectively. He could go into
more detail, but plans to wait a little while longer. He leaves as Present Mic comes
in to teach language arts.
Back at the dorm, Bakugo is getting
mocked for poor cleaning (he insists dusting the window frames was Deku’s job).
Izuku starts freaking out as he hears his friends discuss the course work and the
work study program, but as he asks Iida for info, he’s informed that he and
Bakugo are to be kept in the dark until their house arrest is over. Izuku
gathers the trash and starts walking to the trash disposal area. He runs into a
face sticking out of the wall. It’s the Tin-Tin looking fella I told you about.
He’s Mirio Togata, a third-year student and the big blonde from earlier. His
name doesn’t come up here, but I feel like spilling beans. Togata gives Izuku
some advice about how to more efficiently dump trash, and then admit he stopped
by to get a look at the first year everyone is talking about. His face disappears
for a moment before emerging from the ground in front of Izuku. He says he’s looking
forward to seeing what Izuku is like before vanishing for real this time.
We flash forward two more days.
Izuku has finished his written apology, apologized to his classmates and is
looking to hit the ground running. Aizawa comes in before he can quiz anyone about
the work study program, to tell them about the work study program. Well, we won’t
do the talking, the guests will. He calls in three students, explaining that
they’re the three top students in the senior class, and are colloquially known
as the Big 3, and the big blonde in this group is non other than Togata. How
very interesting. Too bad this is where they choose to end for the night. Damn.
So, after the fast pace of the last
few episodes, this penultimate episode of season 3 feels slow and is a welcome
change. I liked the brief look that we got into a day in the life of and history
of Twice. Sure, his background is fairly cliché, but his reaction to it is what
made it interesting. He seems to have almost PTSD symptoms to life and the world
around him after spending nine days watching himself die, and the fact that he
can only keep himself semi-functional by wearing his mask is fairly interesting.
His story was also a fairly good introduction to Overhaul, the villain of the next
arc, and his group the Shie Hassaikai (Eight Precepts of Death, it’s cool in
either language). Let’s just say brutally murdering five guys just because he’s
disgusted by them is the least awful thing he’s going to do in the next few
episodes. Izuku’s time in exile does feel a bit rushed, but watching him be miserable
and missing out on school work probably would have gotten boring if they
lingered on it much longer. The work study program and the Big Three will all
be major elements of the upcoming season. Not to be spoilery, but I think Togata
will probably make it onto your top ten list of characters by the time season
four wraps up. Also, what was up with
the guidance counselor being a growling beast? Who approved his appointment to
that department? Just odd. Well, we just have one more episode to round out
season 3, so I’ll see you then. Have a good night!
