Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 62

Who wants to learn about a villain's backstory? Too bad if you said no, it's happening.

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.

 

Once again, the guy constantly cracking jokes is

actually in a lot of pain. Poor twice.

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.

 

Hello new Antagonist. Preemptive Screw you

Overhaul!

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.

 

One of these things is not the like the others. 

One of these things is socially awkward.

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!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 61

 The second round that's been a LONG time coming. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, the results are in and Izuku Midoriya is now a Provisionally Licensed Hero. He and most of his class passed, but shockingly Bakugo and Todoroki did not, nor did Yoarashi from Shiketsu High. Thankfully, all is not lost, as those who made it to round 2 but didn’t pass get the option to take a special training course along side their existing training and can take another test in three months. Meanwhile, All Might met with AFO in the Tartarus Prison. The creepy power thief is mostly vague and creepy about things to All Might, but makes a fairly disturbing guess at the current state of Japan. He seems to believe he won’t breath his last in prison, which is never good. Back at the school, Bakugo called Izuku out after dark. The two went to ground beta, where they had their first fight, and Bakugo challenged Izuku to a rematch. Let’s continue that discussion, shall we?

 

I'm honestly just surprised it took this long to

get a rematch.

We open on Bakugo finishing his assessment that Izuku got his powers from All Might and demanding that they fight. He also reiterates that he’s furious that the hero he looked up to most chose Izuku to succeed him and he was too blind to notice. Izuku tries to talk him down, suggesting maybe they can have a sanctioned sparring match at school or something, but Bakugo isn’t having that. He feels that if they tried to go all out like he wants, someone would stop them. He wants to know if there was something wrong with him, in how he tried to emulate All Might. Izuku tries to back away, but Bakugo won’t let him run, telling him if he doesn’t want to get hurt he should punch back… or kick, since that’s what Izuku does now. He rushes Izuku with a right hook, Izuku thinks it’s a feint, but then almost takes an explosion when Bakugo attacks with the right anyway. He roars “You know what your problem is? You’re always over thinking things. Just Fight Me!” Izuku dodges his next charge, but Bakugo blasts multiple buildings near them, shattering glass.

 

Whoever decided to give the robot a little hat

deserves a raise.

Nearby, a security bot detects… the visible explosions, determines who is causing them, and informs Aizawa that two of his students are “loitering” at ground beta. Weird word choice. Aizawa, clearly pissed, gets up to go stop them, but is intercepted by All Might.

 

             Izuku keeps trying to talk it out, but Bakugo keeps charging him. He’s let out a lot of built up anger at this kid whom he always saw as lagging behind him, clinging to him, but is now “better” than him. We see flashbacks to when they were younger and Izuku did do just that as the fighting continues. He also remembers All Might’s advice about not being mad that Izuku is making such progress because he started out so far behind and such, which just seems to make him madder. He ends up stumbling and falling on his ass. Izuku instantly goes to help him up, but Bakugo slaps his hand and tells him “don’t you dare worry about me!” Bakugo starts venting frustration again. He’s furious at Izuku getting better, being better than him, at falling behind, and, more interestingly, he’s furious at himself for being the one that ended All Might’s career. Realizing his best frenemy has been ripping himself apart on the inside for weeks now, Izuku decides to fight him for real. He realized it wasn’t about winning or losing, but about letting his frenemy vent the only way that he knows how. He gets a good kick in and knocks Bakugo back. He says he’ll fight, but he promises Bakugo he won’t hold back.

This face does not bode well for out curfew breakers

 

The two charge at each other again, blasting, flipping, kicking, launching, crashing and all-around brawling across the streets of the fake city. Bakugo is coming at Izuku hard and fast, too fast for him to predict Bakugo’s movements. Izuku charges Bakugo, but he blinds the green strongman with a flash and then launches him into the air again. He roars that Izuku “Keep(‘s) coming back!” and that “You think you’re better than me!” driving himself into a further rage. Izuku, clearly shocked by that second statement, once again tells Bakugo that he weirdly idolizes him, and that Izuku will be better than him. He runs at Bakugo again, pushing himself and his Full Cowling form to the limit and beyond! Seriously, midway through the fight he shifts his Full Cowling powerup percentage from 5 to 8%. Not a huge boost, but enough that he starts running circles around Bakugo. He kicks and slams his opponent around, putting Bakugo’s back against the wall. During the charge, Izuku acknowledge a weird part about himself. Namely, when he’s fighting to win, to survive, he has a habit of starting to talk like Bakugo. Lots of “Now Die!” and that sort of thing. He believes it’s because victory and Bakugo are so mixed together in his head that he can’t separate the two.

 

The official score is 1-1, sounds like we need a 

tie breaker... in more three seasons.

They end up midair again, with Izuku above Bakugo. He thinks about how he switched to shoot style to protect his hands, but that doesn’t mean they’re useless now, and decks Bakugo across the face. Bakugo reels, grabs him and then explosion slams them into the ground. He ends up pinning Izuku to the ground, hand over his face, and declares victory. He is annoyed that even with the best power ever, Izuku still lost. All Might then walks up, telling them to stop fighting. Bakugo, still angry, demands to know why he chose Izuku to succeed him? Or, in other words, why was he good enough and I wasn’t? All Might gives the same rational that he did about it when he told Izuku, that despite being powerless, against that sludge villain, he was more heroic than anyone. He had the heart and not the power, so All Might wanted to see what he could do, basically. Now that everything is in the open, Bakugo starts breaking down and admitting that he blames himself for All Might losing his powers. But All Might pretty much instantly shuts this down by saying he was almost out of time already. He also apologizes for being blinded by Bakugo’s strength. He’s mad at himself for thinking that the teenager that was recently kidnapped had things in hand and wasn’t putting on a brave face. Rookie teaching mistake, All Might. He also hopes that letting all this out will help these two kids work more cooperatively in the future.

 

Best Frenemies for Life.

Bakugo tells Izuku that he’d better not lose to him or anyone again, to which Izuku agrees he’ll try. Bakugo asks about details, who knows what and all that. And All Might tells him everything, what teachers know about All Might and the power transfer and what All Might knows about the history of One for All. All Might is super chatty about this for some reason… Bakugo chastises Izuku for being dumb enough to tell him about the power in the first place. Both boys start arguing about who will end up surpassing the other as they walk back. All Might smiles and thinks to himself that these two have probably moved onto being real rivals instead of frenemies with a chip on their shoulder towards each other. It’s a good ending to the night.

 

Well… it would have been.

 

Back at the dorm, Izuku and Bakugo are pretty instantly tied up in Aizawa’s capture scarf. The irate professor is non-too-pleased about this latest bout of rule breaking from these two. All Might tries to shift the blame towards himself. We get a quick flashback to when he met Aizawa outside the door building, and asked to run point on helping the boys out. In the present, All Might explains that the fight is really his fault for not paying close enough attention to Bakugo to know what he was dealing with. This seems to calm Aizawa slightly, but he is adamant that there be a punishment to fit the crime. Bakugo cops to having thrown the first punch, with Izuku trying to take some of the blame to help. He decides that they’re on house arrest, Bakugo for four days, Izuku for three, and that they’ll spend that time cleaning the common areas until they sparkle. And they’ll have to do a written apology for him. And have to heal their injuries the old fashion way unless something is immediately wrong.

 

Oh right, consequences.

After the credits (damn it, studio Bones), we see how everyone reacts to the house arrest. I guess they can’t go to class while under house arrest, which feels… odd. Most of the students laugh, Todoroki asks how this’ll effect Bakugo’s extra lessons to which he says Back off Icy-Hot, and Uraraka asks the sensible question if they’d made up. To which Izuku says, Kinda, it’s complicated. After everyone leaves, Izuku asks Bakugo what he thinks of the Shoot Style. After an awkward pause, he tells Izuku that his movements are too obvious, but adding the punches pissed him off. So… 6/10? Hard to tell what Bakugo’s grading scale is. That’s all for this one, folks.

 

So, I liked this episode a lot. I’d read it in the manga a good year or two before it was animated and had been looking forward to it. The fight was great, obviously, as it did show off how far both of them had come. Izuku actually fighting with his power and keeping pace with Bakugo for most of it, and Bakugo being much more skilled at fighting three dimensionally and with varying up how he used his explosions. But I was also excited for one of Bakugo’s best character moments in the series. Up until this point, at least since the last fight they’d had, Bakugo has mostly been about the anger. He glared at, snarled at, and been a general dick to Izuku for a long time. But this time, we got to see the bravado fall away completely, and for the first time in a while we’re reminded, he’s a teenager. A teenager that has been dealing with the idea that he was responsible for breaking his idol. Seeing him break down his walls and tell All Might that was a very excellent bit of character development for him. And, while this doesn’t fix his and Izuku’s relationship, it does mark the beginning of a more amiable relationship between them. The house arrest will be rough on them both, but it’s just one more step to becoming a hero. Next time, we’ll be introduced to the three most powerful members of UA’s senior class, the Big 3. One of them looks like Tin-Tin, I’m not kidding. But more on that later. Have a good night!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 60

 One battle won, another begun. 

Last time on My Hero Academia we got back to the fight against Gang Orca and crew, already in progress. Todoroki attempted to keep Gang Orca and his men back, but the situation was complicated by fellow student, Yoarashi. The two have some… issues. Basically, Todoroki the Elder was a dick to Yoarashi when he was a kid and Todoroki the Younger was a dick to him just before the UA Entrance exam. Their issues were highlighted by the fact that their powers cancelled each other out each time they tried to attack Gang Orca. They’re taken down by Orca, but are able to make up for fighting each other by combining their powers to hold him back in a flaming vortex. Orca breaks free, but is held off for a few more seconds by Izuku’s kick. The test ends with Bakugo and his two other stooges saving the last two HUC actors a moment later. The episode ends as Izuku starts frantically looking for his name on the list of students that passed. Dicks. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

This kinda stress can give a kid an ulcer.

We open exactly where we left off, with Izuku looking through the list of passing students, but this time we see that he did indeed pass. We then get a quick montage of everyone’s reactions to the test, with 18/20 of the students passing. Who were the two that did? Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo. Dun dun dahhhh! And Yoarashi also didn’t pass. A moment later, Mera has his men start passing out printouts of each of the student’s evaluations, which shows what their score was and listing out what they lost points on. Turns out Izuku got 71 points, most of his lost points were from that first interaction with the HUC “kid” and for all the times he just stood around reacting to things. Glad someone called him out on that. Yoarashi walks over to Todoroki and bowed so deep he slams his head against the ground, apologizing for fighting with Todoroki and costing him the chance to pass. Todoroki doesn’t hold it against him, though, as he acknowledges he was being a dick too. Izuku looks over at Todoroki and Bakugo, and wonders why the students that failed were allowed to continue if there was no way for them to recover their score.

 

Mera takes a moment to congratulate the students that passed, confirming that their PHL will allow them to help during emergency situations but reminding them that the media will be watching and judging the fledgling heroes at pretty much all times. He then shifts his speed over to the students that fell below the 50-point mark. He basically tells them that there isn’t time for them to mope, because they have remedial class to take! Yeah, turns out that they’re giving the students that made it through round 1 but not 2 a second bite at the apple, reasoning that they have the basic skills to be heroes but still need to be refined a bit before they can be let off the least. As such, they’ll be allowed to take a three-month additional training course and take another test to get their licenses. Or they could wait until the next test date the following April. You only get one guess as to which option is most attractive to Todoroki, Bakugo and Yoarashi.

 

Tears of Joy are the best kind.

After everything is settled, Izuku cries tears of joy upon looking at his super awkward face in his PHL. He snaps a photo and sends it to his mother and All Might. We also see Ms. Joke offer to do joint training with Aizawa, to which he agrees. And we get last one interaction between Yoarashi and Todoroki. The big doofus tells Todoroki that he’ll see him at the class, but he still doesn’t like him. Weirdo. Before they leave, Izuku runs up to Nagamasa Mora, the incredibly hairy student that appears to be in charge of the Shiketsu high class, and asks what sort of training they go through to mask their presence. Mora is clearly confused by this and says he has no idea what Izuku is talking about. He mentions that he wanted to know how Camie snuck around like she did. Mora says that she left earlier claiming to be feeling ill, and notes that she’d been acting weird the last couple of days…

 

Well, that explains a lot.

We’re shown Camie walking down an empty alley. She gets a call… it’s from Mr. Compress. It’s at this moment Camie’s face sluffs off, revealing Himiko Toga. She tells Mr. Compress that her mission was successful, she got a few drops of Izuku Midoriya’s blood. It’s then that Present Mic’s voice over tells us that Camie’s power is called Transform, and to use it she has to drink blood. So… they have Izuku’s blood… and Camie shapeshifts with blood… oh no.

 

After that, we flashback a few hours to that morning. All Might is in Tartarus, the maximum-security prison for super criminals. He’s going in to have a chat with All For One. AFO has been locked into a chair with a bunch of equipment strapped to him, all designed to monitor if he’s going to try to use his powers and to stop him with extreme prejudice. Neat. The two have a chat, with All Might pretty much demanding that AFO tell him what Shigaraki is planning. AFO has no idea, claiming his little bird left the nest ages ago. They have a longer talk, with AFO pulling the “Not so different you and I, two sides of the same coin” cliché at All Might. He does tell All Might, though, that the only reason he took interest in a successor was because All Might destroyed his face and ended his “Infinite Potential,” so there’s that. He asks about what is happening top side, but All Might is advised not to say anything, they’re keeping the former kingpin in a media lockdown. Despite this, AFO seems to have a fairly good idea about what’s happening. Namely people are worried Endeavor isn’t a good enough replacement, there’s civil unrest, and villain groups that have been waiting in the shadows are preparing to move. He guesses that Shigaraki and his team are going to lay low for a while longer, to better their odds of come out on top. As All Might leaves, he tells him that he’s going to take perverse pleasure in knowing that as things escalate that the problem is due in part to All Might having kept his condition secret and not allowed the world to prep for his absence. All Might leaves in a huff, after telling AFO that he knows that his real hope is that Shigaraki, his master’s grandson, will end up killing him, Izuku or both, that it won’t happen and that AFO is going to rot in prison. AFO just laughs.

 

Someone this tied up shouldn't look this intimidating.

Top side, he gets the text from Izuku with his license picture, which does help lift his mood.

 

Back at the dorm, the class is celebrating in the common room. Everyone is pretty psyched, obviously, except maybe Bakugo and Todoroki. Bakugo walks up to Izuku and tells him to meet him out front later, as they need to have a “talk” about his quirk. That night, once everyone else is passed out, Bakugo starts leading Izuku somewhere. Izuku tries to ask Bakugo questions, but he’s not listening. He’s zoned out pretty hard, remembering that conversation from when they were kids when he told Izuku he’d never get a quirk as cool as his.

 

Damn, why'd Bakugo have to be as smart as

he is angry.

       They wind up at test ground Beta, in front of the building where they had their first test with All Might like 50 episodes ago. Nostalgic… even from the show’s perspective, where this happened like six months ago. He reiterates to Izuku that he kinda hates him and that he makes Bakugo sick. He demands to know how Izuku got into the school with a new quirk that he’d just recently gotten the handle of. He states that he’s pissed at failing the PHLE while Izuku passed, but that got him thinking about Izuku’s quirk. How Izuku told him it was borrowed, and how there’s a villain that can take powers, and how said Villain pointed out All Might’s power was waning, and that Izuku was the only one to seem to get All Might’s “Now it’s your turn,” line when he first said it. Yeah, Bakugo has figured out Izuku was given All Might’s power, and demands that Izuku say it out loud to him. Izuku doesn’t say it out right, but asks “What if it is true?” Bakugo is pissed that Izuku was given the power of someone they both idealized and that he’s improved so much so fast. They’re going to fight, a rematch on the same ground as last time, and we’ll see who is top dog now. And then the episode ends. Damn it.

 

So, the fact that both Bakugo and Todoroki didn’t pass the test sure did shock me the first time through. I was reasonably certain that Todoroki wasn’t going to, he simply screwed up to bad with Yoarashi for that to work, but I totally thought Bakugo would pass. Dude is rude and loud but he’s skilled. I am entertained that he probably didn’t pass because he kept screaming lines like “SHUT UP AND WALK TO THE RELIEF STATION!” whenever a HUC person got lippy with him. I liked that Yoarashi and Todoroki apologized to each other… and that ultimately their relationship hasn’t improved really. Much more realistic to tell someone you hate sorry and go on hating them than to pretend a bonding moment clears all debris. The stuff at Tartarus was vaguely ominous, which I like, and also sets up the next long arc, which I like even more. No spoilers, but we’ll soon start to see other criminal elements acting out.  And Izuku and Bakugo having another match is super exciting. I like how the story chose to once again highlight that Bakugo is wicked smart and insightful when he wants to be, and that he pieced together multiple clues to get to the answer of Izuku’s power. The fact they’re fighting just outside the building where they had their first clash is pure poetry. I’ll enjoy describing it, next time. Have a good night everyone.

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 59

 Bet you never thought a whale would be such a good fighter on land. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, we took a small break from the climactic Provisional License Exam to promote My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. Basically, Izuku and his usual gaggle of teammates (Bakugo, Uraraka, Todoroki, Iida and Tsu) were put into a simulation to see how they’d handle stopping a criminal, played by All Might. Though things get infinitely more complicated when they find the Villain was “killed.” They did some “detective work” (ie, made massive leaps in logic), and determined that he committed suicide to protect one of the civilians, played by Midnight, whom he was involved with. She called the cops to try to get him arrested and change his life, things went belly up, you know the story. They got zero points for the exercise, though, as they didn’t tie up All Might, whom ran off as he’d only been playing dead and escaped. The episode ended with All Might reading an email from his former partner’s daughter, Melissa, inviting him to I Island for an expo and to see her dad. All Might grabbed Izuku and they set off, thus segueing into the movie.  Shameless self-promotion? Yes, but it was a fun ride. But now, let’s get back to the real action, our UA students battling for their Provisional Hero License. (PHL) Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

No one should look this intimidating in Corporate

casual wear.

We open with a flashback to three weeks ago, when the Public Safety Commission was redesigning the PHLE. Basically, the changes to the test were done as a reaction to the retirement of All Might. The higher ups in Law Enforcement and Hero work figured that losing All Might was a big blow to the public image of Heroes, as he was famously charismatic, where as Endeavor is… less so. They determined that while getting a new All Might would be nice, that they’ll focus on honing young heroes to work together seamlessly in chaotic situations. Their shifting hero training from training individuals to training hero teams, it seems. Not a bad plan.

 

We then return to the last few minutes of episode 57 where Gang Orca just busted in and his team are charging towards Izuku and the relief station the students set up. Mera, watching from the observation area, lets us know that Gang Orca is the tenth ranked hero nationally, was part of Endeavor and Best Jeanists team during the Raid the Hideout mission in Kamino ward, and is all around kind of terrifying. He also reveals that the point system for this test is deductive. Students start with 100 points, and get points taken away by HUC and evaluators from the Public Safety Commission. If a student drops below 50 points they are automatically cut from the test. Mera hopes that the students have the patience to make smart decisions here. Oh, and Aizawa points out that Gang Orca’s involvement would make this test hard for actual pro heroes. Not good!

Headbutt by Man-whale is definitely one of the

weirder ways to be knocked out.

 

Just as Gang Orca’s goons start rushing the relief station, Yo Shinto pushes passed Izuku, telling him and the others to grab civilians and evacuate them. He then uses his vibration power to shatter the ground, knocking the goons about. He gets to celebrate for about 2 seconds before Gang Orca rushes him and hits him with a hypersonic blast that knocks him out. Gang Orca’s power is called Orcinus (which is the scientific name for Orcas), and gives him all of the abilities of an Orca that he can use by land or by sea. This translates to super human strength, endurance, supremely fast swimming speed, and the aforementioned hypersonic blast he can release to stun his targets. Neat. It also gives him a massive whale face… which is less so, but you take the good with the bad. Orca tosses Shinto to the side and starts walking toward Izuku but is stunned at the last moment by Todoroki’s ice wave. Tokoyami, Ashido and Ojiro run up to help Izuku. Ojiro explaining their part of Class 1A had been close by searching for civilians and they’d run ahead to help evacuate the aid station.

 

Todoroki, you fool! Orca's hunt in arctic waters!

Yoarashi flies in to help, but he and Todoroki lock eyes and start glaring at each other. The tension could be cut with a knife, but the evaluators don’t seem to notice. Actually, they compliment the strategy as they see it, the majority of heroes-in-training prioritizing pulling out civilians, while they leave two guys who specialize in big Area-of-Effect attacks to hold off the goons. In principle, it’s a good idea… in execution… well, you’ll see. They both attack Gang Orca, only to find that Yoarashi’s wind put out Todoroki’s flames, and his flames cause the air to rise, blunting the force that hit Orca. They start yelling at each other for getting in the way, which really pisses off Gang Orca and his crew. Both kids get hit with a round from the goons Cement cannons, but are still up. Todoroki makes an ice wall to defend them.

 

We get a quick flashback of Yoarashi’s past. Apparently, he was originally a big fan of Endeavor. He’d tried to get an Autograph from him, but was knocked aside, Endeavor telling him he was in the way. He claims that the cold hate he saw in Endeavor’s eyes made him mistrust the hero from then on. We jump forward a bit to when he met Todoroki just before their entrance test, where he saw that same cold hate in his eyes.

 

To which I must say… Focus, you numbskulls!

 

Todoroki tries to act fine, but his metaphorical hatred for his father (visualized as a flame that literally turns into his flaming hair, beard and mask) is growing hotter. They try to attack again at once, and cancel their powers out, deflecting them to either side this time. Todoroki’s fire hurdles toward a downed Shinto, but Izuku leaps in and pulls the kid out of the way at the last moment. Way to go, Jade Rabbit! Er, I mean, Deku. He yells, “Damn it, what are you two doing?” as he does so.

 

Like today hasn't been stressful enough before

saving a rival from a blaze, am I right?

We get another flashback to Yoarashi’s past. He talks about how he likes pretty much everything, even bugs, and dived headlong into hero stuff when he figured out what their whole deal was. He couldn’t understand Endeavor’s cold hate, but tried to not let it bother him. We jump ahead to the practical test for the recommendation kids at UA. Todoroki and Yoarashi were in the same group for their test, a 3km obstacle course race. They run it fast, with Todoroki briefly pulling ahead with his ice slide, but Yoarashi winning by a nose, spurred on by his desire to get to know Todoroki and hopefully be friends with him. Weird priorities, but whatever. He tries to congratulate Todoroki, but does so by bringing up his dad. Todoroki blows him off and tells him “You’re in (his) way.” Should never push the Enji Todoroki button around Shoto. It’s at this exact moment in the present that Todoroki remembers Yoarashi, and is somewhat ashamed that he let his daddy issues block this guy from his mind in its entirety. Before he can contemplate more, Gang Orca rushes them, disabling Yoarashi with a hypersonic blast and choking Todoroki before stun blasting him too.  Both young men are rightly pissed that they did this to themselves.

 

Back over with Izuku, Shinto gets up and vibrates the ground, shattering it once again and knocking the goons around some more. He explains that his power gave him a certain resistance to Gang Orca’s attack, and that he’d been playing possum, hoping to get a shot in when he was distracted.  Obviously, he’s pissed he didn’t get the chance to do so because of Yoarashi and Todoroki’s tiff, but he keeps attacking.

 

Todoroki is pissed that he let this situation happen. He can’t move, but is able to use his powers and hopes Yoarashi is both also pissed, able to use his powers, and able to figure out Todoroki’s plan with just visual cues. He creates a bunch of fire, and Yoarashi generates a wind gust in a loop. In seconds, they have Gang Orca trapped in a flaming vortex. Mentally, Gang Orca points out this tactic won’t make up for their earlier screw ups, but is still impressive in its own right, and he admires their persistence. Todoroki is also able to show off his increased versatility, creating an ice wall on his right to protect him from cement shots. Apparently, he’s still slowed when he switches or tries to use his powers simultaneously, but that’s hardly an issue when you’re on the ground. While they hold Orca in place, Izuku and some of the other students start attacking the goons. Tsu even shows off that her froggy abilities have increased to the point where she can camouflage herself. Neat.

 

In the box, Mera notes that they only need to save three more people to complete the test. Woo!

 

They hold Gang Orca for a few minutes, his men pointing out that he might be in trouble as his Orca skin is susceptible to drying out, but he’s able to keep himself hydrated by dousing his skin in bottled water… kay. He frees himself with another hypersonic blast, but Izuku lunges at him, kicking the man-whale in his armored arm. And that’s when the buzzer goes off, the test completed. Anticlimactic? A bit, but thems the breaks with tests. They rarely end with a full climactic battle. Turns out the last civilians were saved by the three stooges, Bakugo, Kaminari and Kirishima. Hooray.

 

So the Stooges kinda saved the day. Weird.

His sidekicks rejoin Gang Orca, apologizing for not being as effective as they should be. They ask if Gang Orca’s restraints slowed him down too much for him to be effective as well. He says no, the kids just had a few solid strategies to slow him down. He thinks that if the test had gone on, he’d have taken them all down. Which, given he’s #10 nationally, is a fairly safe bet.

 

The kids gather at a large screen. Mera explains about the point deduction system, and that they were being evaluated how well they operated in a crisis scenario. The names will be put up in alphabetical order. We cut to the credits as Izuku nervously looks for his own name.

 

Spoiler, while not everyone passes, Izuku Midoriya isn’t in that group. Hooray!

 

Overall, I loved this episode. The fight with Gang Orca was reasonably well done, showing off a wide variety of powers that were required to just slow the Strongman type hero down. I liked how they revealed the origin behind Yoarashi’s grudge against Todoroki, and that it wasn’t just hate transference from the hate-sink Enji Todoroki. Todoroki had been rude and cold in the beginning, and that attitude came back to bite him in the ass on this one. I also liked that while their powers canceled each other out when they were fighting each other, they have great synergy when they work together. It’s a good balance. Izuku didn’t have much to do in this one, as it was mostly about the Todoroki v. Yoarashi grudge match, but I liked how he was the one that kind of snapped them out of their funk and that he got the final hit on Gang Orca. Sure, the #10 hero probably would have still mopped the floor with him in a one-on-one fight, but seeing him dent the assumedly sturdy metal of Orca’s restraints was impressive. Oh, and the background info about why and how they were changing up the PHLE was neat. The idea that they’re working towards having a smaller number of well trained, synergized heroes to be a stopgap until another All Might hero (cough, Izuku, cough) can step up to fill the void is a solid plan. Yeah, Endeavor is tough but he’s got the people skills of a charging Rhino. I’d say the only thing I was disappointed by was that we didn’t get to see more of the Stooges as they save the last of the HUC actors. Such comedic potential glossed over. But what are you going to do? Next time, we’ll see who passed and an important reveal. See you then, have a goodnight everybody!

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 58

You know, this did build hype for the movie when it was released... but now it just breaks narrative flow. 

Hey everyone, hope you’re surviving this last week until the US 2020 election. Vote the Boil out. But let’s forget about the headaches of the real world for a while and talk about Anime.

 

Last time on My Hero Academia, the second half of the Hero Provisional License exam began in earnest. The game this round? The kids have to return to the field, but this time go through and save injured civilians after a mock Villain attack. To assist in the realism is HUC, the Help Us Company, a group of professional actors that specialize in playing victims. Most of Class 1A work together to save civilians, while Bakugo goes off on his own, but with Kirishima and Kaminari tailing him. Things go reasonably well, aside for Uraraka still dealing with the fact she loves one of her best friends, but then the curveball hits. The Hero and #3 of the “Looks like a Villain” list, Gang Orca comes in posing as a villain, and he and his squad of sidekicks are going to start wreaking havoc. I’d love to say that we’re going to dive right into resolving this plot… but we’ve got some shameless self-promoting to do first. Let’s get to it.  

 

Izuku looks about as pissed at his digression

as I feel!

We open with a nondiegetic Izuku and All Might (The characters currently exist outside their universe) addressing we the Audience. Izuku is wondering why they’re doing this when they were in the middle of a climactic battle for their licenses, but All Might laughs it off. Izuku seems as indignant as I feel, but All Might is confident we’ll enjoy this break in the story, and we should sit back, relax and take in this story of saving people with love!

 

…

 

He’s full of crap, by the way. This is just to promote the My Hero Academia movie, Two Heroes. But let’s try to enjoy it.

 

We open on a title card telling us that this story takes place at the end of July but just before the Training Camp with the Wild Wild Pussycats. All Might joins Cementoss and Midnight in the teachers lounge. The two other teachers show him that the local news is running an All Might retrospective. It’s talking about his college days when he spent time training abroad in the US with his friend and side kick David Shield. They use scenes from the movie in the blurb, again, to promote the movie. All Might get’s an Email, but Aizawa comes in and tells them to get ready for the special class.

 

The gang is all here. What are the odds?

Extremely high.

We get a quick blurb from Aizawa about how Izuku and his classmates are here taking this extracurricular class over summer break. Shockingly, the five other students he’s taking it with are Bakugo, Iida, Todoroki, Uraraka and Tsu. The five most popular minor characters? What are the odds? The other students will cycle in after them in small groups. No, we don’t waste more time seeing the other groups. Aizawa explains that the training class will be harder than regular classes. The simulation that they’ll be doing is to save civilians, capture the villain, and will also be graded on how they assess and handle the situation. He calls in the teachers, revealing that All Might (whom does his usual run in excitedly entrance), Midnight, Cementoss, and Present Mic will be helping.

 

They students are deployed into the mock city that UA has… (oy, how do they pay for these?) The students start in an alley near a jewelry store. Aizawa explains the scenario, that a villain broke into the jewelry store but was interrupted when the police arrived, the villain barricaded himself in the store with several hostages. The police are represented by cardboard cut outs of all things. The students need to assess the situation, protect the civilians, verify the number of and capture the villains. The students begin. Bakugo has the first good idea and “suggests” (meaning orders) Uraraka to float up above and get a visual on the Villain and his hostages. Todoroki calls the jewelry store to distract the criminal as Uraraka does so. She verifies that there’s one hostage taker (played by All Might) and three hostages (played by Cementoss, Midnight and Present Mic). All Might over the phone tells Todoroki that the heroes need to back off and let him slip away or things will get ugly. The group wants to try to formulate a plan, but Bakugo gets fed up with waiting and bum-rushes the jewelry store. He blasts through the front door and demands the Villain surrender. Aizawa muses how his students will handle the test’s curveball. What’s the curveball? The Villain is dead, a massive wound in his chest and a bloody knife laying beside him. Who’s ready for some investigative work?

 

Well, this situation certainly took a turn.

Tsu tickles All Might’s nose with the ends of her hair, confirming he’s actually alive but play acting. Bakugo is pissed this happened and demands to know what Uraraka saw, but her vision was obscured by the smoke. Which just pisses Bakugo off more. They deduce whomever killed the villain is still in the room, so they start interrogating the hostages to see what they know. Cementoss is playing the Jewelry store employee. He says that the Villain broke in, demanded jewels and then tied Cementoss up once he got them. Midnight is playing a customer that walked in on the robbery. She claimed to have not seen much, but confirms both men were already tied up, and got tied up as well. Present Mic is an obnoxious musician that was in the store shopping when the Villain busted in, he was tied up first. Bakugo demands further answers, but nobody has anything. Because the jewels are still in the shop and the witnesses claim not to have heard any conversation between the Villain and anyone else, the students assume the Villain was working alone. Iida comes back in from the back to confirm that all the backdoors and windows are sealed so no one got out that way.

 

The students start trying to puzzle out a strategy on how to figure this out. Tsu asks if they should bring the cops in to handle things now the Villain has been taken out. Bakugo, pissed, wants to torture the info out of them. Everyone objects to this. Bakugo, though, notes Izuku’s face and asks the damned nerd what he’s figured out. Izuku asks why the Villain barricaded himself in the store. The Employee says that the cops pulled up as he was filling the bag, so he didn’t get a chance to run. Claims he hadn’t called them, so a bystander must have. Izuku thinks that Midnight must have called the cops, as she was the only witness to arrive after the robbery started. He starts making some… logical leaps. He claims that Midnight knew the Villain, knew he was going to rob the store, called the cops, and came to confront him. The Villain must have been surprised to see her but tied her up with the others when the cops arrived. He thinks that they were in love and that Midnight had come to try and force him to change his ways… kay.

 

Performance worthy of either an Oscar or Razzie

Not sure which.

Izuku keeps the logical leaps going, and thinks that because the jewels are still there and no one had a motive to kill the Villain as the Heroes arrived, that he must have committed suicide. He assumes the Villain did it to protect Midnight, so that she wouldn’t be implicated in his crimes or something. That’s a Superman style leap in logic. The kids are all tearing up at this story and Midnight’s, in my opinion, hammy performance as the truth coming out. Aizawa calls the simulation and has the teachers step out. As they leave, Cementoss tells Mic to maybe reel in his performance for the next simulation. Dude was very over the top, just saying. Aizawa compliments his students for their deductive work. He applauds Izuku’s rather insane leaps of logic, as he somehow figured out the entire script that they’d prepared… but they over looked something and earned no points. What was it? They didn’t restrain All Might’s body… dude wasn’t dead, just faking it and ran off while they were distracted. Literally, we cut over to him running down the street like the Roadrunner. They’d assumed he was a corpse and didn’t tie him up. Aizawa even points out that All Might tried to help, when Tsu tickled his nose. That wasn’t him breaking character but signaling that he was still alive. Everyone is depressed that they didn’t get any points for the test, and Bakugo is freaking furious. His scream of fury shatters glass.

 

Back at the teacher’s lounge, All Might is finally able to open his email. It’s from Melissa Shield, his former sidekick and tech guru David’s daughter. She’s emailing her Uncle Might to invite him to I Island for the big expo they host there, a surprise for her father. Where I’m sure no horrible acts of villainy will occur.

 

What’s that? I’ve seen the movie already?

 

…

 

Oh right. Yeah, this doesn’t go well.

Set sail to I Island!

 

Anyway, All Might rushes to Izuku’s house and asks Izuku if he wants to come along. He feels like since Izuku is his official successor and he’s gotten some training under his belt, that he wants to start teaching him the tricks of the trade, and maybe mingle a little with top designers. Networking is important in all careers, it seems. Izuku enthusiastically agrees, and All Might tells him to pack his things, as they need to move out ASAP. … Who’s going to tell his mom?  Whatever, the episode ends and presumably picks up right where the movie begins.

 

We then end on the nondiegetic Izuku and All Might again. They pat themselves on the back for this fun little side story, and do their best to self-promote My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. And to promise that next time we’ll get back to the Gang Orca battle. What fun.

 

Okay, so this is the first time that My Hero Academia has had a filler episode that was a major departure from the plot of current arc. Every bit of filler before this point was either extended scenes from the manga (the other kids fights during the Sports Festival etc) or things that could have happened during a time skip, (Tsu’s adventure fighting smugglers on the high seas). This time, we broke entirely from the flow of the story to jump backwards in time and set up the movie. Hm… as far as filler episode’s go, it’s not terrible. The set up of the test was interesting and seeing the kids try to do an investigation was cool. Sure, Izuku makes some MASSIVE leaps in logic that just kind of worked out, but it was fun seeing the process and seeing Midnight ham it up for her audience. My only real complaint is that it did break up the flow of the Gang Orca fight. Like, surely this could have aired after the battle with Gang Orca. This isn’t season finale material by any stretch, but maybe put it between this end of the test and the next big fight, maybe? It just seems like weird placement is all I’m saying. That said, I hope they don’t make any other major story breaks any time soon. I like my anime-only content short, sweet and fitting in the narrative flow. Next time, the heroes in training face off against Gang Orca and his crew. This’ll be worth the wait, I promise. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero