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?
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.
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.
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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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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