I really can't think of a situation more bizarre than being gut punched by a buff Tin-Tin.
Hey everybody, I hope you’re having
a nice Thanksgiving. Well, as nice as you can have in the middle of a global
pandemic. Let’s see if I can’t brighten this last week of November with some
ramblings on a popular Anime. Let’s get to it.
Last time on My Hero Academia, we
got a little background on one of the most popular League of Villains members,
Twice. He’s got standard cloning background story, he replicated himself and
lived as a king for a little bit before his clones got fed up and tried to kill
him. Watching himself kill himself about two dozen times obviously messed him
up, and is the reason why he doesn’t clone himself anymore. He went for a walk
on the town, notes how things are starting to crack with All Might gone, and spots
a group of weirdos in Plague Doctor masks doing some murders and decides to try
and recruit them for the League. Back at UA, Izuku suffered through three days
of house arrest, still don’t get why they kept him from school, and then
rejoined his class just as they’re introduced to the concept of Hero Work
Studies. Rather than go into it himself, Aizawa brought in the three top seniors
to discuss the program. These three, colloquially called the Big Three, consisting
of a dower looking dark haired guy, a peppy looking bluenette I believe they’re
called (shades of blue hair is weirdly prevalent in anime) girl, and enormous
blonde guy that Izuku met briefly on the way to throwing out garbage. The plot
thickens! Let’s get to it, shall we?
A stranger bunch I've yet to see...
Okay, not true, the Pussycats are stanger
but this is a close second.
We’re briefly reintroduced to the Big
Three. The kids do the thing where they mutter about these three like they’ve
been important this whole time. Imagine talking about the reputation of fellow
classmates while they’re standing in front of you. Preposterous. Izuku notes that
he does remember the big guy, Mirio Togeta, from the Sports Festival last year.
He notes that Togeta didn’t do so hot, partially because his clothes kept
falling off. How odd. Izuku also mentions that the other two didn’t do so hot
either, and assumes they somehow improved immensely in the last year.
They begin introductions. The first
kid to speak is Tamaki Amajiki, the dark haired, elven eared young man that was
slouching since he walked in. He tries to talk, but the dude has a fear of public
speaking, more general anxiety issues, or both. He tired to picture everyone
with Potato heads to get through the speech, but it doesn’t help. Apparently seeing
their clothes ruins his suspension of disbelief. I’m sure if you ask nicely,
Amajiki, Hagakure would let you practice with her. Regardless, he gets discouraged,
turns his back on the crowd and says he wants to go home. The girl tries to
encourage him, but it doesn’t work. She introduces herself as Nejire Hado, and
starts to talk about the Work Study program more, but gets distracted by asking
weirdly probing questions to the 1A students. Like, why Shoji wears a mask,
where Todoroki got his scar, and if Ashido’s horns will grow back if they broke
off. Aizawa starts getting pissed at the unprofessionalism, so Togeta steps up and
tries to pull them in with a call-and-response bit, but because he doesn’t do the
“Plus Ultra” thing, it just confuses everyone. Not sure what else to do, Togeta
challenges the entire class to a fight… because. Okay, it’s to show how much a
Work Study can improve one’s combat skills, but he’s really vague about it.
Anyone else get the sense she's introduced him
a lot?
The class moves to one of the
training halls. Amajiki, while clearly unsurprised, scolds his friend for going
this route, and Hado advices he be careful to not hurt anyone, while playing
with Ashido’s horns. Wouldn’t you know it, Ashido isn’t super thrilled to be
poked like that. The class is overall pretty confident, as they’ve battled
villains several times, but Togeta is pretty pumped regardless. Kirishima tries
to lead off, but Izuku calls dibs, and steps to the head of the group. Aizawa
notes from the sideline that Togeta is incredibly fast. It should be noted that
Todoroki is abstaining from the fight, as he doesn’t have a PHL. Izuku does a quick
stretch before getting into his charging stance. The fight is called and Izuku
leads the charge. And Togeta partially loses his pants, distracting a fair chunk
of the charging students. They focus on Jiro’s reaction for some reason, possibly
because they think the punk looking girl freaking out at seeing a naked man is
somehow funnier than anyone else’s. No idea. Izuku isn’t distracted, though,
and he kicks at Togeta’s face. His foot passes through the big dude’s face, followed
by the rest of him. He turns and compliment’s Izuku, and almost takes several
attacks to his back, but they just pass through him, kicking up dust. Somehow,
Togeta vanishes between when the dust kicks up and clears. He seems to just
materialize behind Jiro, naked again, and knocks her out with blow to the
stomach. He says he’s going to take out the ranged guys first. Some of the kids
assume his Quirk must be pretty kick ass to move like that, but Amajiki notes
that they should envy his skills, not his powers. He takes out all the ranged
guys with a single blow each.
What would be weirder, if this made Izuku's foot
tingle, or that it didn't feel like anything?
After his first assault, it’s down
to Izuku, Iida, Kirishima, Uraraka, Kota (talks to animals), Hagakure (invisible),
Sato (super strength from eating sugar), and Ojiro (super big tail). Bet they’re
missing Bakugo and Todoroki right about now… Amajiki keeps up with internal
color commentary, thinking that if the students think he’s all power, then they’re
pretty amateurish with their analytical skills. Thankfully, Izuku “Analytical”
Midoriya is on the field. He is sure that despite Togeta’s speed and seemingly impermeability,
they should be able to hit him just before he strikes. Working on the logic anything
capable of dishing out damage has to be solid enough to receive some too. Togeta
dives into the ground again. Izuku realizes how Togeta fights, turns and
attacks as the big blonde appears behind him. Togeta is impressed with Izuku’s
intelligence at predicting his movements… but I feel like it’s more pattern
recognition than strictly intelligence. I mean, when you dive into the ground,
appear behind someone and strike ten different people in the stomach, odds are
good I can guess what you’ll try when attacking me. Just sayin’. Izuku tries to
hit him, but Togeta is able to fake Izuku out and strike him hard in the side. Because
Togeta is super helpful, he does compliment Izuku’s attempt to hit him, but
explains that his entire fighting style is basically a counter-counter style.
Gonna just cross off Yoked Tin-Tin from the list of
things I never thought I'd see...
After Izuku is taken out, Togeta
finished off last of the class in a few minutes. After the group recovers, they
complain about their sore stomachs and how strong Togeta’s powers are. Between
Hado and Togeta, we learn the specifics of his powers. His Quirk is called
Permeation, and it allows him to phase through objects. What the students had
thought was his warping was actually a weird side effect of his Quirk.
Basically, he can drop through the ground, and if he turns off his Quirk while
under, he’ll be forced back upward at high speed. Ashido whines that it’s like
a buggy video game, to which Togeta agrees. He goes on to explain that his Quirk
isn’t all that powerful in principle. When he switches on his Quirk, everything
passes through him. He can’t breathe, because the air passes through his lungs.
He can’t see or hear, because visual and auditory stimuli will just pass
through him. Hell, if he didn’t switch his power back off, he could fall,
blind, deaf, and suffocating, to the center of the earth. Even passing through
a wall requires a multi-step process. 1. Turn his power on so it affects all
but one leg. 2. Put his leg through hand solidify it. 3. Pull the majority of
his body through. 4. Turn his power of for his remaining leg. And 5. Pull the
rest of his leg through. He goes on to explain that the Work Study program is
what helped him push his powers to the limit and up his speed at using his power.
As a Work Study is more like working as a full-time sidekick than during their
internship week. He “turned the training into power.” This freaks the kids out,
but motivates them as well. As Todoroki watches, he resolves to get his PHL as
quickly as possible, or believes he’ll be left behind.
The Big Three walk off. On the
walk, Hado compliments Togeta for not seriously hurting anyone. Apparently,
that’s impressive for him, even if he ended up streaking for most of the fight.
She asks if anyone surprised him, and, shock of shocks, he’s mentions young
Midoriya. He thinks that his Hero, Sir Nighteye, would love to meet him.
Back at the Dorm, Bakugo roars at
the others to give him their garbage, and the girls of 1A talk about being
excited for work studies, but will have to wait until Aizawa tells them that
they got approval for work studies. Izuku is doing some exercises in his room,
and remembers Aizawa explaining that the staff is still figuring out if first
years will actually get to participate in a work study or not. Izuku decides to
be proactive and calls up Grand Torino. Unfortunately, his internship mentor is
working on something with the police and can’t take a student. He wonders why a
“failure” like Izuku is being so proactive. Izuku remembers fighting and losing
to Bakugo, and says that he needs to step up his game and be a hero. Torino
tells him to talk to All Might, and suggests All Might just might introduce him
to his former sidekick, Sir Nighteye.
We then cut over to the base of said
former sidekick, Sir Nighteye. He’s a tall, lanky man in a white suit. One of his
sidekicks comes into his office and informs him that Overhaul of the Shie Hassaikai
has been seen moving with Twice of the League of Villains.
It's quite the group when the dude in the Plague
Doctor mask has one of the least bizarre fashion
senses.
We then cut again over to Twice
leading this Overhaul to one of the League of Villain’s hideouts. Shock of shocks,
the dude who wears a Plague Doctor mask is disgusted by the unhygienic area,
but is introduced to Shigaraki. Oh, this can’t be good. Future Narrator Izuku
pops in to muse that while he and his class have taken the next big step into
being pro-heroes, the villains had taken their next big step as well. Cut to
credits, and that’s the season, Lads, Lasses, individuals, and all that jazz.
So… while I don’t hate this episode,
I’d say that this has been the weakest overall finale we’ve had thus far.
Season one ended with Izuku and Class 1A facing off against Shigaraki and his
Noumu, and season two ended with best frenemies Izuku and Bakugo being forced
to work together for the first time and best their idol All Might. Ending on hinting
on the next big villain, and a fairly one-sided fight against an entirely new
character is… less than spectacular. That said, it wasn’t bad. Togeta, Hado and
Amajiki are fun additions to the cast. Togeta is a fun compassionate brawler,
Hado has great energy even if she doesn’t completely respect people personal
space, and Amajiki’s comically intense anxiety is always good for a laugh. And,
even though the fight wasn’t one of my personal favorites, it was a nice illustration
of the skill difference between a senior UA student and a freshman. And the
fact he beat all of them with an ability that isn’t usually billed as a combat power
makes it all the more impressive. I just wish the fight wasn’t so lopsided that
it was basically Togeta one shotting everyone. Just saying. And I should note
that the problem isn’t the shows fault, persay, it’s just that the story itself
didn’t really have a good breaking point after reaching the Provisional License
Exam. That naturally flowed into Izuku and Bakugo’s show down, and that into
setting up the Work Study’s and the intro to the new villain of the arc. They could
have either ended before the exam, which would have left this season with
significantly fewer episodes than last season, stop where they did, or bloat
the season with the next arc. The Hassaikai arc, by the way, is currently the longest
arc, at 40 chapters and 17 episodes. Though it will be dethroned by the time
you read this by the Paranormal Liberation War Arc, currently ongoing. So, they
went with the most attractive option. No shame there. While we’ve only seen
enough of Overhaul to know he’s a snazzy dressing germaphobe with a possibly
horrific power, but I can promise you he’s one of the most satisfying villains
to hate in the whole series… at least thus far. But we’ll get more into that once
we dive into the next season. Which we’ll start to cover for the other entries
this month, then we’ll switch back to X-Men: Evolution for December. Have a
good night everybody!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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