Sunday, March 28, 2021

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 69

The big meeting before the big raid. 


Last time on My Hero Academia, Kirishima had his debut as Red Riot. While on patrol with Amajiki aka Suneater and their hero mentor Fat Gum. They stop some drug peddling gangsters, but one hidden in the crowd shoots Amajiki with a bullet that disables his power. Kirishima chases him down, but the gangster takes an enhancement drug and nearly slices Kirishima to pieces even in his armored form. He reveals his new ultimate move, Red Riot Unbreakable. He defeats the gangster and sees him arrested. A few days later, Izuku is still musing about failing Eri and resolves to save her. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

We open with Izuku meeting with Kirishima, Uraraka and Tsu as the four students head out to their work study. Despite getting on the same train (they usually work in different areas), walking in the same direction and all arriving at the same building, the four of them don’t get that they’re all going to the same place until they see the Big Three. Like, guys, did you not chat at all on the ride over? Oh well, they enter the building and see a bunch of heroes gathered. The only ones I’ll draw attention to are Aizawa, Gran Torino, and a new hero known as Rock Lock. There is way more heroes than those three and the hero work study advisors there, but they’re almost all more or less seat fillers. The kids speak with Aizawa briefly, who reveals he got the call to show up super last minute, before they’re brought into the meeting. And yeah, this is the Shie Hassaikai case.

 

I think I found a worse power than The Blob's
super strength but also massive BMI situation.

The meeting begins with Nighteye’s sidekicks Bubblegirl and Centipeder (yes, his head is a giant centipede) explaining the situation. Basically, they started investigating the Shie Hassaikai after the incident with a gang calling themselves the Reservoir Dogs. Remember, they’re the crew that stole an entire cash register counter, were seemed to be brutally killed, but were then shown to be fine later and were arrested. They also found the abandon building that the League and Hassaikai met up in, you know, because of the big freaking hole. When the League was shown to be involved, they got Gran Torino and Detective Tsukauchi involved. Gran Torino apologizes for not bring Izuku into the loop, but obviously this thing was super hush hush. Kirishima is impressed with Izuku’s connections.

 

This is Rock Lock. Do not judge him too harshly
for being a dick.

The one new hero I mentioned, Rock Lock, asks the obvious question as to why a bunch of high schoolers are here. Fat Gum reveals his students are there to pass on information. Fat Gum explains the situation that happened with them, how Amajiki was shot with something that blocked his powers, and Kirishima was also hit but the bullet bounced off. Aizawa takes over, as the expert on stopping powers. He explains that his vision basically blocks the use of quirk genes, the bullet, in contrast, literally damaged Amajiki’s genes. He’s recovered, but the effect was worrying nonetheless. They recovered the bullets that bounced off Kirishima and they found something incredibly disturbing, analysis shows that the bullets have human blood and cells in them. Those words seem to freak out Izuku and Togeta, but they haven’t completely gotten it yet.

 

Fat Gum mentions that while they haven’t found a direct connection, the enhancement drug that the blade guy used went through a middle man group with ties to Shie Hassaikai. Ryuku pipes in and mentions that one of the giants from the fight that she and her group stopped also used the enhancement drug and had ties to Hassaikai. Some of the other heroes are convinced, as they feel that Nighteye and the others are making vague ties as evidence that Shie Hassaikai is involved. Then they bring up the piece that makes the Shie Hassaikai connection fit more than circumstantial. Kai Chisaki, aka Overhaul, his power allows him to break down or reassemble anything he touches. Izuku and Togeta get the implications of this just as Nighteye explains it. Chisaki has a daughter named Eri, she has no birth certificate or any record of her birth, and children often develop powers similar to their parents. Kirishima doesn’t get it, so an annoyed Rock Lock spells it out, they think that Overhaul is using his daughter to make these bullets.

 

Is... is this a vision? An artistic rendering?
I have no idea.

Nighteye thinks that the bullets aren’t perfected yet, but Shie Hassaikai is handing out samples for different criminal groups to use. Everyone is clearly horrified at the idea of a perfected Quirk destroying bullet. Cat’s and dogs living together, MASS HYSTERIA! Rock Lock makes a fairly dickish comment that this would be easier if Izuku and Togeta had just taken the girl when they had the chance. Nighteye deflects some of the blame on himself, as their superior. Izuku and Togeta are clearly pissed and they jump to their feet, vowing to save Eri. Rock Lock tells them that they need to be more realistic. Nighteye tells the group that due to the importance of stopping these Quirk destroying bullets is so high, their initial strike has to be perfect. He shows a list of Shie Hassaikai bases and wants each of the heroes present to investigate them. Fat Gum wants them to just rush in and take these guys out, but Nighteye preaches caution, knowing that if they botch this mission it might just serve as another rallying point for villains like what happened with Stain.

 

Aizawa asks the obvious question, why Nighteye doesn’t use Foresight to figure out where they go. Nighteye explains that his power is very limited, in that he can only use it once a day, and even when he does the perspective is tight on the person that he uses it on. He describes the vision like looking at a film strip in his mind, one where he views his target in a pretty extreme close up. He seems hesitant to use his ability for any substantial look forward, presumably he’s still gun-shy after seeing All Might’s death. Rock Lock demands that Nighteye use his power on him anyway, but Nighteye refuses. He’ll only use it if he’s certain. After an awkward pause, Ryuku gets things going again.

 

Aizawa gotta make sure the youngest heroes in
Japan don't bite off more than they can chew.

Sometime later, the UA students get together and Izuku and Togeta talk about what happened when they met Eri and Overhaul. Their friends empathize with them. Aizawa joins the students, and tells them to call him Eraser out of school. He admits that he was going to suspend the students’ internships when he heard about this joint taskforce, but has decided against it. Mostly to keep an eye on Izuku and keep him from doing reckless and stupid on his own. He tells Izuku that he still needs to earn back his trust. Izuku agrees to doing what he can to regain Aizawa’s trust.

 

Meanwhile, Gran Torino has a meeting with Nighteye. The younger hero figured out that Torino sent Izuku to him as part of a scheme to get Nighteye and All Might to start talking again. Torino does admit it, as he’s an old man and old men like to meddle. He asks what Nighteye thinks of Izuku, and he does say that Izuku and All Might are similar. They have the same madness in their eyes. I believe he means the burning desire to help people, but I guess that’s a kind of madness.

 

In a post credit scene, we’re shown Eri in her room. She’s joined by one of Overhaul’s subordinates. I can’t find a name for him, so I’ll just call him Mop-Top. Mop-Top tells Eri that he’s going to be the one in charge of her from now on. He complains that she hasn’t touched any of the toy’s he got for her, and scold her, since if she isn’t happy her dad is going to murder him. He leaves her. ON the walk out, he remembers Overhaul telling him that he needs to be someone that Eri can trust and confide in… Overhaul, at least get subordinate with kids to do this. You know, someone that might have some insight into seven-year-olds? Mop-Top decide he’ll buy her a magical girl doll to see if that’ll get her to like him. In her room, Eri is crying, remembering Izuku and actually felt safe when he hugged her. Well, that’s depressing.

 

Okay, so this was mostly an exposition episode. We’re introduced to the concept of the next few episodes, the investigation into and ultimately the raid on the Shie Hassaikai. I enjoyed seeing how their investigation developed pretty much from a random incident into a full-on drug plot that could completely destroy life as they know it. The revelation about how Eri fits into the plot was particularly disturbing. Like, you expect things to be bad for her, but not her father to literally be harvesting her flesh for profit. Like, that’s freaking ghoulish! I especially liked how they drew Izuku and Togeta’s reactions to their realization. They’re clearly mortified that the kid they had the chance to save is now being used as genetic experimentation. Creepy. I ask that you don’t judge Rock Lock too harshly. Yeah, he’s a dick in this, and most off his following episodes, but I promise that he’s got reasons to be hyper critical of kids. The Shie Hassaikai arc is one of the best in this franchise, so I’m excited to get to talk more about it soon. Have a good night, everybody. 


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