Red Riot and Fat Gum take on a crazed brawler and his barrier maker.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Suneater took center stage against three of the Eight Bullets of the Shie
Hassaikai. The three members, Setsuno: Quirk Larceny, steals equipped items;
Hojo: Quirk Crystalize, can cover his body in harden crystal; Tabe: Quirk Food,
he can eat and quickly digest anything. The three on one strategy kept Amajiki
on his toes and very nearly overwhelmed him. He was ultimately able to defeat
them, knocking all three out. Way to go, Amajiki, you beautifully socially
anxious SOB. Enough recap, let’s get to it.
Amajiki down!
We return to Amajiki and the Eight
Bullets trio. He explains that he made sure that his tentacles had a highly
concentrated form of octopus neurotoxin. Not enough to kill these guys, but
enough to keep them unconscious. He breaks off his tentacles and uses them as
ropes to restrain them. He tries to follow after his fellow heroes, but passes
out by the door. As the lights go out, he muses that those three must have worn
him out more than he thought.
Back with Izuku and the other
heroes, they’re running hard to catch up with Overhaul. Izuku and Kirishima are
both nervous for Amajiki. Not too surprising, given that Amajiki is constantly
putting himself down, I’d also be nervous for him. Fat Gum tells them that he
has confidence in him, which is all Kirishima needed to change his mind on the
subject. They note that Mimic doesn’t seem to be altering the halls around
them. They believe that this means that his awareness is limited to a specific
area. That he’s less within the whole building, and more in the given hall or
floor, monitoring specific areas and distorting the area he’s in.
As they figure this out, Mimic is
in the room where Amajiki fought the trio and is hyper pissed that they only
stopped one hero. Imagine how much more annoyed he’d be if he realized Amajiki
is a high school senior. On the top floor, Bubble Girl and Centipeder have
gotten their guys restrained and are trying to figure out the situation. She is
rather shocked to find out that, actually, many of the Shie Hassaikai don’t
much care for Overhaul. The goons that they have explain that their boss tried
to keep their organization separate from the hero/villain system. They’re fairly
disgusted with Chisaki going by Overhaul, and by the Eight Bullets and the
other new members of their group that are feverishly loyal to him specifically.
Despite their dislike, these guys are fairly confident that Overhaul will get
away.
Okay, after seeing his Unbreakable form take so much
damage last time, seeing it crack now is legit freaky.
Back with the heroes, Mimic tries
to stop the most advanced group. He tries to knock Eraser Head into another
lower room, but Fat Gum dives into the way and pushes him aside. Fat Gum lands
in a dark room, along with Kirishima whom had also dived to save Eraser Head.
They run into another member of the Eight Bullets, a massive man called Rappa.
Rappa charges them, hits Kirishima’s hardened arms and almost takes him out,
and repeatedly smacks around Fat Gum. Fat Gum tries to take a swing at him, but
an energy barrier leaps up around him. This is thanks to Rappa’s partner,
Tengai. Tengai notes that both Kirishima and Fat Gum are defensive orientated,
while he and Rappa are defensive and offensive. Or, more simply, two shields
vs. a spear and shield. Kirishima’s arm’s are pretty badly damaged, it looks
like the one punch nearly shattered his bones. Fat Gum tries to motivate him by
reminding him that he’s unbreakable.
Gotta love a good Odd Couple.
Rappa is excited to keep fighting.
The dude is a real battle nut, telling Tengai that he shouldn’t interfere. Tengai
tells him that he’s being an idiot and Overhaul paired them for a reason.
Annoyed, Rappa attacks him, but Tengai puts another barrier around himself.
Rappa doesn’t care what the boss wants, he just wants to enjoy a deathmatch.
Tengai lowers the barrier and lets Rappa do his thing. Fat Gum isn’t sure how
this’ll pan out. He thinks it’ll come down to if Rappa’s arms or his body give
out first. Rappa is SUPER excited to hear this “Oh yeah, you get me, Fatso,” I
believe were his exact words. He reminds Tengai to stay out of this and
charges.
Kirishima is still frozen in place
while Fat Gum takes Rappa’s beating. He notes that Rappa is hitting Fat Gum
harder and faster. Kirishima calls himself a useless bastard. Tengai claims
that Kirishima won’t be a problem, thinking that he’s finished. Kirishima tells
himself that nothing changes.
Dark Haired Kirishima is weird to look at.
Kirishima flashes back to middle
school. A black, limp haired Kirishima tries to help a student that is being
bullied into using his Quirk to make counterfeit bills. Kirishima tells them to
back off and goes at them, but one of the bullies throws a heavy rock in his
face, noting that Kirishima’s quirk just makes his skin a little bit harder and
isn’t that impressive. The bullies grab their target and start walking off. Kirishima’s
friends tell him that he should just give up. He goes to try and stop the
bullies again, as he’s trying to live up to the ideals of having an honorable
heart like his hero Crimson Riot talks about. But before he gets there, the
bullies run into Mina Ashido. Yeah, the pink skinned girl that shoots acid.
They’re far enough away that they can’t hear the interaction, but, somehow, she
gets the group of them to do some breakdancing and then everyone walks off,
seemingly as friends. Huh, you go, Mina. Kirishima’s friends note that Ashido’s
got a pretty great power and solid charisma, so she’ll get into UA and be a
hero.
I need to stress this. Mina Ashido
was the BAKUGO of her school, and Kirishima was an IZUKU. That blew my damn
mind when I first saw this.
Later on, Kirishima vows to train
his body and that his spirit will make up for any deficiency in him. His
friends are planning to go to more average schools, but Kirishima’s one and
only choice is UA. As Kirishima walks home, he wonders if he’d have the
confidence to apply to UA if he had a more impressive power. He’s brought out
of his musing by seeing some of his classmates trembling in fear by an
enormous, hulking dude that’s asking for directions to a hero agency. He does
ask, but it’s quite clear that if he doesn’t get an answer soon, he’ll get mad.
He grabs the concrete of the building behind them and cracks it when he asks
again. Kirishima wants to help but can’t move his legs. Before he can do
anything, Ashido rushes in and gives him an address and directions. The hulking
creature thanks her and walks off, saying everything is for his master. Ashido
drops to her knees and starts sobbing. Her friends grab her and exposit that
the address Ashido gave was to the police station.
I like the idea that they've been friends this whole
time, but we didn't see much of it because they're
not POV characters. Yes, I ship them.
Kirishima laments the fact he
froze. In his room, Kirishima mentions that he heard about the Bakugo incident
with the Sludge Villain, but also remembers hearing about Izuku running in to
help. He thinks his spirit isn’t making up for anything. He crosses out UA from
his application list in disgust. He mentions that when his Quirk firsts
manifested, he cut his eye with his fist and then spent the next few weeks
whining and crying about his power. He mentions that he admired Crimson Riot
because they had similar powers and he was still able to be a hero. He gets mad
and throws some of his memorabilia around. He knocks down one of those hologram
projector things, and it plays an interview Crimson Riot had. In the interview,
the interviewer asks if he’s afraid when he rushes in to save people. Crimson
Riot says of course he is and anyone who isn’t is an idiot. He goes on to tell
a story about how when he first got started as a hero, someone who died. He
couldn’t have done anything, he knows that, but the look of terror on this
person’s face stuck with him, and pushes him to do better. He’s called the
chivalrous hero, and to him, chivalry is to have a strong spirit, living a life
with not regrets. Hearing this make Kirishima to vow to never freeze up again.
Over the next few months, he
apologizes to the girls for not helping, trains constantly and pushes his body
to the limit, ends up taking the UA entrance exam, and passed. On the first
day, presumably while Izuku was nervously walking up to the UA campus,
Kirishima meets up with Ashido again. She’s rather shocked to see that he’s dyed
his hair and spiked it up with gel. She’s impressed with his new look. She
realized that the villain encounter messed him with him more than anyone
thought. Because of this, she says she’ll keep his makeover a secret for now,
but one day she’ll tell everyone.
Fat Gum gets the knock out. That's 5 Bullets down,
1 Occupied, and 2 to go.
Back in the present, Fat Gum is
still standing, much to Rappa and his own surprise. Fat Gum mentally lets us
know that this isn’t as bleak a situation as we thought. Turns out, his body is
able to absorb kinetic force as well as physical objects. Doing so takes energy
and burns his fat, so he has been taking more damage with each hit, but this
has let him forge a spear to break through the Eight Bullet’s defenses. Rappa
takes a break, and Fat Gum tries to move, but the damage slowed him down. Rappa
goes to make another hit, but Kirishima dives into the way, arms up and blocks.
He takes multiple hits from Rappa, much to everyone’s shock. He vows to never
give up, if he cracks, he’ll harden again, and he’ll save people even if it
costs him his life. Both he and Rappa swing at each other and almost have their
fists collide, but Tengai throws up a barrier again. Rappa is clearly pissed
but Tengai doesn’t apologize. He claims that nothing can go through his
defenses, and Kirishima’s attack was in vain. Fat Gum catches his student,
saying it wasn’t in vain. Rappa wants Tengai to drop the barrier, but he’s
confident in his barrier. Fat Gum tells them that everyone made a mistake, and
that was underestimating Red Riot and his Chivalrous spirit. Fat Gum’s punch
destroyed the barrier and knocks both of them back and into the wall. Fat Gum
claims victory for the pair.
Alright, I love this episode. I’ve
said before that Kirishima is my favorite non-main character in this series, so
seeing him get more screen time is phenomenal. I gotta say, I was shocked when
I realized that when you do the math, Kirishima has been the Kirishima we know
for like six months. That blows my mind. It was interesting to see the origin
of his inferiority complex. And, when we see that where he started off with,
that feeling that his Quirk wasn’t impressive does seem legit. Part of me kind
of wishes we could get the My Hero Academia spin off of his journey, just
saying. I also liked the background with Mina Ashido. She’s a fun side
character and knowing that she’s kind of always been a chipper girl is great.
Not going to lie, after this episode, I ship them. Not apologizing. I also
really loved Rappa. The fact he’s just this battle crazed brawler that just
wants a good fight is fun. When Fat Gum promised him a good fight, it was like
seeing a kid be told they’re getting a PS5. Super jazzed. His dialogue with
Tengai is also great. I like the “calm guy, angry guy” dynamic they have. It’s
pretty clear that Tengai was partnered with Rappa to make sure that he stayed
on task. Fat Gum mostly had to stand there and take damage, which isn’t that
fun, but hearing how he basically used Rappa to charge him up with enough power
to take them down. Just fun writing. Well, this has been a fun string of
episodes. But, I guess it’s time to talk about another big show… April is the
month of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. I’m looking forward to it!
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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