A monster takes it's true form.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Mirio Togata caught up to Overhaul, Kurono, and Eri. He’s briefly held up by
two more of the Eight Bullets, Nemoto (forces people to tell the truth) and
Sakaki (messes with equilibrium) but he quickly dispatches them and faces off against
Overhaul. He’s able to get Eri away from the two, but isn’t able to get away
because Overhaul cuts off the exit and won’t give him the time to phase away
with Eri. He’s able to hold them off for a while, but can’t put any of them
down since he has to also protect Eri. Overhaul is super okay with hurting her
because, one, even if she dies, he can restore her if he gets to her in time,
and two, he’s actually not attached to her at all because she’s not his actual
daughter. Finally, Nemoto gets one of the power-destroying bullets and shoots
at Eri. Togata takes the hit rather than let it hit Eri. He loses his powers,
but keeps fighting. He gets beaten half to hell, but Togeta keeps standing up.
It looks like he’s about to die, but then Izuku shatters through the wall to
save him. Enough recap, let’s get to it.
Overhaul's preference for long ranged shockwaves
really does highlight how much he doesn't like
being touched.
We open with the post credit scene
from last episode, with Togata making what might be his last stand against Overhaul.
At the last second, Izuku bursts through the wall to save him.
We jump back a few minutes to when
Izuku and the others were in a separate hallway. They have Mimic locked down,
but the halls are so twisted and distorted they don’t know for sure where to
go. Nighteye believes Eri’s room is in a specific direction, so they try to go
that way. The cops want Mimic to fix the halls, but they realize that he’s
coming down from his enhancement drug and is back to just being able to manipulate
a fridge in terms of mass. Plus, he seems to be having a nervous breakdown
after hearing the Leaguers mock him while he was crashing. He just keeps
screaming that he’ll kill them all. The cops think that Twice and Toga are the
only ones here, which is at least not terrible news. Izuku remembers that Aizawa
told him he’d be benched if the League showed up, but before they could discuss
that, Rock Lock tells them to get moving. The heroes need to go after Overhaul
and Eri, and the cops should try to track down the Leaguers. With his injury,
he offers to look after Mimic. He gives them a speech about working too hard to
give up now, and sends them on their way. Once alone with Mimic, we learn why
Rock Lock has been a bit of a dick to the students. Turns out, he and his wife
just had a baby and his paternal instincts were in overdrive. He didn’t want
the students involved because he kept thinking about his own son and how
worried he’d be if these kids got hurt. Does it excuse his behaviour? No, but
it definitely informs it. Izuku told him that he’d definitely save Eri before running
off, and he’s actually pretty confident that he will.
Yeah, this explains a lot of Rock Lock's actions.
Twice and Toga watch them go from a
higher level. The decide to hang back and watch, hoping that the heroes and
Overhaul will bloody each other and they’ll be able to take advantage. I think.
Toga might just be into it because she’s got an unhealthy fixation on Izuku and
on seeing him bleed.
We then get back to Izuku leaping
through the wall to save Togata. He rushes forward the moment he’s inside and
punches the smug git before he can do more than block. He’s thrown backward
from the blow. Aizawa disables his powers as Nighteye runs over to Togata and
Eri, he protected her the whole time. Nighteye grabs them both, hugging them to
him as he tells Togata that he was amazing.
Izuku and Aizawa rush Overhaul, the
two working in sync pretty well. Overhaul, knowing he’s outclassed right now, screams
that it’s time for Kurono to get up. A long blade shoots out of Kurono’s hood,
it slices Aizawa but he’s able to push Izuku out of the way in time. As Kurono
gets up, he explains that anyone sliced by his “long hand” hair is slowed down
immensely. Overhaul reveals to us, the reader, that he’d healed Kurono’s head
injury earlier when Togata threw him at Overhaul, and is annoyed it took him so
long to get back up. Aizawa is unable to move at any speed and can’t stop
himself from blinking. His powers returned, Overhaul makes a spike wall that knocks
everyone back. I should note that at this point, he’s broken out in hives all over
his arms and forehead. He draws Nemoto over to him, and says that he knows
Nemoto will “give his life” for the cause. He touches Nemoto and the two are
engulfed in a blinking light.
Okay, kid gloves are coming off.
As Overhaul transforms, he gives
credit where it is due and admits that Lemillion (Togata) was stronger than him
and that he respects his perseverance. But now he’s going to kill them all.
When the light dims, Overhaul has completely reworked his body, using his power
to break down himself and Nemoto, and recombining them into a four-armed monstrosity.
Well, that’s not good.
Meanwhile, Aizawa and Kurono were
knocked into a room farther underground. Kurono explains that he’d sliced
Aizawa again with more of his hair to keep him from moving. His power is called
Chronostasis, and as stated above, he uses his clock hand looking hair to slice
people and slow their moments. He’s goes on to tell Aizawa that they’d
researched his power while working on the Quirk destroying bullets and plan to
use him to further their research. He tells Aizawa it’s over, using Eri as an
example. Turns out, while she isn’t Overhaul’s daughter, she is the
granddaughter of their boss. Overhaul respects the crap out of his boss, so if
he’s willing to use the bosses granddaughter in ghoulish experiments, he’ll be
willing to do anything to win.
And he regenerates, crap.
Izuku is freaked out by Overhaul’s transformation
for just a second, but then gets to assessing. He notes that he can only see
Nighteye, Togata and Eri, but doesn’t have time to be concerned with Aizawa’s
absence. Overhaul takes a moment to confirm that he’s a bit of a germaphobe, so
often lashes out when he’s dirtied by the filth of others, but it’s never
gotten this bad before. He tells them that their meddling cost Togata his Quirk.
That if they’d backed down sooner, he’d have let Togata keep his pathetic
dreams. He grabs the cases of bullets and tries to rush Nighteye’s group, but
Izuku hurls some debris at him to distract.
Overhaul shifts his attention back
to Izuku. He notes that while the kid hits like a cannonball, he’s only got
power and speed on his side. Which of course is a problem. When you have to
close range fighter, the one that can disintegrate things with a touch has a
significant advantage. Nighteye lobs some of his heavy seals at Overhaul,
pushing him back from Izuku. He tells Izuku to leave this fight to him and to
look after the others. When pressed by Nighteye, Overhaul admits Kurono has Eraser
Head (Aizawa) and they plan to use him to perfect the bullets. Nighteye notes that
Overhaul is obsessed with destroying Quirks, but the moment his own powers were
threatened, he did everything to remove Aizawa from the gameboard. He’s a
hypocrite, and, Nighteye asks, how afraid of Togata must he have been to use
one of his precious Quirk destroying bullets to stop Togata. During this exchange,
Nighteye destroys one of Overhaul’s hands, but he regenerates in a few seconds.
As they brawl, Nighteye remembers
telling Togata about using his skills to predict movements, something he was
already a master of, but Nighteye takes it a step further, using Foresight on
Overhaul. As he dodges around Overhaul’s claws, he remembers his last
conversation with All Might when he told his friend, mentor and partner that he’ll
die if he keeps going down this path. Sometime later, he speaks with Gran
Torino. He explains to the more senior hero that the reason he stopped using
his power to view things farther into the future than a few hours or days is
because nothing he does changes it. If he intervenes with the flow of his visions,
they’ll always seem to self-correct and the end result happens anyway. He stops
someone being hit by a car one day, but then the next day they’re hit by a car
anyway, sort of thing. He’s scared that maybe something about his power locks
people into the future that he sees, and worries that seeing All Might die
forced him into that track of reality. He vowed to never look far into someone’s
future ever again.
In the present, he’s hoping that
one second glances into the future will help him stay ahead of Overhaul. It
works, his film strip visions of the future (super cool visual by the way) letting
him stay one step ahead until he sees something that shocks him. He freezes and
we hear a stabbing sound.
Nighteye didn't see that one coming...
Or... maybe... he did but couldn't dodge?
Izuku tries to get the others through
the wall and away. Togata is clearly barely able to stand, but he’s trying to
keep going for Eri’s sake. She gets some of his blood on her hand and she wants
them to just leave her. She remembers Overhaul telling her that she’s cursed
and that everyone is going to die because of her. Izuku sees Nighteye taking
spikes through his gut and arm. As he’s impaled, he begs his power to show him
a future, any future where he and Izuku can get the others out safely… the strip
ends as he passes out.
Izuku leaps at Overhaul, striking
the villain with greater force than before. He mentally does the math and thinks
he’s now able to use 20% of OFA, for short burst anyway. Izuku leaps up into
the air, bounces off the ceiling and drops down to give Overhaul a 20% Manchester
SMASH! Unfortunately, Overhaul dodges. He says Izuku is fast but his movements
are easier to track than the other two. Izuku takes spike through his legs.
Togata tries to lead Eri to safety,
but the blood loss, exhaustion and seeing his mentor skewered clearly has him
on his last legs. He tells Eri to run and hide and that a hero would be along
to save her. They’ve all worked so hard to save her, she just needs to last a
little while longer.
Izuku won't let something simple like mere
puncture wounds to slow him down.
Izuku is hurt but alive. There was
a third, bigger spike that was going to impale him but he was able to smash it
to pieces. Making the two smaller spears in his leg a vast improvement. Izuku
isn’t backing down, though. Getting sick of this, Overhaul manifests Nemoto’s
mouth in the palm of his hand and uses his subordinates’ power to further
verbally abuse Eri and make her say she’d rather go with him than see anyone
else hurt. She begs Overhaul to just heal her would be rescuers and then they’ll
go. Overhaul uses the emotionally abused, heartbroken and scared child’s submissive
acceptance of her personal hell as proof they aren’t really heroes, that their “help”
is cruel. Oh, and we get a miniflash back from her where we learn that she was
routinely experimented on until her body gave out, only for Overhaul to reset
her to normal so they can keep going. Yep, I could see that breaking a child’s
spirit. Nighteye, meanwhile, came to and is having visions of the future. He is
barely hanging on and thinks the whole situation is useless. According to his
sight, he and Izuku will die, and Overhaul will get away with Eri. It’s all
useless. Izuku, though, won’t give up. He pulls out the spikes, shattering
them, vowing to never let Eri down again. He prepares for a final charge, just
as the ceiling collapses and Ryukyu, (been spelling it wrong) Tsu and Uraraka come
tumbling down with the big brute Katsukame. Guess hope isn’t lost yet.
Overall, this was a solid Izuku
episode. I thought getting to see him get a slight power boost and it still not
being enough to handle Overhaul in his enhanced form was a good character
moment. He’s reaching a point where his issue isn’t power anymore, but skill
and versatility. But more on that later. Overhaul going full psycho was a bit
surprising but an interesting development. I think it was interesting that Nemoto
claimed to be the closest to their boss, but it seems clear that Kurono get’s
him more. He seems to understand that Overhaul is a bit unstable and that that
someone willing to sacrifice the granddaughter of someone they respect is a
scary attitude to have. Probably why he gets to live while Kurono is being used
as a free powerup. The fact that Overhaul can use both of their abilities plus
regenerate himself in this new form is god damned terrifying. I liked hearing
Nighteye’s assessment of Overhaul, to hear that bit about how terrified
Overhaul must have been to use up one of his few bullets to stop him was satisfying.
Not enough to make up for taking Togata’s power, but satisfying nonetheless. It
was heartbreaking to see Nighteye not only receive such grievous wounds but to
hear him lose hope like he does, especially after he basically begs the
universe and his Quirk to show him a happy ending. But, then to see Izuku’s stubborn
faith rewarded by a wildcard like Izuku’s love in- I mean classmates and their
mentor arriving all the sweeter. That and the line from Izuku about smashing
fate even if it was set in stone is metal as hell. Anyway, yeah, it was a good
episode. Next time, we get to see Izuku go all out. See you there.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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