Sunday, May 30, 2021

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 79

 The most terrifying job in the world, elementary school teacher. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, the heroes got a fairly sizeable win on the board. Gran Torino and detective Tsukauchi found and captured Kurogiri, the League of Villain’s preferred method of transport. But they also discovered that All For One has another incredibly powerful minion named Gigantomachia living in the mountains and it’s really just a matter of time before he causes more damage than just breaking the nearby mountain. Meanwhile, Izuku and his friends finished recovering from their injuries of the day before. Our green haired protagonist began to offer One For All to Togata, as he felt that the senior was more worthy of the power than him, but Togata turned it down flat. He’s more willing to believe that Eri or someone else could get him his power back than the “what if” scenario Izuku presented. And finally, Bakugo and Todoroki headed out to their second day of Provisional License Remedial lesson. Endeavor and All Might are also there, so this is going to get awkward fast. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

They're as opposite as Izuku and Bakugo.

We open with Bakugo and Todoroki meeting up with the Shiketsu students Yoarashi (wind elementalist), Camie (real power unknown), and Seiji (can mold flesh into meatballs). They’re being watched on the cameras by Mr. Mera, the proctor from the Provisional License Exam, and Gang Orca, the #10 hero that looks like a giant whale. Short time later, Todoroki and Yoarashi meet up on their way to the testing field. Yoarashi seems to want to find commonalities between the two of them, but fails miserably. Todoroki likes cold soba, Yoarashi likes hot udon, two polar opposite of the Japanese diet. ... I assume. Bakugo sees them walk by and remarks that he’s, I assume he means Yoarashi, is ridiculous.

 

Uhm... I don't know what kind of eyes those are,
but that's not an Orca eye.

Mera addresses the students, and reveals he’s dealing with insomnia again. Dude really should consider changing careers if it’s disrupting sleep schedule this much, this often. Just saying. Anyway, he explains that they’re adding Camie to their course, upping the total number of students to 11. Endeavor, All Might, and Present Mic get to the stands and look for seats. All Might kind of wants to watch discretely, but Endeavor ruins that plan by yelling at Shoto that he shouldn’t have failed, but since he’s there he needs to blow the other students out of the water. The students are surprised and mildly excited to see All Might there, and surprised and apprehensive at Endeavor being there. Yoarashi remembers and is still clearly upset about that time Endeavor was mean to him when he tried to get an autograph as a child.

 

Whatever, Camie is brought in and she is speaking 100% differently than Toga did when she was playing her. Real Camie speaks like a stereotypical valley girl. Seiji in the stands points out that she’s got a bit of a flighty personality and that’s probably why The League of Villains targeted her specifically. We see a flashback of her just after she woke up from a FOUR. DAY. COMA. and found out that she failed the test she didn’t actually remember taking, and she acted like someone said they saw a lookalike of her at the mall. Weird. The teacher with Seiji points out that shouldn’t be hard on himself for not noticing Camie had been replaced, as no one else completely got what happened until after the reports from the Shie Hassaikai attack. I think actually everyone should feel bad they didn’t realize that Camie was replaced by someone that gave zero shits about pretending to be who she looked like. Just saying. The teacher think that Japan needs a new Symbol of Peace before things get more dangerous.

 

Gang Orca comes in, and he’s in general not impressed with the students. Seiji seems to agree that they aren’t worth much, as he ignores the fact that he failed the first test and thus is technically worse than everyone down there. Again, just saying. Gang Orca specifically targets Bakugo, Todoroki, and Yoarashi, saying that the three of them have a lot of combat potential but that’s about it. Cammie is also being lumped in with them… for some reason. He’s decided that these four need to work on a much more important muscle than their powers, the ability to connect with people. So, they’ll have to work with the most terrible, horrible, and dangerous group of people out there.

 

 

Kindergarteners!

 

That’s not a joke, I really think Kindergartners are scary. Because they are. The kids are all running around and screaming, much to their teacher’s, Ms. Ikoma, stress. The students quickly overwhelm the students. Bakugo does his usual thing and starts screaming at them, with a random boss kid pegging him as “the angry guy” within a few seconds. Todoroki gets called “Five Wieners,” for the little bell things on his uniform. Yoarashi initially ignores them as he glares at Endeavour, vowing to never become like him, before he remembers where he is and gets tackled by the students.

 

Hey, now, pinching butts is uncalled for.

Camie asks why she’s part of this group. Gang Orca says that they didn’t get a good assessment of her abilities, because, you know, she’d been replaced, and because they thought she wouldn’t be good at this test. She tries to prove that she’s good with kids by grabbing a student and hugging him to calm him down, which works, until a little girl pinches her butt and she and her friends agree that they should ignore the floozie that is trying to seduce the boy, Sho. … Why do they know those words? … No answer? Okay, fine.

 

Ms. Ikoma explains that her class is filled with problem children that won’t listen to her. Gang Orca tells her not to worry, as he’s pretty sure his trainees will win the kids over by the end of the day. The students not part of the kindergarten foursome will be doing practical exercises and regular training on the other half of the stadium.

 

In the stands, Present Mic’s face starts twitching, and he finally explodes. Metaphorically. Turns out, the MC in him can’t just sit and watch students doing training without color commentary. He runs over to the judges table, steals a mic and starts presenting said commentary. Got to applaud his passion. Once he’s gone, Endeavor and All Might start chatting. All Might isn’t sure what they have to talk about, as they have pretty much mutual animosity at this point, but Endeavor explains. In the last few months, crime has risen by 3% from the following year. Now, Endeavor has been working to keep up with that rise, but even he has to admit that the nebulous “thing” that All Might built up in his years as Symbol of Peace has started to erode. He asks the simple but complex question, what does it mean to be a symbol?

 

Bakugo really needs to set up an appointment
with counselor Hound Dog. Like, yesterday.

Things are not going well for the students. Case in point, Bakugo somehow got his gauntlets stolen by some of the kindergartners. And Camie is not mixing well with the young girls. It’s eerie how similar this is to spending time with actual small children… Present Mic interviews the teacher, who admits that her kids need sooo much help. Bakugo makes an angry face, as per usual, and gets the other three to follow him to formulate a plan. He realizes Ms. Ikoma failed as a leader for these kids and thus they don’t respect her and run amok. He believes that there is a “boss kid” amongst them, and, his plan is to find this kid, tie him to a pole and have the other kids throw rocks at them. This would prove that they’re more powerful than their boss kid. … Bakugo has issues, man. He leaps at the students and announces “Which ever one of you is the strongest, come fight me!” The kid from before, the obvious boss kid, mouth off some more to Bakugo whom for some reason doesn’t attack him. Ikoma asks if the kids will be okay, and Present Mic tells her not to worry.

 

Yoarashi tries to win the kids with kindness, asking who wants to be heroes, which are most of them, and use the logic that if they want to be heroes, then they shouldn’t cause trouble for their teachers. This argument works for a few minutes. While it does, Seiji mentions that he thinks Yoarashi has a way with kids and he might be able to handle this situation. But then one of the students point out that if that’s true, then Yoarashi probably can’t be a good hero, as he is making the teachers work harder than they should to help him. He freaks out and does that full body bow to ask for forgiveness.

 

Bakugo insists that a little violence is necessary for these kids. Todoroki tells him that he doesn’t think that’ll work, but Bakugo insists that this “was how (he) was raised and (he) turned out awesome!” Damn, Mitsuki Bakugo just got that much scarier.

 

Back in the stands, Endeavour explains that he trusted his legacy and dream of a Todoroki being the number one hero to Shoto. He explained that he made it to the #2 spot on Japan’s hero list by the time he was twenty and because he did that on his own merit, he knew he’d never reach the #1 spot. He knew that if he just wanted the title, he could be nicer and push up his popularity to get the job, but he didn’t really just want the title, he wanted to BE #1. All Might isn’t sure how to explain what the symbol is. He explains that he wanted to be a beacon of hope for the people as well as a warning for the criminal element. He gave up a lot to follow this path, even abandoning people important to him to walk the path. Yes, he thought of Nighteye as he said this. He mentions that a lot of folks can’t stop dwelling on the difference between them. And, at the end of the day, they are very different people and Endeavor should figure out what kind of symbol he wants to be and he should just do that. Endeavor gets distracted for a second by yelling at Shoto to beat everyone.

 

Todoroki walks up to the kids. The little girls make heart eyes at him, but decide to ignore him when Camie agrees that Shoto Todoroki is hot. He tries to “embrace his past” and use that to bond with the kids. He gives his whole backstory like he’s reading a DND character sheet and thus quickly loses the kids interest. He walks back to the others, dejected. Camie suggests that they just show off their powers to show the kids how cool they are. Bakugo is pissed because he says he was about to suggest that. They’re going to go all in with a demonstration of their skills.

 

Oh, I wonder who the boss kid could be.
It's certainly not this kid they keep focusing
on in an young man's suit.

The obvious boss kid and the other students start showing off their powers, proving they aren’t impressed with the young heroes. Ikoma tells them not to hurt anyone, but doesn’t specify whom she refers. Seiji somehow got to the complete opposite side of the area to help Present Mic with the color commentary. He points out the lose-lose situation for the others, as there are two scenarios. They either A. go all out on the students and beat them, but killing the kid’s self-esteem which would be bad, or B. fight the kids with kid gloves, lose, boost their self-esteem too much which would be bad, too. Ikoma explains that her students are actually incredibly powerful and believe that their Quirks are stronger than professional heroes. Oh, and they probably won’t hold back. The episode closes on one of the kids throwing a demon ball thing at the screen. Damn.

 

I gotta give Gang Orca props for coming up with an unusual scenario for these four to work through. If you can win over the hearts and minds of the most unstable of human kind, small children, you can win over anyone. I liked seeing how each of their strategies fail, as they fit each of their personalities so well. Bakugo wants to rely on violence, but no one else does. Yoarashi tries to use intense passion, but that backfires when they poke apart his logic. Todoroki tries to be straightforward, but it’s too boring to keep their attention. Camie is an interesting addition to this group. It’s kind of weird that Horikoshi decided that she’d sound so different than Toga did while mimicking her. Like, Himiko Toga, an apparently skilled copycat just decided to not follow Camie’s speech patterns? It’s just a bit odd. I kind of thought it was hilarious that the five-year-old girls decided to use high school girl tactics on her. It just felt on brand.  I also liked the conversation that All Might and Endeavor have. The fact that Endeavor seems to be trying to grow into his new role does suggest that he isn’t a complete hatesink. Yes, he’s still a bad dad, a shit husband, and a massive jerk, but now that he’s effectively the most important hero in Japan, he’s trying to fit himself into the role. I got to give credit to people who want to be better, even if they were pretty terrible before. Growth is growth, regardless of who it happens to. Next time, the quartet will handle the students, and Izuku will have to deal with a weirder than normal Aoyama. Yeah, I should mention that this is kind of a plot lull, with a couple episodes fitting multiple unrelated stories being joined together. It’s kind of inevitable with longer stories like this. Have a goodnight, everybody. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

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