Did not think we'd take a School of Rock turn, not going to lie.
Last time on My Hero Academia, the
1A kids are given their latest assignment, coming up with something to do for
their School Festival. While Izuku and his fellow Raid team students catch up
on their school assignments, the rest of the class hammered out an idea. They decided
to do a combination rock concert/rave. Jiro is volunteered to be their music
director. She’s initially really against it, but is encouraged by everyone to take
the reins. At the same time, we’re introduced to our latest villain, Gentle
Criminal and his video assistant La Brava. He views himself as a Robin Hood
style vigilante, but he’s honestly more of an extra violent YouTuber. He has
his sights set on UA for his next video. Enough recap, let’s get to it, shall
we?
She's unusually adorable.
We open with Gentle’s original video.
He briefly discusses iconic Hero All Might, along with iconic villains like All
For One and two new historical villains, Destro, the leader of the Meta Liberation
Army, and Oji Harima, a master thief. Remember that middle guy, Destro will be
important again some day. His video really isn’t that important, it’s more
there just to highlight this guy’s obsession with being remembered. What? It’s
pretty damned obvious. La Brava doesn’t seem to notice this, and swoons at her
Gentle’s oration. She falls on her back while fangirling, and Gentle joins her.
She explains that she’d just reuploaded all their videos after their last
account had been deleted. Gentle explains his whole deal, that he’s a “Gentle Criminal”
that is a “dashing” rogue. As I said, he views himself as a sort of Robin Hood.
Example, his holding up of the convenience store from the last episode, J-Store.
The store itself had gotten into hot water by selling expired puddings. They
were able to escape legal punishment, so Gentle took it upon himself to make
them pay. I’m rolling my eyes so hard at him.
Gotta give Gentle props for his taste in views.
La Brava and Gentle go on a stroll.
La Brava complains that their videos, (she says his, but come on, girl, you do
ALL the production, take credit!) aren’t getting many hits. She explains that
Gentle has been making videos like this for the last six years, but is still pretty
much an unknown. I’ll point out that La Brava has only been working with him
for like the last few months or year, if I remember correctly. Her anger is
further exacerbated by the almost immediate success of Stain’s philosophy and
the League of Villains. Gentle doesn’t seem too concerned. He uses his power to
somehow launch them into the air and onto a nearby roof. He muses about how his
video’s comments aren’t particularly great. They can be summed up as “you are
kind of meh, dude,” and one clearly horny request to see La Brava. Again, he’s not
too concerned and says that he’s come up with a plan that only he can do and
that will surpass all expectations. He wants to target the heart of their Hero
Society. UA, I’m talking about UA.
Meanwhile, Izuku and his team are still
catching up with their lessons, so the rest of the class head to their dorm to
plan out their performance. On the walk, Bakugo overhears a pair of General
Studies students talking smack about them. Mostly “How conceited are they?” type
stuff. They aren’t a fan of the idea that 1A is trying to do something “for
them,” as they seem to think it’s all about the hero course kid’s egos. They do
have a solid point that the 1A kids going to a summer camp, where they were
attacked by villains after already being attacked by villains was a dumb idea.
I’ll applaud Bakugo’s restraint at not confronting them immediately. Kid has had
some personal growth.
Breaking out in a drum solo is perhaps the most
awesome "Screw you" Bakugo has ever busted out.
1A start prepping for the festival
next month. Jiro kind of reluctantly takes over coordinating the music act.
First, they need a drummer. She would do it, as the drummer is the backbone of
a band, but her training was more focused on guitar. The problem is further exacerbated
by the fact that she really doesn’t have time to show a complete newbie the ropes
and practice her bass at the same time. Kaminari outs Bakugo as having been
forced to take music classes when he was younger. He initially tells them screw
you guys and tries to walk away, but then Sero says that it’d probably be too
hard for him to do. Bakugo seems to manifest a drum kit in front of him and
plays beautifully as a screw you. Despite everyone’s praise, Bakugo doesn’t
want to do it. He explains what he’d heard from the other students, that this’ll
feel like a slap in the face to the normal students from people they can’t
stand. He then has a turn and announces that, if they’re going to do this, they’re
going to have to “murder everyone at UA with killer music!” I also have to applaud
his passion.
Meanwhile, Gentle Criminal explains
to La Brava his plan. Basically, he thinks that if he can sneak into UA despite
the school’s impressive defenses, he’ll get the recognition that he wants.
They are so lucky that Aoyama loves being a
prop.
Back with the students, Yaoyorozu
reveals that she plays piano, so she gets assigned to the keyboard. Jiro will cover
the bass, so they’ll need guitar players and someone to sing. And, on Ashido’s
insistence, they’ll need special effects to make their song and dance routine
really memorable. She suggests having Kirishima chipping away at an ice block
Todoroki made and using Aoyama’s flash to make it seem like the sky is raining
stardust. She’s REAL into the idea. Shock of shocks, Aoyama is 100% down for
being a disco ball. Izuku and the rest join and are brought up to speed. When
it’s mentioned that they’re looking for a singer, Uraraka says Jiro should do
it. Kirishima, Aoyama and Mineta all try to throw their hat into the lead
singer spot, but they all kind of suck. Hagakure insists Jiro show off her
singing ability. She explains that she’s heard Jiro sing while she gave Hagakure
some guitar lessons and she thinks the other teen hero is really good. She does
sing and blows everyone away. Yes, that isn’t her usual voice actress Trina Nishimura
doing the singing. According to a brief google, her singing voice is provided
by Chrissy Costanza, lead singer of Against the Current. Neat.
I do so enjoy Mineta in pain.
Kaminari wants to be one of the
guitar players. Bakugo tells him not to volunteer unless he’s going to kill it.
Kaminari strums a few cords and is reasonably good. Mineta tries to, too, but
can’t reach the strings. Oh no, so sad. Tokoyami plays a bit, shocking most of
the others. He explains that he has experience but stopped playing when he couldn’t
master the F Cord, which disembodied voice Present Mic explains is a common
problem with new guitarists.
They break up the class thusly. The
Band is Jiro, Kaminari, Bakugo, Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami. The Effects Team is
Koda, Kirishima, Sero and Todoroki. And the Dance Team is Izuku, Uraraka, Iida,
Mineta, Hagakure, Shoji, Tsu, Ashido, Sato, and Ojiro. Aoyama is doing double
duty between the Dance and Effect teams. Go team!
The next day, Izuku and All Might
have a meeting. The former hero compliments Izuku’s class’s idea for the dance
party before they get into their discussion. Izuku reveals to his mentor that
he’s hit 20% use of Full Cowling, but is incredibly frustrated that it wasn’t
enough to stop Overhaul. He was nearly overwhelmed by Overhaul’s long-ranged attacks,
and knows he’d have been done for without Eri. All Might tells him that he
needs his own long-ranged attacks, and has an idea how to do it.
All Might takes them outside. He
tells his apprentice to use 20% of his power. Izuku is hesitant as 20% is a massive
strain on his body, but All Might insists. Izuku powers up, and on All Might’s
order leaps into the air and kicks. His kick causes a wind pressure wave,
slamming into the ground and kicking up dirt. All Might reveals that he’d planned
on explaining this when Izuku hit using One For All at 15% continuously without
thinking, but he obviously needs it now.
And with that kick, our close combat champ now
has a solid mid-ranged attack to master.
He goes over Izuku’s “lessons.”
Lesson one, using 100% of OFA at one part of his body, as he did during the
ball throwing test on his first day. Lesson two, Controlling the percentage on
one body part, which he did when he punched the Noumu without breaking his arm.
Lesson three, Control the percentage on his whole body, which he did when he
developed Full Cowling. Lesson four, inventing and switching to Shoot Style.
Lesson five, raising his output from 5% to 8%. Lesson six, using 20% for a
short amount of time. He gets to lesson seven, but then Izuku interrupts as he
realized the lesson is that All Might didn’t use 100% of his power at all
times. As Izuku demonstrated with his 20% kick, power at 100% all the time
would pretty much destroy the environment around him. So, lesson seven, really,
is to combine lesson two and six, control the percentage on one part of his
body to use 20% for a short time. All Might points out that this lesson won’t
be easy, and asks his student what part of his body does he think he can
control most precisely. Izuku decides that’s his fingers. He uses 20% power
with a finger flick, causing a massive shockwave. I bet Izuku is glad he didn’t
break a finger this time. Izuku plans to start this next phase of his training asap.
We close with Togata and Aizawa at the
school’s entrance with Eri, as they’re bringing her in for an introductory
visit. How sweet.
So, this was kind of a slower episode.
Three big events, the students figuring out their Festival project, Gentle Criminal
plans to sneak into UA during the School Festival, and Izuku figured out the
next level of his training. Their band plan is cute and I liked seeing each of
the kids getting their job/instrument. Like I said, I’ve enjoyed Kyoka Jiro
early on, so seeing her getting screen time and some development is nice. Considering
both her parents are confirmed to be musicians, I wonder why she’s so hesitant about
showing off her talent. Like, Mr. and Mrs. Jiro seemed like they were SUPER
encouraging of their daughter in their short appearance during the aftermath of
the Kamino Ward incident, so I just don’t get where her nerves could come from.
Gentle Criminal, again, is fine but kind of bland. It’s pretty clear that he
has a high opinion of himself and an obsession with being a household name,
which are fine qualities, but the guy himself is kind of meh. We’ll see why
fame or infamy is so important to him, but as it stands right now he just seems
like is head, and probably La Brava’s, is stuck firmly up his own ass. Also, they’re
totally doing it, right? Just saying. Izuku’s new training method is kind of
neat. Izuku’s close combat focus is a pretty standard fighting style for a
Strongman type hero, so a close combat fighter learning some techniques to
handle long ranged opponents is a pretty standard plot point. I’ve heard of
strongmen using marbles or rubble as long ranged projectiles, but Izuku’s shockwave
snap is much less common. It looks like he’ll need a lot of practice with this
one, as it looked like it took a lot of effort to use 20% and flick at the same
time. This ultimately isn’t Izuku’s only long ranged option, but it’s a very
good start for him. As the students begin to ramp up their music performance
practice and Izuku’s new fighting technique, Gentle Criminal and La Brava are
prepping to sneak onto campus. See, even the summary is kind of lame. Just sayin’.
But that’s all I have to say about that. Have a good night, everybody.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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