Izuku faces off against the combined power of Gentle Criminal's passion and La Brava's love.
Last time on My Hero Academia, a
simple jaunt to the hardware store really complicated Izuku’s day. He accidentally
happened to cross paths with Gentle Criminal and La Brava as the dastardly duo were
making their way to UA High to sneak in… for bragging rights, essentially.
Izuku, knowing that the School Festival and Eri’s day would be ruined if it got
shut down because of this really, really stupid plan, faced off against Gentle.
The villain’s quirk, elasticity, made fighting him a challenge as he was able
to for all intense and purposes fly at high speeds, bouncing off membranes of
elastic air he created, and warp the battle field, turning any object into a bouncy
form of itself. He ends up pinning Izuku under a steel beam and tries to
escape. Izuku is able to get a hand free and almost hit’s Gentle with an Air
Bullet curtsy of his new support item, a pair of gloves from Mei Hatsume. While
he missed, he knocked Gentle off course and forced him to the ground. Enough
recap, let’s get to it, shall we?
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| Take a sing at her, Kendo, you know you'll enjoy it. Try Fight-fighting. |
The episode opens pretty much as I
described above, doing a thirty second recap of the encounter’s highlights.
After that, we cut over to UA as the kids make last minute preparations. Monoma,
Tetsutetsu and Awase find Kendo in her dress for the beauty pageant. Monoma
laughs hysterically at this for some reason. The tomboy being able to pull off
a pretty dress is the height of comedy for him, I guess? He explains that he
signed her up for the pageant as part of an elaborate, convoluted scheme to
make 1B look better than 1A, and to get a break from being hit constantly when
he deserves it. He thinks Kendo is a shoo-in. Hado disagrees, not in like a
bitchy way, but in a “the contest hasn’t even started yet, it’s anyone’s game!”
way. Both girls agree it’ll be fun, but then Kenranzaki, the support course
student that Hado always loses to, whom has eyelashes that are at least a foot
and a half off her face, comes in and acts all haughty. The three girls have a staring
contest, and a clearly uncomfortable Awase asks if this is a girl fight. Yes,
and it’s best not to draw attention to yourself until it’s over, boyo. Togata,
meanwhile, is driving up in a cab with Eri. He has an itinerary planned for
things to do before Izuku’s class performance and Eri is clearly excited to see
all of it, but that performance most of all. In the support course, Powerloader
advices Hatsume to take some time to clear herself off before the show starts,
with her just cackling and saying all the grease is just proof of her hard
work. Finally, we’re shown All Might and Midnight in the teachers lounge,
looking over Izuku’s form to get off campus for a bit. Both seem worried that
he left and that he isn’t back yet. Oh, guys, you have no idea.
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| Izuku. Show Gentle a picture of this girl. He'd give up immediately. |
We get back to Izuku’s fight. He
was able to force Gentle and La Brava off course, forcing them to the ground.
La Brava notes that she sees a bit of Gentle in Izuku, that he’s as unlikely to
give up as Gentle will. She thinks that they should use her quirk, but Gentle
advises to keep it in reserve until they need an escape. Izuku remembers what
Gentle said about not being able to turn his power off, that the effects just dissipate
as time goes on. Knowing that, he grabs onto the still bouncy crane and flings
himself after them. He does his best to track Gentle’s movements in the air, so
as to pinpoint where his air membranes will approximately be. He aims at Gentle
as the pair land. Gentle is able to throw up another membrane to protect them.
Izuku bounces off one of the membranes Gentle used to land and swings around
them. He lines up a shot, but Gentle creates another barrier. Either expecting
this or having honed his reflexes, Izuku is able to turn, aim, and fire, bouncing
his shot off the membrane he bounced off earlier and hitting Gentle in the stomach.
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| So, I guess the Izuku's got pretty high spacial intelligence. |
Having stunned Gentle, Izuku is
able to tackle both him and La Brava to the ground. He’s able to hold their
wrists and tells them to stop resisting and surrender. La Brava notes that normally,
Gentle would have rabbited the moment Izuku caught them outside the tea shop.
She’s worried his passion for this mission is too intense.
We get a flashback to when La Brava
was just Manami Aiba. At the time, she’d become a Neet. That’s an acronym for Not
in Education, Employment or Training, and used for shut-ins in Japan, China and
most of the rest of Asia. If you’re asking, how was she supporting herself; I
assume either through hacking endeavors or through her parents. Apparently, it’s
more frowned upon to have a child living on the streets than it is to just pay
for them to survive. Anyway, she’d become a Neet after her first year of middle
school, when she’d given a love note to a boy only for him to mock her with his
friends. Not in the guy’s defense, but important things to remember are 1. Aiba
hadn’t spoken to him before. 2. It was a multiple page document full of
specific information, and 3. It seems clear that she was obsessively stalking
this guy. Did she deserve to be laughed at, no, but like, I can’t pretend that
Aiba didn’t go about that situation all wrong. Anyway, she was a shut in for the
next several years, just spending time on her computer in the dark and contemplating
killing herself, until she found Gentle’s first video. Instantly smitten, she
cleans herself up, lamenting the dark circles around her eyes that were more or
less permanent at this point, and goes to meet him. She hacked his account to
get his contact info.
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| So he picked her up from this? Okay, Gentle Criminal might actually be a good dude. |
The two became inseparable instantly.
We get a quick montage of them working and living together, culminating in a
fairly sweet moment. Aiba is still self-conscious about the dark circles around
her eyes. Gentle notices her looking forlornly in a mirror and picks up the hints.
After, he announces that he’d thought of a codename for her, showing her La
Brava. I guess the kanji that make up the word can be read as Honey. He tells
her that he chose the name because she’s the perfect companion, and showing off
that he’d applied a liberal amount of eyeliner around his own eyes in
solidarity.
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| So he added the dark circles to make his sidekick/ girlfriend less self-conscious about her eyes? Either be a villain or be a good dude. Pick a LANE! |
In the present, La Brava tells
Gentle that she loves him. Now, unlike the other forty times she’s said that
since her introduction, she activates her Quirk while doing so. It’s then
revealed by Present Mic narration that La Brava’s quirk is Love, by telling the
person that she loves this information, she can enhance their abilities tenfold,
based on her level of feeling for that person. Given that her affection for
Gentle is her damn primary character trait, his power boost is massive. This
buffs up Gentle, causing pink smoke to steam off him and his hair and mustache
getting extra spikey. He’s able to throw Izuku off them and pulls them both
away. He claims to abhor violence, hence why he edits them out of his videos,
but will use it to see his plan accomplished. He tells Izuku to stay out of this
and take a nap, hitting him in the back of the neck to knock him out. This actually
doesn’t work, as Izuku is still conscious. He tells Gentle that he’s fought people
stronger and faster than him, and so he hasn’t lost yet. He is able to raise a
hand and ready an air bullet at Gentle.
Meanwhile, it finally hits 9 am. Hound
Dog is searching the perimeter, and Present Mic takes his spot in his usual MC
booth and loudly declares that the festival has begun over the PA. Izuku uses
the momentary distraction to fire the air bullet, missing but is enough to keep
Gentle distracted while he gets up. The two men start leaping and brawling in
midair. Gentle is almost immediately concerned, as his enhance “Lover Mode” has
always been enough for him and La Brava to overwhelm and escape opponents
before but Izuku is proving too much. That’s what happens when the power of 2
go up against the power of 9, laddy. As they battle, La Brava apologizes,
saying that her love isn’t strong enough to beat Izuku. Gentle isn’t done yet.
He makes several layers of air membranes, dubbed the Gentle Sandwich, and
presses Izuku under it. He leaps onto the stack of air, keeping Izuku pinned. He
makes another vague declaration about being remembered, but this time seems to
be recalling a man in a bamboo covered costume. How odd. He goes on to say that
his dream, though, isn’t just about him anymore, implying its also about La
Brava.
Izuku is able to smash his way
through the ground and leaps at Gentle again. They’ve both come to understand
that the other yearns for something with all their heart and soul, but Izuku
claims that Gentle cares about nothing besides that dream. That he’s willing to
make a whole lot of people, including a kid that needs to learn what happy is,
to make himself feel validated.
Gentle Criminal gets hit with that
flashback bug, and we see him as he was 14 years ago as 18-year-old Danjuro
Tobita. He’s a second year Hero course student. He claims that he wants to be a
hero, but his guidance counselor tries to get him to be realistic. He’s got very
poor grades, has had to repeat his school year a few times, and has failed the
Provisional Hero Exam four times. His mother is also beside him, her head in
her hands. The teacher advices him to voluntarily withdrawal. Danjuro doesn’t
want to, though. Outside, his mother comments that a classmate of his, Takeshita,
has already been getting offers from hero agencies to be a sidekick. Danjuro
tells her not to worry, he’ll keep trying.
 |
| Like... he's definitely dead. |
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| A COMEDIC VILLAIN SHOULDN'T BE THIS HARD TO BEAT!! |
Back in the present, La Brava is
clearly upset to see Gentle use Lover Mode like this, embracing violence like
he doesn’t normally do. He and Izuku keep clashing, with Gentle shouting at
Izuku to not mock him or think him lesser during the fight. Izuku tells the
deranged YouTuber that he isn’t mocking him, but can’t let him go, either. La
Brava is able to boost Gentle’s power a little more, he and Izuku collide,
doing the double hand grapple. He asks Izuku why he wants to be a hero as they
do. Izuku claims that they’re the same, that his dream isn’t just his own
anymore, that it belongs to all those that helped him along the way, and
remembers some of those people like All Might, Togata and Nighteye. He announces
that he wants to be someone that can show everyone a brighter future. Gentle is
able to throw Izuku aside and into a tree after that.
La Brava, knowing that Gentle isn’t
going to stop without getting onto the campus at this point, pulls out her
laptop and tries to hack into the school’s security. She believes turning off security
now will give them a greater chance to escape. She’s too far out, unfortunately,
so grabs her computer and runs toward the campus, rubbing dirt on her face as
she does to hide from Hound Dog. Gentle mentally yells at her to no go alone,
but can’t get away from Izuku to follow. Izuku tries to follow but Gentle doesn’t
allow him, either. Gentle tells Izuku he’s willing to throw away his pride and
honor to defeat Izuku and that he should consider that a sign of respect.
La Brava only makes it a few yards
before she runs into Hound Dog, him leading a group of Ectoplasm clones into
the forest. She turns to warn Gentle. Izuku is able to hit the villain with one
of multiple air bullets, stunning him for a moment. He’s then able to dive at
the villain and hit him with a shoot style St. Louis Smash! Pancaking him into
the ground as Lover Mode dissipates. And, unfortunately for them, La Brava has only
a single charge to use each day. Izuku mutters to Gentle Criminal that he was
his toughest opponent yet, as he was someone that Izuku could understand.
Muscular, Stain, and Overhaul,
together, “Are we a joke to you?”
 |
| For them, the fight is over. |
La Brava, sobbing, runs at Izuku
and ineffectually hits him. She begs him to let Gentle go, as he’s all she has,
he’s her “light” and she’ll die without him. Gentle has a flashback to just
after they first met, with him telling La Brava that he can’t work with her as
she’ll be an accomplice to his crimes. She doesn’t care, though, so long as
they can be together. Gentle wonders if she’d have had a normal, happy life if
she’d been able to run when he told her to, but doesn’t think so. To protect
her, he’s able to draw on the last bits of Lover Mode to throw Izuku off and
away, mentally telling the boy not to come back. He then grabs La Brava and
hugs her tight. His plan is a simple one, to try to make their crime seem less
serious by acting like a fight hadn’t happened. When Hound Dog and the Ectoplasms
arrive, he claims to have taken a tumble in the park and ended up there. He
surrenders to them as the credits roll.
See, this is why I characterize Gentle
Criminal and La Brava’s relationship as something akin to Joker and Harley. It’s
better than that, but I wouldn’t characterize it as healthy. La Brava is
completely dependent on Gentle to even get through the day. Gentle, on the
other hand, clearly enjoys her sycophantic devotion and seems to feed off of
that himself. It’s a weird cycle. I think Gentle is right that La Brava would
have found trouble herself again even if she had run. She’d be drawn again to
someone charismatic as Gentle can be, but one more willing to abuse her talents
than he is my guess. As to both their backgrounds, they’re both fairly tragic,
but I could have used them a little earlier. Like, if they’d given us more flashes
of Gentle’s past as he was introduced and we learn about his legacy obsession
it’d have made him seem like less of a vain idiot with his really freaking
stupid idea to sneak onto UA. It’s kind of got the same problem as another series,
called Demon Slayer. Brief summary, it’s about a kid in 1920s Japan named
Tanjiro who’s entire family was slaughtered save the oldest of his younger
siblings by demons. He goes off to become a demon slayer and drama unfolds from
there. Unlike your typical interpretations of demons as fallen angels or beings
from another realm, these demons were all once human, but were infected with
the original demon’s blood, turning them into monsters. In a way they’re more
akin to superpowered zombies. Just about every major Demon that Tanjiro has
defeated reveals as they’re dying their tragic background. One was a failed
author and musician, one was a little boy that ate his brother after he
transformed, and the third was a sickly little boy that ended up killing his
parents. And you find this out as they dissolve into nothing. Kind of kills the
mood a little to be revealing these tragic circumstances as they die is all I’m
saying. And same goes for Gentle, as we had no idea about his screw up and
basic pathological fear of dying and disappearing forever until it’s brough up
here. Okay, we do know he’s obsessed with being remembered, but it comes across
as bravado “I’m so great, the world MUST remember me,” more that, “Please, God,
don’t make me disappear!” Just a few more flashes of Takeshita and maybe his mother
screaming at him to get out is all I’d really need. And I’m not a huge fan of the
comparisons between Gentle and Izuku. I’ve been doing this a while, and I know
that a very common trope in these sorts of stories is the idea that had power
not found the protagonist, they’d end up going down a darker path and ended up
criminals. Spider-Man has done it (it’s the basis of the Spider-Gwen universe,
if he doesn’t become Spider-Man he became the Lizard), so has Naruto (if his
parents lived, he’d end up the avatar of their evil ninja goddess) and many
others. I’m just not a fan of this idea that the difference between a hero and
villain is so razor thin. I’d like to think that even if Izuku hadn’t met All Might,
he’d have found something, become a cop or a business man, that he could have
found peace and happiness as a quirkless man, even if a part of him always
yearned for being a hero. All I’m saying. I do like that Gentle ultimately
chose to sacrifice himself to help La Brava. As I said, I think their feelings
for each other are real and I like the acknowledgement that her getting away or
at least getting a reduced sentence ultimately means more to Gentle than escape
or going out in a blaze of glory fighting heroes that are much, much tougher
than him. And that’s all I have to say about that. Next time, the concert. I’ll
see you there.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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