Shinzo gets a chance to shine.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Izuku got some advice before his next big test began. All Might confirmed to
him that there are remnants of previous One for All users within the power and give
their history to the current wielder, although All Might’s experience was different.
They can’t speculate long as Izuku has a big exam against class 1B. The test is
a mock 4-on-4 battle with Class 1B, with the added wrinkle of Izuku’s former Sport’s
Festival opponent Shinzo being added into the mix, as he’s still trying to get transferred
into the hero course. The first match begins, and Tsu, Kirishima, Kaminari, Kota,
and Shinzo are quickly overwhelmed by Shishida, the 1B student who literally
has a beast mode. But they’re saved from an utter wipe out by Shinzo using his
new item, a mouth covering device he called his Persona-Cords, to copy Shishida’s
allies voice to get him to answer and be brainwashed. Enough recap. Let’s get to
it, shall we?
As a reminder, this first match is
Tsu (Frog powers), Kirishima (Hardens skin), Kaminari (electricity elemental),
Kota (speaks to animals) and Shinzo (brainwashing) vs. Shishida (Beast mode),
Rin (scaled armor), Tsuburaba (solidifies air) and Shiozaki (vine hair)
After a quick recap of the
situation, we begin in truth with a flashback of Shinzo explaining his power to
his team. He basically just has got to focus on a single person, thinking “Brainwash
this person” and then have them respond to something he says to take control. A
reasonable amount of force can break the trance, like Izuku breaking his fingers.
He doesn’t THINK it can work on more than one person at a time, he can’t make
his target talk, or give them complex orders that require thought. The example
he gives that if he held up a sign of Tsu’s name and ask them to write it down,
the victim could do that, but he could ask them “what is her name” and get an
answer. He explains that his Persona-Cords were specifically designed to get
around the obvious limitation of his power, that people have to respond to what
he says for it to work. And then the exam starts.
If the hero thing doesn't work out, he has a career
as a bugzapper.
We jump to Shinzo and Kaminari
facing off against Shishida and Tsuburaba and Shinzo using his modulator to
sound like Tsuburaba to get Shishida to respond. Tsuburaba is stunned by this
for a moment, but he quickly captures Shinzo in another air prison, and then hits
Shishida to try to break the brainwashing. Kaminari rushes them, Tsuburaba
jumps off Shishida’s back to get distance, but Shishida grabs him. Kaminari
then uses the fact he’s a living bug zapper to give Shishida a good zap before
being tossed into a wall. Tsu catches Tsuburaba and runs to get him to their
prison. Unfortunately, Shishida shakes off the stun much faster than Kaminari
expected and he gives chase.
Uraraka is concerned for Tsu, but
Izuku tells her to have faith.
Kirishima breaks free of the rubble
he was buried under and tries to break Kota out. A standard punch doesn’t work,
but he shatters it after entering Unbreakable mode. Tsu leaps by, saying she won’t
let Tsuburaba escape, and the two prepare to fight the pursuing Shishida. Kota
calls up bugs to attack, and Kirishima takes an armored swing, but Shishida
reverts to his “human” form to dodge around their attack before entering “beast
mode” again. I used air quotes because Shishida’s human form is just his beast
form but smaller. Knowing that Kirishima is the only one of the two that can
handle his strength, he lobs the stone warrior into the sky towards Shiozaki.
She wraps him in vines and Kirishima is captured. Tsu gets Tsuburaba captured
too, so score wise they’re even. But Bakugo with the spectators knows that his classmates
are at a disadvantage now.
.png)
I really hope she doesn't taste the things she grabs
with her tongue.
Shishida has Kota in a hold around
the face, keeping him from calling for animal aid, and then sniffs out Tsu and
Kaminari charging him. He dodges them and runs off to capture Koda as well. In the
cell, Kirishima apologizes for being captured. And in the 1A cell, Tsuburaba seems
to be processing the fact that Tsu carried him there in her tongue. He looks
like he was into it? A conversation for another time.
Kirishima and Tsu try to break Shinzo
out of the bubble with a pipe, but it’s tough. They do break him free after a
few more good hits. With the teachers, Vlad King is running incredibly biased commentary
on the skills of his class over 1A, and Aizawa, Midnight and All Might are
giving him “You got to be kidding me,” looks. Izuku and Aizawa note that Shinzo’s
inexperience is a detriment to him, with Izuku specifically mentioning him simply
being too slow with his binding cloth scarf to be useful in the first fight.
.png)
Mad hops in beast boy. Gives Tsu a run for her
money.
Kirishima, Tsu and Shinzo try to
strategize. Shinzo apologizes for not being good enough, but Kirishima and Tsu
give him words of encouragement. Tsu has a plan that involves a mucus she
secretes and Kaminari’s chargebolt pointers. Interesting.
With 1B, Shiozaki is lamenting
being used as part of an ambush. Girl has serious issues with lying for some
reason. Their plan, at the moment, is to grab Shinzo and Tsu, while avoiding Kaminari.
A solid strategy, as Shishida is significantly stronger than either of them. Shishida
starts sniffing and is… confused. He explains that he’s picking up 3 Tsu’s
coming at them. They rightly deduce that they’re somehow fooling his sense of
smell.
With the viewing students, class 1B
is confused by Shishida’s statement, but Izuku and Mineta have an idea of what
is going on. They flashback to their first real villain encounter with Tsu.
Back in season 1, in the Shipwreck course, she explained her powers. She can
jump high, stick to surfaces, use her tongue as a weapon, spit up her stomach
to clean it, and the important point here, secrete a toxic mucus. The boys cheer
“Toxic mucus for the win!” The team covered themselves in Tsu’s mucus to mask
their scents in hers.
We flashback to their planning phase.
Tsu tells Kaminari to look for his pointer targeting beacon. He launched one at
Shishida and it stuck to his pocket earlier. A chibi (cute simplified drawing)
of Hatsume interjects here, explaining how the pointer sticks to what it lands
on and that Kaminari’s glasses can target them. Tsu theorizes that Shishida’s
nose is 1B’s biggest asset and they need to assume that he’ll always know where
they are. They’re planning to target him specifically to overwhelm him and
remove him from the fight as he’s too powerful to take on one on one. Kaminari’s
goggles are telling them that the pointer hasn’t moved.
Shiozaki uses her vine hairs to form
a protective barrier between them and 1A. Shishida’s nose picks up where all
three are, and their trajectory. And, unfortunately, Rin finally noticed the
pointer on Shishida’s leg. Before they can react, though, Shiozaki captured someone
and pulled them in. It turns out to be Kaminari, but before he can blast them
with lightning, Shiozaki captures him in her vines. He tries to shoot at the
pointer before being sealed in, as it works like a lightning rod and draws his
electricity towards it. But Rin is faster, he uses his scales as projectiles, knocking
the pointer off Shishida’s leg at the last second. Shiozaki lowers Kaminari
down in her vine ball. Rin’s voice says to get him ready, to which Shiozaki
agrees to do so, only then to realize that that had been Shinzo talking.
In a flashback, Shinzo remembers the
strategy that Kaminari of all people came up with when they saw the vine field.
He specifically got caught, as he knew that 1B considered him the biggest
threat on the field, and that they wouldn’t want him to get close. He remembered
Shiozaki’s vine shield from the Sport’s Festival and assumes she’ll pull that trick
to protect herself again. He’ll force her to use as many vines as possible to
capture him, and thus lower the amount she has got to work with. Shinzo, in the
present, notes that experience is a really remarkable thing, if it allowed
Kaminari to come up with a clever plan.
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And they scored the win!
Shishida rushes off to where he
smelt someone. He doesn’t react when Rin asks him where he’s going for fear of it
really being Shinzo. Rin says screw it and tries to shoot at Shiozaki to wake
her up, but Tsu grabs her and pulls her out of his line of fire at the last
minute. She fights Rin, who can’t get Shishida to help him as, again, not sure
if Rin is calling to him or Shinzo. Shishida has deduced that with how the
scent is jumping around, the one behind him is the real Tsu, so the one he’s
smelling in the factory area is Shinzo. He rushes Shinzo. Shinzo tries to mimic
Rin’s voice to trick him, but Shishida isn’t fooled this time. Shinzo then uses
his scarf to grab a bit of heavy pipe and drop it on his head, but that doesn’t
even stun him. He rushes Shinzo to finish him. He assumes that the pleas in Rin’s
voice are Shinzo’s last-ditch effort to try to brainwash him… until he’s called
“Apoca-beast” which is an on the spot nickname that Shiozaki gave him only a few
minutes ago. Turns out, it was Rin, who was thrown at Shishida by Tsu. Both are
knocked out, and the win is given to 1A.
Izuku notes how impressive it was
that his classmates were able to work together so well with Shinzo. Using Tsu’s
mucus to hide their movements and using Shinzo’s Persona-Cords to confuse and
make it difficult for 1B to communicate, they were able to clinch the victory.
Izuku is impressed at Shinzo’s growth and determination. Tsu tells Shinzo that
she doesn’t think that he’s not behind the rest of them, but he doesn’t agree.
He wants to be a hero on his own, without being “held up” by others. A begrudging
Vlad King names 1A the winners.
This episode was a fun brawl. We
got to see not only some of my favorites like Tsu and Kaminari shine, but also
got to see how 1B operates. Shishida is a pretty standard Hank McCoy type, a power
that makes him a brawler but with a much keener intellect than he’d let on.
Shiozaki is implied to be extremely religious (her initial hero name was Maria
(as in Ave) and she dresses in Christ-like robes) and doesn’t care for things
that go against said faith, besides smiting things. Rin was obviously the least
confident of the group, preferring to fight from a distance with backup, and was
quickly overwhelmed by the more experienced fighter that was Tsu. And Tsuburaba
was… there. And might have a thing for Tsu now? I loved seeing how the strategy
to beat 1B took shape, with the less powerful Shinzo and Tsu using tactics to
weaken, separate and ultimately overwhelm Shishida, the one who probably could
have taken them both out one after the other if they hadn’t coordinated. This
was great showing for Shinzo’s growth particularly. Sure, he hesitated in the
first encounter, but though quickly and strategically to systematically take
out the superior foe. I’m not sure how he could be worked into a hero course
class, (like would one class be 21 students big, or would a less impressive student
get bumped out?), but I’m glad to see more of him and can’t wait to see him
face off against Izuku. Next time, round 2 begins. Have a good night, everyone.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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