Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 93

It's goth kid vs. goth kid in rough 2. 

 Last time on My Hero Academia, the first round of the 1A v 1B continued. Class 1A took two losses early on, with Kirishima and Koda both being captured, but the remaining members Tsu, Kaminari, and Shinzo got one in return. They used Tsu’s acidic mucus to hide their scent from the beast Shishida, and then Shinzo’s new voice mimicking device to disable Shiozaki the vine manipulator. They ultimately defeat Shishida by confusing him with his teammate’s mimicked voice, and Tsu using said teammate as a flail with her tongue to knock him out. High fives all around. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Chewing out in progress.

We open with each the students giving Aizawa an assessment of how they did. Kirishima learned that he needs to get better at brawling, Shishida’s superior strength overwhelmed him and left his Quirk kind of useless. Koda thinks he needs to be able to give more detailed instructions to the animals he speaks with. Kaminari is kind of high on winning, and so doesn’t contribute to the discussion. Tsu laments losing two members early. Shinzo is frustrated that he didn’t do enough with the binding cloth. Aizawa tells him specifically not to sweat it too much, as the scarf is a difficult tool to master. Aoyama notes that the work study students, Kirishima and Tsu, had the best assessment of what happened. Sero points out that makes sense what with the whole deadly raid on the Shia Hassaikai they were apart. Jiro chuckles at Kaminari being an idiot. Aizawa tells Kirishima to focus on forcing opponents to brawl with him, that Koda does need to learn to give better commands, Kaminari needs to work on being serios from the start, and Tsu needs to focus on recovering from a mistake and not wallow in the mistake itself. He dismisses them.

 

Shinzo remembered being captured and begins toying with his scarf. Midnight, who is watching with All Might, compliments him on already going over what went wrong with the match in his head and thinking of how to improve. Damn, she must be psychic, because he just looks like he’s moving the cloth around to me.

 

Vlad chastises his students for not having a better strategy and not having a true “focal” point to their strategy. Basically, according to Vlad, they should have built a strategy around either Shishida’s strength and tracking ability or Shiozaki’s vines, not both. That dick Monoma was impressed with Shinzo’s fighting and is looking forward to working with him. He tries to get Shinzo on his 1A hate train. Izuku and his team and the others get together to try to strategize. Jiro, Sero and Sato want to strategize too, but Bakugo’s big advice is to tell them to stay out of his way. Team captain material, right there. Izuku and Uraraka want to focus on taking out Shinzo while Ashido shouts out combo attack ideas, Iida’s team settle on using Shoji for recon, and Bakugo angrily shouts the other team is dead. Bakugo, find ways to vent your anger better, buddy. As the students converse, a robot rolls in and advices injured students to see the nurse because, direct quote, “Humans are inferior beings whose parts can’t be replaced.” Midnight is super “jazzed” by the strategizing and passes out. All Might notes that it’s nearing the end of the year and he’s impressed by all his student’s growth. Izuku specifically, but everyone has impressed him of late.  All Might tells the other teachers that Shinzo is impressive and that the fact he was frustrated with the loss first and foremost was a good sign. Aizawa points out that if Shinzo does well, he might be able to transfer, so thinks his next match will be even more impressive. Vlad calls the students for the next match.

 

This round will be Yaoyorozu (creates objects), Tokoyami (Dark Shadow), Hagakure (Invisibility/Light refraction) and Aoyama (Naval Laser) vs. Itsuka Kendo (increase the size of her hands), Kinoko Komori (Fungus manipulation), Manga Fukidashi (Onomatopoeia manipulation, will explain more later), and Shihai Kuroiro (merge with dark surfaces).

 

Issuing challenges is totally normal for hero high 
school, right?

As they walk to the field, Kendo asks why Yaoyorozu why she wasn’t in the beauty pageant during the cultural festival. Yaoyorozu pleaded ignorance of the event, and also says that with band practice she couldn’t have made it work anyway. Kendo mentions that after working together for their internship and being in a commercial together, she feels like people have been sort of lumping them together as similar heroes. Yaoyorozu doesn’t get it at first but Hagakure compares it to people assuming that idols in the same group have similar personalities. Todoroki scoffs at the dangerous practice of "idolatry,” and that creepy guy Kuroiro smiles creepily. Kendo says that she wants to be her own kind of hero so she’s going to gun for her specifically. Kuroiro issues a similar challenge to Tokoyami, saying they are “brothers in the shadow.”

 

Vlad tells his students to rip 1A to pieces, and a group of 1A students led by Ashidoe hold up signs protesting the biased commentary.

 

Sero, speaking with Tetsutetsu, points out that Kendo seems like she’s kind of big deal to class 1B, which Tetsutetsu loudly agrees with. This sparks a quick clip of her using her powers to help fight the League of Villain’s Mustard during the summer training arc and knocking out Monoma. Tetsutetsu gives her credit for the fact class 1B HASN’T killed Monoma yet.

 

Yaoyorozu and her team start recon, with Tokoyami sending Dark Shadow to search. His sentient shadow quickly stretches out and swerve about until he finds them. He attacks them as soon as he sends a signal to Tokoyami that he’d found them. 1B scatter, with Kuroiro leaping into the shadow of some pipes, going around to another pipe shadow and dive at Dark Shadow’s back. Dark Shadow returns to 1A, but instantly starts attacking Tokoyami. It takes the students to realize that somehow Kuroiro got inside Dark Shadow and is manipulating him. Dark Shadow corners Aoyama, but Hagakure uses her light refraction attack to hit Dark Shadow with a blast of light, weakening Dark Shadow enough that it had to return to Tokoyami’s body, and expel Kuroiro. Yaoyorozu tries to catch him with nets, but he passes into another shadow and slips away. Kuroiro swears to defeat Tokoyami. Tokoyami throws off his cloak and announces that he’ll use this rivalry to show off a skill he learned during his work study with Hawks.

 

He can Fly! Which, given his head, makes sense
but still, he can fly!

We flashback to Tokoyami’s internship just after the Sports Festival. Hawks single handedly takes out a diamond thief, leaving him with his sidekicks to handle the paperwork of the arrest. Tokoyami tries to follow Hawks, running after his hero despite Hawk’s speed. He got frustrated with just running after Hawks. Hawks says that he can’t slow down and let things potentially get worse just to give Tokoyami practice. He asks why Hawks recruited him then if he wasn’t really going to let Tokoyami work. He explains that he wanted to speak with a 1A student about the League of Villains, and he decided to go with the top ranked student that was also bird themed. Tokoyami is… less than pleased to think he got such a prestigious internship because he has a crow’s head. Tokoyami gives Hawks the details of the USJ incident when asked and that makes him angrier. He’s “Not a messenger pigeon.” After his internship, Hagakure asks about his internship, and he plays it off as just “interesting.”

 

We then jump forward to his Work Study with Hawks a few weeks prior. Tokoyami shows off his new skill with Hawks, covering himself in his Dark Shadow and leaping after his boss. After they clock out for the day, Hawks invites Tokoyami out for a flight. He flies around town carrying Tokoyami under his arms. He admits that 20% of the reason that he brought Tokoyami back for the Work Study was the bird thing, 50% was for updates on League info, and 30% on a belief that he was wasting his potential. He thinks that while training up his short-range combat skills is good, he should work more on flexibility. He believes that those who CAN fly SHOULD fly.

 

In the present, Kuroiro starts moving through the shadows, trying to disorientate his opponents. Tokoyami thinks that Kuroiro is going to go after him. Kuroiro reveals that no, in fact, he is not. He specifically told Tokoyami he was his ‘rival’ to make him think that. He claims misdirection is the key to the designs of the “Scheming Hero: Vantadark.” He rockets around and attacks Aoyama. He grabs him by the cape and pulls him along the pipes. He believes that with the pipes giving him shadows to move through and Dark Shadow being limited to Tokoyami’s general area, that they won’t be able to save Aoyama. That’s when Tokoyami shows off his new technique, Dark Fallen Angel. Basically, he has Dark Shadow hug him and uses Dark Shadow to fly. He also covers Dark Shadow in his cape to cover Dark Shadow to decrease its exposure to light and increase his strength. Izuku is super jazzed by this new skill. He grabs Aoyama and they fly out of Kuroiro’s range. Aoyama bombards the area with his lasers, lightening the area to force Kuroiro out. Hagakure and Yaoyorozu try to corner him, but he’s weirdly confident. Before they can grab him, mushrooms start growing from their body. Kuroiro rather smugly says that Kendo is better than Yaoyorozu.

 

A demon in a mushroom hat.

We cut over to Kendo, Fukidashi and Komori where they’d been hiding. Komori says a creepy rhyme about the situation, that too many bright flashes is the sign that their plan A to use Kuroiro failed, so now it’s plan B, her to create just a ton of mushrooms. Uh-oh.

 

This was a good Tokoyami focus episode. He’s one of the most visually distinctive members of class 1A, with his bird’s head, and Dark Shadow is such a cool power, I’m glad he’s got more screentime. Given what we’d seen of Hawks’ personality, it’s not shocking that his… lack attitude would get on Tokoyami’s nerves. But it was great to see it go back around and have him inspire Tokoyami to find his wings, almost literally in this case. Kuroiro is a creepy little bastard, so he really works as a “villain” for the episode. And the twist that he was manipulating Tokoyami to distract them from his real target was brilliant. And then to reveal that that him getting hounded by 1A was the signal for 1B to start its plan B is great. Smart enemies are a pain in the butt and so fun to watch. And including that this match will be a match between Yaoyorozu and Kendo as leaders/strategists was a nice touch too. Nothing makes a good fight more interesting than to have a little rivalry thrown in. We’ll see how useful being able to control mushrooms can be in the next episode. I’m looking forward to it. Have a good night, everyone. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/64454496

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero