Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 101

Interviews and Christmas, who'd have tried these two together? 

Last time on My Hero Academia, Shinzo got the news he’s been hoping to hear for 70 odd episodes. He’s going to join the Hero Program starting in year 2. Good for him. Izuku, meanwhile, tried to get handle on this evolved form of his power called Blackwhip with All Might and Bakugo without success. Later, Aizawa had that dick Monoma attempt to copy Eri’s power as part of a somewhat convoluted plan. He’d hoped that Monoma could train with the power to help Eri learn control should he power reaccumulate and go out of control again. It unfortunately didn’t work, as Eri’s power is a “blank” to Monoma. That’s his term for any quirk that stockpiles energy over time for use, like One For All. He can copy the power, but at it’s most base level, no energy to work with. Much later, a group of villains ride a tidal wave through the downtown area, but are stopped in their antics by Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo, whom just thirty minutes before had finished their provisional license make up class and gotten their Provisional Hero Licenses (PHL). They stop the villain I dubbed the Bubbler and his crew, and got a pat on the back from a pro hero. And later some cake made by Sato at the 1A surprise party for their conquering teammates. High fives all around. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open nine days ago. Future narrator Izuku eerily states that and event happened here in Deika city, a tragedy that was, unbeknownst to them at the time, a precursor of what is to come. We’re shown buildings shattering and streets falling as apparently Tomura Shigaraki (League of Villains leader, disintegrates things if he touches them with all five fingers of either hand) laughs manically. He looks real beat up, covered in blood and his hair now a glowing white instead of just dead white. Huh, that can’t possibly be good.

 

Polar opposite personalities on polar opposite
sides of the couch.

We jump back to Bakugo and Todoroki capturing the Bubbler, which is part of a reporter doing a story on the two of them. Bakugo tries to vehemently deny that they’re friends, but Todoroki is very rational about it. They spend a  lot of time together at the supplementary lessons, they train together, Bakugo yells at him a lot which is a sign of affection in him, so they’re friends. Okay, that last one is implied. Everyone watches in slight horror.

 

Later in class, Sero and Kaminari laugh hysterically at the interview. Why? Because Bakugo was completely edited out, it looks like she’s just talking to Todoroki. “He’s just an angry blip in the corner!” As Kaminari put it. Izuku is watching another news report, this one about whatever the hell Shigaraki did at Deika city nine days ago. The interview states that a riot committed by only 20 people severely damaged the city in under an hour. Iida overhears and mentions that he heard that the damage was much worse than Kamino Ward, but because the area was less populated, there were fewer casualties and thus less press. People on the street seem to think that they can’t blame the heroes for what happened, but that the system needs fine tuning. Uraraka mentions that the “Look Boy” video, of that kid that sounded suspiciously like Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail (Same actor), that people have started supporting Endeavor more and heroes in general. The kids are interrupted by the arrival of their guest speakers for the day, Midnight (mind control Pheromones) and Mt. Lady (size shifter), telling them they need to look at the bigger picture. People are scared, the worlds on fire, so they should be cautious about the support. Are the people cheering for pros they’ve got ample faith in, or are they praying don’t get their butts kicked. Mt. Lady says that hero work has largely been a celebrity deal for the past decade or so, so now people want to see them as real heroes again. There’s some gratuitous shots of ass and boobs, but this is a shonen manga so I’m not going to comment anymore because we’ll be here all day. Mt. Lady causes Mineta to panic visibly and thus has my seal of approval. Aizawa, already in his sleeping bag, says Mt. Lady is a guest instructor for the day. The topic? Dealing with publicity.

 

Shoto is definitely not much of an interviewee.

Mt. Lady takes them all outside to a stage and announces they’re going to practice interviews. Mt. Lady pulls Todoroki up first. She gives him a few softball questions and is impressed by his big flashy ice attacks. Mt. Lady insists that he should smile more and that might help people relax around him. Tokoyami asks if its usual in interviews to show off their powers like that, to which Mt. Lady tells them, yes, since when you’re first starting out you need to give the public some idea of what they’re working with. The moves give confidence to people. Mineta comments that the last time he saw her, Mt. Lady was all about how she looked on camera and nothing else. Aizawa explains that heroes in general are trying to do better and be more active since Endeavor got the top spot.

 

We get some rapid fire interview questions, Iida explains why he’s going by Ingenium, Yaoyorozu says that she, Creati, will guarantee people’s safety thanks to her encyclopedic knowledge, Uraraka “when I’m around, your problems and fears are weightless, Tokoyami “Glory is reserved for those who touched darkness,” Kirishima takes about him being an impenetrable wall of protection and things spiral off from there. Bakugo announces he’s not saying stupid stuff like that, way to kill the mood, Katsuki. Mt. Lady thinks Bakugo’s issue is just, generally, with humanity. Todoroki apologizes to Bakugo for his part in getting him cut from the interview, which just pisses him off more. Midnight thinks that maybe Aizawa should teach Bakugo his style of media avoidance. He thinks there’s someone else he should be learning from. Izuku is up next and is so ridged that Kirishima thinks he’s somehow learned to use his Hardening Quirk. When asked if his moves are based off All Might, he starts talking… but it’s fanboy muttering about how he tired to be like All Might without ripping him off. Midnight asks Aizawa about his out-of-control power, and if he made progress. Izuku decides to show them. In just about two weeks, he’s got Blackwhip locked down in a manner similar to his percentages of OFA control. And after a big build up about how he’s gotten it to work, we see his level of Blackwhip control is like a .5 second burst of energy. Needless to say, people aren’t that impressed. Bakugo tells him to not be happy about something so weak.

 

Good to have range options.

Nezu visits All Might, commenting that he looks like he hasn’t gotten much sleep. We’re shown his composite notebook, same style as Izuku likes, where he’s compiling information on previous OFA users. It’s not going that well, unfortunately due to there not being much info from the early years. Nezu reveals that they’re getting ready to restart Work Studies. All Might is a bit terrified by this.

 

Later, the teachers have a meeting on restarting the Work Studies. Mr. Nezu, nestled in Aizawa’s scarf because it’s so warm, explains that the Public Safety Commission is insisting that the heroes use the Work Studies as in the field training for students. It’ pretty clear that this is in reaction to the Deiki city incident, and seems to suggest that the PSC wants to fast track training because they think another incident might be in the works. We’re shown Hawks meeting with the PSC Director, to visually clue us in to that being exactly the case. The heroes aren’t sure about this, but Nezu tells them to focus on getting their students into agencies with a good track record. He also wants to talk to Aizawa about the commissions “other” program, but trails off before we hear the rest.

 

A few days later, Nezu is speaking the Det. Tsukauchi and All Might, informing them that he doesn’t believe a student is a mole for the League of Villains. All Might agrees, saying every student’s hear beats with the heart of justice. Nezu asks if All Might will be returning today. When All Might is confused about this ask, Nezu asks if he forgot what day it is.

 

Japan must be different, because in my 31 years on this Earth, no one COULD miss all the countdowns. Yes, I’m including my first Christmas when I was literally six days old and the one the following year. Baby me was aware.

 

Secret santa is fun when the Giver is super obvious.
Looking at you, Aoyama headshot.

We cut to the kids having a big Christmas party. Everyone, except Bakugo who is a sourpuss, is dressed in green or red Santa outfits, Uraraka is drooling over the decadent food, Sato shares cake and everyone just has a good time. Also, all their Santa hats have a character appropriate “thing” on the end, Uraraka has a planet, Jiro a music note, Mineta one of his own balls. We learn that Tsu and Uraraka are going back to Ryukyu’s agency when the Work Studies start again. Izuku, unfortunately, can’t go back to the Nighteye Agency. Not because Nighteye is dead, his sidekick Centipeder is now running it, but because he and Bubble Girl are SWAMPED trying to keep up with paperwork and can’t spare the time to train him. And he can’t go work with Gran Torino because he’s busy too. But he’s not too bummed, since this round is mandatory and so he’ll get a trainer. Ashido tries to slip a Santa coat on Bakugo, but he’s not having it. When Kirishima asks him if he’s working with Best Jeanist, Kaminari runs up and get his Santa hat on him. It’s revealed that Bakugo knows Best Jeanist is currently missing. He flashes back to Jeanist being… confused as to why Bakugo doesn’t have a hero name. He lists off his destructive hero names, and Best Jeanist tells him he needs to look beyond himself and figure out what being a hero means to him. He also says that when Bakugo gets his PHL in his second year, to come back and tell him what name he decided upon.

 

Mineta insists they stop talking about school stuff and party! Aizawa arrives with Eri, who says “Trick or treat?” Screw Overhaul again for keeping holidays from this girl. She’s adorable, and keeps mixing up holidays/life events, “here, have these eggs I’ve painted” “in sickness, and in health” etc. Izuku notes that her horn has grown a bit. Aizawa says that her attitude is remaining positive, and she took his advice to heart.

 

She. Gets. To. Keep. The. Sword.

We get a bunch of shots of the kids enjoying their dinner, each other’s company, Jiro’s singing, Sato cake, and their gift exchange. Tokoyami put a big sword in their gift exchange thing, which Eri got. … Probably should take that from her. And it looks like Uraraka got Izuku’s contribution, who else would put in an All Might doll? Future Narrator Izuku chimes in to say that, not knowing what was coming next, he sincerely wished they could have another great Christmas the following year. That is so damn sweet!

 

An alliance is brewing.

After the credits, Todoroki approaches Izuku and Bakugo, telling them that if they don’t have other options, why not join him at his dad’s agency? STUDIO BONES, STOP PUTTING THESE IMPORTANT SCENES AFTER THE CREDITS!!!

 

This was a fun episode, but a bit choppy. It’s been a while since we’ve seen this situation, but it’s pretty clear that the events of this episode were two one-chapter stories smooshed together to form a full episode. Which is a shame, because I’d have watched a full twenty-minute interview simulation episode as well as a full twenty-minute Christmas episode without complaining. The interview section was just a good lore info dump, with Mt. Lady telling the kids and we the viewers how early hero interviews are handles. I like that it seems to be as much about showing off powers as it is answering questions. I’d probably actually watch those. And it’s good to know going forward there will be greater emphasis on power use just to basically put the public at ease that the kids have what it takes. Izuku being the most wooden speaker is pretty much what I expected, as it’ is exact polar opposite to All Might’s effortless charisma. I’m sure he’ll get better. And the Christmas party section was just a fun moment for the kids to relax and enjoy each other’s company. Eri’s addition was cute, but again, infuriating because this six-year-old doesn’t understand holidays due to a bastard guardian. I sniggered to myself pretty hard with the repeated attempts to get Bakugo into the holiday spirit. They know it’s an uphill battle, but still worth it just to see him in the hat for a few seconds. And obviously it end with that big tease the Izuku, Bakugo and Todoroki are all going to work together for Endeavor. After being benched for so long, the big three fan favorite boys are moving up in the world together. Or so I think. Next time, we’re going to talk about Moon Knight or Dr. Strange. I’m still deciding which. Have a good night.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 100

 Wow, I've been talking about My Hero Academia a lot if I'm at 100 episodes...

Last time on My Hero Academia, the final battle of the final match really got going. Izuku, still not at a hundred percent after his vision quest still elected to take on Shinzo alone while the rest of his team handled the rest of 1B. Uraraka captured and jailed Monoma, who used a delayed release of his copy of Shoda’s “double impact” quirk to really ring Izuku’s bell as he closed in on Shinzo. The two clashed, but Izuku ended up throwing him to the ground and capturing him. Meanwhile, with Uraraka’s help, the other three members o f 1B were taken down and 1A was declared the winner. In the later evaluations Izuku gave a really half assed explanation about what happened with his quirk, IE, he just said he didn’t know but he’ll work on it. And everyone just rolls with it. … Kay. Shinzo was disheartened by not doing as well against Izuku as he’d hoped but won’t let that discourage him and vowed to keep reaching toward his goal. Enough recap let’s get to it.

 

Hard work rewarded.

We begin with Izuku complimenting Shinzo at how fast he’s gotten the hang of the capture scarf. He laments the fact that Shinzo ended up showing off how much his non-quirk-based skills have improved, while his quirk was the one that put almost everyone in danger. Aizawa tells him he hit the nail on the head and needs to work on that. Vlad King says that there’s still a lot of things to analyze, but, based on the performance he saw today, he thinks it’ll be very likely that Shinzo will be allowed to join the Hero Course in his second year. Woo, High Fives all around. I’ll note that Vlad doesn’t say anything ominous or dire about anyone being dropped to give him the spot, so maybe Horikoshi decided that was a dumb idea and dropped it. Everyone is excited about Shinzo joining, with the hard heads Kirishima and Tetsutetsu asking who gets him, but they haven’t thought that far ahead yet. Ashido asks if Mineta could be punished for being a perv and things spiral off from there.

 

That dick Monoma, trying to somehow spin this situation in his favor, says his team did the best with the info available. Had he known Izuku’s power was a “Blank” (aka a power he couldn’t copy for some reason) they’d have come up with a better strategy and won. Vlad King is clearly also annoyed with this behavior and tells him to shut up. Aizawa asks Monoma to meet him tomorrow for a special project with Eri.

 

We cut over to Eri, who is studying how to write with Togata. She’s writing letters to him and Izuku to thank them for helping her and to express how happy she is now. Eri is too precious for this world, and given the opportunity, I’d take Overhaul’s hands again myself. There, I said it.

 

That night, Izuku and Bakugo are training with All Might to try to get Izuku’s new quirk to trigger. And by train, I mean Bakugo attacks him relentlessly and tries to make him do it. All Might tells them to stop when it’s clear it isn’t working and they re-strategize. Izuku notes that he’s feeling more or less like he did before the match and isn’t feeling the Blackwhip anymore. We flash back to the meeting they had immediately after the matches. They have tea and Izuku gives both All Might and Bakugo the info he knows about Blackwhip and the 5^th wielder. All Might is just as confused by this, as he never had any interactions with the previous wielders beyond the initial vision. Not too shocking he wouldn’t know the 5^th, though, as All Might was the 8^th and it seems likely that OFA wielders don’t give up the power until the tail end of their career. Assume 15 to 20 years per wielder and we’re looking at a 60ish year gap between 5 and 8. All Might is concerned about OFA one changing suddenly. Bakugo, upon hearing that the previous wielder told Izuku “now is the time,” wonders if maybe AFO’s activities somehow triggered OFA’s evolution. All Might is also worried about this, and we cut back to the fight.

 

Bakugo is adamant that if he just hit’s Izuku enough the power will trigger. I think he’s just projecting again. Izuku remembers feeling that he won’t be able to use that power for a while, and wonders if maybe he somehow mentally locked it away with that thought. As the quirk vanished right as he thought that. Izuku tries to think of how to do that, but Bakugo interrupts, as if he can’t fight Izuku he’s bored and thus out. He tells Izuku to also stop talking out loud because it gives him the creeps. Like… he’s a jerk but not exactly wrong. All Might tells him to call it a day and Izuku agrees.

 

Some are relaxing, Ashido is doing God's work in
correcting Mineta.

Back at the dorm, Tetsutetsu hits Kirishima for saying that he thinks Tetsutetsu is manlier than him because he showed off his power more in the exam. Tetsutetsu tells him that’s stupid, as because in his shifted form he has greater tolerance for temperature extremes, but Kirishima’s is better at taking hits. They both agree they’re equally manly. Iida runs over to tell Izuku they’re having stew and doing a little social with the 1B students. We’re shown all the kids having fun with members of the other class, and what seems to be Mineta in a headgear like from A Clockwork Orange and being given aversion therapy by Ashido. Guess that boob touch was the last straw for her. Todoroki comes up to Izuku and asks about Izuku about having a second quirk like him. Todoroki wonders if Izuku had actually been holding back against him in their Sports Festival match if Izuku had two powers, but Izuku explains that he just found out about it today. Bakugo, overhearing this, wonders how Todoroki can be so sharp and yet so dull at the same time.

 

We cut over to Endeavor. He’s got a criminal by the face, but isn’t really paying attention to him. Why? Because Shoto texted him and asked about getting more training. He’s obviously overjoyed by this turn of events.

 

The next day, the teachers have a meeting about Shinzo. They agree about the promotion and Mr. Nezu tells them that he’ll handle the paperwork so they can focus on teaching. Present Mic follows Aizawa out and teases his friend about finding a “miniature Aizawa” as Shinzo reminds him of Aizawa in his emo phase. Or maybe not. He asks if the extra training isn’t about someone named Shirakumo, but Aizawa tells him to either say something direct or drop it, and so Present Mic drops it.

 

Damn it, Monoma, the one time you'd be useful.

We cut to Izuku, Togeta and Eri meeting up with that dick Monoma. She immediately has his number and calls him a “bad guy.” Smart girl. Togeta explains that he told her there are people that suck at UA and Monoma is one of them. Way to parent, Togeta. Before things escalate, Aizawa comes up and asks them all to come with him to work on this project. Inside, Monoma copies Eri’s power, growing his own forehead horn. When asked, though, unfortunately he dubs the power a Blank. When asked why he needed to copy Eri’s power and what a Blank is, Monoma explains. I explained this last time, but Monoma’s quirk copies abilities at their base level. Izuku and Eri’s are powers that are “stockpile” based. The power builds and builds overtime until they can unleash it at full power. Monoma doesn’t realize how close he came to having his limbs blown off when he copied OFA. Aizawa explains that he’d hoped that Monoma could copy Eri’s power because he worried that if her power returns suddenly, she might lose control again and rampage. He thought that maybe Monoma could train with the quirk and then train Eri to use it better when that time came. But obviously that’s not happening. Eri apologizes for things that aren’t her fault, and Izuku perks her up by reminding her she saved him with her power. He tells her powers aren’t good or evil, it’s how you use them. Izuku resolves to remember that with OFA as well, since he’d been nervous since realizing how closely his power is tied to AFO.

 

Sometime later, the first snows hit Japan and the kids try to enjoy themselves. We learn that Todoroki and Bakugo are at their last Provisional License class and that they hope that they’ll be back with their provisional license soon. They watch the news and we see a tidbit about a company expanding into hero support.

 

We cut over to a group of villains riding a wave, literally and robbing people. We cut over to All Might in a car with Bakugo and Todoroki. The two students have just passed their last provisional license make up class and are itching to use their new authority. All Might hesitantly lets them off the leash. Todoroki stops the water with his usual ice blast, and Bakugo blows them away with an explosion. The villains aren’t out just yet. The lead crook mentions that his team spent months planning this to optimize a route that was outside of any hero patrol to get the most end of the year loot, like this information will somehow get the two to back off. Bakugo says it best “Get a real job!” The Bubbler, his power allows him to control carbonation, and his crew try to flee, but Bakugo knocks the most of them out in a few blasts. The Bubbler uses his gauntlets to fire streams of carbonated water at Bakugo, but he loses control and starts whipping bubbly water all over the place. A bystander is almost hit, but All Might knocker her out of the way, and Bakugo knocks the debris that almost hit them both aside a moment later. The Bubbler keeps blasting, and Todoroki decides enough his enough. He uses his new finisher, Flashfreeze Heatwave! To knock the Bubbler out. Bakugo and Todoroki compare notes on the situation as All Might and a local hero named Slidin’ Go arrive. Todoroki reports they caught all the crooks, and Bakugo was able to get the loot out of the way before Todoroki’s big finisher, so everything’s okay. Slidin’ Go gives them a big hug and thanks them for their help. The Bubbler’s gauntlets conveniently explode, but no one is that worried about it. Huh…

 

It's good to celebrate with those you love. And hate,
in Bakugo's case.

After the credits, Bakugo and Todoroki arrive at the dorm to find the others stayed up to throw them a surprise party. Sato made cake! Bakugo flips out when Izuku expresses excitement that they can work together, so things are about what you’d expect.

 

This was a fine wrap up episode to the Matches arc. Shinzo got his big reward, and I hope this means he’ll be brought into the large cast at some point. I really like his whole deal about using his sinister seeming ability for the greater good and his desire to fight Izuku for real again. He’s like Krillin in the early days of Dragonball, a bit of a dick but earnest in trying to improve. I liked seeing Izuku begin to work out how to use his latest power. The fact it responds to his emotions is a bit cliché but necessary plot device. If he just got Blackwhip at full power what would even be the point of training arcs? It was interesting to see Aizawa’s thought process about Eri and know that he is trying to figure out a way to help the precious angel if her powers ever get out of control again. And getting some details on Monoma’s version of copy is useful. Good to know they’re limits even to a traditionally pretty broken power like copying other people’s skills. And it was nice to see Bakugo and Todoroki get to strut their stuff after being benched for a good chunk of the lasts few arcs. They’re time away gave other sidelined characters like Kirishima and Tsu time to shine, but I’ve missed our boys. And there was a nice bit of foreshadowing here, but more on that when it’s relevant. So yeah, a fun episode. Next time, it’s Christmas in April (at time of writing.) Have a good night. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 99

 Izuku unleashes his new power.

Last time on My Hero Academia, Izuku and his team got a chance to strut their stuff. While the non-main characters of class 1A fought the background characters of 1B, Izuku faced off against that dick Monoma. Having gotten tips from Shinzo as to what things press Izuku’s buttons, he started bad mouthing Bakugo and blame him for All Might’s retirement. This was a ploy to get Izuku to say something and potentially get caught in Shinzo’s brainwashing. Izuku got pissed, and suddenly his power began to pulse. His body released black whips that rampaged about, destroying the field as well as throwing Izuku around. Uraraka leaped on her friend to try to calm him down, but it doesn’t work. Shinzo, wanting to help Izuku and fight him for real, asks Izuku to fight him already. Izuku agrees, triggering Brainwashing. When he’s in a trance, he’s greeted by one of the previous One For All wielders, the 5^th. He informs Izuku that remnants of the powers of the previous users reside in OFA and are beginning to manifest in him. He warns Izuku that he needs to keep his calm if he wants to use his new powers right. Izuku returns to the waking world by being slapped by Uraraka. While the rampage is over, the fight continues… because. Let’s see the battle continue, shall we?

 

As a reminder, this match is Izuku Midoriya (One-For-All based super strength), Ochako Uraraka (make things float with a five-finger touch), Mina Ashido (shoots acid), and Minoru Mineta (rapidly grows super sticky balls from his head) vs. Neito Monoma (copy’s quirks with a touch for a limited time), Nirengeki Shoda (if he can strike a target he can make the point of contact experience a second, stronger impact), Reiko Yanagi (essentially telekinesis), and Yui Kodai (alter the size of non-living objects) with Hitoshi Shinzo (Brainwash people if they answer him).

 

After a quick recap of the situation, we join the teachers watching the fight from up close and Aizawa electing to wait to watch the match continue. Vlad is skeptical, but Aizawa wants to see what happens. He swears that if it happens again, he’ll shut Izuku down and bring him to the infirmary himself. But until then, this is a test and everyone wants to see how they’ll stack up against each other.

 

Impressive fight face.

Izuku gets pulled over by Shinzo’s sharp tug, making him lose the scarf. Uraraka is extremely confused as to how that happened when she knows her green-haired partner has literal super strength. Izuku says he won’t use his power if he’s not sure he can control it. She says they should fall back, but Izuku knows they’ll lose if he retreats. He’s going to fight Shinzo and the others will face off against the rest. Ashido and Mineta are holding their own against the others, Mineta actually leaping into the path of a flying object to protect her. He mentally explains that, while he did spread his sticky balls around the field to be used as traps, because he’s unaffected by them, they double as highly springy trampolines for him. Allowing the little bastard to rocket around the field at high speed with relative ease. He then immediately ruins it by purposely hitting Ashido’s boob. She whips him around and throws him at his balls, turning the little pervert into a living projectile, bouncing around everyone at high speed.

 

The students watching from 1A are impressed with their classmates fighting style, while the 1B kids point out that because the girls on their team are range combat types, Shoda is having to do most of the work, making their numbers advantage kind of moot.

 

Doing Gunhead proud.

Uraraka blocks an attack by that dick Monoma. He mentally reiterates that he knows he’s not ‘protagonist’ material, and how he doesn’t resent his power because of it. He’s copied OFA and goes to Izuku. Uraraka gets in the way, tackling him to the ground with her martial arts. She tells him that Monoma was obviously bluffing, so he should get back. Monoma, on the other hand, reveals that he did take the power, but it’s not activating right. He dubs it a ‘Blank.’ This gets explained later, I believe, but a weakness of Monoma’s power is that if the ability he’s copying is based off build up or stored energy, while he has the power, he doesn’t have the reserve. So, while he copied One For All, he’s got it at it’s most base level, where it was just a power that could be transferred and increase in power. Wah wah waahhh.

 

Shinzo tries to save Monoma, but Izuku grabs the scarf when it’s thrown that way and, thanks to Uraraka’s zero gravity, flies up and tackles Shinzo. This knocks his mask off, too. They begin fighting.

 

Gotta love upgrades.

Aizawa flashes back to helping Shinzo practicing with the capture cloth. Initially, he had a lot of trouble with it, and asks Aizawa if it’s even possible for him to master something that it took Aizawa six years to. Aizawa says that he can, since he has tutelage, and gives him the encouraging words that he doesn’t help hopeless cases. Shinzo easily whips the scarf around, wrapping some pipes in it and ripping them down to fall on Izuku. Izuku, initially hesitant, realizes his quirk isn’t rampaging anymore and believes it’s due to the 5^th’s words. He’s able to manifest his black whips and grab the pipes in midair. Kid is a quick study. Though saying he needs “to control (his) heart” makes him sound like a Kingdom Hearts character.

 

The teachers prepare to stop Izuku, but All Might stops them, telling them that he thinks something is different.

 

Shinzo backs up and grabs his mask, telling Izuku to stop trying to trick him, if the early rampage was a trick. Izuku loses his focus, the whips dissipating and he now feels numb inside. Izuku believes that he can’t control the enhanced version of Blackwhip with only 20% of OFA. Guess it’s going in the “emergency use” pile like OFA’s superstrength feature initially was. Shinzo runs off while Izuku recovers. He resolves to sticking to use his power at 8% and chases after Shinzo.

 

He remembers his team resolving to stopping Izuku himself, and apologizes for having to abandon Monoma, but resolves to not let it end like this. Meanwhile, Uraraka is floating a captured Monoma to the cage. He’s trying to resist, but she’s too quick for Poltergeist to be much use against her. She thinks that it’s been about five minutes, so he’s nearly out of power, but he reveals that he’s increased his limit to ten minutes. She’s not talking to him in case he has brainwashing too. He explains that, while he can only use one quirk at a time, if he used an effect that changes an object, the change remains even if he uses a different quirk. He mentions specifically that changing the size of things is particularly useful, as he’s floated into 1A’s cage. She shuts the cage on him, implying that when he ends an effect it’ll be the end for Izuku. She rushes to try to help him, but is reminded that he asked her to help the others out and not worry about him. She runs back toward the others.

 

As Shinzo is leaping away, Izuku begins to catch up. But, at the last second, Monoma releases the effect he’d been holding, double impact. Izuku, who’d been hit in the face earlier by the guy, gets rocked a second time and drops. I feel like using an ability once captured is cheating but moving on. Izuku starts dropping. He prepares to grab Izuku. The tide is turning against Mineta and Ashido. Izuku, though, powers back up and charges Shinzo. And, at the same time, Uraraka takes out the 1B girls, allowing Ashido to slip up to Shoda and attack him directly as well. Nice teamwork.

 

Izuku tackle and pins him. He’s frustrated because he wanted to show off how much he improved to Izuku. He compares his progress to crawling while everyone else is leaping forward. He, Shoda, and Yanagi join Monoma in the cage, while Kodai is stuck to a pillar, naming 1A the winners of the final match.

 

Midnight mc’s the final results, with Jiro and Hagakure holding up a sign praising her unbiased commentary behind her. It ended up being 3 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw in favor of Class 1A. Shinzo expresses frustration to Aizawa at not being able to face Izuku properly. He asks if the test was also his test if he was ready to transfer into the hero course. Aizawa tells him it was, and tells him to rejoin his team so they can critique him.

 

Solid work by everyone here.

Aizawa asks what was happening to Izuku. Izuku tells the truth, he doesn’t know what happened and he’s trying to figure it out. I feel like that’s really dodging the question on how a strongman suddenly started doing something other than be a brawler, but what are you going to do? Uraraka gets complimented for so valiantly leaping to save Izuku, with Ashido somewhat sinisterly teasing her friend for “hugging him real hard.” She goes bright red, kind of proving to everyone that Ashido hit the nail on the head. Aizawa is impressed with her reacting more or less on instinct and compliments her for her growth. Shinzo admits that he was at least working in part on Uraraka’s orders, and the other was from a selfish desire to stop Izuku to fight him for real. He starts babbling about how he was working so hard just to keep up, to which Aizawa strangles him a little to shut him up and tell him that that’s all anyone asked of him. He tells Shinzo that he did well enough to get a passing grade. Shinzo says that he’s not satisfied with just passing, and Aizawa tells him to move forward with a “plus ultra” mentality.

 

This was a solid end to Izuku and Shinzo’s fight. Sure, I wish they could have had a true one on one battle, but that’s not going to happen again until another tournament arc. While those are frequent in shonen anime, they aren’t THAT frequent. Even Dragon Ball went a few years between tournaments and that was like half the original premise. And the fight went about as well as could be expected with Shinzo having a new weapon to use in his capture scarf, and Izuku being pretty stunned by his new power. Shinzo obviously isn’t going to be able to beat Izuku in a head-to-head fight, their powers are incompatible for that kind of fight, so unless he can sneak up on him and trick him into responding to him, he’s basically a normal dude vs. a tank. No one expects him to win, but he did a damn good job. I still think Monoma cheated with that last hit, but that’s just me. I liked that Uraraka chose to do as Izuku asked rather than ignore it to help him because of her own worries. That shows a level of trust that I like, and it obviously paid off as her team was seconds away from getting caught. Her and Izuku stood a much worse chance against the four-remaining class Bers than four on four. I do think it was odd that everyone just kind of breezed over Izuku having multiple powers. In this world, that kind of set up seems to be non-existent outside of AFO and those he’s manipulated. Sure, you might have someone like Todoroki, but manipulating Fire and Ice are both elemental based powers. He’s in the same spectrum. While Izuku has been a strongman, (ie, superhuman strength, endurance, and agility) this whole time. Sure, energy sparks of him when he uses his power, but that’s hardly indicative of making them into manipulatable whips. Just weird they let it drop like that. I laughed at the continued “Uraraka likes Izuku, and everyone knows it except him” joke, as that’s the kind of shonen joke that never gets old to me. And I hope Shinzo gets to transfer. We’ll find out next time. Have a good night!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 98

 Izuku and co step up to the plate.

Last time on My Hero Academia , Team Bakugo entered the field. While their opponents put up a valiant effort, they made the miscalculation of assuming Bakugo would be a totally solo act. While Bakugo did do most of the heavy lifting, his team consisting of Sero, Sato and Jiro backed him up beautifully. They got a flawless victory in under five minutes. Izuku and his team are up next. They’re facing off against the class 1B team augmented by Shinzo. They’re in for a hell of a fight. Let’s get to it.

 

Go. Away. Monoma. No one likes you.

The match is Izuku Midoriya (One-For-All based super strength), Ochako Uraraka (make things float with a five-finger touch), Mina Ashido (shoots acid), and Minoru Mineta (rapidly grows super sticky balls from his head) vs. Neito Monoma (copy’s quirks with a touch for a limited time), Nirengeki Shoda (if he can strike a target he can make the point of contact experience a second, stronger impact), Reiko Yanagi (essentially telekinesis), and Yui Kodai (alter the size of non-living objects) with Hitoshi Shinzo (Brainwash people if they answer him). On with the show.

 

We open at the Tartarus high security prison where All For One (AFO) is being held. He sets off a motion sensor by fidgeting, making it clear they haven’t lessened security on him. The guards watching him are worried about what will happen if any off his followers attempt to free him and want the court system to get on with sentencing him. Seemingly sensing their conversation, he cordially apologizes for causing them trouble. He claims that the “memories” are causing his body to throb with pain. He apparently saw/is seeing the same vision that Izuku did the night before, and he states that he can hear his little brother’s voice.

 

At the actual Match, All Might gets a call from Gran Torino. His mentor wanted to talk to him about the vision that Izuku had. He’d remembered a conversation that he’d had with Nana, All Might’s predecessor, shortly after she inherited the power. She told him about the start of same dream that Izuku had had. Shadowy figures appearing before her in the dreamscape. The difference was that the original OFA wielder had said that “the time had not yet come,” and that’s the last she saw of it. All Might thanks him for the update and returns to the match.

 

Izuku leaps ahead of his team to scout for his team. He’s resolved to not get brainwashed, as his team would be seriously boned if they lost their only combat member.

 

At the same time, 1B has broken into two groups, Monoma, and Shinzo in one, and the other three in the other. Monoma seems to be trying to bond with over the fact that their powers were initially labeled as “not suitable” for hero work, but Shinzo seems to only be half listening. Monoma compliments him for brainwashing Izuku, and goes on about how guys like them need to embrace the “darker” side to be taken seriously as heroes.

 

The students watching note that Izuku’s team matchup is like Bakugo’s, but Sero and Jiro point out that they’re missing a scouting specialist, so they’ll have to move more cautiously.

 

Izuku travels out ahead and tries to lure 1B to him. He’s attacked by a flying barrel. He assumes at first Yanagi using her “poltergeist” quirk (it’s pretty much literally telekinesis but with a purple glow) but finds it’s actually Monoma with her power. He starts verbally abusing Izuku, laying out that his team’s plan is actually to go after his teammates as that would have been the strategy to beat Bakugo last time. His taunts and verbal jabs are attempts to get Izuku to react, but our green haired protagonist reasons that Monoma possibly copied Shinzo’s quirk too, so that’d be stupid. Izuku, just hit him with air bullets! Which he does try. Monoma dodges and launches debris at Izuku with poltergeist again.

 

Meanwhile, Uraraka, Mineta and Ashido are setting up a defensive perimeter. Using a long rope Mineta brought with, covered in his sticky balls, they set up a sort of alarm system. The rope starts shaking and debris comes at them. Ashido leaps out in front and melts in. We cut over to Shoda, who has 1A up on a targeting screen. We learn that Yanagi’s power has a weight limitation of an average person, so she’s not going to be dropping a building on anyone. They work around this by using Kodai’s power, which lets her manipulate the size of objects. She shrinks the objects down, allowing Yanagi to manipulate heavier objects than normal, and then releases her effect to return them to normal, to rain heavy debris on them. I should point out that making something smaller doesn’t really reduce it’s mass, it just compacts it, but we’re just going to move on. Uraraka leaps around, touching objects to make them lighter, but then Shoda uses his power to make the objects drop and hit twice as hard. They prepare for another assault.

 

Oh, no that's no good. 

Izuku is still fighting with Monoma. That dick starts bad mouthing Bakugo, trying to get Izuku to react by targeting his frenemy, and blaming Bakugo for the end of All Might. Something… pulses in Izuku. Suddenly, black energy highlighted in green erupt from Izuku’s hands. As All Might watches, he imagines hearing Nana saying “The time has not yet come,” and realizing that some 40 years later, it actually has. The energy pulses off Izuku, but he can’t seem to control it. The energy attacks Monoma, who dodges by riding on some nuts and bolts he’s manipulating telekinetically. Izuku’s pulled into the side of a building by his tentacles, crashing hard. Shinzo is told to go for it, but Izuku tells him to run as he can’t control his new power. The whips get even bigger, exploding out from Izuku and attacking everyone. And throwing Izuku around like he’s the end of a mace. All Might tells the teachers to stop the match.

 

An earnest desire to battle pulls Izuku out. ...
plus brainwashing.

Izuku tries to force the power to work for him, but the energy is raging around him. Uraraka leaps at him, grabs onto him and tells him to calm down. Uraraka has a flashback to her childhood and remembers how her parents always looked tired. She remembered the first time she saw a live hero brawl, she was more impressed by how her parents and the spectators reacted than the fight itself. The happy looks are what mattered to her, and what got her to want to be a hero. She remembers all the times Izuku leapt into danger and asked “who protects the heroes when they’re hurting most.” She holds onto him tight and asks Shinzo to use his power on Izuku to stop him. He lets us know that this rematch with Izuku was something he’d been looking forward to, and how badly he wanted to show Izuku how he improved. He takes off his mask and calls out to Izuku in his real voice “Midoriya, Stop playing around and fight me!” Izuku says “OKAY!” and the whips retract into his body.

 

Izuku is going to develop a thing about muscelly
men yelling at him. 

Izuku returns to the dreamscape, this time with more of his arms manifesting. A man appears before him, the fifth wielder of OFA. He yells at Izuku and tells him to start thinking more. He can’t use his power casually anymore. Izuku realizes that this is some kind of manifestation of his predecessors, not a ghost, not a memory, but somehow a bit of the old users is living within the quirk. 5^th’s time starts running out and he begins to fade. He tells Izuku that this new Quirk was his. He explains that each of the previous users added a bit of their own physical power as well as a bit of their own Quirks into the core that is One For All. For some reason, it’s beginning to grow and this is allowing Izuku to tap into his predecessors quirks. 5^th explains that because he was dead set on capturing Monoma, and that determination seemed to awaken the best quirk for the job, Blackwhip. He warns that because his power mixed with One For All, Izuku’s version of Blackwhip is going to be significantly stronger than 5^th’s. He warns Izuku that using OFA in anger will make the power react violently, so he has to keep his cool. He warns Izuku that he’ll start manifesting six more quirks as he keeps training. He tells Izuku that they’re with him, and that he’ll be the one to complete OFA.

 

Izuku to save the day.

In the waking world, Uraraka, concerned for her not-boyfriend boy friend, slaps him to wake him up. He does, finding the two of them floating. He’s worried he’ll hurt them, but she tells him Shinzo used Brainwashing to stop him. He’s concerned that he hurt her, but as he goes to cup her face and probably earn more romance points, that DICK Monoma shows up again and attacks. Izuku is shoved over and drops down a section. Uraraka tries to use her martial arts, but he dodges away with some poltergeist debris. He announces the fight isn’t over, and now all 1B are now attacking him. Thankfully, Ashido and Mineta (can’t believe I said that) arrive and it becomes an all-out brawl. Izuku remembering 5^th’s advice to control his heart, vows not to hurt anyone again. Shinzo goes to attack Uraraka with his scarf, but Izuku blocks him. The homeroom teachers and All Might arrive, but Aizawa says they’re going to see how this plays out. Neat, the match continues.

 

I’ll start by complementing the 1B students. Sure, it’s super convenient that Shoda’s targeting tech and damage enhancement ability, Kodai’s size manipulation, and Yanagi’s form of telekinesis work so well together, but the effect is impressive enough that I’m wiling to look passed it. Also, shout out for Shoda’s tech having a Saiyan style scouter. They’re powers combined were a good way to keep Uraraka and the others down while Izuku faced off against Monoma. That dick’s dick personality was great for poking at Izuku emotions and get him to react big enough to trigger his next stage of power. Oh, and that explosion of power was amazing. I think it’s telling that the first of Izuku’s enhanced power set he unlocked was a means of capturing people at a distance. The 5^th seems like an intense dude, I hope we’ll see him again sometime. This next brawl is going to be intense, me thinks. I also liked getting that little bit of insight into Uraraka’s mindset. She wants to be a big pro to help her parent’s financially, but also to bring joy to people. Good girl, Ochako Uraraka. Next time, the battle continues. Have a good night!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 97

 Bakugo is on a whole new kind of warpath. 

Last time on My Hero Academia , round 3 ended. Despite the best efforts of Iida, Todoroki, Shoji and Ojiro, things didn’t go swimmingly. They were able to capture one of their opponents, Kaibara, due to Iida’s improved speed, but lost Ojiro later. The combined efforts of Todoroki and Iida stopped Tetsutetsu and Honenuki respectively but were taken out in return by their last combined attack, dropping a building on a retreating Iida. In the end, the match was a draw, as 1B’s final member, Pony, kept her and her unconscious teammates out of Shoji, the last man standing on 1A, long enough for the clock to run out. Todoroki and Iida, despite being depressed at the draw, resolve to do better, and Honenuki compliments them at being such tough opponents. That dick Monoma sung the praises of Setsuna Tokage, one of their “got in on recommendation” student just as match 4 starts. Let’s get to it.

 

It's a pretty solid team.

This match consists of Katsuki Bakugo (explosive punches), Kyoka Jiro (extendable earlobe jacks), Sero (fires tape from his elbows) and Sato (super strength based on sugar intake) vs. Setsuna Tokage (can break her body into multiple, manipulatable pieces), Kojiro Bando (releases glue from his face), Togaru Kamakiri (can grow blades out of his body), and Yosetsu Awase (can weld things together with a touch).

 

We open with Jiro trying pinpoint their opponents using her earphone jacks and Sero setting up tape traps all over the field. Bando, the dude with the weird head, notes that that combination could be particularly problematic for them. They’re also worried about Bakugo and Sato’s attack strength, but Tokage seems confident in their plan for an all out assault.

 

Vlad keeps up with the biased commentary, and while the students are super pissed, Aizawa tells his kids to stop whining and start strategizing. That dick Monoma is mean again, but Kendo is finally back, so she knocks him out and drags him away. All Might compliments how 1B has improved but is very eager to see how 1A handles things, particularly Bakugo.

 

On the field, Bakugo is doing his semi-rocket flying thing while Sato runs behind him.  He’s pissed, shockingly, that the rest of his team are having trouble keeping up. What do you know, a pseudo-Spider-Man and two runners have trouble keeping up with someone who can for all intents and purposes fly, who’d a thought it? Jiro is also trying to keep up on recon duty which is hard to do on the move.

 

This is horrifying.

We flashback to the planning, where Bakugo told his underlings (his words) to just follow his lead. He’ll lead the charge into the fight, and they will follow. Pretty simple orders, I guess. Also, we confirm once again that Bakugo still doesn’t know anyone’s name, referring to Jiro as Ears. Sero suggests that maybe they should hold back and play defensively, but Bakugo calls him an idiot as that’s what the other team expects them to do. He give them all grenades, and they move out. There’s “one more thing” but we cut out before we hear what it is.

 

They spot movement, and Bakugo orders “Ears” to start listening for movement. She picks up noise of movement, but it’s way too much for four people. We’re shown dozens of shapeless blobs hitting things, generating a lot of noise. Jiro gets that it’s a trap just as it’s sprung. Tokage opens the attack. As I stated earlier, her ability is to break herself down into individual pieces that she can manipulate remotely. So, dozens of pieces of flying Tokage fly toward Bakugo to attack him. She’s broken herself down into 50 fragments that circle around Bakugo. Sero, Sato and Jiro fall back and set up a tape perimeter. Tokage announces that that’s checkmate, and Bando unleashes a bunch of glue at them. The glue coats most of Sero’s tape, trapping them all in the center of what’s essentially a big spider web. Kamakiri slices a bunch of the landscape, dropping metal and shrapnel down on the trio.

 

Tokage reforms and pats herself on the back for her plan. She personally stopped Jiro’s tracking to let her people sound them, and now with glue covered debris falling on their heads, one touch and their caught. Sato prepares to sacrifice himself to save the others, but Bakugo leaps in to knock the rubble away. When Kamakiri leaps in to attack Jiro, Bakugo whips back around and intercepts the attack. He fires an explosion Kamakiri’s face, definitely would have killed him, but instead just knocks him back. The rest of the team remembers Bakugo’s “one more thing” which was a promise from him that he’ll protect his team if they’re in danger. He chases down Kamakiri and blows him back farther. Jiro thanks him, but he tells her to shut it and search. He claims that he made a decision that their victory would be flawless, so that’s what it’ll be. Got to give Katsuki credit for confidence if nothing else. Jiro starts searching as Bakugo claims that people with real power can have a perfect match, four captures, no injuries.

 

Monoma has a bit of freak out at seeing Bakugo going whole hog on protecting his team.

 

1B fall back and begin to recalibrate their strategy now they know that Bakugo is actively trying to protect his team. Tokage says they’ll do hit-and-run ambushes repeatedly until they get a capture. She keeps on hitting things with her fragments to distract Jiro’s tracking. Tokage reveals that the new plan is to try to overwhelm Bakugo until he makes a mistake. Bakugo sees Bando and goes after him.  He’s lead into an ambush by Awase. Remember him? He’s the dude that stuck the tracker to the Nomu during the summer training camp. He throws up a bunch of bits of metal and uses his power to quickly weld Bakugo into place. Awase runs off. Bakugo screams in what seems like impotent rage, but then Sato runs up, breaking Bakugo’s bonds and some of his gear to get him free. He angrily chases after Awase. He throws up a shield to protect himself from a Bakugo blast. Sero and Jiro follow him, and when the smoke clears, Jiro moves her speakers into place and uses her signature attack, broadcasting her heartbeat through the speakers, to bombard Awase with soundwaves. We get a little more to Bakugo’s “one more thing,” where in exchange for him protecting his team when they’re in danger, they damn well better protect him too. The noise shatters Awase’s gear and leaves him stunned.

 

Tokage sees Bakugo fly off and tries to catch him, but he’s too fast. He catches Bando and bombards him with explosions. He claims that it too him a bit to adjust to fighting in colder temperatures, but he’s finally warmed up. Bando is grabbed by Sero, and Awase is grabbed by Jiro and Sero. Monoma and Tokage are both shocked by the shift in strategy with Bakugo. While he still does his own thing most of the time, he now works with his teammates incredibly well. They support his rogue nature. It’s the “Wolverine is in charge” strategy and it works pretty well for them. Tokage had hoped they could find a small opening in their strategy and pick at it until they overwhelm 1A, but Bakugo and the others have way more synergy than they expected. Case in point, Bakugo and Sero working together to overwhelm and capture Kamakiri, throwing him into a wall. Sero follows after Kamakiri and tapes him up.

 

Sugar-Man grapple!

Sero is the one that informs us about the basic mechanics of Tokage’s body quirk. She breaks herself down into smaller pieces that move independently from her. After a few minutes, the pieces lose whatever momentum drives them, drop, disintegrate and then Tokage’s main mass regenerates the piece. He assumes that there’s a limit to how much she can regenerate, so he’s been leaping around, taping piece down to try to force her to regenerate more, thus exhausting herself and forcing Tokage to call back pieces of herself early to try to mitigate some of that exhaustion. She pulls a piece back to her, which Sero had planted a grenade on. It goes off as it reaches her. She dodges that blast, but flies right into Bakugo. She asks how Bakugo could change this much as he hits her pointblank. He says he hasn’t changed, he’s still the kid focusing on surpassing All Might. The implication here being that he now knows what it means to surpass the symbol of piece. The match ended in less than five minutes and was indeed a flawless victory.

 

After the match, Aizawa compliments his team. He was impressed by their synergy like everyone else was. Vlad tells his students to buck up, as their strategy was the right one given their previous experience with Bakugo, but there problem was ultimately that they didn’t try to deviate from the plan when it was obviously going wrong. As Bakugo and his team return to the others, Kaminari runs up and congradulates “Kacchan” for finally learning to play nice. Bakugo reaches All Might, who tells him that he gave the old hero chills, but Bakugo blows the compliment off as he often does. Izuku goes to talk to him, to which Bakugo immediately yells “Out of my way,” to which Izuku counters “I’m not even in front of you, so what does that mean?” Bakugo claims he’s pushing ahead and tries to egg Izuku on to follow him. They have officially shifted more to the friend end of frenemy, me thinks.

 

That dick Monoma is clearly freaked out by the situation that his team needs to win for his class to get a draw. He tries to put a brave face on the situation, but no one is buying it. His team is planning to use strategy and sneak attacks to capitalize on their more technical quirks. One of the more background students, Yanagi, says that Izuku is spooky. This confuses Shinzo, but one of the other students, Shoda, explains that she likes spooky things, so I guess that means she’s into Izuku. Huh. The students analyze Izuku’s growth and say that he’s like Bakugo, if not slightly more versatile than him. They plan to focus on and try to overwhelm him. Seems pretty smart, as he’s the heaviest combatant on his team. Shinzo thinks they might be able to take him out using a combination of his brainwashing and Monoma’s copy power, but Monoma does point out that he might be a “blank.” This means that, for whatever reason, he might not be able to copy Izuku’s quirk at all. Interesting.

 

The teachers discuss the final match. Aizawa points out that this’ll be Shinzo’s last chance to show off his skills and prove if he’s capable of transferring into the hero course. While his first showing was impressive, this next one is kind of more important in a way, as now his powers are a known quantity and no one will be underestimating them.

Final match start!

 

1A head to their match. Mineta thinks they should focus on Shinzo, but Uraraka warns against being hung up on one member. They have a moment where they realized that they might be at a disadvantage here, as 1B’s team has a lot of ranged attackers, while their team can float, melt, or stick stuff together mostly. Izuku leaps in and offers to act s the bait. Ashido asks if that’s a good idea when Izuku mentioned his Quirk acting weird before, but he thinks it’s fine now. He’s pretty sure 1B will be more careful around them than they would have been after that last match, as they won’t want to repeat the same mistakes as the previous match did with Bakugo. Izuku tells his team they can definitely win. Izuku resolves to not embarrass himself after talking with Bakugo. The episode ends as the match begins.

 

The next match is Izuku Midoriya (One-For-All based super strength), Ochako Uraraka (make things float with a five-finger touch), Mina Ashido (shoots acid), and Minoru Mineta (rapidly grows super sticky balls from his head) vs. Neito Monoma (copy’s quirks with a touch for a limited time), Nirengeki Shoda (if he can strike a target he can make the point of contact experience a second, stronger impact), Reiko Yanagi (essentially telekinesis), and Yui Kodai (alter the size of non-living objects) with Hitoshi Shinzo (Brainwash people if they answer him). Should be a neat match.

 

This episode reiterates a fairly common theme around Katsuki Bakugo. Namely, he comes across as a brawler meat head, but the dude is tactically brilliant, versatile, and an incredibly fast learner. Class 1B got points for coming up with a strategy that would have worked super well before his kidnapping, but they really didn’t have much of a chance. Special shoutout to Tokage for having such a unique and useful power. Breaking yourself down into pieces seems like it’d work really well for swarming an enemy. The 1A team worked especially well together, considering that Bakugo didn’t have his usual help from Kirishima running interference for him when he comes across as a massive tool. Or Kaminari to be his punching bag.  Jiro is probably my third favorite of the 1A girls after Uraraka and Tsu, so I love when she gets a chance to show off a little. Her getting one of the captures just felt right, and that her powers were overwhelmed but not beaten was a cool touch too. Overall, it was a very good match. Up next, we’ll see how Izuku’s crew does. Should be fun!

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 96

 Iida's a silver rocket in this one. 

Last time on My Hero Academia, round started with a bang. It was the team of Shoto Todoroki (Fire and Ice elemental), Mashirao Ojiro (Big Tail), Tenya Iida (superspeed), and Mezo Shoji (tentacle arms that can grow sense organs) vs. Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu (Metal Shifter), Pony Tsunotori (Launchable horns), Sen Kaibara (can rotate any part of his body like a drill) and Juzo Honenuki (Softens any unliving material he touches). Team 1A tried to attack aggressively, with Todoroki trying to freeze everything, but were caught off-guard by Honenuki’s softening the environment and the aggressive tactics of Tetsutetsu, Tsunotori and Kaibara. Iida was trapped in softened ground. Honenuki gloated just a little bit about having the powerful team of 1A on the defensive. Iida, realizing that this would be a pretty good situation to burst out his new skill, busted out his new upgraded Recipro Burst, Recipro Turbo. He claims that for the next ten minutes, he’s unstoppable. Let’s see how well this boast pans out, shall we?

 

High speed ice skating.

Iida rockets free of his ice prison thanks to his improved Recipro. It looks like a side effect of using the enhanced Recipro is that the pipes coming out of his muffler legs extend to an almost comical degree. He moves so fast that he admits that he can’t completely control it, but he proves to be damn near impossible to track and he hits like a freight train. After some stupidly beautifully animated attacks, Honenuki, realizing he’s screwed if he fights, softens the ground, and tries to escape. He swims through the ground, he admits that leaving Iida out to his own devices is a risk, but rationalizes that it’s a better play to try to take one of the other 1A students out first and then double up against Iida than struggle alone. Iida quickly deduces Honenuki’s plan.

 

Izuku with his trio of teammates are impressed with Iida’s speed increase. Well, he, Uraraka and Mineta are but Ashido points out they really should be focusing on Ojiro.

 

Ojiro is in a pitched fight with Kaibara. The 1B student can rotate any part of his body like a drill, so he’s laying on the damage to Ojiro and his big tail. Kaibara almost gets Ojiro, but Iida rushes in, grabs Kaibara, explains the situation and then rushes off again to capture Kaibara. The dude tries to rotate free of Iida, and when that doesn’t work, tries to attack Iida’s pride at interrupting a one-on-one fight. But Iida isn’t effected, he knows that this is how his brother would have acted so he’s at peace with his decision. So that’s one down, bit anti-climactic really.

 

Incineration time.

Tetsutetsu is brawling with Todoroki, using his steel fists to break through the ice that he keeps trying to throw up. Realizing that that isn’t working, he swaps to a fire attack, which while only slowing Tetsutetsu, forces Pony back, allowing Shoji to free himself and move. Tetsutetsu shows off that he’s pretty much immune to the heat as well, revealing that he trained in an oven to get him used to extreme heat. He gut punches Todoroki, making him remember his dad used to beat him to show off his flames. Oh, Tetsutetsu, this isn’t good for you. Todoroki raises up the heat to an absurd level, rapidly melting his ice, melting the steel around them, and shattering cameras. I feel like heat that intense would kill people pretty easily, but we’re going to ignore that. The heat is too much even for Tetsutetsu, but he is still able to keep moving, and he believes that he just needs to endure the heat long enough for it to be too much for Todoroki to keep outputting. He gets in close and starts kicking. He gives a speech about overcoming limits. That just pisses Todoroki off more, and he turns up the heat.

 

Rodeo time. Get it? Cuz her name is Pony.

Meanwhile Pony is trying to get distance, essentially skating on her flying horns for speed, when Shoji catches up to her. They face off, Pony launching horns Shoji, and Shoji using his many, many arms to catch them. She almost gets him with a behind the back attack, but he had an eye grown there to watch for that tactic and catches it. Ojiro then joins the fight, grabbing her horns, which keeps her from firing more. Before they can catch her, though, Honenuki arrives, liquifying the ground. He catches them in the mud and goes for Pony. But then Ojiro shows off his own training and uses his big ass tail to swirl the ground around and launch him and everyone else back. Honenuki is stunned when he hits a wall, but Shoji grabbed a wall just in time. Pony, though is able to launch a few more horns and stabs Ojiro’s tail. She uses all four to launch her and Ojiro back and into the cage. I guess methods don’t matter so long as he’s into their cage.

 

Todoroki is slowing down, but so is Tetsutetsu. He hears his father’s voice telling him to go beyond his limit. He focuses on a superheated punch that would take Tetsutetsu down, but at the last second Honenuki arrives, liquifies the ground and stops him. Good thing too, as Tetsutetsu drops back to human form. Todoroki gets hit by some rubble, knocking him down. Honenuki goes to harden the ground again, but Iida shoots around and kicks him in the head, shattering his helmet and probably giving him a concussion. He grabs Todoroki. Tetsutetsu says he won’t let him get away. Iida is clearly tempted to try to take out one or both of theses guys right now, but remembers Stain’s taunt and his brothers advice and elects to rescuing his teammate before fighting “villains.” Honenuki tries to hang onto consciousness, he knows their boned if he gets knocked out, so he quickly softens a tower and has Tetsutetsu punch it, knocking it over and hitting Iida. Iida was able to throw Todoroki clear, though. All four are unconscious, but it’s anyone’s game until they’re put into the jail. Iida tries to get up, but the weight is too much for him. He laments being too slow to escape.

 

Vlad keeps up with the biased commentary.

 

So many knock outs so little time.

Pony is still up, being chased by Shoji. She grabs Todoroki, and then uses two other horns to grab her teammates. She runs, knowing she’s definitely screwed if her teammates get captured or Todoroki wakes up. She knows that if she leaves her teammates behind, Shoji will capture them, giving his team the win overall, but if she doesn’t lose them, she’ll be too slow, and Shoji will grab her. Shoji goes for a grab, but she flies up out of his reach. She elects to staying up in the sky, planning to run out the clock on the exercises clock. The twenty minute time limit is hit and the match is declared a draw.

 

Everyone is kind of disappointed with the match, but Shishida does point out that evading and waiting for backup is a valid tactic. Round 3’s evaluations are put on hold while everyone recovers, and the round 4 contestants are told to get ready.

 

Far too many of these classes end in the infirmary.

Todoroki wakes up in the infirmary with Iida. Tetsutetsu, walking by, compliments Todoroki on his fire attack and says they should fight again soon. He also informs Todoroki about the draw. Iida is depressed at not being fast enough, and at not anticipating Honenuki’s tactics. Todoroki admits that he felt that he made the biggest mistake. He relies so much on that big ice attack that 1B was able to anticipate it and counter it with ease. Had he used fire, he probably could have taken them out in one attack. He takes the blame for their draw. Iida refuses to let him take the blame, as he wants to live up the Ingenium name and be a real hero. Honenuki, who’d been there the whole time behind a privacy curtain, admits to also needing to improve and hopes they’ll compete against him again. To which both agree. Recovery Girl sends them off.

 

That dick Monoma gloats about how the record is all tied up, and how soon class 1B will show its superiority. And I feel the need to point out again, this guy is a massive dick. He’s extremely confident in his class winning the next match. Why? Because while 1A has Bakugo in it, 1B has Tokage. Setsuna Tokage is one of the students that got in on a recommendation, like Todoroki and Yaoyorozu, and thus is implied to be extremely smart and powerful.

 

We hear that Bakugo’s team objecting to whatever his plan is for the round, but he’s extremely confident. He thinks to Deku to just watch him. The episode ends with match four getting told to start.

 

The next round, FYI, is between Katsuki Bakugo (Explosive hands), Kyoka Jiro (extendable earphone jack earlobes), Hanta Sero (Tape elbows), and Rikido Sato (super strength base on sugar intake) vs. Setsuna Tokage (can break her body into multiple, manipulatable pieces), Kojiro Bando (releases glue from his face), Togaru Kamakiri (can grow blades out of his body), and Yosetsu Awase (can weld things together with a touch). Should be an interesting match.

 

While the whole draw thing is kind of a letdown, I give this episode props for choosing an outcome that I wasn’t expecting when I first saw it. I think it did a good job showing off class 1B’s strengths, and the improvements that 1A has had since the last time most of them showed off. Honenuki has been a background character for most of the shows run, being incredibly noticeable with his skull like face, but it was cool to see how intelligent he was. The dude practically ran this match single handedly. Without Iida’s increased speed, 1B would probably have come out on top. I’m not even that resentful he was able to stop Iida as the scene was as impactful as the tower landing on Iida’s spine. Todoroki has really grown since his early appearances where showing off his fire power was entirely off the table in fights to being able to use it combatively. Without Honenuki he easily could have hurt Tetsutetsu. Ojiro and Shoji only got to show off a little, comparatively, but the strength of Ojiro’s tail was impressive, and Shoji’s speed at growing limbs has grown exponentially. So yeah, the ending was a bit of a letdown, but, again, the twist was at least interesting, so I won’t whine too much. Next, we’ll see Bakugo get to strut. Should be fun. 

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