Uraraka is getting an A on her speech course this year, I can feel it.
You’re getting two published today
because I forgot to post yesterday. My bad.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
Izuku’s friends decided to attack him with a group hug. Sort of. Finding Izuku
burnt out, exhausted, and at the end of his metaphorical rope, his classmates do
their damnedest to bring him back to UA so he can take a break. Fearing for
their safety above all else, Izuku tried to play it cool, saying he’s fine, and
run before anyone can stop him. What happened next was about fifteen minutes of
Izuku’s classmates doing their best to tackle him and/or use their memories of
him to get him to just stop and talk to them. Most of his classmates had
something to say about how he inspired them, or helped them, or was just a good
friend to them. Izuku struggled the whole way, breaking out of a combination
Dark Shadow binding and harness made by Yaoyorozu, an ice pillar that Shoto
made, and from just talking it out with several classmates. Their final gamble came
when Izuku tried to escape using his powers combined to rocket away. They used
their own rocket, comprised of a ball of slime Mina Ashido made, on an ice
slide made by Shoto Todoroki, and then rocket propulsion made by Shoto and
Bakugo, to send Iida (who’d been in the slimeball) at Izuku at like Mach 2
speed. As he was launched at his friend, Iida admitted that he felt like he was
always a lap behind Izuku, and it’s because of that that he’s always willing to
race after him to try to catch up. Exhausted and unable to shake them off,
Izuku passes out. He’s brought back to UA, where almost immediately a mob of
civilians form to try to protest him being brought in. The pros try to calm
things down, but the mob is adamant that Izuku not be brought in. Izuku prepares
to walk away, but Uraraka grabs his hand to stop him. She asked ‘who protects
the heroes when they need it,’ and prepares to be the one to protect Izuku. Enough
recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open by jumping back to Endeavor’s
meeting with Nezu/ambush by class 1A. Endeavor points out that Izuku’s presence
could put the civilians at risk. Nezu says that they greatly upgraded security
a while back and this will give them a chance to test it out. He also reminds
them all that they hosted All Might back in the day and survived, so things should
hardly be different now. He encourages the students to bring Izuku back. Iida
asks about the UA barrier and for Nezu to elaborate on what the weasel meant by
it getting upgraded. He is hopeful that maybe giving Izuku evidence that he can
come back will mean that they won’t have to fight him in the streets. Nezu
admits that there is a certain level of selfishness on wanting Izuku back, he
recognizes that Izuku is a key element to battling AFO and the League, so
having him back and protected is in their benefit. He admits that the school
has been able to buy defensive equipment like the robots they use in training
and the security gates for cheap, so the school’s protections are on par with
Tartarus Prison. Yaoyorozu says that that is impressive, but Shigaraki and co
broke through those defenses before. Nezu says that that is true, but adds that
after Shigaraki and his original league broke into the school the previous year,
he’s been adding his own customizations to the school’s defenses. He’s
confident that with his additions, the schools shield barrier is strong enough
to hold back an army of villains. And there’s his ace in the hole. The school
can move now. He’s divided the school grounds into a grid, allowing them to
lower certain sections into the ground to turn them into high security bunkers.
There’s also a bunch of reinforced plates underground for added security. Kaminari
puts it best when he says that’s like Mecha anime tech. The shelters can be
moved on high speed rails hidden in these lower levels. The rail is connected
to other schools and sheltered areas like Shiketsu academy, which explains that
comment last episode about the campuses combining. Tokoyami points out that
this kind of protection seems to be built around combatting the upgraded Decay
that Tomura has access to and how weird that is since at the time of the Festival
they had not idea his power would develop. Nezu says he had a hunch, and because
of that paid for the extra upgrades from his own pocket. The students are
shocked to hear that Nezu is independently wealthy, Endeavor adding that Nezu
is a supporter of Quirk morality education and is world renowned for it. Nezu
is a big believer in ‘putting in the work’ on improving the world. He
encourages the students to bring Izuku back.
We return to the campus as the
crowds are picketing Izuku being brought in. Most are screaming for Izuku to be
taken away, and one even accuses him of being a Nomu since he has multiple
quirks. His mother tries to go to him, but Mitsuki Bakugo holds her back for
fear the mob might react to her. It’s weird seeing that Izuku and Bakugo’s moms
are friends. We also see Kota, the little boy Izuku bonded with at the Training
camp, with Ragdoll, the depowered member of the Wild, Wild Pussycats, looking
on in apprehension. Inside the school, the 1B students are with Eri trying to
keep her calm. Sero is surprised that the principal couldn’t convince them, 13
saying that they seemed like they understood at first, but speculation is running
out of control and getting people to panic. On her phone she has a news article
up that is asking if Shigaraki is after a UA student. Present Mic uses a
megaphone to try to get people to calm down, but Jeanist says that maybe he
should do the talking as he convinced many of them to come here and he’s not a
teacher.
Jeanist tries to convince everyone
to go along with bringing Izuku in. He says that they tried to use Izuku as
bait to draw the villains out, but that didn’t work. Jeanist insists that Izuku
is a key part of the fight against Shigaraki and All For One and asks them to
let them just let Izuku rest inside the fortress for a while. This seems to
calm everyone for a moment, but then one dick basically blames the heroes for
not stopping the villains and saying that because they screwed up, they’re
putting everyone else at risk. The mob gets whipped up again. Mitsuki comforts
Inko, who has crumpled into a sobbing heap at seeing everyone turn against her
son. Uraraka decides that she needs to do something before this turns violent.
She makes herself weightless, grabs Present Mic’s megaphone and leaps onto the
top of UA’s building. The first to notice her up there are her parents. Uraraka
uses the megaphone to explain to the crowd what is going on. She insists that
Izuku’s power is special, that he left because he wanted to protect everyone,
and that he’s burnt himself out to do it. She begs them to understand that he
is just a normal guy that needs their help. Bakugo tells Izuku that they’ll
help him protect everyone. Nezu repeats that doing the work is hard, but if
they can do it, they’ll help set up a hero strong enough to surpass All Might.
Uraraka has a flashback to when she
was little when she was absolutely giddy seeing someone else being happy. She
says that she’s always been like this. She says that the first time she saw
someone do hero work, she was focused more on the people made happy by the heroes
work. Ippan Josei is in the crowd and is moved to see that Izuku clearly just
kept going after saving her. One of the guys in the crowd accuses the heroes of
wanting them all to be like Izuku, dirty and exhausted and covered in blood.
Uraraka, her temper flairing, shouts back that the heroes are the ones getting
dirty for them. Iida tells Izuku that she’s up their fighting for all of
them, but especially for them. Uraraka goes on to says that she wishes she
could reassure everyone, but she can’t. She tells them that they, the heroes,
are just like everyone else. They need people to support them. She flashes back
again, where she was just super jazzed as a kid to see others happy. Her dad
tells her that she’s missing out on seeing the hero. She looks over and sees
the beaten up hero, and is all the more excited when she sees one of the
civilians cheer him on and the hero give a thumbs up. In the present she begs
everyone to search their hearts and find it in themselves to help Izuku. She has
a flash of Himiko Toga in her mind and shouts her plea for their help all the
louder. Both Izuku and Inko Midoriya are sobbing with joy at Uraraka’s words.
Izuku flashes back to when he first met Uraraka and she saved him from face
planting. He falls to his knees and sobs with happiness at seeing her work so
hard for his sake. Several people see Izuku fall, and both Kota and Josei run
to him. We see a flashback of him going shoe shopping with his aunt Mandayal
and how he specifically chose red shoes like Izuku’s. Future narrator Izuku chimes
in to say that while this is the story of how he became the world’s greatest
hero, he amends it and says that it’s the story of how EVERYONE became that
hero.
Mineta tries to go to Izuku, but
Iida holds him back, saying that they should let these two save Izuku this
time. Kota apologizes for not standing up sooner, but he wants to support Izuku
now. Josei reveals that she’d been turned away by several shelters that weren’t
allowing heteromorphic people into their shelters. UA was the only one that
would welcome her, and while that sucked, it let her see him again which is nice.
She hugs him in thanks, and so does Kota. One of the crowd, the man with three
cross shapes coming from his head (Izuku met him in the first episode, he
dubbed Izuku a true fanboy) says that maybe they should listen to this young
hero has to say. He says they should let him in to have a break, he’ll only be
there for a short while anyway. One of the crowd says that maybe he could go to
Shiketsu, but his friend says that he might be turned away from there too.
Cross guy, who is henceforth will be called Carl, says that he’s been doing
some self-analyzing over the last few weeks. Carl viewed heroes as essentially
performers on a stage. Carl and the rest of the world got to see heroes, like
All Might, stand up and perform acts of service for prestige and accolades. But
now the money is gone, heroes are dropping off, and they really need to ask
themselves why anyone is sticking around to help. He says that he knows this is
tough, but they can’t keep acting like Spectators. The guy who keeps acting up
asks Izuku if he gets some rest, will he win and put things back to how they
were before. Izuku swears that he will, with the help of his friends.
Ectoplasm heads outside and tells
the Todorokis and Hawks that things are settling down for the moment and they
should head inside. They head in and see the crowd encircle him. Endeavor isn’t
sure if they ended up making any progress and maybe they should have just sent
Izuku here in the first place. Hawks instead thinks that this is progress. He
believes that Izuku helped spread seeds of trust and hope while he was
fighting, and Uraraka has brought them into the same fold. He thinks this is
the start of a future where heroes have too much time on their hands and
everyone smiles.
Nezu is on the phone with Aizawa,
complimenting the teacher on his students making everyone accept Izuku. He asks
how Aizawa’s leg is. Aizawa, who also lost one of his eyes after that last
fight, says that he’s not going to outjump Miriko anytime soon but he’s doing
better. Nezu asks about Kurogiri, and Aizawa says he visits him every day, but there’s
been no change. They’ve brought Kurogiri to central hospital for examination in
the hopes of finding some way to help the Nomu recover. Nezu says that its thanks
to Oboro Shirakumo breaking free of the Kurogiri persona that they’ve any
strongholds at all. Aizawa asks if they’re on the lookout for the league, and
Nezu says they’re looking for Toga specifically. They know how much blood she
needs to mimic someone and how long it lasts, they’re only allowing anyone in
after some isolation. Aizawa says that UA is their stronghold and it’s time for
their next move, to which Nezu agrees.
All Might heads out in his car,
saying he’s going to check out the hero-hating groups that refuse to join them.
As he races away, he remembers Izuku trying to leave him and he makes a dark expression.
From the rooftops, Stain watches him go. Well, shit.
Well, that was an emotional gut
punch. It was nice seeing Uraraka get the spotlight for a bit. I loved her
speech. She has clearly been thinking about this for a while. I liked that she
tried for straight compassion for a bit, but when that one guy kept being a negative
Nancy that she basically told him to shut up and see Izuku for the scared kid he
is. Empathy is important, but sometimes you do need to tell people to shut the
hell up. Letting Izuku have a moment with Kota, the first person he
legitimately saved, and Josei, the most recent person he saved, have a moment
with him was nice. The whole flashback about the shoes was super sweet and does
highlight just how much Kota idolizes Izuku after the training camp. I like
that they remember to bring up the Heteromorphic racism. That feels like it is
a big deal even if its not talked about as much. Humans are really terrible
about othering people based on skin tone, so I have to imagine we’d be all the
worse if some people looked like anything but a person. And no, I don’t think
the people that want to bang monsters specifically would make Josei feel better
either. There’s not that much more to say about this one. Uraraka went to bat
for Izuku and got everyone on board with letting him take a break, that’s
awesome. I’ll be curious to see how Aizawa handles being an amputee and a
cyclops. And All Might looks like he’s going to be meeting Stain face to face
for the first time, and considering the hero killer once said that All Might is
the only person allowed to kill him, I can’t imagine it’ll be a boring conversation.
See you then.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-151847911
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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