They've got 12% of a plan. So... ya, that's really more of a concept.
Last time on My Hero Academia,
they finally figured out who the mole in UA is. The episode briefly teases that
it might be Hagakure, before revealing it was in fact Yuga Aoyama. Aoyama was
born Quirkless like Midoriya, but his wealthy parents were able to get in
contact with All For One who gave Aoyama his Belly Laser quirk in exchange for
their service. Aoyama served as a pawn but is clearly hitting his breaking
point continuing to do this. Hagakure observed Aoyama’s parents telling him his
new orders, and she runs off to get Izuku. Izuku tries to talk to Aoyama, but
fearing for his parent’s safety, he attacks his friend to give them a chance to
escape. Hagakure leaps in the way of his laser and uses her power to refract
the attack. Izuku captures the Aoyamas with Blackwhip and tells Yuga that he
can stop struggling. The Aoyamas are taken prisoner and admit to Detective
Tsukauchi, All Might and the UA staff, but they can’t give much as AFO kept all
the power in their ‘relationship.’ That actually led to his capture in the
Kamino Ward incident because the Aoyamas were unable to contact him to warn him
of the raid. The students are heartbroken to learn that their friend was
working against them this whole time, and Aoyama himself declares he’s nothing
but a villain, rotten to the core. Izuku cuts in at this point and reminds
everyone that Aoyama did a lot of good too, such as trying to protect Bakugo
and Tokoyami during the summer camp attack or giving Izuku his encouraging
cheese messages. He also suggests that Aoyama can still be a hero, as capturing
him means they can potentially lure AFO out on their terms. Enough recapping.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
We begin with a brief recap of Yuga
Aoyama admitting to working for the League of Villains and then Izuku rejecting
him describing himself as a villain and insisting he can still be a hero. Yaoyorozu
agrees with Izuku that having Aoyama try to trick AFO is a great plan. Aoyama
is very confused by their unwillingness to turn their back on him, to treat him
like a terrible person. Present Mic asks his students if they’re really sure
they want to trust someone that is an admitted traitor. Iida steps up and speaks
for the group by saying yes, they do, and adding that he feels that its
partially on them for not realizing that Aoyama was dealing with so much. They
still see him as a friend and see this as a way to heal the damage between them
all. Bakugo is still upset about the kidnapping thing, but says he’ll let it go
if he can blast Aoyama with his Howitzer blast 5 times. Sero asks if maybe he’s
overreacting. Kirishima is very vocal about supporting Aoyama. He is sure that
Aoyama was only working with AFO because he had no other way out and that
Aoyama was being completely honest with his parents when he said he wanted out.
He tells Aoyama they didn’t turn their backs on Izuku when they found out he
was Quirkless and they won’t do it to him either. He insists that meddling in
your friends life is like the most important aspect of being a hero. The
students all start talking at once and Tsukauchi tells them to calm down. He
reminds them that they’ve got procedures they need to follow, and that they
need to be smart about this. The Aoyamas said that they can’t lie, as AFO will
sense it and probably kill them. Before anyone can suggest another idea, Aizawa
cuts in via a video call. He’s looking a bit shabbier than usual but he’s
recovering. His right eye is gone, covered by a patch, and he’s still in his
hospital scrubs. He asks if Izuku has an actual plan. Izuku confirms he’s only
got a rough idea for a plan. Aizawa expected as much, and turns his attention
to Aoyama. He tells Aoyama that he has no intention of expelling him from class
1A. He has a plan to move forward. After deafening the Aoyamas for this, Aizawa
explains his plan to the students. We don’t get to hear it, but I am sure it’ll
get filled in as they go.
We cut to Aizawa, All Might,
Tsukauchi, Present Mic, Ectoplasm, and Nezu having a private meeting. Nezu
thinks the plan they proposed can work, if they scout each location and prepare
it. All Might says that it all rides on ‘him’ though. Aizawa reminds the others
that they only have a week to get this set up if they want to use their
temporary advantage. Tsukauchi thinks it could work and heads back to base to
figure out the particulars. The Aoyamas are taken away by the cops, but Izuku
shouts after Yuga that everything will be okay.
The students head back to their
dorm and all resolve to see this through. Izuku and Iida agree that they both
need new costumes after the last week, and everyone else tries to think of ways
to improve their skills. Izuku and Iida head over to Mei Hatsume’s lab to get
new gear. Izuku goes to knock on the door, but much like last time, gets
blasted as whatever Mei was working on at the time exploded. And much like last
time, Izuku found himself getting smothered by Mei’s boobs. She says its been a
minute and that she’s always happy to hear their item requests. Iida asks about
new costumes, Mei asks why they don’t go through the support store, and Iida
reminds her that they’re pretty much defunct now due to all this (gestures as
the all but open war in the streets.) Mei says that sounds like a major pain,
thus revealing she has no idea what’s been going on. Power Loader, the Support
course teacher comes out, realizes what the students want and calls them
inside. The lab has had some changes to it, as Power Loader is in charge of the
barrier around UA and has to constantly maintain it.
Izuku shows Mei his compression
bands that he got from Melissa Shield in the US and wonders if she can repair
it. She asks if he’ll need it soon, and Izuku confirms he needs it like
yesterday. She says that’s rough and starts running away, saying that that
she’d basically have to build it from scratch. When Iida asks about building
him new armor, she runs away faster. Her other classmates offer their services,
which is a relief to the boys. Iida points out that it’s a bit weird that Mei
is avoiding working on a project, but we learn her new all consuming project is
super important. She’s working on perfecting the evacuation system for UA to
get the civilians out. Her current goal is to try to get the whole school to
fly. God, I love how insane this girl is. As she types and tries to figure out
how to solve this problem, Izuku remembers her ‘unique’ mindset, like her
suggestion for Iida to run with his arms if he wants to cool off his legs.
Izuku is impressed with her work ethic, and isn’t all that surprised that she
hasn’t noticed how troubled stuff is. She admits to actually knowing how bad
things are, but she’s trying to put her focus on what she can do to help.
Building things is how Support Course students help people after all. Izuku
starts to compliment her, but Mei cuts him off by throwing a pair of gauntlets
at him. She says their inferior version of the ones he had, but if he’s cool
with that, he can give those babies a spin. They look like his Air Shot gloves
with the binder coming off them like a sleeve. She also throws a set of armor
at Iida, and they ask her if she just whipped this stuff up with her left hand
as her right was busy working on her flying school idea. She doesn’t answer,
but I think you know it. The other Support course students in that time had
only found their measuring tape… so they’re just gonna leave.
Iida and Izuku meet up with the
rest of their classmates, their faces still caved in from getting their new
gear thrown at them. Mt. Lady joins the students and tells them that while she
sympathizes with what they’ve been dealing with, they need to focus on find and
stopping the league of villains and the remnants of the PLF. Ashido asks if
Aoyama will come around, and Izuku says that he believes in his friend. Bakugo
says that he hopes that it doesn’t bite them in the ass. Shoto joins Izuku and
says that Aoyama has done the most soul searching of all of them and will be
back. Mt. Lady tells them that its time to head out. She assigns Izuku, Bakugo,
and Shoto as heads of squads and tells them to divide the class into groups to
search for their targets.
We jump over to the ruins of a city
where Nejire, and Amajiki with Fat Gum and Ryukyu are helping get people to
shelters. They take the civilians to Shiketsu High. Ryukyu mentions that they
want to save everyone, but with fewer people out and about they’ll have less
intel coming in. Fat Gum agrees, and says that he can feel it in his bones that
they’re approaching all out war.
We shift to Central Hospital where
All Might and the other allies meet to discuss their plan. The group consists
of Hawks, Tsukauchi and the cops, Star and Stripe’s squad, and Ragdoll of the
Wild, Wild Pussycats. All Might and Hawks tell them that they’ve been brought
in due to their loyalty and past actions and asks that they don’t leak any of
this information. Ragdoll asks why the rest of the team aren’t included, and
they says that it isn’t because All Might doesn’t trust them, but because
they’re needed in the field. All Might explains the plan. Step one, split the
villains. The reports they’ve received suggest Tomura is the more powerful of
the two now, and given AFO’s strength that’s saying something. The two can
communicate via radio waves and through their Vestige link in the Mindscape,
but keeping them apart should keep them from overwhelming the heroes. Nathan
asks why AFO didn’t attack with Tomura and beat Star that way, and All Might
thinks its because AFO knew how New Order worked and worried about being
subjected to that power. The plan is to keep the villains at least 10 km apart.
Tsukauchi thinks they’ll plan on this, will have contingencies in place. All
Might agrees and points out that Dabi alone has been one of their best weapons
to sew chaos and divide heroes in the past. All Might says that their plan has
to be to split all of the League up, to keep Dabi, Toga, Spinner and any of
their other vanguard away from the Shigarakis if they want to beat them. The
cops point out that that’ll be hard given past interactions. All Might is
planning on using Aoyama. Tsukauchi is skeptical and is refusing to accept the
mitigating circumstances of how Aoyama was used up to this point. All Might has
faith, in Aoyama and Aizawa, who is going to talk to him.
Aizawa meets Aoyama in an
interrogation room at the hospital. A lizardlike doctor says that Aoyama’s test
results came through as normal, which make Aizawa believe that AFO must have
gotten the self-destruct Quirk he gave Lady Nagant after he was captured, since
he didn’t implant it in Aoyama. Which also makes sense as if AFO could just do
that, he wouldn’t have had to work so hard to scare all the Aoyamas into
falling in line. No, he thinks AFO kept Aoyama in check by just making him
terrified. Aizawa tells his student that he won’t make a lot of friends like
the ones he’s made in UA and asks what is scaring him. Aoyama admits he’s
scared of AFO but also admits that he’s scare that he can’t ‘twinkle’ like the
rest of his class can. He explains that it’s like the more they believe in him,
the less confident he feels he can meet their expectations of him. He’s
terrified that if they put their trust in him, and AFO appears before him, that
he’ll betray them all over again. He says they should just put in a dark hole
and forget about him. Aizawa is brutally honest with his student, telling him
this’ll never just go away. The others were being nice because they are his
friends, but as Aoyama’s teacher, Aizawa gives him the cold hard truth. He’s
probably never going to be able to call UA home again after this. Aizawa thinks
to himself that Aoyama’s fear has to be ripped out of him. Aoyama tries to
rationalize it away, but Aizawa cuts him off. He says he won’t let Aoyama just
give up. He has to face this, he isn’t allowed to drown in his guilt. He thinks
of his own school days with Present Mic and Oboro (Kurogiri before he was a
Nomu) as he speaks about standing with his friends. Aoyama asks what difference
a single person can make, especially a criminal. Aizawa says they won’t leave
him to do anything alone. They’ll all walk the path to the future together. The
episode ends with Aoyama crying.
In a post credit scene, a couple students
come up to Hitoshi Shinso, saying they should be gone already. Shinso agrees. He’s
the brainwashing kid, if the name doesn’t click something in your brain.
This episode was mostly set up for
the final arc to me. Izuku and Iida get new gear, they’re trying to find a way
to encourage Aoyama to be their bait, the adults start to formulate their plan
of attack and so on. Lots of smaller things that are building to the big thing
which is the all out brawl they’re going to have with AFO and company. Of all
the things in this episode, I think I like seeing how much Aoyama is struggling
with accepting that his friends have faith in him. I get this idea that the
more they try to build him up, the lower he sinks because he doesn’t think he
can measure up. There are few things that sting worse than thinking that
someone believes in you when you can’t believe in yourself. Despite how he’s
presented himself up to this point, Aoyama is a depressed young man that has
spent most of his life but for sure the last year with a weight on his back
that is far greater than he should ever have been expected to handle. To betray
people he cares about so obviously, badly, and totally, only for them to still
believe in him has to create a weird maelstrom of emotions. From a story
perspective, I know he’s going to do it, you know he’s going to do it, if you
presented this info to my 90-year-old grandmother, she’d be able to figure out
he’s going to do it, but I like how it realistically presents his struggle. It’s
good writing. I liked catching up with Mei Hatsume, as she’s one of my favorite
tertiary characters. She’s fun for these quick gags about her being such a gear
head she barely remembers Iida’s name. I like that the story established she’d
been keeping busy working on the school’s defenses, as it feels like she’s
levelled up off screen like so many of the class 1A students have on screen.
Sure, things still blow up around her, but I get the vibe its down
significantly from when she seemed to just be ramming pieces together to see
what she could make. She’s a more focused character now, and is so talented at
building that she can work on several projects at once. She’s definitely growing.
So now, the students have their mission, Aizawa is working on Aoyama, and the
League of Villains is definitely preparing to pounce. I wonder what happens
next? We’ll see tomorrow. Have a good night and stay safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-154205419
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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