In a way, it almost seems if if Boku no Hero Academia should feel guilty doing an episode like this one.  No one should be allowed to make it look as easy as Horikoshi and Bones make this look – as great as this series is, an arc like this one is right smack in the middle of its comfort zone.  But then, if Horikoshi didn’t write this stuff we’d never get a chance to see it animated, and that would be everyone’s loss.  Sometimes a great series has to push the edge, and sometimes consciously take a break – but the meat and potatoes is always going to be doing what comes most naturally.

This is one of those episodes where I have so much scribbled on my notepad that I’m tempted to just chuck it and riff on my pure gut level reaction.  So much happens here, starting with the reveal of Deku’s new “Gamma” rig.  My favorite part of this sequence was All Might’s reflection that he’s now “someone to be protected” in the eyes of the world – and while he seems to be dealing with that as well as anyone could, it can’t be remotely easy for him.  Or indeed, for anyone who cares about him – though the one who cares about him most is probably happy to have a major distraction right now, so he doesn’t have to think about that (as indeed is Ochako, who needs a distraction to distract her from her other distraction).

The provisional license exam certainly is a distraction, both for Deku and his classmates.  And, indeed, for hero students all over the country.  Yuuei takes the approach of splitting up its classes and sending them to different test locations (there are three of them) to avoid them competing against each other – as do the other hero schools across Japan.  Given that Aizawa-sensei tells them that only about 50% pass, the draw here is obvious.  He also tells them that most of the students that they’ll be facing off against are second and third-years, who’ve had more time to hone their quirks and use them in competition.

Upon arrival at the test site, the first to greet 1-A are their rivals from Shiketsu High – West Japan’s top hero school, and the major rival to UA.  Most vocal is Inasa Yoarashi (Iwasaki Ryouta), Shiketsu’s top dog.  In fact he had the top scores on the entrance exams for Yuuei (which means he outranked even Todoroki), but chose to attend Shiketsu despite the fact that he “loves U.A.”.  Also making an appearance is the hero “Joke”, Fukukado Emi (Nagai Mariko), a teacher at Ketsubutsu High School.  She knows Aizawa-sensei (her joke proposals seem half-serious) and she also knows something about the exam, which he’s failed to tell his students.

The administrator, Mera Yokumiru (Iwasaki Masami) drops quite a bomb on the license exam candidates – there are 1,540 of them, but only the fastest 100 will pass.  Tsuyu’s math doesn’t quite add up for me, but that’s still a hell of a lot less than 50%.  The nature of the exam seems simple – everyone will have three targets they can place in any fully exposed part of their bodies, and six balls with which to strike the targets.  If your three targets light up you’re out, if you light up a candidate’s third target you get a kill, and if you get two kills you’re finished.

It’s a beautifully classic shounen setup in the Togashi mold – so straightforward, yet so devious.  The nature of this test, as Deku quickly realizes, is to encourage the examinees to work as teams – and the logical ones to team up with are your own classmates.  But Yuuei is at a huge disadvantage here – theirs was the only sports festival broadcast on TV, so they’re the only ones whose quirks are known to students from other schools.  And then there’s what Eraserhead neglected to tell his pupils – the tradition start of the exam is “crush U.A.”.  It only makes sense – given the limited number of licenses to be given out, U.A. as the top dog is everyone’s biggest threat.  And its two top=ranking students, Bakugo and Todoroki, choose to go off and fight on their own rather then be part of the group (for different reasons, but maybe not as different as they’d have you believe).

I absolutely love Aizawa-sensei’s defense to Fukukado-sensei for why he hasn’t told his students (though as she notes, he no doubt does “like” this group).  In the real world, if you’re a hero the bad guys probably know your quirk, and part of your job is turning a bad situation into a good one.  “Sorry, but we have to think further ahead.” he tells her with flinty pride, and it’s the response of a man who knows the heavy burden he and his school bear in the world of heroes.  For Yuuei, it’s not good enough to be good enough – you have to be better than everyone else.  And by letting his students fight this fight the way he is, Aizawa-sensei is telling them he believes that’s exactly what they are.