It can never be said of Horikoshi Kouhei that he doesn’t give service to his supporting characters.  On the hero and villain side both Boku no Hero Academia manages to give a strikingly large portion of the cast a chance to shine.  Sometimes, I would argue, this isn’t a net positive as those supporting players aren’t always as interesting as the main characters.  That’s a difference, I suppose, between BnHA and Hunter X Hunter – I can’t remember a detour Togashi took (and Heaven knows there were a shit-ton of them in “Chimera Ant”) that didn’t make the story better.

But that’s an impossibly high bar to hold any series to, even one as superb as this one.  And Amajiki Tamaki, the subject of this week’s episode, is actually quite an interesting character on the whole.  He’s been the least explored of the Big Three and that’s no coincidence – he blends into the background by choice.  It’s fascinating to see an aspiring professional hero with social anxiety disorder, because those two things seem mutually incompatible.

This is where the Tamaki origin story makers perfect sense, because it’s pretty much by accident and through the sheer magnetic force of Mirio that Tamaki has followed this path.  Which is to say, followed in Tintin’s path.  Of course he wasn’t trying to say “hero” on that day he was introduced to his third-grade class as a transfer student, but that was enough for Mirio to take and run with.  And Tamaki has almost literally never looked back – it’s Tintin’s back he’s been staring at ever since. The fact is that Tamaki would probably have been happier at a job better suited to him, but his admiration for Mirio just wouldn’t allow for that possibility.  When a guy is so loyal he even intentionally screws up in front of his class to cover up for your screw-up, that’s a loyalty you want to return.

That pattern continues right up to the current battle.  And it’s a battle that feels quite different from any of the other major conflicts in HeroAca.  Most obviously this is the first really big fight since All Might was forced into retirement, and the knowledge that he’s not waiting in the wings if things get really bad makes the peril these heroes (and cops) are in feel subtly more ominous.  It’s also clear that they’re up against a really smart and well-organized opponent – not the quasi-religious fervor of Stain or the barely controlled chaos of the league – under Overhaul, Shie Hassaikai is organized and clinical.  And given the advantages the drugs they’re using give them, they’re a formidable foe indeed – especially with home field advantage.

There’s not much levity in this somber episode, but Fat Gum apologizing for the raiding troops not taking their shoes off did make me laugh (this is a country where burglars take their shoes off when robbing houses).  In addition to being in their own space, the defenders also have an advantage in the heroes’ imperative not to kill them.  Sir Nighteye’s foresight certainly levels the playing field, but Shie Hassaikai seems to have an enhanced quirk that’s a level up for almost everything the attackers can throw at them (and that’s not even counting Eri as a leveled-up Eraser).

Tamaki’s decision to play martyr is one thing – Fat Gum’s to let him do so another.  It was controversial among manga readers and I can see why – even if Tamaki’s reasoning of not wasting the big quirks on the villains strictly intended to slow the heroes down makes sense, is it really OK to let a student face down those three powerful enemies alone?  I admire Tamaki for choosing this course, but I’m not convinced it was the right one.  That said it certainly gives him a chance to show his courage, but then – his courage was never in doubt.  After all (as Tintin more or less says himself about Tamaki) – courage isn’t not being afraid, it’s being afraid and doing what must be done anyway.