Seriously, this false ending thing is starting to piss me off.  What is it with all these winter shows finishing up after the new season starts?  It’s weird, and this is the third time this week I’ve been thrown by it.  In hindsight I suppose I should have realized that one episode wasn’t enough to get this season of Boku no Hero Academia to where Bones obviously intended to finish, but it’s been a while since I read this part of the manga.

As long as we’re in hindsight mode, I think it’s probably fair to say I sold this season of HeroAca a little short going in (while the aggregator scores are down, that’s mostly sour grapes over the change in visual style).  Some of that is due to that fuzzy memory of the manga – in truth it was really only “Shie Hassaikai” that was a step down from this series’ prior standard.  But there may be a component of the anime really improving the School Festival arc too (indeed, I think it did).  And what kicks off this week is highly important to the story going forward.

I’ve said it before, but the watershed event in the larger plot of this series is the forced retirement of All Might.  Everything that happens can pretty much be categorized as “pre-” and “post-” that event, because it changes everything.  This is personal opinion and not manga spoilage, but I think the theme that unifies all the major arcs of BnHA is the flawed nature of this hero society.  There are many cracks in the facade, and all the antagonists – even the likes of Gentle Criminal – expose them, but of course no one exposes them as artfully as Stain.  All Might’s presence at the top of the social pyramid was like putty on those cracks, keeping them from becoming a spiderweb growing out of control.

There’s time for some housekeeping here.  Eri is moving to Yuuei, to be looked after for the moment by Tintin.  And as we hear talk of her horn growing again, we spend time with two heroes who’ve lost their quirks – not just Mirio but Ragdoll from the Pussycats too.  They visit U.A. to announce that they’re back in business, and bring Kouta in tow.  He’s tsundere about it but it’s pretty clear who his hero is – Kouta-kun has even taken to wearing Deku-lookalike shoes.  How far they’ve come from Kouta punching Deku in the nuts…

This is all preamble, though, and it’s what comes after that really moves the needle. We get the first new billboard chart of pro heroes since All Might’s retirement.  It’s a mix of familiar and new faces, and as expected it’s Endeavor who sits at the top – but only because the rankings are a combination of “production” and public opinion.  In the latter category Endeavor ranks only fourth (the still-sidelined Best Jeanist is first).  Second-ranked in that category is a young hero called Hawks, real name Takami Keigo (Nakamura Yuuichi).  And from the moment he stamps his identity on the ceremony, he’s a presence that dominates the episode.

Endeavor is not a sympathetic figure, but I do feel for him in his current situation.  He can’t fill All Might’s shoes, no matter how strong a fighter he is – he simply lacks the ability (and the inclination) to reassure and inspire the way All Might could.  And when he tries to be approachable, his attempted “fanservice” freaks out a young fan who likes his hard persona.  Hawks is the antithesis of Endeavor in every way.  22 years old and laid back in classic Kyuushu fashion, the youngest hero ever to hit the Top 10, charming and dashing and at ease with the common people.  Endeavor both detests and envies him, and is piss poor at hiding either.

Hawks and Endeavor traveling together to Kyuushu is certainly an interesting development.  Hawks tells his sempai that there are rumors of upgraded Nomu showing up, uncorroborated but eerily similar.  He has his own theories on those rumors (Hawks is never shy when it comes to opinions) but he wants Endeavor to help him get to the bottom of the matter.  The arrival of an unannounced guest at their yakitori lunch moves things along quite a bit however, and one gets the sense that Endeavor is genuinely relieved – far more comfortable in combat with a monster than in conversation with a man who completely befuddles him.  How this last sequences plays out says a lot about both of them, and it’s a great introduction to a new phase in the story.