To be frank, I was a little surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reaction last week’s Boku no Hero Academia seemed to receive. But then, I underestimated the visceral loathing for “filler” – any original material in an adaptation of a beloved manga. I personally thought the bits they added (which were really quite modest) worked fine – I certainly didn’t think they tanked the episode or anything. It wasn’t the best BnHA episode ever, but then it wasn’t adapting the best manga chapters either – just normal good ones.
TBH I didn’t go back and check if everything that happened this week was canon – I’m pretty sure I remember it all, but don’t sue me if there’s something original in here (and I don’t much care anyway, as long as it works). When Bones and Nagasaki-sensei have added stuff, it’s generally been in arcs like this – tournament or competition or training ones, where they wanted to give characters a few moments of spotlight time they didn’t get in the manga. The truth is that Horikoshi is so good at doing that himself that there’s rarely a need for the anime to worry about it, and if there’s a theme to this episode it’s basically that – all or nothing for Class 1-A.
For example… It’s Kaminari and Aoyama, two boys who as often as anybody are the class’ butt-monkeys in residence, who shine the brightest this time. It’s Kaminari who saves the alpha-male trio, not Bakugo, who’s soon enough turned into a fleshburger just like Kirishima. Kacchan does stack the deck by slipping Lightning-boy one of his explosive devices before he transforms, but it’s Kaminari’s new special attack (“Sharpshooter”) that carries the day. And it’s worth noting that Shishikura is so obsessed with lecturing the UA kids that he costs himself a chance to advance.
As for Aoyama, he ends up hooking up with Iida, though they took rather opposite paths to get there. Aoyama has been hiding from the looks of it, while Iida has basically been free-roaming looking for Yuuei students to help. Yeah, he takes his role as class president too seriously – but this guy takes everything too seriously. It would be no exaggeration to say that anime-wise Aoyama is one of the least fleshed-out characters in Class 1-A (for now), but he has a funny habit of coming up big at especially tense moments.
As to the Midoriya trio, their ascension is pretty straightforward. It’s very much a classic Deku plan executed in classic fashion with Uraraka and Sero’s help, and even when one of the immobilized third-years tries to play the pity card (which really is pitiable) Izuku knows this is way too important to hesitate. Still, the clock is counting down – in fact, there are only 9 slots left with eight Yuuei students outstanding – but Aoyama’s navel flare is the flag everyone rallies around, and once the Yuuei students band together no one on the field can stand against them.
Indeed, this is fairly low-hanging fruit for HeroAca on the whole – but a couple things do stand out for me. First, Kacchan’s little aside to Deku there at the end – “With your power, it’s only natural”. It’s devious, and it freaks Deku out a bit – it’s both a compliment and an insult, and a reminder than Bakugo suspects the truth. And then there’s Iwasaki Masami’s as Mera – I can’t say how much I love what he’s doing here. A totally unique and very funny performance. With this matter of combat ability tested and all 20 1-A students through, Mera now shifts the focus – to the other half of a hero’s job, rescuing people. And for some of the Yuuei students, that’s a more difficult challenge than the one they just survived.
Khalid
August 11, 2018 at 11:28 amPeople didn’t like last week’s episode? Personally, if anything I would’ve preferred if the manga had that content. One of my big frustrations in manga/anime is underutilized characters, and studio Bones is doing a tremendous job expanding on the interactions and abilities of the class A-1 students.
Simone
August 11, 2018 at 1:59 pmI don’t think anyone had issues with the *idea* of having a small subplot about those characters. Tsuyu and Momo at least tend to be very well-liked, so all content centred around them is welcome. I think the issue was more that, as it often happens with plots revolving around supposedly super-intelligent characters, the result was pretty underwhelming. It takes a lot of thought to give a realistic sense of an ACTUALLY intelligent plan, otherwise it’s all tell and no showing.
Guardian Enzo
August 11, 2018 at 4:22 pmI actually think Horikoshi does a good job developing the side characters, on the whole. It’s just that there are so many of them and only so many pages.
Stefan
August 11, 2018 at 12:25 pmThe noise from last week was mostly me, but I did enjoy that episode — IQ multiplication is just Izuku’s strategical ability improved to such a systemic degree that the reasoning behind the actions becomes opaque, qualitatively inaccessible, to us low-IQ chimps. I still enjoyed the episode, the scene with the tea girl herself as well, but it stood out!
For what it’s worth, I remember this arc being worse in the manga, but that’s probably because I binged everything starting from the Field Trip to Kamino to the next arc. So I can’t complain, I’m loving these eps!
Guardian Enzo
August 11, 2018 at 4:24 pmNah, I meant public forums like ASF and Twitter rather than anything here.
leongsh
August 11, 2018 at 1:13 pmKaminari and Aoyama have their short time in the spotlight. Sometimes it is easy to forget that while they do not stand out due to story concentration on others, they are good enough to have qualified for the UA Hero course by making through the qualifying course. Happy to see them in a good light. Hope that we get more of these snippets in the next few episodes.
Bakugo just confirmed to me that he knows that Midoriya’s quirk is from All Might. He’s keeeping that bit of info to hinself but letting Midoriya know that he knows. It was that slip of tongue by Midoriya that started the ball rolling and the side look noticing Midoriya after All Might defeated All For One. Then, that query to All Might as he left Bakugo’s house after apologising and informing them of the hostel plan. Bakugo may be a hothead but he is not lacking in brains. He is one of the smartest in class but his angry hothead persona is there to blind us.
Adeyombo Okuyiga
August 15, 2018 at 8:37 amI enjoying the episode a lot and like the pace, maybe it’s cause I can’t binge watch it or because am worried season 3 will soon be ending and am going to have to wait a while again for the next season but enjoying it. But I agree with Stefan the tea girl wasn’t that cool but what can you expect with a universe where basically everyone as a quirk, you are bound to find some not so interesting ones.