I won’t speak for anyone else, but my guess is that if you’re a fan of the manga, this episode (and the next one) is one of those episodes of Boku no Hero Academia that had a star next to it in your mind’s eye.  Nothing can quite match the hype level “You’re next!” had for me, but this strongly connected series of events was near the top of the rest, that’s for sure.  And it’s worth noting that Nagasaki Kenji and Bones have batted 1.000 with those watershed moments as far as I’m concerned, which is certainly reassuring when one realizes that we’re about to hit one.

This entire episode and its corresponding manga chapters really highlight, for me, why BnHA is among the best superhero series ever created, certainly in Japan.  There are so many threads to this story, and the careful groundwork Horikoshi has laid by fleshing out all of his characters instead of just a select few really pays off in crunch time.  This provisional license exam (we can now acknowledge that the League of Villains track record of disrupting every training event is intact) and its aftermath are a big moment for the students involved, and not only for them.  This is a world that’s more in turmoil than it has been for years, and the future has never looked more tenuous.  That just ramps the pressure on those expected to lead it, and those tasked with grooming them to do so.

Among the exam results I don’t think there are any major surprises.  Most of the Yuuei students pass, including most of the ones we spent little time observing.  Midoriya doesn’t exactly ace the test at 71 points, but it’s a comfortable margin – and he’s someone whose performance at the end would surely have enabled him to add points back on if it were possible.  But as you would expect, Todoroki fails (as does his foil, Yoarashi-kun).  There’s one other notable omission from the list – Bakugo.  He apparently paid the price for his abysmal bedside manner (as one imagines Endeavor might have, had he ever been forced to take the exam in this format).

The news is not all bad for these boys, as they’ve been given a chance to pass a three-month remedial course and receive their provisional license at the close of it.  This is a reflection of the desperation of the Public Safety Commission – Mera (one last chance to praise Iwasaki Manami for one of my favorite performances of the year) admits as much.  Yoarashi is abjectly apologetic to Shouto, as frankly he should be – he pretty much started their silly battle, though Shouto was a fool to be goaded into it.  But one senses Todoroki is smart enough to tuck this under his belt, wear a chip on his shoulder and move forward.  With Kacchan, it’s not so clear-cut.

Izuku is deliriously happy, of course – in tears, in fact, as he hurriedly sends a photo of his provisional license to his mom and All Might.  One would think that a boy as relentlessly noble and pure as Deku would start to wear as a character, but his staying power is endless – he’s impossibly loveable.  And it’s not a coincidence that he and his relationship with Toshinari are held up in stark contrast here to All For One, with whom the latter is having a conversation in the “Tartarus” prison.  He’s wrapped in a Hannibal Lecter suit and every movement is monitored, even his brain waves – but All For One seems in a good mood every time the subject of his rotting away in Tartarus for the rest of his life is raised.

What a treasure Ohtsuka Akio is – the recent passing of Ishozuka Unshou (who I find to have been a quite similar seiyuu in some ways) is a reminder of how lucky we are to have greats like Ohtsuka-san in anime.  He brings so much to All For One, who’s yet another charismatic BnHA villain.  All For One knows how to push every one of All Might’s buttons – it’s clear he’s enjoying this moment more than simply as a rare moment to converse with another human being.  Even restrained as he is, one gets the sense that All For One is the one pulling the strings here, and Toshinori the marionette.

The last word of the episode, though, will go to Bakugo.  What a frustrating character he is.  What he makes he ask is, how can someone be this smart and this stupid at the same time (even knowing that the world is full of like examples)?  While it may be tempting to dismiss Kacchan as a hot-headed idiot (though we have ample proof now that’s not the case), it would be a mistake.  This boy is very, very smart about many things – and not only that, he’s always observing.  But the more he sees, the more blind he is.  Something is broken inside him, truly – he sees the way the gears move inside everyone else, but seems totally unable or unwilling to see himself.

That Bakugo had figured out (or at least suspected) the truth about Deku’s quirk was pretty obvious after the “You’re next!” moment.  But having Deku pass the license exam while he fails is the final indignity, the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Bakugo doesn’t deny his idolization of All Might, but that just makes the truth that much more intolerable.  What can he gain by this constant one-sided war with Deku, this ignoble obsession?  Kacchan has always been the strongest, the boldest, and those around him always let him get away with anything because of it – Izuku included.  And he’s still doing it, attaching a kind of imagined nobility to Kacchan’s compulsive rivalry with him that prompts him to respond in kind.  In truth, I think Izuku likes having Kacchan obsess over him – it’s the closest he’s ever had to his respect.  But this unhealthy co-dependent relationship can only go on for so long without seriously damaging (nothing to see here, move along) one or both parties – and on the evidence of this arc, it’s already started to.