Kirishima Eijirou fans have certainly had a field day this season.  I don’t remember him getting this many spotlight episodes at any time in the series, and since I like him that’s just fine with me.  It did strike me when reading all this that the focus on Eijirou felt a bit out of the blue, because there wasn’t much buildup to him stepping up to what almost feels like a co-lead role.  But I suppose with Todoroki, Bakugo, and All Might sidelined from this excursion there was room for someone to step up.  Mirio and to a lesser extent his fellow Big 3 members are part of that, but the heart of HeroAca will always be class 1-A.

There are some interesting underlying elements to this episode, not least among them cracks seemingly appearing in the heretofore smooth facade of Shie Hassaikai.  To wit, the zaku captured by the cops make it pretty clear that the yakuza side of the outfit isn’t exactly enthralled with Overhaul taking over and turning them into a de facto villain league.  It’s certainly laughable on some level that yakuza would think of themselves as chivalrous (indeed, of themselves as not villains) but that delusion actually is a big part of the culture.

Speaking of chivalry, that word is certainly all over this episode.  One of the two quirk users Kirishima and Fat Gum run up against, Rappa Kendou (Kajikawa Shouhei) uses it to refer to his preferred “no weapons” style of fighting.  Rappa isn’t too fond of “Overjerk” either, not least for partnering him with Tengai Hekiji (Miyamoto Jun), who seems more loyal.  Tengai is clearly the level head in this pairing, as Rappa seems to basically concern himself only with fighting to the death and the implied chivalry that goes along with it.

Chivalry is also a word tossed around by Crimson Riot, Eijirou’s hero in the literary sense.  The fact that he barely changed the name makes me think that then original Crimson Riot may have died in battle but we’re not told anything about that.  We only see in flashback that the young Kirishima idolized him as someone who had a seemingly weak quirk but never hesitated to enter the fray.  “As long as you have chivalry in your heart, anybody can be a hero” – those are the words Eijirou has tried to live his life by.  But it hasn’t been easy, because when the moment of truth has arrived (including this instance) he’s always been afraid, and hesitated.

Of course it wasn’t until the 9th-grade Kirishima heard the second half of Crimson Riot’s mantra – he was always afraid, but his fear of the tragedy that occurred when he did nothing was greater than his fear of death – that he finally found his resolve.  And Ashido Mina was his junior high classmate, and a more personal type of inspiration.  As he watches Fat Gum being pummelled by Rappa as Tengai writes him off as too scared to act, Kirishima-kun manages to focus on Crimson Riot’s message and jump into the fray.  And in the nick of time, too.

There’s an interesting strategic element to this fight.  Tengai describes it as “spear and shield vs. shield and shield” and indeed it’s easy to see why Overhaul paired them together (not that this spear appreciates the shield).  But there’s another side to Fat Gum – he can be a spear, too.  Of course as he’s attacked and burns his fat in defense, he absorbs the energy of the attacks and stores it up into an attack so fierce (and a diet so effective) not even Tengai’s shield can stop it.  But it’s Eijirou’s shield that buys Fat Gum the time to power up his spear.

What’s been interesting in the past few episodes is that this battle has really focused on the hesitant and self-doubting members of the team.  I don’t think Kirishima’s quirk is as weak as he believes, but there’s no doubt Tamaki’s is a massively strong one.  Yet both of them doubt themselves as they look at their classmates who shine more brightly and never seem to doubt.  They do of course – we know Deku, Kacchan, Todoroki and Tintin all have their moments of doubt, but they’re better at hiding them.  But if their bravado can serve as inspiration for the likes of Eijiriou and Amajiki, that’s the very definition of a good team.