Better late than never.

When it’s all said and done hardly anyone will remember or care that Boku no Hero Academia started its third season with a recap episode.  Partly because that’s just how it works, but also because this season is going to blow viewers’ socks off in a big way.  I suppose it’s a spoiler in the loosest sense of the term to say this is going to be the strongest material the series has adapted yet, but I’ll live with that – I think it’s important that folks know to stick with it for the duration.  The rewards will be, in a word, expansive.

Still, it sucked to have to wait to get things started, knowing how good they’re going to get.  Horikoshi-sensei is a firm believer in the gradual build/long arc model – like another Shounen Jump mangaka you’re all tired of me referencing in BnHA posts – and the “Forest Training Camp” arc as it’s come to be known is no exception.  This series never cuts corners and asks the audience to care about characters and situations that haven’t been fleshed out – and that applies to the villains too.  Just like- never mind…

For starters, this is indeed a training camp arc – that most staple-y of shounen manga staples.  Class A – under the watchful (and bloodshot) eye of Aizawa-sensei – is off to the mountains to train in a secret location.  Meanwhile the League of Villains is gearing up for some major activity, though there certainly seems to be a measure of skepticism towards Ishigaki as a leader of men (and women).  Bad guys in Boku no Hero Academia are like snowflakes – no two are alike, and that certainly applies to their motivation for doing what they do.

Class A’s bus pulls offs at a turnout (not a rest stop, sadly for poor Mineta) where they kids are promptly greeted by two busty women in hero suits and one grouchy-looking bozu in a weird hat.  The ladies are Tsuchikawa Ryuuko (Machimiya Serina) – better known as Pixie-bob – and Sousaki Shino (Suganuma Chisa), better known as Mandalay.  Together they’re “The Pussycats”, though Josie is nowhere to be found and the kids seem not to have heard of them.  Except of course for herotaku Deku, who knows the Pussycats as a hero team specializing in mountain rescues.  As for the boy, he’s Izumi Kouta (Yamazaki Michiru), Mandalay’s nephew, and Deku’s reward for being the only one to notice Kouta and introduce himself is something no guy should every do to another guy, knowing what it feels like.

The training starts immediately – the students have to fight their way through a forest full of beasts just to try and get to the training camp at the Pussycat compound.  Mandalay makes note of how early in the game it is for the kids to be going through this, and Aizawa-sensei acknowledges that things are being accelerated – trying to get the kids ready to acquires “just in case” provisional hero licenses.  And as Eraserhead’s demonstration with Bakugo shows, in terms of their raw power the students may not have advanced as much quirk-wise as they have mentally (though Deku himself has certainly made a world of progress).

As for Kouta, there’s a story behind his attitude towards heroes, and in acknowledging it Horikoshi is taking a rather T*g*sh*-like direction.  Both the boy’s parents were killed in the line of duty, leaving him orphaned – which leads to some difficult questions about what kind of priorities a hero should have.  For someone like All Might, childless and unmarried, perhaps this is not an issue – but is it selfish for parents to risk their lives every day when other lives depend on them?  Deku (because he’s Deku, after all) is deeply troubled by Kouta’s seething resentment towards heroes, but he’ll have to do more than just save his life to earn Kouta’s respect…