Welcome back to our coverage of the greatest superhero anime, My Hero Academia. This week, Togata hides in a bush whilst sticking his butt out of it and says, “Here’s a peach!”. Read on, as we discuss more of this high art.
1. Eri is introduced further
As was just introduced at the end of the last episode, we see that Togata has taken on something of a big brother role to Eri and has pitched the idea of bringing her around the school festival to the school authorities. Here, taking place just after the ‘peach event’, we see that Togata has had this idea approved and is introducing her slowly to the kids around the school, starting with 1-A. It’s a very charming sequence to see everyone react to Eri, from the students that met her in the last arc, like Uraraka and Kirishima, and to how the rest of the class meets her.
Then we also get to see Minoru take a creepy pass at her saying “I can’t wait to see what you look like in ten years”. Thankfully, nothing is done with this line after that, but you really have to wonder what this character is adding to the narrative at all.
2. Good Guy Nezu
We see some fun moments as Togata and Izuku walk Eri around the rest of the school. One of the standouts is when they meet with students from class B, who mention that they’ve been working on a play called “Romeo and Juliet and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Return of the King” which sounds like a hoot and something I hope they re-enact mid-episode, never mind the copyright. All the while, Togata is being cute at showing Eri around, and I love that he has grown past losing his powers in this way and become something of a mentor for Eri. However, the gang has to take a break for Eri’s sake at one point, in which we see the principal Nezu chime in as to how he convinced the local authorities to keep the festival up and running.
I love how much of a positive force Nezu is in this show, and this scene displays it well. Although I still think the idea of holding a regular festival at this time of crisis for UA is a questionable idea, Nezu makes great points as to why it’s a great moment of stress relief for the students, especially for the sake of mental health. Also, Hound Dog is on patrol outside the school, and you just don’t mess with that guy.
3. Izuku must dance!!
We circle back to the students finding time to develop the show at one point, in which we see Mina trying to teach Izuku and the other dancers how to ‘lock’ which is actually described in a pretty fun and memorable way! Later on, however, we see Mina brutally tell Izuku that he’s been fired from the dancing squad as a strength-type hero is needed to tow Aoyama around the roof of the stage as a pseudo-disco ball. Izuku is at first shook by the apparent reveal of his dancing prowess, before then being upset that he told Eri he would be dancing when he’s now been told that he won’t be. It’s a bit over the top, but considering the age of these characters, it also seems exactly like the type of drama I would have gotten upset about at that time.
Thankfully, from what I managed to gauge, Mina and Izuku work out a way that Izuku can do both in a way that will still impress Eri. I love that the show is so focused on Izuku being so worried about looking after Eri, just as much as Togata has so effortlessly taken to being her big brother-figure.
4. Training and tech
Izuku goes out to train with All Might after this point, and I always love seeing the chemistry between these two. Izuku has been working more and more on refining his long-range shots, with All Might getting a moment to casually brag about his natural ability and say that he never had this problem when he was training. I love how innocent he is in saying this, but it actually does a lot to make Izuku more compelling as a hero constantly having to train and bring himself up to the level he’s expected to be at. Eventually, the student from the support team Mei Hatsume stumbles upon this secret training as one of her robots is getting away!
Izuku is naturally terrified that his One For All secret has finally been caught out, but All Might cleverly dampen the whole scene down, noticing that Mei is much more absorbed in her own ability and robots to notice anything out of the ordinary. To that end, I appreciate that no unnecessary escalation took place.
5. Oh La Brava, we have no choice but to stan
We also check back in with Gentle Criminal this episode, via a great segue from Izuku. All Might had off-handedly mentioned he used armor and support items at one stage, and so naturally Izuku went searching the net for any mentions or footage of said armor, before accidentally clicking on a Gentle Criminal video. On the other end, we see Gentle Criminal justifying his upcoming excursion to interrupt the school festival, saying that interference from another criminal will only serve to harden their spirits and give them promising futures, which is a little bit yikes. He then proceeds to go through his heist-esque plan to break into the school with La Brava, which is entertaining.
Speaking of, we find out the origin of La Brava, who turned out to be Gentle Criminal’s first true fan! She showed up at his door and said she was taken from the first video, vowing to help boost his career in any way possible. I don’t fully know the nature of their relationship, but I definitely know La Brava is adorable!!
That’s it for this week! Let us know in the comments on a 1-10 scale about how much you appreciate La Brava and her effort.
