Welcome back to our coverage of the latest My Hero Academia! And dang, folks, we were not expecting this episode to pack the emotional punch that it did. We see the escalation of the battle between Izuku and Gentle Criminal, as La Brava lends her supports, whilst also seeing the tragic backstories of our misguided antagonists. In the midst of it all, the School Festival is about to start! Read on as we discuss five points from the episode.
1. Last-minute preparations
The show annoyingly opens with a pretty lengthy recap of most of the last episode’s events, which has never been done in this capacity on this season and feels unnecessary. However, once the credits have rolled, we get a little focus back on what’s going on with the school festival. There’s a bit of discourse between the competitors of the beauty pageant, which the Big Three’s Nejire coming out on top of the argument with a perfectly sassy yet dismissive claim that she’ll take out the day. We also get another charming scene between the cutest couple in the show: Mirio and Eri, with Mirio acting as a chauffeur to take Eri to the festival. Eri’s still having trouble recognizing happiness and only barely smiles at the thought of seeing Izuku’s performance with 1-A.
Meanwhile, we get a shot between Midnight and All Might as they discuss Izuku’s absence slip, worrying that he’s gonna be pushing it to make it in time for the festival. It seemed a little bit filler-y, but I’m sure alerting these characters will have some kind of payoff in the coming episodes.
2. School-age tragedy
Meanwhile, we jump back to the battle between our two hyper-passionate enemies, Izuku and Gentle. Izuku flees the construction site, using Gentle’s residual elasticity energy to fling himself using the crane towards the school, which is entertaining and revs up audiences perfectly. Izuku continues to take note of where every elasticity pocket has been made and uses it to his advantage in a satisfyingly high-octane fight scene once the two re-meet, a great example of how the show cleverly navigates superpowers. However, once Gentle is endangered, La Brava is shocked into a flashback sequence (don’t you just hate when that happens?) of her own past.
La Brava, or Manami, wrote a love letter to a boy in school, who humiliated her for it and called her a stalker. Because of this proof that children are horrible, Manami retreated into a deep depression, gluing herself to her computer and contemplating some dark thoughts. This did, at least, lead to her stumbling upon Gentle’s twisted ray of joy and her being determined to find him and help him, and the rest is history.
3. That’s the power of love
Once La Brava, or Manami, flashes back to the present, we see her react and finally get a glimpse of her quirk. In an exceptionally sweet moment, she whispers “I love you” to Gentle, whilst the show reveals that she has the power to boost the quirks of those she has a deep, passionate love for. Gentle is surging with confidence and delivers a powerful hit to Izuku, however we see that Izuku’s riled up enough on his own that the two are only now just on an equal playing field. Izuku, crawling from the wreckage of the hit, delivers a powerful long-range shot that catches Gentle off-guard.
The battle continues, with Manami despairing that she didn’t give Gentle a big enough boost, tragically crying “My love wasn’t strong enough!”. Gentle also delivers a delightful signature move in which he layers pockets of elasticized air onto Izuku, called ‘Gently Sandwich’. So considerate.
4. Never good enough
After all this, we finally see what drives Gentle towards the path he’s headed, that of leaving his mark in the history books. It’s flashback number two, folks! Gentle, whose real name is Danjuro, recalls his time in a high school, where he was failing in all his classes and had attempted the provisional license exam four times to no avail. Despite this AND the principal himself telling Danjuro he should drop out, our future gentleman persists in saying that he will continue to work on being a hero no matter what. However, we then see him interrupted in a coffee shop upon seeing a man falling from a window rig. Danjuro feels this is his opportunity to help but elasticizes air in a place that blocks an incoming hero and causes the victim to be crushed by massive debris.
This horrifying turn of events, of course, leads Danjuro into a funk, where the whole world seems against him. Even his now-successful school friend fails to recognize him merely four years after their graduation. Naturally, this causes Danjuro to believe that if he can’t be a successful hero, he will make his mark on history as a popular villain.
5. The future she deserves
The story flashes back to the present, and the pair continue to fight. A crucial point occurs where Danjuro asks Izuku what he’s becoming a hero for, in which Izuku recognizes he’s like Danjuro and Manami. His dream of becoming a hero has moved beyond him, and he’s doing it for the sake of those who need someone to believe in, which was a pretty solid point of connection. Manami is struggling to feel helpful through all this, however, and runs in the way of UA’s security, Hound Dog, in order to help Danjuro access the school grounds. On her way back, however, she sees Danjuro defeated, and runs to his side, bashing at Izuku to move off.
At this moment, we see a touching realization from Danjuro, that if they’re caught in the act of fighting Izuku to get into UA, Manami’s future will be ruined. Danjuro summons up one last ounce of strength to bounce Izuku away from the scene after they’ve both acknowledged and respected each other so that Hound Dog finds Danjuro voluntarily surrendering so as to ease the punishment on Manami. The moment that tipped me over, however, was his thought that Izuku would be proud of this decision. Argh! Emotions!
That’s it for this week, folks! Comment if you wish to discuss how the ramifications of this story will affect the overall arc, or if you were also as moved as I was by the relationship between Danjuro and Manami.
