Welcome all to our coverage of the latest season of everyone’s favorite superhero anime, My Hero Academia! It’s been a long year waiting, but we’re finally back to check up once again on our favorite class in U.A. High School, and our favorite little give-it-his-darn-best protagonist, Midoriya. This episode serves as a bit of a catch-up on all characters, but fear not folks – there’s a lot of heart to be found in this mostly filler episode!
1. The Filler
As I said in the intro, this is definitely a catch-up episode. The pre and post-opening sequences are all shots of what Midoriya’s whole deal is, and some footage from the climactic battle between All Might and All For One, and while they certainly qualify as good content, there’s nothing we haven’t seen before in these segments.
Unfortunately, the filler aspect of this episode means that we don’t get anything more substantial involving the overarching plot of the series. For those expecting more updates on All For One, The League of Villains, or the new baddies teased at the end of last season from the get-go, I’m afraid there’s a little more waiting to be done.
2. The Good Filler, Actually
What if I told you that an anime story doesn’t necessarily need to be connected to the long-running plot to necessarily be good? The overall story of this episode still deals with a lot of the fallout of All Might retiring, and what losing the veritable symbol of hope means for the morale of the general populace. There’s a general bittersweet tone throughout this episode, as people are grateful for the fact that the threat of All For One was stopped for now, but concerned for their safety in the future. However, we see that a newspaper company hire a freelance journalist, the allegedly infamous Taneo Tokuda, to investigate U.A.’s class 1-A to find out the meaning behind All Might’s prophetic last words, and it’s a good mix of showing people trying to cope with loss by getting on with their jobs in their own respective ways.
We also get to see Tokuda profile each member of the class as a refresher for viewers. I was prepared to snooze through this, but honestly, all it did was remind me of how much this show has a super-well balanced cast of literally twenty different characters, all of who feel layered, unique and fun.
3. That New Opening Feeling
Some of you out there reading this may be one to skip anime openings which, quite frankly, is your loss. For me, part of the fun of starting a new anime arc is the opening: a new theme song, a new sequence to tease what’s to come, and some exquisitely detailed animation to boot. The song in question here is BLUE ENCOUNT from Polaris, and it’s a dang jam. Packed with spiraling, dreamy guitar riffs, a driving J-Rock beat and that overall MHA feeling of hope, the new opening will undoubtedly re-ignite your excitement for one of the biggest anime sensations right now.
Not only that but in the animated sequence, we get Class 1-A acting like a team, which for the first time, feels earned throughout the struggles on previous seasons. We get exciting teases of not only the Big 3’s involvement in the season but also plenty more students from U.A, as well as neat little hints of the highly-anticipated villain to come. And some promised tragedy for Midoriya? Man, I love anime openings.
4. Journalistic Integrity
My Hero Academia cleverly flips expectations on heads with the freelancer, Tokudo, in this episode. From the moment he shows up on the scene and woos the editor-in-chief of the paper to give him the U.A. story, we can’t help but hold a suspicious eye to him as such is our inclination to pop culture journalists. When he arrives on the scene introducing himself to Class 1-A, the show plays this up even more: even Eraser Head is suspicious of him.
However, we get one of the most genuine connections during the climax of this episode between Tokudo and Midoriya. Tokudo quite easily deduces that Midoriya is All Might’s successor, and reveals in good time that he won’t take that new to the press, he just wanted to be reassured that the future was in good hands. But the moment that really got me? Tokudo asks Midoriya to deny it the news, and he can’t, to which Tokudo replies, “You can’t lie, huh? I like that.”. IT GOT ME, YOU GUYS!
Continued below5. The Goodest Boys
Of course, this wouldn’t be an episode of My Hero Academia without Midoriya and All Might being lovely, to each other and to everyone around them. Midoriya’s earnestness to Tokudo, as previously stated, is genuine and charming, and gives potential new viewers a good summary of his personality.
When All Might shows up to U.A., we also get a really touching interaction between him and our protagonist. All Might managed to humbly accept a bunch of pork buns from an enamored store owner, which is both hilarious and sweet and promises that he’ll be back soon to push Midoriya more and more. It’s a touching father-and-son type of dynamic, which works super well considering Midoriya’s lack of a father figure. We do touch on Ochaco and Midoriya’s secret crushes on each other, but it’s played more as a gag here, unfortunately.
That’s it for the debut episode of My Hero Academia season four! Have any thoughts to add, or wanna brag about how far ahead you are in the manga? Shoot forth a comment and discuss below.
