Things are getting grave in this week’s coverage of My Hero Academia! The disparate UA work teams are meeting up, we’re finding out more about the stylish, enigmatic villain Overhaul, and best boy Kirishima is still here! Read on as we recap the latest episode of this fourth season.
1. Team up!
The opening to this episode is honestly mind-blowing. Izuku’s constant anxious narration throughout the scene makes it feel like a horror movie as he overanalyses and second-guesses every move that his friends make. He remarks on every move whilst the visuals take us through weird locales, like a recreation of the Abbey Road cover? The voice acting is really on point here, as Izuku gradually speeds up, talking nervously whilst describing each shared movement until they come to the realization that the superhero meetup they’re attending is darker than the usual affair.
It’s a nice light way to start what turns into a particularly mature and dark chapter of the Shie Hassaikai saga, showing us that while lots of illicit underground relations might be taking place, these characters still bring a lot of heart to the table.
2. Holy heck, Overhaul is terrifying
Up until now, I had always found the new masked villain Overhaul to be mysterious and interesting, but not entirely threatening. Up until now. You see, this group of superheroes has gathered to figure out how to combat the threat of Overhaul. It’s one thing to hear Izuku and his gang talk about villains in hushed whispers, but to hear the real top dogs of the industry describe how terrifying the head of the Shie Hassaikai’s powers have the potential to be, that’s when the viewer has to stop and listen.
Talking about Overhaul like a folktale does great wonders for his reputation, but what it also does is lead to some speculation as to what his daughter Eri’s involvement in his plan to market quirk-destroying bullets. It’s a pretty chilling conclusion that the group comes to, that will really cement this guy in the pantheon of truly despicable antagonists.
3. A hero’s regret
When talking about Overhaul, a lot of the pro heroes remark on the inclusion of the UA students in this meeting, and whether they’ll just hamper the entire operation. The show handles this kind of reactionary characterization really well in all demographics, as we see that Mirio and Izuku have become incredibly shaken to hear about what Eri’s involvement in Overhaul’s plan could be. For these two, who had the opportunity to save her but chose to bide their time for a better opportunity, this moment is incredibly crushing knowing that Eri could be in even more danger.
What I love is how Nighteye presents this feeling to the rest of the table. For the most part, we’ve seen Nighteye as something of a foil for Izuku, yet he immediately steps in to bat for the two boys and voice their insecurities for them.
4. Sympathy for Nighteye
Speaking of, we get a whole new level of complexity to Nighteye’s characterization here. When we first encountered Sir Nighteye, he seemed like a dickish, confident and know-it-all type of hero with a massive ego. However, the show has almost completely reversed that characterization in the space of roughly five episodes. When Eraser Head suggests that Nighteye just uses his prediction powers on everyone in the room to find leads, Nighteye becomes insecure, at first seemingly because he can only perform one prediction per day.
What we see is that Nighteye emotionally can’t bring himself to use his prediction powers in a dangerous situation like this, in fear that he might see something akin to when he sees All Might’s death. It’s raw and emotional, and although he never says it himself, it’s easy to empathize with him at this moment.
5. Eraser Head’s responsibility
Later on, we see the UA students collected and feeling decidedly grim after the meeting, to which Eraser Head stops by in order to give them something of a pep talk. We see him really start to embrace his role as a teacher and mentor at this moment, as he treats each of the students with a level of respect that can only be gained from them going through so much together. Especially with Izuku, we’re thrown back to the countless times Eraser Head told him not to be so headstrong and reckless and set boundaries even though he knew they would be broken. There’s an adult/teenager relationship here that’s entirely different from Izuku’s relationship to All Might: while they might have a more familial, mentor relationship, Eraser Head feels much more like a stern but a caring teacher.
Later, some interesting conversation is shared between Gran Torino and Nighteye, and we’re reminded of the respect that Torino gained for Izuku back in his working days. In this conversation, we see Nighteye admit that Izuku does remind him a lot of All Might, whether that be for better or worse. That’s still progress!!
That’s it for the week folks! Were you as shocked by the news about what could be happening to Eri? Do you still appreciate that Kirishima is still hanging out with the big guns? Let fly in the comments!
