What They Say:
In the future, mankind is blessed with superhuman abilities called “Quirks” and in response to the growing crime rate, superheroing becomes a viable profession. Izuku “Deku” Midoriya dreams of one day becoming a great hero like his idol, All-Might, but he was born completely quirkless with no powers at all. However, when Deku ends up having a chance encounter with All-Might in the flesh, it changes his destiny forever.
The Review
Content (warning some portions of this review may contain spoilers):
The Provisonal License Exam is fully underway and the Class 1-A kids are scrambling to stay in the game as all the other schools start targeting them. As you might expect, this week’s episode is pretty heavy on the action, and we’re introduced to a variety of cool and strange quirks as well as Deku’s latest…admirer. Sadly action doesn’t quite translate into speed this time around as there’s already some padding going on in order to make this arc last through the rest of the summer, but there’s enough going on to keep this from feeling boring.
As the exam starts, the kids find themselves getting attacked by all sides from the other schools and a barrage of unknown quirks. While they’re able to fend them off, it doesn’t take long for the whole group to get separated, and Deku ends up on his own. This leads to Deku having an encounter with a strange girl named Camie who wants to know more about Deku’s motivations behind becoming a hero and her learning process here involves a very serious case of bad touch. However before she can finish “questioning” him, more students show up to attack and Deku manages to reunite with Ochako. This gives Deku an opportunity to show off what his new legwork can do as he attempts to protect Ochako from the other students, believing that his failure to take care of his arms is ultimately what lead to Bakugo’s kidnapping and All-Might’s subsequent fall from grace. It’s a bit of a retread at this point (and a way to help the episode stall for time) but seeing that Deku fully understands the consequences of his recklessness is good growth nonetheless, and it’s a pretty cool sequence so I guess that more or less balances it out.
Unfortunately for Deku, it turns out that the girl he saved wasn’t the real Ochako and that it was Camie using her quirk to disguise herself. Deku’s observation skills helped him to figure out she was an impostor beforehand, but the fact that he helped her despite knowing that only serves to make Camie even more curious about him. As she continues to go after Deku, this time he gets rescued by the real Ochako alongside Sero and the three of them make a quick escape. And that’s…mostly it for this episode. The only other major highlights here are Inasa showing off what his wind quirk can do as he eliminates a chunk of the competition at once, and the final scene of the episode where Todoroki gets ambushed by a team of…rainbow colored ninjas (though I guess it shouldn’t really come off as too weird given the show’s standards).
This certainly isn’t the most dense episode of MHA in terms of material, but I kind of figured that would be the case, so I’m not too surprised this mostly focused on one event. It’s a little frustrating not to have anything else to talk about though, and about the only major thing of note here besides Deku’s moment of self-reflection is my surprise that the back half of his encounter with Camie wasn’t cut down from the manga in any notable way since that kinda seemed like something that might not fly on a daytime slot in Japan. Hopefully, next week will be a bit more exciting in terms of content, and while I know there’ll still be plenty more stretching going on to make this arc last awhile, it’d be nice if BONES could turn it around to make it more effective.
In Summary:
The Provisional License Exam is off to an action-packed start, but not exactly an exciting one. While there’s plenty of sparks flying this episode, the majority of our time is spent with Deku trying to avoid being caught in the arms of his new admirer, Camie. It’s not exactly boring, but there are some visible attempts to stretch out the material here, and so far it’s not being filled with anything interesting. With any luck, that’ll change in the coming episodes, but in the meantime this one’s just kinda passable.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV, Hulu
