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):
With Deku having made it through last week’s encounter intact, the stage of the provisional exams shifts to the other members of Class 1-A and gives them some much deserved time in the spotlight. Right off the bat, it’s probably worth noting that the majority of this is anime-original material and more or less serves as an effective way to help pad this arc out for a few extra episodes, which I had kinda figured might be the case at some point. In execution though, you’d never be able to tell as this little detour not only manages to be pretty entertaining in its own right, but actually ties into the manga based content of the episode really well.
Things kick off with the conclusion to one of last week’s cliffhangers as Todoroki fends off the rainbow-colored ninja kids who decided to target him. The kids have studied Todoroki’s quirk and try to take advantage of his weaknesses by using substances with a high level of heat or cold resistance. However, it doesn’t take long for Todoroki to turn the tables on them as he decides to use both halves of his quirk simultaneously to get the jump on them and manages to take them out. To be honest, this whole sequence was over with a little too quickly to make for all that interesting of a fight, but I appreciate that the anime staff didn’t bother trying to drag this one out if they didn’t have any good ideas for it, and if nothing else, seeing Todoroki getting more comfortable with using both sides of his power is always a plus I guess.
The actual meat of this episode involves Momo, Tsuyu, Jiro, and Shoji as they end up in a battle of their own. As they search for the rest of their classmates, they find themselves being hunted by a group of girls in sailor uniforms, lead by a girl named Saiko whose quirk raises her IQ whenever she drinks tea. Saiko takes advantage of what she knows about the group’s quirks and suppresses them one by one, as they quickly find themselves trapped, and Momo left with seemingly no choice but to use her creation quirk for defense, leaving them with no options for fighting back. As Momo considers her options, she thinks about what Deku would do in this situation and realizes that it’s more important to get the others to safety than to worry about passing the exam. She decides to risk using her quirk for an offensive strike in order to ensure everyone escapes but this leaves her open to an attack from Saiko herself. To Saiko’s surprise though, the others come back to help Momo since they believe in supporting each other as a group, and they manage to defeat Saiko to pass the first phase of the exam.
It’s not exactly the flashiest setup for a fight, but it’s pretty effective nonetheless. Given that quirks are supposed to be part of a person’s biology in MHA’s universe, it’s nice to get a battle that takes that into account more than usual, such as Tsuyu’s weakness to low temperatures, or Jiro’s sensitivity to loud bursts of sound. Seeing those weaknesses get exploited helps to give the whole thing a lot more tension than a more straightforward fight might have and makes the eventual reversal of the situation all the more rewarding. While Momo specifically thinking in terms of how Deku would deal with things felt a little too on the nose, it does actually end up tying into the later parts of the episode.
While Deku plans out his next move, and Bakugo and Kirishima find themselves under attack by a guy who can turn people into meat putty (weirdly that’s not the strangest quirk we’ve seen in this show) Aizawa notes that Bakugo and Deku have ended up more or less becoming the nucleus of the class, influencing everyone around them. Seeing that influence play out of the course of this week’s events makes that end quote a bit more effective than it was in the manga, and serves as a reminder that the next generation of heroes will feature all of these kids, not just those two. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this much anime-only material, but if BONES can add as much to the rest of this arc as they did here, the anime may just prove to the the definitive version of it.
In Summary:
The series takes a diversion for some anime-original material this week, and it turns out to be quite a bit of fun. Seeing part of the 1-A gang put in a situation where the biological weaknesses of their quirks get exploited makes for a scenario that’s equal parts exciting and tense, and while it might have seemed a little strange that Deku’s influence would factor into their victory, it does ultimately tie into the climax of the episode as Aizawa claims that Deku and Bakugo have had a bigger influence on the other kids than either of them has realized. I certainly wasn’t expecting the show to get so much out of this material, but if they can keep it up, it could certainly serve to make this arc better in the long run.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV, Hulu
