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):
After several weeks of hit-or-miss episodes, the Provisional Exam arc has fully drawn to a close. As always though, there’s still a few loose threads that need to be taken care of and that’s where all of the focus for today’s episode goes. That leaves us with quite a few moving parts to work through, and some of those parts are more interesting than others.
Starting directly where things left off last time, the kids get their results for the exam and to no one’s surprise, Deku manages to pass alongside most of his classmates. There are a few stragglers though, one being Bakugo who’s foul-mouthed attitude didn’t do him any favors when it came to the rescue portion of the exam along with Todoroki and Inasa who’s infighting ruined both their chances at success. While he has yet to get over his dislike of Todoroki, Inasa is at least willing to apologize for letting his emotions get the better of him and Todoroki acknowledges that it was partially his fault as well and that he has a long way to go in overcoming his father’s influence. It seems pretty clear the story has more to do with these two in the future so I appreciate that the rift between them isn’t completely filled just yet, but the conclusion here is bittersweet enough to hold things over in the meantime.
From there we check in on the League of Villains as it turns out Camie was actually Toga in disguise all along, and she jumped into the exams to meet Deku again and get a sample of his blood for her transformation quirk. Meanwhile, All-Might meets up with All-For-One in his prison cell as the latter continues to lord his victory. Though All-For-One may still be imprisoned, things seem to be more or less moving according to his plans as he successfully predicts that the heroes are under attack by the media for their lack of unity, and that other villain organizations in the shadows will start vying for power in All-Might’s absence. All-Might of course refuses to let this get to him and vows to do whatever it takes to stop All-For-One’s plans from being realized. While this scene is pretty clearly spreading some seeds for future story arcs, this was probably the slowest point in the episode for me since much of the impact from the fallout their battle caused has kinda been lost in the wake of how slow the Provisional Exam arc was and I wasn’t as invested as I probably would have been half a season ago.
Something I am invested in though is the final segment of this episode where Bakugo tells Deku to meet him outside the dorms. It’s been clear for a while that Bakugo’s been piecing together the truth of where Deku’s quirk came from and after everything that happened with the All-For-One incident he manages to put two-and-two together and calls Deku out on it. Even though Deku doesn’t give him a direct response his reaction is enough to convince Bakugo he’s right on the money and Bakugo of course is extremely frustrated about the revelation. He’s looked up to All-Might his entire life, and the notion that someone he had regarded as insignificant was acknowledged by the man over him is yet another blow to his ego, and one that he’s ready to settle in another fight. It always seemed kind of clear these two were going to go at it again someday and while the circumstances are a lot different than what I would have predicted in season one (Bakugo hasn’t fallen to the dark side for one thing) I’m glad to see it finally happening since Bakugo, in particular, has a lot of hangups that only a serious fight with Deku would actually help close for him. Unsurprisingly the fight itself is postponed till next week but given how much this one has been a long time coming, I’m hoping the anime will pull out all the stops.
In Summary:
The Provisional Exam arc has ended but the show still has a couple of loose threads to work through. Todoroki and Inasa are left to deal with the consequences their spat last week, and All-For-One is continuing to revel in having created a future without All-Might. Sadly the latter didn’t feel like enough of an immediate threat to hold the episode but what does sound promising is the prospect of Deku and Bakugo settling their differences in another brawl, and with as much as those two have to air out with each other, it’s sure to be exciting.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Funimation, Crunchyroll, Hulu, VRV
