Introducing the Big Three!
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kohei Horikoshi
Translation: Caleb Cook
What They Say
Summer vacation is over, and it’s back to school for the students of U.A. High! But before classes can get started, Midoriya and Bakugo need to settle a beef between them that’s been festering for a long time. Even if they can get past this bump in the road on the way to becoming superheroes, the hurdles just keep getting higher and higher—the hero work studies in the upcoming year will bring them even closer to their goal…or their destruction!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the volume opens, we rejoin Deku and Bakugo in the middle of their fight. First off, I have to say that it actually plays out really nice and has a great flow to it, making for a strong battle just on a technical level. That said, I’m not 100% sure about how I feel about the exact way some of the dialogue plays out. To cut to the chase, it almost kind of feels like the book trying to force their relationship through a bit in spite of what we’ve seen of their past. In other words… I’m not really sure I like the justification of how Deku needed to cling to Bakugo despite the bullying, and how they’re just true rivals that drag each other higher and higher. I suppose that’s always kind of been the issue, in that where the characters are NOW works very well, but some of the early development makes that kind of awkward in retrospect. Which normally I can just roll with, but having Deku yell out about how of course he didn’t like how Bakugo treated him, but still respected him because he was so great and all that is just… I don’t know, just feels kind of awkward considering the details that we know. Still, aside from that minor concern, it really is a nice sequence, and I especially like the sort of begrudging respect Bakugo comes out of it with.
We soon move onto the next big topic for our students, though: work studies! Before that really kicks into gear, though, we get the introduction of U.A.’s “Big Three,” the school’s best students. Two of them don’t really get much focus here, though what we see of their personalities does make them pretty amusing. The third, Mirio, however, gets plenty of attention and is easily the star of the show. He has a bizarrely simple yet oddly charming design, a really neat Quirk that he demonstrates wonderfully here, and a fun personality. That alone would be enough to slot him in as a character sure to capture reader’s hearts, but it doesn’t stop there, as it turns out he was also recommended to be All Might’s successor before Deku came into the picture and took that place! That really does put him into an interesting position, and combined with everything else makes for one hell of a great new character for the series to play around with!
That’s not all, though, as Deku is faced with the difficult task of earning a work study with All Might’s former sidekick, Sir Nighteye… without his mentor’s backing! When a group of yakuza remnants also start getting active and our hero gets wrapped up in the proceedings, just how will he manage to handle things?!
In Summary
This volume is the one where we start to transition into a new arc, and fortunately, it definitely seems to be a bit of an upswing. Firstly, we get the rest of Deku and Bakugo’s battle, and while I have some minor issues with a bit of how it played out, it’s definitely still a strong event overall and helps both characters move forward. Furthermore, the book uses this new arc to make a number of additions to the cast, and they definitely show potential. In particular, the one with the most focus here is just plain great all around and really steals the show. Add to this some rumblings of what sort of trouble will come next, and you get a real solid volume overall!
Content Grade: A-
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 7th, 2018
MSRP: $9.99
