“Place of Learning”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Kohei Horikoshi
Translation: Caleb D. Cook
What They Say
Midoriya inherits the superpower of the world’s greatest hero, but greatness won’t come easy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Jumping into My Hero Academia as the big arc plays out continues to be a good bit of fun but it’s not without its problems. While my initial jumping on landed me into some decent character material and then some solid fight material, the exploration of longer character issues I’m unfamiliar with has hit as well. With the series working some big moments and playing with an interesting cast of characters, it’s easy to get into it at this point. But there are areas of struggle at times because it does lean into over three hundred chapters of history, so I know I’m missing out at times or having a harder time connecting things. I had liked what little I had seen of Horikoshi’s previous work in Shonen Jump and it’s clearly been a few years since Barrage, so I was looking forward to revisiting his artwork.
With a really fun full-color two-page spread featuring a huge chunk of the kids, this chapter is pretty well-focused when it comes to the fight between Bakugo and Shigaraki. But before that, we get to see some time on board the flying fortress where the push to cover events as part of a documentary-style approach is proving to be amusing. Some of the kids aren’t exactly keen on it but this is the way to get the message out to the world with what’s happening and to shore up their own position. There’s a not to the whole history written by the victors angle as well, but it’s a nice bit of just highlighting how one of the sub-groups of the academy is handling things. We also continue to see how the group is trying to get in touch with Deku and the frustrations because of various aspects of interference going on.
The bulk of the chapter focuses on the main fight, however, and it’s good to see Bakugo really stepping into this and showing some serious power and control. That’s something that Shigaraki actually does talk about because Shigaraki takes advantage of it in order to get in close and gets hands-on with Bakugo. It’s a pretty intense fight befitting these two characters even though it’s clearly not over between them. The back and forth, the whole give and take element, works well to keep us engaged with it. And we do get some commentary from others toward the end as they’re keeping an eye on things and working to help in their own way as well. It’s all coming together well but you can see how it’s going to crack in places and the unpredictability of Shigaraki stepping into play.
In Summary:
This installment moves through a lot of action but slides in enough character material and lets us know what the business kids have been up to. That everything is being documented so clearly is interesting, and could lead to some awkward moments later, definitely has me curious to see how the tale will be told when it’s all said and done. The action here is really well done and seeing Bakugo going at things as he does has me hopeful for some big scene still to come.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Shonen Jump
Release Date: July 18th, 2022
