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):
After setting the stage for the provisional license exam with Deku’s latest step towards mastering One-For-All, it’s time for…more setup. Well to be accurate the exam arc does actually kick off properly this week, but mostly within the last few minutes of the episode. Instead the majority of our time here is spent in service of some extra bits of build-up and a few new character introductions as the show makes a full transition into the arc. All of this is fine of course, but it also kind of goes without saying that it doesn’t make for a solid 20 minutes of pure entertainment.
Things kick off pretty much exactly where they ended last week as Deku shows off his new fighting style to the class. This earns him some praise from All-Might who’s proud he found a solution, as well as some extra ire from Bakugo who nearly gets All-Might killed while experimenting with his newest attack. Naturally, Bakugo plays off his concern over All-Might’s weakened state with his usual hot-headed routine, but there’s a pretty strong indication that he’s actually fairly worried about it. Of course, this hits All-Might himself even harder, as he sees that he’s the one in need of protecting now, and it’s not a role he can easily accept.
While that’s a good nibble of interest on it’s own, the thing that’s probably going to grab more attention happens later that evening. Ochako’s crush on Deku is starting to get into her head a bit more, and while she claims it isn’t really love, she’s got some pretty clear thirst going on. So…yeah I guess this going to be her thing for the time being. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t kinda wish she had something else to do besides this, especially given she’s the most central character of the show’s female cast thus far, but it is what it is. Given this is a mainstream shonen, and romance is an afterthought by extension, it’s extremely unlikely this’ll end up going anywhere anytime soon, but for right now it’s kind of cute, albeit not really enough to carry half an episode.
As things shift to the day of the exams, the kids come face to face with some new rivals from the other hero schools, including some second years who’ve had more time to master their quirks then they do. Out of these, the most notable one is another first year named Inasa who was actually recommended for UA with even higher qualifications that Todoroki, but turned the offer down for some reason despite being a fan of the school. We also meet another pro-hero named Ms. Joke who has a thing for the straight-laced Aizawa of all people, which kind of works better as a gag if you’re familiar with how Japanese straight-man/comic-man routines tend to work, but is still pretty amusing regardless. Like the first half of the episode, none of this is particularly weak on it’s own, but there’s not enough comedy to keep things from dragging a little. Fortunately the exam itself gets off to a more exciting start as Deku quickly comes to the realization that thanks to the UA Sports Festival, everyone knows what Class-1-A’s quirks are, and all the other schools are gonna be gunning for them.
In Summary:
The Provisional License Exam properly begins this week, but not without some extra setup first. This setup mostly involves the introduction of new characters, as well as laying the seeds for some potential threads later down the line such as how All-Might’s weakened state might affect his relationship with his students and Ochako’s budding infatuation with Deku. None of it’s quite interesting enough to really fill out the whole episode, but it manages to skirt by just enough to avoid feeling boring. If you were looking for some action though, you’ll have to wait another week to see how Deku and the others handle all the other hero schools looking to take them out of the competition, and hopefully that’ll be as fun as it sounds.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV, Hulu
