This week the showdown between the top contenders for the Sports Festival in the Cavalry Battle must come to an
end and the show must continue: and the results are surprising given who changes the different elements of the game. One thing is clear, only the members of the classes who are willing to fight to be on the very top are capable of moving on to the next round. For now Todoroki and Midoriya are clashing head on while Bakugo must prove his competency and retake the headbands he lost.
The most unexpected thing about this episode is just how much I didn’t see it all coming. Part of me was expecting Midoriya to lose by a hair and realize he had a far way to go or for him to barely win because that’s just a cliche that could happen. Instead I got a mixture and ended up in between: nobody who went where they were going got there by chance. Midoriya’s team is just as solid as Todoroki’s, and Todoroki’s is as solid as Bakugo’s. The top four teams who win in the end all deserved to win or, in the case of TestuTetsu, mysteriously lost their place to an unknown factor we will figure out before this arc is over.
One of the biggest surprises to me this episode was Iida. Iida essentially upset me before because he wasn’t willing 
to be loyal and I thought, why does it matter you’re clearly just working for Todoroki? I was absolutely wrong. Iida showed just how capable he is this episode by pulling out a trump card that none of his friends knew about, and because of it his team is able to grab the 10,000,000 point bounty. You’d think this might be a solid victory for Todoroki in the end but to my shock the only reason Midoriya didn’t get it was because they were clever enough to turn over the headbands. Part of me feels like it was simply to keep them all in the running, I feel like if it were me I’d be grabbing all of the headbands because they are an easy handful to grab several. (Bakugo is a good example of this)
Even though he grabbed the wrong headband in the end Midoriya was able to use One for All without destroying his hand, which is a fantastic move up for him. And luckily Tokoyami IS A FUCKING BIRD GOD AND STOLE TODOROKI’S HEADBAND! Everyone was so busy fighting over the 10,000,000 point headband they forgot to protect their own headbands, so Tokoyami’s shadow stole the headband right off of Todoroki. Had there been another minute for everyone to throw down Bakugo, Midoriya, and Todoroki were all posed to get into a last minute grab for glory.
This show is such a joy to watch. Everytime I think I can predict a cliche from shounen I’m pleasantly surprised by 
this anime. It has such a refreshing mix of American hero tropes, Japanese tropes, and genuine ingenuity to make it a breath of fresh air. On top of it moments like Todoroki using his fire powers made for an interesting lead in to the next set of episodes and I’m ecstatic to see it all. Seeing Bakugo be rationale and motivated without spitting at Midoriya every 5 seconds was actually very endearing to the character for me – so now I’m feeling a lot of love for almost everyone in the plot.
I wanted to make a glib comment about people suffering next time but. . . this show makes people happy, so. . . darn you anime, guess I’ll just enjoy your damn story and happiness instead of crying at you all the time!
Oki