The first half of the test is over halfway over. Bakugo, Kirishima and Kiminari are faced against Seiji Shishikura from Shiketsu High School, who’s quirk ‘Meatball’, despite being named horridly is actually pretty powerful. He can bend his own flesh and make it in different ways by making it loser and when used on other people can soften them up and roll them into balls of flesh. I’m sorry, I just, can’t stop laughing. The name of his quirk is meatball. Dear lord I hope when he picks his hero name he manages to work it into something that doesn’t say what his quirk is named because nobody is going to take him seriously.
He took down Kirishima in the previous episode and impressively tricks Bakugo this episode taking him down.
The show uses this for two things, to give Kiminari a character who has largely been a jerk up until recently some time to really shine as a character and double up it’s idea that Bakugo is one of the two forces that brings class 1-A together. Bakugo throws a bomb that is set to make a remote explosive to Kiminari before he gets turned into a ball of fleshy goo. Kiminari uses it and then uses his upgrades to injure Seiji just enough to rescue his friends from goop form and they win that battle.
Not only that battle, but clearly the battle against all the other nameless balls of goop that had been surrounding Seiji letting them become the next from from 1-A to pass.
Then we cut to Deku, Ochako and Sero. Who are running for their lives from a group of people hunting them down. They pull a really neat trick that uses a combination of all of their quirks, making debris lighter and throwing it with tape attached as a neat trick. When it was safe to let it go, Ochako just let the gravity return to normal, the debris fell and the tape fell down upon the people who were there below. Making Deku, Sero and Ochako the next group to get by.
With this, there are only 9 students from Class 1-A left and the spots of people who can pass the first part of the exam dwindling fast. Soon it’s down to only ten spots left. Can the rest of Class 1-A make it? Well, the answer is yes, but only because of the least likely character imaginable in this situation.
Yūga Aoyama.
Yūga Aoyama has always been sort of played off as a joke, ever since the beginning of the series but in this episode we actually really see the start of his character development. As Iida goes out of his way to help and protect everyone from the class, despite the dwindling amount of people who can pass the exam. He says that leading the class and helping this is part of what his dream is, it’s what he feels his brother would of done.
Really considering his dream, Yūga Aoyama decides to do what he can as well and what he thinks he can do is sacrifice himself so Iida can pass. What he does instead is set a beam of light that brings the scattered members of class 1-A together and allows all of them to fight together and pass. With only ten slots left, the nine members of class 1-A manage their way through. The 10th person is Camie from Shiketsu.
I loved the fact that this episode gave the chance for a lot of characters that have been previously viewed as ‘joke’ characters a time to shine. There is also a rather interesting scene with Bakugo as he passes by Deku and not only refrains from insulting him really, but mutters that he has taken the ‘power he borrowed and made it his own.’. I’ve said it for a while,but Bakugo is a smart cookie and I wouldn’t be surprised if he knows much more then he is letting on. This show has a lot of good moments like this, trying to develop it’s characters from it’s good to it’s bad, to it’s joke characters. It’s working on giving everyone some kind of development slowly, rather they deserve it or not.
Looking at you manga and your vague attempts to make the fandom NOT hate Endeavor.
I’m excited to see where we go from here. The first half is over and all of class 1-A has passed, but it can’t stay that way forever as we jump from the first to the final. The area they were previous in is now a ruined scene with people who need to be saved. The final test of the provisional licence exam is a test on rescue missions. I think I have a few idea’s on some people who won’t pass just given the theme but we’ll see for sure.
Also Camie had her clothing back. Where did she manage a new uniform in the middle of all this fighting? Maybe we’ll get an answer to that too.
(It was Kaminari who took down the arrogant Shiketsu guy this week, not Kirishima! Just a quick typo!)
Truth be told, I wasn’t looking forward to this arc all that much from the manga, because it really just felt like a necessary timewaster to both give Deku and co a way to pursue villains without getting in trouble and also properly segway from the intense United States of Smash to Deku and his ‘Special Backpack’, if you know what I mean. But Bones has been taking both the few interesting moments this arc and other possibly-interesting moments that weren’t really given screentime in the manga and just… absolutely, magnificently, making them shine. I keep thinking ‘the next arc can’t possibly be as investing for me to watch as the last’ and Bones ALWAYS proves me wrong! XD
As far as a certain new Number 1 Hero’s adventures have been concerned, I personally think that Horikoshi did the best he possibly could to give us an arc revolving around one of the most hated characters in the series without ruining the fragile balance he’s got with both characters and fans across the world. Most other series would have either kept Endeavor as a pure asshole, or completely flipped directions with a quick and easy redemption arc where everyone he’s ever hurt instantly forgives him. Instead he’s a mixed bag of marbles, just like a lot of people in real life (it’s funny how easily my mind draws connections with the Guardians director controversy, though they aren’t the same). My thoughts are a little unsettled on the guy in general, but I’m definitely not saying no to extra levels of depth and complexity in a series I like.
Oh yes, my bad. I’m really bad with names some times and their names are really similar. I fixed it ^^. Yeah, nah I respect that he’s giving arcs to everyone no matter how hated they are and that it seems realistic. Because in reality he wouldn’t be instantly forgiven, so it worked out. I’ve only seen bits and pieces from my friends who read the manga, but it seems like it was done really well.