As with the last episode, we saw the beginning of the obstacle course race. Izuku is gonna try to prove all he has, and so are the others. Let the rest of the race commence.
As recalled in the last episode, Todoroki froze one of the “Robo Inferno” robots, and it fell. Unfortunately, it landed on a student, freaking people out. Fortunately, it landed on Kirishima. With his Hardening Quirk, he can harden his body into a shield/spear, breaking through the robot. The robot also landed on another student, the Class-B loudmouth in the last episode. His name is Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu (No, really. That’s his name.) His Quirk is Steel, in which he can turn his body into steel, making it a shield/spear. Basically, it’s the same thing as Kirishima. Bakugo uses his explosive Quirk to clear the robot overhead, as does Hanta with his Tape Quirk, and Fumikage with his Dark Shadow Quirk. Most of 1-A (and the other classes) are doing well, since they have the experience of fighting the villains from before. Izuku himself can’t use his One for All on some robots. He finds a piece of armor from the destroyed robot to use instead. He has one of the robots lock on him with the piece, and as it gets close, takes it out in one swoop.
He keeps the piece of armor as a shield to use, as the other robots get taken down by Yaoyorozu and her cannon. Now that the first challenge is cleared, they move on to the next: A canyon with some cliffs that has some ropes connected to it for students who can’t fly or jump well to crawl on. It’s called “The Fall.” Tsuyu goes ahead with her froggy powers at fast speeds on said ropes.
Yeah, I may have used this as a way to post Best Girl. Oh well. Anyway, an inventor student from the Support Course gets to have her chance here. She uses Wire Arrows and hover soles, or just flying shoes, to showcase her support role to other companies. We learn that the Support Course students can use their own items and costumes here, as long as they made it themselves. She takes off with her stuff and goes into the sky. Uraraka doesn’t want to lose to her, as do the others.
As Bakugo and Todoroki are still ahead, the others are making their way through the course (Iida glides his way on the ropes, just very “uncool,” Izuku crawls as best he can). It’s in the stands we learn of Todoroki’s dad, who is The Flame Hero, Endeavor. He is second to All Might in the top hero category. Todoroki arrives at the final barrier. It’s a minefield that is full of landmines that are very noticeable. They’re also not that powerful since it is a game, but it can do enough to make some wet themselves. Others arrive to it, and hit the landmines, making them fly about. Todoroki gets ahead, but Bakugo catches up. He starts to fight him for the lead, as the audience loves it. Izuku arrives to the field, and sees all the two in the lead. In order to catch up, Izuku uses a Bakugo idea. He uses the armor plate on a landmine, causing a big explosion and sending him to the two. Actually, it’s not as easy as that. Going back, he uses the armor plate to dig for the landmines. Seeing how everyone else is taking their time to avoid the mines, plus noticing there’s more mines in front of Todoroki and Bakugo, Izuzu can take his time digging them up. He gets enough, and BOOM!! A “Super Explosive Speed Turbo” sends him into the front. One problem: He didn’t think of landing. Another is that Bakugo and Todoroki turn their attention to him since he’s now the leader. Izuku doesn’t want to lose to them, so he takes the armor plate, smashes it into the ground, causing an explosion that sends him ahead into the lead. Eraser Head praises Izuku for this strategy, as Izuku makes it into the stadium first. He wins the obstacle course race. The stadium crowd is excited by this, and so is his mom.
Some of the other heroes see this, as does the villain who he terrorized him and 1-A before. As the other students arrive, All Might talks of how living off popularity is how modern heroes go about today. But he can see Izuku isn’t that type of hero. Of course, he thought that was his weakness, too, so he apologizes for it. Quick tangent, the Business Course students wonder how Izuku will be marketed from this. These guys aren’t in the festival, and just sell stuff or do marketing simulations to pass the time. Uraraka congratulates Izuku for the win, but he thinks it was just his luck that won it for him. He knows the real competition is just about to start.
The 1st Year’s first stage is done, and the top 10 results are as shown.
- Izuzu
- Todoroki
- Bakugo
- Class 1-B’s Ihara
- Class 1-B’s Juno
- Iida
- Fumikage
- Hanta
- Kirishima
- Tetsutetsu
Also in spots include Tsuyu in 13th, Uraraka in 16th, Yaoyorozu and Mineta in 17th and 18th place, respectfully (Mineta finished that high because he had the “genius” idea of sticking onto Yaoyorozu’s back at the finish). A lot more of Class 1-A and Class 1-B finished in the top 42, with the final one being Yuga as the 42nd. These 42 advance, with the others who didn’t make it getting other chances at something else. But Midnight announces the next challenge: A Cavalry Battle. Since it’s not an individual event, the rules are simple. 2-4 people can form a team, but there’s a point value handed out to everyone from their results in the obstacle course, with the value going up by 5 points from the bottom on up. In other words, each team will be worth different points depending on who joins. Since Izuzu finished first, he gets points that are valued at …. 10 million. In other words, anyone who takes down Izuzu on whatever team he’s on, they’ll be at the top for sure.
Overall, it was a good episode seeing how Izuku can go on in the obstacle course without using One for All. He used his head well, and he even won the race. It’s a far cry from where he was at the beginning of last season. It shows how much he has grown and how much he has yet to prove. Plus, seeing how everyone is gonna be after him, even before the 10 million he gained, he’s slowly becoming a big timer. This episode also identify the others, too. It was great to see the the inventor girl to her own thing, and how the other classes have their own ways of stacking up with Class 1-A. Well, other than the Business Course, but hey, they have their own ways of handing things too. The animation was well done throughout, and even though people still have issues with how this is being paced compared to the manga, well, they may have to deal with it since it seems BONES is gonna be doing this for the whole season. Maybe for both cours, too. By the way, did I forget to mention that our favorite SAO character made an appearance too?
About damn time Klein left that shitty anime and went to a better show pic.twitter.com/EGjbeuuQUD
— King Meow (@cedric_alpha) April 24, 2017
Yeah, I couldn’t resist the dig there. What can I say. So far, My Hero Academia has been 2 for 3 in good episodes in Season 2. Here’s to keeping it up.