My Hero Academia, Season 2 – Episode 18 – “Cavalry Battle Finale”

As the episode title suggests, this is the conclusion of the cavalry battle. The only question, though, is who came out on top with the 10 million points Izuku has? Was it him? Todoroki or Bakugo? Or another team that surprised everyone?

As the battle rages on, Mineta has already lost his teams’ headband, somehow. Because of this, he tells Shoji to go in “full-attack mode” as he opens his arms and goes after Izuku and others. Izuku is still faced with Todoroki, as their team is ready to go all out for that 10 million. But it’s not just them, as 4 other groups got them surrounded.

With less than half the time remaining, Todoroki’s team strikes first, as Kaminari uses “Indiscriminate Shock: 1.3 Million Volts” on the teams around. Todoroki covers himself with what I believe is a blanket he must have gotten from Team Rocket from all their encounters with Pikachu, as he protects his team with it. Fumikage’s Dark Shadow protects Izuku. As for the others? It’s a very shocking experience.

Yaoyorozu with her Creation Quirk created a rod before this, and Todoroki not only freezes it, but the others who got electrified. He learned from this from the obstacle course. Izuku tries to escape, but the backpack acts up. Plus, Todoroki blocks their route off with his ice. It doesn’t help that Dark Shadow attacks Todoroki’s team, but it doesn’t work to well. It flashes back to before the race where Fumikage told Izuku how his Quirk’s offense works. If it’s dark, Dark Shadow offense is very powerful, but hard to control. In the sunlight as is, it’s controllable, but below-average in attacks, making it very timid now. Izuku didn’t need him to attack, and it’s why he joined up with them. However, other than Deku’s team, only Koda knows of this. Izuku decides to use this to their advantage.

Bakugo is still facing off with a Class B team who dissed him before. The guy who did is Neito Monoma, as his teammates tell him not to do it anymore. But he still does. Kirishima tries to calm down Bakugo. But you know, he is.

Bakugo attacks, but Monoma bats him away, and then hits Kacchan with his own explosion. Monoma scraps Kirishima’s hair. Bakugo does another attack and hits the dude with everything. But, Monoma has Kirishima’s Hardening. Monoma can do this because his Quirk is Copy. He can use the Quirk of anyone he touches for up to 5 minutes, but can’t use two Quirks at the same time. Bakugo tries to attack again, but another 1-B team gets in the way, and shoots gluey stuff that gets Kirishima stuck. Monoma has enough to make it to Top 4, and blames Bakugo for his speech he gave at the beginning of the festival for all this. With one minute remaining, Izuku has been avoiding Todoroki’s team for 5 minutes, a ploy that Todoroki’s dad can see clearly. They been keeping distance on their left side, because if Todoroki freezes them on the right, he’ll hit Iida. Plus, Fumikage can defend Kamanri’s lightning. With no time left, Iida comes up with a plan. Using an explosive power that forces the torque and rotations in his leg engines to increase tenfold, he uses “Torque Over: Reciproburst” to get right to Izuku, and have Todoroki take his headband.

He not only surprised Izuku, Iida surprised his own team. This was his own secret he told no one about, as he still wants to challenge Izuku for the top spot. The only problem is the recoil, which makes him stall for a bit. Now at 0 points, Izuku wants his 10 million headband back, even if Fumikage thinks it’s better to go after the other headbands. Uraraka backs Izuku up, as they all head towards Todoroki. Izuku is ready to use One for All.

Todoroki is at the top now with the 10 million, with Monoma, Tetsutetsu and Team Kendo in 4th. But Bakugo isn’t giving in. He takes off again to them, as teammate Tsuburaba blocks Bakugo with his Quirk, Solid Air. He can solidly the air to make walls and such, depending on lung capacity. It works at first, but Bakugo breaks through and takes two of Monoma’s headbands. This flips Bakugo’s team into 3rd with 695 points, as Monoma gets to 4th. Monoma tries to defend the headbands he has, but Bakugo isn’t done. He uses Sero’s Tape and Mina’s solution with his explosive powers to power glide towards Monoma, taking his headband back from him. As Eraser Head and All Might point out, Class B had a good strategy. But they didn’t have the determination and grit that Class A does. Monoma is out of the top spots, as Bakugo’s team is now 2nd with 1360 points.

Using One for All for the first time on a person, Izuku doesn’t attack Todoroki with it, but instead bats his flaming arm away, cutting off Todoroki’s fire. With his arm not broken at all, Izuku goes for the top headband, thinking it’s the 10 million. He grabs it with only 11 seconds to go. However, it’s a 70 point headband, as Todoroki’s team thought of this happening and flipped them. This leaves them in only 6th place. With little time remaining, not only does Izuku go for the headband, but Bakugo breaks through the ice for his own shot at it. But as they get to Todoroki, time runs out. The Cavalry Battle ends, as both Izuku and Bakugo are upset at not getting first. The battle is over, and the top spots belong to:

• 1st: Todoroki. They got it, but Iida apologizes for causing trouble, even if he did win it for them.
• 2nd: Bakugo. His teammates are happy they came in 2nd. Bakugo? Not so much.
• 3rd: Shinso. It wasn’t Tetsutetsu who did. He got his headbands taken away at the last second. Instead, the blue-hair guy from before is in 3rd.

As Izuku apologizes to his team for his blunder, Fumikage saw how shaken Todoroki was when Izuku attacked him. During that distraction, he took one of their headbands. It wasn’t the 10 Million, but it was enough to get Izuku’s team into 4th place, making them advance. Izuku is again, very happy for this.

As for Todoroki? He’s upset because he didn’t want to use his fire powers, but Izuku’s own powers made him. He is doing what his dad wants him to. As they take a break for lunch, Class B is still in shock over the outcome. One even thinking it was karma for sneakily stealing Mineta’s headband without them knowing. As the other Class A students congratulate those who advance, Todoroki meets up with Izuku, wanting to talk with him, while All Might meets up with Todoroki’s dad, Endeavor. Endeavor isn’t too pleased to meet the guy who is above him in rank. After the credits, we see Izuku’s mom celebrate her son advancing. And well, like mother, like son.

This was a very fun episode. Class B finally got what was coming to them, even if some did show off some amazing Quirks among the way. Iida I didn’t see coming with that move of his. He can be a bit of a loon with rules at times, but he is still badass in his own way, as shown on here. But you have to give it to Bakugo in this episode. Yes, he’s a jerk. He’s an ass with anger issues, and he’s all around an arrogant, cocky bastard. But that is his character. And when he uses that character to his advantage, he can be pretty awesome. He showed it in this episode with all he did to get his team to advance, even combining his teammates’ powers with his own to make a good rocket. Yeah, he still didn’t know their names, as he called them by nicknames that reflected what he sees at first. But that’s Bakugo. He doesn’t care about any of that. He only wants the top spot, and that’s it. He almost got there in the final seconds as his team was down. His personality may be a box of nails, but it shines through when he goes all-out to get to the top. The action in this was pretty fun, too, as was the ways some had to use their powers to make it. From Iida’s extreme speed, to Izuku just batting off Todoroki’s attack with his own power. Even Monoma’s Copy ability would be fun to see again. It could be an useful skill to have for any Class A character, but I have no idea why he is in Class B. Who knows, that’s the way it was drawn. I’ll leave my overall thoughts on this episode with how Kaminari feels about being at the top.

My Hero Academia is simulcasted on both Funimation and Crunchyroll. It can be seen Saturdays at 5:35 AM on both, with a simu-dub on Funimation.