My Hero Academia, Season 2 – Episodes 24 & 25

I fallen a bit behind on these recaps, so why not do a double recap and end this tournament once and for all? It’s been an exciting tournament so far, with the Izuku/Todoroki match being the biggest hit of them all. Time to get to the final match.

Episode 24 – “Fight On, Iida”

As everyone is still reacting to what they just saw between Izuku and Todoroki, Todoroki runs into his dad, who couldn’t be more proud. Now that he used it, he thinks Todoroki will go on to better things, but Todoroki really just forgot all about his dad during that fight, even when using his power.

As for Izuku, Recovery Girl tells him that his bones in his right arm were shattered, and it will never be the same again. His friends meet up with him (not knowing All Might in his usual form, by the way) and as soon as they do come in, Recovery Girl shoos them away since he needs surgery. Izuku apologizes to All Might for not saying “I am here!” since he was too focused on helping out Todoroki with his problems, while being frustrated with other things. But All Might assures him that getting into other people’s problems when they don’t need to and what being a hero is.

We finally get to the other 3rd round matches, and well, these two went by fast.

Shiozaki vs Iida: Iida uses Reciproburst, and pushes Shiozaki out of bounds to advance.

Mina vs. Fumikage: Fumikage’s Dark Shadow knocks Mina out of bounds, so he advances.

As the surgery is done, and Izuku is healed enough to walk, we see Smash’s effect on his right hand as it is now crooked and scarred. Plus, Recovery Girl tells him she’s not healing these types of injuries on him ever again. Izuku will have to find a way to control One for All’s power from now on. Izuku talks to All Might about who his successor will be, because Izuku doesn’t want to be that person now. It leads to All Might telling something Izuku didn’t know: All Might started out Quirkless like Izuku did, a rare thing back then, but not uncommon. All Might’s master gave him One for All, and raised him to be a hero. Seeing his old self in Izuku, he knows Izuku is going beyond him each time he uses One for All. Meanwhile, Iida calls his bro, Tensei, but he’s doing a mission at the moment with other heroes. Tensei runs into someone by himself in an alleyway. That someone is “The Hero Killer.”

As Izuku returns to the group, he gets to the 4th match of the 3rd round in Bakugo vs Kirishima. Kirishima’s Hardening is acting as a tough defense for Bakugo, but he’s focusing so hard on it that when attacking, it makes him lose focus. It allows Bakugo to throw multiple explosions at Kirishima, and finally uses a final big explosion  to take Kirishima down. Bakugo advances to the semifinals. As they are watching, Izuku asks Iida if his brother is watching. He’s not, but that’s for the best as Iida can tell him he became #1 himself in person. Plus, he’ll use what he can from Izuku’s fight to bring down Todoroki. The semifinals start up, as Iida knows he doesn’t have Izuku’s power to negate Todoroki’s attacks. Iida uses his speed to avoid Todoroki’s ice, but Todoroki surrounds him with said ice. An attack at Iida cause him to jump high towards him, and use Reciproburst. Todoroki dodges his first fast kick. but Iida lands a powerful blow on him. Knowing he only has seconds till his secret move kills his engine, he grabs Todoroki and rushes to throw him out of bounds. But Todoroki iced his leg mufflers when he landed that kick on him. Todoroki then ices Iida completely.

Todoroki advances to the finals, as Iida feels he failed his big bro. Speaking of, Tensei got pretty much fucked up by the Hero Killer, who only wants one person to get to kill him. That person is All Might.

The 2nd semifinal match starts between Fumikage and Bakugo. Bakugo’s viciousness is getting Dark Shadow on edge, as Izuku and Uraraka know that Dark Shadow’s weakness is light, which Bakugo’s explosions is giving off a lot. Tokoyami tries his best with Dark Shadow, even trying to grab Bakugo after he attacks him, but Bakugo is too fast. Bakugo gets behind them, and uses Stun Grenade to make a big explosion and cover the field in smoke. The smoke clears, and Bakugo has Fumikage pinned, knowing all about his weakness as he was attacking over and over. Fumikage gives up, as Bakugo advance to face Todoroki, as the two stare at each other. Izuku does feel for his bird friend, as everyone now knows his weakness.

Iida returns, but he gets a call from his mom about what happened to his big bro. As the Hero Killer, who’s name is Stain, talk about how warped society is with the heroes, he attacks someone who snuck up on him. It’s the dimensional villain from Season 1. He wants to talk with Stain and have him meet Shisaraki.

Before I go on to the next episode, a little MHA fanart comic to make your day.

Episode 25 – “Todoroki vs Bakugo”

In a waiting room, Todoroki is looking at his left hand, remembering his mom’s words, and still can’t believing that Izuku made him use that power. Bakugo kicks down the door (He got the wrong room,) with Todoroki ignoring him. This pisses Bakugo off, so he tosses all the tables in it. Todoroki asks him if Izuku was always like this, helping others with their own problems. It shows a flashback of Izuku doing the same with Bakugo, only making him even angrier. He just wants Todoroki to use his full strength like he did with Izuku.

The final match finally gets here, and starts up with Todoroki creating a giant ice wall, going right at Bakugo. He tries to counter with his explosions, but the ice covers him and most of the field. The match looks over, but Bakugo isn’t one to give up. Loud noises come from within the ice, and get louder and closer to Todoroki. Basically, Bakugo used his explosions to dig through like a mole, and escape the icy prison.

The two go at each other. Bakugo avoids his right side by using his blast, and grabs/tosses Todoroki away. He recovers with his ice, surrounds Bakugo and then grabs him with his left arm. Thinking he’s about to do it again, Endeavor encourages his son to do it, but Todoroki hesitates, and just tosses Bakugo away. As Eraser Heads points it out, Todoroki may have lost a touch from his fight with Izuku. Bakugo gets more angry, since he wants to win legitimately with Todoroki at full power, proving he is better than Izuku is. He even calls Todoroki out for being here if he doesn’t use that fiery side. Todoroki himself is unsure, but Izuku yelling from the stands lights the fire in Todoroki. Literally. Bakugo likes this a lot, and using his rotation and momentum, comes at Todoroki with “Howitzer Impact.” However, Todoroki remembers his past yet again, and his flames disappear. Bakugo’s giant attack hits, destroying the ice wall, and sending Todoroki out of bounds. It’s over. Bakugo wins the U.A. Sports Festival 1st-Years Tournament. And yet, Bakugo is clearly angered, frustrated, and actually sad at winning, since Todoroki didn’t use his left side. He gets in his face, but Midnight knocks him out with her own attack before he goes any farther.

And so, the tournament is over, and it’s time to award the winners. Fumikage and Todoroki  are up there. And so is Bakugo. He’s just a little restrained though.

Being strapped to 1st place like a wild animal, Bakugo is staring angrily at Todoroki for how their match ended. Also in 3rd place with Tokoyami is Iida, but Midnight tells the crowd he left for “family reasons.” Izuku and Uraraka already got word from him that Ingenium (Tensei’s hero name) got attacked. All Might enters the ceremonies to give out the medals. He congrats Fumikage, and tells him to train harder, not just focus on his Quirk. He congrats Todoroki, asking why Todoroki didn’t use his left side. Mostly due to how unsure he was after his fight with Izuku. He does see why All Might is so interested in Deku. He still wants to be a hero like All Might, but has some things to settle first. All Might can see the look on Todoroki has changed, and knows he’ll settle it. And then there’s Kacchan. All Might undo the muzzle, and congrats him. But Bakugo just won’t recognize 1st place, not this way. His anger is amazing to All Might, as he tells Bakugo to think of this as a “wound” to not forget, and just put the medal in Bakugo’s mouth. After giving a speech, All Might tells the audience about the group “Thanks for your hard work!” They thought he was gonna say his signature “Plus Ultra!” phrase, and boo him for it.

And so, the heroes return to school with a couple days off, hearing how their future’s with the pros will be when they get back. But Izuku knows the environment is changing. As they show Iida getting to the hospital, making it to his brother’s bedside, and well, it’s not a pretty sight. The only good news is that he got surgery done just in time. But when Tensei wakes up, he apologizes to Iida for losing, and Iida can’t hold back his tears.

At Todoroki’s house, he tells his sister he’s going to the hospital, all without telling Endeavor. As he makes it there, his thoughts are all on the past and his mom’s words, how he thought he put pressure on her, and never saw her since. He thinks to move on to being a hero, he has to talk to her. He gets to her room, hesitant at first. But this is his starting line. He enters, with his thoughts on rescuing her from this place.

At Uraraka’s house, she gets a real eye-popping experience. And I do mean eye-popping.

Her parents are there to throw a party for all she did and all her hard work. At Izuku’s place, his mom tells of how she lost consciousness 7 times. Knowing that he now has a Quirk with a risky power, she worries about him, but still fully supports him. As for him, Izuku knows that to be a cool hero, he’ll have to do things that won’t make his friends and family worry for him. It’s his starting line to “I am here!” The episode ends at Bakugo’s place. With him angrily brushing his teeth. That really is how it ends.

Well, how’s that? I said in the last episode that the Izuku/Todoroki fight would be better than any other fight that is shown in the rest of the tourney. Well, I was right. Most went by super quick. The most action we saw was from the Bakugo/Todoroki  fight. And that ending on a sour note. For once, I actually felt all of Bakugo’s anger and agreed with him for how angry he was at the end. He has that right to be totally mad for getting 1st place on an asterisk. Todoroki was gonna throw down on him, and then just didn’t. I know Todoroki has a lot of issues with his dad. But come on, it’s the finals, and he was that close to giving a fun fight to Bakugo. It was an unsatisfying ending to an otherwise fun tournament. Although, the semifinals sucked, as did 2 of the 3rd round bouts. How is it that Kirishima vs Bakugo was more fulfilling than the two semifinals? That shouldn’t happen, but it did. These two episodes were probably not gonna top the last episode anyway, as I did say it was one of the best episodes of the year. Still, I shouldn’t complain just on the fights. We got some good character development between All Might and Izuku, Iida and his brother, Baguko and his ways of wanting to win. And Todoroki again as well. We got a new villain who will appear soon enough, and we got a lot of Midnight in these two episodes as well. Oh yeah, I like her. And I think Tokoyami did too.

Plus, the animation was still a great showing here. Despite the quick fights in these two episodes, the animation has been spectacular throughout this tournament, and hopefully will continue to be as the show progresses on to the next cour. The fights, the flashbacks of childhood trauma, the comedy bits, the emotion. BONES has made MHA into a quality work of art this season. I expect it to be on many lists for top animation. Well, two episodes down here. Only one more episode to go from this cour, before we move on to the next. Hope you enjoyed the U.A. Sports Festival as much as I did.

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.