My Hero does the slice of life I enjoy better than nearly any other shonen show I can think of. As we enter the perpetration for the much talked about school festival, we’re introduced to a new villain who seems to be intent on gatecrashing this school event, with all the flair and drama befitting a man called Gentle Criminal.
The episode beings with Ashido teaching Midoriya and his new bestie Aoyama how to breakdance. The results are as cute as they are predictable. I mean for Deku, that boy has no rhythm. From here we learn of the school festival, a time where all corners of U.A. are able to strut their stuff and show why they’re in the school in the first place.
We tent to forget that the hero programme only makes up one quarter of the school year, with the support, general and business studies classes also being a part of the school. The sports festival of season two is almost always there for the hero students, the festival is for everyone else.
This is why Iida is adamant they do something nice for the rest of the students, especially considering they’ve been the cause of a lot of trouble for the rest of the student body in the past year, what with them being victims of kidnappings and being assaulted by an army of villains during a rescue course.
Kaminari, who seemed to be trying to pay Jiro a genuine compliment earlier about he talent at music ended up getting snapped at by her. I guess that’s the risk you run when you hang out with Mineta all the time. Thanks to a suggestion from Todoroki, who is seemingly unaware of what a live music performance is, seriously, what kind of upbringing did Endeavor give this kid? The class decide to put on a music and dance performance, lead by Jiro.
From here, we cut to the hospital and see Midoriya and Mirio visiting an Eri who seemed to have come out of her fever. It’s a scene that’s as heartwarming and sweet as it it tragic and sad. We’re reminded of just had badly she had been treated by Overhaul and how she’s probably going to be suffering mental scars for the rest of her life.
And Midoriya continues to balls things up when seeing this. Mirio, however, who is fast becoming one of my favourite characters in the entire show knows knows just what to say, radiating warmth and silliness at all times. I like Deku and all, but I really do think Lemillion might have been a better inheritor of One for All. At least at this point in the story.
Deku does have one brain wave though and invites Eri to the school festival, hoping that the atmosphere and fun of the event will help remind her how to smile again. Eri’s little face breaks my heart every time.
The episode ends with the introduction of what is inevitably going to be the bit of drama that creeps its way into the festival; self styled criminal and Youtuber Gentle, and his camera woman La Brava. The guy is as eccentric and goofy as they come, robbing a convenience store and knife point and then taking down the five heroes that arrive to stop him with seemingly minimal effort.
He doesn’t even take the money he expressly told the clerk to sort in a very specific way. And that’s a lot of cash for a small store like that to have at hand. But whatever. Gentle seems like a real old goofball, which makes a very welcome change to the increasingly scary villains that are popping up as the show grows.
I am very, very into what is being set up in this episode. I don’t know why, but the idea of some more silly, slice of life stuff is more intriguing to me than the action based stuff that has taken up the first chunk of this season thus far. I’m sure we’ll get some very dramatic battle scenes in this arc, but right now I’m just getting a kick out of the kids acting like kids and Aoyama actually getting to do something two episodes in a row.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 