And, of course, the first episode back takes every opportunity to troll us. But, y’know what? I ain’t even mad.

My Hero Academia (Boku no Hero Academia)
Studio(s): BONES
Genre(s): Action, Comedy, School, Shounen, Super Power

“All right. Let’s see how we did…”

Let’s just get this out of the way. There’s not really much to talk about, here. This episode is basically just a recap of everything important that happened over the course of the first two seasons. It’s there to get people caught up if they haven’t seen it or remind them if they managed to somehow forget. As if you even could forget the explosive awesomeness they focused on in the flashbacks from either season. But eh. Whatever. How does the rest of the episode hold up?

Well, the instant the word “pool” came up, I winced. Perhaps it’s that, watching as much anime as I do, I know that generally means fan-service city. As a general rule, I wouldn’t mind that. At least, in moderation or in the (fairly subjective and discussion-worthy) category of “good taste.” I remind you that I love Date a Live, DanMachi, and many other series that are silly with fan service. Even the earlier seasons of this very show weren’t 100% innocent of it. I was more concerned that it’d just be a pretty lame way to kick off the show in such a crass manner.

If they’d gone that route. I might’ve come out looking like this guy.

I was quickly reminded exactly how much this series likes to subvert our expectations. And, on top of that, it works! The way they got around it was hilarious and actually tied very well into Deku’s character. So bravo to them for getting me to flinch. But the remainder of the pool scene was actually a lot of fun. Especially once Bakugo got there and we finally saw the three-way rivalry between him, Deku, and Todoroki flare up. It culminated in a pretty cool bit and the conclusion was as hilarious as the scene that introduced the pool in the first place.

There’s not much else to say, really. Some minor observations, here and there. Mah dude, Deku, has clearly been eating his Wheaties between seasons… though I could’ve sworn that in this very episode they said it’d only been a couple days since the whole incident at the mall, in which he still wasn’t quite this beefed up. But whatever. Small and inconsequential thing.

The flashbacks are nice little reminders of how far the series has come. And even Deku takes a moment, towards the end of the episode, to reflect on everything he’s gone through to get to where he is, going back to where he began. There’s a lot of reflection and introspection from other characters, pondering their motivations for being heroes and whatnot. Nothing we haven’t seen out of them in the previous season, but it is nice to see.

It’s a fairly standard return for the series. Nothing worth really calling great. The pool scene, alone, is worthy of giving it a Junk Food rating since it is content unique to this episode. Many series like this would just make everything about it a recap. It wasn’t really trying to do anything to impress, but I had a lot of fun with it. Either way, I’m totally looking forward to what this series does once it really gets underway. In the meantime, it’s just nice to have it back. It won the out in our Top 5 Most Anticipated Spring Anime list for a reason.

“Hey! That’s not bad!”

If you haven’t seen it yet, and want to follow the series for yourself, the new season is Simulcasting on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 5:30pm EDT. And both Seasons 1 and 2 are also available to stream. That’s all for this time, guys. Thanks for reading, as always. Keep up the Awesome.

Take care,
C. Voyage