Plus Ultra, indeed.

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

Honestly, I’m gonna keep this one fairly brief, I think. There’s really not a terrible lot to say. Or, rather, there’s not much to analyze. These two episodes basically consist of nothing but the real beginnings of the villain attack. That is literally it. The students are all split up and it’s on them to survive the night while the instructors scramble to save them. It’s a fairly straightforward setup. There are some significant reveals and whatnot, though all of them are relevant more to Kota than anything.

Episode 42 is dominantly taken up by the beginnings of the attack, proper. When all these villains descend upon the students, it’s on Deku to rescue Kota, since he’s the only one who knows where Kota is. Unfortunately for the both of them, the buffed-up villain from the opening – Muscular – is there. So I guess we’re in for a showdown, right? Well, yes and no. The majority of it centers around Deku getting stomped, and rather convincingly. But while he desperately defends Kota, the kid is awed by his efforts. And also probably scared out of his mind because, surprise, Muscular is the guy that killed his parents. Ouch.

That was a pretty heavy reveal, sure, but honestly… I’m not really interested in Muscular at all. He’s just a stock-psychopathic villain who just goes around killing people because he’s stronger than them and happens to feel like it. He’s not particularly interesting at this juncture. Will he get there? I dunno. But at the moment he pretty much only serves to be a living obstacle for Deku to overcome, thus finally making Kota come around. Kota tries to save his life and that moment of distraction leads to the scene pretty much everyone’s been talking about. Deku goes Plus Ultra for real.

It’s a great moment and a highlight in the series. Is this the best episode so far purely because of this scene, though? Honestly, I’d probably say no. It works wonders for showing how far Deku has come. That much I can say for sure. And it is an excellent moment. But it didn’t quite have that same impact that All-Might vs. Noumu or Deku vs. Todoroki or Bakugo vs. Uraraka had. Excellent moment. But not quite “best episode ever, oh my god!” material. People should probably calm down a little.

Actually, I might like Episode 43 a little more. Sure it wasn’t as flashy, but one thing that definitely worked to its benefit was the fight between the Class-B students and the one guy with the gas powers. It was pretty sweet and I like how that fight resolved. I was also genuinely engaged in it because it did a lot with atmosphere and did some excellent work establishing tension. The villain, himself, wasn’t terribly interesting or even all that imposing. He was a little wimp with sneaky powers and a gun. But the way the episode used his powers to sort of set up this sense of isolation worked great. It was really just the two of them against him and it felt like it.

The rest of the episode there isn’t a lot to talk about. Some cool stuff happened and you should see it for yourself. As they are, I’d definitely say both of these episodes are Super Effective. Definitely give them a look. Or, if you’re more into romance, there’s always my coverage of Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii. It’s been a treat so far.

If you want to check out My Hero Academia, the series is Simulcast on Crunchyroll, Saturdays at 5:30am EST. 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