And with that, we’re done with our two battle Shonen for the Summer Season. But which one came out on to- yeah, you already know the answer to that. Why even ask?

With the Summer Season officially over, both of our Battle Shonen series end with promises of more to come. The difference is that one of them will deliver on that promise a bit sooner than its competition. But that may not necessarily provide an edge.

REVIEWS

Black Clover

This episode was all about setup. The Black Bulls are back home for a while and Yami’s off to report to the Wizard King. Asta and Charmy even tagged along. Everything was great… until the Fire Na- I mean the Diamond Kingdom attacked. That’s… basically the gist of the episode. To be honest, I’m not sure if I missed anything or not. If I did, then that tells you how memorable this whole experience was. Basically, this episode was right back to cruise control until the end. And that’s perfectly fine, I suppose. A major arc did just end. It did set up for a new one pretty quickly, which is interesting. I know people have said the manga was blazingly fast. If the anime starts to adapt that kind of pace, it could be much more engaging. But as it is, this episode’s really just Harmless, and I think that largely comes from the fact that they knew they’d be renewed for a Season 2.

My Hero Academia

Then there was this episode, which a lot of people had misgivings about being the end of the season, rather than Bakugo and Deku’s fight. My Hero Academia has this uncanny ability to make things exciting that normally wouldn’t be. But we know how Shonen work and this wasn’t one of the times where they subverted the norm. Not that they needed to. What they did here serviced the actual story of the series perfectly well.

The fight with Mirio was fun, albeit head-scratching in places. Unless the dude also has super strength, he should’ve had a slightly more difficult time knocking out some of the students. Deku and Kirishima, in particular. Sure, they weren’t ready. But still. One-shotting everyone was a bit puzzling. I’d have liked to see him at least have to go “Oh, you’re a bit tougher. Here’s an extra punch, just for you.” It’d have been amusing, if nothing else. Whatevs, though. I did like his little speech at the end. That said, the teasing of the next season was all good and well. The episode was all right Junk Food. But it didn’t really have to be anything else, so it works fine how it is… mostly.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Overall Episode Medalists

It’s My Hero Academia that takes home the Gold, this time. That should be fairly obvious.

There wasn’t anything overly special about it, but it did a nice job of hyping up and building to the next season. Black Clover is actually working at a disadvantage because of its annual schedule. It was renewed, probably for another 50+ episodes and moves directly into that next arc. So there’s no real buildup for it. It just gets underway and… well… that’s that. The rest of the episode wasn’t especially entertaining either. So it gets the Silver.

MVP: Mirio

Well… the episode literally couldn’t have happened without him. He provided an amusing fight and had some nice words for the end of the episode. Plus he’s just weird, so it’s all good. As long as he doesn’t do that face thing again, I’m cool with him.

Unique Achievement: Most Annoying Character

I really wanna just scrub Mineta out of My Hero Academia in its entirety, by this point. I don’t care about the fanservice, it’s just… he’s so unbelievably un-funny and unlikeable. And as I’ve said before, if you’re gonna be un-funny comic relief, then at least make yourself useful. But no. He just wastes screentime whenever he’s around and I cannot, for the life of me, see the appeal of him.

Unique Achievement: Best Reaction

Well… I think they broke her. Really, though, I don’t get to talk about Kyoka enough. I wanted an excuse, to be honest.

CONCLUSION

So. That’s the end of the Summer Anime Season, and the technical end of both Shonen Battle Anime runs for it. Pretty sterile stuff, but not necessarily unenjoyable. What’d you think of this week? That’s all for me. Thanks for reading, as always. Keep up the Awesome.

-Voyager