English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Make It Happen, Shinso!”

Overview:

Shinso explains how his quirk works to his teammates. After Kirishima and Koda get captured Tsuyu, Shinso, and Kaminari work together to try to get a victory. Shinso is definitely hero course material.

Our Take:

I love how MHA takes the typical shonen formula and tweaks it just enough to make it refreshing. What makes it unique to me is how group 1-A doesn’t just brute force their way to victory. They don’t unleash a new power, they just smartly think of new ways to use their powers. I guess Shinso sort of got a “power-up” with his mask but I think that’s a bit different. We are in a full-blown tournament arc to start the season. Read that again… to START the season.

It’s also really cool how this show isn’t shy about spending a lot of time with characters other than Deku. MHA has a great supporting cast and the writers know it. If they put as much time and love into every group’s battle then this arc could last the entire first cour if not more.

Class 1-B also finally gets to show their stuff in a way we haven’t really got to see. In season three they had a joint training that got interrupted by the League of Villains so we didn’t get to see too much of their abilities. With this arc, it looks like we will get to see how they’ve grown as well. There were already hints of that in this episode, one character’s air prison abilities had already come leaps and bounds since the sports festival.

I just hope that 1-A doesn’t win every single match. I don’t think that will be the case but that is one area this story could improve in. I won’t say Class 1-A is infallible but they almost always come out on top. As we saw with Bakugo all the way back in season one, a lot of the time we learn more from our losses than our victories.

The music in MHA has always been top-notch, and so far this season that’s no different. During the fight near the end of the episode though I hear a song that they haven’t played yet and it set the mood really well. Seems like they are taking a page from Demon Slayer and adding some new ambient music that really hypes the audience.

One side effect I didn’t think about Shinso being able to sound like anyone was how it would break down communication. If you can’t trust the voices of your friends then you are at a major disadvantage. MHA is coming out of the gate swinging and shows why it’s the current shonen to beat.