English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “School Festival Start!!”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

As the festival inches closer to opening, Deku continues his pursuit of Gentle Criminal and La Brava, the latter feeling that the time has come to help by using her own quirk. She looks back on her time with him, how she found his videos giving her the hope to live again she had lost when her crush mocked her, how she became Gentle’s partner in crime, and how Gentle accepted her completely. Remembering all of that, she professes her love to him, activating her quirk, which gives an immediate burst of strength to the object of her affections. Gentle uses this to strike back against Deku, but even that won’t stop him from protecting the festival.

Still, Gentle clings to his goal, seeing his sneaking into UA as finally finding a way to be remembered. In his past, he dreamed of being a pro hero, but his grades were terrible and even his teachers pushed him to drop out. But his moment to prove himself soon came when a window cleaner was about to fall! Instinctively, Gentle used his power to try and save the man, but all it ended up doing was impede and actual hero and get the man seriously injured. After that incident, his family became pariahs and he dropped out of school, eventually being kicked out of his house. Years later, he met an old classmate who had become a popular hero, but when that classmate didn’t recognize him, Gentle realized he had been forgotten. To make sure his life had meaning, he decided if being a hero wouldn’t work, he would become a villain.

And yet, against Deku, someone who also dreamed of being a hero, Gentle can barely hold him back and is soon defeated. Even worse, La Brava can’t shut down the security from their location, and some of the UA teachers are closing in. With the last of his strength, Gentle bounces Deku away to avoid signs of a fight and turn himself in.

OUR TAKE
While the subtitled version of My Hero Season 4 ended some weeks ago (thankfully finishing production before the pandemic fully took hold of the world), Funimation continues its steady work catching up with their dubs from home. Since MHA is one of their more popular shows, it makes sense that it would be a priority to complete, especially with only three more episodes left after this. The School Festival Arc reaches its climax this week, with this not even being the last episode in the arc with “School Festival” in the title. Luckily, we continue the momentum from before as the fight between Deku and Gentle Criminal comes to a close, with more than a few tears shed between the characters and likely the audience.

With as much focus as there’s been on the UA students preparing their dance moves, Gentle and La Brava have barely felt like antagonists up until this point, with most of their scenes being about plotting their vague schemes and having no interaction with the other characters until recently. Sure enough, however, when the time comes for fisticuffs, Gentle was certainly not one to disappoint with his rather interesting quirk. Though we learn this time that it hasn’t always helped him. As mentioned, he had great dreams of being a hero like Deku did, but instead of being a kid with no quirk, he was a guy with a quirk who was not doing well in the system made to create heroes. Knowing that, it’s no wonder why he would choose to flourish outside that system and become his own brand of villain instead, AND equally no wonder why La Brava, another social outcast, would connect to him and join him in his fight. There’ll be more to get into with the two of them next time, but suffice to say they represent an interesting area of MHA’s world that implies many issues going forward.

The School Festival story arc wraps next week, or rather in two weeks based on the rate the remaining episodes might come out. That leaves two episodes after which will also cover some interesting stuff to close the season out on a high note. Having seen ahead to what we have in store for the rest of this season, I can assure you that it’s worth the wait, though that won’t make the wait itself any less difficult. Although Toonami viewers might be able to catch this on their TV next Saturday if we’re lucky, so that’s a bonus! Our world might be going crazy right now, but we’ve still got a lot of dedicated artists and performers like those at Funimation who are bent on helping us stay sane in these times, so that makes them heroes in their own right, from where I’m sitting. Check back here for when we get those last three episodes.