English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Boy Meets…”

Overview:

Midoriya tries to convince Sir Nighteye to take him on as a mentee.

Our Take:

Midoriya manages to meet Sir Nighteye, and what started out as a disastrous impression turns out to be a little less so. While Midoriya doesn’t manage to make Nighteye laugh, he does manage to pique Nighteye’s interest by having a shared fanatic knowledge of All Might’s life. Even though the joke fails horribly, their mutual interest and appreciation of All Might is enough to give Midoriya a shot.

Nighteye’s quirk is to see the future, and he’s All Might’s former sidekick. It’s safe to say that years of experience puts him above Midoriya with ease, much less in terms of outwitting each other in the first meeting. Whatever Midoriya does, Nighteye can predict, and that’s a relatively fearsome ability, especially in combat. Midoriya has his heart in the right place– as seeing the limits of Nighteye’s quirk in action is pretty clever, even if it does end up in failure.

It’s unclear at this point what drove in the divide between Nighteye and All Might, but it seems that despite the divide, Nighteye still highly respects All Might. He is angered at the idea that someone might make fun of All Might, especially in his presence, and he has a knowledge base that equals Midoriya, who’s known to be incredibly detailed and almost obsessive. And yet, something drove them apart, and whatever that something was must be incredibly drastic to drive someone like Nighteye away. Whatever broke them apart doesn’t seem to be one out of malice, because Nighteye is just as devoted to finding someone to succeed All Might as the number one hero himself is. A symbol must have a successor, and it seems that to Nighteye, that successor is Mirio, not Midoriya.

He does take on Midoriya, but only after Midoriya fails. In that sense, it proves that Midoriya has a long way to go. Of course, Midoriya is quite humble and is very well aware of his own shortcomings, but having it said to him so plainly is something else. Unlike Gran Torino, who still accepted Midoriya with comparative ease, Nighteye doesn’t believe in the young hero. He doesn’t think that Midoriya has what it takes, and he doesn’t hide his criticism at all. While Midoriya is the type of person to take things in stride, it’s still a harsh judgment. He’s not good enough yet, and he needs to work doubly hard to impress Nighteye, and really get that stamp.