English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Drive it Home, Iron Fist!”

The assault on UA’s summer camp continues. Strap in, boys and girls.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Midoriya just wrecked Muscular and saved Kota’s life, but the battle for the UA summer camp is far from over. As Shigaraki explains back at the villain’s bar, this assault is less about winning for the villains and more about striking fear into the hearts of UA’s young heroes. Furthermore, the villain league’s sights are set on Bakugou, with the explosive young firebrand being the most easily corruptible of Class 1-A.

Midoriya and Kota recover from their battle, and Midoriya expresses his worry that if all the villains are as strong as this one, then he’s woefully underequipped to deal with them. Having exhausted his strength, he turns to Kota to be the hero he needs; his water quirk can be used to put out the numerous fires in the forest endangering his friends.

We go back to Eraserhead, who got himself into a nasty tussle with Dabi, a fire using a villain who attacked the building the remedial students are at. Dabi is powerful, but Eraserhead is no shmuck, and quickly disables Dabi with his quirk and pins him to the ground. It looks like Eraserhead has him, but as the other students show up to help, he uses the opportunity to escape, somehow melting out of Eraserhead’s grasp. Turns out, that was just a clone created by another villain, Twice.

Eraserhead runs into Midoriya and Kota, who are eager to help Eraserhead get control of the situation. But Eraserhead notices his injuries and reminds him the importance of controlling his quirk before he sends him off. Midoriya soon finds his way to Mandalay, who’s in the midst of a fight. Midoriya delivers a message to the telepathic feline: Eraserhead gives permission to the young heroes to use their powers in combat to defeat the villains, a message which Mandalay quickly relays to the students.

Kota, being carried off by Eraserhead begins to cry, fearing that Midoriya might die, and express his guilt for being such a dick to him before. Eraserhead calms him down and tells him to be confident in Midoriya. Midoriya rushes off to help the others, narrowly escaping the villains attacking him with the help of Mandalay. Mandalay then telepathically communicates to the students that the villains are after Bakugou.

Bakugou isn’t worried in the slightest, overjoyed at the prospect of getting into battle with his powerful quirk. His enemy is a strange villain with the power to extend his limbs into metal bars.  Bakugou wants to go all out on him, but Todoroki reminds him that if he uses all of his power, he’ll no doubt cause a forest fire which would endanger the lives of everyone here.

Tetsutetsu and Itsuki face their own challenges. Trapped in a cloud of toxic gas, the two realize that there is an epicenter to the gas cloud, and if they head towards where the gas is thickest, they should find its source. The two go headfirst into danger, where the villain, Mustard, awaits. As Tetsutetsu rushes in to take him down, Mustard pulls a revolver on him and shoots off his gas mask. Tetsutetsu can only hold his breath for so long, and Mustard mocks him for his stupidity and poor strategic sense. Itsuki soon shows up to help him out, but Mustard uses his gas to sense their movements, and has a complete advantage over the two, as he peppers Tetsutetsu with shot after shot.

Tetsutestu starts to crack both literally and figuratively, as Mustard pummels him into the ground. With him out of action, that means its up to Itsuki to save the day. She charges at Mustard, and uses her giant hand powers to thin the gas by waving her hands around. This distraction, along with the thinning of the gas, gives Tetsutetsu the strength to get up and deliver a crushing blow to Mustard’s face, knocking him out and shattering his mask. Turnabout is fair play.

Midoriya runs into Shouji, who’s wounded after encountering villains. He explains that it’s not just the villains they have to worry about, but Tokoyami, who’s shadow form has gone into overdrive in the darkness of the forest. The episode ends with the menacing sight of Tokoyami struggling to hold his shadow back, who will no doubt be the villain of next week.

Our Take:

Another solid episode of My Hero Acadcemia this week, though not as strong as the gangbuster of an episode that we bore witness to last time. There are some fillery felling moments of Midoriya traveling around the forest, but a lot of essential plot information and development is delivered during this time, making them entertaining, tense, and well-paced. The real stars this time are Tetsutetsu and Itsuki, who get a chance to show what they’re made of and deliver a fine fight against Mustard, an arrogant villain you just love to hate. Nice job, MHA, let’s keep the streak going.