English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Moving into Dorms”

My Hero Academia makes moving look way more fun than it actually is.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With things becoming increasingly dangerous for the students of UA, the school faculty has seen fit to move all the students into dorms. Move-in day is fast upon them, and they take the entire day to get all settled into their new digs.

After a stern lecture from Aizawa about not breaking the rules after the stunt Midoriya’s team pulled in rescuing Bakugou, they’re left to their own devices, which naturally means its time to fool around, as youth are ought to do. After they get their stuff piled into their living quarters, the UA students decide to have a contest to see who has the best room. As they tour the different rooms for the boy and girl students, we get to enjoy lots of shenanigans between the cast, who give us more insight into their personalities through seeing their living spaces.

Eventually, Satou is declared the surprise victor of the contest thanks to his excellent baking skills (Which he used to bribe the girls into voting for him) and everyone settles down before the night. Before they can, though, Asui confesses to everyone that she feels guilty for not helping them rescue Bakugou. Of course, everyone tells her she has nothing to feel ashamed for, and embraces her as a friend while they reaffirm their confidence in each other and their goals as heroes. A touching end to finish things off with.

Our Take:

Yeah, there’s no doubt about it, this is a filler episode.

I don’t mean filler in the sense that this episode doesn’t follow the manga; it certainly does, but even when I was reading that part of the story my filler senses were a-tingling. It’s a break in the action, a lull from the intensity that tends to punctuate My Hero Academia’s action-packed story.  I can say with confidence, however, that while its definitely a filler episode, this can certainly be lauded as filler done right.

Having our cast of characters move into their new living space gives us an opportunity to review where we are, where the series has been, and build up the potential for greater payoffs in the future. A series can’t have big moments without the buildup to those moments, and these kinds of character-focused comfy episodes can be good at that. Not to mention, My Hero Academia does really well in these slice-of-life scenarios. We get lots of nice little character moments here; Bakugou paying back Kirishima in particular stood out, but even the more minor characters get some good screen time, like Satou revealing his hobby as an amateur baker.

What really sells me on this episode is that its funny, actually funny. Motion, color and sound do a great job of elevating this chapter in the manga to something a lot more involved. We get nice bits of visual slapstick punctuating Uraraka’s awe at her new living conditions, a rare moment of admonishment for Tokoyami as his classmates invade his room, and plenty more little tidbits here and there that’ll make you giggle. Kudos should absolutely be given to the sterling performances from the cast. Their interactions feel free and natural, a difficult feat to accomplish with busy production schedules and line deliveries done solo at different times, which is how most anime get their voice lines. An episode like this can only work if the acting is where it needs to be. If deliveries were stiff, or stinted, then there’s no doubt these over-the-top sequences would fall flat.

Of course, its not a perfect episode, nothing ever is. It’s pacing can be a bit slow at times, especially early on, and there are moments when it feels like the episode is trying to buy a little bit of time. If you don’t like Mineta, which it seems like some people don’t, then his antics will probably not amuse you, though admittedly I enjoy his brand of perverted shenanigans.

For the most part, I imagine a good time will be had by all who tune in to My Hero Academia this week. It’s not another ride on the anime roller coaster, but its a comfy little episode that fools around and wants us to fool around with it.