English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “Win Those Kids’ Hearts”

 

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Bakugou and Todoroki join the rest of the students who failed the exam in their provisional course: taking care of a bunch of kids with really dangerous quirks. Their instructor, Gang Orca, tells the students that they’re not heroic at all, so this course will help them better their skills of connecting to the people they are supposed to be saving. But considering these are elementary school kids, things become a nightmare pretty much right away. The kids mock Todoroki, irritate Bakugou, shame Inasa, and seethe with jealousy at Camie. When it becomes clear that the current strategy isn’t working, Camie suggests showing off their own quirks so that the kids might think they’re cool, but all THAT does is make the kids want to fight back with THEIR quirks, putting the students in a likely no-win scenario.

Meanwhile in the stands, Present Mic does sports commentary on the course, while Endeavor confesses to All Might that even with his best efforts, he can still sense the order and peace that All Might set up is slowly crumbling. Even thought Endeavor wants desperately to be the true #1 hero, he can’t reach the heights that his former rival did because being a hero is just as much about being trusted by the people as it is punching bad guys. All Might tells him not to be the hero that HE (All Might) once was but who HE (Endeavor) can be. Even though crime was much worse back in their early days, people still need a symbol of peace to connect to in hard times.

OUR TAKE

Once again we have another rather uneventful episode (which looks to be a trend we’ll be seeing for at least the next few episodes from what I hear about this upcoming arc), but thankfully we have a lot of thematic juiciness to discuss. Specifically on the matter that caused Bakugou and Todoroki to fail the second phase of the exam in the first place, which was that they couldn’t connect to the people they were supposed to save, a crucial part of being a true hero. While they do sport what are likely the most powerful and versatile quirks amongst Class 1A, that’s not going to help calm people down in a crisis situation, nor give people hope that heroes are coming to the rescue in this uncertain time for the job.

With that in mind, trying to make bonds with rowdy kids with their own quirks is a pretty concise way of learning this skill, as well as highlight just how awkward each of them are. Todoroki is awkward due to his upbringing, even if he’s clearly eager to branch out. Same goes for Inasa, who at least looks to be a bit better. Bakugou, on the other hand is…Bakugou, and so seems more likely to kill the kids first than calm them down. And then there’s Camie, who definitely has the looks to be the hot babysitter for the boys, but then that just sets off the girls who get territorial. Though at least we’re about to see what her quirk really is after she got impersonated by Toga. We’ll talk more on how these four resolve this situation when it resolves next week, but it’s still pretty neat to see dimensions of this profession examined in detail besides the obvious brute force.

And having Endeavor involved in these events plays well into the theme going on as well, since his big problem is exactly what these students are facing. He’s big and tough and powerful and scary, which is great for driving off villains, but with All Might officially retired, Endeavor looks to be the best to fill the shoes of the #1 Hero, yet it becomes clearer and clearer that he simply lacks the charisma to be the next All Might. That then makes the solution All Might gives all the more significant: DON’T be the next All Might, be the next Endeavor. What he is now worked well enough for being All Might’s foil and a runner-up, but now he’ll have to shift himself if he really wants to be as inspiring and hopeful as his former rival once was. This looks to be what will be Endeavor’s own personal arc going forward, so hopefully we can see some development on that before the season ends.