My Hero Academia set us up to win over the hearts of some bratty kids and just like Bakugo, Todoroki, and company, we have failed. We aren’t the only failures here though, My Hero Academia failed to win over our hearts too with this episode. Long story short, it was weak and as filler-y as they can possibly come. I can understand wanting to build things up again now that the first cour is over. Especially with the way things ended. But putting our fan favorites Bakugo and Hot Boy Todoroki in a spot like this was just bad.
These two have been sidelined for the majority of this season and now that they are front and center, they aren’t delivering anything exciting just yet. I feel like the main plot point of this episode could’ve been solved by the end of the episode. The need to set up a “battle” between these kids and the Hero students just fell flat. And while some of the quirks being put on display by these kids looked pretty menacing, it just seems like the fight will be somewhat anticlimactic (yes, I know, I’m jumping the gun here).
Present Mic is a literal representation of me watching this week’s episode. One thing I was really looking forward to in this episode of My Hero Academia was the talk between Endeavor and All Might. Which was just sprinkled in. Especially when the Symbol of Peace himself cannot answer “what does being the Symbol of Peace mean?”. This should’ve been an easy answer for All Might to answer, but he does reveal he’s had his own personal plights in the past and how his past actions led him down the path of becoming the Number One Hero and the Symbol of Peace.
In the same breath, we learn a bit more about Endeavor and his personal battles with wanting to be the Number One Hero. I felt some compassion for him, knowing that despite all the hard work he put into being a hero, despite wanting to be stronger than everyone and despite finally becoming the Number One Hero, he has always come up short. Even after the fall of All Might, being the Number One Hero now, the community can’t help but still look down on him and compare him to All Might.
A lot of this has to do with the rising crime rate, despite it only going up 3%, it’s still 3% higher than it was while All Might was the Number One Hero. While I like the main storyline, I love backstory expositions for our Pro Heroes and really hope we get more. I would like to know more about All Might’s past and his personal struggles throughout his journey into becoming the Symbol of Peace. More exposition for his days fighting crime alongside Sir Nighteye, things like that.
So while there’s one crucial highlight to this episode of My Hero Academia, overall the episode still falls flat and does nothing for the overall season. We’ve had better filler episodes in the past from MHA, so it pains me to talk down on an episode of MHA like I just did.