My Hero Academia is back with another episode and while the episode focuses heavily on Eijiro Kirishima aka Red Riot. The episode doesn’t shy away from setting up the inevitable showdown between the Pro Heroes and The League of Villains, who are now in a joint partnership with Overhaul, leader of the Shie Hassaikai.
As revealed at the end of last week’s episode, Shigaraki took up on Overhaul’s offer but under certain conditions. This week those conditions were revealed and while the partnership hasn’t been set in stone. A lot was revealed about Overhaul’s plan, but we’ll get to that later.
Just like Deku, Tsu, Uraraka, and Kirishima all are now part of Pro Hero work studies. All who just to also be fighting alongside a member of the Big Three. Deku is partnering up with Miro. Tsu and Uraraka are partnering up with Nejire, and Kirishima is partnered up with Tamaki.
As Kirishima patrols the streets of Japan with Tamaki and Fat Gum they come across some street criminals who are selling illegal drugs and illegal items. After the heroes apprehend the criminals someone from the crowd shoots Suneater in the arm, stopping him from using his quirk. Seems familiar? That’s because that is the same dart used against Shigaraki’s team in the very first episode of this season. The drug within that dart is used to stop anyone who has a quirk from using it.
Kirishima gives chase to the shooter as he corners the shooter in a dead-end alleyway. A fight between Kirishima and the criminal ensues. Eijiro shines in what’s arguably one of his best hero moments thus far in My Hero Academia. Despite all his self-doubt, Kirishima tries to show the criminal some empathy and understanding. Revealing that he knows what he is personally dealing with in terms of wanting to be something more and something greater, but coming up short every single time.
The criminal sees Kirishima’s empathy and understanding as a weakness not once but twice. Here it is revealed how Kirishima has felt about his personal shortcomings, even harking back to an earlier part of the episode where Kirishima feels the gap between him and his peers steadily growing wider. Kirishima reveals how he’s used that as motivation to work on his quirk and strengthen it, in doing so revealing a massive power boost and new ability called Red Riot Unbreakable and his new ultimate attack Red Gun Turret!
As he brings the criminal down, Kirishima falls for the possum act once again and the criminal has now gone berserk (I didn’t mention how the criminal injected himself with a drug that boosts the power of quirks), nearly escaping until Fat Gum comes in for a last-minute swoop to capture the criminal. Fat Gum instills a little knowledge into Kirishima about fighting villains in general and how he needs to find the quickest way to stop the villain’s will to fight. Red Riot stands grateful as he embraces the gratitude of the civilians he just saved.
It’s a really beautiful moment for Kirishima who’s been working so hard to become a better version of himself throughout the series. He even pulls a page out of Deku’s book, reflecting on a past teaching moment from All Might and using that moment as stepping off point into achieving what he’s been wanting to achieve. Even his classmates, including Bakugo, reaffirm that assessment when he’s asking them for advice on mid-to-long range attacks.
This week’s episode is super solid, showing us how to overcome our shortcomings by working hard and being dedicated. The Pro Heroes and all the heroes agencies are set to come together as the investigation on Overall will now be widespread. We’ll have to wait and see how Overhaul and The League of Villains counteract.
My Hero Academia Season 4 is now streaming on Hulu, Funimation, and Crunchyroll