Friday 29 January 2016

Boku no Hero Academia 75 Review: Gross Muscle Man

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 75: Heroes Stake It All


We cut back and forth between the cast members, before focusing back on Midoriya's fight against Gross Muscle Man, which is pretty decent. We start off with Todoroki and Bakugou, who meets the creepy Hellraiser dude... who's chowing down on a dismembered arm. Well, fuck. Hellraiser dude is creepy enough by itself, and even Bakugou is creeped out, but Boku no Hero Academia has never used graphic imagery like dismemberment. I mean, sure, Midoriya's arm gets mangled all the time, but, well... Todoroki does note that Tokoyami and Shouji were the ones in front of them, and Shouji can create body parts, so it might be that, but shit, Hellraiser Bondage Dude is creepy. 

We get a handy 'where is everybody' map! None of the villains are named, though a lot of the B-class nobodies whose named I don't remember are, which is cool.

Spinner, with his insane "Iron Throne Sword" as someone on Tumblr called it, engages Mandalay, who distracts Spinner with a telepathic "man you're handsome" thing before slashing him. The dude with the big wrapped-up cylinder, apparently called Magne (a.k.a. Hikishi Kenji), has magnet powers... that attract humans, apparently. Tiger stops Magne from fully pulling Mandalay, though.

Mandalay notes that Ragdoll isn't responding... was she the one that Hellraiser dude ate?

We get back to Midoriya fighting Gross Muscle Man, and, well, the visual imagery of muscle fibers threading in and out and forming entire giant arms is just... disturbing. That's some clever use of the standard self-strengthening superpower, that's for sure. We get some interesting tidbits about just what the villain alliance is planning. Midoriya is apparently marked for death, and apparently Gross Muscle Man has some 'requirement' regarding Bakugou though he isn't keen on elaborating further, just going "hey, you know where Bakugou is? No? 'Kay".

Muscle Man is just violent and barbaric, hitting Midoriya over and over and over. And the art is just gorgeous in this scene, showing action that really looked speedy and brutal. Midoriya's strength can't keep up and Muscle Man just monologues about how his gross muscle thing is just so much better and all that jazz. Kouta lobs a rock at Muscle Man's head, still afraid but at least trying something. The kid mentions that he's the child of the Water Horses, and Muscle Man just gets extra-angry and gives some crazy rant about how you should back up what you want to do with your strength... and the Water Horses died because they simply just aren't able. 

Midoriya charges in, trapping his broken arm in-between the forming muscle fibers, charges up his muscles on his good arm, and prepares to strike with 100% power. That's intense! That's awesome. It really makes Midoriya work for his victory, Gross Muscle Man gets some depth, Kouta probably gets his 'hate heroes and villains' thing turned around in a rather believable way, everyone else gets more setup... pretty awesome.

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