Boku no Hero Academia 54 Review: Iida's Counterattack

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 54: Re-Ingenium

Still absolutely brilliant, as Iida doesn't need an entire fucking arc (or, as the case of Sasuke in Naruto, close to seven or eight years IRL) to wallow in anger and vengeance after being beaten by a more powerful villain and choose a darker route, et cetera. No, Stain's words clearly got to Iida and a good chunk of this episode had him just reflect on those words and on how utterly idiotic and self-absorbed he has been, and I do absolutely love how this little self-introspection is intercut with Stain just rampaging -- the art truly makes him look like a psychopath -- and being barely checked by Todoroki and Midoriya combined.

We get a short flashback of Ingenium, who's a decent nice dude, before going back to the present. Stain notes how Todoroki's over-reliance on his overpowering quirk makes his actual movements slow -- I think it's the same advice All Might told Tokoyami. But before Stain can bifurcate Todoroki, we get a majestic two-page splash of Iida, having recovered from Stain's powers deliver an almighty kick that smashes Stain's katana apart, and delivers a second kick to push Stain back.

Iida is all apologetic to Todoroki and Midoriya, but Stain, rather logically, doesn't buy it. Todoroki tells Iida to shut out Stain's words because they are bullshit, but Iida notes that Stain is right -- he just can't afford to run away now, because that will forever tarnish the name of Ingenium. Stain, meanwhile, just looks as ax-crazy as ever. 

They also note that despite the fact that Stain's quirk is technically not all that useful when fighting people of an incompatible blood type, and how his targets are only Iida and the Native American Man, he's, y'know, fucking rabid. Iida blocks one of Stain's daggers with his hands while trying to plan something out with Todoroki, asking him to freeze the area around his damaged leg engine. Midoriya, elsewhere, gets up, and both happen to get up at the same time and deliver an utterly righteous blow to Stain's face.

I still don't think it'll take him out of comission just yet -- he's not going to go down here -- but that might be the deciding blow that hurt Stain enough to make him retreat before Gran Tourino, Endeavour and the rest arrive. More interestingly is how Iida claims that he'll "sacrifice" the arm that Stain threw a dagger into -- the arm isn't sliced off or visibly broken, and we've seen some really awesome healing powers courtesy of the school nurse, so I think Iida's just being overdramatic. Though he might be referring to irreparable muscle or nerve damage or something? Eh, Iida fights with his legs anyway, I don't think it'll make much of a difference.

Overall a great chapter, though I imagine one or two chapters to wrap this arc up would be neat. Despite its relative newness, I do think Boku no Hero Academia is quickly rising up to be one of my favourite mangas.