My One Piece Wano anime commentary has been pretty well-received and doesn't actually require me to put too much effort into it since I'm just doing yolo commentary instead of actually reviewing it. And recently, I've been watching a fair amount of My Hero Academia content on the side, both to refresh my brain about what happened in the manga before so I can follow the current story, but also because it's sometimes neat to just have something that isn't all brand-new material. . I did review seasons 1 and 2 before on the blog, but suffice to say that both seasons really do stand up to rewatching. I really do love the sports festival and the Stain arc in particular.
So yeah, just like the Wano arc review for One Piece, take this as less of a review and more of a commentary as I go through the season. I already know more or less everything that's going to happen, so it'll just be me talking about the episode. Here we go, My Hero Academia, Season 3:
Episode 1
- This one is mostly a recap episode, featuring extra anime content as the framing device -- which is a little pool episode. It's fun fluff stuff -- Midoriya and Iida are both the kind of people to recap and decompress about recent events anyway, so it's neat that we have this as a buffer before the actual adaptation of the summer camp arc.
- Of course it's Mineta and Kaminari that makes up the bullshit excuse to get the girls to the pool. I do actually find the gag funny, where they invited Midoriya as the 'diligent' student so it wouldn't be suspicious, but Midoriya invited all the other boys.
- The other people doing the recap are Kurogiri (who would react to Shigaraki's recent encounter with Midoriya), the police guy debriefing All Might, and, a bit less elegantly, Vlad King asking Aizawa to recap every single quirk of 1-A's students.
- Did Kurogiri always had those tarot cards? I could see him being a bartender-slash-tarot-reader.
Episode 2
- The post-credits scene of episode 1 and the opening of this episode are the ones that made everyone get excited about the potential of the 'traitor', isn't it? That someone leaked the super-secret summer camp location, and that it's either one of the upper management or one of the students. Oh, the sheer amount of discussion on who could be the traitor! I was actually quite happy to catch up to the moment in the manga where the traitor was revealed relatively unspoiled.
- I really do find Monoma's obnoxiousness to be so much more hilarious in the anime version. Between the visual effects of zooming into his face, the overacting of his voice actor and the abrupt cut-off when Kendo karate-chops him, he is a lot funnier in anime format.
- I always had trouble telling the Pussycats apart in the manga and remembering who has what power. Having very distinct colours helps!
- I don't remember too much about Pixie-Bob's rock golems, but I do appreciate that we get to see characters like Sero and Sato actually take out some of the rock creatures.
- I know Kota's got a traumatic backstory and everything, but, well, punching someone right in the scrotum with no provocation at all is a dick move. Yeah, he does basically become unlikable throughout the whole arc up until the Muscular battle.
- (I don't like Kota, but I really do like that the series deconstruct what it means for heroes to die 'gloriously' in the line of battle and what happens to the family they leave behind.)
- I do find it kind of hilarious that the whole gag with Mineta peeping somehow leads to Kota being happiness-punch'ed and then rescued by Midoriya.
- Could you really imagine Aizawa talking about "an embodiment of lust" with a straight face?
Episode 3
- I do really like that the anime spends just a bit more time with Class 1-B characters that aren't Monoma or Kendo or Tetsutetsu. I remembered back when I was reading this in the manga and felt like the 1-B students were essentially background characters in this arc. They're still secondary, sure, up until the inter-class battle arc but the anime does help to emphasize their more unique visuals.
- I do like all the scenes of the students just doing weird-ass physical training to train the limits of their powers. It's... I'm... it's anime logic, sure, but hypothetically speaking, if mutant superhero quirks do exist in real life, how do you really draw the line of 'exercise to train your muscles' or 'exercise that will disfigure your muscles', especially when every single student has unique quirks?
- Everyone's doing some super-intense Quirk training that involves really extending their powers to their limits, and even Sato and Koda look pretty uncomfortable with their eating exercises. But Koda is just... doing vocal exercises. Yeah, you got off easy, weird stone-dinosaur boy. Shoji and Hagakure are also basically just playing hide-and-seek.
- I thought there's a 1-B student whose power involves him having his soul pop out of his body, kind of like Brook from One Piece, but it's just a funny visual gag, apparently. Oops!
- I have only realized today that Mandalay, Ragdoll, Pixiebob and Tiger are all cat breeds.
- The writer does a great job at making Kota a real tit, doesn't he? I absolutely get why he has to be like that for the story to go, and I know he's just a kid, and that this is the intended audience reaction, but man, I can't stand him.
- That said, Todoroki's speech near the end of this episode, about how words from a random stranger would ring completely hollow no matter how good the point? I forgot how good that speech was.
- God, Moonfish, you're creepy.
- Hahaha, someone tied up Mineta up with some blankets so that he doesn't go peeping.
- I completely forgot that Bakugou is a great cook. I mean, I was about to make a 'of course the kid psychopath is good at using a knife' gag, but it's actually kind of cute.
- Ashido's eyes going bug-eyed and her turning completely black-and-white like a manga panel actually jumpscared me a bit.
- "Revelry in the dark." I think this is the first time that Tokoyami's chuunibyou personality actually comes through instead of him just being a more generic serious kid.
- Another rather hilarious usage of 'suddenly we have manga panel colouration' is when Midoriya realizes he's going to have to brave through the scare trail alone.
- I find it hilarious that Honenuki, the guy whose visual design has a skeleton mouth, has a quirk that's... softening the ground, and unrelated to anything spooky at all.
- Likewise, I like the wackiness that they got -googles- Yui to play the role of a lady ghost instead of -googles- Reiko, the actual ghost-themed girl in their class.
- Oh, so Dabi's flames are blue! That's cool!
- I don't really mention music a lot, but I do really like the music mixing of My Hero Academia.
Episode 4
- Aizawa's unexpected deadpan "salty licorice is delicious" line is hilarious.
- Actually, considering how utterly badass Pixie-Bob's earth-golem abilities are and how she could essentially hold off the entire Villain Alliance on her own, it's smart for the villains to go after her first.
- Ah, yes, Monoma, mocking how Class A had more students that failed, even though he's also someone who failed from his class. Bless you, Monoma.
- What the fuck, Spinner. I forgot that his weapon is a gigantic big-fucking-sword made up of like, three dozen swords lashed together with giant belts. That's so... that's so over-the-top. I love you, you stupid edgelord lizardman.
- I don't remember if he does anything, but I do like the little conversation between Tetsutetsu and Kendo about how there's a gulf of combat experience between Class 1-A and 1-B.
- Oooh the way that Muscular's muscle powers form is gross. It's like, muscle fibers shoot out from his wrists like tendrils. That's nasty.
- The explanation is that he increases the growth of his muscles so much that 'they can't be contained by skin'. Jeez. That just sounds nasty.
- To block Midoriya's 100% punch later on, he actually makes a giant ball out of muscle fibers. Ew!
- I do really like that, just like the Hosu City incident with Iida, Midoriya's big shining moment isn't because he's stronger or more capable than the pro heroes. It's just that he finds himself in the right place, at the right time, realizing that someone needs help that the more experienced pros can't necessarily get to.
- How fucking creepy was Moonfish feeding on an arm? With both that scene and the one after this implying that Ragdoll got butchered to death? I mean, I know it's Shoji's and he can regrow those, but still. It's one thing to just, y'know, murder people outright. It's another to eat the dismembered limbs.
- I was wondering 'is Mandalay able to use her telepathy for any kind of combat abilities'? Apparently, she can. By telling Spinner that he's handsome, causing him to drop his guard. Oh, MHA.
- I do like that Midoriya's characterized as a guy that thinks things through, so he does go through a bit of a crisis trying to figure out the best thing to do and eliminating retreat as an option before going for the typical shonen fight.
- There's a point where Midoriya totally thinks he's going to die, crying and apologizing to his mom while holding Muscular back. I mean, he's got the protagonist plot armour, sure, but god damn that moment really works so well at making this moment actually feel like a 'pinch', so to speak.
- Yeah, it's a very epic moment and all, but 1,000,000%? Pretty sure that's an exaggeration. Though to be fair, Midoriya's probably hopped up on adrenaline at that point.
Episode 5
- Remember when Shigaraki's idea of how things are happening on the battlefield is him just comparing it to different genre types? That's such a weird quirk (heh) of his.
- Oh, yes, Twice is totally in this segment of the fight. His quirk definitely does allow Aizawa to show his ruthlessness without actually brutalizing someone real.
- I did remember that it was a bit of an eye-rolling cliffhanger to have Aizawa seemingly 'die' for the couple of weeks that Deku fought Muscular.
- I love Twice. If my reviews from when I was reviewing MHA weekly was any indication, Twice is probably one of my favourite characters. His instant personality-changes are even better voiced with over-the-top voice-acting.
- Twice totally flips Dabi the bird! It's a bit weird since they censored Jiro or someone doing the same thing, but I guess it's okay when a villain does it?
- Spinner's whole point at this point of the story is to embody a villain that's buying fully into Stain's cool-aid, and I love that this ends up with the unexpected bonus of him wanting to protect Midoriya.
- Also hilarious is that his speech gets interrupted by Tiger and Mandalay knocking him and Magne out.
- Oh god Moonfish's ability of how he keeps unleashing and retracting his weird tooth-blade-tree thing is just so uncomfortable looking.
- I like the little dynamic between Kendo, the smart one, and Testutetsu, who's just Leeroy Jenkins-ing it.
- I know it's a reference to mustard gas, but I'll never not call Mustard as schoolkid Darth Vader or something along those lines in my head.
- It's always kind of unintentionally hilarious that Mustard is all like "I've got a glock, bitch!" (It's also rather convenient that the bullet is somehow able to shatter the mask right down the middle)
- I do actually love that Kendo's 'Big Arms' quirk looks absolutely goofy against Mustard's poison gas typhoon thing, but she actually manages to make use of the quirk well. It's not exactly Sun Tzu's Art of War, but I do appreciate that she actually wins this fight by using her brains. Also, hooray for Class 1-B for actually fighting and winning in this arc!
Episode 6
- I've never really thought about it, but Tokoyami's Dark Shadow is basically Hulk, but with some hard-set logic as to when it becomes cooperative and when it rampages, huh?
- Shoji says that what was cut off was a 'duplicate' and he can regenerate it. So does it mean that if one of his original limbs were sliced off, it wouldn't regenerate?
- Speaking of convenience, it is kind of a neat way to save both Tokoyami and get Midoriya to Bakugou by essentially just siccing Dark Shadow towards Moonfish.
- I love, by the way, that the anime adapted the sketchy-shading of Dark Shadow from the manga. That makes it look so much more distinct compared to the traditionally-animated backgrounds and characters.
- While the power-scaling does get ridiculous when AFO gets involved much later, I did like how Bakugou observes that Tokoyami easily takes out Moonfish, who was difficult for him and Todoroki to deal with, while the two of them could easily take down Tokoyami's quirk.
- I love Bakugou's "bweh" face while everyone is discussing how to best save him.
- All this tongue-slashing and explicitly causing it to bleed... jeez, that really looks like it hurts.
- I do like the little payoff to Tsuyu's insistence that other characters call her "Tsuyu-chan" but getting actually offended when someone she doesn't want to be friends with, like Toga, calls her that.
- Toga is so psychotic, and in the entertaining way that Moonfish isn't. Moonfish is just disturbing. Toga's actually fun to watch.
- It ties perfectly into Toga's whole "I want to be like the person I like" psychosis, but it's kind of unintentionally silly that every single huge character moment Uraraka has recently has been about people teasing her about her crush on Midoriya.
- For a moment, everyone definitely thought that Bakugou went off on his own instead of Mr. Compress compressing him, right? It's not just me, right?
- "Tricks and running away are my only redeeming features!" Oh, Mr. Compress.
- I actually do like just how Dabi just... takes all of Twice's antics in stride. From his earlier appearances he looks like kind of a no-nonsense guy, but he's pretty much tolerating the insane Twice. That's actually kind of nice of him.
- Speaking of Dabi playing nice with others, it is kind of interesting that Shigaraki, after his bad initial first meeting with Dabi, actually gives him a custom-made Nomu specifically tied to his voice.
- Ah, yes, Aoyama shivering in fear as the villains discuss their plans while walking by. I don't think this was actually in the manga? I think he just pops out near the end of the arc when he shoots Mr. Compress? This moment does hit a bit different after we learn more about Aoyama.
- Speaking of 1-B students I don't remember... 'Yosetsu Awase', with the quirk 'Weld'. He has a bandana, and... you know, a lot of the other 1-B students have memorable designs or abilities, but poor Awase is just someone who I genuinely don't remember existing. Him welding Momo's tracker to the Nomu sure is going to lead to the next arc for sure.
- "Oi, oi, oi, oi! I know these kids! ...who are they?" Bless you, Twice.
Episode 7
- This arc really loves the "meanwhile, five minutes ago, in another place" narrative location switch, huh?
- Vlad King's "blood control"... okay, maybe it's just Avatar: The Last Airbender skewing my perception on what 'blood powers' should be, but exuding a bunch of blood that instantly clots into a cage is definitely not what I had in mind!
- I know it's probably just to keep some of the kids out of the action, and Aizawa is being a responsible teacher... but, man, having at least Iida running around in the battlefield would be hella useful right now, wouldn't it?
- ...does Twice fight with a tape measurer? Okay. He's actually giving Todoroki a run for his money with that tape measurer that rolls up around his wrist. Good job, Twice!
- Okay, I forgot how much Shoji does in this segment of the arc. Good job, tentacle man!
- Also, okay, Mr. Compress, good fucking job on that obvious distraction. It's actually refreshing, compared to some other shows where someone would explain their powers in great detail to their own detriment. Mr. Compress actually does it to misdirect the heroes!
- AOYAMA NAVEL LASER! He looks so scared doing it, too.
- I actually like that Midoriya stumbles and falls thanks to his pain. Not that I like seeing him hurt, but I do like that him shrugging off so much damage actually comes to bite him in the ass.
- In addition to apparently being in a coma for the next couple of days, and worrying his poor mother...
- Oh, Dabi takes the orb from Todoroki, and even remarks on his full name. That's cool!
- It's actually a severe defeat for the heroes, huh? Even discounting Bakugou and Ragdoll's kidnapping and the severe PR hit that U.A. would take, the fact that so many students were injured by either fighting or Mustard's gas does make the casualty list much larger than they initially appear to be.
- There's a whole discussion about the traitor stuff right after this, too, which is a neat buildup that... that I honestly kind of didn't realize at the time.
- The fact that Hagakure and Jiro are actually still unconscious from the gas attack even when Midoriya wakes up post-surgery also hammers home the sheer damage of Mustard's attack.
- I also do like the little fact that the gag of Bakugou's violent outbursts actually turned out to be a plot point since he ended up being a great candidate for kidnapping and potential conversion by the villains.
- Momo doesn't actually get a whole ton of screentime here since she's knocked out, but I do like that All Might notes that she had some character development after her mid-term exams with Aizawa, allowing her to make snap-quick decisions to create that tracker.
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