Friday 22 July 2022

My Hero Academia, Season 4, Episodes 11-15

More My Hero Academia, as we continue on the rest of the Overhaul/Hassaikai arc!

Episode 11:
  • And here is where we get the revelation that the Hassaikai has created exactly five bullets that can permanently wipe out a quirk!
  • I love the little bit of Twice and Toga correcting Overhaul for using the wrong pronouns for Magne. 
  • It is kind of hilarious that we get to see Toga and Twice's first meeting with the yakuza. Toga is just being an absolute shit and refusing to cooperate (while being so delightfully polite) while Twice goes to "I WON'T TELL YOU ANYTHING" straight into some long-winded explanation on how his copy powers work... 
    • And we think it's just Twice's neurosis acting up, but the anime makes it a bit more clear that there's some other Quirk at play here that causes them ton reveal their quirk when questioned by Shigaraki. And we see this happen when Toga reveals her quirk. 
    • I do like that they ask the question of whether Shigaraki is planning a betrayal, and I think they're able to answer 'no' out of some loophole. 
  • Yeah, Mimic antagonized the two Villain Alliance guys a lot, and it is satisfying as all hell when he ultimately snaps and got his ass beaten by Midoriya, Aizawa and Nighteye. 
  • More Eight Bullets! Sasaki Deidoro is a gecko-looking guy that gets drunk and then causes vertigo in others. Nemoto Shin is the smartly-dressed guy with a bowler hat and a cloak and can force people to answer his questions truthfully. Deidoro is just making jokes about other people being drunk, while Shin seems to be a prideful egoist and a huge Overhaul simp.
  • Hissatsu: PHANTOM MENACE!
    • My inner Star Wars geek sense is happy because of it. 
  • Damn Mirio is badass. He was so close to ending the whole arc there. Beating two of the Bullets, kicking Chronostasis in the face, even drawing blood from Overhaul... if he didn't use the quirk-nullification bullets, Mirio would've fucking won. 
  • Also, god damn, Overhaul is a massive jackass. His gaslighting of Eri just piles into the sheer amount of evil shit he's done.
  • Mirio weaponizing the cape to make Chronostasis's bullets miss. That's badass. That also gives him a pretty badass boast to yell at Overhaul as he punches him right in the face.
  • Oh yeah, fuck you, Shin Nemoto, for weaponizing Mirio's heroic heart and shooting the quirk-nullification bullet at the little girl.
  • Also, holy fucking shit Mirio for still fighting and going through a hero's fighting checklist even as he loses his quirk. What a man. What a hero.
  • "I am not powerless! I AM STILL LEMILLION!"

Episode 12:
  • Ah yes, Lock Lock's character development! It's actually kind of nice that all the talk about him being rough is also because he recently became a dad -- which made him even less predisposed about letting kids participate in a life-or-death battle.
  • Five minutes of fighting a superhuman. Mirio, without power, is able to hold out against Overhaul for five fucking minutes, all the while still never letting Overhaul get to Eri behind him. God damn, Mirio. "You were amazing, Mirio" indeed. 
  • Man, fuck Chronostasis and his weird-ass head arrows! I forgot that it's how he activates his quirk. That his hair is somehow styled in the shape of clock hands.
  • Yeah, we don't actually get to see what Nemoto's last thoughts about this were, but he was probably one of the few to be shown to be the most fanatical in following Overhaul. And since Overhaul used him as basically a power-up candy...
    • Overhaul's first power-up form is basically a gooey Machamp, though. That's not the most imposing figure out there. The plague doctor mask becoming a demonic mask is a bit more impressive. 
    • Yeah, yeah, cry about being forced to fuse with someone else, Overhaul, you clean freak. 
  • Yeah, you can absolutely feel the simultaneous hurt and pride as Nighteye just absolutely trash-talks Overhaul, talking about how he's pants-shittingly scared of Lemillion. 
  • I've never been a big fan of 'I can change the future with my guts' trope in shonen battle manga. I'm still not the biggest fan of it. But damn, Nighteye and Deku's voice actors really do make me feel for it in the heat of the moment. 
  • Manchester Smash!
  • How fucked up is it to basically 'reset' a little girl back and reconstruct her body just so that she can be used in some mad scientist butchery? And that's without taking into account all the mental anguish Overhaul caused on her... honestly, I am happy what happened to Overhaul by the end of this arc. Fuck him. He deserves to suffer the worst out of any villain in this series. 
    • It is annoying when I was reading this weekly, but dang, Eri suddenly freaking out and having her mental trauma stop her from leaving is kind of realistic considering all the emotional abuse Overhaul did on him, huh? 
  • Suddenly a dragon pushing a giant muscleman falls through the ceiling! 

Episode 13:
  • I forgot, actually, that Natsukame Rikiya, a.k.a. the big Bane-esque guy that Ryukyu fought on topside, actually wakes back up and holds the hero forces left behind. Or that his quirk allows him to 'inhale' and suck in the strengths of everyone nearby. 
  • Oh yeah, so Toga ends up showing up and doing a good enough impression of Midoriya to cause Uraraka, Tsuyu and Hado to work together to help Ryukyu drop Rikiya down as a battering ram down to the Overhaul boss fight room. That's kinda cool on all sides, actually!
    • I guess we needed Twice to contribute, hence the whole deal with the Mr. Compress copy having a role to create a way out for them. It is hilarious that they don't really care about the risk to the copy, but the Mr. Compress copy is indignant about how they should be doing this to avenge his arm. But the Compress copy literally just got taken out by Ryukyu without much preamble. 
    • "Plus Chaos" isn't anywhere as catchy as Plus Ultra, Toga, sorry. 
    • Also, we actually get a full-body shot of Toga from the front without any goo or hair or environment in the way of her little Togas, but obviously it's just Barbie-doll anatomy. 
  • I absolutely love that the thing that changes Eri's mind, that breaks through her mental shackles and causes her to want to be rescued, is the sight of Mirio's cape, and a reminder of his epic "I will be your hero" line.
  • Damn, though, it is still pretty terrifying and sad that a much younger Eri basically accidentally killed her own dad because of her superpowers manifesting. 
    • Also, how fucked up is it that out of his twisted sense of loyalty, Overhaul misinterpreted his boss's orders to basically help understand Eri's powers so she can control it, and turned it into carte blanche to dissect her over and over and over again?
  • Oh, fuck, that insert song hits well. Yeah, I wasn't the most supportive of this arc in the manga, but the anime adaptation just made me emotional so many times throughout this batch of episodes. 
    • There's such a powerful sequence as Midoriya makes his mental declaration, and we just have a quick flash of things breaking apart while only the music plays. That works so damn well. 
  • Oh, okay, that effect of Overhaul's arm 'glitching' and reverting back to normal when he uses his quirk is pretty damn cool.
  • Okay, Overhaul's final form, with all the monstrous Resident Evil G-virus meat-tendril arms? That's much, much cooler than the grisly-Machamp form he had two episodes ago. I love that his original human self is just sprouting out of the Rikiya monster-bird-head. 
  • Yeah, never mind the Plus Ultra mentality. People like Uraraka aren't going to stand down and go 'well, it's hopeless' when Nighteye makes predictions about how their friend is going to die. 
  • ONE FOR ALL FULL COWL 100%!
    • Damn, Deku just went full-on Super Saiyan. 
  • Also, as loathsome as Overhaul is as a person, I do like the flashback it gets here, where it does help showcase the full scope of his master plan -- selling the serum and the antidote to villains and heroes. How he feels like this is the way for the outdated yakuza to be relevant again in a world of heroes and villains, as a way to repay back his boss... and somehow through all this he ended up thinking that putting his boss into a coma with his quirk and then mutilating his granddaughter is the way to 'repay' him. What a fucked-up dipshit Overhaul is. 
  • HOLY SHIT that giant mass of fists that rains down on Overhaul and tears apart his meat-flesh-monster body is cool and scary as fuck. Also cool-and-scary-as-fuck is Deku's shadowed face. 

Episode 14:
  • SUNEATER! Holy shit, he totally just saved Aizawa. I legitimately forgot about this whole subplot with him and Chronostasis with all the epicness between Midoriya and Overhaul.
  • Gunhead martial arts! Oh, I guess since Eri reverted the fusion, Rikiya and earlier Nemoto are still alive, then?
  • Hell yeah, Aizawa's power-eraser vision to the rescue. 
  • Oh, I guess Rappa is just hanging out there with Fat Gum and Kirishima until Centipeder shows up to arrest him? Silly Rappa.
  • Takodana Villain Hospital! Okay, my Star Wars geekery doesn't extend to the sequels, but I appreciate the easter egg regardless.
  • Hell yeah, the Villain Alliance attacking Overhaul. Never have the act of brutalizing another person been so badass and welcoming. Okay, Snatch dying from fighting Dabi and Compress is kind of regrettable since we lost him and his badass mustache, but still. 
    • I was a bit confused why he would die until I realized that Mr. Compress compressed the flames as well as Snatch's whole part-sand body. 
  • Yeah, Shigaraki thought about what Overhaul would hate the most, and... yeah, having both his arms destroyed and to see the results of his work taken by the Villain Alliance? Yeah, fuck you, Overhaul, you piece of shit, you deserve every second of that depression and torment you're experiencing. 
  • I don't remember the specifics, but this episode kind of implies that Eri's power on Midoriya ended up reverting a lot of the damage he sustained in earlier arcs?
  • Yeah, it's such a gut-punch to see Nighteye die, huh? It's actually one of the most memorable scenes from this whole arc, though. Again, never a big fan of the 'change fate/future' thing, and the 'energy' explanation is kinda bull. But damn, Nighteye has grown a lot on me during this watch-through that I can't help but agree with his hope for the future. 
    • Oh fuck, bringing back Nighteye's penchant for smiles and humour just feels so much more sadder now that he's about to die, huh.
  • How fucking tear-jerking is it that Mirio can manage to be strong and never falter all throughout the arc, even when he's about to pass out and even after he lost his quirk permanently... but he just breaks down completely and begs Nighteye to fight and live? 

Episode 15:
  • We have the new opening which tells me that we're going to have the much lighter set of mini-arcs after this, but this episode is more of a epilogue to the Hassaikai arc, isn't it?
  • I do like that Gran Torino actually points out how weird and stupid it is for a teleporter to be sighted four times. I guess Kurogiri just took a while to find and/or educate Gigantomachia?
  • Mirio trying his best to jump back into being an energetic hero, while also immediately acknowledging how strange it is... that's a strange way of healing, but damn, Mirio, you're cool. 
  • I also like that Midoriya actually contemplated giving his quirk to Mirio, but, Mirio being the cool guy that he is, rejects it immediately. 
  • It's not as prominent as Midoriya talking to Mirio, but I do like that the other teachers are shown taking care of Mirio -- Aizawa in a flashback briefly, and All Might was about to knock the door when he realizes Midoriya is already there. They're also not as prominent as Midoriya and Mirio, but I do like that the story acknowledges that Uraraka is also feeling some guilt about not being able to do more. 
  • God bless Present Mic. Between "BADDO BOYZZSUU", poking Bakugou in the head and realizing that seeing All Might and Endeavor's staredown is the best time to buy coffee, he's always good for a laugh.
  • Oh, Shiketsu's here too. I completely forgot about them.

...holy shit, yeah. Yeah, that was much better in animated format. 

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