My Hero Academia, Season 4, Episodes 6-10

We're back with some My Hero Academia! Typical disclaimer: I've read this part of the manga, have gone beyond it, but forgot a lot of the details. Also, I'll probably refer to the term 'intern', 'work studies' and 'work internship' interchangeably.

This time, I'll try to be a bit more concise and less wordy with my reactions.  

Episode 6:

• I did really like how the arc structure and the whole 'these interns are following their mentor heroes' causes Kirishima, Tsuyu and Uraraka to end up basically tied in the same mission as Midoriya. It's a nice way to rope in a different set of 1-A classmates compared to the Stain arc. Kind of a shame that we never really got this for basically a good half of the class.
• There are a lot of background heroes that show up in the meeting, but none excite me more than CENTIPEDER. His head is a whole fucking centipede. 
• ...also, fuck, he has a hilarious high-on-helium voice. I'm not sure what I expected a centipede man's voice to sound like, but it sure isn't this. 
• So there exists a 'HN', a Hero Network. Basically a Hero LinkedIn or something. 
• Oh, so the giant kaiju that Ryukyu's team beat up was involved in the drug distribution network!
• There is some really great shots of Midoriya and Mirio's shocked expressions and eyes when they realize and put two and two together -- that Eri's body is being harvested for the raw materials for the quirk-cancelling bullets. 
• That's a very cool stylized image of Overhaul in purple holding Eri in yellow. Very cool. Another very cool shot is the symbolized monstrous plague-mask opening and about to chomp down on Eri. 
• It's not something that really becomes relevant, but I do really like that we highlight how Nighteye brought together minor, local heroes with the mentality to use them to investigate the Hassaikai's bases without raising suspicion.
• Aizawa also almost suspending their work internship, before realizing that Midoriya's the kind of problem child that will move mountains to save Eri, is also a great little moment. 
• Nighteye's trauma about using his quirk on a person in case he sees death in the future is very well-done with the voice-acting. A very neat little detail, too, that Gran Torino sent Midoriya with the purpose of getting Nighteye to get through some of his trauma. 

Episode 7:

• The story does really display Midoriya's confusion and the pressure from all the whole Eri and All Might's death prophecy thing very well, yeah? It does kind of foreshadow a darker bit later down the line when Midoriya succumbs to pressure too... It's also Iida and Todoroki that got Midoriya out of his funk. It's a small scene of him crying a bit, but it's very well-done.
• I don't remember Lock Lock's (Rock Lock? Lock Rock? Rock Rock?) ability, but I'm guessing that he 'locks' things in whatever state it's in. We get to see him lock a plank of wood mid-air. It's like that Stasis ability from Breath of the Wild!
• Fat Gum is all baffled at how Nighteye got information from a Sailor-Moon-esque toy that one of the yakuza bought. "Maybe he bought it for himself!" and "Why did you buy one for yourself?"
• Just like Sentai and Kamen Rider, turns out that "Glitter Squad" has a new show every year. It's an actual plot point because they've been showing Eri reruns of the older shows!
• Yeah, after all that build-up on how the operation's going to go, in the middle of Lock Lock complaining about procedure, SUDDENLY GIANT BANE PLAGUE DOCTOR FIST MEGATON PUNCH THROUGH THE FRONT GATE. I don't remember any of the names of the Eight Precepts/Eight Bullets. "Bane" here is called Katsukame Rikiya. 
• And then we have Ryukyu going into an even bigger dragon to block that punch. What a way to start the fighty-fight portion of this arc! 
• There's a cool background fight of a Yakuza thug that could manipulate like, brambles from a bush. He got taken out by one of the named minor heroes, Kesagiri Man. That's neat. 

Episode 8:

• Mirio and Amajiki's childhood friendship is adorable! I completely forgot that 'Suneater' was because he's someone who wants to shine like the sun, just like how Mirio did. 
• Yeah, giving Mirio clothes 'made out of his own hair' so they can move just as he activates his Quirk... that's the sort of nitpicking detail that I enjoy from this series. 
• It's always kind of a disappointment that Mimic isn't an adorable little anime mascot but just a man that can transform his size, but I guess that's the whole point of the subversion. I'm not sure how 'mimickry' translates into 'control objects from within', but there you go. 
• More Eight Bullets names: Scarecrow Guy is Tabe Soramitsu, "Food". Face mask guy is Hojo Yu, "Crystalize". Blonde guy with a lower-face bird mask is Setsuno Toya, "Larceny". 
• I've always really liked how the Eight Bullets seem to be setting up as a typical 1v1 for a lot of the supporting characters, but then here comes Amajiki, realizing that it's better for one person to hold of these three instead of the group leaving three people behind. 
• The ol 'knife hidden inside a plague mask' trick!
• "Even trash has its pride." "Even trash has strong bonds." None of the Eight Bullets really have too much of a personality, but at least we do get a brief motive rant out of them here. The crystal guy gives a very quick rundown of everyone's one-line backstory, and while they're really not characters anyone talks about too much, it does help to make these minor characters actually feel more like characters. 
• "Vast Hybrid: CHIMERA KRAKEN!!!" Man, Mirio's cool, but Amajiki's my guy. 
• Very cool fight overall. It's so fast-paced, a lot of ups and downs for Amajiki and the three Bullets, a lot of fun powers being utilized without them being over-the-top. I also absolutely love that, in a surprising subversion in a Shonen battle manga, Amajiki actually reverses the concept of the power of friends and weaponizes Tabe's friendship with his companions to knock all three of them out in one go. I like this episode. 

Episode 9:

• I actually do like that the random yakuza punks arrested by Bubble Girl do talk a bit about how the yakuza is different from villains -- that they're supposed to be chivalrous, and it's not until Overhaul's takeover that the yakuza became more modernized and 'villain-like'.
• RAPPA! Rappa is the only member of the Eight Bullets I remember. He's the cool one! 
• His shield-making monk buddy is called Tengai Hekiji. I do like the comparison between the battle-hungry Rappa and how Tengai is just trying to get him to rein those desires in .
• Fat Gum and Kirishima basically going all out in the name of not letting down their resolve and essentially weaponizing manliness... that's manly as all fuck. I also love that Fat Gum quickly realizes that Rappa is the kind of hot-blooded guy who would totally appreciate and get a bit too into taunts and hot-blooded fighting, and does exactly that to goad him. 
• Kirishima's desperation and him just racking his brains as he thinks about what he can do is amazingly delivered by his voice actor, as is the themes about his hardening quirk being so 'boring' compared to everyone else's.
• Oh, hey, the Ashido/Kirishima flashback! With Gigantomakhia making a cameo! 
• "They've started break dancing!" hahahaha!
• I absolutely love how Kirishima's just... completely frozen. I love how we took the 'my body just moved' iconic line from Midoriya and All Might earlier in the series and shows that it doesn't work for everyone... and it probably is a particular gut-punch for Kirishima, who's all about that manly spirit.
• One of Kirishima's classmates in the flashbacks is wearing Luffy's Straw Hat, which was IIRC a little celebration during Shonen Jump where all the other manga snuck in a straw hat somewhere into that week's chapter. 
• I've never paid too much attention to Kirishima and Crimson Riot, but it is kind of neat that Crimson Riot basically embodied a more... old-fashioned 'Golden Age' simple hero. It's a simple "courage is the ability to jump in spite of your fear" moral, but it's delivered pretty well!   
• I mean, shit, Kirishima doesn't get to beat the villain and more like made an opening for Fat Gum, but motherfucker that's a badass moment of him jumping in the way of Rappa's blows. 

Episode 10:

• 
  Rappa is a good man! I love the little bit of correction as he goes from "that ki-" to "that man". I love how his mentality is 'get healed, so I can kill you properly in our next fight!'
• I mean, shit, Tengai is a dipshit, but he is technically just trying to do his job as a yakuza. 
• There's a neat way of 'oh shit, the boss is even stronger' as Fat Gum peels back the reasons why someone as powerful and eccentric as Rappa stays with the Shie Hassaikai. 
• Well, Lock Lock got absolutely fucked up by 'temp worker' Toga. 
• I do like the little flashback to Shigaraki playing shogi and being a jackass about it with Overhaul... and Overhaul's pretentious talk about shogi strategy ended up backfiring, doesn't it?
• I really do love Shigaraki's later (flashback) talk to Toga and Twice about how he's not thinking of the Hassaikai as equals, but rather want to infiltrate and destabilize them, playing along with their plans for now. 
• (Fake) Rappa vs. Nighteye! I completely forgot about this bit, but damn, Nighteye is a badass! He one-shotted Rappa with some seals, and even made a deadpan joke about how 'humorous' his weapons are. 
  
• They are psychopaths, but yeah, this series does a great job at showing how Toga, Twice, and the rest of the Villain Alliance are a family in their own way. There's a neat bit about Toga noting how helping out the Hassaikai -- if they prove to be useless -- is pointless. In-between her psycho-murderer bits, there are a lot of nice points that Toga makes towards the yakuza being a 'soon-to-be-extinct' dying group, leading to them mocking Mimic and getting him riled up. 
• There's also a very realistic flashback to Twice and especially Toga confronting Shigaraki about doing something that they don't want to do. Waving a blade next to Shigaraki's neck is exactly what I expect from Toga.