English Dub Review: My Hero Academia “From Iida to Midoriya”

Class 1-A, assemble!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Kirishima continues trying to convince Deku that saving Bakugo is within their reach (odd phrasing when talking to someone whose arms are in casts, but okay). The plan is to have Momo make another receiver for her tracker and get Bakugo out before the villains do something worse to him. Iida still objects, likely because of how much going after Stain for vengeance taught him, but he and the rest are shooed out by the doctor, though not before Kirishima tells him the meetup time for the rescue. Iida overhears this but says nothing.

Deku’s doctor lays down the news about his most recent injuries, and it’s not great. The last fight caused him damage to his body that strains the limits of what it can recover from. It’s becoming clearer that while All Might’s power has granted him strength beyond most others, it’s also strength a human body was not meant to use. For now, though, he’s discharged and given a thank you note from Koda, and has to give his mom a long overdue phone call. She gives him an understandable but still difficult question: Does he really need to go back to UA?

The top heroes begin to gather for the mission to find the villains, including Best Jeanist, Endeavor, and Gang Orca (who looks like he has a Venom symbiote eating his body), amongst others we know. At the same time, Kirishima and Todoroki meet up with Momo and Deku to begin the rescue, and a surprise arrival, Iida. Words are shouted, punches are thrown, but a consensus is reached: As long as they have the power, they have an obligation to protect their classmates, including Bakugo and each other.

After a flashy disguise montage, they spot a press conference on TV from UA apologizing for the upheaval about heroes as of late, but it doesn’t seem like the public is buying it. The villains seem to be eating this up, using it as an example of their mindset to convince Bakugo to join them. He responds with an explosion to the face, and a declaration that he’ll be like All Might no matter what.

OUR TAKE

This episode acted both as a breather from the end of the last arc and ramp up for this one. The fallout from the losses are still having a big impact on events, but while the tides haven’t come in, they are beginning to turn for UA and the idea of heroes in general, which plays right into the villains’ plans. They challenge the contradictions of heroism in their society which many we’ve seen likely fall under, as well as the idea that being a hero can ever be truly called altruistic, something real life “heroes” are often questioned. It’s similar to the modern take of Lex Luthor’s hatred of Superman, wherein the former can’t comprehend the latter’s genuine intent to help and can only see it as an invader slowly forcing the human race to comply and let him take over. The best villains in fiction are the kind that isn’t just physical threats, but makes us doubt or question things we take for granted, like Heath Ledger’s take on the Joker in “The Dark Knight” or, more recently, Erik Killmonger in “Black Panther”. Likewise, the League of Villains have made their opening move by straining the already loose credibility of letting children become exposed to danger, and with or without Bakugo, their next move could be far more destructive, especially if they can get the straight-laced All Might all be riled up like they have been.

There’s also some more than apparent similarities to the beginning of this arc and a certain arc from this show’s predecessor, Naruto. We already have a Sasuke-ish rival character taken by the antagonists, and now the main character has brought together a five-man team to go get him. The character types even almost completely match up; Besides Deku, we’ve got an aggressive Kiba-type in Kirishima, a long-haired strategist Shikamaru-type in Momo (even if she’s not the leader), and Todoroki’s more or less the new Neji given his role in the tournament. All we’d need is Sato as Choji in place of Iida and we’d be set! Though, to be clear, I’m not making these comparisons to deride this show, since it’s gone above and beyond expected tropes in many areas thus far, and even the predictable stuff has at least been entertaining, and also I really like that Naruto arc, so I’ll happily watch it again in a different story. But even though this has been a less eventful episode compared to the last few, this is just the beginning of another crazy story for this show, and one that’ll likely take us to the end of the first half, so sit tight for more!