My Hero Academia – 78-80 [Flames, Kids’ Hearts, Relief]

My Hero Academia Super Post! That’s right, 3 episodes since our heroes resolved the Yakuza problem, and MHA is starting to look a lot more like the show I remember. Let’s get to it!

Episode 79 starts the first half with an epilogue to the Overhauls saga. Mirio rebounds nicely and the student heroes return to the dorms. The most interesting part here is the capture of Warp Gate villain…unfortunately at the expense of letting a giant, seemingly evil mountain go. Just something to keep an eye on in the future.

The second half leads into the mini arc of the remedial, provisional hero license course, featuring Todoroki and Bakugo. This gets us back into the comfortable student hero territory, that I honestly have been missing a bit this season. And MHA never fails to surprise – instead of the typical combat training, this exercise is to win hearts and minds. I feel like this small instance went a long way towards world building of the sense of unease the general public feels about the hero-villain situation. And this was not a trivial problem to win the kids over – these episodes slowed down the narrative pace and failed several times in a very convincing manner. The final resolution – shock and awe plus collaborative fun – was really the only viable outcome. MHA’s pacing over these couple of episodes really shows it’s miles ahead when it comes to character and world development.

Endeavor got some nice screentime here – I think his and Todoroki’s relationship is a fascinating one. Todoroki hates what his father’s ambition did to their family and his mother, but at the same time is walking in his exact steps. I think Endeavour too has started to realize there’s more to a hero than just strength (ironically, the entire point of the exercise happening below him and All Might) and is growing in his own way.

Finally, we have….some actually creepy stuff happening with Aoyama. Not 100% sure what all that’s about, but it was definitely weird. In case anyone’s wondering, I looked up what Aoyama wrote on the rock: “The most dangerous water is lazy water.”  No idea what that means – it’s been hinted that one of class 1A is a traitor, and my money’s still on him. Despite the ha-ha-it’s-just-cheese moments…yeah, Midoriya definitely should be losing sleep over that one.

Also, I’m calling it now – they are 100% breaking Eri out her quarantine.  Which I am 10000% on board with.

P.S.  Jiro is looking pretty good here – I get the feeling from the OP she’s going to be pretty prominent this arc.