Warning: This review may contain spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of My Hero Academia
Compared to the premier of the new season, this episode showed much more progress for the plot of the series. Throughout this episode, it felt like there was deep character development cleanly mixed in with a fantastic action scene.
Image from YouTube
While the episode primarily focused on the students arriving at the summer training camp, the episode did start with the League of Villains. During this scene, Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri are talking with Giran. Even though the discussion between the characters isn’t explicit, it left a feeling of suspense for the season ahead.
Following the scene, the rest of the episode only focused on the students. It does have a rocky start with class 1-A having a pointless interaction with the students from class 1-B, where Neito Monoma mocks the higher class for taking the summer course.
The episode quickly picks up the pace when the bus takes a brief stop at the side of mountain road. The series then pulls on its trademark for taking something that seems ordinary and quickly creates humorous chaos. Shoto Aizawa informs that there was a reason for making a stop.
The show then introduces two new pro heroes: part of the Pussycats team, and a kid named Kota. Pixie-Bob, one of the pros, uses her quirk to force all the students down a mudslide, pushing them towards the “Beast Forest.” What follows is the students having to race towards the camp through this area before lunch.
This show has been improving by not explicitly explaining new quirks that show up. While the show does imply that the monsters the group face in the forest are controlled by Pixie-Bob, it doesn’t say it outright. Through this style, the viewer is more surprised by the new unique quirks.
Image from Comicbook
The end of the episode wraps up with class 1-A going to the hot springs to relax for the day. While this scene originally appears to be another ridiculous moment of Mineta trying to sneak a peek at the girls, the episode quickly unfolds into a deeper focus. This focus lands on Kota, the other new character for the series.
Kota is mentioned by Deku to Mandalay, the other member of the Pussycats. Kota provides a fresh perspective in the series because of his genuine distaste in heroes, which was caused by his parents dying in this line of work.
In terms of visuals, the episode overall did a fantastic job illustrating the fight scene in the forest by clearly showing the teamwork of each student. Besides that, there were no apparent flaws or remarkable animation techniques.
Featured Image from OtakuArt
