I'm gonna roast that damn nerd today. Hello and welcome to are we there yet? And exploration and education and anime. I am your anime idiot, patrick dugan.

I'm dana hollander, an anime expert.

I am brenda mccullen, anime aficionato.

Fancy.

It's a big word. I don't know the meaning of it's.

A good one, though.

Maybe we should go to a school and learn some big words.

So smooth. astroglide.

All right, so, yeah, that leads us right into it. We are watching my hero academia this week.

Yeah, it's a good one. Yeah.

I believe, Brendan, you picked this one, but you both had it suggested, so you are both fans, and I am in the dark.

First off, what do you think it is from whatever you've seen on the Internet or I've heard people talk about.

Yeah, this is one I've seen a little bit more of online and just about it's on hulu, so I get ads for it every once in a while. But going into it still relatively blind, I'm going to say it seems like sky high, the anime.

Oh, my gosh. That's exactly how I describe it to people.

Yeah, you're not oh, so I got it. Do I not have to watch it now?

No.

When I tell people, I've also described as, like, X Men, the anime, but without all the trophy drama bullshit, that is X Men. God damn. There's a lot of it. But yeah, the premise and plot of it is pretty simple. This world has superpowered. People have superpowers. I think 80% of them do something like that. A lot of them are bad. A lot of them are just useless. I can change my skin to, like, weird colors that won't stop crime.

The great chameleon man.

Yeah, but then a select few people become professional heroes who can use their crimes to stop powers, and other heroes no use their powers to stop crime. So, yeah, it's a pretty simple premise, but it's just, in my opinion, done very well. It's very well executed well.

Don't put too many ideas in his head.

I'm a big old fanboy. It's going to happen. I'm sorry. I'm also just a massive comic book fan, superhero fanboy. So even if it isn't good, I still probably would love it.

Yeah, I'm a little bit wary going into it because I have been experiencing a lot of superhero burnout in this extra saturated superhero media market right now.

Yeah.

So I am a little hesitant. But tell me how you both got into it, how you found it, and how deeply you fell in love if you did.

I knew about it, and then Paul watched it, and he really, really loved it. So we started watching it together, and then I kind of stopped watching it. Shut up. And then I kind of stopped watching it. And I don't really know why because I only enjoyed watching it with him. But even now, we don't really watch it together anymore, but we got pretty far. We were in season two.

Yeah. The show does an odd thing that I've noticed some other shows doing too, where it's just like, hey, we know this is going to be really popular. So we're going to make seasons one and two at the same time. And then when season one ends, season two just picks up right after and keeps going. So the anime has only been out for a handful of years, but it's already on season five of the anime. But it definitely hasn't been out for five years. It's because they do two seasons in a year.

Yeah, but I have a weird relationship with it where I really like it, but I don't watch it as enthusiastically as I could.

It's a dating show for you.

Sure.

I have those of certain things I will only watch with Sam.

Yeah.

So I understand that. That's how we got into bojack. That works.

Yeah.

I got certain shows I do that with my significant other, which is alcohol. Which is I only watch them when I'm drunk.

First time I watched this is one of them.

First time I watched over to Garden Mall. That was a fucking trip.

Nontainted.

Yeah. I've since rewatched it plenty of times. But the first time I was super drunk. Oh, my gosh. It was a woof. That was an interesting ride.

All right, well, let's see if we're going to need any alcohol to get through these episodes.

Never.

All right. We watched episodes two, four, and seven of my hero academia.

People can't see me, but I'm thrusting my fists in the air.

Yeah. Yeah.

Teamwork power friendship.

We also watched an honorable mention I specifically wanted to add in, which was the big fight scene from episode twelve with no moo. For anyone who has watched it, I feel like it was a perfect encapsulation of the big budget fight scenes they put all their money into for a season. So I wanted to include that in our viewing collection.

Yeah, I'm glad you did because when I finished episode seven before I watched this clip, I was like, yeah, this it's very low stakes. It's all training simulations and nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

And much like the X Men, when it's a training situation, you know it's going to get much, much worse. It always does.

Nothing can go right.

Not with powers.

Let's jump into episode two. We both said the same things.

We're in sync. We could pilot a yeager.

And we are right now.

This podcast is a yeager. So yeah, I picked episode two to watch because episode one does a good establishes the world very well and right off the bat. But like I said, I feel like the premise is pretty simple, especially with how much superhero stuff we have in media right now, that it's not too far fetched to be like, there's people with powers. It's like okay, you get it. You can jump on a board with that.

Yeah, I caught on pretty quick skipping that first episode because you can get right away he's a big superhero fanboy. He loves all might and he doesn't have powers.

Yeah. What they mentioned in the first episode that they don't really mention and these ones that we watched is that superheroes, they work with agencies, so they're kind of like yeah, they're actors. Sort of like that's how they get paid.

Yeah, like freelancey. Sort of. One of the problems I actually have with this show as someone who watches it in big bulk and binge watches it and follows it very closely is it's pretty redundant. It repeats itself a lot, both with the characters, which is good because there's a ton of characters in later episodes that you would have seen anytime there's like Deku's class, they'll pop up with their name and their power every time they first appear in that episode. So that way it's an easy way of helping you remember, like, oh, yeah, it's that character and that character because they know there's a huge cast.

Yeah. And even then I don't remember anyone I don't care about.

Exactly. Yeah.

I was a little thrown off because it seemed like everyone had several names and I assume it's like real names and superhero names, but kind of through me first.

It's the Japanese thing where they call everyone by their last names and then if you're personal or know them intimately, you call them by their first name. So Midoria is his last name. Last name. And then izuku is his first name.

But bakugo calls him Deku.

Yeah. So he has three names going on and I was like, which one's which?

So it can't get a little confusing.

Yeah, I just wrote Deku for most of my notes because izuku kind of gets tedious.

Yeah, it's a handle in episode seven, I believe they even addressed it like, hey, you could read the end of izuku as Deku, which I think is an insult in Japanese. It's like idiot or moron or something along those lines.

So I'm going to quickly look up what that means.

I think it also might just be that bakugo was like, oh, it can be read as Deku. So I mean, that because you're such a stupid little weakling. That must be what Deku means.

Oh, possibly, yeah.

I'm not sure if it means anything.

I just know he uses Deku as an insult and then Deku goes on to take that as his hero name or hero and training name to be like, hey, you know what? I am Deku and I'm going to turn this name around for me.

Yeah, deku roughly translates to do, as in like, I can do it. So it's sort of an in character motivational thing.

Yeah. That's a bad insult box. Let's not be two all over the place.

Well, already, super authorials.

I wanted to immediately establish I was often thrown off by who was being referred to and what was going on.

Right. So, yes. Episode two, we start off.

Yusuku and almight are together on a roof. All might just saved him and bottled up this slime demon.

Slime boy.

Yeah, he's a slime villain. And to capture him, what we didn't see in episode one wasn't super nester, but almight was just out shopping. He wasn't patrolling the city as a superhero. Yeah. So when he fights a slime guy, he didn't have any proper equipment. So to capture him, he just uses two two liter soda bottles, and that's what he had in his pockets. That's how he captured a supervillain. Plastic kills. Please recycle.

So all nights, big and hulky.

Oh, yeah.

Or is he? Because immediately he shrinks down into a.

Small, nerd, super frail, bleeding skeleton of a hand.

We all turn into that someday.

Yeah, we'll all get there.

That happens at the very end of episode one and then leads into episode two. So I feel we wanted to cover why he's like that as opposed to just have the cliffhanger from episode one.

I really want to talk about the opening, though.

Oh, right.

I think that this is the best opening we've seen so far. Of the shows that we've watched of.

The shows we've watched I think you meant of this show. It's like, well, it's the only one.

No, of the shows we've watched, of.

The shows we fought, what do we watch? Death Note.

Death Note. Soul leader soulator Fully coolie. Didn't have an opening.

Yeah. I would wager if it did, that probably would have been it because the music was so well synced with that show.

But I just mean in terms of, like, it shows you all the characters, and I feel like it gets you excited to meet them.

Pumped.

Yeah. And it's very hype.

Yeah.

I was looking forward to investigating what's up with some of these people through it. And I will say this. Of the four shows we've watched now, this was the first one I watched the opening and closing of every time.

Yeah.

That's an achievement in and of itself, actually.

Good.

You're very good.

And I can attest that even later seasons, they only get better.

I just think that everything about this show is just so hype, and it makes you happy or it just pumps you up. So it does make you want to just listen to it every time.

I know some people who use the songs from the show as workout mixes for when they're at the gym.

Hell yeah.

It's just that high energy. But yeah, they showcase the plethora of students that we will eventually get to know.

I love all those cool kids.

And they're also very striking and unique designs. He definitely like, oh, what's that? Oh, who is that guy? It's like, oh, I can't wait to find out what this thing is and it is played by pornography.

Love it.

Which is a great band name.

There's a few opening songs in full amount of alchemists done by them. So if that sounds familiar, that is why. And right away, one of the opening shots is Deku's. Just panning up and down Deku as he's talking to almight. And I just wrote down, Deku's got some big ass feet. He's got like big ass clown shoes.

I did not notice that.

Yeah, I didn't notice that either.

His whole body seems like, proportionate. His hair is kind of crazy, but he gets onto his feet and it's just massive, almost boot level shoes. I was just like, this seems weird. I never realized it when I was like, look at him again in a school uniform. It's like he's got some chunky ass sneaks.

Maybe that's his actual quirk kangaroo boy.

It's possible.

Yeah. There's other people with similar ones.

So, yeah.

Opening small might.

Small Might.

I love it.

I've never heard that. That's great.

He sort of justifies that he can get buff by flexing.

Hell yeah.

He compares it to sucking in your stomach at the pool. And I think that's great to be like, yeah, I'm a big bus superhero because I'm just flexing all the time and I can only do it 3 hours at a time because I'm hurt.

He's missing a bunch of internal organs, which I mean, they're superheroes, so I guess you could survive with that. Like, maybe there's weird medicine and stuff, but it's a big deal.

Yeah.

Dude has no stomach and his respiratory system is fucked.

I wonder if they said he doesn't have a stomach as opposed to another organ. Because it also explains why his mouth is so crazy. How does he eat with that weird mouth? It's like well, he doesn't need to.

He doesn't use it anymore.

He has an IV drip tube.

It hasn't worked in decades.

But no one knows that.

No, it's a secret shit.

Don't tell small mites a secret, secret voice.

Well, that would also create one of the few secret identities in this world because being a superhero is a profession. So it's not really that big of a deal of like, knowing who's a hero.

You don't have to hide it like.

You do in other superhero stuff. So he's actually one of the few people with a secret identity, which is interesting.

Yeah, it also makes sense because he is so hurt and frail in that weaker state. Well, everyone else is like, yeah, I can kick your ass 24/7. Well, he can kick your ass 3 hours a day.

Yeah, you don't have to worry about like a supervillain, like attacking your family because your family could set him on fire or electrocute him or something. They also have powers.

Everybody'S got powers. Just not everybody gets paid for it.

Everyone's got powers but Deku.

No, my son.

Oh, I just wrote down in my notes just in big capital letters and exclamation point. Just cargo pants.

Yes, all my good cargo pants.

Just rocking the cargo pants. And it's like, oh, finally someone is because I get endless shit at work for it.

As you should.

What else do I have to wear?

But all might wears them.

All night. Wears them.

He's cool.

Yeah. Dressed like your anime heroes.

That'Ll be great.

I wrote down Texas Smash because we do get to Steve hat.

Yeah. I was a little confused at first because he straight up. It flashes back to that fight in episode one and he just shouts Texas.

That's just how his powers work. Later on you see Detroit smash.

Detroit Smash. Yeah.

That comes up more but thoroughly confused when he just shouts Texas while punching this guy.

He should get so mad. The politics and the lower steam. Yeah. They never really address it too well in the show itself. But all night is actually American.

And he's yeah, he does have an American flag pop up when he gives like dramatic speeches sometimes. So I got the gist that he was American or at least American inspired.

And his costume is very red, white, blue color scheme. But yeah. So he was born and raised in America to a young age and then moved to Japan. So, yeah, he's technically American, but for a short time.

Got you.

It also explains the blonde hair, tan scan. But yeah. So for his big moves, like his big finish moves, it's always like not always even a state. Sometimes it's just a city, but it's American places. And then Smash at the end of it. He's not very original, but he's very powerful.

He's got that energy.

He doesn't have brain strength, just body strength.

Yeah.

And hardly that.

He doesn't have the brainship.

No.

All he has is the power of friendship.

I was wondering, though, with this plague of superhero stuff in our media right now, if they consciously made almight American because they knew the superhero genre would appeal to more Western American readers and watchers. So if they kind of purposely made him American or if he was always going to be it regardless.

Yeah. Like, it's just kind of a personification of America's obsession with superheroes.

Could be because I read the manga of this and there have been a few changes. So later on there's a character named 13 who's in a big astronaut suit. And in the manga, 13 is a man. But in the show they're like, hey, why don't we change them to a woman? Because you don't actually see them like, you never see them as a suit. So all you would have to do is change the voice actor. So they do that a few times. They do a few changes in the manga to the anime adaptation. So I'm always curious if it seems it's all very well thought out, but it doesn't seem like the creator is committed to any one idea enough to cancel it or put his foot down hard over it. It seems like he's very fluid and willing to change when someone has a bad idea. dengue gets shot down by his greatest living icon. Yeah.

He immediately gets told that if you don't have a quirk, if you don't have a power, you aren't going to be a superhero and you should stop trying.

Sorry, kid.

Yeah.

That destroys him.

Understandably.

Yeah, understandably. All my points out. He's like, you could be a cop or a firefighter or someone like someone who still does good but isn't technically a superhero.

Yeah. And decker would be a terrible police officer.

He doesn't know anything.

He's still superheroes. While that's going on, the slime man has gotten away from All Night.

Yes. While All Night dropped jumping away, the.

Cargo pants were not as secure as All Night would hope.

Cargo pants have let me down again.

Yes. So he drops the bottle of slime man.

Ivanuzcan his name no, it's from the Power Rangers movie.

Oh.

That'S a weird reference for no one.

Hey, you'll listen to this later, right?

That's for past or future may. But yes, the bottle fell and ends up being kicked around by bakugo, our super angry blonde boy.

I have a note that says bakugo is the angriest boy I know.

He's so angry all the time at nothing and everything.

He's a little crybaby. He reminds me of me in my prime. Just angry at nothing and everything all.

At once and very explodey.

Yeah. Literally exploded. Because that's his quirk.

And I like it when we see well, I don't like it, but when we see baku and his friends are walking around and his one friend suggests, hey, why don't we skip class and go to the train station barcade going.

To arcade, which makes sense.

That's what kids do.

Yeah. And then the other one is like, why don't we go to the station bar? I'm guessing subway station or train station. And he's like, and try and pick up some ladies. And it's like, you're in middle school.

Yeah. You're not even 13 yet.

What's happening?

Also, one of his friends I wrote down is that kid's quirk just funny hands. And then I also specified that I didn't mean bakugo because bakugo also has funny hands.

It's a valid question. Yeah, he just stretches his fingers, like, at random times, it seems. And he's actually we see in flashbacks when bogo's very young, he's there with them. So it's the same two friends for when they're real young. Yeah, he's got weird, creepy fingers because he's a weird, creepy kid trying to pick up.

I mean, having big feet is very plausible as a quirk.

It's very possible.

This dude just got funny hands.

He's going to be a terrible superhero, but he could be a great plumber.

Just reaching deep. Get that clog.

So, yeah, this slime boy breaks out from the bottle and kidnaps Bakucho.

He wants to take him as his host.

Skin suit.

Skin delicious. I love when Mount Lady steps in and she's like, my only weakness a one lane road.

It's like that's very super specific. It also shrink so immediately after a bunch of other heroes get to this ruckus, and there's like, woodman, who's like, oh, no, there's fire. Now I'm out. And then there's backdraft, the firefighting hero, who's like, well, there's all this dang fire. I can't really take care of the monster.

One guy says, there's too much fire. And then the firefighter hero comes by and says, there's also too much fire. That's why you're here.

We have the same problem, friend.

Yeah.

And essentially, bakugo is just making this hard for everybody because he can't stop exploding. Shit.

Yeah. The slime creature is taking control of his body and making him fire off his explosions at random.

Yeah, well, I think it's Buckago trying.

To fight back that too.

Yeah.

I like the super strong guy with just a massive arms. His name is Death Arms. And I get it's intimidating, but that's a bad superhero. I just sent Death with a wave of my arms grab onto my arm.

No. Your name is Arms.

I'll wait for life arms.

Yeah, give me life arms or at least safe arms, please.

Plush, cushion arms. I'll take him.

And I can't imagine all of those heroes are real in this world.

It's very possible, what we see. Well, no, we didn't see. But in the first episode, you see back traffic sectioning off an area with controlling the water, and Deku runs up and there's a dude just next to Deku with just, like, giant spikes coming out of his face in like a snowflake pattern. Okay?

That's who he is.

That's just who he is. He's not a superhero. He's a bystander. And he's just like, ah, kid, you're kind of a fanboyant. He's just kind of the gruff citygoer, but he's got, like, weird spikes coming out of his face.

And it's like, oh, my, what an unfortunate quirk.

You can never wear hats.

You can never smooch. Maybe it might be uncomfy.

Yeah, it'll definitely be uncomfortable. But that's you just got to find.

Concrete Man where the face will not be penetrated by those spikes.

You say that there's actually a superhero made of concrete. His name is cementos. No, cementos is a teacher. He's a big grape of wreck of a Teacher. But yeah, that's something I absolutely love about this world. It's like people have these superpowers and also they're fucking weird looking. There are so many bizarre people.

Two of my faves, mina, she's pink, but it doesn't really have anything to do with her quirk.

And bird boy took a gammy.

Just got a bird.

It's a bird. It has nothing to do with his quirk.

That's my favorite, is sometimes it has to do with the quirk. So we haven't really got to him. But we saw him in that one clip of the baby manetta. He's got purple, like, sticky orbs on his head. It's like that's a weird thing, but that's also his quirk. But then there's plenty of other characters who are like, you're half dog and you can also shoot fire. It's. Like what? It has nothing associated with the power in their appearance.

And those are my favorite ones I.

Saw in the episode four. There was a guy in the background just wearing a yellow hoodie, and he's got just this big black dragon head. Oh, okay. I'm a hoodie man during this important event. And he's just in a hoodie and like slacks and sneakers. He's not dressing up for anyone. I want to know that guy's story. I'm very interested in him.

All the powers of a hoodie. Not not a dragon. No, just the hoodie.

So that fight's going on and all those superheroes decide that they can't fight, can't help him. They can't help him. And that almight is in the back feeling bad in his Small Might form.

Because he was already strong. Today he can't do it again.

I actually love that All Night doesn't blame izuku for dropping the bottle because it could have been izuku's fault. But then izuku is blaming himself. And it's just like such a cool moment of like, that's like the first time you see how similar they are.

Yes.

And I love it so much.

It's a good parallel seeing them putting the blame on themselves. They could have done more as opposed to blaming someone else for getting in their way.

Yes.

It's a very enjoyable sequence.

Yeah. I also have the note. I forgot how much izuku cries.

Oh, yeah. It's all the time. Finally, a character I can relate to.

Very soft, very sensitive.

I appreciate them doing a different character versus just the super strong will. I'll overcome any challenge, like anime protagonist. But yeah, he cries so much. To the point I'm worried about him. dehydrating. Yeah, I was thinking about that too, so much.

I was like, god, I hope he drinks a huge bottle of water.

It's a lot.

So izuku and Small Might are beating themselves up about it. But Isaac, who is like, nah, man, I'm going to save my friend.

I can take him. I got no powers. But I got the heart of a warrior.

I got this backpack I can throw at him.

Backpack. Backpack. He points out. He's like, oh, the villain has somebody hostage, but he can't really see who. And it's the moment he locks eyes with bakugo. He's just like, oh, shit, I know that guy. He's my bud. Yeah, that's what gets him to jump in.

And he just runs. He runs before he can think.

Doesn't work out well all the time, but this time.

Well, I mean, everybody came out safe.

Yeah.

Luckily there was a mega hero who was watching from the sidelines. And Small might sees this inspiring moment of this powerless boy running in to save his friend and uses that as motivation to put himself in danger and go back into flex mode and literally punches the sludge so hard that it starts raining.

Yes.

So surely changed the weather.

Yes, it was incredible.

Also, you get vic minyana as a background character.

I heard that too, and I was like, dana's going to hear that.

Hell yeah. Fun game.

Yeah. almighty's got the power of love, strength and patriotism. Nothing could stop him.

All night for president. Yeah, I vote for him.

He's better than the current one. But he wouldn't be great, I don't think. He's great with politics.

I don't think any day would be boring.

No.

But he could just be like, hey, you know what? Jersey sucks. Let's get rid of this and just pick it up and throw it across the world.

As zuku is walking home, bakugo follows him and is like, hey, Nerd, you didn't need to save me. I'm tough. I didn't need your help.

You didn't save me, in fact.

But then just runs away. I just want to say screw you, and it runs off to which izuku.

Says, now I should go back to giving up on my dreams and I'm not the same.

The most motivational thing in this entire show.

And then he runs into All Night with his other catchphrase, I am here.

I am here.

Cool. Thank you for announcing your present.

Yeah, I wrote thank you all night.

It's to say that you're safe now. I am here. Nothing can go wrong while I'm here. Which is not true, but it's a good message to send.

Yeah.

So that's episode two.

He gives him a little motivational talk about how he does think he can be a hero.

Oh, yeah, you're right.

I apologize.

And then at the end it makes me so emotional every time he says this, but at the end, Deku goes, oh, yeah, this is a story about how I became the world's best hero. And I'm just like, you do it. You do it, little guy.

Yeah. I will say this is also one of the first shows we watch that has like, a message. Even if you've aren't the strongest or the baddest, you can still do stuff.

Yeah, this show is just really good because it's like hype and positive and empowering. It's all about just like building yourself up and finding the confidence within you.

It is very pure.

There's one character, I think that just completely embodies that that's his entire personality, even more than Deku, that we don't really get to see in this group of episodes, but you'd see later on. But he's just, like, just embodied me out of positive energy and I'll be personality and just like, yeah, you can do it. Just go through it. You got to work hard, but you can work hard. And then. You can achieve it. It's like, God, you're just such a good role model for everyone around, making it feel good. Yeah, but it's not like cheesy and like a guidance castle or something. It's just I don't know. It's very inspirational.

Yeah.

And yeah. All Might says, you can be a hero. We kind of skip over with episode three.

We don't miss much.

Like, it's just training.

Yeah, it's kind of a training montage episode.

Yeah.

But for context, almight tells him his quirk is transferable, that he was once quirkless and he can give his quirk to Deku, but he has to train his body to prepare for it so he doesn't just explode when he gets it. So that's basically what episode three is. It's just the training montage. And then at the very end, All Mike gives him a piece of his hair. It says eat this.

Yummy.

That's where we are with episode four. Like the opening of that. Because I realized there was kind of a callback in episode four too, when he DUCKU eats the hair, but it doesn't show immediate. It just shows him really, like, grimacing and swallowing something.

Yeah. And that's just one piece of hair. But you still have to be careful. Without context. It's kind of like.

It was a little unsettling at first.

Yeah.

Because it showed Deku grimacing and all My is like, yeah, swallow it all down. I was like, oh, did this take a sharp turn out of contact?

It was weird. Yes.

Before we move on, I have to best genist.

Yes. I love it.

Okay. This I have seen online all over and I love it. I honestly thought it was part of the persona franchise. I have no idea it was part of it.

What is his quirk? Is it just that he has an extremely good fashion sense?

Just super fashionable? No. Immediately introduced, like ua and the school and the alumni, which are all Might endeavor, who makes a point to say the most wins. So endeavors actually they do like a popularity contest, essentially, of who's the top ranked heroes. And it actually determines strength and general opinion, which is, like, very important because you don't want a hero that saves you, but everyone's terrified of them. Later on, they even mentioned heroes that look like villains. They're like, they're good guys, they're good people and heroes. But people are scared of them because of how terrifying their quirk and mutation makes them look.

Like sonic the hedgehog.

He's an agent of chaos. I don't know if he's good, but yes, this is all night. Who's like, the top hero? endeavor, who's the second place hero. And he has the most wins. So he's extremely competitive and has the most wins and fights and stuff. But he's not a good rescue hero.

I don't like endeavor, but we don't get to know why in this episode.

And then Best Genus, who's actually third place overall, extremely powerful yeah, I want to know how.

I want to know everything about this character.

Best genus's, Quirk, is able to control fabric and fibers, of course, anyone wearing clothing, he can essentially control and manipulate.

Oh, it's like kill a kill kind.

Of that's lost on me.

So it's kind of like arguable that he's always going to have something to fight with because he's wearing a ton of clothes. And then anyone he fights is most likely going to be wearing clothes. But there's an offshoot of my hero academia called my heroic academia vigilantes, where it's kind of a spin off side story and it highlights some of the weirder characters and weirder powers. And one guy in that story can fly, but only if he's naked. So he's kind of a flasher and that gives him a boost of energy to fly and then falls back down when it wears off. And then he flashes people again and it goes back up and it's weird.

Yeah, that's unfortunate.

So, see, he would be a typical opponent for best genus.

Yeah, the one true nemesis.

Best genus versus best peanut. No.

Anyway.

This is the episode where they are all applying and going through the test to see if they will be accepted into exam. Yeah, those are the words to ua. So there is a giant fake city that they're going to be fighting robots in and trying to rack up points for the type of robot they fight. The weaker they are, the less points. The stronger they are, the more points.

That's an exception of zero point robot, which is the largest and most difficult to fight.

Yes, it's to teach them that you can't win every fight with brute force. And sometimes it's best to just run away. So it's not meant no one's supposed to fight this thing. It's supposed to be ridiculously, overpowered and absurd.

I love Deck. Who's track suit.

Yes, his track suit, which later is inspiration for his hero costume that his mom makes him. She sews it all together.

I love Mommyoria.

We'll get to her. She's wonderful. So, yeah, this is the entrance exam, and they say, I forget the exact number, but it's a very low percentage actually gets emitted into the school. 1000 will apply and maybe like 50 will get in or something like that.

Which is convenient because basically everyone we see in this scene makes it in, kind of.

Most people with dialogue gets in.

So we get to meet. He doesn't talk to uraka right now.

That's the girl that was in episode three.

He does talk to ida.

Who I wrote. markiplier shows up. Yeah, because he's just a dweebie nerd with he has like rocket powered legs in his catch. They make me so uncomfortable because I.

Have tripophobia and there's just like, oh, yeah, me too. Engines in your life. Imagine being born with that.

I couldn't do it.

Disgusting. Remove them, please.

Well, if it helps, he's born normal. And then around age three or four, they get the quirks.

That doesn't make it better.

They just grew one day like, hey, my legs feel heavy.

Hey, my legs hurt so bad, so much.

Mom, why is this happening?

Please end the pain.

Yeah. So Deku, like, wants to thank uraka because she saved him from falling. Because her quirk is that she can defy gravity. She can make things float, things she touch. Yeah, she has little pads on her fingertips.

Yeah, I just wrote down cock block. Tenure edition comes over. He's like, don't even think about talking to that girl right now. It's like whoa. Hey, man.

She's focused. And then everybody else sees this happen.

Everyone sees the shame, the public shaming of Deku. Even at his new school, he's a nerd.

And then awama is there, and I just wrote, it's him. It's taco from TV.

Ayama is the best boy, and I will hear no disagreements of that.

But no. Yeah, my heart was immediately stolen.

Why?

This is one of the parts that reading the manga helps because every now and then with the chapters, the artist or author will draw a character and just have a character sheet of information about them and then put a little author's note of why he made the character, what his inspiration was, and something he likes about him and stuff like that. And aa yama is the best because in the author's note, the author writes, I don't know why I like this character. He's just so funny to me. And I'm putting him in everything, and that's all it is. He just, for some reason, loves how ridiculous his character is and just puts him in. He has no real development. He's not like a character. He's just this running joke the author loves. And I love him, too.

He's like a French weaboo.

Yeah, he's a French enthusiast, and he.

Has a permanent wink. One eye is closed at all times.

And he's got a naval laser.

Absolutely. He says, trey awesome. And it's like, oh, boy.

He is also American. He's not French at all.

I wouldn't doubt. He could be any ethnicity. It's definitely not French, though. I'm sure it's not. He's a Crazy Joe character, but he actually gets some pretty good character vomit later on. But he's never bad. In my opinion. He's never a bad character.

Yeah, he's just kind of silly.

He's very silly for no other reason than to be silly. So I'm all on board with oyama.

Yeah. I love raka so much. She's so round.

Oyama helps out Deku, and she's a robot in front of him because he gets terrified and freezes in place.

Yeah, that's nice enough.

He's scrambling around trying to find any robots to fight because he has zero points and everyone has a head start.

Any at all, because at this point, also, he's too afraid to use his quirk because he's never used it before.

All my warrants on me is like, if you don't train your body well, it could just destroy your body. It won't hold back. Yeah, so he's very calculated in planning. Like, I can't just run around punching everything to death because I might only get one shot.

Do not miss your chance to blow.

Uraka has 20 some points, and then we see ida with like 46 points or something. So it's only a few minutes and people are already like, racking up those points fast.

So Deck, who's pretty stressed, this is.

When the teachers who are watching on the hidden surveillance cans release the giant. I wrote godzilla mech as the nihilistic lesson of you can't win everything. You're not going to. Don't even try. Life is futile.

It's a good school. I like the school.

And everybody literally just runs scatter.

It's like the cops at a high.

School party I threw down what did he say?

A bottle of whiskey.

And he said, scatter.

Scatter.

But poor uraka gets stuck under a rock. Stuck under an uru raka.

I say boo rocca to that. Yeah. Some of the building the big robot hit knocks down, falls on top of her. I believe that's why it landed on her. So, yeah, she's pins and we see everyone running away. We see Deku pissing his pants, frozen in fear. And we see edith run by lock eyes, or not lock eyes, but clearly look at Deku and be like, fuck this guy. He's a great character, and I love him much later on, but he's a real jerk in these early episodes.

It's weird. He gets much more endearing.

Okay, that is good because he's a big old jerk here.

So Deku feels compelled to save his new friend that saved him.

Yeah, she saved them from tripping over.

Himself, from embarrassing himself.

So he goes running in and rockets into the sky, demolishing his legs. Absolute jelly, that's legs. Now you see them flapping in the wind and it's real gross.

Yeah, this is my least favorite part because we just see his limbs, because he also, when rocketing himself off the ground, punches this giant robot that no one should fight. And immediately, one punch knocks it out and shatters his arm.

Just putting in his arm, just flapping around like nothing's in.

So his left arm is good, but.

Everything else everything else is bad.

Everything else is bad.

That's the toll of the one for all power. It's devastating to the body.

He says something about real power as he's like, falling or as he's punching or something. And I'm like, yes. Breaking all of your bones is the greatest power anyone can have.

I will be the greatest hero. Broken bone man.

I'll be the greatest hero.

He's like Samuel Jackson and unbreakable.

Yeah. So he feels as he's falling, he feels his only option is to just fucking ruin his left arm as well.

I mean, it's that or die right so I get it. I kind of agree with him.

But thank goodness for Uber raka.

Best girl.

Best Girl. She gains her strength back and smacks him.

Just pimp slaps him.

And then he floats.

And I like that she was floating on a little part of the robot to get more height because she knew he would have momentum going down. So you see him stop right before the ground, but she hits him probably 8ft above the ground or so.

And then she barfs.

She barksh, because even her power makes her puts a strain on her body and makes her nauseous. Yeah.

And it was very sparkly, and I wrote, sparkle pukes.

It's so cute.

That's the best way to show puke, in my opinion.

So the site is over, and then a little old lady comes in and she gives people gummies.

Gummies don't do anything. They're just gummies.

Great. They're just handy have some gummies.

Yeah. This is Recovery Girl school medic at ua, who immediately gives out some gummies, sees this broken child on the street and is like, let me take months of recovery off, she says, and immediately heals all those broken jelly bones.

Honestly, seeing them heal, it like, repair themselves was also kind of uncomfortable to watch. It's like, no, this might be worse.

Yeah, it's not fun.

It's gross.

It's like watching someone papa sock it back in.

But yeah. So Recovery Girl, she heals people, but it takes energy away from them. I forget exactly what kind, but it's like calories or something. So there is a drawback. She can't just heal everyone indefinitely. There is a limit to it. They explain that later on because she ends up healing Deku a lot because his body breaks all the time.

Shocker.

What?

He's a little weak baby.

Yeah, it gets kind of better, but not much.

Yeah. I mean, at this point, the test is over, and Deku thinks he's done. Like, he is not getting into this school. He got zero points.

The one he killed has zero points to it.

Yes. So he's back at home, and he's doing one of those little strength things.

In his hand, like hands squeezing, and.

His mom is like, I know you're worried, but I'm proud of you, and I think you're really cool, sweetie.

She's the sweetest.

All of the girls in this show are just very good. All of them.

Mom. doria is the best girl. And anyone who disagrees with that, I will fly you out to La. I will take you into the street, and I'll bare knuckle box you, will put you down with the rapid animal you are. How dare you? She is the best.

I'm going to call her Best Lady because uraka is best girl.

Okay, I'll stay up for that.

She's the best.

She's the best woman.

I like that in flashbacks, she's, like, young and thin, and now she's, like, older, and she's, like, put on a little weight and she's like, really cute and small. I love her.

I can never tell if she gets smaller or if it's just Deku getting bigger because most time we see her on the flashback, she's only with Deku, not many other characters except for the doctor robotnik that tells Deku it's got no powers. But yeah, she gets like, tiny a little wider and she's just we see also in some other scenes, you can see where all the crying comes from with Deku. She cries at the drop of a hat and just is so sweet. I love her. Yeah.

So Deku is like, agonizing over the fact that he probably didn't get in even though he passed his written.

I think he passed that 100% or flying color, like, easily passed that.

Yeah, he doesn't think so, but I think he did. I think almight says so.

Yeah, because what he receives is a letter in the mail with his test results. So he immediately rushes to his bedroom and opens up this like is it like a hologram thing?

I think that's not just a letter. It's like, no, we're crazy super sci-fi society. Like, we have to make this as elaborate and expensive as possible.

I've seen this twice and I still can't tell if it's like, live or not. Because he responds to him, though. decker says something and he goes yes.

I think he might just be saying that as a rhetorical response because someone off camera tells you he says something. Wait, I have to record how many of these today? So I think he's just recording all of them. Congratulations, you got in in bulk.

Yeah.

And he's realizing, like, I can only sustain this public form for like 3 hours. Like, how many do I get to record? Like oh, God.

Yeah.

And he personalizes deku's because he knows.

Them, he trained them good, pals.

So he goes a little long with it, but yeah, he gets in. deku's crying again.

This is also find out that almight is part of the faculty because we did not know that previously.

No, he recently joined.

I guess the audience did because he was at the test.

He was in the screw room with all the monitors.

Yeah, I put thank God they filmed this private conversation between a potential student and teacher.

Yeah, because it turns out there were hidden factors in the hero fighting test. Not just how many robots you fight, there were also rescue points that he got for jumping in and being the only person to take on this giant robot in defense of his friend.

Yeah. But uraka also approaches what's his name? microphone man.

Present. Mike.

Present. Mike. She is like, hello, deku saved me, please give me no. She describes him as average and does not stand out much. And he goes talking about me?

That's me. Your standards are so low.

He is pretty average.

I guess he's just a little lady.

Yeah. Congratulations. Easy coo. Yeah. Good job, son.

And she also got a bunch of rescue points for rescuing him.

Yeah.

And no one else did because they're all selfish children.

Yeah, imagine that going to a superhero school actually requires being, like, a superhero or, like, showing potential and giving a.

Damn about your fellow humanity.

Yeah.

I like back in the event when Edo realizes, like, wait, there might be hidden factors, and he stops and he's like, but if this wasn't a test, I definitely would have gone back and save her. Ha ha. I'm a good person. It's like, you dumped up bitch, but you didn't. It's clearly him just making excuses for why he didn't. And he's like, I know I'm a good person. justifying it to himself. And I thought that was a great little moment. That's the eda. We fight. We meet later at the Jerk in the beginning. But yeah. So they all get in. Yeah, pretty much everyone with line gets in. Everyone got in, plus a bunch of others we don't see. And that's pretty much episode four. And if you wait through the credits, there's both hyped for next episode. But there's also a little scene post credits.

He gets to tell his mom that he got in, and she was so proud of him.

She's pacing outside of his bedroom door. He just opens it up and smiles. And she's like, oh, he's smiling. He must have got in. And she just starts bawling tears. And it's like, oh, God, you're a good mother.

I love so, yeah, this brings us to episode seven. We skip ahead. We misses, I think, like, first week, I sort of skimmed through the episodes to fill in the gaps, but basically they start Teacher eraser.

Yeah, there's a little bit of a reference to him in episode seven, but eraserhead is his homeroom primary teacher. He's really tired and doesn't want to put up with people's shit. And his quirk is he can take away others quirks by looking at them, which is dick. Makes him a great teacher because if a kid's just going nuts with their powers, he can just shut it down right away. And his primary weapon is a scarf. They never really explain it, but it's kind of like a weighted scarf that he can use to wrap around people and kind of entangle them.

It was a gift from Best genist.

It very well could be. It very well could be. We bring that up because that is alluded to in episode seven. So that gives a little context for that.

Yeah. And when we're dropped into episode seven, we are in the middle of a school exercise. It's like a heroes versus villains type of thing. And they're in a fake building, again, using their fake cities.

Yeah.

This is a close quarters combat fight where two people are guarding a nuclear weapon posing as the villains, and two have to go in and secure this nuclear weapon.

Yes. And these four just happen to be the ones that we know best so far. eda are the villains and uraka and Deku are the heroes.

Yes. I think in episode six, there were at least one other match that we didn't see because it was in a different episode. So they aren't the first set. This is maybe like the third or fourth pairing off that everyone's watching. Good guys just have to touch the bomb. And both good or bad guys, to capture someone, just have to wrap them up in tape. So if you got tape around it, you're like, you're disqualified.

Very flag football rules for this superhero school, which I love.

You gotta be safe. You don't want to murder a child in front of another child.

Logo is down to murder.

Yeah. They'll throw giant robots at people, but.

Beyond that, they got safety equipment at them, I'm sure.

Yeah.

Maybe they talk about, like, Harry Potter, how, like, oh, we've had a student die this year. Like, I wonder if ua has ever had that. Of, like, how many died this year? It's like 14. It's like 14. It's pretty low this year.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

It's about average.

Yeah.

The class is one A, and it's these four characters we see, and then like, 25 other ones or so. I'm not sure it's the exact number, but everyone else in the class is down there in the safe room with all the monitors watching with all My, who is their teacher for this exercise.

And he is wearing his superhero outfit, and he is adapting.

He's got big and presentable front of the whole class. Everyone has to see the shining symbol of peace and justice.

Handsome. But yeah. bakugo makes a point of saying, I want to hurt you so bad. They'll have to stop the fight.

Yeah. He doesn't want to kill Deku. He just wants to permanently paralyze him or something close to as far as he can go without actually killing them.

Yeah. Which I mean, is a red flag.

Yeah.

Not great.

He goes from just being like, this guy's kind of a jerk and a bully, to like, oh, this is a murderer.

He is a psychopath.

Yeah. He's completely unhinged.

Yeah.

And this episode is a big old flashback episode for bakugo and Deku and seeing where all this rivalrying contention comes from.

And it's literally just bakugo being extremely insecure.

Yeah.

The theme for this episode is, calm down, bakugo.

Funky. Relax.

Just take a breath. There are other people here.

Yeah.

Oh, this is also I believe it's the first episode we see with decker in his full costume with the mask. That is odd.

First and only. Thank God.

I think there's another episode, but yeah, it's very rare. And he gets another iteration of his costume where he just gets rid of the mask entirely. But I know it's supposed to be reminiscent of all Night he's got big they look like ears, but they're supposed to be like all night's hair antennas. And then he's got a respirator for a mask to help him breathe in case of emergency situations. But then all my smiles all the time to bring people with peace and ease. So he wants to put a permanent spile on the mask. So Deck You just ends up looking like a donkey. And it's weird, but yeah, very quickly half the mask gets blown off and I like to think that the other half stayed on because his hair is so crazy and sticking up into the ear fold. It's stuck up.

Just hold on tight.

Yeah. And then the other half gets blown off eventually because turns out people hate drilling the main character in a mask.

What?

That's why spiderman's ripping his mask off every 5 seconds in the movies. It never stops bugging me about that. But yeah. So this is a big old flashback episode while they're doing this teamwork exercise.

Yay.

Yeah.

So we get into their rocky relationship as powers develop for some, but not our lovely little pure child I love.

One day after he got his powers, he changed. And I was like, you can say he became an asshole. It's okay because he became an asshole.

You're allowed to swear.

You can toss watching that scene, though, he's like, yeah, after he got his powers, he changed. And I was like, no, he kind of seems like a dick before he got a power.

Yeah, it just seems to get worse even. They're like, yeah, we're best friends moment was bakugo hanging out with his friends and Deku being like, let me tag along.

Yes.

He seems like the kid brother your mom forces you to bring along with you when you hang out with friends. But he's just trying to have fun. He's just trying to be cool.

Just a sweet little angel boy trying to have fun with his buds.

Yeah. One of my favorite scenes though, with the flashback is they're crossing a log over a river and bakugo falls off and they say, hey baku, you okay? And he's like, yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry, I'll be up there in a second. And decker runs down to help him up and sees if he's hurt or if he needs help. And the face kid, bakugo mace of just this motherfucker so enraged.

It's so insulted because Deku is just trying to be nice and help his friend. And he's like, I don't need your help.

He's so mad.

He's like a toddler, literally. That's where the problem starts. Because bakugo is just like it seems like he feels actually inferior to Deku. So he does everything in his power to make it seem like he is superior.

It's not super clear. We may have skipped over it, but is it a secret that almight gave his quirk to Deku?

Very few people know that almighty's quirk is transferable and even less know that Deku has it got you okay?

Because bakugo is like, all these years and you've been hiding this amazing power from me. You are so manipulative and terrible, while he's being, like, the most toxic person in the entire universe. Yeah, it really plays into the insecurity of, I thought I was better than you because I had a power. Even though you're super nice and you're clearly better, but now you also have a power, and that makes me feel even more inferior.

I must have a very small dick.

Which is that has to be the.

Only thing we see much later. I think maybe in season three, you.

See his dick, his very small dick.

You don't see much. It's very small. No, we see his parents in his home life, and it's all just learned behavior from his mom. His dad is very timid and quiet. His mom is exactly the same. So there's a bit of that. I think, though, as a kid, it's bakugo just being good at stuff and being praised. Early on, he's like, yeah, I am great. We see that in the kindergarten class with him and the teachers and Deck. You always just wanted to help everyone, and bakugo saw that help as a sign of weakness. Like, I don't need help. I'm strong enough on my own. How dare you help me? How dare you pity me? With your help, I'm strong. I don't need you. And then when Deku gets his powers, I think that's when it becomes an inferiority complex. Like, oh, you actually had powers this whole time. You were lying to me, you were manipulating just me. Like, you were just screwing me over and lying, pretending you didn't have this power. And it's a super strong power. Like, how dare you do this to me? And stuff like that. So I think it always was a contentious relationship and an issue, but I think it evolves as they get older and becomes something different once Deku has powers. During this time, we also see eda upstairs being the biggest dork on the planet. And I love the eda we know and love.

His superhero outfit is very extra.

He's iron. He's quick. Iron man.

And uraka is there looking perfect and round as usual.

I don't know if he actually got to it even at this point in the episode, but not the ones we saw. But edith is from a long line of superhero family, and they're all speedsters. A lot of quirks are transferable from parents, so they either have the same quirk as their parents or something similar. So a lot of his older brother and I think his dad were both, like, speedster heroes with the name and gene, and that's what his costume is based off. That's why it's like, week two and he's already got this crazy, thought out costume design because it was passed out through his family. But urak is rocking. Heels in her super.

Yeah, they're like weird horseshoes curves in.

The front and then a heel in the back, and she's like, Damn, girl, I know you can float and all, but that's got to be a pain to walk in.

Yeah, I was thinking that, too, but maybe she's just going for aesthetics.

I mean, I get it. You got to be extra in this.

World, but it's all tile and it looks like slick metal floors. That can't be easy. Convenient at all.

I just love when deku and bakugo are kind of in the middle of their fight and uraka is like, yeah, I'm here. He's just monologuing.

Yeah, because he's leaning into like, well, I'm on the villain team, so I guess I got to act like a villain. And he gets a very cartoon villain.

And it does a big laugh. He's so dorky. I love it. It's great.

He does the resourceful thing of he knows that he's going up against someone who can levitate anything that she touches and hides everything in the room, so there's nothing that she can get a hold of, which is actually pretty good.

She has this moment.

It's one of my favorite things about this show is that there are some real dumb characters. There are some very dumb characters, which are great, but by and large, most of the cats are actually competent. I won't say super smart, but they're at least not brain dead idiots like in a lot of other shows. To the point where, like, yeah, eda prepped ahead of time because he knew who he was facing. Or we see deco with all of his calculations, like how to fight Bogugo. He's like, I got to do this and I got to do that and I got to do this. Or if he does that, I got to do this. And he's very prepared. And I like that trait of deku, but it's also a lower trait, but it's pretty prevalent in all of the characters. They all think out plans.

Yeah.

They don't just run in one piece or neuroto style. Just like, I will win this fight because I want to so bad. Like my sheer force of will.

Deku even mentions it when they're fighting. bakugo does something, and I guess he expected him to do one thing, but then he like, what does he do? He, like, dodged while he attacked or something like that.

He changed up. He's like, oh, he normally goes in for, like, a right hand punch, and he went in for a kick. Is he concerned? Is he changing up his style? Because he knows I know it because he has, like, a roster on everyone's powers since he's such a big superhero nerd.

So he knows baku always starts every fight with a big right hook, and he does that in the beginning of the episode, and that's how he's able to judo throw him over his shoulder.

That was sick.

Once baku sees that, he's like, oh, he knows. He's, like, calculating my fighting style. Instead of punching, he starts kicking more and more. So, like I was saying, everyone thinks stuff through. baku is also smart. He's incredibly smart and very tactical and a good fighter and a good hero. He's just the biggest ass. Like, he's actually good. And we see another character praise him. That when he dodges deku's punch. He shifts his trajectory floating in the air, uses it to create a smoke screen to blind deku. Yeah, that also circles around deku.

Yeah.

So he's actually very clever and a very good fighter. He's just such a piece of shit.

Yeah. Extremely unlikable right now.

He really shows it off because he leans into his quirk of being able to use his sweat, which is basically nitroglycerin, and ignite it. And his costume has these big cartoony grenades at the end of it that he stores his sweat in so he can fire these big, giant flame balls. And that is simultaneously very cool and very disgusting.

Yeah. Welcome to pocono hero.

I'm storing up all my sweat in these wrist canisters.

Oh, God.

Just imagine walking back, still managing to hear the sloshing like a half empty water bottle. That's all your sweat turn up the heat.

I'm at half capacity, so yeah, that's.

When they start going at it, going hard.

Yeah. And baku goes like, I'm probably not going to kill him, and all might is kind of like, I know that as a teacher, I should stop this fight. And it's just like but it's so cool.

You can hear that in the baku. But they just look so cool.

They look so good. My son's doing so great.

I'm so proud of my boy.

Yeah. I wrote down what he says. He's like, we should stop it. But for his sake, I'll keep the fight going. It's like you're watching this kid get his ass handed to him, and you're like, oh, for his sake, I'll let.

His shit get red.

Boy who barely knows how to use his cork without breaking his bones against a boy who had it since he was four and can set things on.

Fire, just explode from the fingertips. But even the classmates watching with almighty are like, whoa, pocket goes a little unstable.

Maybe this should be over. And all my stuff is like, nah, it's cool.

No, I'm rooting for this little kid.

To keep getting kid, I got money riding on this. I want to see how this plays out.

I get, like, a good look at mina in her costume. I love mina.

Oh, yeah, MiNA's the pink one with the horns and the dark eyes. She's a great character and a terrible student.

Hell, yeah.

But yeah. This is where we see a good shot of all the class that we haven't seen yet. And they're all in the opening sequence, so we see a bunch of Kiminari momo TODOROKI tokyami.

That's a lot of names.

A lot of names. And there's only more that's like a quarter of the class.

And I'm shocked I recognize any of them.

But yeah, so we see them. And kirishima is the one I was talking about before who's just like, the embodiment of pure positive energy and hopefulness. He's the spiky, red haired kid with looks like braces, like, mouthguard over his face. For some reason, his power his costume is always weird.

His power triggers my tripophobia as well.

Oh, yeah.

Hard.

He's a hard boy. He's a big, strong, hard boy. And also, he's like 15 with just a fucking sculpted body, just like crazy six pack and, like, packs.

Yeah. Paul showed me a picture of his final form, and it made me want to vomit. It is terrible.

No, thank you.

In the manga, his body doesn't change into a different material. It just gets harder. So the way to show that, at least in the manga, is to just draw a bunch of sharp, angular lines all over him. So it gets really close packed, and it's like, this is kind of weird to look at, but he's a good, good boy.

He is a good boy.

He is an embodiment of a dog in just a physical form. He's a golden rule.

Well, dogs are physical forms.

They were spiritual beings.

Oh, yeah.

God. He's the one telling all my, like, hey, they're going to die. Stop this. You're a teacher. And I really like seeing if Almight's face grims more and more as the fight goes on. But he still forces himself to smile whenever he's in that form. So he's just, like, smiling, but also grimsing really hard.

Back in the fight, deku is like, wow, maybe I should use my power even though it will break all my bones. But the clock is running out and they have to finish getting this nuclear missile. So he psyched out. bakugo goes in for a big old punch while they're getting ready to destroy each other. But at the last second, uppercuts up to the rooms above them where he dislodges a pillar that can be thrown.

He destroys all the floors. And then uraka makes the pillar, which the basement was also destroyed, float with her zero G. And then she hits all the debris from the floors below them because I believe there were, like, two floors below or decker was two floors below her. That's what he did.

Yeah. And she leaps over and jumps on the missile and just hugs it. It's real cute.

She's got to touch it.

And they won.

And they won, and the heroes win. And we pen and bakugo is so.

One of the very first notes I think it's the first note I wrote for this episode is, bakugo, not everything is about you.

No, everything's about him all the time.

Literally, is just like, him being like he makes deku seem like he's some kind of he is brilliant, but he makes him seem like some kind of brilliant mastermind who is just always out to get bakugo when he's fully not.

Yeah. He says he planned this from the very beginning, acting like he planned every single step of the fight dance sequence. And that's where I think the furioid complex comes in with deku getting his powers and deku not having them and having to rely on his analytic intelligence of categorizing all the heroes and jotting down all of their abilities and stuff and learning about them plus his powers. Now he seems like a very formidable foe versus baku is just blowing up and get through life.

Yeah. And baku was upset because he's like, you were playing me. And it's just like well, I mean, the point of the exercise was to win.

We were opponents on different teams. Yes. I was trying to beat you. What did you very much like?

Not to get a musical theater nerd or history nerd, but it's like Aaron burr and Alexander Hamilton, but that's a little more contentious. Like, they actually do compete and dislike each other, but Aaron burr is just like, it's all Alexander hamilton's fault that I ever fail. And baku goes very similar where he's like, it's all deku's fault if I fail, it's his fault.

That grudge match. Yeah. deku even says he's like, I can't beat you in a fight, Bakuko, but I can win this exercise. Like showing he's like, I don't care if you like, we're not trying to beat each other to a pulp. There is another goal still besides this. But I like, though, when All Night is yelling at bakko saying, don't use that big explosion again or else you're disqualified. Like, that's insane. What the hell are you doing? You can see deko in the background talking to uraka and that's when they come up with a plan to get them. So I like that you can even see that happening. Even if you're in the background, you can't hear it.

Yeah.

So that was very good detail I caught after the third viewing of this episode.

But yeah, so they win.

They win.

And that's the end of the episodes we watched.

Yeah.

Both of deku's arms are destroyed by him and bakko again, they work together to break his body.

Hooray.

Yeah.

And yeah, I picked these episodes because I thought the second episode was very good for both world building and establishing the relationship with decker and almighty because it's the clear mentor pupil relationship. But it's also kind of weird with the power transfer. So I figured that would be a good one to get episode four. I think it was just a good one to showcase a bigger cast because we see more characters of the class as well as getting some of the fight sequences in the entrance exam and just establishing what the school is and how over the top and crazy they are that this is the entrance exam. And then I thought episode seven was very good because it was a flashback episode and showed the relationship with deku and baku being more than just pissy little rivals of like, I want to beat this kid. nah, they got history. And baku's insane.

Yeah.

And then the honorable mention I had was just a five minute clip of the fight sequence between almighty and nomu.

And episode twelve, which is just more.

Hype because it's just a big hype battle. That's all I wanted it to be.

Very exciting.

Yeah. And it just shows what the fight scenes become. It's more than just one guy punching someone else and just bleeding all over them because he shattered his wrist. It's competent heroes fighting competent villains.

Yeah, it was good to get that context because from the episodes we watched, the vibe I got was like, oh yeah, this is lower stakes. These are the big fight things we saw. We're all training stuff, so I assume they're going to just be in school for a while. But yeah, no villains and actual hero fights come in pretty quick, which is good to see.

Yeah, first season, gets off right off the bat. A lot of more characters.

I love that. It's very good. I love my hero academia.

When I was looking for episodes to watch for the podcast, I ended up just watching like five more episodes. I was like, oh, I'll just skip through them and just see what are the goparts and take notes. I was like, no, I just sat down and watched like half the season.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to continue from where I left off, but that's not what's important. What's important is whether dukes would continue watching it. So dudes, what do you think?

Are we there yet?

Thank you for the brand tie in wink. Yeah. I will say, even though I have been going through the superhero withdrawals and the oversaturation of it, I was definitely enjoying it and it being in like a school setting, so it took some of the pressure off, at least from what we saw, because it wasn't like, if we fail, the Earth gets destroyed. If he fails, he doesn't go to this school and he's sad. So I like the lower stakes. At the beginning, it was a little bit refreshing beyond international crises, but yeah, it was super positive. So much so that I am very inspired. It had like a solid message that we have not seen in a show yet of you can do anything you put your mind to as long as you have the heart of a champion and a hero. So, yeah, I think I will at least fill in the cracks of what I have not seen yet.

Yay.

We filled in DUGAN'S crack.

No, I take it back. I'm not watching anything.

This one is so likable, though. It's like impossible not to want to at least watch more. A little more.

Yeah, at least to be charmed by some character or another.

I do like school based stuff. So we get to have like this class as an episode. And it's just a small, contained training fight.

Yeah. And it's good because it definitely escalates like we've seen. But then there are situations that go out of hand or unexpected. It's like, oh, the stakes are much higher now. Not meteorite crashing into Earth, wiping out all humanity levels, but it's like more than just like, I'm going to fail this class. So there are tense moments.

Yeah, definitely.

But we did it again. Yeah.

We have good taste in anime, except for death, though.

Barely.

I am curious to know what your favorite hero would or favorite character would be once you saw all of them. Because I feel like that's a very identifiable, I guess, characteristic of just like who your favorite character is. Tells a lot about you, I think.

Oh. Well, right now, it's best genus.

Oh, hell yeah.

Absolutely. A little spoiler for later in the series. bakugo interns at Best genus's agency. So that's a fun trip.

Next week we are going to be watching jojo's bizarre adventure Diamond Is unbreakable.

Woo.

This is new because this is something none of us have seen. We have some history with jojo as a franchise, but we can get into that next week. But we will be watching the first three episodes of diamond is unbreakable.

Yeah. And I can't wait to go on this absolutely bizarre adventure.

Thank you for joining us. This week on Are We There Yet? Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at rweep. There yet? Thank you to Louis zong for the use of stories as our theme song. You can find all his music at louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you to camille ruley for our art and please join us next week while we learn to live with anime.