Damn, that was pretty hype. I don’t know what Delaware has to do with Detroit, but I like the 1,000,000% punch. Big numbers and shounen, man… name a more iconic duo. Plus, it’s not like the kid is thinking clearly, and I actually like that juxtaposition. Deku is all about thinking through his fights, but sometimes, you don’t have time to think. You can’t afford to think. You just have to act. He drilled down through his options until it became perfectly clear what he had to do: stand and fight. And when he tried to hold his ground against a whirling mass of muscles, even he started to lose faith. When he apologized to his mom, that honestly hit me hard. After all, that’s how you know Deku really thought he was gonna die. Everyone’s thoughts always turn to their parents (especially their moms) in those final moments. That’s just how it works, and Deku felt it. He felt this was it for him. He confronted his mortality and seemingly accepted his imminent demise. Then outta nowhere, Kota activated his Quirk and distracted the meathead villain long enough for our hero to collect himself. Even then, he barely managed to do so. Rather than utter anything logical, Deku simply channeled his emotions into words: 1,000,000% Delaware Detroit Smash. There you go.

On the other hand, I still don’t really care for Kota and what he adds to the story. The kid finally understands Deku’s selflessness and what it means to be a hero, which is fine. But I thought the execution was way too sappy and cloying. It’s the epitome of shounen melodrama, and for me, it ended up interfering with the energy of the main fight itself. Moreover, I still don’t agree that his parents died honorably. As I’ve said in the past, they foolishly left their kid behind. If you know that your day job is that dangerous, don’t have kids. Don’t ever let a kid grow up without a parent. I’m sure I’m probably in the minority here, though. Anyways, the meathead villain is also uninspiring. He doesn’t really care what his comrades are up to; he even admits that he’s just here to fight. He whines about heroes going on and on about justice, but he’s an idiot with a one-track mind. Most of all, his Quirk is so boring. He taunts Deku, but he’s simply a freak on steroids. Yawn. And honestly, his comrades aren’t much better. Stain’s ideology isn’t even that well thought out, so it’s even worse that a lot of these guys are mindless followers. The rest are one-dimensional assholes preying on people out of greed. In this day and age, we have a plethora of compelling villains wreaking havoc in their respective universes. Even the most recent Thanos is not that bad. Unfortunately, My Hero Academia is full of clowns (like this BDSM freak). The vast majority of them are nothing more than gimmicks. There’s no one on wrong side of the divide that I can respect.

Misc. notes and thoughts:

— Apparently, Aizawa has bad taste. I’m also amazed how careless he is. Or maybe Dabi is just that sneaky when he engulfed the instructor in a an explosion of blue flames. Actually, I should probably just wait and see what happens. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aizawa had somehow avoided the brunt of the attack, and we just don’t get to see this until next week’s episode.

— Yeah, don’t do this:

Tora: “The woman lying there, Pixie-Bob, has started worrying about getting married recently. She was doing her best to find happiness as a woman, despite her age. You can’t damage that face…”

Maybe the writer sees this as something heroic to say, but it’s not. It’s just stupid. There are a lot of reasons to save someone. Protecting their hotness so that they can get married shouldn’t be the first thing that comes out of your goddamn mouth.

— I don’t understand why the instructors don’t want the students to help. Wouldn’t their combined powers make this easier? Even if you argue that these kids are too green to fight, so they’ll just endanger themselves, isn’t it more dangerous for the students to run into the woods with their current lack of information? Mandalay even said that they don’t know how many villains are out there. How do you know more of them aren’t lurking in the shadows just waiting for everyone to separate themselves from the pack?

— That’s one way to get around the dangerous gas.

— But look, Momo can create gas masks for everyone. She’s so overpowered on paper; she just needs a chance to shine. I’ve no idea why the story insists on keeping her on the periphery.

— Tetsutetsu, some kid in Class 1-B, decides to stop running away. Instead, he’ll fight. After all, they’re training to become heroes, aren’t they? And heroes are needed right now. I can’t disagree with that. Again, I don’t agree with Mandalay at all. If you can help, then help.

— This bad guy looks like he has a groin protector for a mask.

— Oh, he is also the same villain responsible for the death of Kota’s parents. What a coincidence.

— I’m kinda surprised that Deku didn’t text anyone about his whereabouts before he came to Kota’s rescue… I mean, didn’t he do exactly this when he went to save Iida?

— It’s hard for me to believe that Ragdoll is a hero, because she always looks tweaked out.

— Apparently, Mandalay can fuck with her opponents by flirting with them telepathically. Still, that makes these villains look even worse. Like c’mon, are you really that mentally weak?

— The bad guys just want to flat out kill Deku instead of capturing him. I think the kid would be a lot more useful to them as a hostage, but then again, what do I know? I’m not a dastardly villain.

— Instead, their mission is to capture Bakugo. Huh. They’re not going to turn Bakugo into this show’s version of Sasuke, are they? Maybe this really is Green Naruto after all.

— Y’know what? I bet they do successfully kidnap Bakugo. Whether or not the kid goes evil, I don’t know, but at this point, it seems like a sure thing that Bakugo will get captured. The major win here is that Deku will overcome his opponent and successfully protect Kota. The major loss is that he won’t be able to protect his precious Kacchan. Again, this seems all but certain.

— Deku tries to slow his opponent down by getting his left arm stuck in the guy’s muscle fibers. It seems like a neat idea, but not much comes from it. Deku lands an attack and that’s about it.

— Being a hero is definitely not a pretty job. Boy, he looks so uncool.

— This would look cool with a higher resolution.