So, this is… still going… Are we going to end the season with this as an actual arc? That would be… something.
I have to admit: I’m starting to like Gentle and La Brava in a sort of dumb, wholesome way. They’re like the bumbling idiots who are just trying their best that you can’t help but support… with questionable motives. Almost like Team Rocket or… uh… another duo like them. I have yet to deduce what exactly Gentle wants (Attention? Fame? Bored?), as his reasoning from the last episode doesn’t really add up. Perhaps that will be explained in time; I’m not sure.
We have five episodes left in this season, and assuming this all doesn’t end next episode (I believed it would end this episode), I’m inclined to believe this “Gentle” arc is an actual arc that the author intended for people to take seriously, as opposed to just some filler fluff. That being the case, it’s an arc that reminds me of the earlier days of the series (first season specifically), only with the weight of substance of all that came afterwards. It’s interesting that the circumstances have changed the way I perceive its importance. Where the first season was fresh-faced and unpredictable, now we’re at a point where the series doesn’t seem to have anything more to say. So while the semi-aloof manner of this point kind of worked in the first season, it’s not as becoming currently.
What more can I even say? I feel like my thoughts are just going to get shorter as the season continues, with the pretense that this is all that’s left. What more can be said? “Ah, Mirio’s butt hanging out of the bush was really funny and saved the entire season!” It’s pretty by-the-numbers. I appreciated it as a cooldown segment, but an entire arc like this? Not sure I dig it.
Affiliate Link – Soundtrack
Karandi’s Thoughts
So we’ve gone from catching up with the class and the support characters we actually like to meandering about the school and catching up with every bit character Midoriya has previously encountered whether they are of any importance or not? In the grand scheme of this season calling this arc padded seems fairly pointless and yet most of this episode feels entirely skippable. About the only noteworthy facts are that the police wanted the festival cancelled so when it inevitably ends badly that will surely have consequences and that Midoriya has ordered a new support item from the weird girl in the support class.
Gentle and La Brava seem as underwhelming as a potential threat this week as they did last. They save their appearance for the end of the episode but really there’s nothing there worth noting. The interactions between these two characters are not that interesting and when you couple that with their plan feeling doomed to fail and not even in an interesting way there’s little reason to bother investing any thought in them.
Meanwhile class 1A are rehearsing and making tea. That’s cool but not exactly compelling viewing.
Even Eri’s first day out ended up being a bit of a fizzle with limited interaction between Midoriya, Mirio and Eri as they moved around the school. If they’d had less input from other bit characters and more actual interaction between each other it may have been half-way interesting but honestly they really just used the visit as an excuse to take the audience on an unneeded tour of the school and side characters.
While certainly not the worst episode there’s little to really get a viewer excited here.
O-kay! So! This episode may turn off some people. From the very beginning, we are treated to the high-octane heroism of breakdancing! “Filler” is a word we tend to throw out somewhat often, and here, it fits spectacularly well. This is a filler episode, with only gradual indications that it will mean anything to the whole of the story.
Establishing this, I will admit (if that’s the appropriate wording) that I liked this episode a lot. More than that, I think this might be my favorite episode in the entire season. Why? Spirit. Never at any moment in eighteen episodes had I felt like it exhibited the same spiritedness and exuberance as that of previous seasons, whether in learning to be a hero or just goofing around with classmates. Karandi and I were reluctant to become comfortable with an overall lack of screentime from the entire U.A. body. Huzzah! This is the first episode where the writing complements the usage of every voice within the class, even Koda, whom I completely forgot had a very tiny voice for their gargantuan form. For the first half of this episode, it felt like the class was an actual class and the antics among them were… enjoyable?!?!?
It could’ve played out harmlessly, but then they decided to incorporate Eri into the picture. A glimpse of meaning has invaded the filler! Even that was cute! Using the school festival as a means of providing relief for a small child, who apparently can’t even smile from the tortures pressed onto her, is a quaint, but nice proposal. This seems to be a two (maybe three?) part episode, so it only promises more filler time to come.
Yet said filler can’t be left without a little conflict. Some stupid dude named Gentle and his little cohort in La Brava are on the loose among the city and… they don’t seem threatening in the slightest. Their only reason for existence seems to be a possible curveball thrown into the plans of the school festival, which I expect to see next episode. Really, this whole bit could be a two-episode OVA thing and it wouldn’t remove anything from the main plot, except perhaps the moments with Eri. That’s where I believe some will chastise this.
I’m sold, though. I don’t think the series has been this fun since the end of the second season. I’ll take a lack of consequence if it means the students of U.A. are back to being prominent. Just seeing Ashido dance without warning to open the episode, with others viewing it in their own ways, was incredulous. “Are they really doing this?” As it continued, I found myself accepting it, which gradually became that rare ecstaticism that came with watching My Hero in ye olden days. For me, it’s always been the characters. When they’re being cute, I’m smitten. Whether they drive the plot or are lazily enjoying life, that’s what I’m here for.
Affiliate Link – Figures
Karandi’s Thoughts
Kapodaco is right. This episode brings back some of the old spirit from My Hero Academia. While from a narrative point of view this episode seems largely meaningless outside of reuniting Togata with Midoriya and Eri and their plan to take Eri out of the hospital (nothing could go wrong with that), just getting to hang out with the whole of class 1A and seeing them bounce off of one another reminded me of when I actually enjoyed watching the episodes of My Hero Academia unlike most of this season where I’ve just kind of endured them.
Where I am a little less thrilled is that it does seem decidedly pointless. When they announced a school festival coming up I was hopeful the League of Villains would have some ambitious plan and we’d end the season on a reasonably dramatic note and yet instead we’re apparently introducing what feels like another throw away villain into the mix who will probably end up being the focus for the time. Now he could end up being another Stain, an independent villain who actually had major narrative consequence, but I’m not seeing Gentle being anything but filler and I’m so far not particularly impressed by him as a character.
Still, the bulk of the episode is taken up by the class meeting about what they will contribute to the festival and that does give each of the students a chance to share their idea, returning their voice and personality clearly into the series. Seeing Iida leading the meeting was actually really fun and in small doses I find his character to be very entertaining, particularly when balanced by the voices of the rest of the class.
Overall though, this episode isn’t exactly a massive turning point for the show. We’re still just kind of puttering along without really getting anywhere and after feeling like the story has been locked in neutral for a season, seeing that not changing as we head towards the final episodes is a little on the disappointing side (though it isn’t unexpected at this point).
That said, I’ll take it. This episode was pleasant, seeing the class interacting made me smile, I loved the scene where Midoriya and Togata visited Eri, and the festival looks like it will be reasonably fun as far as school festival arcs go. If Gentle turns out to be even a half-decent antagonist for the sequence this could be a reasonable way to close out the season but again, I’m keeping my expectations low.
The answer here is that there’s probably a bit of both going on. I am being incredibly judgemental of My Hero Academia Season Four and that’s because it gave us two phenomenal seasons (season one and season two) and a third season that had an emotional peak that deserves to be remembered and season four just hasn’t stood up to the predecessors.
However, given the high quality of some of those early seasons, is season four actually a pretty alright show that is just being judged harshly? Given I’m still watching Darwin’s Game, would I argue that My Hero Academia Season Four is actually worse? I decided to step back a bit and take a more objective look at the situation and why I’m finding season four so hard to feel interested in.
What is it about My Hero Academia Season Four?
Note: I will only be discussing anime in this article. I have not and probably won’t be reading any of the manga for these anime.
The Problem With Long Running Shounen
I’ve previously made it clear that the only long running shounen I’ve ever really gotten into was Bleach. I love Bleach. Partly that was because it was one of the earlier anime I watched as an adult and the thrill of being able to find the next part of an episode on YouTube with English subs that made sense was always pretty great.
I also started watching it once it was well on its way so was able to binge most of the earlier seasons though did have to skip parts of some episodes just to not being able to find them. The whole ten minute maximum video length on YouTube at the time was not particularly friendly to anime episodes that were 23 – 24 minutes in length and so various people cut the episodes at various points and fan subbed them in a variety of languages.
Bleach also exemplifies a lot of the problems with long running shounen. The first three seasons are fantastic and have a wonderful character arc for the protagonist as he goes from ‘average guy who can see ghosts’ to the guy who fights his way through Soul Society to save the shinigami who gave him her power from being executed.
It’s nicely done, though even those three seasons have an excess of characters, long running fights, and padding in the form of cuts to Ichigo’s sisters and other side characters that break up the flow of the main narrative.
From the end of season three on, the filler becomes the main story at times meaning there are entire seasons that can be skipped because they actually add nothing to the overall narrative and the fights become more overblown and prolonged, the character count keeps escalating, and ultimately you aren’t really sure why any of the characters have any stake in the matter other than bad things happen and good guys get to work beating the villain who caused them.
Keep in mind, I really like Bleach. I own the box sets of the DVD’s and regularly binge whole seasons of the show over a weekend just to relax. That doesn’t mean I’m blind to its flaws, just that for me it was the first of its ‘type’ that I watched and so it holds a special place for me.
The other big shounen titles have largely been misses for me. I never finished season one of Naruto. One Piece barely got a few episodes before I just kind of shrugged. I have watched segments of Dragon Ball but I’ve never been a fan. It’s watchable and if someone else wants to watch it I’ll join in.
Somewhat ‘shorter’ stories like Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and Soul Eater fare a great deal better as they tend to demonstrate the characteristics of that first arc of Bleach. They tell a story, bring their characters to a nice resting point and then let things come to a close. We know there’s more to their stories but they don’t just stretch on and on adding further complication upon complication just to try to engage an increasingly jaded audience.
Hunter x Hunter is perhaps the one other long running shounen series that I’ve made significant headway through. After repeated recommendations I started watching it and for a time was reviewing episodes two at a time when I found the time, but it’s now been twelve months since I watched my last episode of it (that sounded almost like it belonged in an AA meeting).
I haven’t finished it, though I’m close-ish. I actually enjoyed various bits of the story, but again, it started to feel like it had said everything it had to say and now we were just going through the motions.
Back when season one of My Hero Academia was airing, I originally didn’t start watching with everyone else at episode one. It was another shounen title and I was already aware they weren’t my favourite kind of show. Worse, it focused on super heroes and with the plethora of Hollywood movies even back then coming out on the topic (not to mention the various TV series) I was just kind of over it. The rave reviews of those first few episodes though made me want to give it a try at around the episode five mark and so I binged all the available episodes and was hooked.
What worked in My Hero Academia was that it was a beautifully animated show with a central character who exemplified the underdog trope while still holding onto that can-do shounen spirit and, as the story progressed, it seemed to have a lot to say about how we define and view heroic acts and those who commit them.
Outside of the story being very generic in that we have a bunch of would-be super-heroes attending a training school and the main character starting powerless but telling us he’s going to become the strongest, there was almost nothing to complain about in that first season. The pace didn’t go too fast but nor did it dwell on things too long. It all just flowed in a nice looking, easily digestible package. However, it was the tone and feel of the anime that made it stand out. From the beginning, I’ve always loved My Hero Academia’s energy.
With season two dipping into a sports tournament arc, my heart initially sank. Foolish really given that group of episodes ended up being amongst the strongest that My Hero Academia would deliver over all four of the seasons that have currently aired. Character growth was logical and well delivered during this sequence and so many of the characters we’d grown attached to in the first season had a moment to shine.
Also, All Might and Midoriya’s relationship also further developed as Midoriya moved less from being a fanboy to actually being a protege. They took the opportunity to identify again some of the problems with both the school and the society and then they built on that with the arrival of the best antagonist the series had ever produced (and that remains true even now) with Stain making the scene with his interesting philosophy on the heroes of society.
Unfortunately, season three ended up being a mixed bag of ideas as the League of Villains rose up and the various characters continued their various journeys to get stronger and get their provisional hero’s licence. The mid-season peak, where All Might gave his everything in one final fight, was perhaps the best moment My Hero Academia has ever produced, but it was surrounded by a season that couldn’t meet the standards of what had come before it.
And now we have season four. A season that manga readers kept insisting was going to get better, that we’d get to the awesome, it was just around the corner. Now that the whole fight with Chisaki has fairly generically drawn to a close without really raising an emotional response the chatter has switched to saying that what is coming next in the story will be amazing. Yet, My Hero Academia, as it stands, is perhaps at its lowest point in terms of being entertaining, well animated or well paced.
You Can’t Expect Gold Every Time
Taking a step back, My Hero Academia season four isn’t actually bad. It’s just in that weird mid-phase that a lot of long running shows go through. That peak with All Might passing the torch to Midoriya was right up there with Ichigo finally rescuing Rukia, and it is taking the show some time to set up the next big stage.
When I’m not annoyed at the anime for feeling dull, I can see that The League of Villains is continuing to work away at things, that the society is changing in how it views heroes and the occupation of being a hero, and how Midoriya is trying to grow strategically instead of just frantically running to catch up. All of these developments (and dozens of others) continue throughout season four and very likely will lead to something amazing further down the track.
But right now, having watched 17 episodes of reasonably unimpressive fight sequences and character moments that don’t really go anywhere just yet, I’m feeling fatigued. A binge watch of this story would definitely have been better as it wouldn’t have prolonged this phase of the story over months of viewing but rather have been watched and done.
However even then, the fight between Midoriya and Chisaki didn’t have the emotional stakes of any of the previous fights so can’t be the stand out moment that previous fights have produced and that leaves season four so far without any real climatic moment for the audience to remember and just think: “Awesome!”
When we get more critical and start thinking about the visuals of season four and the lack of screen time for so many fan favourite characters, the cracks in this franchise become more pronounced. Again, this isn’t a My Hero Academia exclusive problem. Long running shounen stories crowd in characters but they can’t all be involved in every conflict so there are large spaces of time where they get sidelined. It just feels here like that was to the detriment of the tone of the story. That energy I mentioned before.
I could also mention something about the treatment of female heroes but to be honest that deserves a whole post all on its own and I’m definitely going to get to it at some point.
Curious though as to whether it was just me being contrary or whether my feeling that My Hero Academia had already peaked and the latest offering was somewhat sub-par I naturally turned to Twitter (you know because Twitter gives you great insight into things without any knee-jerk reactions). Over two days 147 people votes in the poll and while ‘Still Fun’ won out, the vote was a lot closer than I’d initially expected. Ultimately only 54% of respondents thought it was awesome or still fun while the remaining 46% said it was only watchable or they were losing/had lost interest.
Curious how others are finding My Hero Academia season 4:
Imagine if I’d asked that same question about season 2 or 3. I’m thinking we’d have had at least 75% of respondents being awesome or still fun and far less in the lost interest category.
So is this just a lull or has My Hero Academia had its day?
Honestly, I feel like while the story still has a ways to go, my interest in it has gone. All Might passing the torch is that significant plot moment that allows the story to rest and I would have been satisfied with that as an ending. In fact, let’s change it up a bit. Let’s have All Might point saying its your turn but let’s leave Midoriya in the scene. All Might publicly passing the torch to the still green but hard working Midoriya. While he’ll need protection and mentoring from other heroes for a time, he can continue to grow into his power and eventually take the place of All might. The end.
That there are heaps of other characters still unresolved and that there are plenty of complications that can come up and be explored is not disputed. However, if the story isn’t going to be fun while exploring them, wouldn’t it be better to let it all draw to a close and end on a high note?
But I’m aware I am biased. I felt Buffy should have ended at season three and then again at season five. That is clung on to season 7 always kind of made me roll my eyes. So many TV shows just keep stretching their ideas and adding complications to the detriment of the overall narrative but for the sake of getting another season (and I am assuming more money). While some fans may be delighted by more of the characters, for me, if there’s nothing more to say, no interesting point to add, or if what they are doing is undermining what I enjoyed in the first place, I just don’t see the point.
So am I being judgemental or is season four of My Hero Academia just not good? The answer is definitely both. There are problems in season 4 of My Hero Academia. It is in an awkward transition phase and there’s been a lot of down time and less than stellar moments. Can it improve? Sure. Will I wait for season five to do that? Possibly not. Am I being judgemental? Absolutely. And it is a judgement I’ve delivered on many a story that I felt stayed past its welcome.
However, I’d love to know your take so share your thoughts below and let’s discuss the latest My Hero Academia (anime only – no manga spoilers).
Kapodaco and I aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye this week as we review episode 17 of My Hero Academia over on The Visualist’s Veranda. Check out our latest episode review and if you’ve missed any be sure to find the other reviews below.
I considered editing my initial thoughts. I thought of maybe toning them down, stepping back, looking for more positives… But you know, ultimately my initial thoughts are how I feel about this episode so I’m just going to let them go.
So last week I went and said I was looking forward to seeing Todoroki and Bakugo trying to get their provisional licence. I take it back. I hated this episode. I hated it with an absolute passion and spent the majority of it resisting the urge to skip ahead or just exit out of the window.
Why did I hate it?
Largely because it reminds me of the episodes of Bleach that focus on Don Kanonji. Ultimately relatively pointless and with an annoying central character. In this case, they unleashed an entire class of annoying and pointless characters in the form of an elementary group on four of the students resitting the exam and then made us watch them fumbling around for far too long before ending the episode with the would-be heroes deciding that challenging the group to a battle would somehow be a good plan. I’m calling this absolute idiocy and going to forget it and move on.
The only redeeming parts of the episode came from the conversations between All Might and Endeavour but this could boil down to about three minutes of the whole thing.
Yeah, I’m just going to go with ‘ouch’ and move on.
Affiliate Link – Nendoroid
Kapodaco’s Thoughts
…Well, I can’t say I share in my colleague’s resentment, but the whole of the episode is pretty reminiscent of the season itself. Stilted, uninspired, a little off, and containing only hints of genuinely interesting material.
Whatever significance the episode had in making these heroes try and do good by, uh, doing good, I guess, was not lost on me. Clearly stated by the Orca dude, these heroes were lacking in the mental compartment of heroism, relying on the strength of their quirks to blaze through without any second thought. This is especially apparent of Bakugo and the Wind Dude, but Todoroki can be a little stiff and… uh… Camie? Who is she again? I remember her from last season, but was she always this… sexualized valley girl type? Why is she here? To make breast jokes? Yeah, probably. Anyway, to try and quell the sullied hearts of these problem children makes sense in theory. Inspire and impact these brats to do good.
The issue is that it’s played off as mostly comedy… that isn’t really funny. This anime’s had some comedic moments, sure (a lot more this season, it feels like), though the spirit has always been a sort of action/thriller type. If they had brought in, say, a few kids who were reserved, maybe rude and standoffish (mini-Bakugo’s, perhaps?), and had them individually try and get them to feel inspired by the might of heroism or whatever, with a serious enough intent and tone, it may not have felt so inauthentic. Instead, they paint it like some zany babysitting gig that everyone in the audience is using for vapid entertainment. And the fact that they basically push all the no-name heroes aside and just focus on the four “important” characters was laughably apparent. That blonde kid in the corner spouting painfully mature dialogue was also hysterical.
Like Karandi, the only bits of the episode where things began to swing in its favor were the dialogue between Endeavor and All Might. I’ll say this now, but I think All Might is the best character in this show, as he’s had so little done with his character that hasn’t been in ill taste or of little importance. When he’s onscreen, it always leads to something more, and his very figure moves people just from its representation and past. A true hero, and one that thinks and acts like one, too, complete with inner struggles and faults that make him human. He’s great. So to see All Might involve himself with a former rival, who now takes his place, and for said rival to reveal to him some indecision of his worth as replacement, that means something. And it’s taken with enough conscious consideration to not make it feel dumb. More of that, please.
I can’t really describe the worth of this episode in words. I’d rather go with a single action: a shrug. Whatever. Okay. Fine. Yeah. It exists and it continues to masquerade as the great show this used to be. The writing’s too far gone, and it seems like it’s said all that it wants to say. Anything past this is icing, so hopefully people like that enough to keep watching. I want a bratwurst.
You just have to wonder sometimes what is going on with season 4 of My Hero Academia. The series seems to be going through an awkward phase and while there are plenty of good moments to point to, the whole season isn’t really coming together in some clear manner. That said, Kapodaco and I continue our episodic coverage this week over on The Visualist’s Veranda.
I’m just wondering how much My Hero Academia actually expected the audience to care about that ending? It seemed they were trying really hard to have a big, dramatic moment and yet my lack of emotional attachment to the central character in the situation more or less meant that while I felt bad for a few of the onlookers, the situation itself I was more or less indifferent to and so the quietly devastating ending that I believe we were supposed to get seemed mostly a fizzle at the end of what was actually a pretty solid episode for season four of My Hero Academia.
However, before I get to what I liked about this episode, and there was actually a lot, I’ve got another issue with this episode. After getting to do practically nothing for the entire arc, Uraraka finally gets to swoop in and arrest someone, after they are already beaten and mostly unconscious. Really? This is the girl who went one on one against Bakugo way back in season 2 and made him work for the victory, and now she gets to be the clean-up crew? It seems like a horrendous waste of a character to be perfectly frank and I am kind of sick of the girls in the class getting shafted any time anything cool actually happens in this story. – Okay, sorry, rant over… except, why even include her in the arc if she doesn’t actually get to do anything useful? Literally anyone could have done what she did. Ahh! So frustrating.
Alright, now that I’m over that, let’s discuss what this episode did very well and why overall I still actually quite liked the episode. In the aftermath of the fight, The League of Villains actually make an entrance. They don’t just go in guns blazing against the heroes. Nope, they make one strategic attack against a transport well away from the scene, exact their revenge against a certain arrogant man, and claim a very crucial package. It is an almost perfect moment. We didn’t need as many episodes as we had to get to this point, and Overhaul as a character wasn’t anywhere near developed enough for me to really care too much about the rivalry between him and Shigaraki, but honestly it was a solid sequence with some short, tight action, some interesting use of the three villains’ known quirks against a throw-away hero who for once was treated as throw-away and there was no stretching out of this sequence. Very nicely done. Okay, terrifying ramifications, but this was so much cooler than any of the overblown fights we have been watching for the last month.
There’s also the very real aftermath for the heroes at the hospital with broken bones and other injuries to deal with, including one that leads to the aforementioned, less effective than they want it to be, conclusion. But I always like that My Hero Academia, after major incidents, does deal with the fall out. Characters are injured and recovery takes time. Some things can’t be healed. There’s real consequences to being a hero unlike so many other super hero stories where no matter what injuries are sustained during a battle at the end the characters get up, dust off and they are ready to go again more or less instantly. My Hero Academia always makes its heroes very human and also breakable. It adds a bit more weight to everything they do.
Like seriously, how is Midoriya still alive at this point?
On the very positive note, the reason I’m really walking away from this episode happy, is because I am very keen to find out what direction they go from here. There’s a lot of possibilities and I’m actually quite excited to see it.
Affiliate Link – Nendoroid
Kapodaco’s Thoughts
Oh, my goodness! Karandi! Beautiful wrap-up of the episode; there’s very little I could add on to it. Part of me simply wants to respond to the points you raised throughout your piece, so I’ll try and mix and match some things.
Regarding the impact female heroes have made on the story so far, I have actually had a similar mindset since the very beginning of the operation! Notice how all the heroes that went in were male, and all the females were outside, away from the spotlight. When Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Dragon Hero entered the plot again in a way that implied that they would help, it reversed course and had them play observer yet again to Midoriya’s heroics. If one were to watch this from a socio-political perspective, women have had no significant impact on anything this season. I absolutely understand the frustration, and part of me is glad that you brought it up.
As for the ending, I actually appreciated what they tried to do, even if it had little impact on me. I was gracious of the series to include some sort of negative aspect to heroism, because the sequence before Nighteye’s situation was continuously forgiving and merry, which I thought was silly. “Everyone was kind of injured, but they’re fine! Teehee!” It even managed to have me audibly say, “Nice touch,” at the very end when they muted the volume to everything, forcing everyone to take in what had happened and imagine how it must have been to be within that moment. Nighteye was a logical choice, considering his ability would’ve been a nightmare to explain and justify now that the future he saw had changed (his theory of “amount of energy” affecting the outcome was laughably stupid), so it was, in a twisted sort of way, convenient. And hey, he meant a lot to a lot of people. I think that’s enough.
But yes! The League of Villains making their grand entrance and making quick work of Chisaki was extremely cathartic. A group of characters we have, for better or worse, gotten to know over the last two-ish seasons being back in the forefront is a welcome addition. Quick, clean, and pretty well executed, their scene was among my favorites from this entire season… perhaps because it was like getting a smoothie after feeding on sand for the last fourteen episodes. More time with them, even if just them lazing around and interacting, would be most appreciated. Seriously, why do I like the villains so much?
I suppose the only thing I can add is that, with Chisaki now incapacitated, what’s next for him? There has been way too much attention given to him for them to simply write him out of the story completely, right? He was given a pinch of sympathetic irony here (having his quirk taken when his entire goal was to take quirks away), and he was kind of just… left there. Will he join the heroes? What of Eri? How will she play a part in the story now? It’s almost as if the season had essentially rebooted, and now we’re back in a place where anything’s on the table, only with a few key additions (and one subtraction).
This is probably my favorite episode of the season. Not one moment (except the very beginning when I thought it would spend a million years from the perspective of the bad dude and Aizawa) left me bored and I actually found myself enjoying the progression of things happening onscreen. The ending was solid, despite my generally apathetic demeanor, and there is a lot to go off of, along with a lot of potential for further “adventures” to be had. Man, I’m almost in the mood to watch another pointless preliminary exam!
I was very late jumping on the Haikyu bandwagon. Largely because I just refused to watch sports anime of any kind for a very long time. Once I caved on that, the title that came up over and over again in my recommendations was Haikyu. And so I started season one. Three seasons on we’re now seeing the release of season four and I was definitely ready and actually super excited. However, season 4 faces a different kind of challenge as I’ve never watched Haikyu weekly. Last time I watched in batches of episodes so I didn’t need to wait for things to get to a point as I could just keep watching. So I guess we’ll see whether season 4 manages to be as exciting as the last three and whether or not I can handle watching weekly or whether I give up, wait for the season to finish and binge it.
The difference became quite apparent by the end of this episode. There’s a lot of set-up and reintroductions to characters as they get their heights measured and do some basic physical tests and then the supervisor drops the bomb that Kageyama has been invited to a national youth volleyball camp and Tsukishima is invited to a regional camp. It’s all really fun hanging out with the characters and seeing the rivalry between Hinata and Kageyama as well as the bonds these characters have forged, but it isn’t really moving things forward so much as re-establishing the cast (as you probably should after a gap between seasons when there’s a large cast). That outside of Hinata making a really obnoxious choice before the end of the episode is really all that happens and I’m sure it will all lead to fun later but it is set-up.
Of course, it was really fun to be back with this team. The usual bickering and silly antics were in full play and it was nice to see them all still really excited about the nationals. So there’s very little to complain about there. Also, visually it still looks fine transitioning to actually good when characters start moving. Hinata’s jump was beautifully animated and the wing motif is back which was welcome to see.
Affiliate Link – Blu-Ray
But the episode in itself leaves you with little to talk about, unless you would like to me to gush about Tsukishima. I could do that because his reaction to Hinata’s idiocy in the second half of the episode was golden. Of course, we could look ahead and start wondering if splitting up the core group in these early episodes and sending them off to training camps is a great move. Haikyu is more fun when the team are together and they literally just split two of the four first years we’ve really been following off to play with other players at training camps. While I’m sure it is a great growth opportunity did I come back to Haikyu to not spend time with the gang from Karasuno High School? Then again, I have no idea how many episodes this will go for and how they’ll bring it together so no complaints at this point.
Time will tell whether this is a good decision or not but Haikyu has definitely earned some trust having delivered three very solid seasons of entertainment. While I may end up putting this cour on hold and binge it before the second cour comes out depending on how it goes watching weekly, I will watch this season through. So how excited are you about the return of Haikyu!!
Here we are at episode 13 of My Hero Academia and Kapodaco and I are discussing the fight between Midoriya and Overhaul, and you know whatever else caught our attention this week. Be sure to check out the full post over on the Visualist’s Veranda.
