Friday, November 13, 2015

My Hero Academia 66: Midoriya's Class Observational Record

Apologies for the delayed release of this review.

So Bakugou and Midoriya are brought to Recovery Girl's office to recover, and since Midoriya is still conscious he asks to stay and watch his classmates' complete their tests. I think that would be some sort of policy breach, since this is the End of Term exam and all, but evidently not as she agrees. I like it though, as it fits well into Midoriya's character and it gives an in-story excuse to view the rest of the class.

Knowing Kouhei, I was sure that we were going to see how the entire class handled their tests, but I was expecting just a page or two for the secondary characters similar to what happened in the Sports Festival tournament. It's now looking like each pair from this point on is going to get around 1/2 to 1/3 of a chapter dedicated to them; which I'm not complaining about. I was partially hoping that the upcoming anime would stretch out the scenes we see nothing or very little of as filler (like Iida vs. Thorn Girl in the Sports festival, where we only heard him describe how he won). They can still do that though, however, given the manga's fast pacing.

Tsuyu and Tokoyami both placed very high in the recent popularity poll, so it's not surprising to see the two of them place third. They handle themselves pretty well, and both Midoriya and Recovery Girl note them as being very skilled. I just want to take a moment to say how awesome Ectoplasm is, both in quirk and in appearance; probably my favorite Pro Hero right now sans All Might. I do think the way the two ending up winning could have been portrayed a little better; the fast pacing hurt the scene in my opinion and just made Ectoplasm look negligent. This is one of those scenes that I hope gets expanded on in the anime.

We see Ashido and Kaminari being played with like the principal. I don't know if he's a Pro Hero, but I love the mouse guy too. He always seemed kind of random to me, but Recovery Girl's comment about him being toyed with by humans completely turned the character around in my mind. The way he messes with the two from above using construction equipment to alter their surroundings brings to mind imagery of a lab mouse in a maze. I wonder if he was once an ordinary mouse, that somehow obtained a quirk through experimentation? I would love to see some backstory for him in the future.

Next we have Present Mic testing Jirou and Kouda in a forest area. Both are secondary characters (as far as the class goes), and Kouda is one of the rare few who we still know next to nothing about. The author seems to have realized that and remedied it by giving him arguably the biggest focus in this scene. We had an offhand mention of his quirk a few chapters ago, but its only here that it actually comes into play. We even get a brief flashback from him as he learns to overcome a crippling phobia he has. I did like how this test ended up concluding.

I expect to spend 2-3 more chapters following the rest of the class' tests before moving on. Looking back at the chapter where the pairs were announced, it seems like the remaining matches are:

  • The Principal vs. Ashido and Kaminari
  • No. 13 vs. Aoyama and Uraraka 
    • I imagine this one will be on the longer side, as we still need to see the results of Uraraka's training Battle Hero Gunhead in the Field Training Arc. 
  • Midnight vs. Sero and Mineta
    • As I recall, Sero is out of commission from Midnight's quirk. Given that Mineta appears at the end of this chapter, I'm guessing the next one is likely to involve them.
  • Snipe vs. Hagakure and Shouji
    • Shouji is another character who has mostly been in the background; but I personally think of him as one of the class' best. If not in this arc, I really want to see him have a chance to shine.
  • Cementoss vs. Satou and Kirishima
    • Satou is probably tied with Kouda for being the least developed of any character in 1-A. We don't even know his quirk. I'm expecting this match to play out a lot like Jirou and Kouda's.
  • Power Loader vs. Iida and Ojiro
    • Power Loader is like Ectoplasm in that he's a hero that we know exactly nothing about (as far as I recall, at least). Hoping to see Iida in action soon so he can showcase some of his character development from the last arc.

I'm hoping that all of this development is setting up for something big. Everyone who passes this test is supposed to be heading to a forest lodge over summer break, and, given how the series usually alternates between school activities and real villain combat, it's likely that something is going to go wrong. 

On a side note, my order of My Hero Academia Volume 2 has come in this morning, along with One Piece 76, Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer 3-4, and Hunter x Hunter 17 (a missing number in my collection). I haven't gotten around to rereading Volume 1, but I do plan to do that before I review Volume 2.


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