Score: A-

It feels like forever since the last episode for this series. Glad to dive back into things with the show moving towards the cast trying to get their provisional licenses. As we’ve seen the cast really can’t afford to be sitting on their hands when villains show up. But they can’t just rewrite the laws at a drop of the hat. So best to push things forward and give these kids some more authority and responsibility. And it does tie into something fun like them coming up with ultimate moves! It isn’t just something fun or classic superhero, but something that will help them as professionals. Just those kids having something that defines them like an ultimate move likely helps with popularity.

This does feel like an important breakthrough for Deku. Just carrying on from what Gran Torino told him in the previous season. While it is completely understandable, he is very focused on All Might as a model. Other kids have grown up with their own quirks and while they idolize All Might they haven’t had to think about straight up mimicking him. Deku never had anything and thus any image as a kid probably aligned with All Might. But now he has to find what his image of a hero is. It’s fine to continue looking up to All Might. If it wasn’t for him Deku wouldn’t want to be a hero at all. But he’s got to work with what he has. He is a different person from All Might and needs embrace that.

Here’s hoping the focus on using his legs works out. Sure they’ve taken some damage during these past few months, but not as badly as his arms. He did break them a few times, but legs are in general pretty sturdy. If he focused on kicking more than punching than that could allow his arms to recover. I do think down the road he wouldn’t mind using his arms more, but right now that isn’t a smart option.

This episode as a whole is a more optimistic one. The kids have been through one tough experience after another. This is one chance they can have for pure fun. Sure it is hard work coming up with ultimate moves, but it’s the kind of work that is pure fun. They are getting stronger and advancing these super powers that they were born with. Some of them like Bakugo are just prepped for new moves and others have to use their heads a bit. It wasn’t only Deku that had to think a bit about what he wanted to do. Even someone like Mina was trying to come up with a clever way to use her quirk and was just getting tips along the way about improving what ideas she had.

We can’t avoid talking about Hatsume Mei either…No doubt she left a memorable impact on Deku and Ochaco. She is a pretty crazy person, but definitely the crazy genius type. She might get someone killed down the road through her support item work, but she is someone they’ll want contact with. Even the teacher realizes she is going to be near the top of the support item creating world and for young heroes they’ll be turning to her over and over again. A cool thing for the Boku no Hero world is that they really make costumes and items a living part of what makes a hero who they are. You can improve your quirk physically, but technology is there as well to help them get stronger.

And yeah can’t entirely avoid the shipping angle here. Mei isn’t really a threat as far as I’m concerned. She is someone who is clearly invested in her work. She can’t even remember the names of the people she teamed up with or fought in the sports festival XD. Though hey at least this is a chance to give Ochaco another push. She can try to convince herself there isn’t any romantic interest there, but incidents like with Mei are important to push her along. This isn’t a show about romance in the slightest. But better to have Ochaco understand her feelings more before it may end up being too late.

Anyways this was an enjoyable episode. Nice to see Deku come up with a solution that fits him. We didn’t get to see a ton outside of kicking that rock, but the effect was definitely there. Now to see how it all plays out in the actual testing. Really it’s kind of a fun moment since we haven’t seen much of their super moves. Tokoyami has a cool idea to cover for his weakness and we saw what Bakugo could do. But still have to wait and see for the rest of the cast. We’re set for the story to keep moving forward.