Nitsuj): Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. We’re in the third week of My Hero Summeria and taking a look at the second half of season 2.
(Shizuku): Now, this was a turning point in the series. In my opinion, this is where the series won everyone over. This is where the series went from good to great in everyone’s eyes.
(Nitsuj): I couldn’t agree more. Very few series have that one moment where they go from good to great. For My Hero Academia, this was their moment and I can’t wait to talk about it. Let’s get to it.
Episodes 13-16
(Shizuku): The second half of the anime starts off a few days after the sports festival. The students were given a few days off to rest and now they’re back in the school where they get told they’ll be doing internships with heroes for a week in order to learn, grow, and get a better grasp on which line of work they want to get into (which line of work? (Nitsuj): Well yeah that makes sense. Being a hero isn’t all about beating up bad guys. As we’ve seen not all quirks are suited for fighting, some quirks are better suited for helping people like putting out fires or helping with disaster relief. Take the invisible girl for example, she’d be great for spy work). We see a majority of the students get offers from other agencies who were impressed with their showing at the festival except for Izuku since he fights recklessly. They also get the opportunity to choose their hero names as heroes and I’m not gonna lie they do choose some pretty creative names like Tsu is Froppy, Ochaco is Uravity, the little pervert is Purple Grape, and the invisible girl is Invisible Girl (wow, just change one word and they would have been hearing from Marvel and Disney). Izuku goes with Deku because Ochaco changed the meaning of it for him and he liked it (Nitsuj: The shipping continues) and Tenya decides to go with his name for the time being as he’s still dealing with the issues concerning his brother (scene here: https://youtu.be/fcY07S1EmMs?si=3UG2kFvQ5GnHLLAk). It turns out his brother sustained serious injuries and will no longer be able to continue his hero work so he asks Tenya to inherit the hero name Ingenium. While Tenya is honored by this, he’s hesitant to take it as he doesn’t believe he’s worthy of the name. In the second half of the episode as everyone discusses where they plan to go for their internship, All Might pulls Izuku away and tells him he received an internship offer from Gran Torino a retired superhero who’s a friend of All Might and used to be his homeroom teacher back in the day. We also get a name on the Hero Killer, Stain (because he stains his hands with the blood of heroes. (Nitsuj): Dark).
Not much to say about episode 14. We get a slight glimpse of the other characters with their heroes. Some are developing a good relationship while others are in difficult spots. We see Shigaraki try to recruit Stain to his cause, but Stain says no saying he doesn’t like the way he works and hates people like him the most (Nitsuj: Remember this scene cause we’re gonna come back to this later). The rest of the episode focuses on Izuku and Gran Torino who has a quirk similar to Tenya only it lets him fly through the air. His approach to training is more hands on as opposed to All Might who gives him advice and is more verbal hoping Izuku will figure it out himself. Gran Torino follows the old school ways of teaching and fights Izuku to get an idea of his power level and control over One for All where we see he’s not too impressed with Izuku’s progress and gives him a hint on what to do next. It takes Izuku a bit but he figures it out near the end where instead of just focusing on one part of his body he instead focuses on generating One for All through his whole body. He succeeds at this but the question remains, can he move and fight in this form (scene here: https://youtu.be/kUOWqMpkMck?si=Y6Ker9pqqXwrQWP_)?
Episode 15 starts with Gran Torino testing Izuku’s new form he has dubbed Full Cowling (Nitsuj: In another series we call that Gear 1). They fight for about 3 minutes where Izuku can move in this form. The only problem is he’s still slow on his reflexes and it takes him a little time to activate Full Cowling (a work in progress but I see a masterpiece about to be born). Despite these problems he almost manages to hit Gran Torino in the exercise, who was actually forced to dodge seriously in order to avoid Izuku’s attack. While this is going on we find out the Nomu was originally a normal thug who had his DNA mixed with 3 other people and his body holds multiple quirks which is so demanding physically and mentally that his brain has practically shut down. Back with Stain, he decides to join Shiragaki after seeing that despite is warped and arrogant way of thinking he has potential to become something amazing and change the current state of the world (yeah to something even more messed up and warped). Back with Izuku, Gran Torino moves on to phase 2 of their training, field work (Nitsuj: Alright, let’s go find some villains) and they head out to Shibuya. We get to learn more about Stain as to why he’s doing what he’s doing, too many fake heroes. Stain has a great amount of respect for heroes but in his eyes some heroes are only in it for the money, fame, and glory (and he’s right. (Nitsuj): Yeah. While I don’t agree with Stain’s methods you can’t deny what he says is true. Some people are only in it for worldly possessions instead of doing the right thing because it’s right and nothing more. Hell, Mt. Lady is a prime example of this. She’s more interested in fame than helping others. Or how about Endeavor who seems to want glory. (Shizuku): Yeah, but does that make heroes who are only in it for worldly possessions worse than villains? (Nitsuj): No of course not. It makes them less heroes in my eyes but I still think of them as heroes and would put them miles ahead of villains who only care about their self-interest and nothing more. Take Ochaco for example, she admits that she’s only a hero because she wants money but she’s using that money to help out her family which is in financial strains. Her motives may be subjectively wrong but her reasons for doing said motives are in my opinion right). Shiragaki unleashes a bunch of Nomus on the city of Hosu and as Izuku and Gran Torino are passing through their train gets attacked by one of the Nomus and they spring into action. As the heroes of Hosu are responding to the Nomu threat, Tenya finds Stain and gets his attention with his talk of vengeance which angers Stain greatly (Nitsuj: And that my friends is an example of self-interest. Tenya may have a drive to be a hero but his desire for vengeance brings him one step closer to that of a villain).
In episode 16 Tenya takes on Stain and loses after Stain tastes his blood (that’s just gross) which causes him to stop moving. We find out later that Stain’s quirk is called Bloodcurdle, just by tasting someone’s blood he can paralyze that person for up to 8 minutes however the effects of his quirk vary for each blood type (from least to most: O, A, AB, and B). Just before he kills Tenya, he mocks his older brother calling him a weak hero and calls Tenya a man unworthy of being a hero because he chose vengeance instead of helping the hero that was already injured. Izuku realizing that something was up when he didn’t see Tenya with the other heroes searches the back alleys in the hopes of finding Tenya and he does. He manages to save Tenya on time and fights Stain all by himself earning Stain’s respect for being a true hero. Sadly, Izuku gets glazed by one of Stain’s daggers and he gets paralyzed (seriously, that is nasty. Aren’t you afraid of catching something?). Luckily, Izuku called for backup using his phone and the person who answered the called was Shoto who has now accepted his fire power and using it in battle along with his ice side (Nitsuj: He’s growing). The paralysis wears off on Izuku and he gets back up to fight with Shoto where they take on Stain and stall for time until the pros show up to fight (it’s a fight for survival).
Episodes 17-20
In episode 17 the battle with Stain reaches its conclusion when Tenya manages to get back up to fight and with the combine attack of Izuku and Tenya they manage to knock him out and capture him (they’ve captured their first villain. I reward you guys with a trophy. It’ll appear in the upper right corner soon). As that’s going on Endeavor takes out the Nomus that are loose in the city single-handedly (Nitsuj: Say what you want about the guy, but you can’t knock his skills) telling other heroes along the way to head to Izuku’s location to help him out. Once the heroes arrive and see that Izuku and the others have caught Stain they quickly call the police (oh yeah, cause they’ve been so helpful thus far) and Izuku gets captured by a flying Nomu only to get saved by Stain who kills the Nomu while still remaining half-conscious (tough bastard). When Endeavor enters the scene, Stain gets ready to fight him saying that he won’t die or lose to someone like Endeavor (Nitsuj: In fact, in the manga, he says Endeavor is the type of person he hates the most) and the only person he’ll lose to is All Might. Just as he gets done saying his awesome speech he passes out. A piece of broken rib pierced his lung and he passes out standing on his own two feet (scenes here: https://youtu.be/0a4Umne0t9o?si=QkxfkaIGHvefhHzZ and https://youtu.be/t4zkKMwoVeE?si=g_bsjGSN9s1qSryX. What a badass).
(Nitsuj): Episode 18 deals with the aftermath of the Stain fight. The police chief who is a dog comes in to see Izuku, Tenya, and Shoto where they all agree that the credit for Stain will go to Endeavor in order to protect the boys. While the police chief thanks them for their efforts, the boys are still uncertified heroes meaning this whole situation looks bad on paper. While the public will praise them those behind the scenes will punish them for their rash actions and will be punished for it (Shizuku: Well that’s bullshit. I’m starting to see what Stain was talking about). Speaking of Stain, we find out that he too wanted to be a hero like All Might so he tried out for a hero school, but when he got there he was disappointed in what the teachers were teaching him so he dropped out (Shizuku: School is for noobs anyway). He then took to the streets making speeches asking everyone to bring the old ways of being a hero back, but it got him no results. He decided that if people won’t listen to words, they’ll listen to results (unfortunately that’s how the world works sometime). He spent years studying killing techniques, developing his own fighting style, and took to the streets killing anyone he considered to be a fake hero who only became a hero for money and glory (I’m just going to say it, Stain is hands down the best villain in the series so far. While there’s no justifying his actions you have to respect his ideology on what it means to be a hero. Doing good things, helping out others, and expecting nothing in return). Throughout the episode we see Izuku reach out to his other classmates to let them know he and the others are okay (scene here: https://youtu.be/-brbXcvTyFA?si=pdIfM6ZoOw4Kw6al) and we see Shigaraki is pissed that everyone is talking about Stain while the Nomus are pretty much a side story (Shizuku: Sort of like a salad at a steak house. It’s there for you to eat but let’s be honest you’re not gonna eat it). In the mix of this whole Stain thing we see both heroes and villains respond to his actions. The heroes figure out that there’s a connection between him and the League of Villains and believe that Stain’s action will cause these villains to move and take action. As for the villains, we see that the heroes were right, they are taking action and going to the place they all believe he had a connection with, the League of Villains.
Now episode 19 is an anomaly for the series and depending on how you feel about a certain character, this episode ranges from being dull and boring to mediocre at best. It’s a filler episode and it mainly focuses of Tsu (Shizuku: One of the most underrated characters in the series). We see that she’s interning on a ship with a hero and his men/sidekick who just received word that a villain and his gang are trying to sneak illegal drugs into the country. They sail out to find the villain only to get tricked and the hero gets trapped inside a ship leaving only Tsu and Sirius (the sidekick) to search for the villain. They find the villain and stall long enough for the hero to arrive and take him out.
In episode 20 the hero internships are done and the students have returned to school. In order to test out their news All Might has them do a race to see who can save him the fastest. Izuku loses his race but he shocks everyone by showing how he can use his quirk without harming himself anymore (scene here: https://youtu.be/UNgcsj51ENk?si=-JZeVXOYG5E-_i-q). At the end of the school day All Might calls Izuku for a private talk where he tells him where One for All came from (Shizuku: About time). All Might explains that One for All came from another quirk called All for One a quirk that allows the holder to steal quirks from others and make it their own (now that’s what I called overpowered. (Shizuku): So, it’s like Rogue’s power from the X-Men except you get to keep the powers all the time). The quirk also allowed the holder to give quirks away as well. Many years ago when the world had learned the existence of quirks it became a chaotic state where everyone was scared and didn’t know what to do (Shizuku: As you would expect. At least they didn’t go all X-Men on us). During this chaotic state one man rose to power, became the leader of villains, and soon came to rule Japan. This man had a younger brother who had a strong sense of justice and hated the acts of his older brother, but he was quirkless so all he could do was sit and watch until the older brother injected him with a quirk. Little did he know, his younger brother had a quirk. A pretty useless quirk that allowed him to stock powers from other quirks and pass them on to others. This power combined with the power his brother injected him with gave birth to One for All. Despite this powerful new quirk, the younger brother was still no match for his brother so he entrusted his quirk to future generations (leaving the next generation to clean up your mess. Typical). So his quirk got passed down from generation to generation until it finally wound up in the possession of All Might who finally defeated the older brother (justice had prevailed. (Shizuku): Or did it). All Might had believed he killed the older brother but he survived and is now the shadowy puppet master behind the League of Villains (scene here: https://youtu.be/fMZhwRRIjv0?si=fYe7d7xXrF1N4gC1). All Might now worries that the day will come when Izuku will have to fight him and there’s a good chance he won’t be there to help out (a world without All Might? Damn, that’s like a world without Batman. (Shizuku): Unthinkable and a world you don’t want to live in).
Episodes 21-25
In episode 21 it’s time for final exams (Shizuku: We’re all gonna die). The first part is a 3-day written exam and the last day is the practical exam where the students believe they’ll be fighting against robots but the school has changed the script and want them to get more battle experience so the students will now be facing their teachers (and they’re dead). The students will be paired up in teams of 2 and take on a teacher where they can pass by either reaching the goal and escaping or capturing their teacher (which would be stupid because they’ve all shown us that they can brawl). Izuku and Katsuki are paired together (Shizuku: This is like the worst team imaginable) and are facing All Might (Shizuku: This is the worst opponent imaginable). The first match is Eijiro and Sato the gentle giant. His quirk is sugar rush, for every 10 grams of sugar he eats he’ll be 5 times as strong for the next 3 minutes (that’s right, this guy gains power by eating sugar products. (Shizuku): I don’t know whether to call that the coolest quirk ever or worry about that kid’s health). The only downside to his quirk is that his cogitative function goes down considerably. The two are going up against Cementoss (Shizuku: Who is pretty much an Earthbender) and try to get pass him by charging forward and using their brute strength to get through but that’s not a smart move on their part. They have a time limit on their quirks and Cementoss knows this. It’s here that we start to understand what this practical exam is all about, realizing your weaknesses, understanding your capability with the person you’re facing, and knowing when you should fight and when you should run away. Eijiro and Sato run out of steam and get easily defeated by Cementoss (scene here: https://youtu.be/vOIMD2uU5Bo?si=mf52cGxqLGv5-e58). We end the episode with Tsu and Tokoyami (two of my favorite characters) about to do their exam against Ectoplasm who has the ability to create ectoplasmic copies of himself.
At the start of episode 22 Tsu and Tokoyami take on Ectoplasm where we get a front row seat at Tokoyami’s weakness, close range combat (Shizuku: And being in a fight where his opponent can multiply himself puts him at a huge disadvantage). As for Tsu, she really has no weakness (one that’s visible at least). She’s calm, supportive, and thinks things through before acting which makes her the perfect wingman (or frog) for Tokoyami or anyone else for that matter. Using their combined teamwork they manage to reach the goal but Ectoplasm creates a giant clone of himself and captures the two leaving only Dark Shadow to reach the goal where Tsu hands it the handcuffs and makes a proper arrest on Ectoplasm allowing Tsu and Tokoyami to pass (scene here: https://youtu.be/oGbm6QXT_DU?si=RZXv-y_RhIOfC9bl). The next bout is Tenya and Ojiro where Tenya uses his speed to get Ojiro pass the goal and make them pass the exam (scene here: https://youtu.be/kA515tzf2Vg?si=a3HgYhYNZ48ohQuH). The fourth match is Shoto and Momo vs Aizawa aka Eraserhead (Shizuku: This might be the worst match up for my favorite couple). We quickly see that Shoto’s weakness is he places too much burden on himself (a noble act but at the same time it can be interpreted as I don’t have much trust in everybody else so I’ll do everything myself) and Momo lacks confidence in her abilities. Ever since the sports festival (Shizuku: Where she got her sweet ass handed to her) her confidence took a huge blow and has not been able to recover from it. Because of this she doesn’t trust her own thinking and just leaves it to the others. Their exam begins where Shoto takes charge telling Momo what to do but Aizawa gets the jump on them and captures Shoto as well as making sure he doesn’t escape. Aizawa then goes after Momo where she’s able to escape Aizawa’s grasp (because he let her) and returns to save Shoto who tells her to have confidence in herself because he does. He hears her plan and together they bring down Aizawa by using his own weaknesses against him and capture him passing the exam (scene here: https://youtu.be/nR5Ck17M8Ek?si=Sn00nE9RKSTRsix1).
We start episode 23 with Ochaco and Yuga (the guy who shoots laser beams from his belly button. (Shizuku): I think it’s fair to say the author was running out of quirks at this point. (Nitsuj): Could be a gag character or a personal fetish) doing their exam against 13 where Ochaco goes into her awaken mood and uses her martial arts training to arrest 13 (scene here: https://youtu.be/lC85KcDFY2Q?si=PZjIJA-ZUCjTZQ7d, whether this was on purpose or on instinct is up for debate). Next up is Mina (poison girl) and Kaminari (electric boy) against the principal Nezu (Shizuku: Who we forgot to mention is a talking mouse. Hi obvious shoutout to Mickey). Mina and Kaminari think their exam will be easy but no, what Nezu lacks in powers he makes up for it in intelligence thanks to his quirk High Specs that makes him smarter than the average human (he’s also psychotic thanks to the mental trauma bought on by past experiments conducted on him. (Shizuku): Wow, he is Mickey. (Nitsuj): Mickey’s not a psycho. (Shizuku): Don’t be fooled. I’ve seen it in his eyes). Because of this he traps and cuts off Mina and Kaminari’s paths to the exit, stays one step ahead of them, and because they have no idea where he’s attacking from their quirks are useless. At this point it’s clear that their weakness is they don’t think very much, which is true. Both Mina and Kaminari have good quirks, but they don’t think things through and as a result get left at the mercy of their opponents as we saw in the sports festival. In the end, time runs out and they fail despite Nezu leaving them one path to the exit (scene here: https://youtu.be/1ScFj3sjyd8?si=3_r4k3uSTYGcNkT8). After they fail it’s now time for Koda (he’s the male version of Eliza Thornberry. If you don’t know who that is congratulations, you’re young) and Jiro’s (jack girl) exam where they face Present Mike where the obvious weakness is whatever they can do Mike can drown it out with his own sound. Their only chance to take out Mike falls on Koda who has to talk to the insects and get them to attack Mike but he’s afraid of bugs (Shizuku: Oh~ if I was in Jiro’s shoes I swear I would punch him). Koda manages to conquer his fears and gets the bugs to attack Mike (it’s actually a disturbing sight) and this allows Jiro and Koda to escape and pass the exam (scene here: https://youtu.be/Vdjyg7UDQNs?si=Iu1uROXIuyHjpxVR). The second to last exam for the episode is a quick one where Shoji (the boy with many mouths) and Hakugare (the invisible girl) take on the gunslinger hero Snipe and arrest him with Hakugare using her talents to her advantage (scene here: https://youtu.be/CtLCBdtnAts?si=xuBLh_pTGPRuPGZp). The final exam is Mineta (grape pervert) and Sero (tape boy) against the rated R hero Midnight whose quirk allows her to release a fragrance from her body that puts people to sleep (Shizuku: It works better on men than it does women. (Nitsuj): If it’s her putting me to sleep then I’m totally alright with it). She takes out Sero easily leaving only Mineta left to face her (Nitsuj and Shizuku: He’s screwed). Against overwhelming odds and logic, Mineta pulls an upset and gets Midnight stuck far away from the goal allowing him to pick up Sero and escape with him earning a pass (scene here: https://youtu.be/JVkpF3Smfi0?si=EEnqJIMm_6vxNUcB, the luck of that kid never ceases to amaze me).
In episode 24 we get the test we’ve been waiting for, Izuku and Katsuki vs All Might the hero that these two look up to but at the same time view him differently. Izuku wants to be like All Might, a symbol, the face of what it means to be hero. Katsuki, despite his demeanor, powers, and mannerisms (Nitsuj: All of which point to, this guy should be a villain) is serious about becoming a hero and longs to be one. However, unlike Izuku who wants to be like All Might, Katsuki’s desire is to surpass All Might and be a greater symbol of good than he was (a noble desire and goal if you think about it. He respects All Might for what he’s done but he feels that he should build off of what All Might did and strive to become something bigger and better. Take a look at the video game industry, in the past all we had was 8-bit games that were on cartridges that usually didn’t work. If these kinds of games were still being made today the video game industry would have died out a long time ago and games like the Last of Us, Persona 5, God of War, Expedition 33, etc. would have never existed. But we don’t because developers built new ideas on the ideas of those before them and strove to make playing video games a better experience for the next generation and now we’ve gotten to the point where video games are seen as a form of art and speak to us on philosophical and personal level. (Nitsuj): How do you go from borderline insanity to wise insight? Just what are you, a genius or a mad woman. (Shizuku): I’m Shizuku, boss. Nothing more). As the exam begins both Izuku and Katsuki have different motives and plans. Izuku wants to run away and reach the goal while Katsuki actually tries to take down All Might and refuses to listen to Izuku. Katsuki attacks All Might where even though he’s wearing weights that slow him down, he’s still able to beat Katsuki like it’s nothing and even pins Izuku down so he doesn’t escape. Izuku manages to escape and rather than run away by himself, he escapes with Katsuki who all this time was trying to wear All Might down so they could escape. Even if they were to run away All Might would catch up to them in no time so Katsuki figured it be best to wear him down and then make a run for the finish line (Nitsuj: Unfortunately, he didn’t factor in his ass getting handed to All Might). So the two finally set aside their differences for only a moment and work together to come up with a plan to pass the exam. They combine their quirks and Katsuki’s grenade gauntlet to launch themselves towards the goal where Izuku has a clear path to the goal but Katsuki gets taken out by All Might. Izuku goes back for Katsuki and decks All Might allowing him to pick up Katsuki and cross the goal together (scene here: https://youtu.be/AeQNfH37a8U?si=jv0ybmMOk5LdV80q). At the end of the episode League of Villains receives a visit from a girl named Toga and a guy named Dabi who want to join because the media made it out that Stain was a member and now young villains want to be like him and join the League of Villains (kids, follow his beliefs not his actions. Scene here: https://youtu.be/alPqKHzAQ4Y?si=ADAt1tzVYrmnkFwq).
In the final episode Shigaraki tries to attack Toga and Dabi because of them and everyone else being so hung up on Stain and it pisses him off (he made you humble without even applying the camel clutch). He gets stopped by Kogaki who says they need the numbers in order to fulfill their goal of defeating All Might but Shigaraki doesn’t want to hear it and heads out (Nitsuj: The guy is like a kid throwing a temper tantrum because things aren’t going his way and he doesn’t want to admit he’s wrong). We go to our young heroes where they all find out that despite a few of them failing the hero part of their exam, they all get to go on the training camp trip so on their next day off they all go to the mall to shop for supplies and stuff. While at the mall Shigaraki captures Izuku and in order to keep Shigaraki from going on rampage and killing everyone in the area, Izuku is forced to give in to his commands. Shigaraki seeks answers, answers as to why everyone is talking about Stain even though he and Shigaraki seem to be destroying stuff (Nitsuj: Because Stain had conviction in what he was doing. Whether you agree with Stain’s methods or not his ideals about what a hero should be like are right. Not every hero should be like All Might but they should all strive for the same ideas as him. Being a hero to help out others because it’s the right thing to do and seek no reward or glory from it. What are Shigaraki’s convictions? What do you hope to gain from toppling All Might and the most important question, do you truly believe that your convictions are right?). Izuku tells Shigaraki that while he didn’t agree with Stain’s method he had convictions and wanted all heroes to have the same mentality as All Might but all Shigaraki gets from this is that this is All Might’s fault and his conviction to kill All Might to show everyone how fragile justice is, is all he needs to keep moving forward (from the mind of the broken). Ochaco shows back up and sees the situation Izuku is in (this isn’t what it looks like honey) and Shigaraki takes his leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/A_nWPulyZ98?si=lNuymtveTSONJYix). Ochaco reports this situation to the police and the mall gets shutdown temporarily for the police to search for Shigaraki and to bring Izuku in for questioning. The police didn’t catch Shigaraki and after Izuku’s questioning he gets picked up by his mom (who was worried sick. (Nitsuj): What mother wouldn’t be?) and then driven home by the police. We end the season with the closing ceremony at U.A and the promise of a third season.
Current Thoughts
(Nitsuj): And that was season 2 of My Hero Academia. This season covers three arcs and then some, so let’s bring it down. The first arc is the Sports Festival arc which takes the spotlight off Izuku and instead focuses on the other characters in his class. While Izuku still has his moments to shine, this arc’s main purpose is to get us interested into the other characters in his class and they succeed. Shoto benefitted the most from this. His backstory, powers, and characters make him worthy of an MC. If the show was written differently, he could have wound up being the main character instead of Izuku. He goes through his character development and becomes not only a better person but a good friend to Izuku. The whole festival serves as Katsuki’s redemption as he acknowledges the skills of everyone around him. Even though he won he’s not satisfied with the results as he still feels Shoto is stronger than him. Outside of these we got to see Tokoyami, Mina, Ochaco, and Eijiro get a chance to shine and go on to become fan favorites and some of the best characters from the series. Like I said, some people were mad Izuku didn’t win, but I was okay with it. He had his cool moments, and this wasn’t the right time for him to win.
(Shizuku): The second is the Hero Killer arc. Stain’s story elevated this series to the next level. What he did was wrong but his purpose and reasoning behind it were right and his impact sets into motion Shigaraki and the League of Villains in the right direction. While Izuku isn’t the main focus of this arc, we see him develop as he learns to control his quirk, taking another huge step forward. Shoto also goes through his development as he has learned to fight with both sides of his quirks. He’s come to realized that he’s not a tool to achieve his dad’s goals. He’s his own person, his quirks are his own powers, and he can decide the kind of hero he wants to be. This is probably Tenya’s lowest point in the story as we see him seek out vengeance and forget the kind of hero and person his brother wants him to be. It’s hard to watch but you understand why he did what he did and in the end, realizes his mistakes.
(Nitsuj): The final exam arc is where we see all the students take what they learned throughout the season and face their teachers. Some succeed while others fall short. Momo and Tenya grew the most here as they learn from the past and find their confidence to be heroes again. The major highlight is the fight between Izuku and Katsuki vs All Might. Both characters who respect All Might but for different reasons. One wants to be like him, the other wants to surpass him. One likes All Might because he saves everyone. The other likes All Might because he beats everyone. It’s a prime example of different perspectives on a person or object and I love it. No different than when two people watch an anime. One person might like it while the other one hates it.
(Shizuku): Outside of these arcs, other big moments are the characters getting their hero names. Izuku choosing Deku because of Ochaco and how she changed the meaning of it solidifies their friendship with each other and how much Ochaco means to him. Tsu actually getting her own episode shows just how popular she was becoming and how much readers and fans were getting invested into the story and the cast. The final big moment is at the end where Izuku and Shigaraki talk. This moment was brilliant. You feel how intense and dangerous the situation is and Izuku does his best to stay calm and keep it under control in order to protect himself and everyone else. This moment also serves as the starting point for a future confrontation between the two. One training to be the next hero. The other a villainous threat on the rise. The series makes it clear that the battle between All for One and One for All has been going on for years and now that battle continues with their successors in a different form.
(Nitsuj): Overall, this season was fantastic. It showed the growth of Izuku while also getting us invested into the other characters, exploring the world a little more, and building up the potential threats of the future. If you weren’t onboard the MHA train after season one than season two made you go all in on this series and it would only continue to get better from here on out. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj as My Hero Summeria continues.
