Hot on the heels of an eventful first half of the season, in
which class 1-A’s Summer forest lodge trip is interrupted by the League of
Villains kidnapping Bakugo, Midoriya and a small team launching a search and
rescue for their captured class-mate, and ending with a showdown between All
Might and All For One, the final thirteen episodes of season three has some big
boots to fill.
Starting with our students preparing for the upcoming Provisional
Hero License Exams, Midoriya and his class-mates are advised by their teacher
that given the extremely low pass-rate, they need to develop new ultimate moves
and upgrade their hero costumes to support these, still recovering from his
injuries however, Izuku struggles to come up with anything, until an accident
forces him to defend a weakened All Might and subsequently gives him a fresh
idea.
With everyone powered-up and pumped, it’s onto the exams, beginning
with our heroes-in-training facing the rival academies in a target-based test,
each students wears three targets and must hit an opposing student’s targets
whilst defending their own, this gives plenty of chance to see other members of
our cast testing their mettle against some newly introduced students and
quirks, some of which are very cool and a couple which are rather disturbing,
we’re looking at you Seiji Shishikura and your “Meatball” quirk.
Scraping through the first exam, Class 1-A and teams must
then face the second part of the exams, large-scale rescue scenarios with
professional rescuees amidst varied areas of artificial, but very real danger
and peril, whilst also fending off some “acting” villains, requiring the
remaining students to use their brains as well as their abilities, being scored
accordingly for collaboration, cooperation and proper usage of Quirks, with any
score of less than fifty meaning a fail.
I won’t spoil the outcome of the exams, but in the period
following, the rivalry between Bakugo and Midoriya comes to a head, Izuku is
resentful that despite both their admiration for All Might as they were growing
up, Deku was always the powerless one and insists he isn’t deserving of All
Might’s power, goading Midoriya into a confrontation, the two exchange blows
and it’s only once the dust settles that All Might appears, explaining that
only through raising each other up will they each achieve their goals.
It’s a lesson-learned, and whilst a familiar moral for fans
of most Shonen Jump series, it encapsulates this latter half of this third
season of My Hero Academia nicely, with the members of Class 1-A forced yet
further out of their comfort zones, unlikely alliances and teams are formed for
the sake of their friends and their futures, even including reluctant truces,
albeit temporary, when faced with the prospects of failure and defeat.
Season three probably features some of the biggest character
growth compared to previous instalments, especially following All Might’s
retirement and the growing unrest occurring within society, the once beloved
symbol of peace now a shadow of his former self, our students each having to
conquer their doubts and fears, gaining a better control and understanding of
their quirks, and learning to live with themselves and each other in a world that
finds itself on the edge of disarray.
Whilst the stakes may not be as high following a stellar
opening half, the remaining thirteen episodes remain full of enough action,
humour and heart that continue to make MHA as compelling and relevant as when
it first burst onto the scenes three years ago, so much so that midway there’s
also a standalone jump-off episode that leads into the events of the excellent Two
Heroes feature-length movie, that did very well on both Eastern and Western
shores.
As ever, My Hero Academia shows no signs of relenting with
season four airing in about four weeks, with the brief introduction of
characters and events at the end of this collection, it promises to be another
edge of your seat season, who are U.A. High School’s Big Three? and how will
our eager students fair in their Hero Work-Studies? This second group of
episodes might not be as breakneck as the previous, but does allow us to catch
our breath and enjoy seeing each of our favourite 1-A members getting their
characters fleshed out that little bit more, and that’s not a reference to Shishikura’s
disgusting “Meatball” quirk, retch.
My Hero Academia: Season Three Part Two is out now on DVD and Blu-ray Part One also available now