This wasn’t all that compelling an episode, to be honest. It doesn’t look great and it makes a lot of bad decisions that ruin the pacing. It had its moments, but overall it just wasn’t that exciting.
Plot-wise, there isn’t much to discuss. After the second match, the students move to a new battlefield that looks exactly the same as the first to continue. Match three stars Todoroki and Iida’s team VS Tetsutetsu’s team. Meanwhile, Endeavor continues his hero work and tries to get in touch with his son in hopes of teaching him a new technique.
The pacing this episode is all over the place. We get yet another overly-long recap and yet more pointless flashbacks to events from previous seasons. It feels like they’re dragging their feet for as long as they can get away with.
The animation this episode also isn’t much to write home about. There are a few shots that look really stiff and awkward. Thankfully, those are short-lived and few and far between. But they still stand out like a sore thumb.
Also: not a fan of Tetsutetsu here. He just charges straight into trouble without a second thought, forcing his teammates to make their plans around his stupidity. You’d think he’d have learned not to do that, considering how it nearly got him killed back in season three. It feels like any character growth he may have had was either ignored or forgotten.
That’s not to say this episode is all bad, though. It does have a few fun highlights that make it worth a watch.
For one: Endeavor gets a fun scene where he saves some kids. It’s a cute little moment that highlights his personal growth and how public perception of him has changed. It’s nice to see him being appreciated and admired over being feared. Plus, it leads to a gag that is equal parts hilarious and depressing.
It’s also nice to see Iida getting screen time again. It’s brief, but he gets some pretty fun moments here. We even get to see what he was up to off-screen. As it turns out, he underwent some pretty brutal training while Deku was busy fighting a dude with a mustache.
We also get treated to a brief scene with Deku and Bakugo. Season 4 did practically nothing with Bakugo now knowing about Deku and All Might’s secret, so it’s nice to see it actually being brought up here. It’s very brief and adds very little to the episode, but it’s a cute little scene that highlights how their relationship has changed.
I mean, it hasn’t changed much, but it has changed!
Honestly, there’s not much else to talk about here. There are a few cute and fun scenes peppered in here, but nothing with much substance to talk about. This is definitely one of the weaker episodes of the season so far.
But to be fair: that preview did look hella promising.
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