My Review Academia S5 E9: 4-0

After a whole season of doing practically nothing, Bakugo is finally back in the spotlight! But is he coming back with a bang? Or a whimper?

You know the drill by now. This episode focuses on the fourth match between classes A and B. And Bakugo is determined to get a perfect win. Can he pull it off? Or will his vulgar personality prove too much of a detriment for his team?

This episode is basically just ‘The Bakugo Show’. The others on his team get their moments to shine, and those moments are great. But it’s almost exclusively about showing you how much our explody boy has grown as a character.

Is it satisfying? Incredibly so. But it’s also about as subtle as a brick. We’ve got several characters vocally explaining how much Bakugo has changed and in exactly what ways he’s done so. It only gets really annoying towards the end of the episode, but it’s still pretty ham-fisted throughout.

The actual fight itself is pretty good. Not amazing, but not terrible. Lizard-lady’s got a fun Quirk; she’s basically scaly-Majin Buu and it’s pretty dope. Glue boy is just okay, and Weld boy is pretty cool. Although blade-guy is super boring; haven’t there been two other characters who could grow blades from their bodies?

The other class A kids get some fun moments. Jiro sticks speakers on top of her Quirk to fun effect. Sero gets to show off his big-brain. And Shoji is… there. Remember Shoji? He’s still a member of the class, don’t forget him! Still, they all work together with such perfect synergy that it’s almost impossible not to grin.

Also: this fight is short. Only about 70% of the episode’s runtime is dedicated to the fight itself. It isn’t padded out to two episodes, like all the others. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. That alone makes it the best fight in the season so far.

The rest of the episode is just okay. The biased-commentary gag is officially annoying, even more so when Monomo chips in with an equally annoying gag. The animation has a few rough shots, but is overall very good. It’s a stronger episode than most of the lot.

And now, the stage is set for the final match. As well as for actual plot related stuff to happen.