My Hero Academia, Season 2 – Episode 17 – “Strategy, Strategy, Strategy”

Does anyone have a good strategy where I can avoid all the complaining about how the anime isn’t going as fast as the manga does? Because I’m still seeing this throughout my time with this show. It won’t help on this episode, but strategy is the theme here.

As pointed out with last episode, Izuku learned of his point value, and is getting all the looks from everyone. But instead of hated looks of being Quirkless like in Jr. High, these are looks of knowing he is the #1 target for this event now.  As the calvary battle gets underway, Midnight explains the rules.

  • The time limit is 15 minutes.
  • The teams will have headbands that show their total point value worth.
  • Each team will have to grab said headbands from the other teams, getting as many points as they can, and wearing them from the neck up.
  • If a team’s headband gets stolen or if they fall, they don’t have to worry because they aren’t out.
  • The players can use their Quirks, but they can’t use them to purposely make another team fall. If they do, said person gets a red card and is kicked out.

The students have 15 minutes to choose their team. Izuku doesn’t need it, since he already has his team picked out. The other heroes watching this point out how this sports festival is a way to show off your stuff, even if you need to kick your friends down to go ahead. However, you can work together like in the upcoming battle, and learn the different Quirks people have. It’s like a way to learn what life will be as a pro.

As Todoroki has his team all picked out, Mina, Yuga and others want to team up with Bakugo, of course. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t know their Quirks. Or even their names, as he shows calling Kirishima “weird hair.” But Kirishima does offers to be the one to take blasts for him, thanks to his Hardening. All he needs to focus on is to have Bakugo get that 10 million as the rider, which Bakugo likes. Mineta himself couldn’t get any girls to join him, so he asks Shoji to team with him because of the height difference. Izuku knows he’s being isolated because of his point value, and just asking gets him shot down immediately. Not showing his Quirk in the race either is both making his confidence go down. But, as it is, someone does want to team up with him. It’s Uraraka. She doesn’t care for the points at all. She cares about one thing.

Deku is really happy about this. I mean, REALLY happy.

Uraraka was one of the people Izuku wanted to partner up with, since he can communicate with her. There is one more person that Izuku wanted to team up with, and that person is Iida. They ask him to join them, and even tells him their strategy, which using Uraraka’s Quirk and needing a strong rider, they will just run till the end. However, even though they’re friends, Iida declines. He has lost to Izuku since the Entrance Exams, and thinks teaming with him won’t make him grow better. He sees Izuku as an enemy like Bakugo and Todoroki, so Iida has already decided to join Todoroki’s team. Everyone, even friends, are all aiming for the top spot Izuku has. Luckily for him, someone does else wants to join his group. The Support Course inventor lady from last episode, Mei Hatsume. She wants to team up with Izuku just so her “babies” can get noticed by everyone, including the companies. It’s all for herself, but she does have some cool stuff that is useful, including a backpack based on the one the “Buster Hero,” Air Jet, uses to fly with. Izuku allows her to join, even if Uraraka is a bit jealous he is talking to her. Now, Izuku needs that one other powerful person to join, and he finds them quickly.

The time to pick the teams is up, as Izuku picked Fumikage to join his team as the powerful person. Todoroki’s team consist of Iida, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari, to help create a very stable team that can help win, as his dad watches him from the stands. The 12 teams are all set, and, not counting Izuku’s team (which is at 10,000,325 points), each team is between 75-705 points, with Team Bakugo at 665 and Team Todoroki at 615. The Calvary Battle starts, and everyone goes after Izuku. This is why he wanted to run away for most of the fight, but Tetsutetsu’s team stops them with one of their own Quirks, turning the field into quicksand. Izuku quickly uses the backpack he got from Mei, and escapes the trap, getting in the air. This, with Uraraka’s Zero Gravity, make them much lighter. Hagakure, the invisible chick (who, I should point out, took off her shirt, and the boys she picked react like they can actually see her goods. Don’t even bother with logic here) has Jiro, the headphone jack chick, attack them, but Fumikage’s Dark Shadow blocks it. It makes for great defense. To make matters worse for Hagakure’s team, her headband gets taken by  Class B. Mineta and Shoji attack Izuku, but he only sees Shoji. They try to leave, but Uraraka gets stuck on Mineta’s hair blob. Izuku now sees he’s in Shouji’s giant hands. Then a tongue appears to attack them. Tsuyu is also with Team Mineta.

Izuku has no choice but to use the jetpack backpack, and break one of Hatsume’s hover soles. But as they take off, Bakugo flies right at them to attack. Fumikage blocks his attack, as Hanta pulls Bakugo back to their team. Izuku’s team has a hard time landing because of said broken flying shoe, so the air isn’t an option anymore.

The audience, reporters, and other heroes are loving this. But as they see the rankings, other than Izuku and all his points, Team A isn’t doing well. In fact, Bakugo gets his headband taken by a Class B dude. It’s there where Class B revealed what they have been doing all along. They knew most in their class weren’t gonna advance pass the first qualifier, so they had a bunch be behind to observe the Quirks and personalities of 1-A and get their info for this round. They all did this as a class, and threw the first qualifier to advance. The Class B dude then mentions the sludge attack that Bakugo was involved in, and it sends him into a fury.

Of course, all this info dump means that Class B won’t necessarily go after Izuku’s 10 million. But know who will? Todoroki. Him and his team stand in the way of Izuku.

There were a few takeaways from this episode. One, Bakugo is still a fiery dumbass. Two, Class B is a lot more of a challenge here than what I thought. Just throwing the first game away to get what they needed about 1-A was a pretty smart thing here. And three, the growth of Izuku is definitely still coming along. But if there’s one thing I really liked here, it was Uraraka. She is a pure ray of sunshine, and one of the best things about MHA. Yes, I still like Tsuyu more, but Uraraka is definitely up there as one of the better characters. She doesn’t care about the competition and who should be top dog. She only cares for her friends. I loved how she wanted to be by Deku’s side, even as people turned him down. And yes, I do believe these two should be shipped together (PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!!) You saw how he reacts around her in Season 1. And seeing her be a bit jealous when Mei was showing off her inventions to him may be a sign to come. Maybe. I hope? The animation was also still top notch here. And the pace? Where, I already said it. No need for more of that. Another solid episode as the calvary battle continues on in the next episode.

My Hero Academia is simulcasted on both Funimation and Crunchyroll. It can be seen at 5:35 AM Saturday on both, with a simu-dub on Funimation. 

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