My Hero Academia 96 has become a favorite because it’s just so awesome. It made me emotional in a good way. Seeing to the extent the students went in the battle because they know in a real fight against the villains they will have to give their all. You feel so proud of all the characters while watching this episode.
My heart is full of admiration for them. There are certain reasons why we love watching anime and My Hero Academia 96 serves as one of them. The character development and tenacity that we observe will undoubtedly move your heart.
In the previous episode, Honenuki’s quirk was able to turn the tables and put the Class A Team in a pinch. But as Honenuki gets ready to go and help his teammates. Ida charges up against him with his Recipro Turbo attack which is super fast for the human eye. It becomes too hard for Honenuki to handle Ida’s attack. He realizes that if he fights Ida, he will lose. As a result, Honeuki retreats to assist his friends. Ojiro seems to be struggling against Kaibara. Kaibara’s offensive capabilities are enhanced more with his support items. So it makes it harder for Ojiro to defend himself against Kaibara. Just when it looks like Ojiro will be down for the count, Ida comes to the rescue and holds Kaibara. He runs ahead to take him to the jail.
When Kaibara tells Ida that a normal person would have gone after Honenuki to settle the score, Ida says choosing to save his teammates is what his brother would have done. It’s admirable. He says he can’t lose himself just because it’s training as that might result in him slipping during the real fight too. Ida chose to not go ahead and continue the fight against Honenuki just for the sake of winning. He prioritized helping his teammates. With Kaibara out for the count, Ida asks Ojiro to help others. We see Tetsutetsu and Todoroki in battle mode going against each other. Todoroki’s ice does not seem to faze Tetsutetsu as he keeps breaking down the ice and marching ahead.
With no choice left Todoroki switches to his fire attack and attacks Tetsutetsu with it. He asks Shoji to take care of Tsunotori. Shockingly, the fire does not derail Tetsutetsu and he keeps on walking through the fire. Looks like Tetsutetsu did hardcore training to help him sustain in high temperature. As a result, his steel turns red hot in Todoroki’s fire but it does not affect him in a bad way. He gets closer to Todoroki and punches him. This makes Todoroki think back to the training practice his dad used to push on him as a child. When he was young and could not reach his peak but his dad kept on pushing him to do so. Every punch from Tetsutetsu makes him think back about his dad when he was told that he has a greater power inside him.
We know the reason Todoroki’s aversion to his fire part is because of Endeavor. But thanks to the Sports Festival Fight with Midoriya he realizes that his power is his and his alone. With this thinking, he pushes his heat level to reach the maximum stage by increasing the flames more. It’s magnificently powerful and ends up wrecking all the things around him due to the heat. It troubles Tetsutetsu. Tetsutetsu observes that the flames have to be hurting Todoroki too, making it harder for Todoroki to maintain the flames. So Tetsutetsu pushes against the heat waves. And holds the hand of the burning flame of Todoroki while attacking him with force.
When Todoroki points out that Tetsutetsu’s hands will get burned, he says if you don’t give your all in the training what’s the point? With this, he keeps on attacking Todoroki and talks about going beyond your limits. This action only fuels Todoroki more. On the other side, we have Shoji who is chasing Tsunotori to capture her. They start fighting each other and Ojiro shows up to assist Shoji and captures Tsunotori. Just when Ojiro gets ready to take off, the ground softens and Honenuki shows up. Honenuki tries to get Tsunotori back but with a massively strong force, Ojiro repels him away.
Surprisingly Tsunotori’s horns rise from the inside the soft ground and attack Ojiro’s tail where he is holding Tsunotori. Even though Ojiro does not loosen his grip, the horns are powerful enough to direct the flow of motion taking both Ojiro and Tsunotori to Class B Team’s jail cell. With this, both teams are at 1-1 now. Going back to the fight between Todoroki and Tetsutetsu, both seem to be getting slow and the fight is taking a toll on their bodies. Todoroki knows that he needs to push Tetsutetsu away. He tries to channel his heat flames around his fist so that the power of flames altogether can deliver a killer blow.
Just when we think Tetsutetsu is going to get knocked down, Honenuki shows up and melts everything around making Todoroki lose his footing and dispel his attack. A large beam falls on Todoroki and he starts to lose his consciousness. Suddenly we see Ida attacking Honenuki with a strong blow and going forward to pick up Todoroki.
I love how Ida like a true hero prioritizes rescue first and chooses to take away Todoroki rather than stay and fight against his opponents. There’s something about this scene that makes you emotional as we see flashbacks from the previous seasons where our heroes saved people by rescuing them. Honenuki regrets walking away from Ida as now he is paying the price for it. He feels dejected as he starts losing his consciousness and he believes they are going to lose. But even in the last moments, Honenuki wants to help out his teammates, he does not want to give up on them.
He remembers Yaoyorozu giving away items to her team at the last minute even when she was losing. Thus he asks Tetsutetsu to punch a tall building and uses his quirk to make the ground soft so it can fall ahead in the path where Ida is running with Todoroki in hand. This last push from Honenuki serves as a good plan of action. As Ida can’t seem to outrun the falling building and the building ends up falling on top of him. Everyone seems to be waiting with bated breath. We see Honenuki, Tetsutetsu have fallen, and it’s only Ida who is caught below the weight of the building as he managed to keep Todoroki out of harm’s way. Ida is the only one who is conscious but as he cannot move it leaves him with no choice but to stay there.
We see Tsunotori running ahead of Shoji and she picks up her unconscious teammates along with Todoroki. But it looks like Shoji is hot on her tail. She knows it won’t be long until she gets caught. She does not want her team to lose and with her quick thinking she propels herself and the other teammates up in the sky making her and them out of reach for Shoji. It’s the best suited last-ditch effort. And now it’s just the waiting game till the timer goes off.
With this, the third match ends up in a draw. Even though this might feel not satisfying enough for some, it’s perfect to showcase how sometimes fighting or winning is not the only answer when in a fight. Rescuing and waiting for a better option is also a viable choice that makes sure you and your teammates make it to the end.
Midoriya says Ida is cool because even at the last minute he was able to save Todoroki by staying true to his ideal of prioritizing the rescue first. In the infirmary, we see Ida apologizing to Todoroki for being slow. But Todoroki interrupts and says he was the slow one. As he did not use the best attack against the opponent team in the first go hesitating about his fireside, it led to all of this. He reflects on it and talks about how he wants to be a hero who gives others peace of mind.
In response, Ida says He will always run anywhere to anyone who needs him because that is his job. It’s heartwarming. And these reflections make you think how much the characters have grown. Class B’s Honenuki asks both of them to fight again as he states he has a lot to improve on. This concludes My Hero Academia 96.
It feels good that the future is in the hands of these young determined heroes. The next match has Bakugo in it and Midoriya is very much excited about it. My Hero Academia 96 was utterly satisfying to watch and the preview for the next leaves you looking forward to what Bakugo has in store for all of us!
You can watch My Hero Academia 96 on Crunchyroll
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