My Hero Academia: Winners and losers of Episode 71

At last, Amajiki shows us exactly why he’s part of The Big Three, here are the winners and loser of My Hero Academia Episode 71.

With My Hero Academia, perhaps the biggest anime out there, starting to hit its stride with Season 4, I thought it’d be a good and fun idea to start a weekly column recapping each episode. This recap shall, naturally, be done in the form of a “Winners and Losers” scheme. This will, I believe (and whenever I believe something, I’m never wrong), allow for an ample amount of opportunities to properly share the passion I have for this lovely show. It’s going to be lots of fun, I promise!

Another note: The following thoughts come from a perspective of someone who has only watched the anime for My Hero Academia, not the manga, and doesn’t plan to, in an effort to remain as surprised as possible. Just figured I’d say that for all the (fellow) nerds out there.

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Winners

Lemillion/Mirio Togata

I expect that this will, hardly, be the last time Mirio makes it into the winner’s section. This episode was primarily geared towards showing off exactly what makes Amajiki so powerful, but we got to see exactly how he and Mirio came to be close friends.

It’s touching to see, and I’ve found this season’s character-building for Mirio to be one of the core themes. It’s made more and more clear that Mirio has plenty of heart he, too, would have absolutely been worthy of inheriting One For All. Also, Mirio as a little kid is pretty dang adorable.

Taishiro Toyomitsu/Fat Gum

This big guy is just, I don’t know, the homie? Is that the best I can do to explain it? Probably not, but it’ll do for now. There’s a one-liner in which he mentions that bullets don’t work on him since he can just ingest them with his quirk, which is, I’d say, super useful! But what I love most about this new pro hero is his passion, and he continues to show it — even in small ways — every episode.

You have to love seeing his confidence in Amajiki who he, despite his issues of self-doubt, regards as easily “the strongest person here.” I wish my teachers believed in me that much when I did my internships/work studies, but alas.

Tamaki Amajiki/Suneater

Of course, the big winner of episode 71 is our little nervous boy, Amajiki. We may have technically gotten to see his quirk in action in episode 68, but it was only momentarily as his power was stripped away. His Manifest quirk essentially allows him to manipulate his body into using the various properties associated with whatever he eats. It might sound weird, but he’s basically got the ability to use animal powers! It’s awesome! He’s like Beast Boy from Teen Titans except not really.

Seeing the tremendous and utility of his quirk make Amajiki a character that is sure to be a favorite for some. He’s able to take down three powerful villains all by himself! He’s like Lebron in the 2015 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors! I want to see more of Amajiki as soon as possible, or else.

Losers

Taishiro Toyomitsu/Fat Gum

I know, I know, I just praised the guy like two paragraphs ago. However, I simply cannot allow the cheesiness of him saying “Dollars to Donuts,” go unchecked. We get it, homie, you like to eat food.

Continuity

That’s right, this isn’t just reserved for characters. I got some beef. Shota Aizawa (Eraser Head) has the ability to cancel out quirks, yes, but it has been stated many times before that the effect ends once he blinks. Aizawa uses this on the three individuals that Amajiki ends up fighting, but for some reason, it’s said that the effect will “wear off in a bit” even after Aizawa has left the area. What is the meaning of this?

I know superheroes and fantasy isn’t exactly the space that you should look for consistent realism or anything, but this is outrageous. And by “outrageous” I mean “not really outrageous, I’m just reaching for something to talk about for the Losers section.”

Anyways, that’s it for now, true believers. Remember that new episodes of My Hero Academia release every Saturday on Funimation and Crunchyroll, and I’ll be here each and every week to cover them!