My Hero Academia: Winners and losers of Episode 82

On the latest episode of My Hero Academia, Class 1-A begins to prepare for the school festival and more is learned about the mysterious new villain Gentle.

I seriously can’t stress enough how greatly appreciated it is that the last few episodes of My Hero Academia have been, well, not filled with stress. Look, I love action as much as the next guy (that’s kinda what a Shounen anime is known for, after all), but I don’t like to be beaten over the head with it. Sometimes I just enjoy seeing these characters I (mostly) love just hanging out and being, I guess, kids!

Plus, I enjoy learning about new characters like Gentle — who is clearly a stark contrast to the brooding and maniacal Overhaul. The buildup is good, and we should always cherish it, even if it’s not what makes the headlines. Here are the winners and losers of My Hero Academia Episode 82!

Winners

Izuku Midoriya / Deku

My boy continues to grow! It’s been a while, but Midoriya seems to be training with All Might again. Last time I remember him actually training with him was in the middle of Season 3, but even that was only for a few moments. While his MVP performance in Episode 76 as he took down Overhaul was godly, the truth is that without Eri there’s no way such a thing would’ve been possible.  So, despite the love I have for what my boy has accomplished, he’s still got a ways to go.

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One of the ways he appears to be going is by learning to concentrate his energy in a way that will allow him to better battle opponents from a distance — mainly by releasing his energy from his fingers like he did in Season 1 and Season 2. This is exciting because we know he’s absolutely going to master it and utilize it in some epic fashion; we just know it.

Katsuki Bakugo

While I’ve spent a majority of these recaps idolizing Midoriya, most fans would agree that the development of Bakugo’s character might possibly be the greatest strength My Hero Academia has. He yells a lot and teeters on being an abusive bully, but over the course the show’s four seasons it’s been shown that this simply isn’t the case. Often times he goes against the tropes that characters with his kind of personality traits tend to have.

In Episode 82, not only does show off that he’s like the Dave Grohl of the class and murders it on the drums, but he’s also completely all-in on the idea of performing a concert. Of course, in classic Bakugo fashion, he stresses the need for everyone to work hard so that way they can make something truly special. Do you need that kind of intensity and competitiveness? Yes, and Bakugo rules.

Losers

The Internet

You know what doesn’t rule? When people are mean online! I feel for this poor guy Gentle; he’s just trying to be a cool criminal and show off his magnificent talents to the world. If anything, My Hero Academia showed us again this week that, in all likeliness, the internet was a mistake. All it does is feed the trolls and instill power within them. Perhaps this lack of appreciation by the internet is what is going to propel Gentle into committing a truly heinous crime.

Also, yes, I struggled to find a definitive loser for this week’s episode. I may have reached a bit; sue me.

As always, remember that you can tune in every Saturday for new episodes of My Hero Academia on Funimation and Crunchyroll followed by breakdowns here on Hidden Remote.