My Hero Academia: Winners and losers of Episode 84

On the latest episode of My Hero Academia, Deku and Gentle Criminal finally meet face-to-face for one of the series’s weirder confrontations.

I spoke last week about how a friend of mine was less than satisfied with the latest episodes of My Hero Academia. I mentioned that, in his eyes, there wasn’t enough actually happening and that he needed, to put it simply, some fighting to pop off immediately. Well, this week’s episode finally made those wishes come to fruition. Let’s break it down like Ashido breaks dances (did that make any sense?).

Winners

Danjuro Tobita / Gentle Criminal

At last, we finally found out what Gentle’s quirk allows him to do. It’s a bit of doozy, in fact, as it allows him to make anything he touches elastic, including the air. The power is odd, certainly, but the more you think about it the more clear it becomes that Gentle is certainly one not to be taken lightly.

For most of the episode, he’s able to fairly easily counter everything Midoriya does by reflecting him back across the entire street. He can bounce Midoriya into the air by making the ground like a trampoline, and even makes an entire construction site bouncy so he’s able to maneuver so quickly around.

Izuku Midoriya / Deku

Of course, this episode also featured our boy accomplishing his own fair share of achievements. First of all, he was able to use his powers to launch an attack from a distance—like air bullets—with his fingers. This, as the people in the business say, changes everything. But most importantly, this is the first time in a while that I’ve seen Midoriya engage in combat with a powerful villain without getting completely beaten up, teetering on the edge of death.

He did all this without his usual hero costume, wearing nothing more than some basic street clothes and a hoodie. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, this might be the best version of Midoriya we’ve seen on My Hero Academia yet. I hereby dub him as Hoodie Deku in reference to another god of our time: Hoodie Melo.

Mei Hatsume

Remember that part about me saying Midoryia wore nothing but street clothes? That was a lie (because I didn’t feel like overstuffing that paragraph with information). It turns out that Hatsume, one of the students from UA’s support course, developed some gloves that make it easier for Midoriya to unleash those mini-smashes from his fingers.

Hatsume hasn’t gotten any love from me this season, but she absolutely deserves it. She’s basically the female version of Tony Stark, except if Tony Stark had the energy and demeanor of a track runner hyped up on cocaine and had been awake for 36 hours straight while listening to My Chemical Romance. That was a lot of specific descriptors, I know.

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Dancing

It’s brought up during the course of an overly-elaborate series of flashbacks that Midoriya practicing his dance moves under Ashido gave him the confidence and focus to hone his own techniques. I’d say this is a bit of a stretch of a connection to make, but I’ll allow it. After all, dancing does make you better at a lot of things in life. According to my friends’ experiences, having at least some ounce of rhythm to your moves when you’re out at a bar or club makes you infinitely more attractive.

I say my friends, specifically, because not only do I have zero game (i.e. ability to get girls to like me), but I have absolutely no dancing acumen. I’m starting to think there might be a connection. Anyways, let’s get into losers quickly. The more I write this the more obvious it becomes that I need to be put down, fast, before saying something truly reprehensible.

Losers

Getting up early

Well, guess it’s too late to stop me from saying something reprehensible. Strap yourselves in, ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a stretch. So much of a stretch, in fact, that it’d make Gentle Criminal himself happy.

One of the different things shown in this week’s episode is the time shown in the bottom right corner that gives us a perspective on when everything’s happening on the hectic day of the school festival. The way I see it—and I must stress that I’m never wrong—this episode of My Hero Academia is an endorsement of my belief that hustling is never the right course of action. Why get up so early when it might lead to you confronting a dangerous villain? Why not just sleep in longer?

This country is ruined by those who try hard. Actually, strike that, this whole planet is ruined by people who try too hard. These hustlers, by my approximation, have resulted in the creation of standards of pushing boundaries too far that it makes us all suffer. Imagine what it would be like if the requirements for getting ahead weren’t so high? It’s abuse against the rest of us lazy bums! It’s unfair!

I say all this fully acknowledging that Midoriya actually met up with Gentle around 8:30 in the morning, which to many is hardly that early. That’s a solid point, but maybe let’s just point out that Midoriya himself acknowledges that it’s too early for any other heroes or people to be up to help him. Do you see what I mean? Never hustle, people. Never hustle.

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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.

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