My Hero Academia: Winners and losers of Episode 87

On the latest episode of My Hero Academia, the new world hero rankings are revealed as we get our first look at pro hero Hawks.

Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we have, indeed, arrived at the penultimate episode for Season 4 of My Hero Academia. It’s been a wild ride, and based on how the events of this week’s episode transpired, we’re in for quite the doozy in next week’s episode.

This week, however, is what we’ll be describing because it is, in fact, this week. If you’re wondering by that last sentence how I could possibly call myself a good writer, just know that I have never referred to myself as such and probably never will.

Winners

Keigo Takami / Hawks

After being teased since Season 2, we finally got our first real look at pro hero Hawks. This week’s episode introduced us to the incredibly charismatic and, surprisingly, provocative hero and revealed that he’s been promoted to the rank of number two — second only to Endeavor. He’s an incredibly interesting character so far, as it’s difficult to understand exactly what his motives are and whether he’s as carefree as he acts. He’s an emotional sphinx, really, and I love it.

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We also got a little taste of his quirk, which, predictably, allows him to fly but also seemingly allows him to manipulate the individual feathers of his wings to perform tasks. He uses them to take down a villain (more on that later) and even effortlessly save a cat from being hit by a truck. I can’t wait to see more of this cool dude. He’s, just, so cool, you know?

Tsunagu Hakamata / Best Jeanist

He lives! Apparently, somehow, miraculously, Best Jeanist is still alive despite having been ruthlessly blasted by All For One back in Season 3. My Hero Academia, like many anime, has no qualms about making sure characters survive intensely gruesome injuries. As far as I’m aware, this was the first time the show has directly mentioned Jeanist since the incident. He deserves a shoutout not just for surviving, but also for the fact that he still holds the claim to the number three spot despite his stomach being blasted to near smithereens.

It makes me think about other famous characters that survive horribly gruesome injuries. How about Anakin Skywalker and Emperor Palpatine? Maybe practically every character from Naruto? Perhaps even John Wick after the end of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum? Let me know, the two people who probably read this, what your picks are? Anyways, let’s move on.

Losers

Teruo Hazukashi

I can’t remember any time in the history of My Hero Academia that a character was given actual moments of development and even a full name that was dispatched with so quickly. This guy’s quirk, uniquely, makes him more powerful the more embarrassed he becomes. Naturally, the evil-doer tries to go streaking in an effort for his quirk to kick in but is immediately taken down by Hawks like it was nothing.

Just imagine being in the slammer and having to tell your fellow inmates that you got nailed in the back by a bunch of feathers, while naked, and didn’t even have the chance to fight back. I’m being dead serious when I say that this might be the toughest beat any character has had throughout the recaps I’ve been doing for this series.

Fandom

Endeavor’s somewhat sudden change of heart over the last season has been interesting, to say the least. In an effort to save my thoughts on that for what I can imagine will be one of his most defining episodes next week, plus the fact I don’t want to write this anymore, I’ll just leave it at that. However, there’s definitely a loser this week that must be discussed and that’s a general depiction of fandom.

In a brief moment, Endeavor attempts to shake hands and be friendly with one of his hands. In response, the fan freaks out and says that what makes him such a fan of Endeavor is how he would never acknowledge his fans. This is basically the equivalent of when music fans start to feel any animosity towards an artist because they’ve gone too mainstream. Basically, My Hero Academia encapsulated what a large swath of fanatics and their silly tendencies are like in actuality. I absolutely love how much of a stretch I’m making with this one.

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.