Boku no Hero Academia – 65
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「オーバーホール」 (Oubaahouru)
“Overhaul”
The clash between Overhaul (Tsuda Kenjirou) and his crew versus the League of Villains was super cool! Sometimes the battles between superheroes (in other franchies especially) can get drawn out because everyone is too powerful to kill. Not so with HeroAca, or at least not always. This battle was brutal, with two deaths inside of two minutes, including of a named character in Magne (Inoue Satoru). Honestly I should have expected it once she started flashing back, but jeez. I’m not a fan of offing the trans character, but with all the visibility Horikoshi-sensei has given to multiple trans characters, it’s hard to get mad. More it’s an effective demonstration of how dangerous Overhaul is, and another example of Shigaraki’s failure. Diving deeper into that theme we go…
Speaking of, what I really enjoy about HeroAca is the duality of theme present in many episodes. While some series would have the heroes and villains pursuing goals with no thematic link to one another aside from their goals being mutually exclusive, there’s thematic cohesion between what Shigaraki (& Overhaul) are trying to do, versus what Izuku is attempting. In fact, their goals are the same—just inverted. They all want to make their crazy dreams a reality, and are trying to level up to do so. Shigaraki wants more troops. Overhaul wants money. Izuku wants to train under the best. They’re all trying to level up their game at the same time—a training arc, but on both sides. This time, the villains aren’t just lurking and waiting. They’re trying to become stronger as well.
Lest we think that’s the only duality, there’s also the matter of Izuku and Togata Mirio (Shingaki Tarusuke). There’s a sadness, seeing the sucessor and the would-have-been sitting next to each other, and working together. It’s also heartening, because Togata—though he has no clue that he was passed over—is wholeheartedly trying to help Izuku. It’s also kind of funny, because it puts them both as underdogs—Izuku as the Quirkless who got the greatest gift but must learn to manage it, Togata as the inherently gifted (but not by much) who could have had everything and now must continue to struggle with his meager gift. Togata is also just such a great guy! It could have been a great story, to have him be the successor … but too easy. Izuku will struggle more, and in that, we’ll find our story.
As for Sir Nighteye (Miki Shinichiro), can’t wait to see more of him next week. Dude looks like he’ll be an interesting contrast to All Might, which should help Izuku grow. Especially after his worst first impression. Poor Izuku! I laughed.
Random thoughts:
- I loved all the visualizations of words, from Bakugou and Present Mic and others. Very comic booky, very fun!
- Best Izuku moment of many good Izuku moments? It might have to be when he realizes that he doesn’t just want to ape All Might’s old goal anymore. Now he wants to be strong, always win, always save everyone, be the greatest hero, and most of all, not worry his mom. D’aawww! Midoriya family is the sweetest anime family, still and always.
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October 20, 2019 at 1:16 amUrahara
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I know that it was necessary for this story but giving Togata one for all would have absolutely been the right call. If this guy can do this much with what he has imagine what he could do with that! Additionally, he has a great personality
October 20, 2019 at 2:53 amyoloalchemist
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Yeah, Overhaul is certainly a better version of Tomura. Proves that Tomura is still at least a little bit of a man child to stick to his ego of wanting to rule society himself… is what would happen under normal circumstances, except that Tomura doesn’t want to rule society, but to destroy a fundamental part of it, that of its dependence on heroes. Tomura may need to improve his tactics, what with Overhaul telling him he could’ve better utilized Muscular and creepy teeth guy (forgot his name), but at least in regards to his main goal, Tomura certainly has the right villain mindset (or psyche). Ruling society is what Overhaul thinks Tomura wants to do, and he’s wrong. He’s more dangerous than that, and if The Dark Knight is anything to go by, I have a feeling that wrong train of thought is gonna bite him in the ass.
October 20, 2019 at 11:49 amCokeBottle
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I think it’s silly to care about offing a trans character on principle of them being trans,” especially a villain, anyone should be fair game.
I’m more bothered by the trans representation in actuality being very minor and the death/her trans status being used as a cudgel, I don’t actually think Horikoshi has been good on the representation at all, even though I like Tiger, so I sympathize with all the trans fans bothered by Magne’s death.
October 20, 2019 at 11:06 pmStilts
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It’s not silly when so many gay/trans/non-binary characters end up dying tragic deaths in fiction (bury your gays etc). What makes it better in my book is that Horikoshi-sensei has included a LOT more trans characters than most fiction (yes, two counts for a lot more, sadly enough), and since Tiger is still around (as far as I know), at least he’s not offing all of them. So it’s like, hey, better than usual.
He’s still not as good at it as he could be of course, so it’s absolutely understandable to be saddened that Magne died when she easily could have been swapped entirely with Mr. Compress … though she was much more likely to act rashly, personality-wise, so in actuality it makes more sense this way.
It’s dicey, honestly the best way to avoid it is just to have a plethora of different characters so one (or two) don’t have to hold the banner for a whole type of people, but at least one or two is better than the usual zero. Also, the scene was faithful to the characters, which is crucial in my book.
October 21, 2019 at 2:13 amLila
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Sorry, to be a little off-topic here and I hope you don’t take it the wrong way. But I checked out your link where it says transgender or homosexual people died more often than not in the last seasons (“[2015/16 and 16/17]“) in favor of a “cisgender character’s plotline”. Then I checked out the examples, since such a statement has to has some kind of basis.
Under the anime-section for example they mention “Sailor Moon”, the series from the 90s, where Neptun ans Uranus die temporarily – just like btw, every Sailor Warrior died temporarily in the show…Then they mention Gankutsuou, a series from 2004 I think, where Franz kills himself at the very end of the series when the characters love-interests don’t matter at all anymore. By the way -a whole lot of cis-gender people have already died at that point.
Then they take out random examples from “literature” in general. One example being “Der Tod in Venedig”, a book by Thomas Mann written 1911 – where the whooole story is about one (homosexual) man that at the end dies – end of the book. In the whole story, there is not even a cis-gender plot to talk of.
What I mean to say is, to look back on several decades of literature and to find these examples doesn’t support the claim that “authors kill off these people more often than not or cis-genders” at all…Just for the anime-section alone, I believe I alone could name ad hoc more shows in which gay people or trans-people survive (El Cazador de la Bruja, Denyuuden, X, Durarara, Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yuugi, El Hazard, Cardcaptor Sakura, Hunter x Hunter, hack//sign, Bleach, Ouran High School Host Club, Simoun, Gakuen Heaven, Gintama, Lovely Complex, Nabari no Ou, Steins; Gate, Mawaru Penguindrum, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Shinsekai Yori, Hakkenden, … and there are many more…(but they only mention 9 shows so..), and let’s not even begin with general literature….
Well, what I want to say is not that these people aren’t discriminated against (especially in my country, it’s worsening) and I support everyone who stands up against it. But in this case, I simply don’t see it.
(As I said, don’t take it the wrong way plz, if there are counter-arguments, I’d be glad to hear them :) I just simply dislike false claims of discrimination, since I think they distract from real problems and lower general acceptance.)
October 20, 2019 at 8:36 pmAtsu
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Did Izuku just made the meme face everyone in the internet was making out of him? LMAO! Kudos to this guy
October 21, 2019 at 7:44 amstarss
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That’s a face Izuku made in the manga and anime once before. It didn’t start as an internet meme.