Boku no Hero Academia – 69
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「嫌な話」 (Iyana Hanashi)
“An Unpleasant Talk”
Leave it to HeroAca to make a meeting compelling. I’m not being snide there—it illustrates how excellent storytelling comes not from action, but from tension, and tension doesn’t require someone to be hanging off of a cliff to evoke. Though the tension in this episode very much had to do with a threat to someone’s life: to Eri-chan’s, and to all those who could be hurt if villains can permanently destroy a hero’s quirk on a whim.
Can we acknowledge just how terrifying this episode really was? This is the second time we’ve heard of a child being bio-engineered to maximize quirks—first Endeavor/Shouto, and now Overhaul/Eri. This is reducing children to tools in their parent’s machinations, and I’m not going to claim that real life doesn’t contain examples of that (children of royalty in antiquity being a great example … you had to have successors so your generals and bankers didn’t jump ship to a challenger), but this is pretty stark. Then there’s the fact that Overhaul is abusing a child, his own child, and distributing her blood in bullets to gather power. It’s horrifying no matter how you look at it.
But I was most focused on a couple of young boys with regret thick on their shoulders, Izuku and Mirio. It’s really humanizing to see Mirio bow under the same emotions as Izuku, though I’m not surprised; he never came across as actually believing his bluster to the degree he puts it out. He’s way too cheery for that. I just feel for them, and the regret they feel for letting Eri-chan get away, even if they thought they were doing the right thing … well, Mirio did, but Izuku trusted him and let her go, and Izuku is too good to blame Mirio for that. They’re both culpable, so they both regret. And Nighteye… I feel for him. He doesn’t want to be the soothsayer who predicts his colleagues’ demises.
Next time the heroes will close in on Shie Hassaikai. Let’s hope their one big shot works.
Random thoughts:
- Excellent references this week, from the Beetles album cover shot to the Reservoir Dogs gang.
- Also, loved that Kirishima got so much kudos. The girls were all praising him, awww!
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November 23, 2019 at 6:33 pmyoloalchemist
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Nighteye is fascinating as an MHA character. I feel like part of why his hero work protocol is always laying the ground work for a success rate that’s as close to 100% as possible is because he knows that his quirk (which isn’t a physical or combative one to begin with) doesn’t contribute much if a lot of what he sees is only from one other person’s perspective, which doesn’t help much, if at all. It’s like the reason for his thoroughness in his work is that he is a prisoner of his own quirk, which makes me think just because you have a quirk doesn’t automatically make you fit to operate in the field as a hero, and therefore take matters into your own hands some more (à la All Might), which makes his work style as more of a planner and coordinator more fitting. Being a seer isn’t at all sunshine and rainbows, but more like a curse, and part of his work protocol is trying to avert those visions it gives him. Maybe the reason he didn’t want either Izuku or Mirio to get Eri out of Overhaul’s talons is because he wanted to avert whatever danger it might be for them to do so, even if he didn’t see their futures (I can bet he already saw far into Izuku’s, from the time he touched him in the stamp test). Now that I’ve looked at his character from this perspective, I can’t help but to be sympathetic towards him, even if his work protocol is flawed, because let’s be real, even though I think the yellow-masked pro hero is a bit despicable, I can’t help but to agree with nearly everything he said. It’s quite the turn the story is taking at this point early in the arc. 2 episodes ago, I noticed how Horikoshi-sensei is criticizing Deku and All Might’s chronic hero syndrome, but here, he’s also criticizing Nighteye’s none-trigger-happy approach. That’s how tumultuous this world has become thanks to All Might’s retirement, as Nighteye himself noted. Horikoshi is setting up quite the conflict here.
https://randomc.net/image/Boku%20no%20Hero%20Academia/Boku%20no%20Hero%20Academia%20-%2069%20-%20Large%2036.jpg
Her words broke me. To know that someone can be trusted because they gave her a kind, protective touch can only make me imagine just what kind of horrors she had to endure throughout her entire existence, not just from her father, but possibly from everyone else. Except her mother, whom judging by the ED, was loving to her. Of course, also through the ED, we know how she ended up… and since it happened when Eri was even younger, of course it’d be as if she knows nothing but cruelty towards her.
November 24, 2019 at 3:05 amUrahara
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” you had to have successors so your generals and bankers didn’t jump ship to a challenger ”
I don’t understand why, can someone explain this to an idiot like me?
November 24, 2019 at 9:16 amyoloalchemist
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All of your chess pieces won’t mean a thing if you didn’t have a king on your side of the board. Even if the successor was nothing more than a figurehead (a natural consequence of being a child), the monarchy system of the time meant that all they had to do was sit on the throne, and the country’s generals and bankers would stay loyal and handle the rest. I think that’s what that means, though anyone can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
November 24, 2019 at 11:17 amStilts
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What I meant was that a monarch’s keys to power (generals, police chiefs, bankers, etc) are what really keep the monarch in power. That and their control of the money (taxes), which is what they used to make sure those keys to power remained loyal. But if the keys began worrying that the gravy train could end—because the monarch is weak, ineffective, overly hated, or doesn’t have an heir, for example—then the keys might move to back a challenger to increase their likelihood of remaining in power.
That’s why I said the royal child was a tool in their parent’s machinations. The king or queen was saying, “Look my loyal keys to power! I have worthy children to inherit my throne! If I were to die suddenly, you would remain in power yourself so long as you back my children, which means in the meantime, you’d better stay on my (and their) good side by remaining loyal now.”
Children were tools of power, as they are in HeroAca on at least two occasions.
November 24, 2019 at 8:09 amanon234
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“But I was most focused on a couple of young boys with regret thick on their shoulders, Izuku and Mirio.”
For me, what set this scene is the focus on their eyes as they slowly realized what was going on. They were both regretting their decision, but the true horror didn’t dawn on them until they heard about both Overhaul’s quirk and the bullets. I feel the anime did a great job here.
November 24, 2019 at 9:02 amstarss
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Deku and Mirio screwed up. Then again, if they did save Eri, the villains would’ve taken action way sooner and they’d be less prepared to counter attack.
November 26, 2019 at 6:48 amRedRocket
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As at least Deku did not know Overhaul’s power very high chance Deku would have ended up splat all over the ally if he had attempted a rescue. And as touching Overhaul in battle can cost you an arm I don’t know how Deku and Mirio even fight Overhaul unprepared as it seams Overhaul is a ranged weapons only opponent. So don’t be too upset boys, both of you could be dead or only one alive with the girl still taken for extra guilt.
Good point Stilts on Kings have to have successors. Elizabeth the Great had to designate as heir the son of a woman she had killed to keep stability. And that was not just a heir and a spare, with only one in four children reaching adulthood on average even for Kings a King was expected to churn out as many children as possible. Still trying to find the historical reference for King having riots because at 20 his choice of Queen was too old to have enough children but even if not true that was often the thinking and a bride over the teens normally forced on King by other country, or a significant gain of power for the King or foolishness that did get punished on occasion.