Visualist x100!!!! – My Hero Academia Season Four: Episode One

The new season is finally here! Everyone prepare yourself for non-stop thrills, chills, and the emotional embodiment of heroism at heart! There is nothing more impactful than the power of friendship and exclamation points!!!! That is why Karandi and I have teamed up once again to bring you the deep dish on what every episode of Boku no Hero Academia has to offer! Strap on your seat belts and prepare to be disappointed!!!!

Kapodaco

I remember the recaps—oh, those lovely recaps. Initially, I believed the episode was going to actually go somewhere! A newspaper company trying to get the scoop on All Might’s successor? And the man they give the job to manages to figure it out? That’s exciting! That’s interesting! Who knows what this guy could do with such information. It concludes… with him hiding it from the newspaper company. Ah… so… what now?

Taking the rest of the episode into consideration, a decent chunk is literally just recapping in a semi-creative way. Peering through the perspective of someone outside the main group, they list every. Single. Member. Of the class and highlight their quirks to remind the diehard fans that have been following from Season One and have totally forgotten everything about the show. I likely wouldn’t have minded too much if they didn’t list it in the most bullet-point way possible, though I understand that the anime was trying to ensure everyone was up to speed.

This new character, too, whose quirk seems way too convenient for their profession, got a little character development sprinkled on near the end. The question thus becomes whether we’ll see them again, because if not, this first episode would’ve been completely useless, instead of potentially completely useless. The worst part is that we got to see so little of the characters that actually make the show great… actually, I take that back. The worst part is that Mineta made an obvious perverse comment that everyone completely adores and cherishes. Bakugo got zero lines. Todoroki got zero lines. Tokoyami got zero lines. Mineta gets a boob joke.

It’s the first episode. As nice as it would’ve been to get that immediate hook, I don’t even remember the last time this series had a great first episode. The second season, maybe? I’m not going to hold this as a demonstration for the rest of the series, and I don’t think many should, either, whether they feel positively or negatively about it. Apparent as it is that this debut episode served as a recap of all things My Hero Academia, it’s hard to say whether to be hyped or concerned going forward. It’s almost like filler—informative filler, but filler nonetheless. I’ll start being more cynical next episode, assuming they don’t do anything with that episode, either.

Karandi

Hard to argue with anything Kapodaco has said. This was recap or filler and it assumes people jumping into a fourth season have literally forgotten the characters and plot points that have led us up to this point. I had a moment where I was kind of excited where it looked like the media were actually going to do something with All Might’s words in that battle. It was my favourite moment from the last season and those words really should have been investigated more closely by a public that apparently like to dissect everything else All Might does. However, this basically boiled down to a reintroduction of characters and the plot up until this point.

And yeah, Mineta. Seven minutes into episode one and he is already the toxic intrusion that I just wish didn’t exist in this universe. Worse, when so few characters in the class get any decent screen time in a first episode and they waste time on that nonsense.

But, My Hero Academia has long won itself some goodwill. Largely because while there’s always been these episodes that feel fairly pointless, once the show gets going it brings some of the best moments in any modern shounen anime to the table. And this kind of filler is still miles better than what Demon Slayer was dragging us through in between its high notes. So by and large, I’m not letting this episode set my mood for the season but rather, like Kapodaco, I’m going to wait until this one shows us what it is doing this season and then decide whether or not we’re now getting diminishing returns as we head into a fourth season.

However, let’s talk about the new OP and ED given they are brand new and not just cutting together the best of the previous three seasons. The OP didn’t do much for me. I didn’t actually dislike it but it didn’t exactly get me pumped for the episode. Though, the very start of it with Deku reaching up before we see him running forward was kind of cool. This might grow on me as the season progresses but it works well enough as is. The ED I really loved listening to but the visuals at this point are pretty confusing given I have no idea who the character is that they seem to focus on. Hopefully that will make sense later.

So yeah, episode 1 not so plus ultra. Hopefully next week this one will actually kick off.

(To see all posts concerning this collab, check out my Collabs page!)

Thank you for your time. Have a great day.