My Hero Academia S303: “Kota”
My Hero Academia is back, y’all! And we’re recapping this season episode by episode. Just be careful: spoilers and speculation below.
On the second morning of training camp, students from Class 1-B yawn and rub their eyes. Their homeroom teacher, Vlad King, tells them that Class 1-A is already training, and like the students, he’s tired of seeing the other group in the spotlight. It’s not that 1-B is weaker or lesser than 1-A — they simply haven’t yet a encountered situation where they might die.
What awaits them afterward upon witnessing the students of 1-A in training, then, is startling. 1-A’s Bakugo plunges his hands in boiling water to expand his sweat glands; Yaoyorozu stuffs food in her mouth next to a growing pile of Russian dolls (her quirk, Creation, kind of works like pooping); Ojiro repeatedly whacks a hardened Kirishima with his tail. Quirks work like muscles — if you break them down, they’ll grow back stronger — so training means pushing the students to the max. Students whose quirks have side effects, like Kaminari or Uraraka, are forced to continuously experience over-electrification or nausea. The episode balances out the brutality of training with scenes from camp life that show a little bonding between the classes. Meanwhile, Kota—whom we first met in last week’s “Wild, Wild Pussycats”—looms on the periphery.
Kota broods in this episode, and Deku makes counseling the young boy his personal duty, but he doesn’t recognize the difference between casting oneself out and being an outcast. Meddling, in a way, may be a hero’s duty, but Deku’s approach falters. First, he immediately asks about Kota’s dead parents, which only gives Kota more reason to distrust him. Then Deku makes his second mistake in slyly bring up his own quirklessness, which has absolutely nothing to do with the boy he’s trying to reach and help. Kota doesn’t hate the superhuman society because he can’t fit in. Rather, he hates how much easier quirks make it for people, his parents included, to die.
Meanwhile, the Vanguard Action Squad of the League of Villains gather and wait for their chance to strike. That moment comes on the third night, during scheduled time for—as Tokoyami says over and over again—“revelry in the dark.” Their execution isn’t flashy, but instead a show of force. The Hosu incident’s failures helped the League mature, and Dabi feels that striking them at camp is a smarter move. As poisonous smoke seeps in and slows down the hero course’s scaring challenge, Dabi’s flames spread among trees, the heroes realize they’ve been found, and we get a cliffhanger.
The Verdict:
“Kota” accustoms us to camp life and lulls us right before a detrimental strike, just as the villains have done with the heroes.
Rating: 8.1
“Kota” is available to stream in Japanese and English on Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV, and Hulu.
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