My Hero Academia S302: “Wild, Wild Pussycats”
My Hero Academia is back, y’all! And we’re recapping this season episode by episode. Just be careful: spoilers and speculation below.
The opening of “Wild, Wild Pussycats” confirms a few things we’ve anticipated. First, that My Hero Academia’s League of Villains is planning another attack on UA students, and then that classes 1A and 1B will intersect on less competitive terms in the following episodes. There’s not time to dwell on that now, though, because summer training camp starts sooner than Class 1A expects. Aizawa has the bus pull over for a “break,” where everyone meets Mandalay and Pixie-Bob, members of the mountain rescue hero group the Wild, Wild Pussycats, and Kota, their reluctant kid accomplice (and a mini Bakugo, without literal flames).
After the two Pussycats introduce themselves and explain that Class 1A will be staying on their land, Pixie-Bob causes a landslide with her quirk and flings the students into the forest, where they fight earth beasts of her own creation. This catalyzes the episode’s strongest scene: the entire class collaborates to beat the monsters, and we see everyone’s quirk in action. One of the golden laws of anime is that nothing brings camaraderie quite like a massive fight, and the students show off how much they’ve developed since school began. Plus, we see some great teams like Uraraka and Asui, Shoji and Jiro, and Hagakura and Yaoyorozu.
Speaking of development, “Wild, Wild Pussycats” premieres a strong new character arc: Kota. When we first meet the kid, he calls out Class 1A for being a bunch of corny, wannabe heroes, echoing both the Hero Killer Stain’s conviction and exploding popularity. The truth is much sadder. Kota is the son of heroes who died protecting citizens, and rather than lose himself searching for revenge (*cough* like Iida did), he places the blame on the entire profession. Still, any kid who’s willing to put peeper Mineta in his place is a hero in our eyes.
The Verdict:
“Wild Wild Pussycats” shows us that although our favorite heroes-in-training have wildly progressed, they still have a long way to go. Now, bring on the fight with the newest members of the League of Villains, already!
Rating: 7.3
“Wild Wild Pussycats” is available to stream in Japanese with English subtitles on Funimation, Crunchyroll, VRV, and Hulu. Funimation has announced that the English dub will be released later this month.
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