My Hero Academia

Episode 92

We're back with more coverage of the latest in teen hero grudge matches! Let's just jump right into the action folks, as you're not gonna want to miss a second of this. And since Vlad King has lost his commentary privileges amid broiling controversy, I'll be taking over this play-by-play for the foreseeable future.

Last week, it seemed that Team B fully got the drop on their opponents, and Team A has little time to properly counter. They were so busy getting up to speed with newcomer Shinso's quirk that they failed to come up with any concrete strategy, and that makes all the difference in their initial confrontation. While Shinso himself buys time with his surprise voice modulator, he doesn't move quickly enough to capitalize, barely allowing for Froppy to recover from the initial attack. That manages to net Team A a single capture, but Team B's Gevaudan easily recovers and makes off with Defensive Lineman of the Year Red Riot and All-Star Good Boy Anima. It's a tough first half, not going to lie, but I'm sure they can come back from it just as soon as they bust Shinso out of that air cube.

Meanwhile, Team B are being cautious, but perhaps not cautious enough. First they miss Kirishima's tracking target, but more importantly they get hung up on arguing over their hero names, which is extra silly. I mean, yeah I'm sure “Apocalypse Beast” sounds cool to a bunch of know-nothing teenagers, but “Gevaudan” is such a rad, cryptid deep-cut that I have to respect it. Plus it's a bold move for Shiozaki to judge somebody's hero name when she had to change hers from “Maria” after realizing naming herself the super hero Virgin Mary was possibly a little blasphemous. Wait, what were we talking about? Oh right, the other team. See, this is what I was talking about. Gotta learn to focus, kids.

Taking advantage of their opponents' distraction, Kaminari actually manages to smack his brain cells together and have a good idea, allowing himself to be captured by Shiozaki to draw the enemy's attention. It's a risky plan, putting the team's biggest deterrent right in the enemy's sights, but his teammates mop up after him spectacularly. First Shinso's able to brainwash Shiozaki, while drawing Gevaudan's attention and throwing a big hitch in Team B's communication. After all, so long as they can't trust each other's voices in the heat of battle, they can't properly plan a counterattack. That lag in teamwork gives just the right opening for Tsuyu to take out Dragon Shroud, who proves to be the object of his team's destruction, in that the frog girl literally hurls his whole body into Gevaudan to knock him out from behind.

Overall, it's a solid matchup with some good, strategic back-and-forth. Just about everyone involved gets at least one moment where they get to look cool, and both teams manage to work well without either side feeling like they got stomped. Shinso is certainly the focus, since his quirk is what allows Team A's comeback, but I've ultimately gotta give this round's MVP to Tsuyu. Not only did she capture 3 of their 4 targets personally, it was her weird mucus strategy that gave them the element of surprise in the first place. Even working from a disadvantage, her clever thinking and focus on utilizing all of their team's unique strengths is what ultimately clinched this for them, and I am now expecting the class to give this very good frog a medal next episode. She deserves it.

Shinso himself also gets to show what he's capable of, though any team looking to draft him after this season will definitely need to consider him a project for the foreseeable future. His quirk is certainly unique, and as evidenced here makes for a dangerous x-factor when fighting multiple enemies, which will only become more useful as more groups like the League of Villains or the Shie Hassaikai start to pop up. Still, being self-sufficient to a certain degree is a necessity for any Pro Hero, and that's where our boy is still lacking, but that means he just has plenty of room to grow. He already displayed a clever use of Eraserhead's binding cloth, and once he has more experience in the field I think he'll make for a damn good Hero in his own right.

For now though, we'll need to look forward to the next fight, and this one will be a true 4v4:

1-A Team 2
1) Momo “Creati” Yaoyorozu – Quirk: Creation – Special Skills: Insultingly rich, has a cool new cloak over her costume

2) Fumikage “Tsukuyomi” Tokoyami – Quirk: Dark Shadow – Special Skills: His imaginary friend can actually beat you up

3) Yuga “Can't Stop Twinkling” Aoyama – Quirk: Navel Laser – Special Skills: Large assortment of cheeses on his person at all times

4) Toru “Invisible Girl” Hagakure – Quirk: Invisibility – Special Skills: Somehow skirted Marvel's legal team with her Hero Name

1-B Team 2
1) Itsuka “Battle Fist” Kendo – Quirk: Big Fist – Special Skills: Inexplicably powerful side-ponytail

2) Kinoko “Shemage” Komori – Quirk: Mushroom – Special Skills: My editor already stans her

3) Manga “Comicman” Fukidashi – Quirk: Comic – Special Skills: Can see without having an actual face

4) Shihai “Vantablack” Kuroiro – Quirk: Black – Special Skills: Somehow skirted Anish Kapoor's legal team with his hero Name

This one's a much harder call, since most of Team B are total unknowns. My instinct says to bet on Team A, since they have both a heavy-hitter in Tokoyami and a strong commander in YaoMomo, but that could just be familiarity bias talking. 1-B are almost certainly going to be looking for revenge after this early defeat, and they do have somebody on their team who commands the power of decay as an extant for of life, so they could easily pull this out. We'll find out for sure next week!

Rating:

My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.