A significant problem that could arise when arcade input”Tournament Arcs” is the exhaustion that sets in from constant action that’s a production and doesn’t have any true buildup or psychological link between the fighters. My Hero Academia is at least able to keep things relatively new due to the wildly distinctive character of Quirks, however, the episodes in this season have highlighted that there’s significant overlap between some of those skills. Creative powers are not enough and the Joint Training Arc is at its third consecutive fight, this season begins to face the bigger issue of how to create these back-to-back-to-back conflicts always interesting and not just play as dumb activity without a heavier substance. “Match 3” leans into the backstory and individual objectives, which leaves its characters ready to strike, but then doesn’t give them much to do if it actually comes to the fighting.
“Match 3” starts with Class A and Class B currently sitting at a tie of one victory apiece within this joint training exercise. The previous teams made up of Class A pupils have effectively showcased lesser-tier ancillary heroes, but this latest battle features both Shoto Todoroki and Tenya Iida, just two of the anime’s more widespread supporting characters. Granted, Todoroki and Iida’s staff can also be rounded out by Mezo Shoji and his Dupi-Arms Quirk as well as Mashirao Ojiro along with his Tail Quirk, however, they’re both quite benign. Iida and Todoroki do not only do the heavy lifting to your team, but they also both carry some hefty personal baggage into conflict.
It’s contained to a very brief discussion, but Tokoyami’s burst of transparency with Shoto over how they represent the Number One and Number Two Guru Heroes through their relations to Endeavor and Hawks develops in an engaging topic that forces this third joint training game. Shoto knows that they’re not just fighting for their course, but to also do their Pro Hero counterparts justice. This need to inspire figuratively and literally fuels Iida’s actions in this fight. He carries with him the burden of taking up the Ingenium mantle from his recuperating enthusiast brother. This can be Iida’s first fight under his brother’s prior manage and this leaves him driven than ever to perform his finest.
“Match 3” establishes that Class A’s team has a lot to prove, however, the episode painfully takes its time until it actually heads into another battle. There has been a degree of reflection after every battle, but that is the first time that it feels especially meandering and at a detriment to the incident’s momentum. There’s a strange dynamic to the first half of this installment since the excess substance with Endeavor and Might is enjoyable, but in addition, it feels too short for its own good or that it’d be appropriate elsewhere.
Todoroki and Endeavor equally reflect on difficult training exercises from Shoto’s youth that further highlight Endeavor’s aggressive character. This chilling flashback is nothing new, but it hits differently following the extensive work that My Hero Academia has set into towards Endeavor’s redemption. “Match 3” blatantly brings attention to how Shoto’s brother, Toya, couldn’t manage Endeavor’s strength and that there’s still a dark side to the Todoroki family that bubbles beneath the temporary calm that has already been found. Alternatively, the scene where Endeavor swoops in to take down a street-level criminal superbly demonstrates just how much the personality has come–especially with children –which his rehabilitation is anything but performative. His malaise over Shoto’s inability to react to his text messages is astonishingly potent and the strongest scene from the episode.
All Might is also worried over his prodigy and he gets some time to talk about One For All’s a recently wonky character with Deku, even though he doesn’t have any replies to give him. Both agree that Shinso has some mystical connection to the spontaneous activation of Midoriya’s Quirk, but it’s Bakugo who supplies a few of the most interesting commentary here. He exhibits a few Bakugo-style concern over Midoriya’s situation that is really incredibly sweet and a warm reminder of their ever-evolving friendship. Deku still needs to keep all this a mystery and thus it is endearing a decrepit All Could and belligerent Bakugo is becoming his sole sounding board.
The fight finally starts and Todoroki and Iida’s heightened emotional states guarantee that Class A includes far more online emotionally than any of their opponents out of Class B. However, “Match 3” allows Tetsutetsu and his staff the first advantage. Tetsutetsu’s master plan would be to basically participate in a rampaging presentation of chaos, which loses points in subtlety but does get Class A’s interest. This strategy isn’t nearly as smart as what’s gone on in the last struggles and it puts itself up as a head-on crash of power, which is something this season has avoided up until this stage. This works in the small dose that it is supplied in and it’s likely the Todoroki and Iida, two of the smarter characters in the series, will present a more intricate approach to their assault.
Course B’s heaviest hitters in this battle seem to be Tetsutetsu and his intense strength and durability, as well as Juzo Honenuki, that utilizes his Softening Quirk to cripple Iida’s speed and rob him of his greatest asset. It is another smart case where My Hero Academia combines Quirks collectively like science experiments to make the most exciting reactions. The rest of those Quirks, such as Sen Kaibara and drill-like Gyrate Quirk and Pony Tsunotori’s Horn Cannon Quirk result in stalemates with their Course A counterparts. Not one of those smaller Quirks makes much of an impression and they feel just like unrelated distractions to the primary event, which is also a degree of recklessness that’s new for all these conflicts. “Match 3” supplies an adequate sampler of all of these characters, but it is still too early into the struggle to make any assumptions about which direction it’s headed.
“Match 3” teases some intriguing thoughts, but it ultimately feels like an empty, uneventful episode. This isn’t the sole installment from this year to split one battle across several episodes, but the preceding occasions of this did not feel incomplete when they ended on a cliffhanger. “Match 3″ ends with unresolved energy and this incident would feel more complete if it got a little further to the fight and showed off all of the bigger showdown involving Iida and Tetsutetsu.
My Hero Academia appears to be saving the best material from this experience for the next installment, which means that”Match 3″ is meant to be a more muted detour that creates suspense involving two action-packed entrances. This justifies a number of”Match 3’s” structural and narrative conclusions, but it still spends too long on the last episode’s wake but also loses itself as it sets up the battle’s climax in another episode. As a result, “Match 3″ becomes disposable and frequently feels more like disparate parts compared to the number of its collective pieces. The floor that it covers is vital, but it is difficult to picture many revisits into”Match 3″ after”Match 3 Conclusion” is available and does more with the story.
