My Hero Academia continues to impress, as this week’s episode, “Kota”, deftly moved season 3 out of its setup portion, and poised it for some big, action-packed, things to come. Aside from all of the teases that we got in episode 41, there was one big reveal of note: We finally got to see the fiery powers of new villain character Dabi (Hiro Shimono), in action!
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The episode saw Class 1-A getting specialized training in their individual quirks, while participating in the mountain region training camp run by pro heroes the Wild Wild Pussycats. Class 1-A was then merged with Class 1-B for a special night training exercise, which saw half the students trying to make it across the forest in pairs, while other students tried to surprise and scare them. Unfortunately the League of Villains’ new recruits, the Vanguard Action Squad, had other plans: they used the night exercise as a staging ground for an actual ambush of the U.A. students, with Dabi leading the attack by using his fire powers to burn the forest while fellow villain Mustard created a noxious cloud of smoke to incapacitate the students!
Take a look below for a still image of Dabi’s powers in action:
As we see in the preview above, the Vanguard Action Squad’s attack will catch the Pussycats and Shota off-guard, which leaves the students of Classes 1-A and 1-B totally exposed and vulnerable. However, as Izuku quickly realizes, there’s an entirely different danger also looming: young Kota is left alone and exposed at his mountain hideout, with a power new villain stalking him.
WARNING! Manga Spoilers Follow: Fans of the Boku No Hero Academia manga know that we are quickly moving into the thrilling and action-heavy portion of the “School Trip” story arc. The next big reveal to anime viewers will be the identity of the villain we saw stalking Kota in the cliffhanger moment of episode 41: that villain is named Muscular, who has the ability to increase his strength, speed, and durability through massive expansion of his body’s muscle system.
The real personal touch comes when Izuku comes to rescue Kota, by engaging in an epic fight with Muscular; during that battle, it’s discovered that Muscular is the villain that killed Water Horse, the pro hero team that was comprised of Kota’s parents. Once those historical dots get connected, the fight turns into an epic three-way brawl, with Kota accessing his own water quirk abilities to help Izuku bring down Muscular for good!
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Are you enjoying My Hero Academia season 3 so far? Let us know in the comments!
My Hero Academia is simulcasting season 3 Sub episodes every Saturday on Hulu and Funimation streaming services. My Hero Academia English Dub will start airing on Toonami on May 5th.
