New 'My Hero Academia' Stills Tease Izuku's Heroic Smile

Now that the entirety of My Hero Academia's Class 1-A have passed the first test of the Provisional Hero License Exam, making it down to the wire, it's time for the next and final step of this too tough exam as the young heroes must now save people in danger.

New preview images ahead of Episode 57's premiere have been released, and while Todoroki, Uraraka, and newcomer Inasa all have intense faces, one of the images sees Midoriya putting on his best heroic smile.

明日はTVアニメ #ヒロアカ 放送! 先行場面カットが来た! → //t.co/TuDFbKGNBf

プロヒーロー仮免試験の二次選考に挑むデクたち。待ち受けるものは果たして!?
『僕のヒーローアカデミア』第57話「救助演習」8/18(土)夕方5:30から読売テレビ・日本テレビ系全国29局ネットでON AIR!!#heroaca_a pic.twitter.com/NimZU68nju

— 僕のヒーローアカデミア_アニメ公式【オリジン済】 (@heroaca_anime) August 17, 2018

Episode 57 is titled "Rescue Exercises" and the synopsis for it reads as such:

"The last part of the Provisional License Exam, the Rescue Exercise, begins! During times of crisis, there are many people who need to be saved, and that's what the Rescue Exercise focuses on! It's a very important test where the heroes must make judgements as well as work together with their friends!"

Midoriya's smile may seem like a small detail, but fans can see from this image that he's still struggling to put on a smile as taught by All Might (and his mentor, Nana Shimura before him) in the face of any danger. The rescue portion of the exam will test this aspect of Midoriya, who's still trying his best to form his own identity outside of the shadow of All Might he had been chasing this entire time.

But with Midoriya struggling to smile well here, simply rescuing people in danger for the test may be tougher than he could give it credit for. Midoriya's not one to underestimate any challenge, but his sense of heroic spirit is still undefined. It leaves him vulnerable to attacks, struggle when he uses his power to extend beyond his reach so it will be interesting for fans to see him truly use his power to save rather than fight a villain.

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has super powers but he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he's eventually scouted by the world's best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been collected into 19 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.