My Hero Academia Creator Celebrates Deku vs Gentle with New Sketch

My Hero Academia‘s fourth season is reaching the tail end of its episode order for the year, and that means that the Cultural Festival arc has officially reached its climax with the latest episode of the series. After several episodes of teasing in which Gentle Criminal was recording videos and preparing for his major attack on U.A. Academy, his plans were suddenly interrupted when Izuku Midoriya happened to stumble on the villain the morning of the festival. It’s a big occasion for this arc as a whole, and series creator Kohei Horikoshi was just as excited to see it play out as fans are!

Like many of the biggest anime moments from throughout the season thus far, Horikoshi celebrated the newest episode of the series in which Deku and Gentle finally come across one another with a brand new sketch featuring Gentle and La Brava. This one also has a bit of fourth wall breaking as well as La Brava seems to notice our presence while Gentle remains blissfully unaware.

Gentle continues to boastfully laugh while his tea flings back and splashes him in the face while La Brava is there ready to record his upcoming antics. But she notices how things are going awry (much like in the latest episode of the series) and even in this sketch demonstrates just how integral she’s been to Gentle’s operations thus far.

The Cultural Festival arc initially seemed like it would be relatively low stakes compared to the fights against the various members of the Shie Hassaikai earlier in the season, but as the fight between Deku and Gentle began it became quite clear just how important this festival is to everyone. After such a rough first year for each of these kids, it’s the only real time they have had to unwind and decompress.

To Deku this means the world (especially when factoring in the young Eri), and now these villains are threatening that happiness. Gentle might not be the biggest villain in the grander scheme of the season, but he’s still very much a credible threat. What do you think of Deku’s fight against Gentle so far? What are your thoughts on Gentle Criminal and La Brava in the anime overall? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!