‘My Hero Academia’ Recap: ‘Shoto Todoroki: Origin’

My Hero Academia‘s Sports Festival tournament has finally reached the semifinals, and it kicks off with a bang as Midoriya and Todoroki have a clash of both skills and spirit as Midoriya tries to get through Todoroki’s icy exterior.

How will Midoriya fare in the battle with Todoroki? Read on to find out everything that happened in the latest episode of My Hero Academia on Toonami!

1. Before Todoroki and Midoriya begin their match, Todoroki remembers a moment where his mother tells him to be himself. But he’s forgotten a lot about his early childhood. The fight starts immediately with a clash of ice and smash attacks as they both want to take each other out before the other uses their power.
2. Todoroki expected Midoriya to injure himself to counter. Midoriya didn’t know how strong Todoroki’s attacks would be, so Midoriya just uses his One For All at full strength. All he can do is try to find an opening while breaking his fingers with his smashes. He says he has six more chances to do so.
3. Kirishima and the others praise Todoroki and Bakugo for having the power to tear down the stadium, but Bakugo warns that like all physical prowess, quirks do get worn out. So Midoriya’s turning this into an endurance match. Todoroki’s aware of this too as Midoriya finds a way to counter each of his ice attacks.
4. But one attack breaks his arm, and Todoroki remains unharmed for the most part as he’s figured out every trick Midoriya has. But Midoriya notices Todoroki is shaking as he seems to reach some kind of limit. Todoroki’s happy because Endeavor is furious he isn’t using his fire power.
5. Todoroki launches one final wave of ice, but Midoriya uses one of his broken fingers to launch a Smash. Midoriya notes that because Todoroki refuses to use his heat side, his body is reaching a colder temperature and makes it hard to fight. He says Todoroki has yet to lay a single scratch on him, and wants him to use his full strength in this battle.
6. Todoroki is furious and charges in, but his movements are much slower due to the frost on his body. In the close confrontation, Midoriya lands a smash punch on Todoroki while Todoroki freezes Midoirya’s left arm. The ice attacks slow, and Todoroki moves sluggishly.
7. Cementoss warns Midnight that Midoriya is damaging his body and is fighting recklessly. He won’t be able to heal immediately. Aizawa notes Midoriya’s resolve to win and sees how far Midoriya is fighting in order to prove something. Todoroki’s wondering the same.
8. Midoriya says he wants to live up to expectations and will do whatever it takes to be a hero. He says he’ll give it his all like Todoroki should. Their lives are different, but he says Todoroki has no right being number one if he won’t use his full power. Todoroki then remembers training with his father as a child as Endeavor beats his mother.
9. He doesn’t want to be like Endeavor, and tells his mother this, but his mother conforts him by saying he can be whatever hero he chooses to be. Endeavor trained Todoroki constantly, and Todoroki remembers his mother complaining about Endeavor. She wants to be free of Endeavor and says that Todoroki’s reminds her so much of his father. When Todoroki discovers her, she panics and throws boiling water at his face.
10. Remembering encouraging words from All Might saying that it’s how a person uses their Quirk makes them a hero, and from his mother that says he is not a prisoner of his heritage, Todoroki burns with passion to become a hero. With this, he activates his flame quirk and it burns bright (much to Endeavor’s delight).
11. Todoroki and Midoriya power up for one final move as Midoriya launches a full power Smash, and Todoroki uses the full power of his fire quirk. The two clash in a mighty explosion, but they have been stopped from damaging themselves completely by Cementoss and Midnight.
12. In the end, however, Todoroki advances to the final round as Midoriya has been knocked out of bounds.

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, even though 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.