My Hero Academia Cliffhanger Sets Up Izuku vs. Shinso Rematch

My Hero Academia set up Izuku Midoriya and Hitoshi Shinso's big rematch with the cliffhanger from Season 5's newest episode. One of the more curious pieces of the returning fifth season of the series was when it was confirmed that Hitoshi Shinso would be returning the anime after having a focus rule in the second season's Sports Festival arc. But his return was a lot huger than expected as the fifth season's new episodes confirmed that Shinso had been training and is hoping to enter into the Hero Course officially.

We have already seen some of what Shinso's hero skills look like in the field with the first match of the joint training exercise between Class 1-A and 1-B, and the newest episode finally sets the stage for what we have been waiting for this entire time as now Izuku and Shinso will soon be having their big rematch after facing off in Season 2. But they're a lot different now.

Episode 97 of the series focuses on the fourth match of the joint training session between the classes, and it ends pretty quickly and decisively in favor of Class 1-A. The final moments of the episode then look toward the future as Izuku's team (featuring Ochaco Uraraka, Mina Ashido, and Minoru Mineta) takes on a team led by Neito Monoma with Hitoshi Shinso as the fourth member.

One of the interesting teases heading into the next match is that Izuku Midoriya's quirk has been acting up since he had that strange dream in One For All at the beginning of the season. He's been particularly wary of Shinso as Shinso's brainwashing quirk helped to activate One For All's vestiges inside of Izuku before, so that continues to be one of the bigger points of interest for this next bout.

The stakes have changed as Class 1-A can't really lose in this exercise against Class 1-B anymore, so Izuku's rematch with Shinso has become the main draw. But there's a very good chance that this fight will have some huge implications if the version from the manga is any indication of what's to come.

But what do you think? Are you excited to see how Izuku's rematch with Shinso plays out in Season 5's next episode? How are you liking Season 5 of the series so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!