School Festival Start!! (開催文化祭!! Kaisai Bunkasai!!?) is the eighty-fifth episode of the My Hero Academia anime and the twenty-second episode of the fourth season.
Summary[]
At U.A., everyone is ready for the School Festival. Itsuka, Nejire, and Bibimi prepare for the beauty pageant, each thinking they are going to win the competition. On the highway, Mirio, Eri, and Shota are on their way to the festival. At the Development Studio, Power Loader tells Mei Hatsume to fix herself before the event.
Meanwhile, Midnight greets All Might before noticing Izuku's permission slip to leave the grounds. All Might explains that Izuku needed to buy a few things for the festival and Midnight wonders whether Izuku will make it back to the school in time.
For the time being, at the construction yard where Izuku and Gentle Criminal fought, Izuku puts down the steel beam that he was holding and chases the villains, using the same elasticized crane's hook that Gentle and La Brava used to slingshot himself in their direction. He also notices that the invisible barriers Gentle leaves behind don't disappear immediately but stick around for a while and he needs to remember where he placed them.
Holding La Brava, Gentle uses his Elasticity Quirk to create invisible trampolines to control his fall and land safely in the forest area that surrounds the school. Seeing that Izuku is on their tail, La Brava advises Gentle to use her Quirk, otherwise, he will fail in his mission. Gentle looks up and is surprised to see Izuku approaching from the sky at full speed, ready to shoot another air blast, so he raises an elastic invisible barrier in front of him and La Brava.
Remembering the positions of the elastic aerial trampolines Gentle created, Izuku bounces on them to navigate through the trees and get behind Gentle and his barrier, ready to shoot. The villain quickly covers himself with another barrier to intercept the blast, but Deku aims precisely to shoot at his barriers to ricochet his attack right at Gentle. La Brava goes to help Gentle, but Izuku apprehends both of them, ordering them to surrender.
Despite his efforts, Danjuro cannot break free of Izuku's grasp. Seeing this, Manami begins to remember her past. In middle school, she wrote a love letter to a boy she had admired from afar. However, that boy mocked her and ridiculed her as a stalker. After that, she couldn’t believe in anyone or anything, and became a reclusive adolescent with no goals or aspirations, gluing herself to her computer all day long, even contemplating suicide. That was when she found Gentle's video about him on the web. It was his words about changing the world together that inspired her to see a new light in her life.
With Gentle as her new hope, Manami found the place where he lived, eager to help him. After spending time with him, Manami became attracted to him. She thought Gentle would say something about the dark rings under her eyes but he didn't. In fact, when he realized her concerns, he uses a permanent marker to give himself dark circles around his eyes so they could match hers. He accepted her for who she was, and when he decided to team up with her he gave her the name of La Brava.
Back to the present, La Brava whispers "I love you" to Gentle, activating her Quirk: Love, which gives Gentle a massive power boost, giving him enough strength to throw Deku off of them, landing a chop to the back of Izuku's neck. Believing they have defeated Izuku, Gentle and La Brava begin to walk away, but he doesn't lose consciousness. Izuku tells Gentle that he has fought stronger and faster people that him and he hasn't lost yet and prepares to attack.
It's 9:00 AM, and Present Mic announces the start of the U.A. School Festival.
Gentle dodges Deku's air blast, shocked to see the young hero continuing to fight despite La Brava giving him a massive power boost with the Lover Mode. Deku and Gentle clash ferociously, with Izuku pleading with Gentle to stop his attack on U.A. while a sobbing La Brava apologizes to Gentle saying her love wasn't enough but, as he landed on a tree, Gentle replies to her that no one can say her feelings weren't enough.
Izuku attacks Gentle again, but he launches a Gently Sandwich, creating numerous elastic aerial barriers and stacking them on top of his opponent. Deku is pinned underneath the attack while Gentle explains he still intends to invade U.A. no matter what. Gentle begins to think of his past and explains to the young hero why he must continue: his dream is no longer just his own.
Izuku manages to pull himself away from the Gently Sandwich and attacks Gentle, asking him if he understands that U.A.'s students have dreams as well, why he would choose to trample on everyone’s hopes. Gentle replies this is how it is, and he will do whatever it takes to make his dream come true.
Danjuro recalls his past when he was an idealistic young man who dreamed of becoming a famous hero. He is with his mother in the principal's office of his high school. The principal urged Danjuro to drop out of his endeavor since he couldn't make the grade and he kept failing the provisional license exams no matter how hard he tried. Despite his harsh words, Danjuro told his mom that he will continue to work for his dream of becoming a hero no matter what. As he prepared to leave, he saw his classmate Takeshita, who already has his license with many Hero agencies asking for him.
One day, while he was enjoying a cup of tea in a coffeehouse, he heard screams for help. Upon reaching the place where the screaming came from, he saw a man falling from a window cleaning rig. He went to save the man and used his Quirk to create an air trampoline to save him. Unfortunately, the trampoline got in the way of a pro hero who was already on the scene. As a result, the victim hit the ground and needed six months to recover. The police give Gentle a strike for obstructing justice. His parents ended up deep in debt paying reparations to the victim and fines for hindering a hero and unlicensed use of a Quirk. During this time, he was finally expelled from school, which caused his parents to disown him and violently throw him out of the house.
Four years later, Danjuro had already forgotten his dream and was barely making a living off part-time jobs. One day, he sees his old classmate Takeshita, who had made it as an independent pro hero. Danjuro runs into him to congratulate him, but he found that his classmate didn't even remember his name.
Anguished by the fact that someone he knew had already accomplished his dream while he lives a miserable life, Danjuro went to his house and picks up a book about the history of supervillains, setting him on that dark path. If he could never become a famous hero, then he would make a name for himself as a villain.
Back to the fight, Gentle continues his assault towards Izuku, with La Brava observing the combat with concern at the fact that Gentle uses the Lover Mode to fight for the sake of his dream instead of retreat. Gentle yells at Izuku that he doesn't care if he mocks him. When they clash once more, Izuku blocks Gentle's enhanced punch. Izuku replies that he is not laughing at him.
La Brava cheers for Gentle, boosting the Lover Mode even more, to the point that Gentle starts to overpower Izuku. As they struggle, Gentle asks him why does he want to be a hero. Izuku replies that he is like him. His dream is no longer his own anymore and he will achieve it for the sake of those who believed in him, and proclaims that he wants to be the one who shows them all a bright future. Gentle smiles smile at Izuku's reply and tosses him away.
La Brava pulls out her laptop to deactivate U.A.’s security system but realizes she is out of range. With tears in her eyes and sheer desperation to help him, La Brava runs off into the woods. Gentle wants to stop her because it’s too risky to go alone, but first, he has to deal with Deku.
Gentle attacks Izuku when he was preparing to chase La Brava, telling him that if he really thinks that he is not as strong as those he has faced before, then he will abandon all notions of shame, honor, and dignity in order to defeat him, as a sign of respect for the man Izuku has proven to be. Gentle creates several aerial elastic barriers and jumps from them all over the vicinity ready to attack Izuku.
Elsewhere, La Brava continues to run through the woods in order to hack into U.A.'s mainframe with her laptop, until she isn't able to proceed further when she notices Ryo Inui and several clones of Ectoplasm close by.
On the battlefield, Gentle lunges at Izuku, who responds by shooting four Delaware Smash Air Force moves at once. Gentle manages to evade most of them but one of them strikes him in the leg, throwing him off balance in mid-air. Using this opportunity, Izuku sneaks up on him and ends up taking down Gentle with a St. Louis Smash. Izuku apprehends Gentle and tells the villain that this is the toughest battle he’s fought so far.
La Brava runs back to the fight and sees Gentle defeated. Tearing up, La Brava runs at Izuku to tell him to get off and that Gentle put everything into their plan today. She asks Izuku where her bright future is when Gentle is the only light she has in the world, and that he can’t steal him from her.
Gentle thinks back to when he first met La Brava and how she always wanted to go out with him on their capers instead of staying back to do the hacking. Gentle didn’t want her to become an accomplice to his misdeeds but he eventually caved in to her demands. The villain thinks to himself how she won’t run away now, but if she stays security will learn she helped him in battle and she will be an accomplice.
With the last ounce of energy of the Lover Mode, Gentle uses his quirk to launch Izuku into the air so they can pretend the battle never happened. Gentle hugs La Brava as he tells Izuku to fly away for the sake of Manami's bright future, thinking to himself that Izuku should be proud of his victory, protecting everything he stood for.
Security arrives and Gentle Criminal, clenching La Brava in his arms, declares his surrender.
Characters In Order of Appearance[]
- Itsuka Kendo
- Reiko Yanagi
- Neito Monoma
- Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu
- Yosetsu Awase
- Uwabami (Flashback)
- Momo Yaoyorozu (Flashback)
- Nejire Hado
- Tamaki Amajiki
- Yuyu Haya
- Bibimi Kenranzaki
- Mirio Togata
- Eri
- Eraser Head
- Mei Hatsume
- Power Loader
- All Might
- Midnight
- Gentle Criminal
- La Brava
- Izuku Midoriya
- Best Jeanist (Screen)
- Ingenium (Screen)
- Present Mic
- Hound Dog
- Takeshita (Flashback)
- Danjuro’s mother (Flashback)
- Danjuro’s father (Flashback)
- Inko Midoriya (Flashback)
- Sir Nighteye (Flashback)
- Ectoplasm (Clones)
Quirks[]
Locations[]
- U.A. High School
- U.A.'s Development Studio
- School Grounds: Forested Area
Battles & Events[]
- U.A. School Festival
- Deku vs. Gentle Criminal (Concluded)
Anime & Manga Differences[]
- After being enhanced by Lover Mode, Gentle chops Izuku. In the manga Izuku blocks the blow, while in the anime he receives the blow but recovers immediately.
- Some of Izuku's and Gentle's attacks are done in mid-air instead of on the ground.
- In the manga, Danjuro was trying to physically approach the civilian, while in the anime he simply put up a barrier.
[]
U.A. School Festival Arc | |
---|---|
Chapters | 169 • 170 • 171 • 172 • 173 • 174 • 175 • 176 • 177 • 178 • 179 • 180 • 181 • 182 • 183 |
Volumes | 19 • 20 |
Episodes | 81 • 82 • 83 • 84 • 85 • 86 |
Battles and Events | Deku vs. Gentle • U.A. School Festival |