Pencils down!
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Despite being heavy on setup and containing one too many tasteless Mineta jokes, "Gear up for Final Exams" remains engaging throughout by shining the spotlight on a few underrepresented characters while providing a deeper look into academic life at U.A. High.
My Hero Academia often revolves around high stakes action, so I appreciated the time spent in the classroom, reminding us that Deku and friends are students who have to hit the books every now and then. The visual designation of how each student performed on the midterms was a nice touch, providing additional insight into the mental aptitude of each student. With Yaoyorozu being at the top of the class, I was pleased to see "Gear up for Final Exams" give her an opportunity to shine. Her enthusiasm to help her struggling classmates study for the final written exam was so endearing, and the trip to her house did an excellent job at conveying how different a life she leads than the rest of her peers.
I was also pleased to see Monoma pop back up to heckle Deku and a few other members from Class 1-A, only to be promptly reprimanded by Kendo with a swift smack. The students from Class 1-B don't appear all that often in My Hero Academia, so this served as a great reminder that there are other students at the school, many of whom are fighting to break free from the shadow of Class 1-A. Likewise, I was pleased to see Hatsume get a brief mention, as the bubbly pink-haired Support Class student designed the compressed weights for the teachers to use during the practical exam.
Thanks to a quick montage, the three days of written exams were covered briskly, allowing the entire second half of the episode to be dedicated to the far more fascinating practical portion of the final exam. Pairing up the students to take on one of their teachers is a brilliant idea, as it not only puts the students in an incredibly challenging position, it gives the teachers an opportunity to showcase their skills, which My Hero Academia has done quite sparingly in the past. Aizawa's rationale for the team pairings was also clever and insightful, highlighting Todoroki's reliance on brute force and Yaoyorozu's inability to make quick decisions as for why the two are going up against him and his Quirk-erasing ability.
I'm also extremely excited to see how the Deku-Bakugo pairing turns out, as the two were matched together deliberately because they don't get along. On top of that, they're up against All Might, which, given Deku's struggle to break free from the reliance on his mentor, could prove to be especially challenging, and open the door to some profound character development. Perhaps this will end up being the push Deku needs to further establish his own identity apart from All Might.
While it wasn't the most thrilling of My Hero Academia's fights, Sato and Kirishima's battle against Cementoss did a solid job of conveying the incredible power of the U.A. High staff, as well as the wide disparity between the students' abilities and their own. We're left on quite the cliffhanger as Asui and Tokoyami begin their practical exam, and with so many other interesting pairings, I can't wait to see how each plays out—that is, except for Mineta and Sero's battle against Midnight. Mineta's perverted comments have grown more and more irritating, and, in such a heartfelt and well-written show, feel incredibly unnecessary and out of place. While I hope their showdown won't be filled with sex jokes, I'm not getting my hopes up.
The Verdict
While much of "Gear up for Final Exams" was spent setting the stage for the practical tests to come, the additional insight the into academic life at U.A. High and a few of its underrepresented students made for an entertaining episode that never dragged. The quick montage that covered the three-day written exam kept things moving at a steady pace, and the interesting pairings for the practical have me eager to see what lies ahead for Deku and his friends. It's just a shame a few tasteless jokes involving Mineta undermine what is otherwise a smart and heartfelt show.
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