My Hero Academia Episode 57

My Hero Academia Episode 57

Introduction

Episode 57 of My Hero Academia is titled “Rescue Exercises” and begins the second and final stage of the provisional hero license exam. Only the top 100 students from the first stage of the exam qualified to move on to this next part.

Summary

As we saw at the end of last week’s episode, the arena from the first stage of the exam gets destroyed, and the second stage is revealed to be a rescue operation. Professional victims (yes, you read that correctly) are scattered throughout the rubble and must be rescued by the students.

We’re once again told that there’s a point system, but it isn’t explicitly explained this time, leaving the students to figure it out as they go. It seems that the victims are the ones scoring the students, and take off points for everything the students do incorrectly.

From this, I’m assuming that each student starts with a set number of points, say 100, and then if they fall below another set number, say 70, then they fail. However, we also have to assume that students lose points for simply doing nothing as well, even if that means they also did nothing wrong.

While the first stage was essentially a free-for-all which turned into a battle between the various schools, this stage is all about cooperating with others in ways which are most efficient and effective. The various schools are no longer competing against each other, but are instead working together as they would be in a real disaster.

That said, so far the students have tended to form smaller groups based around their schools. Smaller groups allow for them to spread out and rescue more civilians, while also giving the students the added benefit of having teammates to work together with.

The reasoning for splitting into groups mostly based off their schools is likely that they simply know each other better. If they know each other and each other’s quirks inside and out, then they’ll be more effective at working as a team.

However, one case of a U.A. student working with students from another school is Aoyama who uses his navel laser to light up a dark crevasse  for another student to look into. It’s likely that working with students who were your rivals only a few minutes ago is going to be important for scoring as well.

Camie Utsushimi of Shiketsu High from the anime My Hero Academia
Camie Utsushimi

While most of the U.A. students break into groups based on their quirks and what terrain they’ll be most effective in, Bakugo once again heads off on his own followed by Denki and Kirishima. When this group finds some victims with minor injuries, Bakugo yells at them to save themselves in typical Bakugo fashion.

Meanwhile, Midoriya carries an injured boy to a makeshift medical center run by students from another school, and the rest of the U.A. students are pictured using their specific quirks to work together in various situations. I’m interested to see which group Midoriya joins up with in the end.

I’d explain what each group of U.A. students are doing in more detail, but I still don’t know half of their names and that seems like a lot of work to go through and figure them all out right now. I swear I’ll have them all down by the end of the season (maybe).

The one other group I will mention is Tsu, Todoroki, and Toru who head towards the river. This is obviously the ideal terrain for Tsu’s frog quirk, but Todoroki seems to be effective here as well. He’s going to use his flame quirk to dry off wet victims who were in the river.

Todoroki could also use his ice quirk to freeze over the river in order to make a bridge. Toru, on the other hand doesn’t really make sense to me. I don’t really see what her quirk can do in this, or any terrain that would help rescue civilians, but we’ll allow her to tag along anyway.

At the end of the episode the “villains” make their appearance and it’s stated that the students will have to continue their rescue efforts while also fighting off pro hero Gang Orca and his subordinates. It’s unclear whether points are awarded for defeating “villains,” but they probably aren’t.

Next Episode

While I’d like to make a bunch of predictions about the next episode, it was revealed to be an anime original episode and so it’s unclear to me whether it’s going to continue following this exam arc, or if it’s going to go off on a tangent.

So, instead, I’m going to make a bunch of predictions about the continuation of the exam arc in the hopes that next week’s episode isn’t completely filler. The first and most obvious thing we’re likely to see is the continuation of the groups of U.A. students working to rescue civilians.

However, with the introduction of Gang Orca and his subordinates playing the role of villains, things could get a bit more interesting. Midoriya will likely fight some of the “villains,” but at the same time he seems like he’s smart enough to know that saving civilians takes priority.

On the other hand we have Bakugo. I can completely see him going off to fight the “villains” instead of saving any victims and failing the exam because of it. My only real question here is, will Denki and Kirishima go with him or will they continue their rescue efforts?

There was also a potential rivalry set up between Todoroki and Inasa Yoarashi from Shiketsu High. It seems that Inasa hates Todoroki because of his father, Endeavor, and this likely stems from Endeavor failing to save someone in his family in the past.

Because of this rivalry, I think both he and Todoroki will break off from their respective groups to fight the “villains” as well. Both of these characters will be looking to outdo the other, and they may even fight against each other as well, which probably isn’t good for their exam scores.

Another reason I assume Bakugo and Todoroki will split off to fight the “villains” is because we specifically see them doing this in the current OP. Todoroki is shown surfing on his ice towards Gang Orca, and then Bakugo blasts through the ice following him.

Tsuyu Asui, Shouto Todoroki, and Toru Hagakure of U.A. from the anime My Hero Academia
Tsu, Todoroki, and Toru

I think it’s pretty clear at this point that most of the U.A. students are going to pass the exam, as well as most of the students from other schools. It was even mentioned that before the “villains” attacked, there was a surprisingly low amount of point deductions across the board.

While I can understand how Bakugo and Todoroki may fail the exam, I don’t think they’ll be the only ones. Failing the exam would be a great way for Midoriya to get a little bit more character development as he reflects on why he didn’t pass, but I could also see Uraraka failing as well.

I know, Uraraka failing doesn’t really seem all that possible, but hear me out. Over the past few episodes we’ve been seeing her tormented by the fact that she’s attracted to Deku. So, there’s the potential that this will distract her enough to the point where the makes some mistake that will cost her a large amount of points.

Also, if she fails the exam and Deku happens to pass it, this will widen the gap between the two of them that Uraraka already sees. She already believes Deku is ahead of her on the path to becoming a hero and increasing this gap between them could be an interesting development for her character.

Conclusion

That’s all for this week’s episode of My Hero Academia. If you liked this post, leave a like down below, and while you’re down there leave a comment to let me know your thoughts on this episode or the future of the series.

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