My Hero Academia Episode 59

Introduction

This week we got back to the provisional hero license exam action after taking a one-week break for an anime-original special episode. In case you’ve forgotten where we left off, I’ll quickly recap then events immediately leading up to this episode.

While the students were rescuing victims from the staged terrorist attack for the exam, pro hero Gang Orca and his subordinates show up to play the part role of villains. The students must continue their rescue efforts, but also fend off the villain assault at the same time.

Summary

Although we’ve seen Gang Orca before, and it’s been stated that he’s the number 10 ranked pro hero, we never really knew much about him until today. In fact, we still don’t know the answer to the biggest question about him, is his tie actually his tongue?

But, while we don’t know the answer to that, we do finally know exactly what his quirk is, how he can use it, and what his potential weaknesses are. First off, his quirk is essentially the fact that he’s an orca, much like how Tsu’s is that she’s pretty much a frog.

So, just like how Tsu can do “pretty much anything a frog can do,” Gang Orca can do anything an orca can do. It’s stated that he’s basically just an orca out of water. So what exactly can he do then? I’m sure there are more things we haven’t yet seen, but sonar is the most important.

He’s able to take his sonar ability and crank it up to 11 in order to use it as a close to mid range attack. The high-pitched frequency he creates messes with the brain of his target and seems to paralyze them for a period of time depending on how close they were to the attack.

I would also assume he can use his sonar in non-combat situations as well such as to find where villains are hiding or civilians are trapped. His subordinates are also equipped with quick-hardening cement guns which slow down anyone hit by them so they’re an easier target for Gang Orca’s sonar.

I’d also like to point out that none of his subordinates appear to have quirks of their own which is interesting. Perhaps they were simply told not to use their quirks, but considering they all look alike I’d guess that’s not the case. Who knows what’s going on with them.

Since the mock villains appeared close to the first aid zone, the students must move the rescued victims to another location for their protection. However, this won’t be easy with Gang Orca around. Shindo (bootleg Midoriya) uses his earthquake quirk to slow down the minions, but Gang Orca quickly dispatches him.

Meanwhile, Midoriya and some background characters help move the victims to a safer location. Fortunately for them, Todoroki and the wind guy from Shiketsu show up at the same time to fight against the villains, otherwise the rescue effort would have fallen apart.

It’s already been established that Todoroki and the wind guy, as I’ll be referring to him instead of looking up his name, don’t like each other. During their fight against Gang Orca we learn that the reason wind guy hates Todoroki is because he’s the son of Endeavor, a pro hero who refused to give him an autograph when he was a kid.

While this doesn’t seem like too big of a deal, we have to remember that part of being a pro hero is your public image. This is why All Might was the number one pro hero and why students lose points during this exam if they don’t put on a confident facade while rescuing the victims.

On the other hand, Todoroki simply hates the wind guy because the wind guy hates him. There’s no other complicated reason here. So what happens when the two of them show up to fight Gang Orca at the same time? They end up arguing with each other instead, of course.

Todoroki tries to use his fire because his ice attacks were being repelled, and wind guy tries to use his wind at the same time. This results in the fire being blown out and the wind being sent upwards due to the heat, rendering both attacks useless.

When they attack at the same time again, a similar outcome occurs, although this time Todoroki’s flames are sent in the direction of the injured Shindo who’s saved at the last second by Midoriya. Midoriya then yells at both Todoroki and wind guy to get their heads in the game.

However, it’s too late for that now as they’re both hit by cement guns and then Gang Orca’s sonar, leaving them paralyzed on the ground. Now that they’ve all but lost, the two finally realize that they need to be working together because that’s the kind of pro hero they both want to be.

Wind guy uses his wind, which is weakened due to Gang Orca’s paralysis, and Todoroki uses his flames to make the wind stronger. Together they trap Gang Orca in a whirlwind of fire. At this point we learn that fire is actually a weakness of Gang Orca’s because it can make him dry out.

Apparently, to combat this, Gang Orca carries around water bottles which he dumps out onto his head. This isn’t important for the story of this episode, but I found it to be a slightly comical way to deal with the weakness he has.

While Gang Orca is trapped by Todoroki and the wind guy, other U.A. and Shiketsu students begin to show up to help push the villains back. At this point there are only a few victims left to be saved, so the majority of the students can focus on fighting.

We later learn that it’s Bakugo, Kaminari, and Kirishima who save the final victims. Although, these appear to be the first and only victims they actually rescued throughout this entire part of the exam, so I’m not entirely sure how well they’ll do.

Just before the final victims are rescued, Gang Orca lets out a powerful sonar blast which blows away the whirlwind of flames trapping him. However, Midoriya swoops in with a kick which Gang Orca blocks with his right forearm. It’s at this point that the exam comes to a conclusion.

The closing part of the episode shows the names revealed of those who passed the exam, but we don’t get to see the results until next week. I’ll also mention here that the exam is scored just how I assumed it was. Each student starts with 100 points, and those who fall below 50 fail.

Next Episode

According to the next episode preview, it seems that Bakugo confronts Midoriya about the nature and origin of his quirk after the results of the exam are announced. This will likely be the episode in which Bakugo finally confirms that Midoriya was given his quirk by All Might.

This should be an important episode for Bakugo as a character considering he too looks up to All Might as the hero he wants to be. Confirming that Midoriya was chosen to be All Might’s successor instead of himself may put even more strain on the relationship between the two of them.

However, the opposite could also occur. Perhaps Bakugo will finally accept Midoriya as a true rival and future hero once he learns that his hero, All Might, believes in Midoriya. I know Bakugo’s personality makes this seem like an impossibility, but he’s actually a good guy unlike Sasuke for most of Shippūden, for example.

But the reason we’re all really interested in next episode is the reveal of who passed and who failed the exam. It should come as no surprise when most of the U.A. students end up passing the exam. They’ve had extensive practice working together and know each others’ strengths and weaknesses.

However, I think there are a few U.A. students who won’t make the cut. The most obvious of which should be Todoroki. Because of his argument with wind guy, Todoroki not only put himself in danger, but also the rescued victims and even another “hero” (Shindo).

I should also mention that I think wind guy is going to fail the exam as well for the same exact reason. But that’s not to say that failing the exam is the end of their journey to becoming pro heroes. By going through what they did during the exam, they both learned the importance of teamwork and will likely be back for the next exam.

The only thing that could possibly make them pass the exam is that they caught the attention of Gang Orca. After the two of them were taken down by his sonar, they still managed to work together to pin Gang Orca down so that he couldn’t attack anyone else.

Not only does this show that they were able to learn from their mistakes, but even Gang Orca says he was impressed by them and their struggle to become heroes. I’d really like to see Gang Orca take these two on as their mentor, but maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

Bakugo, Kaminari, and Kirishima are the other U.A. students I think have the potential to fail. While these three didn’t necessarily do anything wrong during the exam, even Bakugo surprisingly, they also didn’t do much at all. I think this lack of real effort could negatively impact their scores.

But really, what else did they do wrong other than only saving two or three victims over the course of the entire exam? Sure, Bakugo yelled at the victims to save themselves, but as we saw, they took that as him assessing their injuries and coming to the conclusion that they were in a good enough shape to escape on their own.

So, as far as we saw, he, as well as his followers, didn’t necessarily do anything wrong. But, as I mentioned, doing nothing wrong isn’t the same as doing something right, and so I believe they’ll still be penalized in the end. We also have to remember that Kaminari and Kirishima aren’t exactly the best students in class 1-A.

Conclusion

So who do you think will fail the provisional hero license exam? Do you want to see more of Gang Orca like I do? Do you wish your abs showed through your sweater vest like Gang Orca’s? Let me know in the comments down below, and while you’re down there, click the like button if you enjoyed this post.

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