My Hero Academia Episode 104

Sea Rescue Hero: Selkie

Let’s get this out of the way right at the start of the review. My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 104 is a bad episode. It’s so bad, in fact, that part way through the episode I considered dropping the series in its entirety.

Later on in this review, it will become clear why I feel that this episode (and season, to be honest) is so bad. But, for now, allow me to discuss the one, somewhat, redeeming part of the episode: Selkie, the Sea Rescue Hero.

To be fair, I actually don’t like Selkie’s character at all. I find his personality and the gags associated with him to be annoying. But considering that’s how I feel about the majority of My Hero Academia characters, I guess it’s not a big deal.

So, if I don’t like Selkie’s character, why am I saying he’s the best part of the episode? Simply put, I like the role Selkie fills within the world of My Hero Academia. He’s not just a generalist hero like most are. Selkie’s niche is that of a marine operation specialist.

What other pro heroes are there who have such a specific job? I’m sure there are some, but I can’t think of them right now. Obviously, someone like Endeavor isn’t suited for marine operations. However, he’s a generalist who can do everything else.

And, this specialization extends to Selkie’s team. Sure, Sirius could use her hearing quirk in a lot of other situations. But it actually works perfectly when she’s paired up with Selkie because he can communicate even when he’s underwater. Again, I don’t feel like many other pro hero agencies are this specialized.

Trigger is the New Booster

One of my big issues with this episode is that it introduced a new drug that’s all the rage in the criminal underworld. This drug is known as Trigger. But why is its introduction so boring? Because it’s the exact same thing as the previous drug known as Booster.

Booster is a red liquid that, when injected, boosts the effectiveness, power, etc. of a quirk for a short period of time. Trigger is a green liquid that, when injected, boosts the effectiveness, power, etc. of a quirk for a short period of time.

Are you starting to see why it’s such a lazy development? We’ve already done this. It’s like if after All-for-One was defeated, a new antagonist was introduced with the exact same quirk because the author couldn’t think of anything else to write.

There could have been a pretty easy way to make Trigger stand out when compared to Booster. As the name of Booster implies, it boosts quirks. So why not make it so that Trigger triggers quirks to manifest? That would be different enough to be interesting.

It’s been stated that 80% of the population in My Hero Academia has quirks. The remaining 20% of the world’s population is a huge market for a drug that triggers quirks to manifest. And then there could be the issue of what happens if someone with a quirk uses it.

Do they develop a second quirk? We know that a body can technically withstand more than one quirk. Are the effects temporary? Does it alter their quirk? Does it replace their quirk? Are there any negative side effects specific to those who already have a quirk of their own?

But, no. As far as I understand it, Trigger is the exact same thing as Booster, just green instead of red.

Obligatory Beach Episode

On top of the fact that the new drug that was introduced in this episode is the same as one we’ve seen before, there’s another issue with this episode. That is, of course, that it’s also an obligatory beach episode — to an extent, at least.

I know I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. But I kind of assumed that this was going to be a more serious episode about Ochako’s development as a hero and character. Since this is a battle shounen series, though, I definitely should have known better.

However, in my defense, Ochako actually gets less development than any other battle shounen obligatory female main character. She started off the series as the third member in the Deku/Bakugo/Ochako trio. But as we’ve seen, Todoroki has replaced her.

There’s a bigger issue with this being a beach episode, though. The pacing of this season is painful and this episode didn’t help. Just look at the content of this episode as well as the three episodes that came before it.

Episode 101 was a filler episode that reintroduced us to all of the characters and had a Christmas theme. Then Episodes 102 and 103 gave us a small amount of meaningful content with the Liberation Army. And now with Episode 104, we’re watching the girls play on the beach.

We’re four episodes into the current arc and yet we’ve gotten barely any important content. This is why I seriously considered dropping My Hero Academia this week. There’s just so much wasted episode time that’s wasted because meaningless content isn’t cut.

It’s not as if this is a year-round series like Boruto that needs filler episodes to stay behind the source material. My Hero Academia Season 5 could probably be 13 episodes instead of 25 and we wouldn’t lose anything of value.

Conclusion

What do you think of My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 104? Are there any specialized pro heroes besides Selkie whom I forgot about? Do you think there’s a difference between Booster and Trigger? And how do you feel about the pace of the story in the anime? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 105 is available now.