My Hero Academia Episode 102

My Hero Academia Episode 102

Triple-Agent Hawks

Before I get into my Hawks discussion, I need to say that the new OP that came with My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 102 is bad. The song is terrible and the visuals are boring. I didn’t like the previous OP, but this one is even worse.

Now, as for Hawks, we already knew that he was working as a double-agent. He’s a member of the Hero Association, or whatever it’s actually called, and he’s also working for the League of Villains. It’s been heavily implied that his true loyalties lie with the heroes, though.

However, in this episode, it was also revealed that there’s a third faction at play and that Hawks has infiltrated it as well. This faction is the Liberation Army, and as of right now, I’m not really sure what they are. It seems almost like a group of heroes and villains all working together.

Dabi from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Dabi

From my understanding, Slidin’ Go is a member of the Liberation Army, as is the villain-like guy who claimed to be watching Hawks’ every movement. And, Hawks claims that they have over 100,000 members. But, what is the Liberation Army?

Obviously, Hawks views them as a threat. But it’s unclear what their goal is and how it would differ from that of the League of Villains. Don’t the League of Villains just want to do away with the distinction of heroes? I got the sense that might be the Liberation Army’s goal too.

So, are the League of Villains and the Liberation Army connected? It seems odd that heroes would know about the Liberation Army, but not who its members are or anything else about them. Endeavor obviously knew of them but was surprised to learn they were the enemy.

Maybe I just missed something.

Work-Study with Endeavor

In my review of Episode 101, I questioned how Deku and Bakugo came to be doing their work-study with Endeavor. We now have the answer to that question. Endeavor didn’t want anyone other than Todoroki to have their work-study with him.

I guess in Endeavor’s mind, this work-study was an opportunity for him to bond with his son. From what we’ve seen, he’s not all that interested in forcing Todoroki into the mold he wants for him anymore. But, apparently, Todoroki wanted to bring his friends along.

We also see that Endeavor wasn’t aware of who Todoroki’s friends were until they showed up. He obviously knows who Deku and Bakugo are because he saw them at the sports festival. But as it turns out, they didn’t leave enough of an impact on him for him to take interest in them.

Endeavor from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Endeavor

I do want to point out that I’m fairly certain Endeavor knows Deku is All Might’s student. I don’t believe he knows that their quirk is one and the same, though. So, from that standpoint, Endeavor is somewhat interested in Deku — just more as a rival for Todoroki.

Bakugo is in an interesting position because, as All Might pointed out, he and Endeavor have a lot in common. Endeavor has mellowed out now, but before he and Bakugo had the same angry personality. And, from what we saw, Endeavor doesn’t recognize how similar he and Bakugo are.

While I don’t think this episode was all that interesting, I do see this work-study program having some good development. Todoroki and his dad can bond, Endeavor can get to know All Might’s student, and Bakugo may learn to not be so angry all the time.

That last part probably isn’t going to happen. It’s a pretty big part of his character.

Secret Message

I’ve already gone over what was within the secret message that Hawks gave to Endeavor. But now let’s take a look at how he gave this message to Endeavor. Hawks jumped through a lot of hoops just to deliver a relatively basic message.

First, Hawks makes sure to act differently so that Endeavor notices something is up. Next, he gives Endeavor a book and suggests he read the highlighted sections. And lastly, he emphasizes that the second part of the highlighted sections is most important.

Eventually, Endeavor figures out that this means to string the second character of each highlighted sentence together to reveal the message. But why would Hawks go through all of this work just to tell Endeavor to watch out for the Liberation Army?

Hawks from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Hawks

The obvious answer is that Hawks did this because he’s being watched by that one mysterious member of the Liberation army. I think he mentioned something about having implanted devices within Hawks’ body to spy on him with.

But, I don’t think this really checks out. If he’s keeping an eye on Hawks around the clock, wouldn’t he notice if Hawks started acting strangely, handing things off to heroes, and giving them cryptic instructions? He might not know what the message Hawks is delivering is, but surely he’d figure out that Hawks is delivering a message of some type.

However, despite the fact that I don’t think Hawks’ actions here would really be effective, I did like seeing it. And the reason I liked it is that this plan only works because Hawks and Endeavor know each other well enough to notice when the other is acting strangely.

Up until this point, it seemed like Endeavor was getting the feeling that Hawks was using him for his own ends. But now, Endeavor sees that Hawks trusts him enough to rely on him when there’s an emergency.

Conclusion

What do you think of My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 102? Do you understand the Liberation Army better than I do? Which student do you think is going to develop the most while working under Endeavor? And how do you feel about Hawks’ method of giving Endeavor the message? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 103 is available now.

One Reply to “My Hero Academia Episode 102”

  1. I wanna say I’ve been severely disappointed in the animation put into the lastest episodes, even the action scenes are stiff and not an entertaining to look at. That’s about the only gripe I have

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