My Hero Academia Episode 103

My Hero Academia Episode 103

The Liberation Army

In my review of My Hero Academia Episode 102, I was questioning how the Liberation Army was connected to both the Hero’s Association and the League of Villains. As far as I could tell, it was a hybrid organization that blended aspects of both.

However, Episode 103 has given us some answers — at least indirectly. We now know that the Liberation Army is actually controlled by the League of Villains. From what we saw, the “board of directors” for the Liberation Army was made up of all villains and no heroes.

Based on this information, I can only conclude that the Liberation Army isn’t a separate entity from the League of Villains. It’s just the League’s latest plan to use other villains and heroes alike to achieve its own goals.

The League of Villains leading the Liberation Army from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
The League of Villains leading the Liberation Army

If I had to guess, I’d say that the heroes who are members of the Liberation Army don’t actually know what its true goals are. I mean, it seems very unlikely that a bunch of pro heroes would join up with a group they knew was lead by the League of Villains.

It was also implied that the large number of members the Liberation Army has are simply going to be used as tools for the master plan. For example, maybe they’ll all be turned into human bombs and explode at the same time. Again, it seems unlikely that pro heroes would fight against the Heroes Association out of their own free will.

These heroes were probably lured into the group due to whatever the liberation ideology is. And once they were in, either the ruse was kept up, or they were somehow brainwashed. Slidin’ Go can’t actually be a bad guy.

Training Under Endeavor

Although Endeavor accepted Todoroki, Deku, and Bakugo into his agency, it was assumed by the sidekicks that only Todoroki would be learning directly from Endeavor. As Burnin tells us, they figured Deku and Bakugo would be working under the sidekicks because Endeavor only wanted Todoroki.

Luckily for Deku and Bakugo, Endeavor changes his mind after reading the secret message given to him by Hawks. This is because he now recognizes the immediate need for the next generation of heroes to be trained, which I’ll get into in the following section of this review.

I was actually a bit surprised by Endeavor’s methods of training the students, especially when he started out by asking them what their weaknesses are. He was taking this whole thing a lot more seriously than I expected. He wants them to identify their weaknesses so that they can eliminate them.

Pro Hero Burnin (and Bakugo and Todoroki) from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Pro Hero Burnin (and Bakugo and Todoroki)

Now, you might be thinking that this is still a very “Endeavor thing” to do. He has them acknowledge their weaknesses, then tells them to get over those weaknesses. But he does add some additional guidance, such as that they need to overcome their weaknesses because they won’t always be able to rely on allies to back them up.

He’s not training them in this way because he’s only interested in strong heroes. He knows firsthand that things don’t always go according to plan. Even if you have someone else to cover your weaknesses, what happens if they’re taken out in battle?

Also, his usual way of teaching by example is changed a bit this time around as well. Rather than just telling the students to keep up with him if they can, he shows them why it’s so important for them to keep up. If they’re slow, they may fail to save someone in time.

Preparing the Next Generation

The reason the work-study program was reintroduced is that the Hero’s Association needs to fast-track the students’ transition into pro heroes. More and more villains are cropping up, and soon there’s going to be a hero shortage unless something is done.

But, the situation is now direr (yes, that’s a real word) than it was when the work-study program was initially brought back. Thanks to the information Hawks discovered, we now know that there’s going to be a large-scale battle between the Hero’s Association and the Liberation Army.

In just a few months, the Liberation Army is going to launch a massive attack, and the pro heroes who aren’t members are going to have to combat this threat. Interestingly, it doesn’t appear that the students are being fast-tracked to pro hero status so that they can help fight in this war.

Bakugo, Deku, and Todoroki following Endeavor from the anime series My Hero Academia Season 5
Bakugo, Deku, and Todoroki following Endeavor

Instead, the reason for the students getting extra hands-on training now is that they may need to replace the current pro heroes if things go poorly. If the Liberation Army is too strong and manages to defeat the heroes, the students will need to rise to the occasion.

This isn’t a development that I particularly like. Already, it feels like the series is setting up the defeat of the pro heroes just so that the students will get a time to shine. The foreshadowing just feels a bit too heavy, and I don’t think that’s because it’s bait.

If this is all just bait to make us believe that the pro heroes are going to lose, that would be a boring turn of events in its own way. It would mean that nothing changes and the students would continue to be nothing more than students. For this reason, I think at least some of the pro heroes are going to have to die.

Conclusion

What do you think of My Hero Academia Episode 103? How is the League of Villains getting heroes to join the Liberation Army? Do you think Endeavor is a good mentor? And what are you expecting from the upcoming battle? Let me know in the comments.

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My review of Episode 104 is available now.

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