Episode 13, “Infinite 100%,” begins outside, on the street, under a blue sky, from the perspective of a handful of heroes we haven’t seen for a good while now. That, in itself, is enough to make this episode feel fresh and exciting. A short break from the grey corridors and the spikes was all that was needed to breathe a little freshness into this arc.
This opening few minutes are chock full of what makes My Hero Academia so endearing. We have a well-executed takedown of a truly imposing enemy through a clever combination of quirks and some charming teamwork by Ryukyu, Uravity, and Froppy. It’s delivered with a little cheese and a lot of heart that does well to remind us of the energizing sweetness that MHA has often provided in the past. It’s a real quirks-on-parade, from both our heroes and our villains, and it is a truly welcome opening to the episode.
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In the previous episode we really got to see the depths of Overhaul’s depravity in how he treats Eri. And what’s fully brought to light in this episode is how clever Eri’s own characterization has been, from a storytelling angle. Never has Eri been a perspective character. (In fact, even visually she is often underexposed or obscured.) Instead, we are always given fleeting glimpses of her past, her situation, her power, her personality, her relationship to Overhaul.
Eri is a jigsaw that slowly becomes clear as the episodes slot her pieces together. “Infinite 100%” feels like the culmination of this. We see clearly her moral compass, her resolve, and her inner strength even in the face of fear and confusion. Eri has, at last, transformed from a MacGuffin into a fully formed character. And the way that this entire season has accomplished this is, in retrospect, really deft storytelling.
To say too much about the story in this episode would be to spoil a lot, but the pieces that make this episode such a rip-roaring success are all so finely tuned and executed that it makes this installment feel like a celebration of My Hero Academia. It’s a culmination of what this arc has been building up to, but it also feels like a return to form in terms of its bombastic action, with big, color-drenched open environments and full-power, no-holds-barred aggression. We’ve seen Overhaul use his power for some wonderfully strange and transformative purposes before, but here he harks back to the Final Fantasy boss battles of old in what he manages to visually pull off. And in the face of this “final form” we get the best smash of the show since All Might’s United States of Smash.
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The music of this episode also does an incredible job of carrying both its intense action and its hefty emotional weight. Two particular scenes stand out: an early scene wherein Deku attempts to reach and rescue Eri, and a showdown in the episode’s second half. For the first, we are treated to an ethereal, stripped-down, almost a cappella piece that juxtaposes the action and motion on screen. It’s reminiscent of all those times that Gary Jules’ “Mad World” has been used to sombrely frame an on-screen battle, but here it feels fresh and soothing in spite of the episode’s stakes. The second piece of music is a switch from a guitar-led build-up into a full orchestral crescendo that truly manages to get the adrenaline pumping at all the right story and dialogue beats.
At no point in its twenty-odd minutes of runtime does this episode do a thing to let its viewers down. There are flashbacks, as we’ve come to expect from this season in particular, but they’re all provided with a view to expanding on Overhaul’s mindset, his place in Shie Hassaikai, and his lack of humanity. There’s also an enormous amount of sakuga here. As mentioned last week, Bones really save up the sakuga for all of the Deku-centric fights, and they pull out all the stops for this one. The episode’s final quarter, its larger-than-life aerial showdown, is exactly as powerful, thrilling, beautifully animated, and vigorous as you hope it would be.
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