Review: My Hero Academia s4 ep83: Togata’s Daughter and Children with a Bright Future

Welcome to another collaboration review of My Hero Academia season 4 from Irina from I Drink and Watch Anime and me! It’s my turn to host this week. That means I’m in plain text and Irina will be in bold. And there may be spoilers. 

The story moved forward on three fronts this week: school festival, the continued (really drawn out) passing of the baton, and the external threat. Of course, as promised at the end of the previous episode, Eri figured prominently, though one of our heroes had to suffer through several misunderstandings that I’m still not sure how to think about.

How was your week, Irina? Any thoughts about episode 83, “Gold Tips Imperial,” before we get this show on the road?

I really like tea so I was psyched to see some tea product placement!

Honesty, it made me think a lot of the “commoner’s coffee” seen in Ouran High School Host Club. As that remains one of my favorite anime gags, I was predisposed to enjoying this running bit and I did. From what I saw in the after credits scene, it seems the bit will be upheld in the next episode as well. That makes me happy.

It’s a weird thing to be happy about, but I like this sort of lightly winky writing. Certainly a huge departure from the first half of the season.

The students from Class 1-A divided themselves into three teams to prepare for the festival: Band Team, Effects Team, and Dance Team. Izuku Midoriya/Deku was on the dance team, and he was struggling a bit to keep up with Mina Ashido/Pinky’s choreography. While they were practicing, Mirio Togata/Lemillion tried to sneak up on them to play a surprise joke. I took that as a good sign in that he’s trying to get back to “normal.” Much to his disappointment, Midoriya saw him first. That wasn’t quite enough to deter him, though, so even as Eri stepped forward to everyone’s coos and ahhs of approval, Togata stuck his bottom through the hedge and called it a peach.

Must be a Japanese thing. Or maybe I’m just dense. Or maybe those two things represent a false dilemma? 

I’m not sure I’m following. The peach thing is definitely not a Japanese thing. I remember a very similar joke in Face/Off. I wonder if anyone else remembers Face/Off. Brilliant piece of camp that was. 

Mirio was pretty much back to normal 3 episodes ago when he was doing exercise in his hospital bed. I’m not that worried about him. If anything, it’s the rest of the world that lost out when he lost his quirk. That boy is clearly a hero.

It was thoughtful of Shouta Aizawa/Eraser Head to approach Nezu/Mr. Principal to advocate for Eri being allowed to attend the festival. It was even more thoughtful of Nezu to suggest she visit early to get used to the surroundings. He knew she’d been raised alone, so being around so many people was scary for her. That’s why Eri was visiting now.

Mr. Principal anticipated that Eri might be uncomfortable around so many people — so they allowed her to visit ahead of the festival. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

He is very good with kids. I guess he didn’t become a principal for nothing.  Nezu is actually a character I wish we could get to know better. He seems to have a really interesting back story.

Strangely, the first thing Mashirao Ojiro/Tailman did was ask if Eri was Togata’s daughter. Later, another student asked Togata the same thing and wondered if that was why Togata had been missing classes.

Is that kind of thing normal in this universe?

Maybe we’ve been watching different shows. I feel like it’s the type of joke we see a lot in all sorts of sitcoms and shows. Admittedly, it might be the first time I see it in anime that tends to be a bit less direct with blue humour. 

It’s not a super funny joke. At least it wasn’t to me. I wonder why people keep using it.

I meant more the idea of heroes suddenly being with child (or being responsible for it!) — is that really common in this world? But yeah, I’m probably reading too much into it.

I will say that Togata took it all with his normal smiling tolerance. 

Of course, Eri’s cuteness blew everyone away. Ochako Uraraka/Uravity and Tsuyu Asui/Froppy fawned all over her, but in a way that didn’t shock her. It was only when Minoru Mineta/Grape Juice said he was dying to see how she looked in 10 years that her stranger danger sense kicked in. She hid behind Togata, where she felt safe.

The Eri fanservice was really on point in this episode. I’ve been watching Somali and the Forest Spirit, so I have had a regular dose of adorable anime little girls acting adorable, but Somali is much more bombastic and a bit of a trouble maker. Seeing Eri play the other archetype of the shy and sweet little angel was a nice contrast. And I think they did a great job animating and illustrating her this episode.

Eri seemed to take a lot of comfort by hiding behind Togata. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

The episode got Eri just right. As Mr. Principal said, she wasn’t used to being around people. As Togata and Midoriya took her around the campus, she took it all in. She didn’t get upset or panic, but she didn’t show a lot of curiosity, either. She just took it all in. Even when they introduced her to Mei Hatsume and one of her babies malfunctioned (“it exploded again!” someone yelled in the background), Eri showed only a slight interest — and no fear.

Eri still has a lot of PTSD.

Her escorts had to be worried for her. When they stopped in the cafeteria and got her someone to drink, Midoriya asked her what she thought. She could only reply, “I don’t really know,” in a small and hesitant voice. 

But then, she got this really thoughtful expression, and she said that everyone was working so hard together. That seemed to impress her. “I wonder how it’ll turn out…” she said. Midoriya and Togata were so happy that they looked just like proud parents.

I’m afraid I didn’t pay much attention to this scene.

Or rather I was more interested in what the Principal and Nemuri were talking about. The principal is really taking this festival to heart. A sentence like don’t “let the future look any bleaker” certainly sounds powerful and I agree with him on principle, but it’s a huge risk. If something does happen at the festival, even if no real damage is done, it may end up having the opposite effect of what they are striving for and spread fear and pessimism among the people.

That would be a difficult blow to come back from, and at the very least could have some ill effects on the school’s reputation and maybe even enrollment. He just made a big gamble and I’m surprised he’s not pushing the students harder all things considered.

“We can’t let the future look any bleaker,” he said. Difficult statement to make when they don’t control all aspects of the situation. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

Practice kept Midoriya really busy, but he still made time to practice with Toshinori Yagi/All Might in the mornings. I get that some kind of training would be needed to hand off the role conferred by One for All. But to me, this seems like a really, really long hand off. It struck me in this episode that All Might is only now trying to teach Deku some basic techniques — that seems like it’s late in coming!

But then All Might disclosed that he could use One for All at 100% as soon as he received it. In other words, he’s like someone who’s gifted in math trying to teach math to a slow-learner (or even an average student). He’s a terrible teacher! 

I’m probably being too harsh. I get that Deku has to learn some of it on his own, but it’s the fourth season and 83rd episode already. 

I’m fairly immune to these types of contrivances. I grew up reading superhero stories and watching shonen. It’s sort of a staple. I mean, how are you gonna make it another 83 episodes if you just hand your hero all the answers? 

Halting Deku’s progress is probably the only reason the league of villains can still be considered viable antagonists, and I do like that about the show. Having the same ultimate villains for so long has allowed me to develop a relationship with them. The league is way more threatening for me than most villains I can think of, and that’s saying something when half of them are comic relief. 

My Hero Academia has created a world where all kinds of shades of moral gray can exist. That makes room for characters to have wildly varying motivations that make them fun to watch. In this episode, we got to see more of what drives Danjuurou Tobita/Gentle Criminal and his sidekick, Manami Aiba/La Brava — but not too much. There’s still some mystery here. Quite a lot, in fact.

What is it that motivates these two? We got a better handle on La Brava in this episode, but there’s a delightful mystery still surrounding the Gentle Criminal. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

It had created such a wonderfully ambiguously moral world, but it seems to be striving to change that this season and make everything much more black and white… I’m still a bit bitter, don’t mind me.

I really like Gentle and La Brava so far. There’s not enough development yet for me to get a proper idea of the characters, but it’s an intriguing set up that makes me want to know more.

We learned that Tobita started out posting videos, but his technical skills were so terrible only a handful of people watched them. But one of those people happened to be Aiba, who showed up at his door one day with a confession of love and an offer to “help you carve your name into history!”

I typically don’t open my door to solicitors. So many religious pamphlets, so little time! But it seemed to have worked out for Tobita, because with La Brava’s technical expertise, the popularity of his videos soared. 

I’ve never had any religious solicitors at my door…. It’s probably because it’s super cold outside and not the aura of evil that emanates from this place… yeah, that’s it.

So what did we learn of their motivations? Well, first, we learned that La Brava is hesitant to unleash their plan on the school. “I don’t know how I feel about you getting children with a bright future involved,” she said. So we know she’s not inclined to do villainous things for the sake of being villainous. 

La Brava was uncomfortable targeting children. Capture from the Crunchyroll stream.

That’s when he explained that he thought that his efforts would make those children stronger, their futures brighter. La Brava seemed really happy that he was acting because he was “truly anguished” (whatever that means). I’m inclined to believe Tobita really thinks he’s doing something positive, and if I interpret his previous antics right, he seems himself as a Robin Hood character. I still have no idea exactly what he’s planning. Have you figured it out yet, Irina?

Not at all. And I’m really excited about that. The after credit scene had Deku looking really troubled before Gentle, which is odd. Deku is such a trusting type he wouldn’t make a face like that unless something really obvious went down. Sure Deku did see Gentle’s video so he could have recognized him from there, but Gentle’s videos are all mostly harmless. The one he saw was about tea….

I’m looking forward to next week. Gentle is a very unique element in My Hero Academia and I’m curious how they will develop it,

I did have to chuckle when Tobita tried to open a folder on his computer. It wouldn’t open, and he had no idea what to do. La Brava had to explain that she’d locked it. I kinda feel like I should root for La Brava as a fellow computer person!

Reviews of the Other Episodes

• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep64 – The Heir
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep65 – Overhaul
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep66 – Boy Meets…
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep67 — Fighting Fate
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep68 — Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep69 – An Unpleasant Talk
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep70 – GO!!
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep71 – Suneater of the Big Three
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep72 – Red Riot
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep73 – Temp Squad
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep74 – Lemillion
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep75: The Unforeseen Hope
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep76: Infinite 100%
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep77: Bright Future
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep78: Smoldering Flames
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep79: Win Those Kids’ Hearts
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep80: Relief for the License Trainees
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep81: School Festival
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep82: Prepping for the School Festival Is the Funnest Part
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep83: Gold Tips Imperial
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep84: Deku vs. Gentle Criminal
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep85: School Festival Start!!
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep86: Let it Flow! School Festival!
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep87: Japanese Hero Billboard Chart
• Review of My Hero Academia s4 ep88: His Start