#bam oh hey it's kirishima and tetsutetsu here to wreck some shit as well

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 053: Shounen Life Lessons

Previously on BnHA: After making a flashy nick-of-time entrance to save Iida, Deku went one-on-one against Stain with his new One for All power-up. Iida kept telling him not to interfere but we all ignored him. Stain managed to paralyze Deku with his quirk, but before he could finish Iida off, yet another obnoxious U.A. student in a spiffy new costume showed up with a last minute save, because Deku is a gen z shounen hero and knows how to send a fucking text.

Today on BnHA: Todoroki shows up and immediately gives Deku a break from being the main character. Stain is able to wound him, but before he can paralyze Todoroki, Deku’s movement is suddenly restored. Stain’s quirk is revealed to have varying mileage depending on the victim’s blood type. Deku tries to keep Stain distracted until help arrives. Todoroki reminds everyone of his aggressive character development since the sports festival, and takes it upon himself to pass some of that wisdom down to Iida “RARRR VENGEANCE!!” Tenya. It’s good stuff.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 126 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

I love everyone’s reactions on this fucking page

Stain is all, “these little shits just keep on coming”

Iida is all WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP TRYING TO SAVE ME!?

Deku is all, “but! half-finished sentences!!”

and lastly we have Shouto, who just seems like he can’t even fathom how they managed to get themselves into this mess to begin with

-- OH MY GOD IT WAS A GROUP TEXT?? well I guess that does make sense; he didn’t know who might be in the area. come to think of it, there’s actually a chance more of them could be there, due to the Noumu attacks. oh my god if any more U.A. students show up I will just start laughing and never fucking stop

(ETA: I’m not saying this would have singlehandedly transformed this from my least fave arc to #1 BEST FAVE FOREVER!! but I’m also not not saying that)

what are the odds that Best Jeanist was on duty nearby. god I know it’s a long shot but my heart wants it so badly

Stain is so fucking screwed now. pretty sure Todoroki can still attack him even if he’s not able to move. and unlike Deku and Iida, he actually has ranged attacks

so anyway, Shouto immediately knew Deku was in trouble when he sent a text with just his location and nothing else! because we all know how much Deku never shuts up in the fucking group chat normally

Shouto says the pros will be there in a few minutes. meanwhile he’s shooting off crazy powerful ice and fire blasts toward Stain just to remind us all that he’s basically already a pro himself

not sure what he’s doing here but I love it

oh lol he used the ice to roll all of the others over to where he is. this fucking guy transported a bunch of paralyzed dudes across the length of an alley using only his ice. the control this kid has is utterly insane

he should just encase them all in ice now so that Stain can’t get to them

Deku warns Shouto not to let himself get cut, because if Stain gets a taste of his blood he’ll be able to paralyze him too

“so I’ve just gotta keep my distance.” yep. honestly if Stain can manage to get close enough to him to cut him, he almost deserves to kill him

-- !!!

!!!!!!

well it’s l like I said, Shouto, just die then you idiot

FUCK

WHY IS THE PROCEDURE FOR HIS QUIRK SO FUCKING GROSS?! PLEASE STOP LICKING THE FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD CHILD

YOU SEE?! HE DOESN’T LIKE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!!

ALSO SHOUTO YOU COULD HAVE DONE THAT AT ANY POINT, YOU TOTALLY LEFT YOURSELF OPEN THERE FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON

but thank fuck, at least he stopped him before he got to the blood

Iida hasn’t whined about people trying to save his life for almost two whole minutes so he decides to throw in his two cents once again

Todoroki says it’s odd that he’d say that because “the Ingenium I know never made faces like that.” YESSSS TODOROKI. SET HIM STRAIGHT. DEKU WAS TRYING BUT HE GOT INTERRUPTED HALFWAY THROUGH. BUT YOU, AS ONE OF DEKU’S NEWLY CONVERTED DISCIPLES, HAVE MY PERMISSION TO FINISH THE JOB

! it looked like Deku was able to move his finger for just a second!

oh shit now Stain is slicing up Shouto’s ice barrier. oh yeah I forgot to mention that Shouto had made an ice barrier

he’s chastising Shouto for obstructing his own vision. eh, all things considered, I’d still argue that wall in between you and them > no wall in between you and them

OH SHIT

AND NOW HE’S FUCKING DIVING AT HIM FROM ABOVE

HOW THE FUCK DID HE EVEN GET UP SO HIGH

OMG YESSSSSSSSS

I guess that shit had a time limit?? but then if that’s the case Iida should also be able to move, no?

Deku doesn’t even know how he was able to do it, but he says that somehow he’s able to move again just fine. and now he’s physically dragging Stain and it looks like maybe he’s gonna toss him or something?

wha

shit now he’s elbowing Deku in the back and pulling out one of his knives again

Deku dropped him but thankfully Shouto takes advantage of Stain being temporarily off balance!

they work together so nicely! Shouto’s arm is pretty fucked up, though. of course, it’s nothing compared to Deku levels of fucked up

-- oh my god I just realized something. hold up lemme go check Deku and Iida’s blood types

yep. Deku is type O while Iida’s type A. that’s what that fucker meant

I just looked up Shouto’s blood type and he is also type O! so that’s good! but it doesn’t seem like it grants them total immunity; just that the effect isn’t as strong

literally one panel after I had this realization, the characters are confirming it lol

and here we go

I fucking love the term “bloodcurdle” for his quirk. if that’s actually a Viz-ism then I respect it even more

(ETA: as expected, Viz isn’t nearly cool enough to have come up with that on their own)

so Iida should be okay before too much longer then, right? at which point he will probably manage to fuck things up by immediately trying to go after Stain again

anyway, for now at least Shouto and Deku are smart enough to realize that they need to keep playing this defensively until backup arrives

since Shouto is bleeding a lot which makes him more vulnerable, Deku volunteers to draw Stain’s attention

oh my god yes please double team this guy. I’m so fucking here for this. dream team

now Shouto’s thinking to himself that he’s been keeping an eye on Iida ever since Ingenium was taken down, because he recognized the look of reckless shounen grudge-holding in his eyes or whatever lol

he thinks, while staring up at Deku’s butt for some reason

lol but seriously can we all just stop for a moment and appreciate just how much Shouto has grown and matured as a person in such a short span of time

apparently he patched things up with his mom. well that’s good I guess. and he seems to feel a lot more settled now

and once he had managed to sort that out, he made the decision to work at his dad’s agency. because his dad is the number two hero for a reason, and he wants to see and experience for himself why that is

but he hasn’t forgiven him. good

for someone who literally didn’t have a single line for the first ten chapters of the series, Todoroki sure did pretty much take over the manga all for himself in a remarkably short period of time! and I’m not even mad tbh

I’m fucking living for the self-awareness he’s gained in hindsight of everything that went down since his fight with Deku. good shit. four stars. 10/10 would relive this character arc again

anyway, it looks like Iida’s starting to snap out of his vengeance funk just a bit

yes, Iida. see the contrast there?

now he’s telling them to stop this and that he can’t take it

and Shouto’s screaming back, “if you wanna stop this, then stand up!”

Shouto’s all-in on the jesusing today

MY GOD BUT I LOVE WHEN SOMEONE WHO PREVIOUSLY LEARNED A LOT OF SHOUNEN LIFE LESSONS COMES ALONG AND PASSES THAT KNOWLEDGE DOWN TO THE NEXT STRUGGLING PERSON WHO NEEDS TO LEARN THEM TOO. THE CYCLE OF SHOUNEN WISDOM CONTINUES

and that’s the end of the chapter! and apparently the volume!

there’s a little celebratory page of Horikoshi being happy that the anime was just announced, and then that’s it! but that’s okay, we don’t need any bonus content. Todoroki teaching Iida the true meaning of Christmas is enough for today.