REVIEW: ‘My Hero Academia,’ Episode 96 – “3rd Match Conclusion”

My Hero Academia is a superhero-shounen anime produced by Bones. The tension is rising as the third match in the competition between classes 1-A and 1-B barrels towards its conclusion. Every participant is determined to go PLUS ULTRA and win the day. But is victory always possible? The students of UA High are gonna find out in My Hero Academia Episode 96.

Like everyone who consumes media, I have certain aspects of storytelling that mean more to me than others. Great characters, impactful moments, and smooth-flowing plot/character arcs are all at the top of my list. As these are things My Hero Academia excels at, I’ve always loved the series. But there is a long-running frustration for me where this series structure is concerned that I haven’t mentioned before, despite it’s being there all season. In fact, it has been there all series and that’s probably why I’ve failed to mention it till now. But My Hero Academia Episode 96 is especially egregious in this long-running falling. I speak of the series overlong opening recaps.

As this episode is the wrap-up to the third battle in the competition I feel like needing to go all the way back to recap battle one is a bit much. Recapping anything more than the previous episode is really overdoing it in this instance. They mention more than once that the classes are tied one to one, and no action taken earlier directly impacts this week’s story. It may seem like a small gripe, but after 96 episodes I wish the series could get a handle on what needs to be rehashed each episode.

My Hero Academia Episode 96 puts the bulk of its focus on Iida and Todoroki. While all the combatants get a moment to shine, these two share the spotlight. These two characters work great together as they both wrestle with living in the shadows of their predecessors, though for different reasons. While Todorki continues to struggle with reconciling the fact that the power he shares with his father doesn’t make him like him, Iida continues to struggle with his need to reach the heights he sees his older brother at.

While the series spends far more time with Todoroki overall, I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Iida. He’s caught himself chasing a vision of his sibling that I’m fairly confident exists only in his mind. A version that was formed by a young boy seeing his big brother save people. To hear Iida’s thoughts, you’d think Ingenium was greater than even All-Might. I hope the series eventually gives Iida the final growth of realizing nobody can ever be that perfect and allows him to be proud of who he already is.

Aside from the continuing character exploration, My Hero Academia Episode 96‘s focus is squarely on the action. From start to finish this episode weaves some great showdowns throughout its runtime.

While Todorki and Iida take the character’s focus, the star of the action has to be Tetsutetsu. While this character has generally been relegated to the role of comic relief in the past, here he gets his moment to shine in a far more serious way. When all is said and done, My Hero Academia Episode 96 delivers another strong episode that mixes the series excellent character exploration with fun unique action.

My Hero Academia Episode 95 is streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.