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My Hero Academia Season 5 E08 Turns Up The Heat on "Match 3": Review

Round 3 reaches its end on this week's episode of My Hero Academia, "Match 3 Conclusion", and turns out both teams from Class 1-A and 1-B really did go Plus Ultra. On the Class 1-A side, we have Team Iida with Todoroki, Ojiro, and Shoji; on Class 1-B we have Team Tetsutetsu with Sen, Pony, and Juzo. During the last episode, we got hints this would be a close battle and how right those hints were. Tenya starts off by escaping the ice where Juzo had trapped him in, showing off his new Super move: Recipro Turbo. He manages to get the upper hand on Juzo who runs away. Despite not being quite able to control it yet, Tenya manages to save Ojiro from Sen and put Sen in jail. Even while getting questioned by Sen, Tenya mentions it is what his brother would have done and goes back into battle. While Deku is watching he mentions Tenya is now faster than Gran Torino with his new move.

On his end, Todoroki is trying his best to keep up against Tetsutetsu, but none of his moves seem to be working on him. Todoroki manages to help Shoji against Pony. However, Tetsutetsu's increasing resistance to ice or heat becomes more apparent. Meanwhile, Todoroki keeps recalling Endeavor and what it was training under him as a kid. He also remembers being told by Endeavor he had the power to surpass his own limits and go beyond with his own fire. As he remembers this, his own fire power starts increasing getting up to par with Endeavor's Prominence Burn. Suddenly we see Tetsutetsu start feeling its effects, but deeming it impossible that Todoroki can keep up under the heat, he decides to give it his all as well. The battle and flashbacks work really well together. I especially like seeing hints of what could be a possible relationship between Endeavor and Todoroki.

Shoji and Ojiro then also get the best over Pony. While Juzo comes in to trap them, Ojiro unleashes his new power and manages to get away from the cement still holding on to Pony, she uses her horns to send him flying to jail, evening the score 1-1. On their side, both Todoroki and Tetsutetsu start slowing down in the midst of fighting. As Todoroki remembers more of his conversation with Endeavor we see him absorb all flames and focus them on his fist, but Juzo then makes him lose his footing, and Todoroki gets knocked out by flying chunks. Tenya then comes in and in one sweep puts Juzo down and rushes to save Todoroki. Juzo still manages to hang on to consciousness fast enough to devise a plan that was able to take down Tenya as well.

However, while each team has only 1 person in jail, suddenly Tenya, Todoroki, Juzo, and Tetsutetsu are knocked out or unable to continue. The only viable players are Shoji and Pony, who decide to take Todoroki while supporting her team members along with her horns. Noticing Shoji was too close to gaining in on her she decides to fly out of range and wait for the time to pass until the match was over. Due to those conditions, the match ended up in a draw and it could not have been a better ending. I really enjoyed the aftermath where we see them interact and pretty much compliment each other on a good battle. I also like the changes we have seen in Todoroki since the anime started. He was such an emo boi and has become so sweet- half hot, half cold, just like his quirk. Now I am very excited to see what happens with the fourth round and what Bakugo might be hiding under his sleeves when My Hero Academia returns.

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