Boku no Hero Academia

[Kraco]

Episode 08 - HS




- - - - -



This show is trying hard to surpass One Piece in the amount of useless flashbacks, it seems, with the dismal difference One Piece started to do it after hundreds of eps, this from the very beginning. I doubt there's any viewer left who's still in the dark about Deku and Kacchan's history, yet the show sees the need to remind of it every 5 minutes.

It didn't really feel like awfully lot would have happened in this episode. Perhaps the next episode will again turn better. It ought if it concentrates less on Deku and Kacchan's rivalry.

[shinta|hikari]

A rivalry that is abrupt and makes little sense, too.

Izuku's goal was to become a hero. Now it's become surpassing Kacchan. Why would he need to do that? He doesn't need to beat a bully at anything to be a great hero. Heck, the bully he is trying to surpass is a failure as a hero at this point. Their rivalry feels forced and is just there to imitate Naruto.

The recovery magic limitation feels so artificial. It "uses" stamina? Well, so does walking around in a cast. Dying from healing too fast makes little sense. Just heal him and confine him in the hospital bed to rest. I would've appreciated a more logical limiter, like granny being unable to use it because she gets exhausted.

I like the other characters, especially the girl who raised her hand. Finally someone who actually uses their head (and waki). I don't count Izuku as one of those types because he failed to take the most efficient and logical path many times now.

[Buffalobiian]

Izuku just told someone his power was acquired. You're not meant to do that.

From now on, everything to do with Kacchan being exploited by villians and All Might being a "fake" hero now will be because of this fuck-up. Well done Izuku.

Hopefully the mouse-principal is boss.

[Kraco]

Izuku just told someone his power was acquired. You're not meant to do that.

From now on, everything to do with Kacchan being exploited by villians and All Might being a "fake" hero now will be because of this fuck-up. Well done Izuku.

Let's hope Kacchan offhandedly spreads the info, someone notices All Might give Deku the extra attention, and people put two and two together, making all of this public information. Maybe that would teach Deku the consequences of revealing big secrets to a chronic bully.

It won't necessarily happen, though. Kacchan hardly pays attention to anything Deku says, so that bit as well might have simply been ignored and forgotten as soon as he heard it.

[Buffalobiian]

Oh, it'll come back to bite him. You can bet your entire shounen collection on that.

[Munsu]

Episode 08 - HS




- - - - -



This show is trying hard to surpass One Piece in the amount of useless flashbacks, it seems, with the dismal difference One Piece started to do it after hundreds of eps, this from the very beginning. I doubt there's any viewer left who's still in the dark about Deku and Kacchan's history, yet the show sees the need to remind of it every 5 minutes.

It didn't really feel like awfully lot would have happened in this episode. Perhaps the next episode will again turn better. It ought if it concentrates less on Deku and Kacchan's rivalry.

Though I agree with the general idea of many flashbacks, I think you're exaggerating here a bit. We didn't get any Deko/Kacchan flashback in this one... only the last episode summary at the beginning.

We did get though a rehash of the All-Mighty transference of power.

And I also agree, this was a fairly empty episode, but at the same time it was an excuse to introduce us to some of the side characters and see some of their abilities.

A rivalry that is abrupt and makes little sense, too.

Izuku's goal was to become a hero. Now it's become surpassing Kacchan. Why would he need to do that? He doesn't need to beat a bully at anything to be a great hero. Heck, the bully he is trying to surpass is a failure as a hero at this point. Their rivalry feels forced and is just there to imitate Naruto.

The recovery magic limitation feels so artificial. It "uses" stamina? Well, so does walking around in a cast. Dying from healing too fast makes little sense. Just heal him and confine him in the hospital bed to rest. I would've appreciated a more logical limiter, like granny being unable to use it because she gets exhausted.

I like the other characters, especially the girl who raised her hand. Finally someone who actually uses their head (and waki). I don't count Izuku as one of those types because he failed to take the most efficient and logical path many times now.

Not sure what the problem with stamina is. Sure, not a sexy explanation, but not as problematic as you're making it particularly if you consider the inverse and the dangers of fatigue (we don't know the extremes the healing process goes through). Stamina itself is a faux term, incredibly ambivalent, but the general idea remains true though. Trying to parallel it to "using" stamina walking around in a cast seems quite a stretch.

I fully expect though that we'll get some very flimsy rationalizations to avoid overusing this power, I just don't see the problem with what you're depicting right now overall.

And as I said a few episodes ago -

Another point of interest, more Yaoyorozu please:



Kinda wish she'd became the leading lady, but we'll have to wait to learn more of her to see if she's worth the time. But on looks alone, I'd love to see more of her and more interaction from her and Deku. Doubt it'll get there with Uraraka already getting the focus, not that I mind her so far.


Hope they don't ruin her just to make Uraraka more desirable or something.

As for Izuku's goal, yeah I'm with you. Not going to overthink it though, people have to put milestones for themselves to motivate themselves to get to the end goal. Not that Izuku needs it, but I don't see the much of a problem with a person trying to surpass another when the result should inevitably be that your own improvement as a consequence.

Izuku just told someone his power was acquired. You're not meant to do that.

From now on, everything to do with Kacchan being exploited by villians and All Might being a "fake" hero now will be because of this fuck-up. Well done Izuku.

Hopefully the mouse-principal is boss.

Yeah, that was a bit stupid. We'll see how All Might takes it.

That said, the after credit scene is promising we might be on the verge of entering a bigger stage than the Academia drama. We'll see how it goes.

[shinta|hikari]

About the stamina, why couldn't they just limit the granny's power than limiting it to the individual being healed? Dying because you're healing too fast is a little ridiculous. It's not like you're regenerating your cells over and over and over again, enough to use up your telomeres. You're just doing it faster.

This then brings up the issue of injuries/illness that you can't heal from naturally, like amputation or cancer. Will granny's power work on those?

Honestly, I don't mind if they simply don't put a limit to the healing. Just heal him whenever he gets hurt until people get pissed at how irresponsible that is.

[Munsu]

About the stamina, why couldn't they just limit the granny's power than limiting it to the individual being healed? Dying because you're healing too fast is a little ridiculous. It's not like you're regenerating your cells over and over and over again, enough to use up your telomeres. You're just doing it faster.

This then brings up the issue of injuries/illness that you can't heal from naturally, like amputation or cancer. Will granny's power work on those?

Honestly, I don't mind if they simply don't put a limit to the healing. Just heal him whenever he gets hurt until people get pissed at how irresponsible that is.

It's not "just doing it faster", it's using resources from your own body. That resource is called in this anime as stamina, and whatever encompasses stamina. So the believe here is that it's dangerous to force the body to go through a healing process that uses up some of these resources maybe to a point of depletion or something.

In a way it's like being put on a machine that forces you to run a marathon and you're only have stamina to withstand just 1 mile of running. What would happen then?

Again, we're talking about hypotheticals here and using the term stamina which is not all that scientific and intrinsically vague. That's why I introduced the other side of it, fatigue and then consider when your body goes beyond what it can handle fatigue wise.

That's how I'm seeing it.

[shinta|hikari]

I'm not a fan of vague (and inaccurate) labels. Nen is supernatural and acceptable in the context of the HxH story. Stamina is something we know in real life, so defining that as some kind of expendable fuel that will kill you if you run out (read: life force) is something I'd rather not see.

If Izuku could walk home after the treatment, he should've had enough "stamina" to at least fix his broken arm, especially if he can receive treatment again the very next day. It's not chemo.

I would've actually been impressed if the side effect of repeated insta-healing is cancer. That would've actually made sense.

[Ryllharu]

Well, they kind of glanced over it (it is explained much more clearly in the equivalent manga chapters), but they did explain it early on right after the first time Deku obliterated himself during the entrance exam. Recovery Girl doesn't actually heal a person, her quirk is to activate a person's natural healing ability all at once, that's where the "stamina" comes into play. Aoyama (belly-button beam guy) explains her quirk at 15:30 in episode 4.

Heal from too grievous an injury or too often, and they'll just die anyway, because they will have exhausted their reserves. It's like taking a 3 month convalescence in a hospital but doing it in an hour. Your body takes energy from everywhere else to heal itself. It will eat muscle and fat extremely rapidly in real life. Significant weight loss is typical. That's why Izuku feels exhausted from just having his finger healed and she gives him candy.

Think of her quirk as more like giving blood. You end up dizzy and weak while your body starts rebuilding the blood cells and plasma. Sugary foods help. If Izuku kept "giving blood" to heal his injuries without enough time in between, or too much at once, he'd run out of blood and simply die anyway.

She explains this in episode 6, starting at 7:40. The anime just doesn't give it the real weight it deserves. The author balanced her powers right from the start.

This is why Aizawa was prepared to flunk Izuku. If he didn't learn to control One for All, he'd end up killing himself. She can only heal someone that reckless so many times.

[shinta|hikari]

I get your explanation, but the delivery doesn't do it justice.

That explanation would've been easier to swallow if granny didn't let Izuku walk home right after treatment. If he really was in bad enough shape to be unable to continue treatment of his fracture (a fairly serious and incapacitating injury which should be fixed asap), then he shouldn't be allowed out of the hospital bed and should be kept on an IV drip. There should be real and visible consequences to this "stamina" drain outside of preventing Izuku from abusing One for All. Y'know, something that prevents him from getting fixed the very next day.

[Buffalobiian]

This then brings up the issue of injuries/illness that you can't heal from naturally, like amputation or cancer. Will granny's power work on those?

It'll be very liberal. Izuku's leg was twisted after he smashed the big robot, but Recovery Girl's healing actually twisted it back into place without requiring manipulation. If we take her explanation literally, his leg should have healed in a twisted position, since normal healing doesn't shift bones back into anatomically correct positions.

If you suffered full thickness burns, accelerated healing would just mean instant scar tissue, since you've lost the basal layer for generating proper skin cells.

If stamina was just energy, then as Shinta said, a dextrose infusion should suffice, maybe along with some insulin, parental nutrition and what have you.

But that's no fun. Better to have her explanations interpreted loosely so there's a story to tell.

[shinta|hikari]

Then they should call it life force lol.

[Munsu]

About the stamina, why couldn't they just limit the granny's power than limiting it to the individual being healed?

I'll just address this point at the moment. Stamina aside, the idea is that it would've required little effort from the user and would've allowed her to service every student since all the juice for the healing to happen would have been contained in each individual instead of X reserve she might've carried herself.

And then if you give her enough juice in herself to heal everyone, then she would've had enough juice to heal a single character infinitely.

Of course, other excuses could've been introduced then. But I think that's part of the idea.

I don't think we need overthink that aspect.

[shinta|hikari]

I understand the logic behind that, but it makes more sense for her ability to be less OP than to have a mislabeled and mysterious stamina factor. It's already ridiculous that she can just heal anyone at anytime with no real consequence to her. Even genius surgeons and the like get tired. But I digress.

I wouldn't mind it if they simply said that her healing ability had other negative side effects period. They didn't need to rationalize it as the recipient dying because they got tired from healing too fast. And if they wanted to do that anyway, they need to stick with it and not let Izuku heal up the very next day.

Ryll's blood transfusion analogy makes sense if Izuku needed a few weeks or so to recover before being subjected to insta-heals again. Resting for one night and then being able to avoid death from exhaustion from the heals right after just feels lazy.

EDIT:
I remember Ryll mentioning something about the danger of over-explaining things in fiction in the Heavy Object thread. I think this falls into that category. Had they simply said that granny's heals were limited because you'll die, I'd have accepted that at face value because of all the supernatural stuff happening in this show. However, the moment they tried to explain it with pseudo-medical science, it becomes vulnerable to analysis.

Sure, I can just turn off my brain after seeing the inconsistency, but I try to avoid doing that with shows that I have a certain degree of respect and expectation for.

So, no, this show isn't really any worse because of this aspect. Minor issues like these simply stand out in above average stories, so I couldn't help but mention them.

[Kraco]

I don't think it was mentioned anywhere the healer lady herself wouldn't get tired. It was just said the patient themselves wouldn't necessarily have what it takes. So, there's no proof as of yet the lady could go around healing a hundred people as long as the people being healed didn't run out of stamina. However, looking at that cold/hot dude, I don't think personal energy is of much issue in this show's world when using the super powers. Freezing and thawing that whole building so fast should have taken quite a staggering amount of energy. Obviously more than a fit looking person would have in his adipose tissue.

[shinta|hikari]

I think so too. So far, only All Might (because of his injury) and Izuku (because he is, wait, what exactly does his body not being ready even mean? No amount of training will ever allow him to withstand smashing a building to pieces with his fist) have limits.

Oh wait, there was gravity vomit girl too. Maybe it really just depends on the person.

[Ryllharu]

Limits are the best part of super powers series imo.

Can't be great without a corresponding flaw to them.

Sanderson's Second Law: "Limitations > Powers" A character's weaknesses are more interesting than his or her abilities.

But I'd take it even further. Superman is still boring because his weakness is a rock (one incredibly overused by lazy writers). Superman becomes interesting when writers make his attitude (always doing the right thing) the weakness that his enemies exploit. In contrast Zatanna needs to be able to speak to use her abilities. Wild Tiger can only use his powers for five minutes, etc. That kind of thing.

Izuku is a lot like Black Bolt now. Really strong, but using his power to the full extent is too harmful to use around others or to himself.

Hakagure has to be totally naked to use her powers fully, Uraraka apparently pukes when she uses hers too much, and so on.

[shinta|hikari]

I agree. That's why Granny's powers are ridiculous. The limitation is from the target, not the user. That's not even a valid limitation.

I also disliked the ice guy. His powers are OP, and I'm 92.4% certain the writing is gonna fail to do that justice. That's the problem with writing powerful characters. It's so hard to create believable conflict without it seeming artificial or the result of the said character's stupidity/inability to maximize his abilities.

[Ryllharu]

No, the limitation is that is she overuses it on an individual, the subject she's trying to save dies instead. If they're hurt too badly, they die anyway. That's a pretty valid limitation. The damage to her is emotional.

In trying to save someone who could truly benefit from her quirk, they burn themselves out healing. She's resulting in their death anyway. With someone who gets frequently hurt like Izuku, she'd actually be killing him, when he would have otherwise survived after a few months in the hospital.

I'm 87% certain you're mistaken about this series. I know this because I was too.

The author has already done some pretty powerful characters well. Izuku, All Might, and Bakugou. One can't handle it yet, and the other has been a fraud for some time. A good-intentioned fraud, but one nonetheless. The last one thought he was hot shit (no pun intended) until the ice guy displayed his powers. Losing to Izuku isn't what just broke Bakogou's pride. It was having years of everyone around him tell him he was super strong, proving it during the entrance exam (#1), but after a thorough struggle against Izuku, Bakugou gets to witness Todoroki (ice guy) achieve victory in seconds. Wounded pride indeed.

I'd say it is safe to say that that author knew how to handle powerful characters and give them actual depth.