My Hero Academia – Episode 58 (Review)

The provisional exam storyline is put on pause as the timeline reverses to the students’ summer break. There’s a special summer class that the kids participate in, but only in small groups. They will be put into a realistic exercise where they are pitted against a teacher posing as a criminal, and will be challenged in a new way.It’s surprising to see this “special episode” show up in the middle of the current storyline. It has most of the popular characters, which is a plus. However, it doesn’t reveal anything new or use them in interesting ways. Every character behaves exactly as you’d expect them to, which might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your point of view.The lone exception to this is All Might. He’s shown in his younger glory days sporting a different outfit, although his Plus Ultra attitude is already in place. It’s also revealed that he spent some time being a hero in America, where he had a partnership with a brilliant scientist named David Shield. It’s new information, although it still holds plenty back. Not surprising considering the reasoning for this episode.The exercise itself plays out in a conventional way. Bakugo makes a mess of things, Deku is able to solve a dilemma with his studious nature, and the students learn that they still need a lot of improvement. The only interesting, albeit convoluted, bit is how the events of the exercise unfold and the reactions of the participants. It has quite a few twists and turns, which makes it difficult to guess what happened right off the bat.The inclusion of Midnight, Present Mic and Cementoss adds some needed life into the episode, but it’s not enough to make it great. All Might’s performance as the main baddie is also fun to watch.Episode 58 is jarring in the way it unnecessarily interrupts the flow of the provisional exam arc. The entire purpose of this episode is to get fans excited for the upcoming movie. It’s understandable to they want to hype up the film, however it’s unfortunate they decided to take this route. This could’ve easily been a web only special.