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My Hero Academia Season 3 – Blu-Ray Review

By: Robert Prentice
Funimation My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia season 4 is just around the corner. Now is the time to add season 3 to your collection and do a rewatch. Check out our review of season 3.

Synopsis

Summer is here, and the heroes of Class 1-A and 1-B are in for the toughest training camp of their lives. But nothing could prepare them for a surprise attack from the newest members of The League of Villains. When a student gets taken away by force, it’s time for the pros to step in. Get ready for All Might’s most critical battle with the mastermind of the League, All For One!

Class 1-A is fired up to earn hero licenses after All Might’s epic battle with All For One. Once they’re official, Deku and his friends can finally join the pros in the field. But first, they must pass a brutal exam that’s brimming with school rivalry!

Recap & Review

Class 1-A has been through a lot after their internships and the hero killer Stain. IIda, Midoriya and Todoroki are especially aware of their limits after fighting Stain. However, now that the class has made it through midterms and picked out their hero names, its time for the summer training camp. As expected everyone notices that Ilda, Midoriya and Todoroki are different but can’t put their finger on it. The class meets a group of recuse heroes who are going to help build their strength and hone their skills. They also meet a young boy who almost immediately kicks Deku in the nuts, much to Bakugo’s chuckle.

Class 1-B also joins in on the training, but both classes quickly find out that they won’t get a moment to rest as the League Of Villains is yet again attacking the #1 school in the country. This time however, things will never be the same. With any action packed anime like My Hero Academia, you can sometimes get lost in the constant fight. I like the pacing of each season, especially season 3, where we get some typical student moments. These sometimes cliche episodes break the tension and help us to better understand characters and grow them. Midoriya’s desire to always save someone has never been a secret. However, the way in which it comes about with regards to the young boy he met, Kota, is of important notice. A letter written by Kota later in the season embodies what I love about this series and the simple purity of Midoriya’s life philosophy.

After the attack, the classes finds one of their own was taken hostage, and it was the one least expected of the group, Bakugo. This tears Midoriya apart. He may never admit it out loud or show it in front of others, but he HATES being unable to do anything even more than Bakugo hates his growth in strength. However, this was a scene where for the first time, I actually saw some concern in Bakugo over Midoriya going after him. The league was dead wrong in thinking that they could recruit Bakugo though. It doesn’t take long for his classmates to hatch a scheme to rescue him but things get a little more complicated than they expected. The ultimate evil makes an appearance and stops all of them dead in their tracks with fear. All For One makes his appearance.

The Hero World After All Might

The later half of season 3 for My Hero Academia brings with it some of the best fight scenes to date in the series. All Might taking on All For One had manga readers on edge to see how this scene would get animated. Needless to say, we were not disappointed. The emotional feelings that the characters had while watching certainly made its way to the audience as you watched knowing exactly who All Might pointed to when he said “you’re next”. All Mights retirement has shocked the hero world, and lead the teachers to quickly move the students on to creating their ultimate moves and take the provisional license exam.

As each student come up with the move that was unique to them, Midoriya had to rethink his entire approach to his quirk. And his revelation after having his costume tweaked by Hatsume lead to an awesomely funny meme that he has yet to live down. But moving past that, he now has a new and inventive way to advance his quirk usage and finds this will come in handy for his upcoming provisional licensing exam. This also underscores just how weak All Might now is when a rock falling from Bakugo’s attack at the gym nearly crushes All Might. Midoriya swoops in with his new move, shocking everyone from Eraser Head to Bakugo.

The licensing exam is another great example of the every student events that I love about this series. Here we get to meet a ton of new characters from other schools. While many are simply background and we don’t learn a ton about them, we do get some good fleshing out of a few of them. This adds new levels of depth to existing characters who have had interactions with these new characters in the past. The exam itself was split into two tests, one a game of tag and the other a rescue exercise. In the end, the students realized where they still had a lot of room to grow. They also learned that brute strength wasn’t enough. This lead to the top 2 students within class 1-A to fail the exam, Bakugo and Todoroki.

While Midoriya and the others are celebrating their new licenses, Bakugo approaches Midoriya to meet him at one of the battlegrounds after hours to talk. This leads to the next big battle between these two childhood friends. Its funny though, calling them ‘friends’ is really difficult to justify. Yes they grew up together through middle school and now high school. They lived in the same area. But in reality there isn’t anything to suggest there was any kind of friendship there. Midoriya idolized and in many ways saw in Bakugo the same determination he had himself. Bakugo’s ego however swelled when his quirk manifested and Midoriya’s didn’t.

Now here we are at yet another fight. Bakugo is pissed off at Midoriya’s continued growth. And he has put the pieces together that what Midoriya has is All Mights power. Though to be fair Midoriya has loose lips as he desperately tries salvage what little communication the two have by trying to explain he wasn’t hiding a quirk all this time. This fight is the second time we see Bakugo’s ego crack. First he is surprised by Midoriya’s sudden switch between his new shoot style and his original smash. But also Bakugo blames himself for All Mights retirement.

I know the dub versus sub debate will never go away but this is the one time I have to say the dub is just as emotional, if not more, than the sub. We can disagree on this but I am standing my ground here. Clifford Chapin’s voice acting in this scene is nothing short of incredible. The reality is for all the bravado that Bakugo has, he is still a teenager. He wants so badly to be #1 and be like All Might. So badly he ignores any help or sense from anyone, especially Midoriya. Ultimately All Might steps in and explains everything and tries to calm Bakugo down. Now this secret has one more in the circle.

In true Aizawa fashion, both boys are punished for their fight and miss the first few days of classes in the new semester. The next scene provides for us the first sign of respect Bakugo has shown towards Midoriya that I can think of. Midoriya asks what he thinks of his new shoot style. Bakugo responds that he gets really pissed off when he combines both the shoot style and smash. Really pissed off is code for it works really well in Bakugo talk. We finish out the season meeting the Big 3 from UA. It turns out one of them was meant to be the one All Might choose before he met Midoriya.

All in all, My Hero Academia season 3 surpassed its previous 2 seasons. It continues to grow its huge cast of characters and flesh out a world of heroes that you just can’t get enough of. I have rewatched all 3 seasons several times now and I have never been bored. Season 4 is about to be out on October 12th, so now is your time to get caught up and be ready with a fresh watch of season 3.

Blu-Ray Releases

My Hero Academia Season 3 was split into 2 parts, released over the past few months. Each edition came with cool bonus items that any fan of the series would want to get their hands on. Here is a break down of what you get with the limited edition release of Season 3 Part 1. Part 2 included the standard case which would slide into the chipboard collectors case from Part 1 and comes with 3 exclusive art cards.

Limited edition includes:

  • Embossed collector’s rigid box with space to house Season Three Part Two
  • Season Three Part One on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital
  • 60-page art book filled with character art and illustrations
  • Acrylic standees
  • Chibi Bakugo keychain
  • 10 holographic trading card

 

Special Features include:

  • Interview with Daiki Yamashita (voice of Deku) and Yuki Hayashi (composer)
  • Inside the Episodes videos
  • Dub Outtakes and more!

 

You can pickup your copies of My Hero Academia Season 3 Part 1 and Part 2 over at the Funimation Shop!

 

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