My Hero Academia Episode 57 Review: Rescue Exercises

This episode of My Hero Academia seemed to have just flashed by, to be honest! It wasn’t as action-packed as the ones before, but it was still pretty interesting, enough to catch my attention the whole while! The cliffhanger ending right after the surprise twist knocked me right back to reality, though.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 救助演習

Plot

The second and last test to get provisional licenses has finally started and the remaining participants found themselves having to rescue people from a staged disaster site! Class 1-A came unprepared as they haven’t been trained to do rescue operations before, but they do their best anyway in order to receive as many points as possible from the Help Us Company!

Episode Highlights

Todoroki and Inasa: Yikes! With the way Inasa responded to Todoroki, it looks like something happened between them when they were still taking the recommendees‘ entrance exam at U.A.! Given what an edgy boy Todoroki used to be before his issues were addressed, I wouldn’t be surprised. The problem is, Todoroki doesn’t seem to remember what he did! How bad could it have been that Inasa held that grudge for months? And why did he suddenly bring up Endeavor and compare Todoroki’s eye(s) with his? Very curious.

To the rescue! The difference between how Class 1-A and the second-year examinees responded to the rescue suddenly made me wonder if the freshmen were supposed to learn about rescuing on or before their own second year in high school. I wish Aizawa and the other teachers got to prepare them for such an exam, but since there were time constraints from the recent villain attacks, it’s no wonder they couldn’t. At least the HUC that Deku and the others encountered took the time to lecture them instead of letting them just continue flubbing it and get more deductions! It was also great that, afterwards, they figured out what to do and how to use their quirks to help in their own ways! Even if they weren’t as polished as their senpai, at least they were able to do their best and get points! Let’s just hope their efforts will be enough to earn them their licenses.

Uraraka’s feelings: Aww, I’m so proud of Ochaco! Sure, it’s not easy to ‘store’ away your feelings, but at least she deemed her dream more important! That’s enough of a distraction to get her mind to stop being conscious of Deku. Plus, it’s not like she stopped admiring him at all! She still got inspired by how he forged onward to his goal without getting distracted, so she resolved to do the same! So it’s technically still admiring him, just without the romantic bit.

Added challenge: The organizers of this exam REALLY wanted to filter out who deserve to be provisionally licensed heroes, huh? The first round’s 100 passers limit was already bad enough, but to think they added an even bigger challenge in the second round! Not only do the examinees have to worry about doing well in their rescues to get high scores, but they also have to fight ‘villains!’ One who’s the 10th top pro hero at that! Way to make these kids’ lives a pain. However, I guess it just goes to show that the ones in charge of heroics learned their lesson from the recent incidents. As early as now, they wanted their future heroes to get a taste of what it’s like so they’ll know how to act in case those disasters happen again. On a side note, Gang Orca was said to be the 3rd most villain-looking hero! Are you also wondering like I am who the 1st and 2nd ones are? I’m also curious to know where Bakugo will rank once he becomes a pro-hero!

Themes & Trivia

Disaster response: In real life, being a rescuer is a lot of hard work! Because of that, not everyone can just respond to a disaster; they need proper training first. Then, when the actual scenario comes, there are steps to be considered first before diving into the fray. It’s also good to note that majority of Search and Rescue units are unpaid volunteers, and it’s expected of them to be available at a moment’s notice.

How to help in a disaster: Whether we’d like to admit it or not, our world has been facing natural disasters left and right. If you want to help the ones affected by these but can’t join a rescue team, there are still a number of ways to do so! You can donate money to organizations that are involved with disaster relief, donate blood, food, water or clothes, and many more! Here’s a list of other ways you can help.

Comments

I’m actually glad that they decided to show us what it’s like to be a rescue hero, even if this is just a part of an exam! For three seasons, we’ve mostly just been seeing heroes fighting villains, yet there were only brief glimpses of how heroes save people from the aftermath. At least we now know it’s not an easy job to do, even with their quirks, and that there are certain things you have to consider before taking action! You really got to hand it to Horikoshi and his wonderful writing and storytelling skills!

Save as many lives as you can!

Unfortunately, even though we’d already like to know what happens to the exam after the appearance of Gang Orca and his henchmen, the preview said the next episode will be an anime original story! It doesn’t seem to be related to what’s currently going on, too! I wonder if we can consider this bad timing… Though, given that the previous fillers were amazing stories, I’m sure it’s safe to expect that this one will be amazing as well!

Share your thoughts on this episode in the comments! Make sure to drop by our other Summer 2018 reviews and give them a read, too!

NEXT: Save the World with Love! (愛で地球を救え!)