My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 dials down the pace and lays the foundations for the upcoming Shie Hassaikai raid, grouping together U.A. students and Pro Heroes alike in a strategy meeting headed up by Sir Nighteye. When Eri’s role in Overhaul’s sinister plan is revealed, however, Deku and Mirio are crushed by guilt - will they ever be able to make it up for her?

A series of unfortunate coincidences

My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 starts off with an amusing series of coincidences as Kirishima sets off for his internship with Fat Gum in the morning only to be joined by Deku, Uraraka, and Tsuyu - all of whom just happen to have intern activities on the same day.

Quickly things turn bizarre, however, as the four students end up on the same train, walking down the same street, and eventually arriving at the same destination - where the “Big Three” of Mirio, Tamaki and Nejire are also waiting.

It is worth noting that while this sequence is taken almost verbatim from the end of chapter 134 of the original manga, the music used in this scene gives the otherwise amusing set of coincidences a tense, almost sinister air. This is arguably very different from how the sequence is presented in the original manga, where it is treated in a humorous fashion.

Nevertheless, Studio BONES’ decision to start My Hero Academia season 4 episode 6 off with this sequence was arguably a smart one. This came at the price of extending last week’s episode 5 and inflating the ending just a little bit (with some narration from Midoriya that was not, as it turned out, created by the anime team but rather taken from the original manga), but inserting this sketch of an amusing morning at the start of this episode provides an interesting structural parallel as we, too, start off our day in the My Hero Academia world alongside Deku et al.

Meeting for the ages

But the real meat of the episode starts when the students of U.A. make their way inside and are greeted by an array of all manner of professional heroes drawn from all around the country, including the Kansai-based Fat Gum - at who’s hero office Kirishima is doing his internship. Their homeroom teacher, Aizawa AKA Eraser Head, is also in attendance.

The students then mill about for a minute in a sequence that is rather interesting from an adaptational standpoint. Since the beginning of Sir Nighteye’s meeting actually spans across two chapters (the ending of chapter 134 and the beginning of 135), Studio BONES chose to mix up the order of several lines and exchanges between characters while pushing Nighteye’s eventual reveal that this meeting is intended to discuss the Shie Hassaikai raid much further down the line (it came at the end of chapter 134 in the original manga).

There are more interesting choices made by BONES as My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 settles into the main thrust of its narrative: outlining Nighteye’s plan to find and raid the Shie Hassaikai HQ. To this end, he has recruited many different heroes from all around the country as well as enlisted the help of some of his sidekicks - the design of one of which, Centipede, was actually selected via a fan contest. I’m sure that the winner (Tetsuya Ohara), wherever they are now, must be quite proud that their design was not only selected for use in the original manga but now also has an official voice in the anime adaptation - one which definitely makes an impression, may I add.

In any case, the presence of high-school students sparks, quite rightfully, a debate among the heroes as to whether these children should really be involved in such a dangerous operation. Yet, their contributions are quickly defended, along with Nighteye’s admonition that is his two interns who are suffering the most right now under the guilt of not being able to save Eri - especially when her cruel treatment at the hands of Overhaul is revealed.

We get a real sense of this in some very effective and striking adaptational choices by Studio BONES, who take the dark, strained expressions of the pair from the original manga while also adding in a dark purple filter when the going gets even more intense. This caps off with a striking decision to cut the music when Deku and Mirio are portrayed as small and defenseless on a pure white background - amplifying the emotional content that already existed in the original manga.

This trend continues as My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 turns onto the question of Sir Nighteye’s Quirk, Foresight. Quite rightfully, the question is raised by the same Pro Hero who opposed the involvement of Deku and the other U.A. students as to why All Might’s former sidekick can’t simply use his Quirk to look into the future of the raid participants and see which suspected site might be the Shie Hassaikai HQ.

Sir Nighteye tries to answer with an explanation of the limitations of his Quirk, but very quickly it becomes clear that this hesitancy stems more from his personal trauma than anything else, having foreseen the death of his mentor, All Might. Studio BONES really gets across this fact by choosing to cut the music as Nighteye declares ‘No,’ letting the impact of his desperate admonition really linger as the camera cuts to the stunned reactions of the participants.

In terms of extra content, this scene only really adds to what’s present in the original manga with a little extension of the horrifying image of Eri between the beak of Overhaul’s gruesome plague mask - an image which is no doubt being painted in both Mirio and Deku’s heads. It seems like this was mainly done to make up some time, as this image does come right after the break between the A and B part of My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6.

Enter Aizawa… Or should I say, Eraser Head

Safe to say, after this meeting Deku and Mirio are quite down in the dumps. They’re now fully aware of the consequences of their not being able to save Eri, no matter how right that decision may have been.

Then enters Aizawa, who delivers a line that made me laugh at the time it was originally published in the manga and which still made me laugh in My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6:

Aizawa - or Eraser Head, as he wants to be called outside of school - then continues to deliver unexpected emotional reactions as he crouches down and has a rare heart-to-heart with his troublesome student, Midoriya Izuku.

This shows off a rare supportive side to normally curt and dismissive Eraser Head, the impact of which is heightened thanks to Studio BONES’ excellent cinematography; sunset orange lighting streams in from the opening window, silhouetting the teacher-student pair as the former reassures the latter that this time, for sure, they’ll put it right.

So striking is the visual composition of this small exchange that it clashes quite distinctly with the rest of the look of this scene, which is lit quite normally and hardly with the same cinematic eye - a bit of a missed opportunity for Studio BONES to make the scene a little more interesting overall.

Further changes come as the scene transitions into an exchange between Sir Nighteye and Gran Torino which more or less caps off the main part of My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6. Just as Nighteye is remarking how much Deku has come to resemble All Might in his rash, heroic madness, the camera cuts to an anime-original scene of Deku on the roof of the office, clenching his fist in determination.

Eri’s suffering

That being said, it is possible that Studio BONES formed the idea on the basis of the end of chapter 136 of the original manga, where Deku makes much the same pose but while in the mind’s eye of Eri, who reflects on his kindness during her captivity.

That very same scene makes up the final sting of My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 just after the credits, but BONES instead choose to focus on Eri and Eri only, the camera zooming in slowly on her tortured, tearful expression as her inner monologue plays.

To be honest, Studio BONES’ presentation of this scene is much more effective. Including Deku alongside Eri would’ve taken viewer attention away from the latter, with whom we’re supposed to form an emotional connection in order for this arc to function. Focusing solely on Eri, then, much better serves the overall aims of Kohei Horikoshi’s original story.

My Hero Academia season 4 episode 6: Slow down, set up

All in all, My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 wasn’t exactly the most exciting of episodes. It largely focused on many scenes of exposition and character dialogue without much action, although some cinematic flair was present. In this sense, I wouldn’t blame you if you came away from this week’s episode a little disappointed.

I am noting, however, that I am coming to the same conclusion as I did last week - that while things are slow at the moment, it's well worth the wait. This would seem to suggest that My Hero Academia season 4 has, at the moment, a bit of a pacing problem - surely, there must be some way to get through all of this a little faster. This episode only covers around two chapters and a bit of the original manga, after all (from the end of chapter 134 up to the end of chapter 136).

Nevertheless, as the preview for next week’s episode 7 demonstrates, we’ll definitely be getting more into the swing of things from here on out. Shie Hassaikai raid, here we come.

You can watch My Hero Academia season 4 Episode 6 via Crunchyroll.