How does football, or wrestling work with quirks? Maybe we'll find out one day.Dragon Ball Z (commonly abbreviated as DBZ) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. If nothing else, they serve as good reintroductions to this world and these characters before the new season, and the baseball episode is a delightful one-off story I wouldn't mind seeing more of. That being said, you can still gain something from them. Do you need to watch them to understand the previous or the next season? Probably not. Still, it feels rather inconsequential, and the episode ends a bit too abruptly.ĭid we need these OVAs? No. Also, the episode does work well as a season premiere-like recap, bringing us up to speed on where the characters are in their journeys, with Midoriya, Bakugo, and Todoroki still doing their Hero Work-Studies at Endeavor's Agency, and mentions of the Meta Liberation Army and other story beats from last season. That the villain is essentially a Joker-like character does result in some fun scenarios where every character starts laughing uncontrollably. Sadly, the second episode feels more like retreading old ground, focusing on a criminal that must be stopped. Whether it’s Mineta using one of his adhesive spheres disguised as a baseball to knock out the batter using his own strength, or Gang Orca using his sonar to affect the ball's movement, or Shishido just throwing the ball so hard it destroys the home base and knocks out both the batter, the catcher, and even the umpire, it’s all delightful, superpowered madness. Seeing the over-the-top violent and creative ways the players use their quirks not just to score but to put the other team out of commission is thrilling and some of the most fun the show has been in a long while. It explores a rather mundane part of the show's world and uses its runtime to answer the question of how it would work with superpowers, all while reminding us of which character has which power ahead of the new season. The animation may not reach the hights of the main series, but it still knows when deliver energetic moments of action to highlight the quirks.Īnd this is what makes this an essential episode for My Hero Academia, even if it doesn't move things forward. The result is essentially Super Mario Strikers but with baseball - i.e. Rather than remotely attempt to connect this episode to the events of last season, it is mostly just an excuse to show how superpowers would affect sports in this world. Just like the last time a big shonen anime did a baseball episode (Jujutsu Kaisen), the HLB episode is a hilarious success. Shows like Attack on Titan released OVAs that expanded their world without distracting from the main plot. Nowadays, most high-profile OVAs tend to be short episodes or bonus features released on home video as cool extras to reward fans. ![]() ![]() From gory and violent shows like Bubblegum Crisis and Hellsing Ultimate, to experimental ones like FLCL and Gunbuster, or complex, epic sci-fi operas like Legend of the Galactic Heroes, there was an OVA for everything. Back in the '80s and '90s, when home video exploded in popularity, they were an avenue to produce edgier, more mature animation that couldn't get past TV sensors. OVAs, in general, are not what they used to be. ![]() These standalone stories get you reacquainted with most of the main cast, expand the world of MHA, and also provide enough superpowered laughs and fun to make the wait for Season 6 easier. The two new OVAs (Original Video Animation) may not contribute much to the overall plot of the show or offer many clues as to what's coming next, but they are good reminders of what My Hero can do at its best.
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