The superhero genre of fiction is prominent in the pop culture scene right now, from the MCU to One-Punch Man and My Hero Academia. These are stories of caped heroes doing battle with dastardly villains, and in the case of My Hero Academia, there are entire schools for trainee heroes, such as UA and Shiketsu. It's high school hijinks and superhero action all in one.
Currently, there are four complete seasons of My Hero Academia's anime, and a fifth is coming. For now, fans can look back on their favorite battles in each season, and season 2 offered some of the finest battles of all. This is the season that hosted the UA sports festival, and Stain the hero killer made his appearance in season 2, too. Not to mention battles against the UA teachers to see who qualifies for the forest training session. Which of these battles are the best?
10 Tsuyu Asui Vs Villains
Tsuyu Asui, aka Froppy, may not be the most powerful student in hero class 1-A. But the fans love this adorable frog girl, and she had a moment of glory while carrying out her internship with some aquatic heroes.
Smuggler villains cornered the pro heroes, and Froppy bravely struck it out on her own and located the hidden villains. She survived in battle long enough to allow her fellow heroes to turn things around, and the villains were neatly captured.
9 Tsuyu Asui & Fumikage Tokoyami Vs Ectoplasm
Before any hero students could take part in the forest training session, they had to defeat the teachers in combat, fighting in pairs. Tsuyu and Fumikage were paired together against Ectoplasm, who can create many clones of himself.
These are two of the craftiest students in class 1-A, and they held out against Ectoplasm a long time before getting pinned down. But Tsuyu used her stomach to hide those handcuffs, and she and Fumikage managed to attach them to Ectoplasm and win in style. Ectoplasm was greatly impressed.
8 Izuku Midoriya Vs Hitoshi Shinso
This was the first duel in the sports festival's single-elimination tournament, and it was an odd one. Shinso's quirk allows him to control anyone who answers a spoken question of his, and he urged Midoriya to simply walk out of bounds and thus lose the match.
Izuku complied at once, but before he reached the arena's edge, One For All's previous owners appeared as ghostly figures, and their combined will allowed Izuku to snap out of it. Shinso wants so badly to prove himself and become something great, which is commendable, but Izuku's will is stronger.
7 Minoru Mineta & Hanta Sero Vs Midnight
Mineta isn't terribly popular, but he's smarter than he lets on, and when cornered, he is capable of remarkable things. He and Sero went up against Midnight, whose sleep quirk quickly put Sero under. Now Mineta was alone against the R-rated hero.
It seemed like Mineta had his back to the wall, but with Sero's tape to block his mouth and some well-placed sticky spheres, he took Midnight's whip out of action, avoided her sleep vapors, and raced to the finish line while carrying Sero. It was the grape hero's first great triumph against the odds.
6 Ochaco Uraraka Vs Katsuki Bakugo
This was the last match of the tournament's first phase, and Ochaco was up against terrifying odds: the explosive power of Katsuki Bakugo. But Ochaco is much tougher than she seems, and she didn't even need Izuku's help to devise a daring plan for the battle.
Ochaco moved well and avoided the worst of Bakugo's attacks, and created a massive floating debris field. This meteor shower attack ultimately failed, but it was a brilliant plan on Ochaco's part, and her sheer grit in this battle was truly moving.
5 Izuku Midoriya & Katsuki Bakugo Vs All Might
This was the final, and most brutal, of the ten battles against UA teachers. Izuku had to face his idol in combat, and his partner, Bakugo, was more interested in personal glory than working as a team. This made the odds even steeper.
All Might seemed unbeatable, and Izuku and Bakugo kept clashing. But through incredible will and some last-minute help from Bakugo, Izuku found a way to break free of All Might's power and race to the exit gate. It was a wonder he was still in one piece after that, according to Recovery Girl.
4 Shoto Todoroki & Momo Yaoyorozu Vs Shota Aizawa
This is another of the "two students vs one teacher" duels, and class 1-A's most talented students had to face a teacher who can erase their quirks with just a look. Momo was struggling with self-confidence, and at first, she did little more than run away.
Shoto couldn't handle Aizawa alone, but fortunately, Momo got her second wind and came to his aid. Together, they devised a plan to capture Aizawa using Momo's creations, and it worked. Momo had her confidence back, and Shoto's and Aizawa's encouraging words moved her to happy tears.
3 Katsuki Bakugo Vs Shoto Todoroki
Now for the final battle of the UA sports festival. Shoto and Bakugo had swept aside all the competition, including Izuku and Fumikage, and now they were ready to decide on the overall winner. But Shot wasn't truly feeling it.
Shoto fought at half capacity, even though Bakugo desperately wanted a full-on match so he could prove his strength. But Shoto continued to hesitate, and Bakugo had his victory. It was remarkable to see this explosive duel end with Shoto's renewed self-doubt and Bakugo's despair, a serious contrast to their earlier matches. Both boys have some serious issues to figure out, despite their power.
2 Students Vs Stain
This battle had some of the highest stakes in all of season 2, since the students were fighting a villain on the streets, rather than a teacher who was just testing them. Someone could lose their life out here.
Stain is the shadowy hero killer, and he incapacitated a reckless, vengeful Tenya Iida. Even with the aid of Izuku and Shoto, this was a difficult battle, and Izuku proved his worth as a real hero (even in Stain's eyes) in this battle. It was also an ideological battle against Stain's hatred of false heroes, adding more tension to this gritty alley scuffle.
1 Izuku Midoriya Vs Shoto Todoroki
This is probably the defining battle of season 2, and one of the most iconic battles in all of My Hero Academia. It's a classic shonen matchup: natural talent vs sheer grit, much like Gaara vs Rock Lee in Naruto and countless other battles in that vein.
Izuku put up an outstanding fight with his smashes, and Shoto was getting nowhere fast, even with his fearsome ice. But he was holding back, and Izuku shouted a lecture that snapped Shoto out of his preoccupations. Shoto thanked Izuku for getting through to him, and he activated the fire side of his quirk at last. When both boys clashed with titanic power, only Shoto was left standing, though only barely.