WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 4, Episode 5: "Let's Go, Gusty Red Riot."
The latest episode of My Hero Academia takes the focus off protagonist Izuku Midoriya and turns instead to the rest of the hero world. In addition to focusing on the more established Dragoon Hero and BMI Hero, "Let's Go, Gusty Red Riot" follows some of the other students of Class 1-A, heroes in training who are beginning to find their own paths.
Among those young heroes is Eijiro Kirishima/Red Riot, who proves himself one of U.A. High School's most promising students.
The New Internship
The episode starts with Tsuyu and Uraraka fighting alongside the Dragoon Hero, Ryuko Tatsuma. They join up with one of the Big Three -- Nejire Hado -- and the two young student quickly demonstrate their abilities by working together to take down a group of supervillains who are causing quite a deal of damage. They perform so well that both Uraraka and Tsuyu are asked to join Sir Nighteye and his agency to investigate Overhaul.
Sir Nighteye previously learned that Overhaul has convinced The League of Villains to work alongside him. Shigaraki came to Overhaul with the conditions that the League be allowed to call its own shots, though he needs to know what Overhaul's plan is. Overhaul's minions seem turned off by Shigaraki's aggressive approach to negotiations, and it doesn't help that Shigaraki has caught onto a weapon one of Overhaul's men used during the fight with the League of Villains: a little dart that negates quirks. It's all part of Overhaul's plan, as he has distributed these little anti-quirk weapons throughout the criminal underworld, all to lay the foundation for his great plan.
BMI Hero and Red Riot
The episode then cuts to Kirishima, who is on his work study with another member of the Big Three: Tamaki Amajiki. Kirishima basically begged Amajiki to hook him up with BMI Hero: Fat Gum, the latter's mentor, for a work study. The three of them subdue a group of petty thugs, but an outsider fires one of Overhaul's anti-quirk darts at Amajiki. The dart negates Amajiki's abilities, but it bounces off Kirishima's body. The dart used to transfer the quirk-negating drug can't pierce Kirishima's hard skin, making him immune to Overhaul's secret drug weapon.
Kirishima subdues the guy, who cries about how pathetic he is. Kirishima tries to comfort him, only for, in that period of "mercy," the criminal to inject himself with some unknown formula. The criminal's ability allows him to create small little knives from his body, but with this wild fluid, he starts sprouting gigantic swords all over his body.
This triggers one of Kirishima's memories, where he recalls telling his friends in class that he feels insecure in how boring his abilities are. In that memory, Bakugo of all people reminds Kirishima that he's strong just for standing up against the odds. This inspires Kirishima to boost his hardening abilities to their max -- turning his body into an indestructible, monstrous form. The blades shatter on Kirishima's skin as he takes every strike of the knives while protecting civilians. The hero then plows right into the criminal, taking him down with one jab to the ribs.
Kirishima can only keep up the hardening for mere seconds, but it's enough to subdue the criminal -- or, at least, he thinks so. The criminal tries to spring away, only for Fat Gum to intercept the criminal in his fat, keeping him physically stuck in his body. Fat Gum's fat absorbs all force, keeping the criminal secure in his own flab. But while Kirishima didn't beat the criminal, the crowd of civilians who he protected are impressed. This later stretches onto social media, where, along with Uraraka and Tsuyu, he goes viral.
Fat Gum, who is a former police investigator, starts looking into the underground drugs used to negate quirks, which puts yet another team of heroes on a crash course against the deadly Overhaul.
New episodes of My Hero Academia air Saturdays.