REVIEW: Chapter 44 (Compensatory Free Day of Rest)

The top three (Iida is not present). Bakugou in chains

The tournament is officially done! It should've been the final four standing on the platform and Tokoyami and Iida sharing third place however, Iida was permitted by the school administrators to leave and attend to his brother.

Unfortunately, the moment Bakugou woke up was not shown. I was expecting he will raise hell for what Todoroki did during their match.

But this outcome made up for that when Bakugou was in the top platform chained and gagged. He looked like a criminally-insane person being transferred to another maximum security prison. If he wasn't bound, he'll definitely leap towards Todoroki and try to kill him regardless of the heroes watching.

I had to agree with Tokoyami, he's a demon. And Bakugou's actually making a huge spectacle of himself. His classmates are actually embarrassed. You know, the feeling you have when someone is embarrassing himself and you feel the same for that person? Yep.

All Might awarding Tokoyami his medal. Tokoyami surprised
when All Might hugged him

As expected, it was All Might who awarded the medals after making a dramatic entrance.

He did gave Tokoyami advice to not always rely on his quirk. Aside from training to fight with Dark Shadow, he must also train himself to be better at combat like Aizawa-sensei. Makes sense. Dark Shadow's powers depend on amount of light. He can't utilize his true power if Tokoyami is fighting in broad daylight. He can't choose to fight during the night. And he can't choose his opponents.

That is a wake up call since he had a bad match-up with Bakugou and he can't use Dark Shadow efficiently during the human cavalry battle (when their group was targeted by Todoroki's group) because of Kaminari.

Because of this I believe Tokoyami will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. He has a bird's head for goodness sake! He's a totally unique character. You see him looking at the medal? I bet he's thinking that he will place higher next time.

All Might giving Todoroki medal and hugging him. I was
like - awwww, he needed that so much

Then All Might presented Todoroki the medal. All Might knew something was bothering Todoroki since he knew that Todoroki suppressed his left side during the match.Todoroki said he's confused.

It's confirmed. Todoroki really let himself be defeated that easily by Bakugou because he could not decide whether he should use fire.

The fight with Midoriya triggered him to use his left side but was confused later on. He said he lost sight of what he should do. He said he can't come to a decision all by himself because that would be wrong. That means... yeah, he has to talk to his mom.

I was touched when All Might embraced Todoroki. He really need hugs. He wanted to become a hero like All Might (not like Dad, sorry Endeavor). Todoroki was watching an interview of All Might with his mom when his mother told him he can become a hero. It added to the feels.

I noted that Endeavor wasn't shown during the awarding ceremony.

All Might presenting the top three. Bakugou bites the win

It's Bakugou's turn to receive the medal and he is not happy. All Might suggested that he will be continuously appraised by society so he should treat the medal as a wound instead so he will not forget.

Bakugou still refuses the medal. Even if society acknowledges the win, if he doesn't, it's empty. All Might gave him the medal anyway - by making him bite it.

Well, that silenced him.

All Might gave a memorable speech acknowledging the efforts made by the freshman class He told everyone that "the next generation of heroes will surely sprout from the seeds planted this day."

We got a panel of Shigaraki Tomura. I remembered his mentor telling him to watch the tournament because the some of the participants might cross-paths with him in the future. Tomura laughed at that since they were only kids. But now that All Might himself announced that they will be future heroes, Tomura will remember. And he's got a grudge with these students.

I did not see the second and third years. It's quite disappointing. Maybe we'll only get to see the two who won in their respective levels, the two students who would compete with Bakugou in the interlevel round robin tournament. This is going to be exciting! And good thing that the sports festival was not disrupted by the villains. Everyone's hoping for that NOT to happen.

Iida Tensei's condition finally revealed

After the ceremony, Aizawa-sensei announced to the class that they have a day off and he'll present the nominations coming from the pros after the break.

They'll get to rest physically but will be anxious about the nomination. I'm not sure how it goes and what will happen. From what I know so far, the reason scouts and heroes watch the Yuuei sports festival is they are searching for sidekicks to work under them. Uraraka wanted to leave a good impression so the heroes will notice and maybe allow her to work for them.

Maybe when you are chosen, you will be able to work immediately under them? Or since they are too young, they'll train under the hero and once they graduate, they will be sidekicks or go solo? Moving on...

We got to see Iida rushing to his brother. Tensei just went through an operation that saved his life. It appears that he really took a beating from Stain.

It was a heart-breaking moment. Tensei, regardless of his condition praised Tenya for being such a brilliant brother and even apologized for not being a better role model. No wonder Tenya look up to his brother so much. Tensei is such a kind person, considering little brother's feelings first before his own.

Todoroki coming face-to-face with his mother

After that, Todoroki Residence was shown and we were imtroduced to Shouto's eldest sister Fuyumi whose hair is spotted with black. She's asking Todoroki why he wants to see their mother after so long.

He thinks he's the one responsible for her condition so he did not visit her.

The reason he will visit his mom, and he was nervous by the way, is so that he will once again be able to aim to become a hero and be free of his father.

I think Todoroki will explain to his mom why he does not want to use his left side. He might also talk about his quirk of fire and ice being his own and not his father's (who's only contribution is fire, not both!) and asking her opinion about it.

I hope the meeting turns out fine. Todoroki's mom is seen holding something and I'm sure it's a family photo. If not a family photo, mom and son's photo or mom and her children's photo.

I think the reason Endeavor was not shown in the awarding ceremony is because this chapter involves Shouto's mom. Leave Endeavor out of this, please.

Uraraka's mom and dad

Then we see Uraraka walking home and it seemed she just went to the grocery. She went home and her parents suddenly appeared and "attacked" her!

Uraraka's eyes popping out and twirling reminded me of Usopp's reaction after eating Tatababasco fruit. The panel I found particularly hilarious was when Uraraka's mom pushed the eyeballs inside.

We found out that Uraraka lived alone while she's attending Yuuei which adds to her commitment to be a hero as early as possible.

She got her eyebrows from dad and the rest, the hair, the rosy-cheeks, from her mom. I wonder who she inherited her quirk from. Anyway, I honestly think she's got cool parents and her dad looks strong, too. They're in the construction business so it can be expected.

Izuku's mo

Next we have Midoriya's mom doing what mom's do best, worry about their child. The setting was really ordinary, both were talking while eating breakfast and mom related to Midoriya how she fainted seven times.

Mom was really worried about Midoriya's quirk being too risky and said she will continue to cheer for him but it doesn't mean it puts her mind at ease.

Midoriya knows his mom and friends are worried about him. He remembered Recovery Girl telling him she will no longer treat his wounds gained by using One For All.

Because of that, Midoriya decided to create a method of his own perhaps his own training technique to be able to handle OFA more efficiently.

Is this a foreshadowing of All Mght's immiment death? Midoriya seeing previous OFA bearers, Stain appearing and now Midoriya's conviction of creating his own method of training. If the method succeeds, which it will because Midoriya's smart, he will depend on All Might to give advice and no more personal training.

Bakugou's furious face

I love this chapter. I think this had to be one of the best chapters in this manga. It has everything.

The awarding ceremony was hilarious because of Bakugou being restrained and gagged. Him struggling with his chains was fun to watch. That face he made when All Might removed the object that covers his mouth was so funny even All Might noticed his face.

From fun moment we jumped to a heart-breaking one with the Iida brothers. I know that Iida maintains an image which is formal and comical at the same time and he expresses himself in a rigid but hilarious way (courtesy of his hand gestures). This is the first time we saw him cry because of the brother he really look up to.

Team Todoroki

From heart-breaking moment we keep our hopes up for Todoroki's reunion with his mother. I really hope she supports him to finally use is fire side afterall, she encouraged him to become a hero like she once said.

Can I just say?  I think Todoroki is always well-drawn I can't help but have a slight and irrational crush on him. I take back what I said about him being the stereotypical quiet type. Todoroki's just... quiet. He's not cold (no pun intended). He does not underestimate people. He actually knows how to apologize and is courteous. I think after Midoriya, he's on my number three list of favorite characters. Certain modifications on that list must be made.

After the heart-warming moment with Todoroki, we see another reunion. This time Uraraka reuniting with her parents again. She got her kindness and sunny attitude from her parents. Her parents will always be with her no matter what, cheering her on.

Last, Midoriya committing to himself about creating his own training technique to handle OFA. He does not want those important to him worry. This is something to look forward to.

So the main cast are on their way to improvement.

1. All Might telling Tokoyami to not rely too much on Dark Shadow and improve his combat skills.

2. All Might giving Bakugou advice that people won't have an unchanging view of you so keep the medal as a sort of wound to remember that.

3. Iida Tenya emotionally wrecked after what happened to his brother. Are the wounds so serious that Tensei has to retire from being a hero? We will surely witness a character change here. He might want to seek vengeance for what happened to Tensei but seeing his eldest brother's kindness, he'll advice Tenya against it.

4. Todoroki will have tremendous character growth after talking with his mother. Thank goodness for this chapter the characters deserving appearance were given not just screen time but a chance for character growth, too.

5. Midoriya committed on improving himself, by himself.

Before I finish this monstrosity of a post, I give you the current best line of Bakugou Katsuki for 2015. This is also the last panel.

This is friggin' hilarous! Seems like he wanted to brush away the remnants of the medal shoved into his teeth.

I really don't understand but there are times I root for Bakugou, sometimes I find him adorable but then he'll turn bully again and I'll hate him agaim. Ugh! I guess it's what makes his character unique from others. He's hateable but you can't totally hate him.

I hope Horikoshi-sensei maintains this way of delivering chapters. As far as I can see, there are no wasted chapters-yet. No unnecessary panels-yet. Although there is one totally unnecessary characters and that's Mineta.

There you have it. Chapter 44 with a variety of tones and moods all packed in a single chapter. This is the reason why Boku no Hero Academia is one of my favorite manga. I hope it runs for 500+ chapters.