My Hero Academia Season 1 Episode 8 Recap – Bakugo’s Start Line

Loss

Midoriya passes out after his clash with Bakugo. All Might declares their team as the winner. The others are amazed as the losing team leaves unscathed while the winning team is worn out. Midoriya is retaken to the infirmary, while Bakugo can’t believe he was defeated.

All Might tap him on the shoulder and tells him it’s time to review. The teacher declares Iida as the best player on the team because he was the one who adapted to the situation. Bakugo only fought for a personal grudge, and Midoriya injured himself recklessly. Uraraka made a risky last move while only Iida was the one who kept to the objective.

For the next match, Shotou Todoroki turned the whole building into ice, making it difficult for his opponents to move. His team wins without much effort or damage, only causing their classmates to freeze up. Todoroki is one of the four scholars of class 1-A, with the quirk Ice and Fire.

The rest of the students finish their training exercises with only Midoriya sustaining injuries. All Might congratulates them after a good day’s work. The students feel a bit anticlimactic as All Might’s program isn’t as harsh as Aizawa’s. All the while, Bakugo feels frustrated at how good his classmates are. The teacher dismisses them and seeks out Midoriya to give him feedback.

Broken

Recovery Girl scolds All Might for letting Midoriya get injured for the third time. Her normal treatment isn’t working, and now he’ll need an IV to recover over a few days. All Might apologizes for hesitating to stop the fight, stating that it was a disservice to the boy’s effort. She wonders if keeping up appearances as the Symbol of Hope is necessary, now that it’s also taxing his own body. All Might insists that it’s his responsibility to give hope to others with his power. Even so, she asks him to guide the child better this time.

Midoriya wakes after dreaming of what he’s gone through to get here and all the work it took. Recovery girl allows him to go home to return for treatment the next day. He’s missed all his afternoon classes and worries about what Aizawa must think. But when he comes back to class, everyone congratulates him for his performance, adding that the first battle helped fire everyone up.

Classmates swarm around him to introduce themselves, while Iida reprimands people for breaking minor rules. The classroom dynamic is building. Uraraka comes in and checks on Deku to see if he’s okay. Midoriya finds Bakugo’s seat empty and hurries downstairs to find him. Bakugo is still upset that he kept his quirk a secret. He catches his friend about to go outside the gates and calls out to him.

Secrets

Guilty about his friend’s feelings, Midoriya lets out that he received his quirk from someone and has to keep it a secret. That’s why he can’t control it or use it as his own. He promises that someday he can make the quirk his own and surpass him.

Bakugo, however, doesn’t buy it. Thinking that Midoriya is only saying such things to make him feel worse. He yells that it was only one loss. There are others in the class that are better than them. He challenges Midoriya back, saying he’ll never lose again no matter what.

All Might arrives to intervene on them. He tells Bakugo that he has what it takes to be a pro, but Bakugo lashes back, saying he already knows he’ll be the best without being told. After Bakugo leaves, All Might scolds Midoriya for almost spilling the beans.

Our Thoughts

Yet another good episode to round out Bakugo’s motivation and to explain why he’s such a hothead. We also get to see the other overpowered students of 1-A. 3.8/5.