After the madness of the raid at Hassaikai, Eri is safe with Midoriya, Aizawa, and Mirio keeping her company, however, it's clear that the years of abuse have taken a toll on her. Midoriya promises to cheer her up with the upcoming School Festival where Class 1-A, led by Jiro, will perform a music and dance number. However, a villain duo trying to get notoriety online, Gentle and La Brava, attempt to get into the festival to cause a ruckus.
Following their comeback from the rescue mission of Eri, Class 1-A now faces a new challenge... putting on something neat for the UA Culture Festival. 1-A also has to use this time to win over the other students, who blame them for being villain catnip and forcing increased security measures, like the dorms. Now, this isn't actually their fault and they're not the reason UA has been infiltrated, as Bakugo angrily points out, but you try just telling that to teenagers.
Sometime later, Izuku and Mirio visit a recovering Eri, who requests for them and thanks them for rescuing her, as well as apologize for being a burden. Mirio assures her that he and the other heroes did what they could to see her smile again. However, they see her struggle to. Izuku realizes that Eri isn't completely "saved", as she is still traumatized thanks to Chisaki's abuse. Remembering his time with Yuga, he asks Aizawa to have Eri visit them in UA for the day during the Festival. The teacher approves and calls Principal Nezu for permission.
Back at UA, Class 1-A ultimately decides to put on a band/dance party. The band consists of Jiro (vocals), Kaminari and Tokoyami (guitar), Yaoyorozu (keyboard), and Bakugo (drums). Yes, Bakugo can play an instrument. He went to music classes when he was younger. However, his attitude caused him problems and it went nowhere. After all, a drummer's job is to provide the beat to support the other instruments. But now he's had some hard-earned character development, and he's willing to play with the band (if only to "murder [Class 1-A's detractors] with music", this is still Bakugo we're talking about).
Mina Ashido leads the Dance Team, and Izuku Midoriya is part of the Staging Team (but he will be on the dance floor at some point because Eri's going to be there and she's expecting him). He finds out that the rope they're going to use to hoist Aoyama over the dance floor (he's their human disco ball) is frayed on the morning of the festival, and goes out to buy a new one last-minute.
However, because Izuku is villain catnip, he finds a pair of villains who want to invade the sports festival- Gentle Criminal and La Brava. They aren't actually malevolent like Overhaul or the League of Villains- Gentle is a former hero student who's desperate to do something with his life and get noticed. He's invading U.A. for the Youtube views. La Brava is his sidekick and tech expert, and also his first (and possibly only) fan. His videos pulled her out of a Despair Event Horizon, so she sought him out and now they're inseparable. They don't really want to hurt anyone, but if they get in the festival will be canceled and Eri's special day will be ruined, and Izuku can't have that. The fight is on.
Gentle and La Brava turn out to be formidable opponents, goofiness aside. Gentle's quirk allows him to make anything elastic. This includes air, which allows him to hide his trampolines anywhere he wants, and to use them as shields. La Brava's quirk allows her to give a person that she loves a temporary massive strength boost. But despite this, Izuku is able to defeat them. Because Gentle is an Anti-Villain (and he takes responsibility for La Brava's crimes), he gets a chance to redeem himself as a hero. The festival is still on, and Class 1-A's show makes Eri finally crack a smile.
Tropes
- Always in Class One: Class 1-A actually suffers this big time. Following two separate attacks by the League of Villains, most of the student body blames them for the school's situation and security measures. They take it upon themselves to make a spectacular band performance to raise their spirits.
- Ambition Is Evil: Very downplayed or subverted. Gentle's reason for turning to villainy is no different than his reason for becoming a hero; all he wants is to be popular enough to be written in the history books, and most of his crimes are said to expose the corruption within society.
- Anti-Villain: In stark contrast to The League of Villains and Overhaul, Gentle actually only engages in petty crimes and avoids hurting civilians. Even during his fight with Deku, he focuses more on trying to either trap him or escape, not actually hurt him. It's for this reason that Deku admits he found defeating Gentle harder then any previous villain and why he feels bad about it afterwards.
- Arc Villain: Gentle and his assistant La Brava.
- At Least I Admit It: Following their arrest, Gentle admits that what he was doing was wrong, but does not make excuses to why he became a villain. La Brava, meanwhile, admits that everything she does, good or bad, was for the sake of Gentle.
- Awesome by Analysis:
- Deku and Gentle both manage to figure out who the other is by deduction in their heads after only a momentary exchange of conversation on the street with the other, and Deku also quickly deduces that Gentle intends to invade UA.
- Shortly after, Gentle deflects Midoriya's attack with a shield made of elasticized air. He expected Midoriya to be "Gently Rebound", but instead he gets flung all the way down the street at high velocity. He realizes that Midoriya had to have been attacking with incredible force to be bounced back so violently and therefore is much stronger than he initially appeared.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Gentle is really no serious threat to anybody, but that certainly doesn't make him a pushover in a fight. Deku outright considers him a Worthy Opponent who gave him the hardest fight of his life.
- Breather Episode: Coming off the very dark Internship arc, this is basically just a cool down and back to a more light-hearted tone.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Gentle is nothing like the enemies before. He is an Anti-Villain trying to show the heroes the error of their ways and that they must become more proactive, while simultaneously targeting people he considers to have committed crimes. While that description may bring a certain Hero Killer to mind, at the end of the day he's a very comedic Harmless Villain, had a loving assistant, and is Hated by All compared to Stain's rave reviews.
- A Day in the Limelight: Jiro gets a turn in the spotlight in this arc. In the anime this is reflected when she gets a big spotlight on the opening for the arc.
- Dénouement Episode: To an extent the arc itself serves as one to the Internship Arc, at least in regards to Eri's story arc. While Eri was physically saved by the heroes at the conclusion of the previous arc its not until she can truly smile that she can begin to move on from the trauma Overhaul inflicted on her. Therefore while the stakes are far lower then previous villain encounters it's no more important for Midoriya that he stop Gentle and truly save Eri from Overhaul's influence.
- "Eureka!" Moment: While training with All Might, Izuku makes a very shocking realization: All Might had never once used One For All at 100% percent power, which would risk causing frequent hurricanes wherever he goes. This allows him to culminate all he learned in the past to use it more quickly, carefully, sparingly and, above all, efficiently.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Played with. Gentle Criminal tries to pretend his fight with Midoriya never happened, in order to minimize La Brava's criminal record. The young hero goes along with it, to also prevent the cultural festival from being cancelled. However, Ectoplasm and Hound Dog (and by extension, All Might when they fill him in) do catch on to the truth anyway, but they decide to keep it secret and let the police handle it.
- Heroic Second Wind:
- Midoriya is knocked out by a powered Gentle, but recovers to continue their fight.
- Gentle takes a slightly villainous beforehand take thanks to La Brava, whose Quirk gives a power boost to anyone she is in love with.
- In the End, You Are on Your Own: Once again, Izuku ends up facing a villain without any assistance. This is justified as he wants to avoid getting the faculty's attention and risk cancelling the festival.
- Know When to Fold Them: Gentle surrenders in order to spare La Brava a harsh sentence upon their arrest.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In a flashback to Gentle's Dark and Troubled Past, Gentle's attempt to save someone only gets in the way of another Pro's duties, leaving the victim seriously injured. As a consequence, he is expelled from school and kicked out of his parents' house. Justified since he wasn't a licensed hero and so not legally within his rights to help.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Midoriya eventually realizes that he and Gentle are both fighting for the sake of seeing a young girl (Eri and [the adult] La Brava, respectively) smile.
- Saying Too Much: Gentle enthusiastically compliments Izuki on knowing a particular brand of rare and expensive tea despite being so young (Momo had brewed some of that tea for the class earlier). This small detail helps blows his cover when Deku remembers Gentle mentioning that same tea during one of his videos, confirming Deku's suspiscions.
- School Festival: The setting of this arc is the class preparing for UA's Culture Festival.
- Shadow Archetype: Gentle Criminal is essentially what Deku could have ended up as if he didn't have a mentor like All Might to help guide him. Like Deku, he dreamed of being a pro-hero and recklessly jumped into danger he wasn't prepared for, all for the sake of saving someone. Unlike Deku, Gentle ended up making the problem worse due to his inexperience leading to his parents being held legally responsible and his eventual expulsion from school. He turned to crime due to no longer being able to make it as a hero and not wanting to be forgotten by history.
- Suddenly Always Knew That: Out of nowhere, Bakugo and Tokoyami are revealed to have prior knowledge of music, being a good drummer and guitarist respectively. While it's given little to no explanation for Tokoyami, Bakugo seems to have learned it in an attempt to control his anger.
- Too Desperate to Be Picky:
- Gentle's turn to villainy isn't out of revenge for being denied a hero. He just doesn't want to be forgotten.
- Gentle only relies on La Brava's Quirk when he needs to make a Villain: Exit, Stage Left. As his fight with Midoriya reaches its climax, he is given no choice but to fight back with her power boost.
- Villain Respect: Gentle praises Deku for making him Too Desperate to Be Picky at how to use La Brava's Quirk.
- Wham Shot: During the concert, Eri smiles for the first time.
- When She Smiles: Eri's first smile leaves Mirio in happy tears.
- Worthy Opponent: Midoriya considers Gentle Criminal "the toughest opponent he has ever fought".
