My Hero Academia Episode 9 Review: Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!

This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers.

My Hero Academia Episode 9

“Wanting a job and being suited for it are quite different…”

Part of being a hero is to know when it’s not your moment to be in the spotlight and when someone else is more deserving or could do the job better. 

Midoriya finds himself in such a situation when he’s the popular vote to be class president (something that Bakugo is ecstatic about, obviously). Midoriya is certainly popular in his class, but he’s not exactly the most logical choice to be president and the decision screams of a series making a convenient choice simply because Midoriya is the show’s main character. Izuku as class president wouldn’t have ruined the show, but what’s so encouraging here is that Izuku eventually turns down the opportunity and instead insists how perfect Iida would be for the position. That’s what a real hero does. 

Sometimes delegation is just as important as action, plus the class as a whole will now see greater benefits due to Iida at the head. Iida’s also the only one that seems to truly take the role as seriously as these students should.

Iida has gotten a few occasions over the past few episodes to prove to everyone how awesome he is, but he becomes the focus in “Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!” and the character gets examined on a much deeper level than what’s been seen in the past. 

Midoriya and the audience learn a lot about Iida’s family and his history and it helps further establish him as one of the show’s central characters as opposed to a third- or fourth-tier fighter at U.A. High. In many ways, “Deku vs. Kacchan” was just as much a showcase of Iida’s strength as it was for Midoriya and Bakugo, but “Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!” digs into his weaknesses and fears, too. It paints a full picture of the character.

“Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!” begins fresh off of the announcement that All Might is an instructor at U.A. High. The public is immediately hungry for any kind of information regarding All Might’s teaching abilities and his presence at the school. Accordingly, the campus turns into quite the media circus and it’s yet another distraction for people like Aizawa who just want to educate in peace without all of this fanfare.

Relatively early on into the episode there appears to be a massive security breach, something that apparently hasn’t happened for years at U.A. High. The reality of the situation is that this is just a result of the media invasion on campus and that there isn’t actually any real danger. Iida is the only one that doesn’t panic and when everyone freaks out over this false alarm, he’s able to assert control and calm down the mobbing masses. 

This situation probably wouldn’t have escalated that much further, but with the media present it could have developed into something bigger that wouldn’t do the campus any favors. What’s important here is that Midoriya notices Iida’s clear head during all of this and it’s what inspires him to make Iida the new class president. The president should be someone who’s able to make people feel safe and Izuku was in just as much of a tailspin as everyone else during that moment. 

Iida also hesitantly lets loose that he comes from the prestigious “Iida Family Hero Agency” and that there’s a lot of pressure and expectations in his family to do well in the field. He also comes from a long line of top-class heroes so even if Iida does do a great job at U.A., he still might not manage to stand out amongst the rest of his family (especially his older brother, who’s already a reputable pro hero). 

It’s a difficult background to come from, but it’s surely responsible for Iida’s dedicated and passionate attitude. It helps make him more layered and unique than the typical overachiever character, too. On some level he hates that he’s been conditioned into such a responsible hero. It also speaks to My Hero Academia’s theme that as strong as someone may be, there’s always someone that they’re going to be jealous of that they think is even stronger. There’s this dynamic between Midoriya and Bakugo and it’s present here, too. 

This episode sees the press obsessed with getting more information about All Might, but he largely spends the episode off screen fighting crime. By the end of the installment he’s finally able to direct his attention to the trouble at U.A. High, but he’s primarily tied up fighting crime in the city. This means that he’s not present at the school when all hell breaks loose and additional help is crucial. 

All Might also notes that his powers have continued to decrease after he bestowed his quirk onto Midoriya. It’s not like All Might is weak now or anything, but this will surely develop into a larger problem down the road. The fact that the show wants viewers to remember that All Might is gradually getting weaker is obviously significant.

The grotesque villain that All Might battles in the city is yet another unusual, creative character design from the series. Even if some of the quirks on this show make you roll your eyes, no two characters look the same and some of the more impressive details lie in how strange some characters look rather than how different their abilities are. For example, another strange looking character is Space Hero 13, who also gets introduced this episode. 

The hero is a bit of a celebrity amongst the U.A. High students and his quirk, “Black Hole,” is able to suck up anything and turn it into dust. As cool as all of this is, Space Hero 13 reinforces that his quirk is capable of easily killing people and that heroes with powerful quirks have to work even harder to not unnecessarily injure people when out in the world. Space Hero 13 designs the Unforeseen Simulation Joint as the ultimate exercise to use quirks to save people, rather than hurt them, and that none of these exercises will involve offensive skills. 

The field mission that Space Hero 13 tasks U.A. High’s students with is a more strategic rescue task that covers a wide berth of natural disasters from landslides to tornados. Midoriya is particularly excited about this as his expertise has always been in the rescue side of missions, especially since his quirk is still temperamental. Unfortunately for Midoriya, the rescue work gets cut short when life decides to attack in a very big way. 

This unexpected ambush by the villains works so well here because of the false alarm that freaks everyone out earlier. The fact that a real security breach takes place right after a fake one is the perfect way to keep the audience surprised as well as catch these professional heroes off guard. The consequences of this disaster won’t be fully felt until the next episode, but it still makes for a strong, unpredictable sequence this week.

Perhaps the best thing about this episode is that U.A. High and All Might’s fears of the school becoming a target if villains knew that he worked there isexactly what happens. What’s even better is that the episode carefully sets up the school’s security system and foreshadows the way in which the villains circumvent this obstacle. All of this is carefully and subtly plotted in a way that’s almost subliminal to the audience. The result is an installment of My Hero Academia that just flies by and maintains a solid balance between character development for Iida and suspenseful danger. 

The episode goes out on quite the cliffhanger as these evil party crashers make their presence known and it’s hard to argue with the fact that it is All Might’s fault. None of these children would be in grave danger if it wasn’t for his involvement at the school and the villains’ desire to really get their message to have an impact. 

Of course, it’s also the sort of emergency situation that pushes heroes to go beyond their limits and hit their true potential. The state of U.A. High at the end of “Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!” isn’t ideal, but it’s also exactly the sort of situation that Midoriya and company are training for. Now it’s time to figure out who’s truly ready for battle.

Oh, and isn’t U.A. High’s bear/dog principal the absolute cutest?