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My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 8 Review: Match 3 Conclusion


Unsurprisingly, “Match 3 Conclusion” finishes off the third battle of the Joint Training Arc that kicked off in the previous episode. These episodes may be two halves of the same whole, but they couldn’t be more different in terms of their pacing and scope. This is a deliriously busy episode that crams in too much action, if anything. Something that “Match 3 Conclusion” underscores is that all of the Class A students in this fight are important and play a factor in the outcome, but it’s Tenya Iida and Shoto Todoroki that really get to prove their leadership abilities here. Both of these characters have been some of the dominant members of the 1-A Class in the past, but it’s literally been seasons since they’ve been integral to the main conflict at hand. 

Iida quickly rises to the occasion and debuts his new Recipro Turbo ability, which increases his speed to even higher levels of ridiculousness. Midoriya makes an offhand remark that Iida is now faster than Gran Torino, which is a pretty significant claim, if true. All of the theatrics around Iida’s new speed look stunning and the animation as well as the choreography around these sequences is perfect. The sequences gain an extra level of fluidity and the actions occasionally get ahead of the frames, as if the show itself can’t keep up with Iida’s new speed. 

Iida’s new super move allows him to intervene in Ojiro’s battle and dominate the battlefield, but he’s not the only one that’s come to play with new tricks. “Match 3 Conclusion” generates some effective suspense over the nature of everyone’s new abilities, when they’ll reveal themselves, and if there’s a deeper strategy to them beyond their surface level purpose. It’s a smart way to make the established powers of the Class A students feel as new as Class B’s Quirks, many of which are being seen for the first time.

Previous matches from the Joint Training Arc have featured a domino effect as different heroes rise to the challenge once their teammates get defeated. “Match 3 Conclusion” adopts a more thrilling structure where Iida’s fight against Kaibara happens concurrently with Todoroki’s war with Tetsutetsu, as well as Shoji’s duel with Pony Tsunotori. This approach means that there’s never really a dull moment in this episode as each of these battles intercut with each other. It’s all action and the lack of filler is a welcome alternative to the emptier first half of this battle from the previous episode. It’s also harder to predict the outcome of all of this since Class A and B’s teammates are divided and pursue different, independent strategies.

A consistent strength of this season of My Hero Academia is how every pairing between Class A and B students has featured an especially inspired clash of complimentary or contradictory Quirks. In this case, Tetstutetsu specifically targets Todoroki because of the intense temperature-based training that he’s put himself through that ideally removes all of Todoroki’s usual advantages. This initially seems to work as Tetsutetsu pushes through Todoroki’s attacks, but is actually able to grow stronger when his steel exterior becomes burning hot after it’s heated up by Todoroki’s attacks. This turns into a twisted endurance contest, which is how battles have typically gone through these two characters in the past, even if it hasn’t been against each other. 

There are clear stakes here, but the fight between these two is just gorgeous on a visual level. All of the episodes that feature Todoroki’s Half-Cold Half-Hot Quirk are typically impressive in their execution, but “Match 3 Conclusion” is by far the most extreme example. Moments from Todoroki’s battle honestly look like they’re from a TRIGGER production as the heat rages on and an atypical color palette compliments the fiery and heightened atmosphere. The final minutes of the episode go for broke in this department as an avalanche of Quirks advances on everyone and the environment melts into a sprawling mess. 



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