BNHA 4×4 Review: Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot

“Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot” was all about Kirishima Eijirou, aka Red Riot, and his own work study assignment.

This was basically Red Riot’s debut on the hero scene, and it made me love Kirishima even more.  He’s a remarkably determined and kind individual, which may explain why he’s one of the few people who could break past Bakugo’s tough exterior and form a meaningful friendship.  His determination in this episode shined through, and he was left to go up against a villain alone after Sun Eater got taken out by a quirk dampening weapon.

Despite his self doubt and inexperience, Kirishima manages to pull himself together, protect the citizens, and defeat the villain. You can’t help but cheer for him when the battle ends and he’s victorious.  He went through a lot to get where he is, but he still suffers from a sort of Imposter Syndrome that’s all too familiar for many people.  It feels like your success is a fluke and maybe you don’t belong among the heroes.  But he pushes past it and wins.

All of our main characters seem to be teamed up with one of the Big Three on their work assignments.  Red Riot is with Sun Eater, Deku is with Lemillion, and Froppy and Uravity are with Nejire-chan.  This makes sense as the first years are only allowed to go to agencies with good reputations, and naturally those ones would have the most powerful students. But it also feels a bit coincidental as we are given sort of a narrative cheat to introduce us to the Big Three. But no matter, I love these characters, so I’ll just roll with it.

I’m particularly interested in this team up since Amajiki Tamaki is by far my favorite of the Big Three.  His shyness and awkward demeanor often hide just how much of a badass he really is.  He can shape shift into anything he’s eaten, and he’s learned how to use this to his advantage.  But the spotlight still causes him to recoil and back away.  To that I say… I can relate, dude.  I too want to just face a wall and ignore the spotlight whenever it gets shined on me.

I’m also particularly fond of Amajiki’s friendship with Mirio.  And if you think that’s secret fangirl code for “I ship it to hell and back”… you are correct!  It’s an OTP, y’all.  And Amajiki’s speech about how Mirio shines like the sun sort of demonstrates why this pair is so easy to adore.  I hope now that they’ve been introduced to the anime crowd, we get more fic and art of them.

But behind all this charming character development, we get a hint that something is brewing behind the scenes.  This particular UA class just can’t catch a break. Every internship or work placement leads to a confrontation with a Big Bad. They can’t even go camping without it getting crashed by the League of Villains. So we should just buckle up and prepare for chaos.

Author: Angel Wilson

Angel is the admin of The Geekiary and a geek culture commentator. They earned a BA in Film & Digital Media from UC Santa Cruz. They have contributed to various podcasts and webcasts including An Englishman in San Diego, Free to Be Radio, and Genre TV for All. They’ve also written for Friends of Comic Con and is a 2019 Hugo Award winner for contributing fanfic on AO3. They identify as queer.

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