The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 035 - Battle On, Challengers! (奮え！チャレンジャー Furue! CHALLENGER)
Release date: March 16, 2015 (WSJ Issue 17, 2015)
Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:
Observation notes:
All we see about Shōto in this chapter is him about to watch the match between Bakugō and Uraraka... so he was not in the contestant preparation room as Uraraka, Īda and Midoriya talked.
Why I am remarking this?
Shōto wasn’t shown watching Midoriya’s fight even though Midoriya would be his next adversary should he win Sero and he had expressed strong interest in facing Midoriya so he should be interested in seeing him fight.
We learnt Shōto was not in the arena but in the contestant preparation room when Midoriya fought, and left it only to go face Sero.
So him being shown watching Bakugō and Uraraka’s fight feels more like a Doylist move to keep him out of the room than anything else since Shōto never showed much interest in Bakugō and anyway has already seen him fight in the past, though maybe the problem was in the reverse, Horikoshi should have shown Shōto watching Midoriya’s fight but since he wanted him to cross paths with Enji he sent him to wait in the contestant preparation room.
Oh well, we will never know and it is not big but since there is so little about him in this chap it was worth to speculate on it.
Sexism notes:
I considered if to include this here because, first of all, I don’t know if Shōtowitnessed it, second, in the same way Hatsume deceived Īda for her own interests, Mineta and Kaminari deceived the girls to wear cheerleaders suits. There is a difference though. First of all the boys’ deception was done for the readers’ pleasure so the readers are asked to be apprecciative of it, while the same can’t be said for Hatsume’s stunt, but there is also something else. ALL the girls realize they were played but still kept up the uniforms and did the cheerleader show, basically reducing Mineta and Kaminari’s responsibility in it because they ultimately agreed and had fun. Here just one boy, Īda, who is particularly naive to such tricks, got deceived and never agreed to continue with the stunt as he found out only at the end of it. So Hatsume’s responsibility for using him to promote her invenctions remains in full while the one of Mineta and Kaminari’s for using the girls for their viewing pleasure is diminished.
Teaching notes:
Honestly the rules set for the spot festival aren’t reliable. Everything is basically left up to Midnight’s personal taste. In fact technically Hero students couldn’t use support items unless they ask for them beforehand. Īda admits he forgot about it but he was so impressed by Hatsume’s sense of sportmanship as she asked him to use them, that he agreed to use them and everyone is... okay, if she is okay we are okay. Who cares about rules?
Now, regarding the anime version...
Episode 21 - Battle On, Challengers! (奮え！チャレンジャー Furue! CHALLENGER?)
Added parts notes:
The only thing I can say they added is seeing Shōto from afar before seeing him close, but still distant enough to see his arms are crossed. This is all there is about him in the episode and it is really little.
