Oooo, what do the light novels say/show about Shinsou??
hereâs the chapter if you want to read it for yourself but hereâs some points that i found particularly interesting:Â
-a lot of this chapter is âshinsou feels guilty for things he shouldnâtâ. one of the biggest things he feels guilty about is his transfer to the hero course--which since this is during the cultural festival, was not yet set in stone. heâs really upset by the idea of âlyingâ (heâs not actually lying, heâs just very anxious) to his current classmates and heâs extremely worried that theyâll hate him for transferring to the hero course. heâs described as âplagued by doubts and uneaseâ regarding himself and his relationship to others.Â
-his feelings of guilt and anxiety are described as âdark thoughtsâ and the narration gives off the feeling that this is incredibly common for him and that shinsou spends a lot of time in his head thinking about this stuff
-similar to above, one of the most interesting things in this chapter is the fact that it explicitly says that no one is angry at shinsou for the things he did in the sports festival. all the class A students including ojiro (who is specifically mentioned with this) do not hold it against him because they realize that shinsou was playing by the rules and doing the same things the rest of them were. however there is an exception to this, and thatâs actually shinsou himself. he feels guilty about it and thereâs a portion of his narration where he says that he actually wishes that they were angry at him.
-for a kid whos ânot there to make friendsâ shinsou is very concerned about how people feel about him.
-thereâs a point in the beginning of the chapter where shinsou stares up at the sky and has a moment of introspection thatâs very, very reminiscent of young aizawa in vigilantes. itâs so reminiscent of that scene where aizawa stares out at the sky from the rooftop that the official translator for bnha (including the light novels) pointed it out on twitter after he translated this scene.
-similar to above, shinsou is described as having a âlack of confidenceâ and his doubts about entering the hero course are expanded upon. again, itâs all extremely similar to young aizawa and thatâs pretty clearly the parallel thatâs supposed to be drawn here
-shinsouâs very certain that heâs more likely to be placed in class A due to aizawaâs involvement with his training than class B.Â
-shinsou has been too well behaved with aizawa to ever earn a scolding from him but when he sees a bunch of class A kids impersonating an angry aizawa, he actually feels jealous that they have.
-he genuinely thinks mineta should be expelled for sexual harassment.
-aizawaâs feelings towards shinsou are described as âhaving an affinity for himâ.
-thereâs this entire scene in the chapter where shinsou comes across class Aâs band practicing and he literally just stands in the hallway and stares at them in genuine fucking confusion about how theyâre so friendly and warm with each other. my favorite part of this is that this is where hori chose to do the illustration for the chapter and shinsouâs face as he just. stares. at these kids being friends is genuinely the funniest thing
-shinsou literally just studies all weekend and does not understand doing anything different, like hanging out with friends. itâs so weird to him that he canât actually imagine it. he doesnât think that kids who do hang out with friends on the weekends are bad students or anything, he just does not understand it
-aizawa has been taking a lot of days off to be at the hospital with eri, but he goes out of his way to find shinsou and check in with him about training and school. they also have an... interesting? slightly bizarre in a way only shinsou and aizawa can achieve? conversation about cats
-shinsou was actually the inspiration for aizawaâs cat outfit for eri. in the cat conversation aizawa suddenly has an idea and is like âwait. do little girls like cats too?â and then basically runs off and leaves shinsou dumbfounded behind
-finally, shinsouâs classmates know about shinsouâs upcoming transfer, but he doesnât know that they do. he seems to think that they donât like him, when the opposite is actually true--the gen ed students see shinsou as the pride of their class and are actually planning a surprise party for him when he transfers
