My Hero Academia Season 7 episode 3 aired on Saturday revealing the traitor of Class 1-A in emotional fashion. This now makes it back-to-back weeks where the new season starts to pluck at the heartstrings. First, Star went down after giving her all in the fight against Shigaraki, and now a traitor outed amongst the students. Even though I was never the biggest fan of this moment in the manga, the wonderful voice cast of My Hero Academia definitely nailed their roles in this episode. (Warning: Heavy spoilers ahead)
The Traitor Among Heroes
I can understand if there’s some level of dumbfoundedness among anime-only fans when it comes to revealing the traitor of the class. It almost felt abrupt with the anime. But the reality is the anime really did all it could with the reveal. Honestly, it was well done. It’s just the reveal itself in the writing that was rather meh.
Aoyama being outed by Hagakure (Invisible Girl) in the forest is a bit arbitrary, especially considering the reason why Hagakure is even there in the first place. However, I think what transpired after the fact was wonderfully executed by the production staff and voice cast of the anime. A major strength of My Hero Academia lies in its cast’s ability to convey heavy emotions when the time ask for it.
The screams from Aoyama, Hagakure, and Deku alike in this episode hit something that lies beneath the surface. That feeling of hurt when someone close to you betrays you was undoubtedly felt in this episode thanks to the voice cast. Would that feeling have been a little heavier had the traitor been someone a little more popular in terms of fan favorites than Aoyama? Absolutely.
That’s not so much a knock of Aoyama but there are very few fans of the series really invested in Aoyama’s character as a whole. So when the time comes to be revealed as the traitor, that emotion just wouldn’t hit as deep as it being someone, for example, like Momo. She also comes from money as does Aoyama yet she’s a lot more popular with the fans and is practically the class’s sweetheart (and genius).
Aoyama having this last-ditch chance to become a hero once and for all and leave behind his past work with All For One is a great opportunity. But even if he succeeds, what weight will that hold? Aoyama was always the background of background characters throughout the season (for the most part). So in that sense, this big reveal loses a little something for me.
The Other Big Reveal
Aoyama being the traitor undoubtedly overshadowed the other big reveal of episode 3 — Hagakure’s appearance. However, that was clearly spoiled in the opening in typical fashion for those that paid attention to it, which I also think was a bad decision on the staff’s part for the opening. But it was a reveal nonetheless.
We also learned that her quirk isn’t necessarily invisibility, she simply reflects light and…that’s it. She gave an emotional plea to Aoyama just as the rest of the class did when he was in cuffs in front of everyone. That being said, outside of Deku and her, I couldn’t buy the emotions of anyone else from a writing standpoint. At least Hagakure followed Aoyama because she realized how gloomy he looked after Deku’s return when nobody else did. That being said, her moment looked great and much better than in the manga and I think the voice acting uplifted the dialogue to a better level than the manga could.
My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 3 Wrap-Up
Despite my criticisms of the big moment, it was still a very well-done episode. We saw some development with Bakugo in his training against Deku. We learned more about All For One’s side without too many boring explanations. And the production, once again, seemed to be on the higher quality side of things this time around. And if last week’s episode was an indication of what we can expect going forward, I’m excited.
Episode rating: 7.5/10
If you loved episode 3 of My Hero Academia Season 7, then be sure to vote for it in our weekly poll! Episode 4 will be released on Saturday, May 25. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime with English subtitles.
Screenshots via Crunchyroll
©K. Horikoshi / Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project
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