Episode 54

Emi Fukukado, working under the hero name Ms. Joke, tells Shota Aizawa that most examinees have misjudged the opening round entirely. Striking first wins nobody a slot. What decides the hundred survivors is coordination and the patience to read a battlefield.

Ketsubutsu Academy opens with a trick shot. Shikkui Makabe hardens the exam balls with Stiffening while Itejiro Toteki curves them underground using Boomerang. Kyoka Jiro's new Amplifier Jacks let Heartbeat Distortion tear the earth open, and Mina Ashido raises an Acid Veil that dissolves the projectiles before Minoru Mineta is tagged. Fumikage Tokoyami tries a renamed super move on Tatami Nakagame, who slides clear thanks to Telescopic, and Yo Shindo quietly admits the U.A. first-years have grown since the Sports Festival.

With Yokumiru Mera announcing that nobody has qualified yet, Izuku reads the deadlock as mutual caution: nobody wants to reveal a hand first. Yo shatters that patience by rippling the ground under Class 1-A with Tremoring Earth. Elsewhere in the replica city, Inasa Yoarashi answers the tremors by yanking every nearby examinee's supply of balls into the air with Whirlwind and raining them straight back down. He becomes the first to pass, having knocked out a hundred and twenty competitors on his own.

Scattered by Yo's attack, Izuku is picked off from cover by Camie of Shiketsu, who tags a weak point before he sees her coming. She vanishes and reappears repeatedly, pinning him and admitting the disappearing act is pure technique rather than a Quirk. When Ketsubutsu students crash the fight and an apparent Ochaco stumbles into danger, Izuku's guilt over Katsuki's abduction and All Might's clash with All For One drives him to save her. He blows out the ambushers' footing with a kick powered by his Iron Soles and slips away.

Hidden in the rubble, the rescued Ochaco reaches for his weak points, and Izuku bats the ball aside. The real Ochaco, he reasons, would have simply floated herself out of trouble. Camie drops the disguise, attacks bare, and retreats only once the genuine Ochaco and Hanta Sero arrive. Izuku waves off pursuit, since Camie's targets are invisible while she is nude. Regrouped, the trio learns that thirty examinees have already passed.

Shoto Todoroki, waiting alone inside a steel maze, is forced to move when the count climbs past fifty. Ninja-clad students from Seijin High swarm him. He blocks their volley with ice and freezes them solid, only for their leader to gigantify a bolt and punch through his shield. The weapons prove to be tungsten, indifferent to his flames, and the freed Seijin students mock him for going it alone.

Class 1-A repels Ketsubutsu's coordinated ambush, showcasing finished super moves from Kyoka, Mina, and Fumikage before Yo Shindo's Tremoring Earth splits the group apart.

Inasa Yoarashi becomes the first examinee to pass the opening phase, eliminating a hundred and twenty rivals with one application of Whirlwind.

Izuku is targeted by Camie Utsushimi, who impersonates Ochaco Uraraka. He sees through her because the real Ochaco would have used Zero Gravity to rescue herself.

Shoto is cornered by ten Seijin High students whose tungsten weaponry resists his fire, opening a fight that carries into the following episode.

The installment covers chapters 104 and 105 in full along with the first stretch of chapter 106, and sits inside the Provisional Hero License Exam Arc at Takoba National Stadium.

Yokumiru's running tally of passing examinees is updated far more often on screen than on the page. When Izuku, Ochaco, and Hanta reunite, the anime puts the count near thirty, while the manga had already reached fifty-eight.

Several additions are exclusive to the adaptation: an explanation of Tatami's Quirk, Shoto reacting to Yo's tremors, Yokumiru's stunned commentary after Inasa's mass elimination, and flashbacks covering Izuku's meetings with Inasa and Yo plus his fight with Goto Imasuji and Katsuki's abduction. Shoto's duel with Seijin High is likewise anime-original, since the manga left those opponents unseen.