Prepping for the School Festival Is the Funnest Part

La Brava watches Gentle Criminal's history lesson, a survey of the figures who marked the record, All Might among the heroes and All For One, Destro, and Oji Harima among the villains. Before the laws of superhuman society hardened, he says, nobody could tell a hero from a villain, and that chaos carried a freedom he feels kinship with. He arrives mid-viewing to ask whether it uploaded, and she confirms it, having patiently reposted his entire catalogue after another account deletion. The next recording lays out his ethics: he only steals with cause. The convenience store he robbed belongs to a major chain caught concealing expiration dates on Plump Pudding, which then played dumb and looked set to escape consequences, so a modern gentleman thief punishes the ungentlemanly. The views do not come. La Brava boils over, since six years of work is drowned out by Stain's biography and a public that only pictures the League when it hears the word villain. Gentle concedes the point, blaming the appetite for violence his style refuses to feed, and promises a plan that will eclipse both of them.

At U.A., Katsuki overhears General Department students sneering at the Hero Course, its morale-boosting concert, and Class 1-A's role in drawing villain attacks onto the school. Back at the dorms, instruments are being assigned. Kyoka plays guitar and has no time to teach, so she asks for a drummer, and Denki volunteers Katsuki's childhood lessons. He refuses; Hanta needles him; he demolishes the kit and everyone wants him. He still refuses, on the grounds that pleasing the other departments will read as 1-A congratulating itself, and Toru bristles while Tenya concedes the logic and Shoto notes he never joined the conversation to begin with. Katsuki's counter is that if they are doing this, they should do it for its own sake and not as an apology, and he intends to level the school with his sound. The class catches fire. Shoto reads the weight Katsuki has carried since his kidnapping. Gentle, meanwhile, tells La Brava the plan: infiltrate U.A. during the festival, precisely because it is the symbol of heroism and precisely because its security has been raised.

Momo claims piano, Kyoka takes bass, and Mina moves on to staging: Shoto and Eijiro on ice dust, Yuga as a disco ball, a role he adores. Auditions go badly. Eijiro cannot find the genre, Yuga is a falsetto, Minoru simply yells. Ochaco and Toru nominate Kyoka, who is reluctant until she opens her mouth and flattens the room. Denki wins a guitar slot; Minoru cannot physically reach the strings; Fumikage picks up the discarded instrument and proves excellent, with reservations about the F chord. Mina buys off a sulking Minoru with the promise of a harem solo in the dance group. By 1 AM the band, effects, and dance teams are set.

Izuku brings his real problem to All Might. Twenty percent cost him dearly and lasted seconds, Eri won that fight rather than he did, and Chisaki's reach left him helpless. The answer is range. In the woods, told to hold 20 percent and strike from a standstill, Izuku kicks and shakes the trees with pressure alone, something he had already done against Chisaki without noticing. All Might walks him back through six stages, from 100 percent in one limb, to controlling a fraction of it there, to spreading a fraction across his body, to Shoot Style, to raising his baseline from five to eight, to drawing 20 percent briefly. What comes next is not more output but movement between states, maximum power at one point for one instant. Delicacy. Izuku picks his fingers, the most precise things he has, lands one small burst, and hurts. Elsewhere, Mirio welcomes Eri to U.A., and Gentle uploads a note about matching his tea to the size of the job, currently a Royal Flush, for reasons he will explain next time.

Gentle Criminal's philosophy and six-year career are laid out, along with his frustration at being overshadowed by Stain and the League.

Gentle reveals his plan to infiltrate U.A. High School during the School Festival.

Katsuki agrees to drum and Kyoka is made vocalist. Class 1-A finalizes its band, effects, and dance teams.

All Might reviews Izuku's six stages of progress and sets him on developing ranged attacks through fine control rather than raw output.

Izuku begins training his fingers to fire wind pressure, and Eri arrives at U.A.

The episode adapts Chapters 171 and 172 with a page of 174, inside the U.A. School Festival arc.

Gentle's video omits the roll call of notable heroes, and a conversation between Shota and Vlad King is dropped. Extended for television are Ojiro's exchange with Izuku and Kirishima on the subject of their extra lessons, the talk between Tsutsutaka and Chikuchi, which gains flashbacks covering the attacks at the U.S.J. and the training camp, the class's reaction to Katsuki's speech, and their reaction to Jiro's singing. New material covers a flashback to Katsuki's kidnapping and the work-study students discussing the band lineup.

Minoru breaks the fourth wall to blame his own character design for his inability to reach the strings. An instrumental arrangement of Hero too plays during the episode.