Episode 85

Across U.A. the morning is ordinary. Itsuka, Nejire, and Bibimi each dress for the beauty pageant certain of victory, Mirio and Shota bring Eri in by taxi, and Power Loader tells Mei to make herself presentable. Midnight spots the slip Izuku left with All Might granting him leave from the grounds, and wonders aloud whether the boy will make it back at all. At the construction yard, Izuku drops the beam he was holding and uses the same elasticized crane hook the villains launched from, noting as he flies that Gentle's invisible barriers hang in place for a while rather than vanishing, so their positions are worth memorizing.

Gentle cushions his landing in the forest belt around the school. Izuku bounces off the abandoned aerial trampolines to slip behind the barrier Gentle raises, then angles a blast so it rebounds off the villain's own shielding and strikes him, and both criminals are pinned. As Danjuro strains against the grip, Manami remembers her own history: a love letter in middle school answered with mockery, years shut in her room believing in nothing, a video of a stranger promising to change the world, and the man who inked circles under his own eyes so hers would not stand out alone. He gave her a name. She whispers that she loves him, Love fires, and a boosted Gentle throws Izuku clear and chops the back of his neck. He does not go down. At nine o'clock, Present Mic opens the School Festival.

The clash escalates. Gently Sandwich stacks barriers on top of Izuku, and while the boy digs himself out Danjuro's past surfaces: a principal urging him to quit, license exams failed again and again, a classmate named Takeshita already courted by agencies. Then the rescue he botched, his air trampoline blocking a pro already on the scene, a victim who needed six months to heal, a police strike, ruinous reparations, expulsion, and parents who threw him out. Four years later Takeshita could not remember his name, and a book on the history of supervillains gave him a second way to be remembered. Back in the woods, La Brava's cheering pushes Lover Mode higher until Gentle overpowers Izuku, who answers his question honestly: his dream stopped belonging to him alone, and he intends to show everyone a bright future. La Brava sprints away to crack U.A.'s alarms and finds Hound Dog and Ectoplasm's clones in her path. Izuku looses four air blasts at once, clips Gentle's leg, and finishes him with a St. Louis Smash. When Manami begs for her only light back, Gentle spends his last boosted strength flinging Izuku away so she cannot be named an accomplice, then holds her tight and declares his surrender.

Izuku works out that Gentle's barriers persist after being made, and turns the villain's own leftover trampolines and shields into a way to outmaneuver him.

La Brava's origin is shown: humiliation over a love letter, years of isolation, and the video that made Gentle her reason to leave the house.

Love is used on-screen, granting Lover Mode and a massive strength boost that still fails to put Izuku down.

Danjuro's backstory reveals a hero-course hopeful ruined by a rescue that interfered with a licensed pro, followed by debt, expulsion, and being disowned.

Izuku ends the fight with St. Louis Smash and calls it the hardest battle he has faced. Gentle throws him clear to shield Manami from prosecution, then surrenders to U.A. security with her in his arms.

Season four's twenty-second episode adapts Chapters 178 through 180 and concludes the Deku versus Gentle Criminal fight. Starmarker and Shout Baby remain the opening and ending.

The anime layers in extra material around Class 1-B: Reiko working on Itsuka's dress, adjusted reactions from Neito, Tetsutetsu, and Yosetsu, and a look back at the commercial Itsuka filmed while interning. Bibimi's eyelashes are drawn shorter, Mei is shown polishing an invention, and All Might's internal warning about where not to look while talking to Midnight is cut.

Several fight beats shift. Izuku no longer places metal pieces on a barrier, Gentle's chop connects instead of being blocked, Gently Sandwich is thrown from a tree rather than the ground, more exchanges happen in mid-air, and Danjuro hears the cry for help from inside the coffee shop before raising a barrier rather than physically approaching the falling man.