Episode 86

Hound Dog and Ectoplasm close in on the surrendering pair in the woods. Ectoplasm knows the villain from his uploads, while Hound Dog smells a third party and refuses to accept the story about a simple fall. Izuku arrives and downplays everything as a prank and a minor disagreement, and Gentle insists he brainwashed La Brava into helping him. Snipe radios for a status report, and a suspicious Hound Dog nonetheless clears the festival to proceed. Being led away, Danjuro admits he once studied in the Hero Course and turned to villainy after dropping out, and voices a hope that the words Izuku threw at him during their fight will reach other people too.

Less than an hour remains before the performance, and Izuku has left his shopping in town. Ectoplasm goes with him to retrieve it, and on the way the boy turns over how close his own thinking runs to Gentle's. He recovers La Brava's camera. He reaches U.A. at 9:50, where Yuga is waiting at the gate with his costume and Ectoplasm suggests washing up first. At ten the curtain rises. Skeptics like Tsutsutaka and Chikuchi came to pick the show apart and end up dancing with everyone else, and even the upperclassmen drop the criticism. Kyoka thinks back to telling her musician parents she wanted to be a hero instead, and their easy blessing. In the audience, Overhaul's hold on Eri's mind loosens as the music carries her, and she smiles for the first time, leaving Mirio in tears.

Class 1-B follows with a stage play stitched together from famous works, and the crowd enjoys it anyway. All Might scolds Izuku for the ignored phone calls, Hound Dog scolds him for the recklessness and then tells him to go enjoy himself. Cleaning up, Izuku meets Eri, who is bursting to describe the concert, until Minoru drags him back to work. Tsutsutaka and Chikuchi apologize for their intentions, Katsuki savors the win over the older students, and word of mouth carries the class's feelings to people who never saw the show. At the pageant, Itsuka demonstrates her combat skill, Bibimi parades in a float built in her own image, and Nejire dances on her Quirk in mid-air, taking the crown once the votes are counted. Before Eri leaves for the hospital, Izuku surprises her with a candy apple he made himself. At the station, investigators marvel at Manami's computer skills and ask if she might use them for good, which she declines unless it is for Gentle. Danjuro tries to shoulder every charge to lighten her sentence, and the investigator tells him instead that being caught before anything serious happened leaves him a second chance. The man weeps, asks for Earl Grey, and is told he gets whatever is in the pot.

Izuku lies to the faculty to keep the festival from being cancelled, and Gentle backs the story by claiming sole responsibility for La Brava.

Gentle reveals he was once a Hero Course student, and hopes Izuku's conviction reaches others.

Class 1-A's concert converts an audience that arrived intending to criticize, and Katsuki treats the reaction as a victory over the upperclassmen.

Eri smiles for the first time during the performance, breaking Overhaul's lingering grip on her, which was the entire reason Izuku fought to keep the day alive.

Nejire Hado wins the beauty pageant, and Bibimi accepts the loss gracefully.

At the police station Danjuro is offered a path back, which reduces him to tears, and the U.A. School Festival is formally concluded.

The twenty-third episode of season four adapts Chapters 181 through 183.

Hound Dog sensing the fight and reporting it to Ectoplasm is cut, as is much of the running dialogue during the concert. Several performance beats disappear with it: Minoru's Pop Off, Dark Shadow on cymbals, Mezo launching dancers toward the ice ramps, and Denki's mid-air guitar.

Rather than being punched toward the festival after his scolding, anime Izuku ducks and runs. Class 1-B's play swaps Obi-Wan for Gandalf, and a scene of Yosetsu restraining Neito while he campaigns for Itsuka's votes, ending with Itsuka knocking him out, is added.