The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 2 Chap. 008 - Rage, You Damned Nerd (猛れクソナード Takere KUSO NERD)
Release date: September 1, 2014 (WSJ Issue 40, 2014)
Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:
Observation notes:
In this chapter we only get two glimpses of Shōto, one is when the students reach “Ground Beta” (運度所 β ‘Undosho β’) and the other is when we’re told he’s paired with Shōji Mezō, the two of them forming Team B. While the ones getting more space and focus when groups are presented are clearly Midoriya’s group (Team A) and Bakugō’s group (Team C), placing Shōto in between them subtly draws the eyes on him as well.
Cultural notes:
Kyōiku kihonhō (教育基本法 “Fundamental Law of Education”): it is a Japanese law which sets the standards for the Japanese education system. The law was created in 1947 and on December 22, 2006 its complete revision passed and was implemented. Due to those revisions, since 2012, training in Japanese martial arts (such as jūdō, kendō, sumo, naginatajutsu and aikidō) has become mandatory in Japanese middle schools for first and second-year junior high school students as part of the required physical education curriculum with the nationalists hoping it will retrench Japanese culture with jūdō, aikidō and kendō being the most common options offered by the schools, although not all schools have the necessary equipment and instructors. However, since 2014, dance is also a mandatory subject in both elementary and middle school… and I am mentioning it because in some sources I found you can actually choose either martial art training or dance training so I am not 100% sure all the students have marial arts training lessons. I think it is worth to mention that, when the law passed in 2012 many parents ware concerned about the very poor safety record of school jūdō, which previously was taught in afternoon clubs at school and was optional. Between 1983 and 2011, there were 114 recorded deaths and 275 very serious injuries of children in secondary school jūdō class or club activities. Although some parents of victims had pushed for prosecutions where they believe criminal negligence or other wrong-doing has occurred, public prosecutors have so far refused to act. I couldn’t find out if the situation is improved but this might be why Horikoshi is representing an U.A. High school that is not horribly concerned with its students getting hurt during lessons, especially considering they can fix things with Recovery Girl. Also this potentially explains Midoriya’s knowledge of martial art.
Sexism notes:
Since Uraraka didn’t send specifications on how she wanted her costume to look like, the support company in charge of preparing it gave her a skinthight bodysuit which makes her feel embarrassed as it shows her curves. Uraraka is meant to be a ‘pure’ character but one that will be seen often so, to please the boys who will read the manga (and that are expected to react like Mineta), Horikoshi gave her such costume and make it so that she wasn’t the one asking for it. It’s bad also from a Watsonian point of view as the guy at the support company are adults who thought it was a good idea to dress a girl who aims to be a Hero in such a way she would attract the male gaze. Overall of the 6 girls of class A Hagakure is naked, Yaoyorozu has a very revealing costume and Uraraka, Asui and Ashido were given skinthight bodysuits. Jirō is the only one girl who doesn’t have a costume that’s meant to have males ogle over her.
Teaching notes:
I shouldn’t even call this teaching notes since there is no teaching here. All Might just randomly splits the students in groups of two, randomly assign them the role of Villains and Heroes and tell them to face off. When Asui asks for basic training, All Might claims practical experience will give them the basics. While experience means the world, there’s a reason why normally students sits through explanations and do basic training before being allowed to have some direct experience and this is that if you give them the basics, they will learn faster and will make an even better use of said experience. Instead we are at the second day of school and All Might just tell them to face off, hoping the students all know how to fight and to use their Quirks in a way that is not dangerous and are capable to come up with a strategy. As said before, even though this is the story of students going to a Hero school, the Hero school hardly provides any teaching, it just tosses chances to make experiences to the students and hope they will profit from them and it works for 40 students merely because it is a manga. All Might also encourages who will play the role of the Villain to go all out though... he will stop them if they take things too far. We will see how this will play out.
I have mentioned martial arts are compulsory in middle school but it is not like they are trying to make middle schoolers expert... and martial arts are not compulsory in high school... still U.A. High should really need to teach them since they basically have the students immediately start fighting each other. Yet we are never shown the students taking martial arts lessons and Uraraka apparently learnt them from Gunhead. Honestly I think they should have started their lessons by teaching the students HOW TO FIGHT FIRST, and only after to have them fight.
Translation notes:
All Might calls the students ‘yūsei tamago-domo’ (有精卵共 “fertilized eggs/zygotes”). ‘-domo’ is a plural suffix which implies the speaker is of higher status than those referred to, which fits because All Might is a teacher and a Pro Hero and so in Japan he would be considered of a higher status than Hero in training students.
Now, regarding the anime version...
Episode 6 - Rage, You Damn Nerd (猛れクソナード Takere KUSO NERD)
Changed parts notes:
There aren’t really relevant changes, the most we get are some extra tiny glimpses of Shōto (but they're nothing relevant) and an image in which he's clearly visible while he’s with Ashido and Sero.
