The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 2 Chap. 012 - Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Īda! (いいぞガンバレ飯田くん！ Ī zo GANBARE Īda-kun!)
Release date: September 29, 2014 (WSJ Issue 44, 2014)
Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:
Observation notes:
We see Shōto a grand total of one time in this chapter, and just because he sits near Kirishima.
In regard to the votes written on the message board we see a total of 16 names. The missing names are Īda Tenya, Uraraka Ochako, Todoroki Shōto and Hagakure Tōru. We know that Īda and Uraraka’s names can’t appear as they both voted for Midoriya. What we don’t know when reading the chapter is who voted for Yaoyorozu, if Hagakure or Shōto and, since we don’t see both their names (a name is probably on a third column) we are left wondering who of the two voted for Yaoyorozu. It would be fair to assume Hagakure, a girl, voted for a fellow girl but in Chap 63 it will be revealed it was Shōto. It’s hard to say if that was always the plan because, as Midoriya said, that position is one that nobody would want in a normal class but that would be important to get for a Hero in making, as it would help to learn how to lead a group, and Shōto wanted to become a Hero, while Hagakure, being invisible and aiming at steath missions, would not only be unsuitable for leading but also probably not interested. Still, if it was planned, it was an interesting choice as Shōto would be humble enough to recognize there is someone more suited than him for that position and figure out that Yaoyorozu has leading skills.
Cultural notes:
Kakusenhō (画線法 “tally marks” lit. “line method”): it is a method of representing numbers by drawing lines. The Japanese way to keep tally is different from the western one and takes advantage of the fact that the character for 5 正 has five strokes. Basically they keep on adding a stroke until they wrote the kanji for 5, then start again and, in case you have missed it, if you pay close attention, you can see that the names on the second column also have near them a line implying they also got a single vote. The only weird thing in the scene is that normally the tallies are added as soon as the votes are slowly read so the fact that Midoriya’s name is first and Yaoyorozu’s name is second should imply the papers with their names came up respectively first and second and then that they coincidentally were also the ones that got more votes which kind of feel weird, even if not impossible.
Timeline notes:
The table that follows is made to give you an idea of the characters’ age when the facts are taking place. On top of each character there is the date of his birthday, below there is the age they has. April is the month in which school starts, so in it you find in which class each character is.
Now, regarding the anime version...
Episode 9 - Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Īda! (いいぞガンバレ飯田くん！ Ī zo Ganbare Īda-kun!)
Added parts notes:
As in the anime we get to see Shōto’s expression he seems to be the only one completely disinterested or that doesn’t feel relief at hearing it won’t be a test. To counter this the anime shows him listening as Īda explains the role of the class president. The anime also shows that Shōto too didn’t receive a single vote (meaning he didn’t vote for himself) though the glimpse we get of the result is so quick we might entirely miss it.
We also see Shōto as Yaoyorozu comments on how Īda voted for someone else and Satō asks him what he’s trying to do since he too wanted to be the class president at which Shōto seems to nod in agreement (the irony will be Shōto also voted for someone else so the nodding in truth might not be aimed at criticizing Īda but at agreeing with his actions). In the end while there aren’t lots of new scenes, those tiny additions contribute to flesh out Shōto better so they’re good.