The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 3 Chap. 024 - Mad Dash and Knockdown (駆け上がれ蹴落として Kakeagare Keotoshite)
Release date: December 22, 2014 (WSJ Issue 4-5, 2015)
Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:
Midoriya Izuku ‘Tsumari, START koten ga mō...’ 緑谷出久「つまり、スタート地点がもう...」 Midoriya Izuku “In other words, the starting point is already...”
Todoroki Shōto ‘Saisho no furui.’ 轟焦凍「最初のふるい。」 Todoroki Shōto “The first filter. ”
Yaoyorozu Momo ‘Amai wa Todoroki-san!’ 八百万百「甘いわ轟さん！」 Yaoyorozu Momo“You’re too naive, Todoroki-san!”
Bakugō Katsuki ‘Sō umaku ikase nē yo hanbun yarō!!’ 爆豪勝己「そう上手くいかせねえよ半分野郎！！」 Bakugō Katsuki “It won’t work half bastard!!”
Todoroki Shōto ‘CLASS renchū wa tōzen to shite, omottayori yo kerareta na.’ 轟焦凍「クラス連中は当然として、思ったよりよけられたな。」 Todoroki Shōto “Of course I expected it from my classmates, but more than I expected (from the other classes) were able to avoid it.”
Mineta Minoru ‘Todoroki no URA no URA o kaite yatta ze zamaa nēttenda! Kurae OIRA no hissatsu...’ 峰田実「轟のウラのウラをかいてやったぜ。ざまあねえってんだ！くらえオイラの必殺...」 Mineta Minoru “I’ve outwitted Todoroki. Serves you right! Take my special mo...”
Todoroki Shōto ‘Ippan nyūshiyō no kasō teki (read: VILLAIN)-tte yatsu ka.’ 轟焦凍「一般入試用の仮想敵（ヴィラン）ってやつか。」 Todoroki Shōto “Are they the fake enemies (read: Villains) for the general entrance exam?”
Yaoyorozu Momo ‘Doko kara okane dete kuru no kashira...’ 八百万百「どこからお金出てくるのかしら...」 Yaoyorozu Momo “I wonder where the money comes from...”
Todoroki Shōto ‘(Sekkakunara motto sugē no yōi shite moraitē monda na.) KUSO oyaji ga miterunda kara.’ 轟焦凍「（せっかくならもっとすげえの用意してもらいてえもんだな。）クソ親父が見てるんだから。」 Todoroki Shōto “(If they were going to do it, I wish they had prepared something even more amazing.) My shitty old man is watching after all.”
Gakusei ‘Aitsu ga tometa zo! Ano sukimada! Tōreru!’ 学生「あいつが止めたぞ！あの隙間だ！通れる！」 Student “He stopped them! There is a gap! We can get through!”
Todoroki Shōto ‘Yame toke. Fuantei na taisein toki ni kōra shitakara… Taoreru zo.’ 轟焦凍「やめとけ。不安定な体勢ん時に凍らしたから…倒れるぞ。」 Todoroki Shōto “Don’t do that. I froze them when they were in an unstable position… They’ll fall.”
PRESENT MIC ‘1-A Todoroki! Kōryaku to bōgai o ichido ni! Koitsu ~a SHIVYY!!! Sugee na!! Ichinu da!! ARE da na mō nanka… ZURII na.’ プレゼント・マイク「1-A 轟！攻略と妨害を一度に！こいつぁシヴィー！！ !すげえな！！一抜だ！！アレだなもうなんかズリィな！！」 Present Mic “1-A Todoroki! Conquering and disrupting at the same time! This guy is refined/gives shivers! That’s amazing!! He’s first place!! That just feel… unfair!!”
Observation notes:
Shōto is technically present in all the scenes, the entrance in the stadium, the athlete’s oath and, of course, the first event, the obstacle course race.
In the manga we however see him solely during the race. In it Shōto comes out immediately as the strongest, immediately getting first, making harder for everyone tail him by freezing their feet on the ground and destroying in a blink the robots that had caused troubles during the Hero course entrance exam.
Up till chap 16 the fact Shōto’s ice can harm others was always kept into consideration but, from this point on, the story will stop considering it and viewing it only as a way to stop others when they get trapped in it, and not as something that can cause frostbites. Shōto will then freely use it as he is doing now and let people trapped in it without anyone caring/worrying.
Something else worth to mention is that the way Shōto uses to dispose of the robot is dangerous for the others but... again the story doesn’t care because the whole course race is dangerous and no one cares (actually they play it for laughts) which makes harder to judge what he did negatively (credits when it’s due Shōto also warned the others not to try to pass but the image shows the others were way too close already and the fall could still involve them even if they were to remain where they were). Sure is Shōto comes out as superior though here we also have the first hint regarding a conflict between him and his father, in form of Shōto calling Enji ‘kuso oyaji’ (クソ親父 “shitty old man”).
On another note Bakugō’s previous insult for Shōto and the current one are both based on Shōto’s Quirk. While Shōto is no Heteromorph and their type of Quirk is the same, ‘hatsudō-gata’ (発動型 “activation/operative type”) it is interesting how Horikoshi chose to create Quirk-tied insults. From a Watsonian point of view we can suppose they are a left over of the previous discrimination over Quirks that was so pervasive even people with Quirks who don’t consciously mean to do discrimination, end up on using other people’s Quirks as a way to insult them and society accepts this as normal.
Cultural notes:
Senshu sensei (選手宣誓 “athletes’ oath”): it is a pledge made by athletes at athletic events, with the representative of the athletes vowing to “follow sportsmanship” and “fight fairly.” In Japan it is used in almost all if not all the athletics events and it is often the same as that used in the Olympics. Normally a representative from each of the participants raises their right hand diagonally forward and takes the oath. Bakugō though doesn’t raise his arm, if this is done out of disrespect or because somehow the gesture had been seen reminiscent of the Nazi salute with people proposing to change it and Horikoshi deciding he wanted to spare himself the drama is unknown.
Here you can see the one Tsubasa does in Chap 17 of “Captain Tsubasa” (キャプテン翼) a spokon manga created by mangaka Takahashi Yōichi in 1981 and which lasted till 1988.
...and just to get a more interesting comparison, the one Hyuga, Tsubasa’s rival does in answer in the following chapter and that more or less matches the one Bakugō did because BNHA takes a lot from old mangas.
Shōgaibutsukyōsō (障害物競走 lit. “obstacle course race”): it is a race in which participants compete to reach the finish line the fastest while overcoming various obstacles set up along the course and that yes, is often included in school sport festivals. It tests physical acuity and balance ability. Typical obstacles include jumping through nets, hoops, balance beams or balance disks, vaulting boxes and hurdles, using a hula hoop and doing laps. What are normally not used as obstacles are the ones we see in the manga, starting from the ‘STARTING GATE’ (スタートゲート), continuing with the ‘ROBO INFERNO’ (ロボ・インフェルノ), ‘THE FALL’ (ザ・フォール) and the ‘ichimen jiraigen’ (一面地雷原 “minefield”).
Teaching notes:
Honestly I don’t know how to consider this one. The whole obstacle course race is a deadly trap with no Hero making sure the students won’t die during it so it is horrible teachers would consider to put their students through it, especially the ones who aren’t even part of the Hero course but when something happens during the race the whole thing is ALWAYS played for laughts so no one gets seriously injured. We see it in this chapter, in which Mineta, after getting such punch from a robot, should at the very least have some broken bones or by how the robots falling, should have killed someone (but no, in the next chapter it will turn out the only two students involved couldn’t get injured this way). If the story were to keep this up and commit to be a comical manga, at least as long as the sport festival goes on, I would be fine with it and not call it out, but since the story itself mentions the dangers are real and Midoriya will end up breaking his bones during the last part of the festival I am more inclined to consider this seriously and think it is horrible teachers would let their students go throught it and THE WHOLE JAPAN would watch and not care at all.
Translation notes:
Bakugō calls Shōto ‘hanbun yarō’ (半分野郎 lit. “half guy/half bastard”). ‘Hanbun’ (半分 “half”) is likely a reference to Shōto’s Quirk while ‘yarō’ (野郎 “guy/bastard”) is a more nuanced word. It litterally means “son of the field” as to imply he is a “rustic person” and can be used to say “guy/ fellow/chap/buddy” however if you aren’t familiar with that person, it comes out as rude so it’s often translated as “bastard”. Bakugō has already used a derogatory name for Shōto that was based on his Quirk, ‘Kōri no yatsu’ (氷の奴 “ice bastard”) in chap 11, now he has officially switched to this, which he will keep on using through most of the manga.
Mineta, same as Kirishima, calls Shōto just ‘Todoroki’ (轟), without adding any suffix. He does so for all of his classmates. On a general line, when calling someone, in order to be polite, you should use the surname plus a suffix (-sama, -san, -kun…) so Mineta comes out as less formal/more casual/rude when talking with/about his classmates.
Shōto calls his father ‘kuso oyaji’ (クソ親父 “shitty old man”). Now ‘oyaji’ (親父 “old man”) is a rather nuanced word. Let’s say it’s a more colloquial-sounding way to say “father” which can also used to refer to middle-aged or elderly men. It’s not exactly rude (though some Japanese people consider it as such) but it’s definitely very informal, similar to saying “my old man” in English but (often) without an affection. Again, it’s nuanced and depends on the contest. Within one’s own family, teenage and older children, especially males, tend to start using the term to address their fathers at home. In public though, older children will typically call their own fathers ‘otō-san’. Using such word in many cases gives a ‘rough guy’ vibe. The fact that Shōto ALWAYS uses it regardless of him being in public or not, is already kind of rude as it is a clear show of disrespect. Here though he also adds ‘kuso’ (糞/くそ “shit”) to ‘oyaji’ (親父 “old man”). ‘Kuso’ (糞/くそ “shit”), usually written in katakana (クソ) is generally used as a curse word with the meaning of “shit”/“damn”/“fuck” though of course the nuance changes according to situations. Combined with ‘oyaji’ works as a pejorative and turns it into something that sounds like “shitty old man”/“damn old man”, in short makes it an insult or express angers toward that person.
I couldn’t find what ‘SHIVYY’ (シヴィー) means. It might be a deformation of ‘SHIVER’ (シヴァー), in the sense Shōto gives people shivers, but it can be a deformation of ‘shibui’ (渋い), which means “refined/elegant”. The manga went for “cold”, chosing the first option, the anime subs went for the second. Do your pick.
Now, regarding the anime version...
Episode 15 - Roaring Sports Festival (うなれ体育祭 Unare Taiikusai)
Added parts notes: We get some tiny glimpes of Shōto as class A gets inside the stadium.
They had Shōto apologize after he has iced the whole building and is running away.
Todoroki Shōto ‘Warui na.’ 轟焦凍「悪いな。」 Todoroki Shōto “Sorry.”
The anime takes advantage of the fact it is animated to expand the scene in which Shōto freezes the robot, showing it to us bit by bit.
They also added a bit more commenting from Aizawa and Yamada after Yamada comments it is almost unfair.
Aizawa Shōta ‘Gōri-teki katsu senryaku-tekina kōdōda.’ 相澤消太「合理的かつ戦略的な行動だ。」 Aizawa Shōta “That was a rational and strategic move.”
PRESENT MIC ‘Sasuga wa suisen nyūgaku-sha! Hajimete tatakatta ROBO INFERNO o mattaku yosetsukenai ELITE-ppuri da!’ プレゼント・マイク「さすがは推薦入学者！初めて戦ったロボインフェルノを全く寄せ付けないエリートっぷりだ！」 Present Mic “Just as you’d expect from a recommended student! It is the first time he fought them but the Robo Inferno couldn't even get past to his elite moves!”
Changed parts notes: In the manga Shōto contents himself with only icying the ground and the feets of the other players. In the anime he goes overboard as he seems to ice the whole building with a blast of ice of some sort (which, if done realistically, would also have sealed the exist for him as well as freeze completely all his opponents) and then as they somehow survived to that blast of ice, he iced his feets. It’s visually impressive but practically it doesn’t work well.
Teaching notes:
The anime adds Aizawa praising Shōto for his decision to freeze the robots in an unstable position so they could fall when the others would try to pass... and possibly kill or main them all.
