The TodoFam and U.A. Sport Festival - First Event: “Obstacle Course Race” (障害物競争 ‘Shōgai Butsu Kyōsō’)
To better follow the sport festival here are a couple of info about the first event, starting from its obstacles and ending with the final results including the points won by each participant who will later take part to the cavalry battle.
By the way the points of each character were shared by the anime as the manga didn't bother sharing the points of all the characters but just the ones of the relevant characters.
The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 3 Chap. 025 - In Their Own Quirky Ways (みんな個性的でいいね Minna Kosei-teki de Īne)
Release date: December 26, 2014 (WSJ Issue 6-7, 2015)
Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:
Kirishima Eijirō ‘Todoroki no YARŌ! WAZA to taoreru TIMING de! Ore janakattara shin deta zo!!’
切島鋭児郎「轟のヤロウ！ワザと倒れるタイミングで！俺じゃなかったら死んでたぞ！！」
Kirishima Eijirō “That bastard Todoroki! He let them fall at a deliberate time! If it hadn’t been me, someone would have died!!”
PRESENT MIC ‘Sā sentō wa nannaku ICHI nuke shi ten zo!!’
プレゼント・マイク「さあ先頭は難なくイチ抜けしてんぞ！！」
Present Mic “Now, the leader has easily taken the lead!!”
Todoroki Shōto ‘(Chōshi agete kita na……… SLOW STARTER ka?)’
轟焦凍「（調子上げてきたな………スロースターターか？）」
Todoroki Shōto “(He’s getting better… is he a slow starter?)”
Kankyaku ‘Ichi-i no yatsu attō-tekijan ka.’
観客「一位の奴圧倒的じゃんか。」
Audience “The guy in first place is overwhelming, isn’t he?”
Kankyaku ‘“Kosei” no tsuyo-sa moaruga, sore ijō ni su no shintai nōryoku to handan-ryoku ga ZUBAnuketeru.’
観客「〝個性〟の強さもあるが、それ以上に素の身体能力と判断力がズバ抜けてる。」
Audience “He has a strong ‘quirk’, but even more than that, his raw physical ability and judgment are outstanding.”
Kankyaku ‘Sorya-sōdaro! Ano ko FLAME HERO “ENDEAVOR” no musuko-san da yo!’
観客「そりゃそうだろ！あの子フレイムヒーロー『エンデヴァー』の息子さんだよ！」
Audience “Of course! That kid is the son of Flame Hero ‘Endeavor’!”
Kankyaku ‘Aah… Dōri de! ALL MIGHT ni tsugu TOP 2 no chi ka’
観客「ああー…道理で！オールマイトに次ぐトップ2の血か」
Audience “Ah… that makes sense! He has the blood of the top 2, (the man who comes) after All Might.”
Kankyaku ‘Hayaku mo SIDEKICK (read: aibō) sōdatsu-sen da naa!!’
観客「早くもサイドキック（相棒）争奪戦だなー！！」
Audience “There’s already a battle for having him as sidekick (read: partner)!!”
Todoroki Shōto ‘(Naru hodo na, korya sentō hodo furina shōgaida. ENTERTAINMENT shi ya garu)’
轟焦凍「(なる程な、こりゃ先頭ほど不利な障害だ。エンターテイメントしやがる。)」
Todoroki Shōto “(I see, this is an obstacle that puts you at a disadvantage the first. What entertainment.)”
Bakugō Katsuki ‘Hahhaa, ore waā kankei neē!! TemeE sensen fukoku suru aite o machigaeten ja nē yo!’
爆豪勝己「はっはぁ、俺はーー関係ねーーー！！てめェ宣戦布告する相手を間違えてんじゃねえよ！」
Bakugō Katsuki “You’ve declared war to the wrong person!”
Observation notes:
While Shōto manages to keep first place in what is organized to be THE LESS HEROIC OBSTACLE COURSE RACE EVER (but I will discuss about this more in the teaching notes), a course that might also be deadly but who cares because we are going to play it for laughts, we are introduced by the public to the fact Shōto is the son of the Number Two Hero, Endeavor so, since he shares the Number 2’s BLOOD (blood is bolded also in the dialogue so as to remark its importance) of course he is bound to be awesome. It is all thanks to his blood, Shōto’s training doesn’t matter... but I will discuss this more in the cultural notes.
Meanwhile, Bakugō finally manages to reach Shōto as the latter was forced to slow down due to having reached the minefield and informs him he did his war declaration to the wrong person.
The two start to struggle for the first place, with Bakugō seeming barely at advantage when Midoriya uses the totally not powerful, totally not dangerous mines to create a giant size explosion that propels himself in the air and fly toward them.
Cultural notes:
Chi (血 “blood”): blood is a pretty important thing in Japan, not only because it is the red liquid that circulates in the arteries and veins of humans and other vertebrate animals, carrying oxygen to and carbon dioxide from the tissues of the body but also because it carries the idea of “inheritance”, “lineage” and “life force” in a very deep sense, in fact there is the belief that certain groups of people have their blood permanently “polluted”, either because they had works tied with blood, like executioners, undertakers, slaughterhouse workers, butchers, and tanners called ‘eta’ (穢多 “great filth”) as well as beggars, street performers, prostitutes, convicted criminals, and the physically disabled among others called ‘hinin’ (非人 “not people”) which together form the group called ‘burakumin’ (部落民 “village people”) and were considered outcasts as they lived in a state of permanent ‘Kegare’ (穢れ・汚れ, “uncleanness/defilement”), spiritual contamination or uncleanness that affects individuals, spaces, and the community, distinct from simple physical dirt that, according to Shinto beliefs, makes deities angry or withdrawn; rituals aim to remove it for harmonious interaction and according to Buddhist beliefs, obstructs the path to enlightenment. Their own blood was considered permanently impure, they were subject to increasingly stricter sanctions that prohibited their contact and mixing with the rest of society by means of restricted residences, economic activities, special clothing, hairstyles, and tattoos. This “polluted” blood was viewes as inheritable and permanent which is why people still don’t want to marry (aka ‘mix blood’) with people whose ancestors were ‘burakumin’. You can see this also in lesser aspects of life, people with share blood with criminals (therefore that are related to them) are also considered “polluted”, never mentioning that Japan believes that ‘ketsueki-gata’ (血液型 “blood type”) reflect the personality of those who carried it (which is why many manga feel compelled to inform you about the characters’ blood types) to the point that it would influence selection of people for a certain type of work (in 1990 Mitsubishi Electronics selected a team composed entirely of AB type workers due to “AB type people’s ability to make plans”), the formation of kindergarten classes, matmatching compatibility and even guessing which illness one would have… even if of course there are no basis for all those things. As a result of course it has great importance that Shōto shares Enji’s same blood, the blood of the Number 2 Hero because that blood is expected to give Shōto’s all the same qualities Enji has by the mere virtue of running in his veins, to make Shōto the same as Enji because they share the same blood… and this will also be revealed to be Shōto’s fear as he believes Enji’s blood carries over Enji’s flaws (especially the fact Enji is abusive with his mother).
Teaching notes:
So Present Mic in this chapter informs us that in the obstacle course race everything is fair as long as the contestants stay on course.
This means that freezing the robots while they were in an unstable position so that they would fail on the other contestants, something we are told multiple times Shōto did on purpose, with the risk the robots would possibly kill or seriously maim the others is totally fair and also not at all presented as something wrong/immoral since it risks killing people because... it is played for laughts.
In fact the two who gets squished are Kirishima and Tetsutetsu who, thanks to their Quirks, receive zero damage but remarks if someone else had been in their place that person would have died, with the other kids, who had no idea of their Quirks and had not seen them getting up yet, remarking they had no idea they could die in the race.
So yeah, the danger of dying totally existed but... it didn’t happen and was turned into a gag so it is okay.
However I want to remark this isn’t bad teaching just because the students could get killed (which is already overwhelmingly bad!) and no one acted to stop it but also because they are teaching to Hero students that in order to win... everything goes, even risk to kill off the competitors.
They are basically preparing the kid students to accept that murdering Villains or sacrificing civilians for the sake of victory is an okay option and well...
I don’t know where things as changed but in the entrance exam Midoriya was given LOTS OF POINTS because he had sacrificed everything to resque Uraraka. It was FORBIDDEN to attack the other examinees!
And now not only the story tells us it was okay for Shōto to freeze the other competitors but he could also purposely set up the robots so they would drop on them and the story insists on how this was done on purpose, on how this was smart from Shōto, who cares if it could have killed the students or seriously wound them and, always by the rules, Shōto (and any other student) doesn’t have to feel compelled to save who could get involved in the fall of the robots, nor should any other student.
If students die well... good riddance. This obstacle course race is the less heroic event I have ever seen done by a Hero school or a school in general and... everyone is okay with it.
I have my qualms with the entrance exam which I didn’t comment on this web because it is not a part of the story involving the Todorokis but this is way worse.
And should we talk of how the students are asked to surpass what they call “the fall”, a canyon that can only be navigated by walking along tightropes? There aren’t webs below the ropes so if you fall you are dead but hey, no one falls so it is all right.
And what about “the minefield”? Present Mic hurries to reassure us that the mines aren’t that powerful but they are loud and flashy. Considering we see people fly in the air, the mines are powerful enough they could have killed the students but it is again played for laughts (in the anime more than in the manga where you might miss the student flying away as he is so tiny) so, again, it is all right, so all right that Midoriya is unafraid to create a giant explosion to propel himself in the air and fly toward the first place.
Again, I get Horikoshi wants us to laugh at all this and not take it seriously but he really should choose the one of his manga and stick to it because asking us to view this first part of the sport festival as it it were a cartoon of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner and then to take the third part, in which Midoriya start to break his bones and even reports scars for this, seriously, isn’t really a smart plan.
Translation notes:
We can see that here Kirishima is angry and refers to Shōto as ‘Todoroki no YARŌ’ (轟のヤロウ “That bastard Todoroki”). As said before ‘yarō’ (野郎 “guy/bastard”) is a nuanced word that 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”. Here Kirishima is definitely using it with the meaning of “bastard” and the word is ever written all in Katakana to put emphasis on it.
Even though in the English version Present Mic uses different names (leader of the pack, lead, leader), in the Japanese version he always calls the person who leads the race ‘sentō’ (先頭 “head/lead/first/vanguard”) or, in case he is surpassed, ‘moto-sentō’ (元・先頭 “former head/lead/first/vanguard”).
Now, regarding the anime version...
Episode 16 - In Their Own Quirky Ways (みんな個性的でいいね Minna Kosei-teki de Īne)
Added parts notes:
They added a line from Present Mic commenting on how Shōto is the first that made through the first barrier.
PRESENT MIC ‘Dai ichi kanmon o ichi nuke shita no wa 1 A Todoroki Shōto da!’
プレゼント・マイク「第一関門を一抜けしたのは1A轟焦凍だ！」
Present Mic “The one who made it through the first hurdle is 1 A Todoroki Shōto!”
Plus they actually showed Shōto using his ice to pass the second obstacle and generally expanded the scene here and there so where Horikoshi used just one or two panels now we have a full scene showing what happens and we also see better the battle for the first place between Shōto and Bakugō.
Changed parts notes:
The anime made more visible where the mines are. When Bakugō comments on Shōto’s war declaration to Midoriya in the manga Shōto seemed serious/angry while in the anime he seems surprised.
