#volume 04

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Volume 4 - The Todorokis in street clothes

Everyone is familiar with the Todorokis Hero and Villain clothes. What people might have missed though are the ordinary clothes the Todoroki wears so if they do wear ordinary clothes in a volume, I will collect the images for everyone to see.

We only have one image of one Todoroki in street clothes in this volume, the Todoroki in question being Rei. The image is in chap 31 and ep 19

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 - Assistant introductions page

Release date: June 4, 2015

Let’s look at the assistant introductions page:

And here let’s have a close up of the Todoroki involved:

Observation notes:

This Enji, same as the other characters in the page, is probably drawn by an assistant, Likely Yuzawa Mizuo since tehre is his name near him.

Cultural notes:

Tamaire (玉入れ “ball toss”): it is a classic Japanese Sports festival game, especially at elementary schools, a ball-toss contest that pits two or more teams in a race to throw balls or ‘otedama’ (お手玉 “beanbag”) into their respective baskets perched atop tall poles. The balls or beanbags of two colors (usually red and white, the colors of the Japanese flag) are spread out on the ground around each team’s basket. When the game starts, the players dash, scoop the balls up and try to throw as many as possible into the basket in the allotted time, creating an exciting spectacle of balls crisscrossing wildly through the air. The team with the most balls in their basket at the end is the winner. This is the game the characters drawn in the image are playing.

Otedama (お手玉 “beanbag”): it is a toy made by putting red beans, rice, apple cores or other materials in small cloth bags and sewing several of them together in a set. Generally they are used for a game called ‘otedama o suru’ (お手玉をする “playing juggling”). Basically you toss them in the air and juggle them, alone or with friends and they are what seems to be tossed in the image.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 035 - Battle On, Challengers! (奮え！チャレンジャー Furue! CHALLENGER)

Release date: March 16, 2015 (WSJ Issue 17, 2015)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Observation notes:

All we see about Shōto in this chapter is him about to watch the match between Bakugō and Uraraka... so he was not in the contestant preparation room as Uraraka, Īda and Midoriya talked.

Why I am remarking this?

Shōto wasn’t shown watching Midoriya’s fight even though Midoriya would be his next adversary should he win Sero and he had expressed strong interest in facing Midoriya so he should be interested in seeing him fight.

We learnt Shōto was not in the arena but in the contestant preparation room when Midoriya fought, and left it only to go face Sero.

So him being shown watching Bakugō and Uraraka’s fight feels more like a Doylist move to keep him out of the room than anything else since Shōto never showed much interest in Bakugō and anyway has already seen him fight in the past, though maybe the problem was in the reverse, Horikoshi should have shown Shōto watching Midoriya’s fight but since he wanted him to cross paths with Enji he sent him to wait in the contestant preparation room.

Oh well, we will never know and it is not big but since there is so little about him in this chap it was worth to speculate on it.

Sexism notes:

I considered if to include this here because, first of all, I don’t know if Shōtowitnessed it, second, in the same way Hatsume deceived Īda for her own interests, Mineta and Kaminari deceived the girls to wear cheerleaders suits. There is a difference though. First of all the boys’ deception was done for the readers’ pleasure so the readers are asked to be apprecciative of it, while the same can’t be said for Hatsume’s stunt, but there is also something else. ALL the girls realize they were played but still kept up the uniforms and did the cheerleader show, basically reducing Mineta and Kaminari’s responsibility in it because they ultimately agreed and had fun. Here just one boy, Īda, who is particularly naive to such tricks, got deceived and never agreed to continue with the stunt as he found out only at the end of it. So Hatsume’s responsibility for using him to promote her invenctions remains in full while the one of Mineta and Kaminari’s for using the girls for their viewing pleasure is diminished.

Teaching notes:

Honestly the rules set for the spot festival aren’t reliable. Everything is basically left up to Midnight’s personal taste. In fact technically Hero students couldn’t use support items unless they ask for them beforehand. Īda admits he forgot about it but he was so impressed by Hatsume’s sense of sportmanship as she asked him to use them, that he agreed to use them and everyone is... okay, if she is okay we are okay. Who cares about rules?

Now, regarding the anime version...

Episode 21 - Battle On, Challengers! (奮え！チャレンジャー Furue! CHALLENGER?)

Added parts notes:

The only thing I can say they added is seeing Shōto from afar before seeing him close, but still distant enough to see his arms are crossed. This is all there is about him in the episode and it is really little.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 034 Cover

Release date: March 9, 2015 (WSJ Issue 16, 2015)

Let’s look at the cover:

Ultra Artworks commentary:

2-Gō renzoku karā no 2-mai-me. 1-Mai-me no hansei o ikashi-fuku o makkuro ni tsubushite, osore o kokufuku. Koko de mata egara o kaeyou to shite imasuga, idaina senpai hō to jibun no chikara no sa o tsūkan. E ga umakunaritai omoi ga tsuyoku natte ikimasu. 2号連続カラーの2枚目。1枚目の反省を活かし服を真っ黒に潰して、恐れを克服。ここでまた絵柄を変えようとしていますが、偉大な先輩方と自分の力の差を痛感。絵が上手くなりたい思いが強くなっていきます。 This is the second of two consecutive color issues. Learning from my mistakes in the first issue, I decided to make the clothes completely black, overcoming my fears. I'm trying to change the style again, but I'm keenly aware of the difference in my ability compared to my great predecessors. My desire to improve my drawing skills is growing stronger.

Observation notes:

Shōto gets a rather impressive even if pretty dark solo picture. He is the third to get one after All Might and Midoriya. He seems more adult in this image and well... pretty dark, even more than he is in the chapter. The choice to place his left side in the shadow and have him cover his left eye is interesting, as it seems to collect all the darkness of Shōto there, in the half he inherited by Enji.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 032 - Smile, Prince of Nonsense Land! (笑え！ナンセンス界のプリンス Warae! NONSENSE-kai no PRINCE)

Release date: February 23, 2015 (WSJ Issue 14, 2015)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Todoroki Shōto ‘Igaito hayakatta na... Koiyo Midoriya, kono-te de taoshite yaru.’ 轟焦凍「（意外と早かったな…来いよ緑谷、この手で倒してやる。）」 Todoroki Shōto “That was unexpectedly quick... Come on, Midoriya, I'll defeat you with my own hands.”

Midoriya Izuku ‘Shinkei o togisumasu mono.’ 緑谷出久「神経を研ぎ澄ます者。」 Midoriya Izuku “Sharpening his senses.”

Observation notes:

Even though Shōto is present, we won’t see much of him in this chapter as he basically appears only in 3 scenes, one is when Ojiro says he wants to retire, the other is when the matchups are shown, and he shows he is eager to face Midoriya and the third is as he is outside sharpening his senses, probably meditating or something like that.

We also get a tiny glimpse of Shōto as Midoriya talks of how he still has troubles using One for All.

Sexism notes:

This is more sexism in the way the story is narrated than sexism showed happening in the story. Anyway we have Ojiro and Shōda retire because, they think they didn’t deserve to be there since they couldn’t remember what happened to the cavalry battle and their pride don’t allow them to accept this since everyone else is doing their best. Ashido tries to dissuade Ojiro, pointing out by his logic she shouldn’t be there either because she didn’t do anything, which is not true even though it is the second time she said so (but she is not going to retire). Kirishima admires the boys for being so mainly and Midnight praises the boys and accept their request, basically telling us we should apprecciate what they are doing. This however also implied what Ashido is doing is wrong. She should have shown pride and drop out too, but no, she didn’t because this is a manly thing to do and she is a girl (by the way I am not counting the fact Aoyama is not dropping out either because he is being used as a comic relief and the fact he stays doesn’t look good on him).

Now what happens next is slightly better but not by much.

In fact the ball should then pass to Team Kendō, a team composed solely by girls, but Kendō, who despite being a girl has decided to embrace the narrative of retiring if you didn’t do anything, insists to pass it to Team Tetsutetsu because they barely did something in the cavalry battle.

The problem here is that yes, Team Kendō got immobilized by Shōto’s ice, but this didn’t happen at the start but only when only 6 minutes were missing, meaning they had been on the move for 9 minutes, more than a half of the time during which they, who started in the 9th position with 225 points, managed to steal 2 headbands. They will lose one due Shōto, managing to keep 2 and reaching 520, finishing the game in 5th position.

The narrative they did nothing is FALSE.

On the other side it is true, Team Tetsutetsu never got immobilized by Shōto’s ice but they only managed to steal 1 headband AND THEN LOST SAID HEADBAND AND THEIR OWN ending up with 0 points. But let’s praise them because they managed to run through all the time. And yeah, I know Team Tetsutetsu contains a girl but not only the focus here is on Tetsutetsu and not on Shiozaki.

Teaching notes:

Normally athletes can decide on their own if they can drop out of a competition. The thing can have consequences on subsequent events in the competition and legal consequences if they break a contract but it is still up to them. Here deciding to accept if Ojiro and Shōda can drop out of the sport festival is up to Midnight, which is something already questionable but what is worse is that Midnight decides so because... she likes it, she likes how they are being naive and green, even though, up to moments before they were trying to teach to the kids that life is a dog-eat-dog competition and so things like pride likely has no place in it and, honestly, they would be horrible in the Hero job. I mean, can Heroes drop out of a job because they feel their pride is wounded? Midnight’s decision is totally arbitrary and not even based on what they are supposed to teach to the kids. What is worse though is that when Bakugō will try to drop out for the same reason they won’t let him. Coherency much? Sure, the story both times tries to make the whole thing a joke but it remains a horrible teaching decision.

But okay, let’s look at the rules of this competition and see why they make me cringe so hard.

PRESENT MIC ‘RULE wa kantan! Aite o jōgai ni otosu ka kōdō funō ni suru! Ato wa “maitta” toka iwasete mo kachi no GACHINKO da! KEGA jōtō!! Ko chito ra ware-ra ga RECOVERY GIRL ga taikishitekkara!! Dōtoku rinri wa ittan sute oke!! Daga maa, mochiron inochi ni kakawaru yōna no wa KUSO da ze! OUT! HERO wa teki (read: VILLAIN) o tsukamaeru tame ni kobushi o furū noda!’ プレゼント・マイク「ルールは簡単！相手を場外に落とすか行動不能にする！あとは『まいった』とか言わせても勝ちのガチンコだ！ケガ上等！！こちとら我らがリカバリーガールが待機してっから！！道徳倫理は一旦捨ておけ！！だがまぁ、もちろん命に関わるよーなのはクソだぜ！アウト！ヒーローは敵（ヴィラン）を捕まえる為に拳を振るうのだ」 Present Mic “The rules are simple! Knock your opponent out of the ring or incapacitate them! And even if you can make them say ‘I gave up,’ it was still an all-out battle for victory! Injuries are fine! Our Recovery Girl is standing by, so you can set morals and ethics aside for now! But of course, anything life-threatening is crap! No! Heroes use their fists to capture enemies (read: Villains)!”

Now... since it was meant to be an one-on-one fight I guess injuries are to be expected but am I the only one who feels horror at the idea they just told teenagers who aims to become Heroes it is okay to set moral and ethics aside because no matter the injury they will cause to their opponent, and the pain it will cause them, Recovery Girl can fix it? We are encouraging them to do much more than just bruises here! Besides how much can Recovery Girl fix? I guess decapitation is off the list, but what about amputation of a limb? It is not necessarily fatal, but can Recovery Girl fix it? And for something tamer like broken bones? Midoriya still reported damage after her healing so she can’t perfectly fix them, what if I break a leg so bad my opponent remains permanently invalid? If I scar their face for life?

I mean, I get the story nerfs the effects of the Quirks so bad that they can’t really do serious damage but still telling someone to beat another person as much and as hard as they want as long as it is not life-threatening because they can fix it is horrible.

And what does it means they can’t cause life-threatening damage because Heroes swing their fists only against Villains? That it is okay to go for life-threatening damage with Villains? Mind you, I know that the Japanese police can shoot at escaping criminals provided they are judged dangerous enough but here Present Mic is not even saying dangerous Villains, he is just speaking as if it were a given it is okay to murder them. Really, this is a pretty horrible teaching.

Besides... the kids will go for the kil in this tournament, even though they didn’t realize it. They will be stopped only once, but the match won’t be considered invalid. The other times their Quirks will be nerfed or they will manage to avoid the killing blow so nobody will die... and nobody will really complain. Really, this is bad.

Now, regarding the anime version...

Episode 19 - The Boy Born with Everything (全てを持って生まれた男の子 Subete o Motte Umareta Otoko no Ko)

Added parts notes:

We just have some extra glimpses of Shōto, nothing noteworthy but always nice to see.

Changed parts notes:

Now the sentence about Shōto sharpening his sense is part of a longer sentence describing what everyone does. It is not really a relevant change.

Extra notes:

It is worth to mention that one of the extra glimpses of Shōto might have been actually a scene that was included in the manga. The anime decided that the guy with his hands in his pocket whose face we can’t see is Shōto which could make sense as Shōto tends to put his hands in his pockets. He is not the only one though, so we can’t really know if it is him in the manga. Still it felt worth to mention it.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 031 - Todoroki Shōto’s Profile

Release date: February 16, 2015 (WSJ Issue 13, 2015)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Kosei “Hanrei Han'nen” Migi hanshin wa sesshita MONO o itetsuka seru! Hidari hanshin wa shakunetsu no honō o funshutsu suru! Chōjikan, danzoku-teki ni itetsuka seru to tōshō ni narunode hidari hanshin no netsu de taion chōsei o shinakereba naranai! Hidari hanshin o chōjikan danzoku-teki ni tsukau to……………………… dō narunda! 個性『半冷半燃』 右半身は接したモノを凍てつかせる！左半身は灼熱の炎を噴出する！ 長時間、断続的に凍てつかせると凍傷になるので左半身の熱で体温調整をしなければならない！左半身を長時間断続的に使うと………………………どうなるんだ！？ Personality: “half-cold, half-burning” His right half freezes anything it comes into contact with! His left half spews scorching flames! If he keep freezing things for an extended period of time, he will suffer frostbites, so he must use the heat from his left half to regulate his body temperature! What will happen if he keep using his left half for an extended period of time?

Observation notes:

Although we are given some info about Shōto, this is more a profile of his Quirk than of him. We will never find out what would happen to him if he keep using his left half for an extended period of time because he simply won’t do it, at least not without regulating his temperature with his other side.

We know that if Enji abuses of his fire Quirk not much physical harm comes to him beyond that the excessive use of heat slows him down, but this will be revealed in chap 188. I do wonder if, since most of Shōto’s prototype was later discharged and used as an inspiration for Tōya, if among the things planned there was that Shōto would burn himself if he were to use his fire side without balancing it with his ice side and than this part was discharged too and given to Tōya.

This though would explain why Shōto could get a burn scar due to boiling water, those temperature is way lower than fire.

Translation notes:

Shōto’s name in the beginning is written with the western alphabet so technically, the official translitteration of Shōto’s name is just ‘Shoto’. if you are wondering why you also see it translitterated as ‘Shōto’ or ‘Shouto’, that is because the reading given for his name in Japanese is is しょうと so basically ‘しょ’=‘sho’ + ‘う’=‘u’ + ‘と’=‘to’.

The ‘u’ in the middle means that the ‘o’ in ‘sho’ is long.

In theory using ‘ō’ (with a macron) is the most accurate way to translitterate the fact that the ‘o’ in his name is meant to be a long sound.

Another common and easier to write way to translitterate it would be the more litteral ‘ou’.

Technically using a single ‘o’ is inaccurate for a long ‘o’ sound, as it represents a short ‘o’ and is therefore incorrect, although it is sometimes seen in informal contexts for convenience.

Official translitterations and English translations both decided to go with the single ‘o’ for convenience.

In the fandom there is the theory Shōto’s burn scar might be due to Rei trying to cool down Shōto with her ice after throwing at him boiling water. However here we can see Shōto’s burn scar is called ‘yakedo’ (火傷 lit. “fire wound”) and not ‘reitōyake’ (冷凍焼け lit. “cold frozen burn”), which implies clearly his scar wasn’t due to his skin coming in contact with something cold but due to coming in contact with something hot. It is worth to remember that Horikoshi rewrote Shōto’s past and, likely, here he had no plans for having Rei trying to cool the burn down, the burn meaning to be just a burn.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 030 - Cavalry-Match Finale (騎馬戦決着 Kibasen Ketchaku)

Release date: February 9, 2015 (WSJ Issue 12, 2015)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Bakugō Katsuki ‘Tsugi! ! Deku to Todorokin tokoda!!’ 轟焦凍「次！！デクと轟んとこだ！！」 Bakugō Katsuki “Next!! Deku and Todoroki!!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Hidari… ore wa nani o…!’ 轟焦凍「左…俺は何を…！」 Todoroki Shōto “My left... What am I doing...?!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘……....Kuso-...’ 轟焦凍「.........くそっ...」 Todoroki Shōto “... Shit...”

Tokoyami Fumikage ‘Omae no syogeki kara Todoroki wa akira kana dōyō o mise ta. 1000 man o toru no ga honi dattarou ga … sō umaku hai kanai na.’ 常闇踏陰「お前の初撃から轟は明らかな動揺を見せた。1000万を取るのが本意だったろうが…そう上手くはいかないな。」 Tokoyami Fumikage “Todoroki was clearly shaken by your first attack. I guess I wanted to take the 10 million, but... it didn't look like it was going to work out that way.”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Kōgeki ni wa tsukawanē, sō kimeta HAZU nano ni keosareta…) Ikenē… kore ja… oyaji no omō tōri ja nē ka...’ 轟焦凍「(攻撃には使わねえ、そう決めたハズなのに気圧された…) いけねえ…これじゃ… 親父の言う通りじゃねえか...」 Todoroki Shōto “(Not to use it for attacks, this is what I had decided... but I was intimidated...) This is no good... This... is is just as my old man said, isn’t it?...”

Ashido Mina ‘Bakugō Todoroki no kōri taisaku de watashi irete kure teta dake de jitsuryoku ni miatten no ka wakan'nai yo--’ 芦戸三奈「爆豪轟の氷対策で私入れてくれてただけで実力に見合ってんのかわかんないよ──」 Ashido Mina “Bakugō only put me in to counter Todoroki's ice, so I don't know if my abilities are commensurate with theirs.”

Midoriya Izuku ‘Hanashitte… nani…?’ 緑谷出久「話って…何…？」 Midoriya Izuku “Talking... about what?”

ALL MIGHT ‘Yo-! Hisashiburi da na! Ocha shiyo, ENDEAVOR!’ オールマイト「よっ！久し振りだな！お茶しよ、エンデヴァー！」 All Might “Hey! It's been a while! Let's have tea, Endeavor!”

Todoroki Enji ‘ALL MIGHT...’ 轟炎司「オールマイト…」 Todoroki Enji “All Might...”

Observation notes:

So in this chapter we see the conclusion of the cavalry battle as well as of the duel between Midoriya and Shōto.

Now there was a lot of tension in the previous chapter because Midoriya was about to use One for All, which he can’t control very well, against Shōto. In this chapter we discover he only wanted to use it to... slap Shōto’s arm away using the force of the air he would move, the action also causing Shōto’s fire to turn off, him being surprised he had even turned it on in the first place.

Meanwhile Midoriya managed to grab the headband which he thinks is his own but instead take the wrong one because Yaoyorozu tells him they switched the position of the headbands around Shōto’s neck.

And again we have the effect BIG SURPRISE because we discover that something happened we knew nothing around (aka they switched the headbands). Honestly I probably wouldn’t be so annoyed by it if I hadn’t read the whole manga already and known Horikoshi is going to use it a lot more in the future.

We are at 10 seconds from the end, Midoriya tries to charge again, Kaminari uses his Quirk, Bakugō joins the action and... the time ends with Midoriya not managing to reach Shōto and Bakugō falling on the ground for funny effect as he somehow forgot to support himself and, this time, Sero didn’t care to bring him back on the horse.

Midoriya despairs, Shōto’s team is announced to be first, Bakugō’s team is announced to be second, Shinsō’s team is third and... Midoriya’s team is announced to be forth because BIG SURPRISE, Dark Shadow managed to snatch the headband on Shōto’s head even if actually Dark Shadow wanted to get the one with the ten million points around Shōto’s neck.

Shōto is unhappy and tormented because he has used his left and implies he has done what his father wanted.

The chapter ends with Shōto alone with Midoriya because he has told him they have to talk and All Might approaching Endeavor asking him if he wants to get a cup of tea with him.

Teaching notes:

Aizawa praises Monoma’s strategy as good and rational... only for us to have him and All Might basically imply that Bakugō’s overwhelming tenacity is better because Bakugō aims to the top and for this stubborness is more of a requirement than careful planning.

Okay, I kinda broke my rule here because this isn’t said outright in a way Shōto can hear it or witness but if this is one of the basic principles All Might and Aizawa believe in, well it will be passed down in their lessons.

The problem is... it is not even a great idea as practically Bakugō loses too much time with Monoma and therefore can’t go after the headband with the ten million points so he won’t get first place.

Yet the story has two of the most important adults basically praise what Bakugō was doing implying that is the right path to get first place.

Translation notes:

This is the first chapter in which Bakugō calls Shōto ‘Todoroki’. To be exact he calls him ‘Todorokin’ but I’ve been told the final ‘Todorokin’ is a colloquial way to add emphasis to a question or statement or convey feelings of frustration, annoyance and impatience. Long story to be told it is more something added to the sentence, to give it a certain feeling, than to Shōto’s name.

Tokoyami calls Shōto just ‘Todoroki’. Same as with his other classmates he doesn’t use honorifics for Shōto.

It is worth to mention that while in chap 24 Shōto called his father ‘kuso oyaji’ (クソ親父 “shitty old man”) he he calls him just ‘oyaji’ (親父 “old man”).

We also get Ashido calling Shōto just ‘Todoroki’. Considering girls are expected to be more polite than boys the fact she does’t attack honorifics to Shōto’s name makes her super casual.

Last but not least, in this chapter we learn that All Might and Enji call each other by their Hero names... which is pretty common among Heroes.

Weirdness notes:

I do get that the idea of Midoriya using One for All made for a great cliffhanger in the previous chapter but... first of all Midoriya had no idea Shōto would use his fire when he prepared to use One for All. Shōto had constantly avoided using it and I thought Midoriya had figured out he wouldn’t use it and Shōto wouldn’t have used it if Midoriya’s attempt at using One for All hadn’t triggered his self preservation sense.

To continue if the aim was solely to slap Shōto’s arm away he could have done it with his own strength, taking advantage of the fact they just launched themselves against him.

Yes, it would have meant to touch Shōto, but without One for All it wouldn’t have been dangerous for both of them and Shōto wouldn’t have been triggered in using his fire and Midoriya could be fast enough Shōto wouldn’t have managed to freeze his arm in the process.

So yeah, it is a very cool scene, but one done merely for the sake of a cliffanger and a cool scene, not a very logical one.

WHY IN THE WORLD MIDORIYA DOESN’T GRAB ALL THE HEADBANDS?!?

Beyond the dramatic factor he grabbed the wrong one, of course. He didn't need to leave Shōto’s team some and it was actually simpler grabbing all the headbands around Shōto’s neck than try to take the one on the top!

Dark Shadow, despite Kaminari having just used his Quirk and therefore having been weakened, and aiming to grab the headband with the ten million points around Shōto’s neck, managed to snatch the headband on Shōto’s head without Midoriya, who was staring at Shōto and was behind Dark Shadow, noticing anything. Totally believable. No, really this happens solely so we can have the BIG SURPRISE effect when the truth gets revealed. And it is two times in a single chapter and I am not counting the times this happen during the Monoma/Bakugō fight.

Now, regarding the anime version...

Episode 18 - Cavalry Battle Finale (騎馬戦決着 Kibasen Ketchaku)

Added parts notes:

The anime expanded the scene in which Midoriya uses One for All by basically showing us twice the same scene from different angolations. The final 10 seconds are also expanded so that they now the action looks a lot smoother. We hear Shōto tell Kaminari’s name first and then Yaoyorozu, to order them to get to action, and we also notice better how Yaoyorozu prepared another wand for Shōto to use, even though he never got the opportunity and we even understand better that Bakugō figured Shōto now is the one with the most of the points and turned to attack him, calling him. Overall it is much better and clearer, even if the few panels of the manga got us an idea of what was going on.

If anything Midoriya’s horse stilling is the only thing that feels wrong because it is too abrupt.

Team Todoroki also gets a single image just for them and, when Shōto says he will do as his father wants if this keeps up, the camera shows us Enji watching him and then leaving. We also have Enji’s fire increase when All Might calls him.

Long story short it is nothing big but the micro additions the anime did sure made things better.

[thetodorokifamilyannotated]

The TodoFam in BNHA Vol. 4 Chap. 029 - Unaware (知られてない Shiraretenai)

Release date: February 2, 2015 (WSJ Issue 11, 2015)

Let’s look at what the manga shows us first:

Midoriya Izuku ‘Jikan wa mō hanbun! Ashi tomenaide ne! Shikakete kuru no wa...’ 緑谷出久「時間はもう半分！足止めないでね！仕掛けてくるのは...」 Midoriya Izuku “The time is already halfed! Don't stop! We're going to set something up...”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Īda, zenshin!’ 轟焦凍「飯田、前進！」 Todoroki Shōto “Īda, advance!”

Īda Tenya ‘AA!’ 飯田天哉「ああ！」 Īda Tenya “Ahh!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Yaoyorozu, GUARD to dendō o junbi.’ 轟焦凍「八百万、ガードと伝導を準備。」 Todoroki Shōto “Yaoyorozu, prepare guard and insulator.”

Yaoyorozu Momo ‘Ē!’ 八百万百「ええ！」 Yaoyorozu Momo “Eh!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Kaminari wa...’ 轟焦凍「上鳴は...」 Todoroki Shōto “Kaminari, you...”

Kaminari Denki ‘ī yo wakatteru! ! Shikkari fusageyo...’ 上鳴電気「いいよわかってる！！しっかり塞げよ...」 Kaminari Denki “Okay, I know! Block it properly...”

Midoriya Izuku ‘ichi-kumi dake janai!’ 緑谷出久「一組だけじゃない！」 Midoriya Izuku “Not just one group!”

Kaminari Denki ‘Musabetsu hōden 130-man V!’ 上鳴電気「無差別放電130万V！」 Kaminari Denki “Indiscriminate discharge of 1.3 million volts!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Nokori 6-bunjaku, ato wa hikanē. Warui ga, gaman shiro.’ 轟焦凍「残り6分弱、後は引かねえ。悪いが、我慢しろ。」 Todoroki Shōto “Less than six minutes left. I'm not backing down. Sorry, but please hold on.”

PRESENT MIC ‘Nanda nani shita! ? Muragaru kiba so Todoroki isshū!’ プレゼント・マイク「何だ何した！？群がる騎馬そ轟一蹴！」 Present Mic “What the hell did he do?! Todoroki defeated the swarm of horsemen in one go!”

Aizawa Shōta ‘Kaminari no hōden de kakujitsu ni ugoki o tomete kara kōra seta... Sasuga to iu ka... shōgaibutsukyōsō de kekkō na kazu ni yoke rareta no o kaerimi teru na.’ 相澤消太「上鳴の放電で確実に動きを止めてから凍らせた...さすがというか...障害物競争で結構な数に避けられたのを省みてるな。」 Aizawa Shōta “He used Kaminari's electric current to make sure to stop their movement and then froze them. That's impressive... considering how many of them avoided him in the obstacle course.”

PRESENT MIC ‘NICE kaisetsu!’ プレゼント・マイク「ナイス解説！」 Present Mic “Nice explanation!”

Kendō Itsuka ‘A ─ ─ Hachimaki ! Kussōo.’ 拳 (けん) 藤 (どう) 一 (いつ) 佳「あ──ハチマキ！くっそおお！」 Kendō Itsuka “Ah—headband! Damn it!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Ichiō , Morattoku.’ 轟焦凍「一応、貰っとく。」 Todoroki Shōto “I'll take it, just in case.”

Midoriya Izuku ‘BACKPACK ga ika reta!?’ 緑谷出久「バックパクがいかれた！？」 Midoriya Izuku “The backpack is gone haywire!?”

Hatsune Mei ‘BABYY! Kaizen no yochi ARI!’ 発目明「ベイビー！改善の余地アリ！」 Hatsune Mei “Babyy! There's room for improvement!”

Uraraka Ochako ‘Tsuyo sugiru yo! Nigekirehen!’ 麗日お茶子「強すぎるよ！逃げ切れへん！」 Uraraka Ochako “Too strong! We can't escape!”

Tokoyami Fumikage ‘Kensei suru!’ 常闇踏陰「牽制する！」 Tokoyami Fumikage “I'll keep him in check!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Yaoyorozu!’ 轟焦凍「八百万！」 Todoroki Shōto “Yaoyorozu!”

Tokoyami Fumikage ‘...!!’ 常闇踏陰「…！！」 Tokoyami Fumikage “...!!”

Midoriya Izuku ‘“Sōzō”…! Yakkai sugiru!’ 緑谷出久「〝創造〟…！厄介過ぎる！」 Midoriya Izuku “‘Creation’...! Too troublesome!”

PRESENT MIC ‘Nokori jikan yaku 1-bun!! Todoroki FIELD o SASHI shiyō ni shi... soshite atchiyuu ma ni 1000-man dasshu!!! Toka omotteta yo, 5-bunmae made wa! Midoriya nanto kono semai kūkan o 5-funkan nigekitte iru!!’ プレゼント・マイク「残り時間約1分！！轟フィールドをサシ仕様にし...そしてあっちゅー間に1000万奪取！！！とか思ってたよ、5分前までは！緑谷なんとこの狭い空間を5分間逃げ切っている！！」 Present Mic “There's about one minute left!! Todoroki made his field for one-on-one combat... and steal 10 million in the blink of an eye!! Or so I thought, five minutes ago! Midoriya managed to escape in this small space for five minutes!!”

Midoriya Izuku ‘KEEP!!’ 緑谷出久「キープ！！」 Midoriya Izuku “Keep away!!”

Todoroki Enji ‘Tsukarete njanai ka… Aho me.’ 轟炎司「突かれてんじゃないか…阿呆め。」 Todoroki Enji “You have been pinned/stuck… what a complete fool.”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Tsuneni kyori o oite hidari-gawa ni… yoku mite ya garu. Kore ja saitan de tōketsu sa se yō ni mo Īda ga hikkakaru. Kō ugoka recha muyamina tōketsu wa jibun no kubi wo shimeru. Kaminari no hōden mo Tokoyami ni fusega reru... Nokori 1-bun...! Kono yarō--…!’ 轟焦凍「（常に距離をおいて左側に…よく見てやがる。これじゃ最短で凍結させようにも飯田が引っかかる。こう動かれちゃ無闇な凍結は自分の首を絞める。上鳴の放電も常闇に防がれる...残り1分...！この野郎──…！)」 Todoroki Shōto “(He always keeps his distance and stays to the left... he's watching closely. At this rate, even if I try to freeze him as quickly as possible, Īda will get caught. If he moves like this, reckless freezing will only put me in a bind. Kaminari's discharge is also blocked by Tokoyami... one minute left...! This guy/bastard...!)”

Īda Tenya ‘Minna, nokori 1-bunjaku... kono ato ore wa tsukaenaku naru! Tanonda zo!!’ 飯田天哉「皆、残り1分弱...この後俺は使えなくなる！頼んだぞ！」 Īda Tenya “Everyone, there's less than a minute left... I'll be useless after this! I'm counting on you!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Īda?’ 轟焦凍「（飯田？)」 Todoroki Shōto “(Īda?)”

Īda Tenya ‘Shikkari tsukamatte iro! Toreyo, Todoroki-kun! TORQUE OVER! RECIPRO BURST!’ 飯田天哉「しっかり掴まっていろ！ 奪れよ、轟くん！トルクオーバー！レシプロバースト！」 Īda Tenya “Hold on tight! Take it, Todoroki-kun! Torque overload! Recipro burst!”

Todoroki Shōto ‘Īda! Nanda… ima no…’ 轟焦凍「飯田！何だ…今の…」 Todoroki Shōto “(Īda! What was that just now?)”

Observation notes:

So, this shows the first part of the fight between Shōto and Midoriya.

By the way, this wasn’t clearly visible before but now we can see that to better take afvantage of Īda’s speed, Kaminari and Yaoyorozu wear skates (that Yaoyorozu likely created). That’s smart.

But okay, actually before the two could start fighting other groups try to attack them. Shōto has Kaminari give them an electric shock that stops them in their track but that can’t affect Midoriya’s group because Dark Shadow somehow repels it.

I have mentioned how the side effects of Shōto using his ice (iceburns, frostbites or worse) start being conveniently ignored in the story from the beginning of the sport festival.

The same happens to Kaminari’s Quirk side effects, which I will also mention this time and then procede to neglect because that is what the story does.

Skipping the whole thing about 1.3 million volts that doesn’t tell us much because what is effectively dangerous is the amperage, I will compare the effect of Kaminari’s Quirk to a taser (which by the way has a maximum of 50.000 volts at the start but lowers them as it proceedes to zap people and can reach 5 milliamps but generally run lower).

The primary effect of a Taser is neuromuscular incapacitation, which involves extreme pain and involuntary muscle contractions, loss of balance and uncontrolled falls, skin trauma at the site of probe contact, including minor puncture wounds from the barbs, redness, swelling, and small burns dazed feeling, temporary tingling, and weakness in the limbs that may last for several minutes and muscle soreness similar to that experienced after strenuous exercise, which can last for a few days. In case of health problems there can be more severe consequences but all the kids at U.A. high are healthy so I will discount them.

So anyway what the people hit by Kaminari’s Quirk are suffering isn’t really fun and they should have fallen and dropped their riders (and, by the way, it was said it was forbidden to cause someone to drop his rider).

In the manga though, it only seems they got frozen on the spot before Shōto freeze their feet on the ground.

Once the others are forced to stop in their track Shōto has Yaoyorozu create a wand of some sort and hand it to him. Placing it on the ground Shōto can spread his ice through it to the ground and reach and froze his rivals (except Midoriya’s group which probably jumped since afterward Midoriya complains his backpark is starting to have troubles).

Somehow he also manages not to freeze the members of his group. I should probably praise Shōto for his unbelievably accurate ice control, as he can exercise it through a wand while moving. He also stole some headbands before moving closer to Midoriya’s group. Tokoyami tries to attack them but, while Shōto protect his own headbands, Yaoyorozu, on Shōto’s order, stops Dark Shadow, with an object created by her.

Tokoyami remembers Midoriya the true problem is Kaminari against which Dark Shadow is weak, but Midoriya still decides they will use Dark Shadow to fight because Shōto’s group doesn’t know.

The visual seems to imply that Midoriya knows Shōto could also use his left to create light but, either he is betting he won’t or has figured he won’t.

We jump forward of 6 minutes and Dark Shadow has managed to repel all the attacks even though it is implied they also used Kaminari’s Quirk and still didn’t notice it lowers Dark Shadow’s power. Anyway Midoriya’s group has managed to evade Shōto’s group attacks.

Enji, who is watching the battle, has figured that Midoriya has figured Shōto’s isn’t going to use is left and is keeping him in check, which makes of Shōto a fool.

Shōto figues that if Midoriya is keeping on his left that is because he knows if Shōto were to try to use his ice against him while he is in that position he would risk to freeze Īda.

As only 1 minute is missing before the end Īda tells them he is basically going to use an ultimate move no one knew he had, but that said move will render him useless afterward so Shōto has to absolutely use it to steal Midoriya’s headband. It works.

At this Midoriya decides to charge them because they have no more time to go after someone else and charge, Midoriya attemtping to use One for All against Shōto who, out of sense of preservation, tries to defend himself by using his left even if he said he wouldn’t do it in battle.

Translation notes:

Enji calls Shōto ‘Aho-me’ (阿呆め). 'Aho’ (阿呆/あは/アホ) is generally used with the meaning of “fool”, “simpleton”. However Enji adds to it ‘me’ (め) which adds a annoyed/frustrated tone to the word.

Shōto is angry at Midoriya and so he calls him ‘kono yarō’ (この野郎 “this guy/bastard”). As said in the past ’yarō’ (野郎) litterally means “son of the field” but unless you’re familiar with that person and in that case you can translate it as just “guy”, it comes out as rude so it’s often translated as “bastard”. Here Shōto is clearly aiming to be rude. This is made even more marked by how he places ‘kono’ (この “this”) in front of it. ‘Kono’ is used to talk about someone/something near to the speaker but also it is used to add emphasis. So yes, Shōto is definitely trying to be rude here.

Weirdness notes:

So Kaminari manages to use his attack without shocking his teammates whom he was touching but whatever, let’s assume they had insulation also where Kaminari was touching them.

For some reasons Dark Shadow apparently manages to stop Kaminari’s attack even though Dark Shadow is weak against it and... Shōto, or anyone in his group for the matter, doesn’t notice even though they were running straight toward Midoriya and will never try to use Kaminari to attack them even though it wasn’t that hard to guess that a Quirk called Dark Shadow might be affected by light.

The manga is a mess about how Shōto stole the headbands. Basically it shows Team Kendō and Team Rin having 1 headband each around their head and, apparently, none around their neck as they are zapped by Kaminari’s Quirk (nor we saw Kendō wearing headbands around the neck in the scene before this one). We'll later find out that Shōto DEFINITELY stole the headband Rin had around his head as he had the headband with 70 points... but the manga shows Kendō STILL WEARING HER HEADBAND AROUND HER HEAD despite her complaining Shōto stole their headbands.

The idea she was wearing both headbands around her head is possible, but not particularly good.

I want to remark this is a problem that the anime will notice as well so it will change things to try to fix it.

Also the fact only NOW Shōto judged having extra headbands could be useful make seem even worse how he spent the first 7 minutes doing nothing of use. Sure, it was for Doylist exigences but from a Watsonian point of view it is pretty bad.

Even if we accept that Shōto’s group didn’t know Dark Shadow was weak against Kaminari and didn’t notice it the first time Kaminari used his Quirk, it is implied Kaminari tried again to use his Quirk against Midoriya’s group only for Dark Shadow to stop it and... somehow they didn’t notice Dark Shadow was affected.

Honestly I wish Horikoshi hadn’t given this limitation to Dark Shadow since it changes nothing during the battle.

Shōto has shown an amazing control of his ice, so now it feels harder to swallow he risks of freezing Īda but whatever.

Honestly if Shōto isn’t used at using his left in battle in an emergency situation he just wouldn’t do it but try again to his his right because this is what he is used to so and his instinct would tell him to do what he knows best.

English version notes:

In the English version they had Tokoyami say he told his secret to Kuchida... but actually he told Kōda, there is not Kuchida in his class. Kuchida is another possible reading of the kanji that make Kōda’s name, however since each time there are above it hiragana telling how to read his name I don’t know how this mistake could be done.

Now, regarding the anime version...

Episode 18 - Cavalry Battle Finale (騎馬戦決着 Kibasen Ketchaku)

Added parts notes:

In addition to the usual bits that gets expanded (but not in a significant manner), the anime also adds Enji grinning when Shōto’s team steals Midoriya’s headband. I am not sure if this is good as Enji wanted Shōto to win but also wanted Shōto to be forced to use his fire and this has spared him from doing it.

Changed parts notes:

While in the manga the multiple teams seems to aim to attack both Midoriya’s team and Shōto’s team, in the anime they seem to all converge on Midoriya’s team along with Shōto’s team but be behind it. While it actually is slightly illogical they wouldn’t try to attack Shōto’s team, just Midoriya’s, but it can be explained with them haivng figured out Shōto can be a much tougher adversary than Midoriya, this allows the anime to present in a more logical way how Kaminari’s and Shōto’s attack managed to affect them and not Midoriya’s team, as they would be aimed behind them while Midoriya would be in front of them.

Kendō now has 1 headband around her head and 2 around her neck, while Rin has 1 around his head (the one with 125 points, differently from the manga where he had around his head the one with 70 points) and one around his neck. While it makes weird how Shōto didn’t steal all the headbands Kendō had around her neck, it still works much better than in the manga... pity that the anime forgot he had put the 125 headband on Rin’s head and put it on Rin’s neck when Rin realizes Shōto stole the headband he had on his head... the anime should have either left the 70 headband around his head or make him lose the one around his neck...

The anime shows better how Shōto creates his personal arena so the others can’t join his battle with Midoriya.

The anime makes clearer Midoriya’s group was flying which would have made void any attempt at freezing them as well since they weren’t touching the ground... though this doesn’t explain why Shōto didn’t try again when Midoriya’s backpack breaks.

Enji’s quote is slightly different here and makes clear he thinks Midoriya has figured Shōto won’t use his fire.

Todoroki Enji ‘Minukareten janee ka… Aho me.’ 轟炎司「見抜かれてんじゃねぇか…阿保め。」 Todoroki Enji “I guess he has seen right through you… what a complete fool.”

Enji’s expression is also different, while in the manga he was amused, here he seems angry.

Deleted parts notes:

It is not a big deal but they cut the close up of Shōto and Midoriya’s faces, probably because it was unneded since they still show them, even if not up close.