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My Hero Academia: Season 4, Episode 18 Review
This review contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Season 4, episode 18, “School Festival,” aka episode 81 overall. To refresh your memory of where we left off, check out our review of MHA Season 4, episode 17.
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Back in Season 2, My Hero Academia confidently proved it had the chops to inject new life and excitement into the tired shonen tradition of the ‘tournament arc’. The UA Sports Festival turned out to be one of the show’s highlights, and was, arguably, the arc that allowed My Hero Academia to flex its muscles and show that it is one of the best shonen anime to ever grace our screens. And now, as we enter the final stretch of Season 4, we are treated to a whole new, vibrant, and fun-filled arc: the School Festival.
This episode is split into three acts: the first is the announcement and planning of the School Festival, the second is a sweet extended scene between Midoriya, Mirio, and Eri. The third is a villain-related final act that’s too good to spoil here. Every one of these acts is tonally perfect, full of color and vibrancy, and feels custom-designed to cheer fans up. This is the kind of episode to be re-watched on a rainy Sunday afternoon, so bursting at the seams is it with cheery melodies, optimistic and enthusiastic characters, and excitement for things to come. Everything is on the up; the whole episode is about the clouds clearing and the sun coming out.
After an impactful and emotionally draining arc that ended with the most explosive conclusion we’ve seen so far in My Hero Academia, followed by two episodes that were marred with issues of theme, tone, and pacing (amongst other issues), it feels so good to have an episode not only deliver on hype, humor, and happiness, but to also do so by nailing every aspect of its execution, from its animation to its writing and voice acting.
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The music of this episode is especially outstanding, with experimental blends of guitar-led rock riffs and choir-infused classical pieces. One particular track late in the episode begins with a jaunty acoustic strum, is injected with a groovy bass line, and suddenly a flood of synths and strings enter the fray to make for one of the sweetest melodies ever heard in the show’s history. All of this stellar music doesn’t just add to the bright fun factor of the episode, but also provides some gravity to the surprising emotional range on display here.
In the most exciting moments, as members of Class 1-A throw out their ideas for the School Festival, and in the most uplifting and inspiring, like when Kyoka is encouraged to talk about and be proud of her passion for music, the accompanying tracks are always outstanding. In an episode so centered around song and dance, it only makes sense to have the music be as good as it can be, but it really is phenomenal here, and does a lot to elevate the already electric atmosphere of the episode to new heights.
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Beyond the music and the emphasis on jolly festivities, “School Festival” still manages to give us some excellent character-focused moments filled with insight, growth, and introspection, with Eri and Kyoka taking center stage. In the first act Class 1-A are given the good news by a grumpy Aizawa that they’ll be hosting the School Festival; following this comes a machine-gunning of hilarious one-liners and pitch-perfect banter, with Mineta getting satisfyingly strung up as the punchline. But the character focus comes in the form of Kyoka’s relationship with her passion for music which she convinces herself has no place at school or in the hero business. It’s touching and humanizing, made even better by a few choice moments shared between her and Kaminari that prove to be suitably brief but sweetly touching.
Having more face time with Eri is hugely appreciated as well. So much of her character until now has been defined by her relationship with Overhaul, and the impact of that relationship is both seen and felt here. The way in which the show implies her PTSD is affecting and brutal, and yet she has also been rounded out and provided solid dimension that we’re only going to see grow from here.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Wins Anime of the Year at The Anime Awards
The winners of this year’s The Anime Awards, which are presented by Crunchyroll and held at its headquarters in San Francisco, have been revealed and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba won Anime of the Year.
Demon Slayer also won Best Boy for Tanjiro Kamado and Best Fight Scene for the battle of Tanjiro & Nezuko vs Rui. Mob Psycho 100 II, which IGN awarded Best Anime Series of 2019 and Best Animation of 2019, won Best Animation and Best Opening Sequence.
KAGUYA SAMA: LOVE IS WAR won three categories – Best Ending Sequence, Best Couple, and Best Comedy. Other anime who won multiple awards included The Rising of Shield Hero and The Promised Neverland.
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See the full list of winners at the Fourth Annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards below:
- Anime of the Year – Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Best Animation – Mob Psycho 100 II
- Best Opening Sequence – Mob Psycho 100 II, ♪ 99.9 – MOB CHOIR feat. sajou no hana
- Best Ending Sequence – KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR, ♪ Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡ – Konomi Kohara
- Best Boy – Tanjiro Kamado, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Best Girl – Raphtalia, The Rising of the Shield Hero
- Best Score – Mocky, Carole & Tuesday
- Best VA Performance (JP) – Yuichi Nakamura voices Bruno Bucciarati in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
- Best VA Performance (EN) – Billy Kametz voices Naofumi in The Rising of the Shield Hero
- Best Director – Tetsuro Araki, Chief Director and Masashi Koizuka, Director – Attack on Titan Season 3
- Best Best Character Design – Satoshi Iwataki, Original Character Design by Hiroyuki Asada, Dororo
- Best Protagonist – Senku, Dr. STONE
- Best Antagonist – Isabella, The Promised Neverland
- Best Fight Scene – Tanjiro & Nezuko vs. Rui, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
- Best Couple – Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane, KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR
- Best Drama – Vinland Saga, WIT STUDIO
- Best Fantasy – The Promised Neverland, CloverWorks
- Best Comedy – KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR, A-1 Pictures
Additionally, George Wada, president of Wit Studio, was celebrated as the Industry Icon of this year’s Anime Awards. Wada oversees such series as Attack on Titan, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, and Vinland Saga.
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The results for this year’s Anime Awards were based on over 11 million votes cast by fans from around the world. This is a huge increase over 2019’s 5 million votes. The top five countries that voted this year were the United States, Brazil, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
Alongside all the award announcements, Crunchyroll revealed that four new titles would be coming to its platform, including The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me? (April 2020), My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (April 2020), The Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 2 (Fall 2020), and So I’m a Spider, So What? (2020).
For more on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, check out our op-ed on why we think it earned the right to be called one of the best new anime of 2019.
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Disclosure: IGN’s Miranda Sanchez was a presenter at Crunchyroll’s Fourth Annual Anime Awards.
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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Every Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2020 Winner, Including Anime Of The Year
Crunchyroll has now announced all the winners of the Anime Awards 2020. This year’s show saw 19 awards given out and, much like last year, it was a pretty even spread of winners across all the categories.
Both Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Kaguya-Sama: Love is War tied for the most awards–both won three categories each. Demon Slayer came out on top in the spot that matters most though, winning Anime of the Year. The Shonen series also won Best Boy (Tanjiro Kamado) and Best Fight Scene (Tanjiro & Nezuko vs. Rui). Love is War, on the other hand, went home with Best Ending Sequence (“♪ Chikatto Chika Chikaa♡” performed by Konomi Kohara), Best Couple (Kaguya Shinomiya & Miyuki Shirogane), and Best Comedy.
Though a vast majority of the categories went to shows that you can watch on Crunchyroll, a few exclusives from other streaming services managed to secure awards as well. Netflix’s Carole & Tuesday won Best Score (composed by Mocky), for example. Amazon Prime Video’s Dororo won Best Character Design, and the streaming service’s acclaimed historical fiction series Vinland Saga won Best Drama.