"Class 1-A" is the 17th episode of My Hero Academia's third season, and the 55th episode overall.
Todoroki's battle against a group of Ninjas continues. He sees himself outmatched when they have a countermeasures for his attacks. After creating a smoke curtain, he is able to lure them into an explosion and quickly finish them.
Separated from Class 1-A, Yaoyorozu leads Jiro, Tsuyu and Shoji to an observation point in the urban part of the field. They're found by a student from Seiai named Saiko Intelli, who uses her Super-Intelligence Quirk to hatch a plan to take them down. She incapacitates Jiro by playing sudden loud music while Jiro is scoping out the building. A girl using a slingshot Quirk renders the windows invisible and injures Jiro's ear, eliminating Shoji's vision and forcing them to seek cover. Another girl with ice powers uses the vents to lower the room temperature, incapacitating Tsuyu, whose frog attributes force her to hibernate.
Yaoyorozu realizes that their enemy wants her to overuse her quirk to stop the vents. Remembering Midoriya's drive to save everyone around him, Yaoyorozu decides on an offensive plan instead of a defensive one. She creates a huge soundbox and sound cancelers for everyone. Jiro is able to use a supersonic attack that incapacitates most of the other students, allowing them to break out of the room. A weakened Yaoyorozu is soon thrown back and isolated by a vengeful Intelli, who wants to eliminate her, even for sheer pettiness, but Shoji, Jiro and Tsuyu break back in and save Yaoyorozu, forcing Intelli to surrender.
Bakugo, annoyed and accompanied by Kirishima and Kaminari, meets Shishikura, a Shiketsu student who turns Kirishima into a blob and wants to eliminate them for the sake of his beliefs.
Isolated and hunted, Midoriya formulates a plan to get himself, Uraraka and Sero into the next exam by utilizing Uraraka and Sero's quirk to incapacitate their enemies.
Ms. Joke talks with Aizawa about whether he is afraid for his class, but he says that no, seeing how Midoriya and Bakugo have infected the rest of their class with their passion and drive.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The manga doesn't go into much detail as to how Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Shoji, Tsuyu, and Jiro passed the first stage of the exam. That's the focus of this episode.
- Batman Gambit: Intelli's three step plan is focused on creating a situation where Yaoyorozu will have to save her group by over-utilizing her quirk, and then be unable to use it later, when they attack. Subverted when Yaoyorozu realizes this, utilizing her quirk to attack rather than defend.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Shoji, and Asui, who get a filler clash that's not in the manga.
- Did Not See That Coming: Shoji, Jiro, Yaoyorozu and Asui prioritize saving each other over passing the test by themselves. Intelli's plan accounted for the opposite. When she tries to off an isolated Yaoyorozu, she is quickly defeated because her team goes after her before trying to get themselves to pass.
- Evil Counterpart: Saiko Intelli to Yaoyorozu. Both are strategist type high class girls, but Intelli is a much more ruthless enemy. While isolated, the game becomes a battle of wits between Yaoyorozu and Intelli and Intelli loses because she prioritizes winning over her team, while Yaoyorozu does the opposite.
- Filler: The battle between Yaoyorozu's group and Intelli's groups never happened in the manga. Similarly, Todoroki's battle against the ninjas.
- No Sympathy: Subverted. Some have taken the exam more than once or late in the game, and this is likely their last chance to pass. When one of them begs to be given a break, Midoriya understands their situation all too well. Regardless, he and his friends eliminate them anyway, since they have dreams of being heroes too, and were given an early chance at taking the exam.
- Out-Gambitted: Intelli makes an entire plan to weaken all members of Yaoyorozu's team before she attacks, especially Yaoyorozu herself. When Yaoyorozu realizes this, she decides to attack rather than defend and is able to counter Intelli's plan.
- The Power of Friendship: Intelli not accounting for how much the U.A. students value each other as friends and teammates is what causes her downfall.
- The Paragon: Midoriya and Bakugo are acknowledged by Aizawa as people that push Class 1-A forward. During her fight against Intelli, Yaoyorozu realizes that her priority shouldn't be to get out, but to save her peers when she remembers Midoriya's words. Shoji is also moved by Midoriya's tendency to save as many as he can.
- Title Drop: Done at the end of the episode, by Aizawa while talking with Ms.Joke.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Yaoyorozu, in order to create headphones, opens her outfit and all but flashes Shoji, who, embarrassed, turns back while Jiro tries to stop him from looking.
- What Would X Do?: Yaoyorozu internally asks herself what Todoroki, Iida, or Midoriya would do in her situation.
