"School Festival Start!!" is the 22nd episode of My Hero Academia's fourth season and the 85th episode overall.
Midoriya's battle with Gentle continues as the hour gets closer and closer to 1-A's performance. Midoriya proves to be a match for Gentle until La Brava uses her Quirk, "Love", to give him a temporary boost of strength. As Midoriya tries to subdue him, both Gentle and La Brava's pasts are revealed — he turned to villainy after failing at being a hero and being unrecognized by a former classmate; she became his sidekick after being rejected by a boy in middle school and chancing upon one of Gentle's videos.
Eventually, Midoriya is able to beat Gentle. La Brava's last-ditch attempt to hack into U.A.'s security system is thwarted when Hound Dog and Ectoplasm find them. Gentle downplays La Brava's involvement so she can escape as he turns himself in.
Tropes in this episode:
- Abusive Parents: Oh man, Danjuro has a past about his parents weren't very supportive, but instead, they've become Parents as People and Sore Losers when he was an idealistic young man who dreamed of becoming a famous hero. He is with his mother (who's still crying) in the principal's office of his high school. The principal urged Danjuro to drop out of his endeavor since he couldn't make the grade and he kept failing the provisional license exams no matter how hard he tried. Despite his harsh words, Danjuro told his mom that he will continue to work for his dream of becoming a hero no matter what. As he prepared to leave, he saw his classmate Takeshita, who already has his license with many Hero agencies asking for him. One day, while he was enjoying a cup of tea in a coffeehouse, he heard screams for help. Upon reaching the place where the screaming came from, he saw a man falling from a window cleaning rig. He went to save the man and used his Quirk to create an air trampoline to save him. Unfortunately, the trampoline got in the way of a pro hero who was already on the scene. As a result, the victim hit the ground and needed six months to recover. The police give Gentle a strike for obstructing justice. His parents ended up deep in debt paying reparations to the victim and fines for hindering a hero and unlicensed use of a Quirk. During this time, he was finally expelled from school, which caused his parents to disown him and violently throw him out of the house, and also, Danjuro doesn't deserve to have the worst day of his life.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the manga Ectoplasm and Hound Dog are informed of Gentle and La Brava intruding on U.A. grounds. In the anime this scene is cut, so it almost looks like they stumbled on the fight.
- Flashback: Showing Gentle's Start of Darkness and how La Brava wound up with him.
- The Gloves Come Off: Gentle, recognizing how strong and determined Midoriya is, decides that he needs to throw away his gentlemenly way of fighting and, after being empowered by La Brava's "Love", proceeds to beat on Midoriya with the intent on knocking him out.
- Godzilla Threshold: La Brava's Quirk "Love" can only be used once a day to temporarily boost Gentle's strength. As such she and Gentle usually wait until they need a getaway and use her Quirk for a power boost to escape. However recognizing how strong Midoriya is Gentle and La Brava have no choice but to use her Quirk to amplify his power to take him down.
- Power Glows: La Brava's Hour of Power is visually signified by Gentle glowing pink.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Danjuro's parents, the assholes who kicked him out of the house, which gave that poor Tragic Villain a miserable life, after a few years, Danjuro went to his house and picks up a book about the history of supervillains, setting him on that dark path. If he could never become a famous hero, then he would make a name for himself as a villain.
- Start of Darkness: Both Gentle and Pa Brava's villain origins are explored here.
