Review: My Hero Academia Ep. 34 – Gear Up For The Final Exams

It’s cram time for Class 1-A as they study for their written exams and prepare for their practical exam, U.A. style.

This episode is what I would classify as a preparatory episode before diving in the meat of a new arc, similar to “That’s the Idea, Ochako” and “Time to Pick Some Names” were. This time it is preparing for the Final Exam Arc… Trust me, it may sound boring but remember U.A. is not your average high school. Sure, there are written exams these students have to do, but the hero course has a practical exam that involves fighting with their quirks which your everyday high school does not do.

The first two thirds of the episode are dedicated to class rankings and cramming written exams, much like I am currently doing with episode reviews right now. There are cute scenes with Yaoyorozu, who is the top of the class, getting all excited about conducting a study session at her house in order help her fellow classmates. And there are also hilarious interactions with Bakugo, who ranked 3rd, giving Kirishima the option to be tutored by him in his own unique and expressive way… By that I mean pounding the material into his skull.

But the momentum really gets rolling in the last third of the episode after the students finish their written exams. It revealed to the students that they will not be fighting robots for their practical exam, but instead they will be fighting the pro hero teachers of U.A. The teachers will have cuffs with compressed weights which constitute half their body weight in order to limit their movement giving their students more of a chance to succeed at either capturing them or escaping from them. Two students will square off against a teacher and the biggest reveal is Midoriya and Bakugo’s match up with All Might himself.

The first match we see is with Eijiro Kirishima and Rikido Sato against Cemetoss, and to make a long story short they don’t pass. This gives audience the sense that this exam will not be easy and thus make any students who do pass a true sense of accomplishment, which I will address in the upcoming reviews. Overall good intro to the Final Exam Arc and there will be interesting fights to come.

Rating: