Izuku’s fear and trepidation towards the task ahead of him and that plays a whole lot better than if he were heading into this thing with a cocky disposition. The requirements behind the entrance exam are pretty creative and thankfully it’s not just people sitting at a desk answering multiple-choice questions for half the episode. Basically there’s a testing ground that’s been split up into separate areas, each of which have their own big villains to take down, as well as smaller obstacles that are peppered throughout the grounds, too.

Competitors get points based on the difficulty of the villains that they take down and the circumstances behind it. It’s a good excuse to throw a bunch of amateurs into the fray and see what happens. The results here are a lot of fun although it’s the smallest bummer that the opponents here are all robots. It makes sense from a story perspective, but mechanical punching bags have become fairly common as training tools. At least these three behemoths have a bit of personality behind them even if they don’t amount to be much of an overall challenge here.

A handful more of characters are introduced to the audience, but it’sUraraka and Iida that get the most attention. It looks like they’ll continue to see more development as the season goes on and that they’ll probably become part of Izuku’s core group of crime-fighting friends. Uraraka has control over gravity and telekinesis like skills whereas Iida has super speed thanks to jet engines that are in his calves. Those powers certainly compliment Izuku’s brute strength—that is if he’s able to activate it.

Izuku very quickly finds himself in trouble once the games begin, but thankfully “Laser Belt” saves Izuku in a pinch. Izuku gets rescued in a very flashy way, but it doesn’t save him from the fact that he freezes up in the battlefield. He stays alive, but he fails to take down any robots and this is a competition that’s about a high score, not survival tactics. Meanwhile, Uraraka, Iida, and plenty of other classmates are racking up impressive scores and showing these robots who’s in charge. Uraraka’s anti-gravity powers are especially awesome here and she takes down dozens of robots at once whereas Izuku just cowers in disbelief.

“Straight Line” makes it interesting to see the various strategies that these fighters put to practice, whether it’s speed, strength, or skills that cater to reconnaissance. The instructors don’t intend to make this challenge easy and once most of the competitors get their lay of the land, they throw new massive challenges at everyone that trulytest everyone’s merits and determine who the real heroes are. A lot of the crowd balks at the challenge and even though Izuku still has a pitiful score of zero, he stays behind in order to save Uraraka.