Pop☆Step Gets her Big Break!

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Ep 10

Plenty of people want to be famous for something, but few ever do. They might not have the talent they need to stand out, or they don’t get the right chances to stand out.  Pop☆Step has had plenty of chances to stand out and she has the talent, but she can’t keep doing street performances forever. So when an opportunity to build her reputation comes her way, she’s facing her biggest hurdle yet: her own insecurities.

Knuckleduster Has a Soft Side

This episode of Vigilantes doesn’t focus on one plot, but two, each one taking up half of the episode as a whole. And both plots are focused on the other two members of the Naruhata Vigilantes, Knuckleduster and Pop☆Step. In the first half of the episode, Knuckle, through the now-reformed Soga, is continuing his search for Kuin Hachisuka, AKA Queen Bee, AKA the girl with the bee quirk. His search almost gets him killed, though, when a student under her control sics her bees on him. It’s a moment made scarier considering how the bees come out from underneath the girl’s skirt. The implications of where they were hiding are very unsettling!

Knuckleduster is Closing in on Queen Bee

The experience isn’t a total loss, though. Knuckleduster is able to use the information to help his investigation of Hachisuka, who he’s shown to be very focused on tracking down. At the same time, though, we see that there is a softer side to him: he has a wife. She’s in the hospital and left in a catatonic state, courtesy of Queen Bee, but he’s still there for her. Showing that he’s caring enough to have a wife demonstrates that he is, in fact, more than the trigger-happy vigilante he tends to be. He’s like a version of Batman that’s fallen on hard times, but strives to keep doing the right thing.

As if to emphasize that point further, we get a scene of him training, and it feels like it was taken straight from Batman’s own training montage from Batman vs. Superman. Say what you want about that film, but that moment showed why Batman is the peak of human physical strength. Unfortunately, we don’t see his confrontation with Queen Bee until the next episode.

The real focus, though, is on Pop☆Step, who might be getting her big break.

Pop☆Step Gets her Big Break

During Captain Celebrity’s fight with that Kaiju-sized villain, several buildings in Naruhata got damaged. One of them, the Marukane Department Store, is undergoing renovations before reopening, and theyre promoting it by hiring new talent to perform. And Pop☆Step has been invited to do just that.

Despite how used Pop☆Step is to performing in front of crowds, this marks the first time she’ll be performing in front of a large group. In addition, she’ll be performing alongside other people. With how insecure she is, this is her toughest battle yet. And since Koichi is lacking in the ability to provide emotional support, he calls in someone who can actually help her: Makoto!

After the incident with the cat bus exposed Koichi’s secret identity to her, it didn’t take long for Makoto to figure out that Kazuho is Pop☆Step. Despite her jealousy over seeing the older woman as competition for Koichi, though, Pop☆Step can’t afford to let this help go to waste. And not only is Makoto a good choice due to her organizational skills, she also agrees to keep Kazuho’s vigilantism a secret. Pop may not like Makoto, but there can be no denying that she’s trustworthy.

Go, Pop☆Step!

So, thanks to Makoto, Pop☆Step is able to move forward with participating in the upcoming Narufest. She’ll go out there and sing the Marukane Department Store’s theme song alongside some other artists, and Makoto even got Captain Celebrity to make an appearance. All told, this looks like it could be Pop’s big break!

Assuming that the Bee Girl doesn’t show up to wreck everything. Which we know she will try to do!

This was a quiet episode overall, but not every episode needs to be a banger. Pop☆Step, knock them dead!

I Give “Event Announcement”

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