Hey there, Split Screen fans! Thanks for tuning in to this particularly episodic episode! This time, we’ve got the calm before the storm on Coffee Prince, and we’ve got break dance and Youtube and class shenanigans galore on My Hero Academia. Bust out your best move and let’s get groovy!
(New to Split Screen? Queue up the complete series here!)
Coffee Prince Thirteenth Cup (from minute 30)
M: There’s got to be drama brewing, because this was a low-key episode of Coffee Prince.
E: A lot of resolution going on. Han-gyul gives his dad a handshake, Han-sung and Yoo-joo are seemingly back together.
M: I don’t trust that. Maybe their reunion was supposed to be the big event of this half of the episode, but I’m so detached from their relationship that it didn’t really impact me.
E: Yeah, I really got no interest in that part of the story, which is unfortunate. I wish I cared.
M: I want her to unleash her jealous fury at this dinner party.
E: I don’t really want that, to be honest.
M: I know you don’t, because the second-hand embarrassment would be too much to bear, but Yoo-joo deserves some vengeance.
E: It’s more that it’s been nice not to have any duplicitous, underhanded romantic rivals in this series. I’ve appreciated it after Boys Over Flowers.
M: I’m thinking about Jun-pyo’s fiancee again. Another female character who got the short end of the stick. The writers seem to think that I’ve been waiting for Yoo-joo to apologize for leaving, because she apologized a lot. But…Han-sung should be apologizing.
E: They both made some points when they broke up, but honestly, I’m just not invested in who apologizes. I am jealous of their nice little set up with their hot pot by the window with the rain. That’s ideal living. That’s what I want.
M: Would you be allowed to have a hot pot?
E: I would have check to my lease. I don’t think so?
God, honestly? Han-sung’s house is like my dream house tbh
M: There’s probably electric ones.
E: Yeah, I think it’s the open flame, not the hot pot itself.
M: Everyone on this show has floor to ceiling windows, even Eun-chan and her dirt-poor family.
E: Oh, to have a window I felt comfortable opening.
M: You can open ours, but only if you want to hear more of the tap-dancer who hangs out in the square.
E: I meant mostly just raising my blinds, but yeah, opening it would be nice too.
M: Other than the possibly ticking time-bomb of Han-sung and Yoo-joo, this was a pretty chill episode. Han-gyul has really emotionally matured to age-appropriate levels basically overnight.
E: I appreciated their very calm and rational conversation about long-distance and her not moving to America with him.
M: I know, they seem like a very healthy and, at least now, communicative couple. The chemistry isn’t really there for me though. They do seem more like bros than babies.
E: It’s the new awkward phase of the relationship.
M: The brobaby phase, if you will. I’ll try that one on CBB later.
E: The transitory brobaby phase.
M: Is that when the relationship is walking but before it discovers keg stands?
E: Exactly.
M: An important time in any relationship.
The rare brobaby often plays with Legos
E: But it seems like any conflict for their long-distance will come from their families rather than front each other, which I think is a refreshing change of pace. You still get the drama, but it’s externally produced instead of internally produced.
M: We’ll see, I think we’ll get another screaming fight yet.
E: I think his grandma’s gonna die. Soon.
M: Will that be the reason he doesn’t ultimately go to America? Surely he will go, right? The show is not seriously going to keep him from his Lego dreams?
E: I need him to become the star Lego designer. I need that right now.
M: Maybe he’ll do the same work at a Korean start-up. I could see that being the resolution. He starts his own company.
E: Ah, using his masterful business acumen from Coffee Prince. I see.
M: Imagine, the final shots of the episode are him unveiling the Lego Coffee Prince he’s designed for the boys.
E: I was gonna say, it’s a whole new branch of Coffee Prince made of Lego.
M: A Lego cafe. That…would be a good business.
E: I’m sure there is a Lego cafe. But not one with cute boys.
M: Searching “Lego cafe” brings up Lego sets, not coffeehouses where you play with Legos.
E: Still, I’m sure it exists. Some posh Lego store somewhere. There are certainly cafes at Legoland.
M: I know, but I want this to be like a dog cafe or a maid cafe. A Lego cafe. It can still be a host cafe too.
E: So the waiters are dressed up like Lego figures. I don’t love that actually, let’s back up.
M: That wasn’t the original idea, but I think they should do that on special nights of the week.
E: Man, what else was there this episode, it felt short? Oh, there was the cute Coffee Prince shenanigans. And the not-so-cute ones.
Harassment through pampering
M: Ha-rim! You need to stop!
E: I appreciated Han-gyul listening in and slowly getting more and more concerned.
M: Something about the way he was squeezing the sponge too…Ha-rim is a dangerous man.
E: But now she gets her own personal entourage.
M: Finally, the reverse harem show Coffee Prince was always meant to be. Male chivalry at its finest!
E: You’ve got to tell Clickbait Boyfriend to practice his male chivalry.
M: He does the dishes. He doesn’t make me clean the upstairs bathroom, even though we don’t have one.
E: Does he carry your personal umbrella though to shade your skin from the sun? I didn’t think so.
M: You’re right, he doesn’t.
E: Next time, Yoo-joo has a fake baby. That’s all I got from the next on.
M: Eun-chan was testing out a dress. Maybe we’ll get another Cinderella moment from her.
E: I wonder if she’s trying on stuff to re-meet his family. That’s an awkward conversation.
M: That it is. I’m sure his real dad would like her. Too bad he’s flying to Nigeria or wherever.
E: I like that they just said he disappeared in Australia for a while. I don’t why that was specifically funny to me, but I just imagine him, like, hanging out with koalas or something.
Say hi to the koalas, Dad
M: Speaking of Australia, remember when Han-gyul and Eun-chan were like “We won’t see each other in-person for six months? Impossible!”
E: Remember when Han-gyul was saying they would fly every week? Having flown to Japan (which is in the general area), that would be awful. That would make me break up with someone.
M: What if they were the one doing it though? Eventually it seemed like he was just going to fly back and forth.
E: Still, that is a lot of flying. A lot of sweaty compression socks.
M: No one got a blood clot on our trip, okay? I was right.
E: They were very uncomfortable by the end of that flight. I’m sure that’s because they were working, but still.
M: Han-gyul would fly super-duper first class, and they probably have luxury compression socks.
E: Why was your thing “speaking of Australia” by the way?
M: I was thinking of the quarantine restrictions there. Kind of a free-association.
E: Fair enough.
M: Okay, for Romance Tracker this time: who do you think will end up in America? Who will have a baby by the end? Will Min-yup get back with (honestly kind of jerkish right now) Eun-sae?
E: Yes. To all of the above.
M: Go on.
E: Just yes. Yes!
M: I don’t know if anyone ends up in America. Maybe Sun-ki moves to America with his baby.
E: Oh man! What’s up with Sun-ki’s kid! When will we find out!
M: Probably never.
E: Was it last time he went to their house for like thirty seconds
M: I think so, yeah. And then, no follow-up.
E: What a weird plot line! What weird pacing!
M: Remember when Mr. Hong was just drinking from a milk carton in the middle of the store?
E: I appreciate the commitment to background details like that. Blink and you miss it comedy.
M: That’s how I’d describe this show, alright.
E: Anything else this episode?
M: They don’t do much work, do they?
E: Their shenanigans are part of the appeal. It’s like coffee and a show.
My Hero Academia S4E18: “School Festival”
M: That’s as a good transition as any to this absolute banger of an episode.
E: We got dancing, we got more dancing, we got Todoroki not knowing what a concert is but thinking it looks fun, and we got ourselves a YouTuber.
M: Let’s start at the top. Three act structure this time. Three acts from different plays, but still, three acts. Act One stars Mina Ashido: Breaker Style
E: She has mastered it, but her students are struggling.
M: Apparently Twinkle Tummy eventually got it.
E: It’s about practice and patience. Or just about the “that’s rad” moment. Does Majima also say “that’s rad?”
M: No, the equivalent screenshot for Majima is “holy shit!”
E: That’s fine, that’s equivalent.
M: Mina is going to be the number one hero.
E: I mean, it’s partly down to popularity. Break dancing is an appealing character trait.
M: I can’t believe they just opened the episode with that
E: Well, it was to introduce the idea of hobbies, right? So then we could turn our focus to Jiro and her music.
Ya-hoo indeed
M: I guess so, but what a bold choice. We could have just watched Sato’s baking Youtube.
E: We did see Mina dancing in Kirishima’s flashback from like ten episodes ago.
M: I guess you’re right, but the whole point was that it was something that was going to help her as a hero. Who wouldn’t be helped by Breaker Style?
E: At least as a distraction technique. Iida breaking out his best dance moves.
M: Give me Iida doing that “YAA-HOO!” please.
E: We’ll see how Editor Emma is feeling this week.
M: Don’t worry, I’ve got you:
E: Anyway, we quickly turn to what seems to be the focus for this arc: the titular school festival.
M: Bakugo sleeps through the meeting, again. Todoroki is there this time though.
E: Listen, he threw down his idea of battle to the death and it was harshly rejected.
M: A hero coliseum would have been dope. Betting? Come on.
E: Fun for the business students for sure.
M: RIP…what was Tokoyami’s?
E: A banquet of darkness.
M: I hope Tokoyami has played Kingdom Hearts. I think he’d like it. He might root for the wrong people.
E: Todoroki also gives everyone the wrong idea about what they’ve been doing in their supplementary classes.
M: Who allowed this?
E: They’re learning breaker style. All heroes must be masters. The necklaces are really powerful.
M:
E: Oho, see we need to combine some ideas. Not a battle to the death. A dance battle to the death.
M: If only the kids were more creative. Koda can bring a chicken to manage the event. Anyway, the real question is: what are Todoroki’s recommended videos? Computer, enhance.
E: There was definitely some All Might videos, something that looked like the sports festival, a news report, and apparently next up was a criminal YouTube.
M: All of Youtube is criminal.
E: A particularly criminal YouTube. Best Jeanist fashion!
M: Did Best Jeanist survive?
E: Yeah.
M: Dang.
E: Went from ripped jeans to sewn up jeans.
M: Right, I remember now. Yeah, this criminal Youtuber doesn’t seem very threatening yet.
E: He’s very busy pouring tea at the top of a windy building with his Mineta-syndrome-cursed associate.
M: I wonder if they’re cousins. Similar facial structure.
E: But yet, Gentle Criminal is not super threatening at the moment, but I do appreciate the concept and execution here. His endcard? Very good.
Look at those dynamic poses
M: The man wants to make it big. He’s not doing this for fun. This is his job. Please subscribe.
E: Woof. As the detectives say.
M: I can’t handle the police chief. Every time I see him, I think of Todoroki calling him a mutt.
E: Todoroki has grown since then. He knows what a concert is now.
M: If we can forgive young Todoroki (I sound like All Might) for his use of the m-word, we can forgive a li’l abuse from old Todoroki.
E: I do think about small little Todoroki watching concert videos with his soba being like “oh it looks like everybody’s having fun.”
M: I love that Mineta immediately jumped to “Todoroki is a secret raver.”
E: It’s his hair. It’s too wild not to be a raver.
M: Meanwhile, while the kids are having good wholesome fun and bullying Jiro into starting a band, Eri has forgotten how to smile.
E: It’s a little heavy-handed, but I appreciate that the narrative recognizes that she’s not just automatically okay because they took her away from Overhaul.
M: Right. On the other hand, why hasn’t Aizawa adopted her?
E: Well, she’s still in the hospital. So, probably not a chance yet.
Someone get Aizawa some paperwork stat
M: I’m wondering if that’s what he was going to say before the boys were like “Festival? Festival!”
E: Maybe. We’ll never ever know.
M: Mirio needs to not call it a date.
E: I don’t know, I don’t think that’s that weird.
M: Mirio just needs to talk less in general, to be honest.
E: Very rude. You didn’t appreciate his smooth recovery on the apple front?
M: You know, I did.
E: Lawsuit watch? Not much in either show, to be honest.
M: Yeah, pretty clean.
E: Some rather normal levels of lawsuit-ness.
M: Iida didn’t run what seemed to be a particularly fair election. Could probably file some lawsuits. I’d like to recount the vote for Banquet of Darkness.
E: They didn’t even let them vote on that, they just crossed it off.
M: Hopefully by the time you post this, that will be funny and not frightening.
E: Yup. (EDITOR EMMA: ….mostly funny now, maybe)
M: Okay, it’s time to predict!
E: Wait, caffeine watch? Low on lawsuits, but high on caffeine.
Some nice tea
M: Gotta be My Hero. Mina is pure energy drink. Mina is Staminan X. Mina is Staminan Royale.
E: Fair. Alright, ready now for the next episode title?
M: Heck yeah!
E: Season 4, Episode 19 is called “Prepping for the School Festival is the Funnest Part”
M: Prediction One: It’s just a twenty-one minute Youtube dance tutorial led by Mina Ashido
E:
M: My own work, turned against me!
E: Next one, I’m ready now!
M: Are they all just going to be Mina as Yakuza characters? Anyway, prediction two: I guess it’s band practice time. I was hoping the intro wasn’t going to be quite so literal, but here we are.
E: 
Who’s in the band? No cheating!
M: Okay, so trying to remember from the credits. Jiro, obviously, is the Retsuko-style front-woman. I know that Kaminari is going to be electric guitar, duh. Mina needs to be the idol dancer. There were five, I dunno. Shoji on drums. Or maybe keyboard. Either way, he’d be good.
E: Alright that doesn’t count as a predication, I was just curious.
M: Fair enough. Prediction three: Aizawa regrets letting them start a band, because as the RA, he has to listen to practice all the freaking time and he gets no sleep.
E: 
M: Prediction four: All Might has a story about how he was once in a band.
E: 
M: Prediction five! Prediction five! Present Mic LOVES THIS.
E: 
–
Thanks for watching along on Split Screen. We checked out the My Hero Academia dub on Funimation and Coffee Prince on Viki. Which I don’t have access to anymore, hence the messy screenshots. We’ll work it out!
Next time! What will this YouTuber do next? Will he destroy a Lego Cafe? Only one way to find out!