Split Screen: Fight On, Couples!

Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! It’s your intro host Madelyn, settling in to the Off-Topic Corner with a blanket to hide from the December chill! We left things on both of our shows dangling by a life-or-death thread. Will Haje hurt Jan-di to hurt Jun-pyo? Did Todoroki kill Deku? Will I survive these levels of suspense? All of these questions answered in this week’s blog!

(New to Split Screen? You’ve been missing out! Catch out on every crazy blog post here.)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 12 (up to minute 33)

M: Finally, things are back to normal on Boys Over Flowers.

E: I’m not complaining exactly, but I feel like the whole Haje thing was resolved kinda quickly and then they were skiing.

M: It was all contained in a single episode! It’s easy to lose that perspective on our watch schedule, but that was one episode. One and a quarter.

E: Not even a quarter. One and a sixth.

M: What a sixth though! That was some brutal stuff.

E: It was very brutal until they did the close up on Jun-pyo and he had strawberry jelly on his face.

M: Is it worse than the color wheel of purple that they use for Deku’s broken fingers?

E: Yes. I’m okay with blood. I’m glad they don’t show bone fragments breaking through Deku’s skin. There’s the line with me. As soon as bones get out of the body, I’m out of there.

M: It isn’t less realistic than that.

E: Except, you know, one’s live action.

M: We’ll compare when the movie comes out. More importantly, I was right about the brother.

E: I caught on to Haje being supes sus earlier on though.

M: Credit where credit is due. How about that heroic turn from Jun-pyo?

E: What about Jan-di awakening to her Quirk of being able to phase ropes through chairs? (EDITOR EMMA: Upon taking screenshots for the blog, I noticed that Jan-di is, in fact, not tied to the chair. This raises different questions though).

M: It seemed like Haje grabbed her chair?

E: No, he grabbed the chair he was sitting on.

M: She had a burst of adrenaline.

E: That was an intense sequence though, complete with master martial arts from F3, so I’m willing to forgive it

M: Featuring the greatest entrance on the series to date from Woo-bin.

E: Woo-bin continuing to take baby steps towards being an entity on this show.

M: He had an opinion about the necklace too, later on. Two moments in a single half an episode. That’s huge.

E: We also got a whole bunch of Mama Ji-hoo going around, who is the best mom on this show, probably.

M: He’s reached his final form. Tons of good moments for him this time. The martial arts, AKA his Molly Weasley “not my daughter, you bitch” moment. The pancakes bit, which was a deep cut. He wanted to learn how to pancakes in the first episode.

E: He also left that elaborate fruit basket or whatever for Jan-di and set her up for a awkward meeting with Jun-pyo during the skiing.

M: And stayed inside, reading a book and drinking tea, while keeping an eye on his winter sports brood.

E: Jan-di’s mom did pretty good this episode, although, as you said, I don’t know why she would go to Jun-pyo’s mom first as opposed to Jun-pyo himself.

M: She wouldn’t know Jun-pyo and Jan-di were on the outs.

E: No, everything seemingly took place over the course of like 72 hours? And they thought she was out with F4.

M: My real concern is why Jan-di couldn’t swallow even a little of her pride to ask one of her many rich friends for a very small handout. Even if her dad has pretty significant gambling debt, as you reminded me, even if it was huge sum for her family, it would be like a drop in the bucket for F4. Even for Woo-bin!

E: Woo-bin apparently doesn’t even have a life outside of F4, so what does he need the money for? Nothing. Give it to Jan-di.

M: Doesn’t he have law enforcement connections? Can’t he make her debt disappear?

E: You’d think so. But apparently not. Ga-eul just needs to go behind Jan-di’s back on this, imo.

M: I don’t think Jan-di realized that her mom was going to talk to Mama Jun-pyo, so what did she think the solution was? Putting Dad’s organs up for auction?

E: I don’t think they indicated that anyone had come up with a solution in that first scene where she comes home and they’re crying. And then, by the time she gets back, her dad is back.

M: It just seems weird that they wouldn’t figure out some plan of attack that first night.

E: The Geums are not the most coordinated of families.

M: I guess, but Jan-di just came home from her sort-of boyfriend trying to sacrifice his life for her. She can’t ask him for a couple thousand dollars?

E: Apparently not. I think we’ve covered this point.

M: Fair enough. I was glad to see Jan-di and Jun-pyo back to bickering.

E: Yes, the scene in the hospital was very cute as was the scene where he gave her the necklace that she will inevitably lose. He shouldn’t even be surprised when she loses it.

M: I was relieved that it was one-of-a-kind because he designed it, not because it was an heirloom or historical piece.

E: Even if his design was just a little stupid.

M: I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that the translation is not capturing the poetic nuance here.

E: Fair, because all I got was some nonsense about moons and stars.

M: Still, as we said last time, absolutely foolish to give her a special gift. So dumb. F3 agrees.

E: They are very sassy.

M: Will he propose for real by the end?

E: Maybe something for the last episode?

M: Which reminds me: how old is Jan-di?

E: I don’t know. I was under the impression that she was younger than F4, but her father says she’s 19, but maybe he’s rounding up? Still though, if she was younger and also 18, then….maybe she’s old for her grade?

M: Here’s my very rough rationalization: he said he’d been her father for 19 years. I’m going to go ahead and assume that Korea is like some other Asian countries and that age is one year greater than we would count it, and then, let’s say he’s including the pregnancy. So she’s like 17ish, and they’re all going into senior year. (Editor Madelyn’s note: I’m actually pretty close to correct about here. If you’re interested on how they count age in Korea, here’s a good primer: https://www.koreanclass101.com/korean-age/)

E: I really thought she was a grade below, because she calls them sunbae.

M: I hadn’t thought of that. Huh.

E: That’s a funny word in English.

M: Probably better not to dwell on their ages too much.

E: Fair enough. Did we miss any events from this episode? Beyond the skiing montage which we briefly mentioned.

M: BANG BANG BOOM.

E: We only got to see Ga-eul near the very end of the half-episode, which was not enough time

M: A few other key images that I want to relive: Jan-di’s mom bringing a giant container of salt to pour on herself. That was nothing short of brilliant.

E: That definitely messed up whatever fancy rug was in that room.

M: It’s not like Shinhwa can’t afford a new one. And finally, my favorite moment because it felt like a blooper: Jun-pyo sneezing as he goes in for the kiss.

E: That legit took me off guard. I was like oh man, another awkward kiss, but no, it was set up for the sneeze punchline.

M: It was iconic.

E: Romantic predictions?

M: I can’t believe they’re going to have another fight over another lost piece of jewelry when this episode began with Jun-pyo ready to die for her, and only fifteen minutes after Jan-di gave a empowering incredible speech about their love to his mom.

E: Seriously. Ji-hoo just has to tell him about how Jan-di literally leaves everything everywhere she goes. He literally has a stash of her stuff at this point.

M: How will she lose it this time? On the slopes?

E: I mean, definitely skiing. Don’t wear necklaces skiing, by the way. But that’s where she’ll lose it.

M: If she loses it skiing, it’s his fault. He had it custom-made. If he wants her to wear it all the time, it has to be sturdy enough not to fall off during physical activity.

E: Don’t wear jewelry while skiing kids, even if your boyfriend tells you to.

M: I really hope it’s not as high drama as the preview made it seem.

E: The preview made it seem like seriously high drama. Like, did you ever finish Toradora? (EDITOR EMMA: Hey, if you like romcoms, Toradora is one of the best. I’ll just go right ahead and send you to Crunchyroll.)

M: Yeah, I did.

E: Like the part where Taiga gets lost in the snow.

M: But that was serious. She could have died.

E: That’s what I mean, I hope it’s less serious than that, but that’s what it seemed like. I think it might be a bit much here. Jan-di was literally just in the hospital.

M: Hopefully Ga-eul can run interference.

E: Ga-eul, please just run everybody’s life at this point. We have no guarantee that you can do it well, but they’re already messing it up so.

M: She can be the cool dad to Ji-hoo’s mom.

E: Yes!!!!!

M: Non-romantic predictions?

E: I want Woo-bin to be really good at snowboarding and for there to be an extended sequence of him doing tricks to Bang Bang Boom

M: That’s a good one. Mine’s a little more of a downer. On the trip, it’s Ga-eul’s birthday for real, and no one notices.

E: No!!!!!!

M: Don’t worry, we’ll make it up to the queen eventually.

My Hero Academia S2E11: Fight on, Iida!

E: So, the “Fight on, Iida” was a little more metaphorical than you thought.

M: I still think it was a kind of…oh no, his brother’s name is also Iida.

E: Yes.

M: Okay, then that’s fine. I was going to say it was a little misleading, because he didn’t find out about his brother and do the metaphorical fighting until the very end, but I forget that’s his last name, not his first.

E: People tend to address each other here by last names because it’s polite. First names and/or nicknames are a sign of closeness.

M: I knew that. How hilarious would it be if Boys Over Flowers followed that convention?

E: No, on Boys Over Flowers, it’s full names.

M: Several of my predictions were semi-accurate this time.

E: Let’s see, Iida did get his muffler plugged but not by vine girl. You kind of made two predictions for the finals, but one of them was right. What else did you say?

M: Midnight and Cement Guy were useless, because they let several kids blast each other with impunity. And Deku did get a slightly mutilated hand.

E: His fingers are very crooked.

M: That’s four for five. All that was missing was “Beat ha, Iida,” and frankly, he won too fast for that.

E: Deku was also still out cold for that match, so there was no chance of him starting the cheer.

M: It would have been in character, that’s all that counts.

E: So, in response to Deku’s recklessness, Recovery Girl has said that she will no longer treat injuries like this. Meaning he has to find some way to fight that doesn’t explode his bones.

M: What are her parameters here? None of his broken bones at all, or just nothing this crazy ever again?

E: I assume, nothing this crazy for when it’s basically a no threat situation. Right? Like he did it to himself, and there was no real reason for doing it to himself.

M: That should have been her policy from the beginning. How many kids have injured themselves doing dumb stuff with their quirks just because they knew they could get magic smoochies from Recovery Girl?

E: She knows the situation with Deku and All-Might though, so I imagine it makes it more complicated.

M: Fair enough. We also had the touching moment where All-Might revealed he’d been quirkless, which I thought we already knew?

E: He’d never come out and said it, but it’s kind of clear by the way he, you know, displays no other quirk.

M:  He could have had some other stupid quirk. Like he can make great coffee or something.

E: That’s not a stupid quirk! That’s a stellar quirk!

M: A quirk that would go nowhere in the admissions test.

E: Bribe the villains with your stellar coffee! Nobody can resist the fragrant odor of some good beans. Coffee is something villains and heroes alike can agree on!

M: You sound like an advertisement.

E: World Peace! All you need is a good cupa joe.

M: Wasn’t that the premise of that Pepsi ad?

E: Yeah, but it’s accurate this time.

M: Anyway, Deku cried, thank goodness, because I was worried he’d accidentally smashed his tear ducts when he didn’t immediately break down weeping.

E: Gotta get that good Deku crying action every episode along with the good floppy bone action.

M: Oh man, I had other stuff to say, but that was too good a segue. Speaking of floppy bones, Kirishima.

E: There’s no way to talk about his quirk without it being dirty. There’s just literally no sentence you can make talking about him and his Hardening that doesn’t sound bad.

M: Yes, but there’s a continuum of badness, and “having trouble keeping his Hardness up” is close to the worst end.

E: You know what, it was the heat of battle…

M: Where’s Mineta when you need him?

E: Mineta was shockingly nice and considerate this episode.

M: He’s evolving. Mom Mineta is his final form.

E: Anyway, when all is said and done, dirty or not, the finals is Bakugo and Todoroki. But the big shocker of this episode is the introduction of a not at all creepy guy named Hero Killer Stain. What’s his hobby? Gardening.

M: The stain refers to his green thumb!

E: We get to see Iida’s big pro hero brother get pretty well beat up by this Stain character.

M: That’s one way to put it. This must be a very high crime week in the city when all of the heroes stop for sporty fun.

E: I would think that some of the bigger villains, say Shigaraki and co, watch the sports festival also. Petty crime, though. That would skyrocket.

M: It seems really dumb to broadcast a bunch of up-and-coming heroes showing off their weaknesses for all the villains to see.

E: Hmmmmmmmm……..

M: Yeah, got it, that’s coming back later this season. It was just super apparent with Dark Shadow. No one would have figured out that he was weaker in the light, except that his name is DARK shadow, but otherwise no clue, and now literally everyone knows.

E: Yeah. It’s a bit. U.A. clearly isn’t big on the whole foresight thing or considering the consequences type thing.

M: Not at all. Speaking of which: Lawsuit Watch?

E: Uhhhhh, definitely a step back from last week in terms of sheer number of lawsuits.

M: It’s not really clear that warehouse was at Shinhwa. I think we overstepped.

E: I just assumed it would be somewhere familiar because the ransom note didn’t say where they were. So apparently Jun-pyo just recognized this random warehouse.

M: Don’t think about it too hard.

E: That’s the key to every show.

M: Recovery Girl refusing to heal Deku is kind of uncool. Doctors don’t get to say, “no, I don’t want to help that murderer.”

E: Yeah, that’s fair. I mean, I’m not sure if a school nurse is held to the same standard as a doctor? I don’t know the official rules for her.

M: Sure, but Deku is a fourteen year old. His judgment isn’t fully developed. I don’t think punishing him when this happens again with months, if not years of pain, is warranted.

E: I think U.A. should just invest in a few counselors. Everybody could use just a tad bit of counseling I think.

M: Shinhwa too, while we’re at it.

E: Everywhere. Counselors are good.

M: Not much in the way of impending lawsuits this week.

E: I guess they get off this time. You ready for the next episode title?

M: I already made a few guesses, and they were wrong, so it must be really basic and stupid.

E: “Todoroki vs Bakugo”

M: Man, I didn’t want to guess that. That’s so lame.

E: I know. It’s just like they gave up.

M: Episode titles are an art, and the My Hero Academia team is throwing away opportunity after opportunity.

E: Season 3 gets a little better about episode titles, but a lot of the season 2 ones are pretty literal.

M: Okay, prediction one that I didn’t mention before because I was too distracted by dirty jokes: was the previous All-Might a woman?

E:

M: I was psyched about it.

E:

M: Okay, prediction two: as I said last time, we’re not going to finish this fight. Either villains are going to descend or everyone is going to have to leave to hunt down Stain.

E:

M: Prediction three: Mineta puts two and two together about that weird old guy in Deku’s room.

E: Mineta?

M: Wasn’t he there?

E: Yes, but…out of the four people there, Mineta?

M: He’s the one who’s most fixated on physical appearance. Also, he has few other thoughts clouding his mind. He’s a simple creature.

E: ( ͡ಠ ͜ʖ ͡ಠ)

M: That’s a good one.

E: It’s a woke Mineta.

M: Prediction four: everyone in the 1A box starts doing the Midoriya Mumble.

E:

M: And finally, prediction five: Hero Killer Stain is obviously quirkless, just great with a blade.

E:

–

Hey, it’s Emma here! Thanks for continuing to watch along with us as we trek through My Hero Academia and Boys Over Flowers. We’re watching the MHA dub on Hulu and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix if you’d like to catch up!

Next time! Bakugo faces off against Todoroki in a really nice character-building episode where Emma will have a lot to say in localization corner and we’ll both have a lot to say in Lawsuit Watch. And, in Boys Over Flowers, Jan-di will lose another piece of jewelry, goshdarnit Jan-di. Why do you do this. Jun-pyo why do you get mad. Gosh darn it.