Split Screen: Raising the Bar

Hello there Split Screen readers! It’s your intro host Madelyn, roping you in to another round of Coffee Prince and My Hero Academia, unlike some of our characters. This time on Split Screen, Han-sung puts a ring (cracker) on it, and Deku fights to defend some good old fashioned rockin’ fun…plus the safety of his classmates too, I guess. Let’s bounce on in!

(New to Split Screen? Catch up on all the action here!)

Coffee Prince Fifteenth Cup (up to minute 31)

M: Coffee Prince wants you to know that relationships are hard. 

E: Relationships are hard and communication is for wimps.

M: Just count to three and call over and over and over again until you decide to take your girlfriend’s money. 

E: I do understand that argument, on both sides, but he was being more childish about it.

M: I think that Eun-chan is 100% correct here, especially for a month-old relationship built on deception. 

E: I can still see being uncomfortable with taking large lump sums from your now-partner though. And I do understand being slightly offended by her thinking that he would charge interest on it.

M: Yeah, but she mentioned the interest in a teasing way. I think that would have been an easy space to compromise. Instead he got super angry that she was trying to make sure this relationship was on level footing. 

E: Especially when that would be like an easy snipe shot for the grandma to take against her. 

M: I know. It would have been so easy for him to have instead taken the money and put it into an Eun-chan fund to buy her nice things. Why wasn’t that obvious?

E: Heat of the moment, I suppose.

M: Use it to buy her a ring, that’ll show her. 

E: Or just a bag of circular cracker things.

M: Love that Han-sung just happened to have a sack of ring crackers. 

E: For snacking on! I wish I had a handy sack of ring crackers.

M: I’m just thinking about how he had to plan their night out to conveniently allow him to purchase enough ring crackers to feed a small family for a month in order to quasi-propose.

E: Now I’m hungry.

M: Too bad. Those are not for eating. Proposals only. 

E: He’s also gone totally baby crazy, chasing his co-workers around shouting, “show me your baby!”

M: It was unrealistic behavior from the co-worker, to be honest. Don’t new parents just want to show everyone their baby all the time?

LOOK AT THE BABY

E: He was trying to steal his small circa-2007 phone though.

M: To look at the yawning baby!

E: Still though. Don’t snatch phones out of the hands of others.

M: Yoo-joo is gestating at an alarming rate. Four weeks! 

E: I think they’ve known four weeks now? At least, that’s how I interpreted the line.

M: Maybe it was clearer in Korean. 

E: The subtitling on Viki is a little weird sometimes, so sometimes I miss lines or miss context. That’s what I’m going to choose to blame. Especially with the Zoom resolution.

M: It just adds to the charm of the whole enterprise. 

E: I appreciate that they’ve kept this thread of Eun-chan learning about brewing coffee from earlier in the show when she was using her super sniffer. I do wonder if she’s gonna be like “oops, gonna go barista school in America,” after Han-gyul has already decided to stay.

M: Well, that would be convenient, wouldn’t it? He sells a franchise to someone in New York and she becomes the head barista there. That was point one of the brand, the Mr. Hong.

E: Nepotism.

M: I mean, he only got the shop in the first place because of his grandma. 

E: Rampant nepotism.

M: She’s qualified. Or she would be qualified if Han-gyul would ever let her study. 

E: He has to show off how long his legs are. 

M: Sometimes CBB is annoying like that, but mostly he lets me do my work these days. 

I would literally commit murder

E: I was thinking it reminded me of something……

M: You can’t say that! 

E: I mean, as the viewer, that’s my perspective, so.

M: This is slander. Josh mostly leaves me alone during the work day, except to occasionally bring me cups of tea. 

E: We’re talking about coffee still, we haven’t gotten to the tea stuff. 

M: Oh goodness. The crossover potential. Okay, fine, I’ll shift gears to the multitude of other substories going on. 

E: We finally met Sun-ki’s one true love. She actually spoke this time!

M: Does she have a name?

E: I think he probably said it when he was telling his backstory a few entries back, but it has left my mind. I’m sure we didn’t mention it in the blog.

M: She seems reluctant to have him around. 

E: Her ex-husband did like beat him up in the snow or whatever. I imagine that’d be awkward.

M: Yeah, but they’re in a whole different country now! 

E: Sure, but it’s not that far. 

M: He doesn’t seem that committed either, to be fair. 

E: He was hanging up posters for the child!

M: Yeah, but he doesn’t want to move out of Mr. Hong’s….how do I even describe it?

E: Sty.

M: Slophouse. 

E: Dumpster.

M: Meanwhile, the best scene of the show was the butcher and his five commandments. 

E: The butcher is so weird. The butcher is the weirdest part of this show. 

M: It’s bizarre. They did not need a love interest for Mama Ko, and yet here he is, and he is very weird. 

E: We gotta have that quindruple wedding at the end, you know? Everybody gotta find their future boo.

I wish I could show you these things, but I don’t have access to episodes any more 🙁

M: Except for Ha-rim, who cannot think with his heart. 

E: He’ll find a real bunny girl by the end.

M: Lastly, Eun-sae is evil. 

E: Evil but so iconic. 

M: When the thought bubble for Min-yup thinking of that kiss popped in? That was iconic. 

E: No though, I think everybody could be just a touch more like Eun-sae. Not all the way, of course not, but in terms of respecting yourself and getting what you want.

M: Well, is quintuple wedding your Romance Tracker?

E: No, not really. We’re gonna have some sort of time skip probably but Yoo-joo and Han-sung will be married before then. Oh yeah they’re engaged now!

M: It was such a missed opportunity that she didn’t have a ring cracker in that box. 

E: Easy wins here, writer’s room, just thrown in the garbage

M: They’re trying to rehabilitate this relationship. Some humor would go a long way. 

E: Anything else from this episode for you?

M: How do Granny and Mr. Hong know each other? That’s all. 

E: We will never know. That’s just a fact of the show, and we must accept it

M: Remember Mr. Hong’s dark romantic past? Hmmmmm…why does Granny hate the commoner so much? Hmmmmmmm….

E: We’ve circled back around to your beginning theory, I see

M: It all comes back to Granny/Mr. Hong OTP. 

My Hero Academia S4E21: “Deku vs Gentle Criminal”

E: Madelyn paused the show like eight times this episode. Okay, more like two. And not for Aizawa staring at the sweater.

M: I always forget that the space bar doesn’t really work on Funimation, so that’s the only reason why I haven’t been taking my customary Aizawa sweater break. 

E: First off, there was some delight at Gentle wearing a mask in the first episode that was recorded from home. I agree, some delightful irony.

M: It’s just funny! And then he takes it off. Come on, Gentle. Be responsible. 

E: And then she wanted to laugh at smushed Deku.

M: He looked funny. 

E: Duality.

M: There were so many logical flaws this time. 

E: I don’t really think there were from within the story? But feel free to nitpick away. 

M: Don’t go out and try to buy rope at a convenience store, just have Momo make it, and maybe get her a nice bottle of olive oil or something in exchange at some point. 

E: Deku dumb. Running late. Wants to be useful. Proud of knowing what legs are now. Da da. Logical flaw gone for me.

M: Is there no rope in the support class shop? Where did they get rope in the first place?

E: Maybe that was the one rope they had.

M: Okay, who had it then, and why?

E: No one wants to know the answer to that question.

M: Aoyama said the fraying rope was symbolic of their deepening relationship. 

E: It doesn’t even make sense, because that would be a sign of a breaking relationship.

The rope is symbolic of my sanity when Todoroki ice blasts come up

M: Fine, we’ll say that flaw is resolved. The “Deku can carry the support beam but can’t set it down” flaw is not quite as easily handled, but fine, Deku dumb, I can see you thinking it. 

E: He can’t drop it. He can’t throw it. The whole reason he caught it was to stop it from damaging the structure or hitting anyone. Should maybe he have been moving to put it down faster? Sure. But also it’s a superhero story and we need the monologues and if we got stuck on that, we’d be here all day.

M: Snap it in half! You’re the boy who broke all of his fingers three times each on national television. Snap it half!

E: If he does that, he can’t stop Gentle anymore! 

M: What are your kicky feet for???

E: I’m done with this, it doesn’t bother me, it bothers you, it’s the least interesting part of the episode.

M: I know, I just had to get it out of my system. My point is that I don’t understand how strong I’m supposed to think Deku is right now, and this situation really highlighted that confusion. 

E: It seems like his consistent power is just enough to hold a beam, and he can’t really go above that unless he’s shooting to 100, which would obviously cause other problems. That’s my conception of it.

M: Should probably be hitting the gym more and doing less dabbing in dance practice. 

More squats Deku

E: Alternatively, maybe he shouldn’t practice the day of the festival, and then he wouldn’t even be having this problem. They’d have their dance, Gentle would have his sick prank, everything would be fine. 

M: I know, this is so dumb to begin with. Gentle probably would have been chill. To be honest, Deku should have just brought him back as his weird uncle that wants to see the show. 

E: I see why Deku can’t do that, but I can’t deny I was thinking that during the episode.

M: He could hang out with Eri. She and La Brava would probably be buddies. They could do TikToks together with Todoroki. 

E: Todoroki should get off social media. He needs a cleanse.

M: But then how would he produce Todoratatouille? 

E: You really like that musical on Tik Tok. 

M: It’s all I know about TikTok. 

E: I think the most interesting part of this situation for me is what a de-escalation that Gentle is after the last arc, but you’ve got Deku almost treating it like on the same level as Overhaul. Which is likely because Eri is still involved in the consequences.

M: UA must get these kinds of hooligans like twice a day though, right? 

E: Yeah, I think the issue would be them getting past Hound Dog and the super secure villain wall, not like some random middle schoolers being like “let’s crash UA” and getting caught before they get to the door.

M: It’s kind of daming that Deku has no faith in the school’s ability to keep this pathetic C-list Youtuber out on the highest security day of the year. 

E: Fair though. It’s a fair assessment. 

M: Look, he’s not wrong, I’m just saying: Fire Nezu. 

E: But really what he’s gotta do is just tell Gentle to take another two hour tea break, come back during the 1-B performance, sabotage that, get the nice concert, everybody wins except Monoma. 

M: For a hero in training, Deku seems much more concerned about his sick rock concert than he does about a villain infiltrating his school. 

E: Well, he’s very preoccupied with the idea of “symbols” and “hope,” right? And that’s sort of what this festival is. Everybody being normal, having fun, giving little girls nice songs.

M: Will the song be nice? Have you heard Bakugo talking about it?

Can’t stop true art

E: As long as he doesn’t improvise. Kaminari can’t keep up.

M: You mean the human phone charger? Men can’t get any respect. 

E: Sometimes I feel like…it’s been a while since I watched the sub, but I feel like I would remember these lines? I don’t remember Mineta saying that. Maybe I block Mineta out too much.

M: That was his only line this episode, right?

E: No, he also said, “Still sexy!” about himself.

M: Imagine having to send the actor all of that recording equipment, get it set up for in-home audio, just for that. Just for those two crucial lines. 

E: They’re essential lines. To the experience.

M: Today, I walked by Party City and they had a big sign out front that said “we sell essential items!” This feels like the same energy. 

E: Anything else from this episode for you?

M: I’m disappointed that tea is just a ritual for Gentle and not an integral part of his powers. I was hoping for a very specific Suneater-type quirk. 

E: We already had that one girl in the Season 3 test who raised her IQ through tea. 

M: They could be related. 

E: The big twist everyone was waiting for.

M: The real big twist is that the barista I thought was Twice in the end credits this entire time was apparently not Twice. 

E: I just had to smile and nod for a bit. I didn’t want to tell you it wasn’t.

M: It looks just like him though! Why couldn’t he and Gentle have been Coffee Prince-style co-workers?

E: Free ideas, writer’s room. 

M: For Lawsuit Watch, it’s a tough call. 

I’m suing this picture

E: I mean Gentle could definitely be sued for his property damage. 

M: At the same time, Eun-chan explicitly threatened to sue Ha-rim if he kept making sexual comments. And he will

E: I think that’s a stronger case since there was a direct invocation of the “sue” word

M: Coffee Prince takes it! 

E: Caffeinated?

M: Also a tough call. The shot of Momo going to bed early is a demerit for My Hero, but not one that’s impossible to surpass. 

E: See, Gentle bouncing off everything including the air is sometimes how an excess of coffee makes me feel.

M: That is an astute observation. Add that to Eun-chan’s 8pm “I’m going to sleep, good night” text to her grumpy boyfriend, and My Hero takes the title. 

E: Are you ready for the next episode title that you got early?

M: I don’t perfectly remember what I saw, but I do remember that it was boring. 

E: Season 4, Episode 22 is called “School Festival Start!!”

M: Gee, I wonder what happens. 

E: But is Deku there when it starts? He’s got nine minutes.

M: How many minutes until his show though?

E: One hour and nine minutes.

M: Why did they pick that? And then that number on screen?

E: Free social media, get it trending. So many people tweeting “Nice #MHA”

M: Gentle, that’s a lame way to get clout. 

E: Give me your predictions now!

M: Prediction one: Todoroki continues to deal with crushing anxiety and paranoia about his missing classmate, until his dad shows up to support his dancing, and then he has other problems. I guess he isn’t dancing, but that makes it better. 

E: This feels like the plot to like a mid 2000s Step Up spinoff.

 

M: It would be called Fired Up, for the record. 

E: That’s good. 

M: Prediction two: Momo ends up making the rope anyway. 

E:

M: Prediction three: I can’t decide if he’ll make it in or not, Gentle Criminal. I think he will, but Nezu, irresponsible softie that he is, won’t pull the alarm. He’ll take the PR disaster when this gets out on Youtube in exchange for one nice day. 

E:

M: Prediction four: Deku is going to do some sick breakdancing moves to create a kicky wind tornado blast. Gentle and La Brava go blasting off again (*ding*).

E:

 

M: Mix that with “Prepare for Trouble” and we’re good. 

E: You’ve got one more prediction, bub.

M: First, I would like Gentle and La Brava to do a cover of “Prepare for Trouble.” I think that would be big for the channel. 

E: They do have big Team Rocket energy.

M: They just need a Meowth. 

E: Deku can be their Meowth. 

M: No, prediction five: some other idiot from Class 1A is going to come and fight. Maybe Uraraka. Her power with Deku’s new windy flick boy strength could be cool. 

E: shocked reaction to My Hero Academia discussion

M: Bonus prediction: Gentle uploads his video, but all anyone cares about is Jiro’s rocking vibes and she actually becomes the Youtube star. 

E:

Hey there! Thanks for watching along with us on My Hero Academia and Coffee Prince! Gonna do my darndest to catch us up now that the dub is coming out this Saturday, so look forward to these blogs coming in quick succession! I hope.

Next time! What makes a hero? What makes a villain? What makes a good cup of coffee? Look forward to it!

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