Split Screen: Run Away!

Hey there, Split Screen readers! It’s your intro host Madelyn, who has been watching too much TV the past week. What’s the cure for that? Why, more TV of course! This is as good a time as any to mention that we need your suggestions! We’ve got only three more weeks of the roller coaster that is Boys Over Flowers before we’ll need a replacement! Doesn’t need to be a k-drama, but does need to scratch that over-the-top itch. Got ideas? Leave a comment, message us, or use the comment form on our contact page and let us know!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: we’ve still got to get those crazy kids together and those crazy kids to run the heck away this week!

(New to Split Screen? Read every single blog here!)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 23 (from minute 35)

M: Only two episodes left of Boys Over Flowers! 

E: I can hardly believe it honestly. 

M: Because we’ve been watching it for so long, or because there’s no endpoint in sight?

E: Well, I mean, there is the fact that it does not feel like I ever existed before we started Boys Over Flowers. I was born watching Boys Over Flowers. But yes, I also have a feeling that we’re just gonna get some deus ex coma dad to wrap everything up.

M: Or whoever that mysterious coastal Yakuza was. I do realize this is Korea. 

E: I don’t know how the drunk suspicious man is going to play into the endgame. But they put a weird emphasis on him so…

M: I think his mysterious start-up company was significant. That might be a reveal. 

E: I’m worried that they will dramatically reveal the company name and I will not be able to remember which minor character the company was tied to.

M: My theory is that Jan-di’s family now has a target on their back because everyone thinks they’re going to be rich, and this guy is going to rob them blind. 

E: Currently everyone is just trying to give them everything they own, so at least they’ll just be stealing back what was recently given.

M: Mama Geum is not going to let Jan-di stay more than half an episode.

E: Yeah, no way. Mom is way too greedy for that. I mean, I guess in a good way this time, but it’s also just who she is.

M: This time though she wants what’s best for her daughter. Mostly, anyway. 

E: I think it’s more that her desire for fame and fortune happens to line up with what’s best for her daughter here.

M: It’s still going to be a heartwarming moment. 

E: Anyway, to lead up to that, Jan-di did indeed strike a deal with Mama Gu in which she promised to leave and never contact Jun-pyo again. Which, okay, I guess is in character, and the takedown that Jan-di laid on Mama Gu was pretty satisfying in the moment.

M: We’ve been calling her evil for months, so I’m glad Jan-di got to say it at least once. 

E: Now if only she had materialized a glass of wine to throw at her, it would have been perfect.

M: I was hoping she had some kind of ploy, but you’re absolutely right that this kind of self-sacrifice is the hallmark of Jan-di and Jun-pyo’s relationship. 

E: My bigger issue is with Jan-di’s stated desire that Jun-pyo not protect her. I would understand it if he had done any protecting of her over the last three episodes or so, but he’s really done nothing for her. So, I don’t fully understand why, when she leaves, she doesn’t just say “I’m leaving unless you do something.” Right?

M: She laid out her reasons a little in her speech to the Chairwoman. She can protect her friends and loved ones by leaving. No matter what she does, she can’t protect Jun-pyo.

E: So, she just feels it’s unbalanced, you mean?

M: Maybe, but also that telling him to fight against his mom probably results in more collateral damage to her friends and family. She doesn’t need protecting because remember, this is Pride and Prejudice, and she’s proud, so she can take the abuse. But she cant handle it being directed at anyone else. 

E: That’s fair, I guess. I just feel like I’m a little tired of the lack of honesty between characters? And I’m not sure if it would have been appropriate for this moment, and I’m aware it’s not the Boys Over Flowers way, but I wish she’d spent the date explaining what was going on and maybe coming up with a game plan or at least justifying herself better. Or something. But I don’t know.

M: She’s got an All-Might complex about Mama Gu. I think Jan-di thinks Mama Gu is unbeatable. If she told Jun-pyo about why she was leaving and what had been happening, he would have messed up the deal by trying to find her or something. 

E: I guess so. It just gets a shrug from me.

M: They’ve already been doing a lot of lying to each other the entire series, so I get why this felt tired. But this was a justified, intentional lie, rather than just the two of them being bad at communication. 

E: Jun-pyo is now only bad at crane machines.

M: Remember when we tried to win Donald Duck in Yokohama for like, $15 worth of tries?

E: That thing must have been rigged, but way less obviously rigged than the crane machine that just opens slightly once you have a toy.

M: Remember when we won three yakitori keychains? I always knew we were better than Jun-pyo, just as people, but this is quantitative proof. 

E: It was actually a remarkably focused half-episode, and even full episode, because I think we’ve covered the major events already. A lot of the other stuff was just other characters reacting to Jan-di being gone and, unfortunately, the My Hero Academia season 1 problem of way too many flashbacks.

M: I’m fine with flashbacks. The show has proven it doesn’t trust me to understand what’s going on in the characters’ heads during silent angsty music montages without them. Just use some of the twenty-two episodes of content we didn’t literally just see. Please. 

E: Please just give us more Ji-hoo soliloquies.

M: I would take that. Mostly I want to be reminded how bad their hair was. 

E: We were so young and naive when we thought Jun-pyo’s hair was a wig.

M: It took us like six or seven episodes to firmly decide it was his hair. 

E: I’m 100% certain that it’s everyone’s real hair after seeing that blooper with all the wind. Because somebody’s wig would have flown off in that.

M: I’m always so glad to see casts having fun. It’s deeply reassuring to me for some reason.

E: It’s just always nice to know that people get along, I think.

M: So, it’s kind of surprising that Jan-di’s family is hard to find. 

E: Yeah, they really shouldn’t be. There’s records of Jan-di sending Kang-san on the train to them, whenever she sent them that meat she won with Ji-hoo, they’ve been there so long, I don’t really believe that none of F4 has looked for them previously …

M: Jan-di’s mom has been telling everyone that her daughter is dating Jun-pyo. They also have substantial debt. Ga-eul is going to know Jan-di went there, and the rich boys have the resources to track them down in like twenty minutes flat. 

E: It’s a job for the Hardy Boys and their dramatic sips of coffee.

M: So where’s our romance going?

E: I’m still convinced of Jan-di and Jun-pyo being together in the end of the show. The fact that she’s leaving now with two episodes left just makes me more convinced. If she was really going to be on her own at the end of the show, they’d save this for later or it would have happened earlier.

M: I wonder if she’ll get accepted to med school, and then she’ll have to return to seize her dream.

E: Well, she’s not even gonna graduate high school, so that’s a problem.

M: Once again, how old are they? 

E: She’s a senior, they’re in their first year of college, None of them seem to attend classes. It’s winter, but it’s always winter.

M: That description was a big mood. 

E: Right now it’s more: it’s summer, I will die in this summer. I will melt into a pool of sweat.

M: So many moods, so little time. Who’s going to find Jan-di? Probably Ji-hoo, right? Give him one last chance to let her go?

E: Yeah, I think it’ll be 100% Ji-hoo. He might not go on his own, but he’ll certainly be the one to actually spot her and talk to her first.

M: There are so many time bombs they’ve set on this show. I’m excited to see which ones they actually detonate. Will it be coma guy? Mysterious beach debtor? Jun-pyo’s sister? Kang-san? Yi-jung’s family? Woo-bin’s crime? Whatever Manager Jung is thinking right now? Butler Lee?

E: No matter what, it’s going to be an explosive last three installments of Split Screen featuring Boys Over Flowers.

My Hero Academia S3E10: “Symbol of Peace”

M: Speaking of explosive, the Symbol of Peace! 

E: Madelyn made a prediction during the episode that was already wrong as she was saying it. Just wanted to share.

M: Look, a 24-style episode of All Might’s hero work in real time? That would be sick. 

E: Truly, because he’s sick.

M: That crossed my mind, but I did not say it. 

E: So we pick up where we left off last time with everything spiraling into chaos at both bases thanks to the sudden appearance of All for One. Dun dun dun stinger.

M: I love that All Might and Endeavor hate each other. That was a nice touch. 

E: We saw that a bit before at the sports festival while we were learning about Todoroki’s Zuko complex, but I agree that they have a satisfying dynamic. Because they do their jobs, but they don’t have to like each other at all to do them.

M: I appreciate that it carried over into battle too. It’s one thing to not want to get lunch together, it’s another to be like “you doin’ okay, buddy? Gettin’ tired?” as the city burns.

E: I thought it was a nice touch too that Endeavor mentioned that this was putting a strain on his quirk. Like it seems like having to control it in smaller blasts is actually harder for him, which fits well with what we know about his personality.

M: When is Endeavor going to get a redemption arc? 

E: I don’t know if I could necessarily buy a redemption arc for Endeavor.

M: Even if he adopted needy, quirkless kids, and nurtured them? Or at least fostered dogs so the world is spared another Nezu?

E: Okay, maybe I could buy a personal redemption arc, I think the problem would come in if Todoroki was ever like “I forgive you, dad.” I wouldn’t like that.

M: Todoroki could use a pet dog. 

E: I mean, true enough. But my point stands.

M: Anyway, I was right that Bakugo was going to show up with the kiddos. Incogkiddos?

E: They’re not as incogkiddos since the force of that blast knocked all their disguises off. Except for Iida’s little mustache.

M: Iida has too much bulk to be affected by the blast. Reciprostashe. 

E: All the other villains were also transported to All for One’s location with his fancy warp quirk.

M: Well, not that fancy. Kinda stinky, can only warp to him. Second-rate, honestly. 

E: It was a bit too much exposition on it, enough that I wonder if the author was like “I can’t stand these fans telling me about plot holes.” Like, I would have bought it if he was just “nah, it’s not as good, anyway forcible quirk activation.”

M: All for One is an annoying college professor though, like a quirk researcher, so it felt didactic and in character. I still rolled my eyes though. 

E: We also see how lenient and kind he is with Tomura. I feel like it’s always the stereotype that the boss villain is like mean to all his subordinates, so I like the fact that he’s just a very chill guy who seems to genuinely want his “student” to learn for himself.

M: Except that there are no real consequences to his failures. Classic helicopter parent. 

E: Something that I hadn’t thought about before, and this is jumping ahead a little, but when All for One uses the magnetism quirk to pull everybody out, it feels very purposeful that he only magnetizes Shigaraki’s head while everybody else is fully magnetized. Like he wants him to linger and see what’s going to happen here, or have that moment of fear for All for One. It’s kind of tricky.

M: This kid, man. I know they’re going to turn him into a hero. I just don’t know how. Shigaraki’s redemption arc is coming. I can feel it. 

E: Interesting thought. 

M: Maybe he and Endeavor can foster special needs dogs together. 

E: Madelyn’s new fanfiction, coming to AO3 this summer.

M: Tell me you wouldn’t read the heck out of that. 

E: I mean, I definitely would, and I think you should write it.

M: As soon as we finish Boys Over Flowers, the first half of Split Screen is just my Endeavor and Shigaraki fan-fic. 

E: So this week I have a localization corner and a funny production story.

M: Oh boy oh boy!

E: First up! We get another flashback to Bakugo getting taken. In this case, the Japanese voice actor says it with a lot of stress on the word “Deku.” Like, as if he’s specifically saying “Not you, Deku” with a lot of disgust. Which again sort ties to the Uraraka line that they changed a bit, which is originally more that “he’d be mortified to be rescued.” Which, remembering it that way, it leads Deku to the conclusion that Kirishima should be the one to call out to Bakugo. Because Bakugo would definitely not respond to Deku, but he might with Kirishima since they’re buds. 

M: What a self-centered way to remember that moment. It’s all about Deku. All the time. Anyway, go on. 

E: So, once Kirishima does call out to Bakugo, it turns out that Deku is right and that Bakugo does respond. However, I feel like it dilutes the importance of that character moment in the way they changed Bakugo’s line after grabbing Kirishima’s hand. Like, it’s a big deal that Bakugo will allow somebody to help him. That whole flashback he has with Deku trying to help him out of the lake he fell in as a kid, back in season 1, has to do with refusing Deku’s hand, right? And now he’s willing to go out of his way to grab Kirishima’s. So, it’s a very personal relationship building moment.

And in the dub, he sort of shouts “You idiots,” right? It’s made into a plural, and it’s directed at all of them. But in the sub, he very quietly says “You stupid, or something?” It’s an implied singular, it’s clearly directed to Kirishima. So, it changes the context from talking to just Kirishima to talking to all of them. It’s a little thing, but like I said, it feels like it dilutes the moment and takes away from the significance of this friendship.

M: As a person that’s had to live my life at Bakugo height, thanks for sticking up for us bullies. 

E: And finally, a funny production story. So, the spectacular cut of Bakugo blasting upwards and grabbing Kirishima’s hand is done by one of Bones’ regular ace animators (EDITOR EMMA: Yutaka Nakamura to be specific). So when he was drawing it, the director and stuff gave him basic notes but were kind of just like “we’ll leave you to it, do what you do.” But when they came back, he’d pretty much just drawn Bakugo like going into space. Like he went so unrealistically high, and they were like “no, you need to tone it back a bit.” And the animator just said that he got carried away by the emotion and intensity of the moment. And it’s still a bit over the top, right? Like, if he could blast himself that far, he could have just run for it at any time. But hey, it looks cool. (EDITOR EMMA: I couldn’t find the source for this, but I trust my memory).

M: Yeah, that’s what I was going to ask. Why didn’t he just blast out of there?

E: In the manga, he pretty much just blasts straight up like probably ten feet tops. So it’s a much less dramatic moment I guess.

M: I really thought All Might swooping in was the opening for someone to swipe Bakugo before the villains noticed. Especially when All for One made it clear he didn’t really care about Bakugo one way or the other. 

E: I think it was a mixture of shock and Iida having already stopped him from moving that kept Deku from going anywhere. I can see why you’d think at least Deku might have the split second decision to do it, but I don’t think he would have wanted to put Iida at risk by knocking him off and maybe hurting him.

M: My second-tier prediction was that this was going to be the time where Deku spent too long thinking and missed his chance at a rescue. Mutter mutter mutter. 

E: Nope, instead we got the classic plan cut away until the plan actually happens.

M: I hope Momo at least made roller blades for her and Todoroki. 

E: Just for fun. Not for any other reason.

M: Just to make a slick escape. 

E: So, now we’ve left just All for One vs All Might and Gran Torino. And we finally learn the name of All Might’s mentor.

M: A twist! A young woman. Named Nana. 

E: Nana Shimura.

M: Yeah yeah, I know. 

E: Do you? What do you know?

M: See, they want me to think she’s Shigaraki’s mom. But I know it’s just a coincidence. 

E: Madelyn’s going giga-brain over here.

M: Lots of people have the same last name, especially in Japan. It’s surprising we haven’t encountered that yet. 

E: I’m going to sue Madelyn for mental damages here.

M: That’s a great Lawsuit Watch transition, but I have a question first. Does All-Might have a way to fight that isn’t just big punches and wind storms? He kinda sucks. 

E: Well, in most cases, it just sort of takes one big punch or windstorm, right? So he’s out of practice.

M: His big punch didn’t even KO a tiny million-year-old man. 

E: Part of it was the Shock Inversion part of the quirk which sort put part of it back on All Might. Otherwise I think he would have exploded Gran Torino’s head like a grape.

M: Like grape juice. 

E: No, Mineta is not allowed here.

M: I want to see more geographic diversity in the smashes, that’s all. Anyway, let’s take this to court!

E: Well, nobody can sue the kids because they did indeed get away without fighting. The damn teenagers.

M: They’re going to take off All for One’s mask, and he’ll be like “ I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids and your damn dog!” and Nezu will be like “that’s a rude and racist thing to say.” Remember when Todoroki called the police chief ‘mutt?’ Where’d he learn that kind of language?

E: *shakes head at Endeavor redemption arc*

M: This is why fostering dogs will be good for him. 

E: Anyway, probably still My Hero Academia. I can’t think of anything in particular on Boys over Flowers. I guess Jun-pyo did get arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct.

M: I guess the arcade or whatever could sue for damages. 

E: So then, a tie.

M: Yes, roughly equal levels of destruction, I think. 

E: Are you ready for next week’s episode title. It’s going to frustrate you.

M: It’s called “My Hero Academia!” 

E: Season 3, Episode 11 is called-

M: “Shigaraki: Origin!”

E: Season 3, Episode 11 is called “One for All”

M: I almost guessed that! But I thought there might already have been an episode with that title. 

E: Last episode was called “All for One”

M: Good, at least we’re in three musketeer order here. Readers, you’re missing the fact that I have to think very hard about which power is which every time I say it, because I edit out starting with the wrong word every time. 

E: “Gran…dammit. One for…no….All for….for the love of god!” -Madelyn

M: It’s really more like Two for All right now, isn’t it?

E: True. true.

M: Prediction one: Deku says full cowling like three more times. I hate it each time. 

E:

M:  Prediction two: I think All Might is going to lose even more of his power in this fight. It’s basically over though, All for One is not here to stick around. He’s going to warp…this is a double prediction, oops. He’s going to warp to Shigaraki, because he explained very carefully to us that with focus, he can do that. 

E:

M: Prediction three: All Might finally explains to Deku that when Deku gets all of One for All, All Might will be ritually sacrificed. That’s why Shigaraki hates All Might; he saw him eating the rest of his mom’s blood for the DNA. 

E: That’s so weird since obviously Shigaraki’s mom isn’t All Might’s mentor.

M: Shoot, you’re right. Scratch the second sentence. 

E:

M: Prediction four: everyone goes to the beach. The kids have earned a break, and it’s been a few episodes since we’ve had gratuitous shirtless Todoroki. Also, you know Shigaraki is a beach hater, so they are safe there.

E: ( ͡ʘ ͜ʖ ͡ʘ)

M: Mineta is not invited. 

E: He’s going to stow away in one of the girls’ beach bags.

M: Prediction five: Best Jeanist isn’t actually dead like I thought. He managed to hang on to life by a thread. Mount Lady saves him. 

E:

M: And then Recovery Girl patches him up. 

E:

–

Hey guys, Emma here! Thanks for following along on Split Screen! If you still want to catch up, we’re watching My Hero Academia dubbed on Hulu and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix. We’re also looking for suggestions on what to replace Boys Over Flowers with! As long as it’s tonally divergent from MHA, we’re pretty much up for anything.

Next time! Madelyn gets her geographic diversity of smashes and we see if the Hardy Boys can use their detective powers to chase Jan-di down!