Split Screen: Shooting the Breeze

Thanks for tuning in to another edition of Split Screen! This week,Coffee Prince gives us a peek into the world of boys sleepovers, and My Hero Academia finally (finally!) wraps up the last phase of the hero license exam with an angsty flame tornado. Plus, one show features a stand-out waffle cameo! Read on to find out which!

(New to Split Screen? Read the whole series here!)

Coffee Prince Episode 3 (up to minute 30)

M: As a person who reluctantly worked at a coffee establishment, you should have some opinions on this episode!

E: Before you turned it around on me, I thought you were saying you were that person. I was gonna be like “where did you work? I don’t remember that!”

M: I don’t think I’ve ever sold coffee. 

E: Anyway, we did not have all those fancy coffee contraptions at the Barnes & Noble Starbucks Cafe

M: You’re saying you didn’t make literary latte art?

E: No bears in the lattes

M: There are still so many mysteries that I would like to be unraveled for me more. 

E: Like what?

M: First and foremost: what does Wangia mean?

E: I thought it had a j in it? Did I read that wrong?

M: I’ll keep an eye out next time. Or a J, hey oh!

E: My only real current problem with the show is that I’m like 10x more invested in the Han-gyul and Eun-chan stuff than the other couple. So whenever the other couple comes on screen, I just emotionally check out from it.

M: The show introduced us to Yoo-Joo as an unpleasant heartbreaker, so it’s hard to feel too invested in her relationship with either of these rich THIRTY-SOMETHINGS. 

E: Did they introduce her that way? To me it seems to have only framed her as like… cool girl.

M: She left DJ man with basically no warning to go abroad, right?

E: I don’t think they’ve really explained what was up with that? I didn’t retain it at least. Mostly just the face mask scene.

M: Let me say, that finger boots scene did not boost her charm levels for me. 

E: It’s just that they show us lots of scenes of them being happy together, but I also know nothing about them. Except that he owns a cute dog.

M: Maybe. The dog has been absent for one and a half episodes now. 

E: WHERE’S SWEEPER????

M: Apparently just chilling home alone. Poor pup. 

E: But that just sticks out because of how much of the rest of it is really working for me.

M: I’ll be interested to see these two get integrated more in a weird love triangle with Han-gyul. That was another mystery I wanted a little more background on. Are Han-gyul and Han-choi (which might not be his name, but I’m doing my best) friends? Enemies? Cousins? 

E: I thought they were family somehow. But I’m only like 60% on that. I do know that Han-gyul has a crush on Yoo-joo at least.

M: Except that he’s gay.

E: Apparently.

M: Would you have stayed at B&N Cafe longer if Mom had threatened to take away your car and house if you quit?

E: That would have been harder than in Han-gyul’s case, because the house and the car were also hers.

M: Change the locks. Sell the car. 

E: Apparently.

M: You didn’t answer the question, but fine. Do you think Grandma just wants Han-gyul to man up, or do you think she’s making him do coffee time to exorcise the gay?

E: I think she mostly just wants him to grow up generally, although I’m sure the gay is also not exactly welcome. It’s very much a “it’s a phase” mentality. But I appreciate that the show doesn’t make that the only goal the grandma has, at least. Her central concern just seems to be making him take some responsibility for once in his life. The ire is just tangentially at the gay.

M: How long until Mr. Hong teaches Han-gyul not to ask weird, invasive, personal questions at random to customers?

E: He’s gotta knock it off. 

M: Is your dad dead? Why don’t you grow a beard? Why’s ya butt so small?

E: I really think it’s funny how absolutely certain he is that Eun-chan is a boy. But then again like once somebody confirmed their gender, why would you doubt them? 

M: What a very liberal and kind thing for you to say. Many people do not behave in such a way. 

E: True enough, unfortunately.

M: Another reason why saying your pronouns when you meet someone is important. You might end up in a Coffee Prince situation. 

E: Hey, at least then you have a friend who is literally made of money.

M: The whole sleepover was very odd and funny.

E: Yeah. Just the whole situation with the couple in the rain too.

M: The worst fight choreography I have ever seen. So little commitment. So much grabbing of shirts for no reason. So many dolls. 

E: To be fair, that dude was clearly mostly posturing and not actually trying to get into a fight.

M: Why did Eun-chan try to dry off that woman’s shirt though? Come on! 

E: Listen, when you’re panicking and it’s raining and they’re yelling and your dolls are all over the ground, sometimes you just do stupid things.

M: No. That’s not a good enough excuse. Good thing Arthur was there to save the day. 

E: It really was an outfit choice.

M: It was very bad. Yellow undershirt t-shirt over an off-white button down? 

E: Pretty bad.

M: There were some pretty classic girl-among-the-boys beats. The peeing thing is pretty cliche. 

E: I cannot imagine peeing in front of someone. Like, do boys really do that? I guess so, that’s what urinals are.

M: To be fair, the actor was not really peeing. We got some sound effects. 

E: I am like 60% sure that most boys do not comment on the size of each other butts though. But I mean, what do I know?

M: There was also that most classic of boys sleepover moments: listening to an old record that reminds you of your dad, who is either dead or went out to sea to try to recoup his gambling debts, and then crying. 

E: I thought you were going to say, the classic boys sleepover moment of sewings eyes on dolls for 5 cents a piece.

M: That one pretty much goes without saying, doesn’t it? Fellas?

E: Let us know in the comments, fellas.

M: I’m excited for the next arc. I think having a commoner in the mix is going to do some good things on the romance front. 

E: Waffle boy on the run from the cops with his waffles.

M: Delinquaffle

E: Alternatively he’s just going to be a Woo-bin: Waffle Edition. And that’s pretty good too.

M: There’s money in the waffle stand!

E: THERE’S ALWAYS MONEY IN THE WAFFLE STAND!

M: Han-gyul has some good business sense, I’ll give him that. A waffle pop-up at Wangia coffee? The women’s college is gonna love that. 

E: So, I have a prediction on that front, because I was really wondering what would cause the pressure for Eun-chan to continue to pretend to be a boy, right? And since there’s a women’s college around that Han-gyul is going to want to appeal to and Eun-chan wants a job at this coffee place….It’s definitely going to be an Ouran High School Host Club-

M: That’s what I was going to say!!! I was waiting for you to finish, politely, chuckling at my joke. 

E: You were too late!

M: That’s a pretty good Romance Tracker all on its own. Add seven cups of coffee, plus two carafes, to the brew tally, for those playing along at home. 

E: Dang you really counted.

M: I take my blogging responsibilities seriously. 

My Hero Academia S3E21: “What’s the Big Idea?”

E: The test is over!!!! Supposedly, at least.

M: Feels like there’s going to be a final tie-breaker round. This arc will never end. 

E: There’s four episodes left in the season, for reference.

M: Man, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen real villains, huh? 

E: Hm.

M: I’ll keep it short, but a demerit system seems like a bad one for this test. 

E: I mean, it’s certainly not a super fair system, but none of any of these tests are super fair, and I do understand the rationale behind this one at least. So it’s top of the barrel.

M: I think it rewards middle-of-the-pack behavior. 

E: Middle of the pack behavior or good cooperation?

M: Probably both, but it certainly incentivizes you to make safe choices, even when those might not be the best choices. 

E: To be fair, at least in the saving people part- the safe choices probably are the best choices.

M: Yeah, and if that was the whole test, I would be fine with exclusively demerits. But with the addition of combat with Gang Orca to the menu, I think there should be some bonuses for heroic behavior. 

E: Think of it this way- as a self-assessment thing. It’s one thing to rush Gang Orca and take him out, but if your Quirk and situation aren’t actually the best suited out of the available resources, then that’s not a good move. So by adding a bonus for defeating Gang Orca, you incentivize poor hero behavior. Or, at least, selfish behavior.

M: But I think even if your skills are suited for it, you’d do better to run away. Clearly, fighting Gang Orca did not serve Todoroki or Wind Guy (whose name I genuinely took note of but forgot) well. 

E: Yeah, but they did it badly. Vanitas and Deku did it betterly.

M: Agreed! But even the commentators said that the two of them were the best suited to fighting Gang Orca. 

E: Their powers are. 

M: I mean, yes. But weren’t they kind of in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation? 

E: It’s more that they were using their powers at the wrong time. They weren’t communicating. Like, they managed to make the wind and fire work together by the end, but because of how bad their timing was it wasn’t working at first. Partially because Inasa was expecting Todoroki to use his ice.

M: I’ll drop this, but I think they both would have passed if they had run away, even though that was probably not the “right” choice. 

E: But then would that have also counted as a demerit?

M: Not as large as–

E: How do you know that?

M: You’re right, I don’t. Still, the two of them should argue it was a deliberate distraction technique to set up the right moment for Deku to swoop in. 

E: I don’t think either of them are smart enough to do that. Anyway, we don’t know the results yet.

M: I hope Mineta passes. That will prove the test is broken. 

E: I bet you could guess who will pass and who will fail at this point

M: I don’t know, I feel like I didn’t see that much of what anyone else was doing. And since it’s all based on small mistakes, even the little bit at the end where I saw them all being heroic doesn’t really give me enough information. 

E: I think the lack of information is your hint.

M: I hope Axel and Pikachu pass. They didn’t do anything wrong, other than being around Bakugo. Doesn’t feel fair to penalize them for that. They did everyone service by sort of reining him in. 

E: We’ll see! I won’t give it away!

M: I hope Iida fails because of outside demerits for his encounter with Stain. They’re like, “you started with negative one thousand points. Sorry buddy.”

E:

M: I should not have sent that to you. 

E: We did get to see how far Todoroki has come since the start of the series but also how far he has left to go in order to truly put his father behind him.

M: I’m a little bored of Todoroki and his spontaneous quarter-nudity, to be honest. 

E: We haven’t had anything from this front since like halfway through season 2 though. I mean, I won’t argue that this is the most compelling episode or anything, but I think that’s more because Inasa is so underdeveloped that it’s hard to take him seriously.

M: I’ll come back to Inasa in a minute, but I would like Shoto to have a hobby or something. Anything but hating his dad. It’s getting one note. Other than interior design, of course. 

E: Well, he went from hating his dad and actively wanting to prove him wrong to trying to ignore his dad entirely. And I think the point this episode is trying to make is that both of those are unhealthy ways to deal with this.

M: Yeah, but doesn’t anyone else in 1-A have daddy issues? 

E: Deku doesn’t have a dad lol.

M: He had gambling debt, Emma. He went to sea.

E: Actually I forgot that All-Might is his dad.

M: Get him a shirt for Father’s Day that says “I am Beer!”

E: All-Might doesn’t have a stomach, he can’t have a beer belly.

M: Wasn’t his favorite food beer though?

E: I can’t remember if it was him or Aizawa who liked the Cedar.

M: It was All-Might. 

E: Well fine then. He still is stomach-less.

M: Inasa’s thwarted Big Friendship Energy was pretty sad, if also a complete overreaction.

E: Endeavor is not a nice dude, and we should just be glad that Inasa’s good instincts picked up on that. Because I don’t want to think about all the little boys in this universe that definitely do look up to Endeavor.

M: Oh boo-hoo, a celebrity wouldn’t sign an autograph. WELCOME TO NEW YAWK BUDDY. 

E: A celebrity…but also like…a cop? Ish? Heroes exist in a weird, uncomfortable space there. When your protector basically says “you’re in my way,”  and then shoves you? That’s not great. 

M: Look, if Adam Driver is allowed to leave Fresh Air because he doesn’t want to listen to himself act, Endeavor is allowed to tell a kid to get out of his way. 

E: All I’m saying is, how hard is a “sorry kid, no time”? And also Adam Driver doesn’t protect me from world-ending threats. He is not part of the MCU. Yet.

M: If he like, dieted, he could probably be Aizawa. 

E: Lining up that live action casting.

M: Which show did you think was the most caffeinated this week?

E: Todoroki and Inasa were pretty caffeinated. As was Gang Orca.

M: Gang Orca took a few espresso shots before the test started. 

E: Redeyes.

M: Although coffee is dehydrating…

E: He puts in a lot of cream.

M: I’ll agree with that. Nothing on Coffee Prince except for waffle guy fleeing the cops (who are apparently Endeavor) had much caffeine content. 

E: Endeavor would be anti-waffle.

M: That’ll be another side-fic in my Endeavor’s Animal Home universe. 

E: “You’re in my way!” he cries as he chucks the waffle cart into the sky.

M: “My dogs are very particular about their walking route,” he screams into the stratosphere. 

E: Are you ready for next week’s episode title?

M: Yeah! 

E: Season 3 Episode 22 is called “A Talk About Your Quirk”

M: Oh. That feels a little…gross? 

E: What?

M: All-Might is like “time to have the talk.” 

E: So it’s All-Might having the talk?

M: Nah, it’s definitely Endeavor and Todoroki. 

E:

M: Prediction two, I guess: it might actually be “time to talk to your guidance counselors about your career paths and whether you really want to be a hero.”

E:

M: Prediction three: Okay, I’ve got to be bold about who passes, so I’ll make a list. Deku. Uraraka. I need to open my doodles. Alright. Kirishima, but like, by a hair. Momo. Mineta ‘cause why not. Froppy. Invisible Girl for the lolz. Tail Man. Toxic Girl. Dark Shadow. Koda. One more wild card. That’s it. 

E: Okay. 

M: Other schools too, obviously. Hair man. Vanitas. 

E:

M: Leave an f in the chat for those who failed. 

E: RIP Kaminari who died so that Kirishima could live.

M: I made a calculated choice there. They probably tied but only one could go through. 

E:

M: Prediction four: Joke and Aizawa hug goodbye. “See ya at home, honey!” Also, blonde announcer is DEFINITELY Aizawa’s cousin/dad/son.

E:

M: Prediction five: Deku finally realizes he has a crush on Uraraka. But it’s too late. 

E:

–

As always, thanks for tuning in with us on Split Screen! We’re slowly, slowly starting to keep pace with My Hero Academia. Plus Coffee Prince is great!

Next time! We get several talks and several Quirks along with our test results. And also, the coffee shop business begins in earnest.