Split Screen: The Eye of the Beholder

Hey there, Split Screen readers! Thanks for tuning in for another episode of socially-distanced-since-before-it-was-medically-essentially viewing! This week, we get our most concentrated dose of All Might fandom yet on My Hero Academia, and a whole load of secondary embarrassment with a side of surprisingly cool art on Coffee Prince! Grab your favorite caffeinated beverage, and let’s go!

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

Coffee Prince Sixth Cup (up to minute 29)

M: I’m having an increasingly hard time getting a grip on Han-sung’s character. 

E: I have never had a grip on it, so you’re ahead of me.

M: You’ve chastised me for hating on him, which is fair, but I wish the show would give me something coherent here. He’s obsessed with Yoo-joo, but he’s also playing around with Eun-chan, and apparently not to make Yoo-joo jealous, just because he feels like it. 

E: I mean, I guess it has something to do with how uncertain his relationship is with Yoo-joo in terms of her not wanting to get married. And looking for someone to talk to about that…actually, you know what, that’s it. He just wants someone to talk to, and that person can’t really be Yoo-joo or Han-gyul because of their situations.

M: Does he have even one other friend? 

E: It does not seem that way, Madelyn.

M: That’s a red flag. 

E: He seems very devoted to his work at the expense of other things. His work and now Yoo-joo.

M: Yoo-joo is pretty casually cruel about marriage. When she brought up how she’d like to get married, but it would be too complicated in his kitchen after the art show, that was some mean stuff. 

E: You would hope that you’d be able to talk with your significant other about your uncertainties though. 

Just two pals in a healthy relationship

M: It came across as very gaslight-y to me. Give him enough hope that he keeps hanging on, but make sure you neg him a little. 

E: She’s certainly testing some waters. You always interpret characters less charitably than me.

M:  I’m getting ahead of myself. The art show was as awkward as we knew it would be. 

E: It truly, truly was.

M: So many ill-advised decisions! Why didn’t Han-sung think Han-gyul would show up? Han-gyul obviously has a thing for Yoo-joo! Why did Eun-chan decide to play it so terribly?

E: *Mickey Mouse voice* “It was good!”

M: In what situation is covering your face with your hands and running around like the Hunchback of Notre Dame better than just staying quiet?

E: Eun-chan is a naturally panicky person. 

M: Jan-di was like this too, so it must be a trope, but it drives me nuts every time. Just blend in! How hard is that?

E: To be fair here, this was a bad situation for Eun-chan. There was a lot going on.

M: My new assessment of Han-sung is just that he’s incredibly dumb. Like dumb as a rock. 

E: Oh yeah, for sure. He has a brain full of dust.

When you’re trying to drop your kid off at kindergarten and the other parents are judging you

M: I can’t say I was expecting Yoo-joo’s art to be this funky mother-of-pearl sculpture stuff. 

E: It looked cool once my eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness on screen.

M: It’s always bold to make one of your characters a talented artists, because you have to back that up on screen, but I think the show passed the test. I suppose this makes Yoo-joo the Yi-jung of Coffee Prince

E: As long as she doesn’t go smashing her art pieces and breaking her hands, we’re good.

M: Eh, it’s Chekhov’s sculpture. I give it a 60-40 chance she breaks some art before this is through.

E: Anyway, what is art in comparison to Han-gyul’s secret Lego room?

M: It gives me the inverse feeling of Deku’s All-Might shrine. Same kind of embarrassing fan vibe, but warm and fuzzy. Was he paid to play with Legos in America? It sounded that way. 

E: You know, it was unclear? I mean, I could see being paid to set up dioramas with Lego or something? So, that seems like maybe what he meant.

M: The Lego store in Rockefeller Center always has giant displays, so maybe he designed those. 

E: He was very particular about the bulldozer Eun-chan attempted to introduce into the battle as not being from the same era. So, it did seem like a themed display he had going on there.

M: I hope they don’t use the Legos as evidence of Han-gyul’s arrested development. I don’t want them to be a childish thing he puts away when he becomes a real man. 

E: I’m more thinking that they were using it as something where he feels like he has to act like a “real man” in front of Yoo-joo, and therefore cannot share his Lego love with her.

*sobs just a little* this is so cute

M: Oh, I am ready for Coffee Prince to interrogate toxic masculinity for me. 

E: Whoa nelly, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

M: You’re right. But remember: girls can carry plants too.

E: But also if someone sees me carrying a plant, they are welcome to take it from me and carry it to the terrace. Especially when my boss is just bullying me.

M: I wish they would drop Eun-chan’s super smell. 

E: They can’t now. It’s her very specific character trait.

M: She made Sojiro so proud. Determining coffee beans by scent alone!

E: As weird as some of these characters’ quirks (eheh!) are, I really appreciate how the show gives us very particular things to learn about all of them. Sometimes, with Boys Over Flowers, the characters faded into the relationships. But this show is more individualistic, I guess?

M: I think that’s why I haven’t latched on to Yoo-joo and Han-sung at all, because of everyone on the show, they’re the most generic. I know that they’re both artists, which to me, is lazy characterization. 

E: “Artistes.” Hey, Yoo-joo dated Donkey Kong, that is a very specific character trait.

M: Donkey Kong was her patron or something. Donkey Kong, little known member of the Medici Family. 

E: Donkey Kong appreciates the arts.

M: Would you ever consider eating a six pizza slice sandwich?

Yum tbh

E: Like half of one, maybe. I kinda want pizza now. Been a while.

M: Think about the spit bucket they must’ve had for that scene. She’s chewing in like all the shots. 

E: It’s just cruel that she doesn’t get to eat it though. I couldn’t do that. I would just be through that pizza.

M: Not that anyone in NYC takes public transit anymore (except the essential workers, thank you!), but crying on the bus is a big mood. 

E: As I said during the show, Bostoners do not cry on public transit. We just stare into space and dissociate until they announce our stop.

M: Please though, no matter how much your feet hurt, please don’t dig out used flip flops from the trash. Please. 

E: God, that hurt me. That scene physically pained me.

M: This is basically Romance Tracker, but how do you think Han-gyul is going to deal with these burgeoning feelings for Eun-chan?

E: Well, he’s currently in the pulling pigtails phase, so not well.

M: So much face touching involved in crushes on this show!

E: I can say that, in my few crushes, I never really had an urge to touch their faces. That’s a show thing, I think.

M: Blowing on their faces though, very real. Very relatable. Think we’ve all been there. 

E: Anyway, Mr. Hong just wants them to get together already and stop bothering him.

M: So he can eat his five-second-rule popsicle in peace. 

E: I’m assuming the fruit pops they were selling were from the apples they got last episode, and it seems to have livened up the cafe a little.

M: At least the boys are looking cute, minus MIn-yup. 

E: I like Eun-sae more and more each episode, she speaks her mind.

M: I’m excited for her to hopefully get more involved in the action. 

E: Oh, before we wrap up, we did end the episode with Eun-chan admitting to Han-sung that she’d liked him, but also deciding to move on from it. Which was surprisingly not awkward in the moment, but I’m sure will cause some trouble down the line.

I really like this shot though

M: The less he talks in any given scene, the better. 

E: Less talking, more Sweeper.

My Hero Academia S4E3: “Boy Meets…”

M: This episode brought to you by Funimation Premium. 

E: I really thought they used to do Simuldubs the week after like normal episodes. And especially since the last few episodes of the dub are delayed due to coronavirus, you’d think they’d release what they already had early. (EDITOR EMMA: They have now released the first half of the season for free. We’ll see if I have to subscribe again when we reach the second half)

M: I know, it felt like a cash grab during a time where everyone wants a ton of streaming, which is kinda gross gross. 

E: I won’t get into a frustrated thing about FUnimation here, but their website sucks, and while I’m aware it was probably because Sony bought them, taking their shows off VRV sucked, and this Simuldub thing sucks. So there.

M: Note the capitalized letters in Funimation above. 

E: Anyway, this episode, we learned that Sir Nighteye is just a grown-up All Might fanboy.

M: How was he able to survive being All Might’s sidekick? 

E: Deku manages to be All Might’s student! So, you know, you just reign it in.

M: Deku cries about it every episode, and probably every night, maybe on breaks between classes in the bathroom too. 

E: I would like to imagine that is also what Sir Nighteye did.

M: I’ve discovered that I get a lot of emotions about people, even fictional people, who really love something? It’s hard to describe. 

E: Mortified apparently?

M: Like that, but also overwhelmed with the wholesomeness of it all? That tenth anniversary poster? That killed me. 

E: It’s not even a nice poster, is the thing. It’s just a picture of All Might with “Tenth Anniversary” next to him.

My favorite is the All Might Nendoroid

M: But he’s kept it so it isn’t creased! It looks shiny new, and All Might is like seventy years old. 

E: All Might is 49 years old, says Google.

M: Okay, sure. 

E: Anyway, despite bonding over a little-known incident of All Might rescuing a child from drowning in vinegar, Nighteye is not enthused about taking Deku on for a four week work study. It’s not four months. Just putting that out there.

M: I consider myself clarified. 

E: I don’t really know how they managed to bungle “months” for “weeks” in that translation, but they did it somehow.

M: It does make more sense for a work study to be a semester long, to be fair. 

E: But it would be extremely hard for someone like Tokoyami who is now going to Kyushu for his work study, if he was away from school for large swaths of time over four months. 

M: Eh, as we’ve discovered, distance learning is a possibility. 

E: Poor Aizawa.

M: Aizawa on Zoom! His virtual background would be the inside of his sleeping bag!

E: He would not be an effective virtual teacher. I wonder if he can use his Quirk over Zoom?

M: Send some fan mail asking. I should probably make some fan art of the kids on Zoom. 

E: I think you should

M: So, how many people know about All Might’s power? 

E: All the teachers. Nezu

M: Wait, I don’t think all the teachers know. 

E: Oh, I guess I was thinking that they all knew his power was leaving him, but I guess they don’t technically know about Deku probably.

M: It just feels like something Sir shouldn’t be screaming about when there are other people in the building specifically commenting about how they can hear things in the room. 

E: Deku was the one screaming, to be totally technical about it.

M: Fair enough. It still seemed irresponsible. How trustworthy is Bubble Girl?

E: She knows what will happen if she says anything. Straight to the Tickle Machine.

Being Bubble Girl is hard

M: I really thought Sir was genuinely impressed that Deku hadn’t ruined his merch for a moment. 

E: It made him laugh! Which seems to be a form of impressing him, according to Mirio.

M: It was a mistake for Deku to take this position. 

E: Sure, but there was no way Deku was going to back down from that challenge. 

M: Agreed, but he even recognizes that this is a toxic situation, and yet he’s willingly subjecting himself to it. 

E: I just want to point out that your immediate suggestion to replace this “toxic situation” was for him to go to Endeavor.

M: I think he has things to learn from Endeavor! 

E: Does he not have things to learn here?

M: I think he would get a similarly harsh experience minus the deep, deep personal animosity with Endeavor. 

E: Last time he talked to Endeavor at the Sports Festival, he was basically like, “Eff you, old man!” So…

M: Which is why Endeavor would push him hard, but not in an existential way. 

E: I just think that’s bad too. That’s all. 

M: Did I say all of my ideas are good? Remember when my suggestion was for Deku to ruin all of the All Might merch to distract Sir?

Deku better know what will happen if he touches that poster. Tickle Machine.

E: If only Deku had gotten a Big Three Summons from one of the other two.

M: Really what he should have done was grabbed that 10th anniversary poster and jumped out the window. 

E: The issue with all of these plans, however, is that Nighteye would be able to know what he was doing. As if he’d allow him to touch the tenth anniversary poster.

M: I’m excited to learn what the restriction on this quirk is. 

E: It does sound pretty overpowered right now, doesn’t it?

M: Well, right now it’s a little too much like Aizawa’s with the vision-reliant execution. So if the trick is it only works until he rubs his eyes or something, that’ll be lame. 

E: He can’t touch his face right now. 

M: On a completely different note, I do not like the pair of Todoroki and Bakugo. 

E: “We need to work harder, Bakugo.”

M: I just feel like Todoroki is going to snap and graffiti the building or something. They’re going to get up to some mischief. 

E: Might be good for him. Todoroki needs some fun in his life.

M: Todoroki just needs a copy of Animal Crossing and to decorate his house like a crazy person. 

E: He does like interior decorating.

When you follow someone on Twitter, but they have you muted

M: I can’t take Aizawa saying Big Three over and over seriously. 

E: Well. I hate to say it, but you better get over it soon.

M: I was glad to see Tokoyami taking advantage of some affirmative action. 

E: Birds of a feather flock together, bro.

M: That’s a little racist. 

E: Anyway, we finally met the girl in the opening and ending during the post credits in this episode.

M: Why was Deku alone? 

E: Was he?

M: He seemed to be the only one in a six foot radius at least. Responsible in our world, but not in theirs. 

E: I ‘unno.

M: Oh right, I forgot that Mirio is probably hanging out down in the concrete. 

E: “Surprise, little girl! That’s physics!”

M: No, Emma, that’s chemistry. The element of surprise. 

“Sup kid.” – Overhaul, probably

E: Lawsuit watch! 

M: Nothing much to report on Coffee Prince

E: Workplace harassment for making her move that plant like twenty times.

M: That’s true. Is that worse than the whole “earn your internship” test?

E: It’s just like a Quirk-based interview. You know? It’s fine.

M: I guess Coffee Prince takes it! 

E: Rather mild this week. You can sue Aizawa for making you listen to him say “Big Three summons”

M: Okay, gimme the next title before I file my complaint. 

E: Season 4 Episode 4 is called “Fighting Fate”

M: Prediction one: Mineta somehow gets a dope work study. Don’t do it. 

E: ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ

M: Prediction two: Deku ends up going undercover with the Plague Doctor. As a hero gone bad, a dirty hero. 

E:

M: Prediction three: that little girl is an experiment from the same people who made Nezu. 

E:

M: Prediction four: Aizawa says Big Three four more times. 

E:

M: Prediction five: this is probably not this episode, but that girl is going to love being tickled. 

E:  

As always, thanks for following along on Split Screen. As we mentioned, we’re watching the MHA dub on Funimation and also Coffee Prince on Tubi. 

Next time! Shrek the Third. Also! Deku faces a few hard truths. You know what would make him feel better? Shrek the Third.

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