Split Screen: Everything’s Going Swimmingly…Or Not

Thanks for tuning into Split Screen! It’s your intro host Madelyn, remote control poised and ready to play this week’s programming double-header! This week, we’re hitting fast-forward and then taking a quick pause on both shows. On Boys Over Flowers, Jun-pyo is MIA, so Jan-di has to shoulder the burden of keeping the romance alive…literally. Meanwhile, the students of Class 1-A have injuries of their own to nurse, plus a new addition to their workload: that internship grind! We’re catching our breath after the craziness of the past few weeks, so if you’re planning your holiday binge schedule, this is the perfect place to jump in!

(Jumping in? Catch up on all our blog posts here!)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 13 (up to minute 35)

M: After the high drama of the past couple months, we finally got a slow episode this week.

E: If you don’t count the way it accelerate through six months of time.

M: Nothing significant appears to have happened in those six months.

E: I mean, the significant thing is that Jun-pyo has not contacted either Jan-di or the rest of F4? Kind of unclear on that latter one, but he certainly has not reached out to Jan-di during this time.

M: I feel confident he hasn’t talked to F4 either. Ji-hoo was watching the news about him too.

E: We didn’t see Jun-pyo at all this half episode in fact. Except in newspaper clippings.

M: Do you think the actor had a big audition that week or something?

E: I don’t know, I wasn’t surprised by the fact he was absent. I doubt they wrote the whole “dad dead” storyline to compensate for his one audition that week.

M: That was a big revelation. His dad, whom we never met, is dead!

E: RIP Mr. Jun-pyo, we didn’t know thee.

M: Jun-pyo is his first name, but good try.

E: RIP Mr. Jun-pyo’s Dad, we didn’t know thee.

M: I think it’s Chairman Gu.

E: Did you never call your friends parents like Ms. Whatsherface’s Mom or whatever?

M: I’m sure I did.

E: Well, that’s what I was doing, so I don’t need a pedantic lectures about last names, thank you.

M: Zing. Anyway, it’s also possible that in the past six months, F4 has graduated from high school. Jun-pyo is in college, at the very least.

E: I mean, I thought they were all a year older than Jan-di, so if they’ve moved up a year in school, it makes sense that they’ve all graduated.

M: Maybe that’s why we didn’t see much of Woo-bin. He’s busy running whatever business his family owns.

E: Thank you, Jan-di, for reminding us that inheriting a company is his thing. Could have specified what kind of company, but, then again, we don’t really know what kind of company Shinhwa is either.

M: Shinhwa is mostly real estate, I think, but they have their fingers in a lot of pots.

E: Well, thank you, Madelyn, for reminding me.

M: The major drama this half-episode concerned Jan-di’s shoulder injury. It shouldn’t have surprised me that it was a result of the brutal beating she took…last episode? Feels like forever ago. But surprised I was.

E: “Brutal beating” is a bit much. That’s what happened to Jun-pyo, she just took a chair to the back.

M: That’s more brutal a beating than I’ve ever taken, so I’m leaving it in the general category.

E: I rammed my back into the corner of a coffee table today, so I think I’m about even with her.

M: Go to the hospital right now, or you’ll never be able to drink coffee again.

E: In all seriousness, 1. I don’t believe that Ji-hoo- MAMA Ji-hoo mind you- would wait six months to force her to go to the hospital. And 2. I just can’t get invested in this losing swimming thing, because it’s never been an important driving force in Jan-di’s character or the plot at all.

M: I wonder if in this case, our bizarro watch schedule is making this seem much less impactful. You’re right, she doesn’t swim every half-episode, and she hasn’t been at the pool much in what for us has been the past month or month and a half, but in episode terms is really only like two or three episodes.

E: I think it’s lacking even if we were watching this episode by episode. It’s always felt like something they pay lip service to, and a plot mechanic to get her into Shinhwa, but it’s never felt personally important to her.

M: Fair enough. We’ll see how it’s handled moving forward. It looks like we’re going to get some kind of farewell ceremony, and maybe that will be that. One more thing: is Jan-di going to be able to continue to attend Shinhwa if she can’t swim?

E: It’s not like she’s doing competitions. Hang out in the pool for an hour every once in awhile, and nobody can prove you’re not still swimming.

M: You’re right, you’re right.

E: But, I can hardly even think of anything particularly important that happened this episode. We got a bit of Yule, the fish man came back to the porridge shop, and they sold some porridge for once.

M: Thanks to the excellent marketing skills of F4.

E: Marketing *wink*

M: AKA Woo-bin’s fly pocket square.

E: I don’t know if it’s always been this way, and I hadn’t noticed, but F3 has the exact same haircut now, just with different color shades. It was very obvious when they lined up next to each other.

M: Mom cuts all of their hair herself. Including her own.

E: Highlight of the episode for me was Yi-jung suddenly turning the apparently in-universe music off.

M: That was a genius moment of sound design, because in the previous scene, we were just talking about how, as Jan-di was filming her video message to Jun-pyo, the piano music didn’t match up with when and what Ji-hoo was playing. AND THEN they got us good.

E: It’s such a strange choice though. Like, why choose this moment to suddenly make the music be actually there?

M: Maybe it’s an indicator that Yi-jung is the narrator.

E: GASP. I knew it. He secretly hates Woo-bin and so writes him out of the story.

M: We’re more than halfway through the series and he’s still a glorified extra. Poor dude.

E: Yi-jung took Woo-bin’s real role and self-inserted himself. Plot twist.

M: Man, what a smooth line, paraphrased: “all the ladies love my pottery.”

E: Props to his actor, he’s generally either actually multi-talented with his pottery and his saxophone, or at least he’s better at fake-doing-this than Ji-hoo’s actor.

M: So, one glorious Yule moment where Ga-Eul got the upper hand a bit. But otherwise, I’m just waiting for this trip to Beijing. Like, cool that this porridge guy is maybe Star Tie’s father? But I’m having trouble seeing where that is going.

E: He seemed to react to Ji-hoo picking up Jan-di which might just be, he owned a high-end restaurant and so recognizes him, or, knowing this show, could be something entirely different.

M: He really likes Jan-di, right? Who knows. Maybe Jan-di is the product of an affair, and this is her real dad. And he’s rich.

E: No! Not Dad’s Name!

M: Li-bong!

E: I thought it was Yi-bong?

M: Shoot! Definitely ends in bong.

E: I retained the -bong part, and the ee sound at the beginning, but not what consonant it starts with.

M: They’ll probably say it one more time before the end of the series.

E: Yeah, and, shockingly, that’s really all that happens this episode.

M: I had predicted we’d have a break from the Jun-pyo x Jan-di roller coaster. I thought it would be a breath of fresh air, not just dull.

E: I mean, last time was our midseason finale one so I guess we’re just reacting to the drama at its highest dropping back down to rising action.

M: You’re right. There’s gonna be a big reveal about Shinhwa soon, no doubt.

E: Romance Tracker?

M: Yule seems to be headed toward something more satisfying, thank goodness.

E: I think that when they get to Beijing, as they inevitably will either this episode or next, Jan-di will see Jun-pyo with another girl and misunderstand.

M: Aren’t they past that?

E: Six months with radio silence does not do wonders for a relationship or the trust in that relationship.

M: I think there’s something shady going on at Shinhwa. That, or Jun-pyo’s father really did die because of shock related to the Jan-di situation, and Jun-pyo is trying to process.

E: Well, I think when they get there, they will either mess something up with Jun-pyo or witness him doing something shady-looking. How about that?

M: That seems right. Let’s make sure we track the budding romance between Star Porridge Tie and Ji-hoo too.

E: For sure. Nothing says blooming crush like whatever that little pastry was.

M: I’m pretty confident it was a pancake.

E: Than a tiny pancake.

M: Bite-sized. Travel-sized.

E: The size of a heart.

M: Did that Jun-pyo shadiness count as your non-romantic prediction?

E: I guess so, yeah, since I backed it down from a romantic one.

M: I think Ji-hoo and Jan-di’s mom are gonna have a good maternal heart-to-heart at the concert hall.

E: Oh, I forgot she fell in love with him.

M: And that he secretly arranged jobs for them.

E: The mom is strong with this one.

My Hero Academia S2E13: Time to Pick Some Names!

M: It’s a slow week on Split Screen.

E: Like I said with Boys over Flowers, this one is also transitioning into a new portion of the story. Without the six months of lost time.

M: It’s better this way. If the stakes were really mismatched, it would feel pretty lopsided.

E: I actually sometimes wish there was more downtime in My Hero Academia, but that feeling mostly comes later in the series for me.

M: There’s been a fair bit built into the Sports Festival. The spectating stuff serves as character building time.

E: No, I like the Sports Festival, mostly, although like the one-on-one fights weren’t always thrilling, I just sometimes feel like the story inserts action where it might be more beneficial to calm down and have some character moments. But again, we’re not really there yet. (EDITOR EMMA: …the second half of the third season for anyone wondering, although it’s probably obvious if you’ve watched the show)

M: What exciting things I have to look forward to.

E: Anyway, in this episode, we pick some hero names!

M: Why were so many of them so lame?

E: Well, it’s their first name, one they don’t necessarily have to stick to once they actually go pro. And also Aizawa gave them like 30 seconds notice.

M: Tailman?

E: Listen, Ojiro is very normal boy. Just so normal.

M: He’s not Tailboy, he’s Tailman.

E: He wants to grow into it.

M: Ew.

E: Why is that gross? You wanna fight? I’ll show you why “murder” should be in my name!!!

M: That was a great background line. Almost as iconic as Yi-Jung turning off the music.

E: But, probably the lamest names were #conflicted heroes Todoroki and Iida just putting down their first names.

M: I’m surprised that Todoroki didn’t do something like “F Endeavor” or “Daddy Issues” or “Half ‘n Half” or “Fire ‘n Ice”

E: The first two I feel like might have been shot down by Midnight, the second two are lovely.

M: Don’t tell me Midnight wouldn’t have loved Daddy Issues.

E: Fair enough. Todoroki mostly seemed like he didn’t really care about his name, while Iida felt like he couldn’t take his brother’s hero name yet.

M: I think that was the right call for Iida. What a weird thing to do a week after the attack.

E: I would agree that it’s the right thing for Iida, but I don’t think it would be that weird. His brother specifically asked him to take on the name. And he’s mentioned before that it’s a family business, like his parents were heroes too, so it’s possible Ingenium is just a name that has been passed through the years.

M: But it’s not public knowledge that his brother is paralyzed, is it?

E: I don’t know about paralyzed, but the news Deku was watching said “Ingenium may never recover?” So they know it’s serious.

M: Yeah, but that’s tabloid BS. It’s in the same bad idea world as the sports festival in general. You don’t advertise that this serious hero is out of commission.

E: I feel like that might be asking for lawsuits of like suppression of information though. Heroes are public figures. And the person who hurt him as killed almost 20 and seriously injured like forty more- something around those numbers.

M: Yeah, it’s going to have to come out eventually. But why, only five days after the injury, proclaim to the world that he’s done? Why not let the villains sweat it out a bit?

E: Again, I feel like the very least amount of effort into investigative journalism would turn up that he’s out of it.

M: Oh, I’m not talking about journalism here. I’m talking about Iida taking his name.

E: I see. But still, that wouldn’t be advertising it. He wouldn’t be registered under that name anywhere yet.

M: Okay okay, clearly no one has explained to me how the hero union works, so I’ll drop it.

E: Aizawa said that likely these would be temporary names when he was introducing the assignment. So, it follows that they’re not like announcing themselves to the world under these names yet.

M: Well that’s a good thing, because the names suck. I still have no idea what what about a third of their powers are. I thought I knew them all and then they gave names and descriptors that made no sense to me.

E: You should probably know about 3/4th of their powers at this point.

M: One of them was the Sugar Hero or something? What?

E: Yeah.

M: I had literally made a joke not five minutes before about someone’s quirk being sugary sweat and then this guy has the nerve to steal my gag?

E: Anyway, some highlights from the names, in my opinion: I like Momo’s Creati and Uravity. And Mineta’s Grape Juice. But of course, the two best are Can’t Stop Twinkling and King Explosion Murder.

M: Lord Explosion Murder.

E: You’re right, that’s way better. And, obviously, Deku chose Deku as his hero name.

M: Three year old Deku would be very disappointed.

E: Uh, I guess?

M: He didn’t pick MIni Might!

E: Oh, right. I forgot about adorable baby Deku in his All-Might onesie.

M: He’s got the right amount of chunk for a baby, ya know? They gotta be chunky.

E: All the character designs, especially for the kids, are very round in My Hero, which I appreciate. It makes them look bubbly.

M: It’ll help age them up as the series goes on too.

E: That’s also a good point.

M: The only other big revelation this episode is that All-Might is terrified of his old teacher, but Deku is going to be his intern.

E: Yup, he’s gone to train with Gran Torino.

M: On that topic, it surprises me that, if there are roughly ten thousand heroes submitting sidekick requests, everyone in the class didn’t get at least one.

E: Maybe you can only pick one to send a request to.

M: But that means these heroes are not at all strategic. If you’re not top-tier, there’s no way Todoroki or Bakugo, especially Bakugo, is going to choose you. You’re throwing away your pick.

E: Fair enough, it is weird the sheer disparity of numbers between Todoroki and Bakugo and the rest of the class.

M: I just can’t believe there’s no one out in the audience who noticed that Deku has a similar power to All-Might and thought “maybe I’d like to know more.”

E: I mean, All-Might’s power is just “super strength” when you get down to it, which he also channels into speed, jumping, etc. But Deku’s is super strength that breaks the body which seems different enough in a category where there’s probably a lot of quirks that are somewhat super strength related. Like, unless you observed them together, I don’t know if you would really make that leap.

M: Okay, fair. But Deku put up a really impressive long fight against Todoroki, the runner-up. You’re telling me that impressed no one?

E: Maybe they don’t want the liability of Deku injuring himself on the job.

M: Insurance premiums for the agency would skyrocket.

E: The last important thing is that Iida is very purposefully heading to Hosu City, Tokyo, for his internship which is the same place Stain is hanging out.

M: Thanks to an ominous voiceover from Deku, pretty sure things are gonna go south quick.

E: I don’t know if you really needed to hear Deku say that to get that impression though. Glasses on animated character are really useful for hiding expressions, and they had Iida’s greyed out through a lot of this episode.

M: I know I should have been suspicious of him going to this city. Duh. But now I know it’ll end badly. He could have gone and the hero agency kept him too busy to look, or gone and not been able to find him.

E: Okay, but Deku could mean a lot of things. Like, he finds him and it goes bad. Or he doesn’t find him and he emotionally builds up to an explosion. Or he overworks himself. All he said is that he would regret not being there for him. That’s pretty unspecific.

M: I’m jumping to conclusions, you win.

E: Just saying, we’re not in the prediction portion of this yet.

M: At least Iida probably won’t find his mentor in a pool of blood.

E: He’s alive though!

M: Of course he’s alive. No one was going to fall for that.

E: Deku did.

M: Deku’s an idiot. We know this.

E: “Holy whoa, he’s dead!” Deku please.

M: Does that qualify as workplace harassment?

E: Probably. Like hazing?

M: Something like that.

E: Speaking of- lawsuit watch! Um, I mean, not many overall, but probably goes to My Hero Academia for death threats from Bakugo and the aforementioned hazing.

M: There’s nothing to going down on Boys Over Flowers at all.

E: I mean, she could now probably sue Haje for like medical fees.

M: That’s not a lawsuit; that’s criminal prosecution.

E: Same difference.

M: I guess Jan-di’s mom might have a worker’s comp suit on her hands for that fall on the stairs.

E: Damn it, Ji-hoo, you got her out of some money!

M: It would make sense.

E: The key to avoiding lawsuits, clearly, is to just do nothing. Then nobody can sue you.

M: Word.

E: Anyway, you ready for the next episode title?

M: As I’ll ever be.

E: “Bizarre! Gran Torino Appears”

M: Prediction 1: Gran Torino is actually a wild Pokemon.

E:

M: Prediction two: we don’t see much of Iida this episode, to build suspense. Instead, Deku does a lot of weird yoga and old man errands.

E:

M: Prediction three: Uraraka and Gun Face-

E: Head. Gunhead.

M: Sure, Gunhead. I forgot Strife or whatever his name is is basically Gunface. Snipe?

E: Oh yeah, Snipe.

M: Anyway, Uraraka and Gun Head really hit it off, and Uraraka freaks out her parents by wanting to become an attack hero.

E:

M: Prediction four: Mt. Lady actually finds Mineta pretty cute.

E: (˵ ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°˵)ﾉ⌒♡*:･。.

M: That is not allowed.

E: ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)

M: Stop.

E: ( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)

M: Ugh, okay, prediction five: Aizawa takes a much needed trip to the beach to sunbathe his pale face.

E:

M: Fun in the sun.

–

Hey everyone, Emma here! Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen again this week! Some fun news: My Hero Academia season 4 has been confirmed for October, meaning we can maybe watch it sort of live depending on how the dub works out! It usually comes out in the spring season, but it seems like they wanted more time to work on this production which ain’t a bad thing. If you want to catch up with us, we’re checking out the MHA dub on Hulu and BOF on Netflix.

Next time! Deku begins his training with Gran Torino, who is a much different beast than All-Might. Meanwhile, the BOF crew probably heads to Beijing by the end of the episode. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll eat my swimming cap.