Hey there, Split Screen readers! Madelyn here. This week’s intro comes to you courtesy of a morning cappuccino, so I am both very on-brand for Coffee Prince and also shaking a little. Everything is fine! This week, Eun-chan reveals her powerful quirk on CP, and we enter, somehow, into another round of the interminable provisional license exam on MHA. I’m buzzing with excitement to find out what happens…or is that just the espresso? Find out below!
(New to Split Screen? Binge the whole series here!)
Coffee Prince Episode 2 (from minute 30)
M: Coffee Prince is already setting up a much more tangled web than I anticipated.
E: Everybody somehow knows everybody. It’s like five degrees of Kevin Bacon but it’s five degrees of Eun-chan.
M: I was stunned that the Coffee Empress and everyone’s favorite local coffee slob seem to be…ex-lovers? Maybe?
E: I was kind of wondering if he was her son, but that didn’t seem right either. Some sort of storied history between them.
M: We’ll find out in episode fourteen that he’s Han-gyul’s dad.
E: No, it’s just that he’s Han-gyul’s real dad because he loves him like a son.
M: Ooooof. Too wholesome for this time of night.
E: I like that things are moving along at a decent clip.
M: Yeah, Han-gyul and Eun-chan becoming really good buddies was not something I expected to happen in the span of two episodes.
E: With complicated fist bumps and everything.
This is bad fistbump etiquette
M: I also wasn’t expecting Eun-chan to have a quirk!
E: She was doing that sniffing thing last episode, I think, but they really played up how super-powered it is in this one
M: Eun-chan! Her quirk: Sniff! She can smell any odor from a distance of one hundred meters!
E: Thanks, Present Mic. Go back to your own show.
M: When she smelled coffee at the Chinese restaurant, it was almost too meta. The real coffee prince was in front of you all along.
E: Now, did that man pee himself or not?
M: See, I thought the reason he was taking off his shoes was because the pee had run down his leg and moistened his socks. I don’t know how to verify that.
E: Here’s a plot hole though. If Eun-chan could smell that man’s pee, she should have been able to smell which of the children had actually pooed their pants.
M: She didn’t want to use her powers for that. Understandably so.
E: I would probably also throw up at the sight of a child’s poop.
Well…I don’t see any pee…
M: Here’s the thing though: we saw a quick shot of that child’s butt, and it looked clean. So Han-gyul would have had to be really looking for it.
E: These children also beat him up before class. Maybe it was just the close proximity, he re-lived some trauma.
M: They were so cute, but they also literally bound him head to toe, gag included.
E: Children are terrifying. Especially in small groups left without supervision. It’s Lord of the Flies here.
M: All because Eun-chan had to abandon the lightest of all light-weights to discipline her sister for amateur money-lending.
E: You know, at least she’s trying to pay her own way. In her own way.
M: She’s charging interest, right? That’s how she’s making money on this hustle?
E: I think that is how moneylenders usually make money, yes.
M: Her sister is not supposed to be that smart, so you never know.
E: She’s street-smart, not book-smart.
M: She’d better hope so if she’s going to track her accounts in her brain and her brain alone.
E: Yeah, I have a feeling that that’s not going to end well.
M: The mafia will no doubt get involved.
E: I didn’t really mean that bad, but sure, the mafia will get involved. No doubt.
And we know what the mafia does to people who owe them money
M: Sister is also possibly skimming money from her family. She got the seed money from chestnuts and dolls, which are family business things. That’s not cool.
E: She does work on that though.
M: Yeah, but they’re five thousand dollars short on rent.
E: Still though, it’s just bits of money that she was implying to have saved up over many jobs. Probably mostly just her allowance- or she considers it that way.
M: Eun-chan is more or less prostituting herself, while her sister had over a thousand dollars that she told no one about.
E: She doesn’t know what Eun-chan is doing! But we’re letting this go because we’re getting into that back and forth spiral that usually has to do with ice blasts.
M: I hope we get to see her sing.
E: They’d have to.
M: Will she be good? And will the character be good?
E: I think she’ll be a good singer. I don’t totally understand your other questions.
M: I just meant will the actress have the chops her character is supposed to have.
Her uniform is super cute. Just saying.
E: Ah. Probably.
M: Anyway, backtracking a bit to the most potent sake on the planet.
E: He’s just a consistent lightweight.
M: Why didn’t he spit it out? Sake doesn’t taste like water!
E: He’s a well-mannered rich boy who has probably been told never to spit out his food in public. So it was too late.
M: Maybe you’re right. Still, what a weird character trait.
E: Weirder than the sniffing?
M: It just doesn’t make physiological sense? He’s a decently big dude!
E: Aren’t there some health conditions that make you less tolerant to alcohol? There must be.
M: Probably. You’re right, he’s probably dying of a rare disease and this is the first clue.
E: Again, I wouldn’t take it that far, but sure, you’re right, he’s dying of a rare disease.
M: Or he’s on some fancy medication. What else would explain that terrifying wedding dream?
E: I was a big fan of the xylophone finish to the song.
M: And the bubbles!
E: Huge fan of the bubbles.
Shame absolutely nobody attended
M: It was nice of Han-gyul to go ahead and lend Eun-chan, whom he has known for like two days, a cool $3500.
E: Her schedule rivals your schedule.
M: I haven’t made a pie chart yet, but maybe this year.
E: Could be helpful. Helpful to look at and momentarily sink into deep despair.
M: It surprises me that Han-gyul hasn’t been scammed before. He lent a bunch of money to someone who could completely ghost him immediately.
E: To be fair, he thinks he has her social security number or whatever their equivalent is. Her citizen number or whatever.
M: Clearly he didn’t check it in any meaningful way!
E: True, but I’m just saying, he does do the bare minimum to protect himself. So he just hasn’t happened to run into any particularly determined scammers.
M: It looks like some career changes are coming up!
E: I’ll miss the poopy children at the dojo.
M: Will you miss the bug crawling on eventual–
E: Nope.
M: The plot thickens. There are so many people who know Eun-chan is a girl in Han-gyul’s orbit. It’s a lot for two episodes.
Cross this off the “shows I could watch with Mom” list
E: She’s still at a point right now where she could come clean and it’d probably be fine. So I’m sort of curious if they’ll give her a bigger reason for why she has to keep pretending to be a boy around him.
M: Is he going to have a major gay awakening here? Will that be it?
E: I mean. It doesn’t not seem that way.
M: I wonder if it means he’s going to figure it out a lot sooner than I would have expected and it’ll be all about maintaining the facade for his parents? That seems like a waste.
E: She was dressed up as a girl on the next on, so we’ll see how that pans out.
M: Romance tracker? I haven’t talked at all about the B-couple.
E: Nothing much new happened with them. They’re still in an unhealthy spiral right now.
M: I’m already done with it. He didn’t let his crew EAT.
E: They probably should have said something sooner. I get wrapped up in stuff sometimes.
M: He’s so scary they didn’t feel like they COULD.
E: Well. Still.
M: Surely they’ll have to introduce a new love interest for Sweeper’s dad. Where is Sweeper, by the way?
E: We demand more Sweeper!!!
M: I think it’s clear he can’t end up with Eun-chan because she’s getting along so well with the coffee prince. Will Grandma Coffee and Coffee Dad end up together though?
E: We really have to learn some names.
M: We really need to watch on a more regular schedule. Until then, nicknames!
My Hero Academia S3E19: “Rescue Exercises”
E: The second phase of the exam has begun! Rescue exercises. Who woulda guessed.
M: I’m starting to have a more fundamental problem with this nationwide exam.
E: Well, they have seemed to have just made changes to it as a result of Stain, so Deku and crew are just hitting that unlucky SAT year, you know?
M: Shouldn’t they have quotas for different areas of the country?
E: I think that there are more tests for different areas in Japan.
M: I guess I’m not clear on what it means for Shiketsu to be the UA of the West. I thought UA was in FakeTokyo and Shiketsu was more like FakeHiroshima area. Which obviously is closer than SAT students on the US east coast versus the west coast, but still feels far apart for high school students.
E: Sure, I more meant that there’s probably stuff in more northern Japan and on all the islands that surround it. I don’t think it’s one test per country. But also, where you go to school doesn’t have much determination on where you’re going to do work. Like we saw in Froppy’s episode that she went all the way to the coast for her internship.
M: Maybe what I don’t understand is the continuing curriculum at UA. I assumed that the kids would still be in FakeTokyo most of the time for the remaining two years.
E: I’ll just say…don’t worry about that right now.
M: My point was that if you’re only planning to give out like fifty licenses, it could end up really lopsided, and shouldn’t we have quotas for each region?
E: They seem rather concerned about the overall quality right now. Which I think would mean they would think less about quotas. It’s not like college.
M: That’s exactly what I was thinking about!
Sometimes I feel like I am Deku and Madelyn is Kaminari and Mineta in this picture. Sorry, unrelated thought.
E: Like, Stain has them concerned that the public isn’t seeing heroes as qualified or is starting to lose faith in their ability. So I think that’s the rationale for the design of this year’s test. They even mention that- both this episode with flesh man in the stands and in the opening speech of the first phase of the exam way back a few episodes ago.
M: For sure. It must be extra important in FakeJapan to live in an area with good hero schools. Otherwise, you don’t get the policing that you’re entitled to.
E: Sure, but then you could rationalize that most villains are going to central hubs anyway. What exactly are they going to be doing out in the bumpkins? At least the villains that are there would likely be on a similar scale to the police and heroes there. It’s a chicken and egg situation, right?
M: Just remember, in Psycho Pass the villain went after the food supply out in the country. That’s what I would do.
E: Okay, but they probably have people on food supply duty. Not to mention that this society seems to have more than a few sources of food. Since it’s fantasy not sci-fi.
M: Rice paddies, watch the heck out. I’m coming for ya.
E: Anyway, Madelyn is planning to get hired by HUCs. Use that theatre degree.
M: Lots of real people do standardized patient work, which is more or less this, but for doctors.
E: I know that!
M: Maybe the readers didn’t, Emma.
E: Well, Deku seemed to think that they were actually in danger of dying so. I guess you’re right, they might not have known.
In case you were wondering, no, that is not a real baby
M: Does UA have any clubs?
E: I mean Mei works in the mechanical lab.
M: That’s a class for her though, right?
E: It’d be hard to just, like, play soccer.
M: Sure, sports would be pretty unfair, I remember when they all swam that one time. But what about drama club? Or art club? Or student government?
E: They do have class representatives, so they must be representing something. Iida and Momo have got some sort of job.
M: Body improvement club?
E: If only. To be fair, that’s like their normal curriculum.
M: What is the other club on Mob?
E: The Telepathy Club?
M: Thank you, I couldn’t remember the name. I guess that’s no good here either.
E: They would just have real telepaths probably.
M: So does the one on Mob, to be fair.
E: Yeah sure they do.
M: I would just like to see all of Class 1A do Shakespeare directed by Present Mic.
E: We’re giving away ideas for free here.
M: If only I could draw more than terrible-(partially)-on-purpose heads.
E: Put it in the backlog for five years from now.
M: It’ll be a spin-off of my Todoroki Animal Shelter fic. Tentatively titled: Okey-dokey Todoroki.
Next time on Okey-Dokey Todoroki
E: *long sigh*
M: Todoroki Literature Club. That’s the spin-off.
E: Anyway, we see the Class 1-A students kind of suck at this at first.
M: “THIS LOOKS BAD!!!”
E: It is a terrible thing to say in front of a bleeding child. “Child” in heavy quotation marks, but still. I was a big fan of the old man dressed like a baby that Inasa spun up in his whirlwind.
M: What an idiot.
E: He was being gentle! Gentle winds. Rock a bye baby in the treetops! You know?
M: Now I have my least favorite song of all time stuck in my head.
E: Bakugo also was not doing so well.
M: Or was he?
E: You know, he accurately assessed their injuries, decided “yeah, I would keep moving with those,” and reacted accordingly. But perhaps could have phrased it better.
Rip Kirishima and Kaminari, who made a conscious choice to follow this crazy man, it was their own fault
M: He’s going to blast the crap out of Gang Orca.
E: The poor guy. Poor Gang Orca. Why do they even host a poll for which heroes look the most like villains?
M: Because people like me make rankings anyway, even without a formal poll. Might as well get the clicks.
E: It just seems so…not great. That’s all. Endeavor should be the only one in the top ten. Just him over and over again.
M: Gang Orca’s sweater vest isn’t doing him any favors.
E: He just likes to be a little better dressed than the next guy.
M: He was wearing khakis too.
E: He also likes to appear laid back.
M: Yeah. I don’t have anything to say to that.
E: Listen, when you’re an orca with legs and arms walking around on land, you gotta do what you gotta do to make others feel comfortable.
M: The poor guy. A tough childhood. Remember how he tries to grin? Remember how he’s Froppy’s celebrity crush?
E: No!
M: She thinks his smile is cute. Everyone else hates it…oh wait. That’s Gang Seal.
E: I don’t think that was his name, Madelyn.
“What are you saying about me?”
M: I’ll just grin until you move on.
E: The only other thing of note was the author realizing that the Ochaco crush storyline wasn’t going anywhere and he should just drop it.
M: Freaking finally. Give me a story where Todoroki has to grapple with a crush. Let’s get some equality here.
E: I don’t think Todoroki is capable of a crush.
M: “I must ice blast my heart.” -Todoroki, probably
E: Anything else stick out to you?
M: The lack of a clear points system was something I predicted, but I’m still outraged.
E: That’s just a running theme in the MHA universe. No clear point system. And if there is one, it has hidden rules.
M: It’s all so holistic. I hate it. Speaking of arbitrary measurements, let’s measure some caffeination!
E: Those actors were very caffeinated.
M: But is there anything more caffeinated than the bug on Coffee Dad’s face?
E: Please stop reminding me. Was that a real bug? Or was that a CGI bug?
M: Those are questions you don’t want answered.
E: And yet I can’t help but ask them.
M: Was there anything more caffeinated than those children? On the flip side, was there anything less caffeinated than Han-gyul after a small sip of sake?
E: I think those two cancel each other out.
M: I’ll give it to My Hero if only for the sweater vest. There was one more literal cup of coffee in Coffee Prince too.
E: Gone too soon. Tragic.
M: As for Lawsuit Watch, I think the whole test on My Hero is unfair, but that’s like a Supreme Court case. There are so many wage suits on Coffee Prince.
E: Very true.
M: Okay, prediction time.
Let’s go!
E: Alright, we’re skipping the episode 20 charity episode. Madelyn will watch that when she rewatches this part with Clickbait Boyfriend. It’s a perfectly fun episode, but we are very behind and I need us to get out of this arc for my own sanity. So! Season 3 episode 21 is called “What’s the Big Idea?”
M: That is inscrutable.
E: *gesticulating* Whatssa tha big ideaaa???
M: Is that an accent?
E: Isn’t it a line from something?
M: Moving on. Prediction one: I already said that Bakugo is going to blast the heck out of Gang Orca. Building on that, those blasts will free a ton of people by accident, but even so, Bakugo will not get his license and he will LOSE IT.
E: 
M: Prediction two: somebody from Shiketsu is going to turn out to be a real jerk, and blow it for five UA kids in the process. Probably Collar Boy, on purpose, so Todoroki doesn’t get his license.
E: 
M: Prediction three: Deku will put his foot in his mouth with another fake kiddo. “THIS LOOKS HORRIBLE!”
E: 
M: Prediction four: Maybe someone will need actual rescuing, not fake actor rescuing. I was going to suggest that someone would die during this test, but I think that’s too dark. Not someone from UA, of course. But it’s a dangerous test!
E: 
M: Prediction five: the big idea is that teamwork makes the dreamwork, except when every single UA student fails for working together TOO MUCH.
E: 
–
Hey guys, Emma here! Thanks for sticking around on Split Screen! Are you caught up on My Hero? I’m caught up on My Hero. Very excited to see the dub actors take on 4:14 cause I got some serious shivers from certain scenes in the sub. Let’s not talk about it any more. Sorry. I can’t be contained.
Next time! Han-gyul explores the idea of his new business while Eun-chan gets beat up (?) in the rain, and Todoroki deals with some more of his baggage. This process would go quicker if UA gave them a therapist.