EPISODE CONTEXT

Sitting at the season's midpoint (episode 15 of 25), this marks the transition from the Sports Festival arc's competitive spectacle into the darker, more consequential Hero Killer arc that dominates the season's back half. The previous episode established the internship framework that sent Midoriya to Gran Torino, and this episode deepens both that training and the villain machinations that will soon collide with it. Everything here — the ideological friction between Shigaraki and Stain, Midoriya's evolving control — is precise setup for confrontations that define the rest of the season.