What’s up you guys I’m back with my review on the new My Hero Academia movie, Heroes Rising. Here’s your warning right here there will absolutely be spoilers so I’d stop right here if you haven’t seen the movie.

Let me all say this first. I loved the animation by Bones, it was wonderfully done and deserves all the kudos. I also understand this movie is not cannon (as far as I know). However this will not stop me from critiquing as I see fit. With that said here we go!

To start off, I loved how the movie showcased the other heroes in Class 1-A. So to kinda summarize, the students are selected to protect this island after a hero retires. This is so they can continue to get experience as heroes to help against the League of Villains, with no pro-heroes to help. So picture all the students on a nice happy island running errands for the townsfolk. You know, stuff like fixing a moped, helping at the beach, and helping with farming. And to be honest it was so cool to see characters like Mina, Sero, Koda, and Sato playing a bigger role in the hero-ing. Honestly this was probably the best feature of the movie. Yes we know the story centers around Deku, Bakugo and sometimes Todoroki, it’s worth seeing the other characters utilize their quirks.

A great example is seen during the final fight against the villain Nine. There’s a scene towards the end where the class begins to roll out Deku’s plan to fight Nine. They separate him and his two sidekicks on three different routes. Nine takes the center route and is met by Momo and Aoyama, but the duo I really want to highlight during this sequence is Sero and Uraraka. Man, their powers were used soo well in this battle! You have Sero looking like Spider-Man taping and throwing rocks. Uraraka would touch the rocks to make them float for Sero to throw. And we even get to see Uraraka push herself to her limit floating gigantic boulders in an attempt to stop Nine from his pursuit.

But not everyone’s power was used to its full potential. Kirishima and Tokoyami were seen, but I felt were not able to show their true growth they’d achieved working through their internships. We did get to see a battle with Dark Shadow, but it was short-lived. And I’m still not quite sure why Kirishima was not able to cut through Mummy’s wraps? I mean I understand him being trapped, but why couldn’t Kirishima activate his quirk? Bakugo was able to blast out of Mummy’s entrapment. Just doesn’t really make sense. Tokoyami had pretty adequate screen-time, but he also just seemed average in terms of skills and fighting prowess. I mean his mentor is Hawks, the current No. 2 Hero, who is seen throughout the movie piecing together crime scenes left behind by Nine. I find it hard to believe Tokoyami wouldn’t have gotten stronger after spending time with the No. 2 hero.

And this is probably the one thing I absolutely loathed the most in the whole movie. It completely, in my opinion, gutted Todoroki and his powers. Again I understand this story was created as like a fan-service “let’s show that Deku and Bakugo can get along.” HOWEVER, this does NOT mean you can just ignore Todoroki and his power levels. Todoroki was playing a back seat role pretty much the entire movie. Like Ojiro got more screen time than Todoroki, and no offense but it’s not like he had a huge arsenal of moves to use. We got to see Todoroki do one move towards the end where he lowers his body temperature to freeze Chimera. If the movie is taking place after Todoroki and Bakugo have received their provisional licenses, then Todoroki would absolutely have gotten stronger, like Deku and Bakugo. They are not that far in front of him in strength, power, or strategy, but this was not reflected in the movie at all.

Alright now a quick blurb for the villains. So I would like to say I did like Nine more than I originally thought. The sidekicks were lackluster except for Chimera. I felt that Chimera was the only sidekick that actually had any depth to him. Mummy and Slice were just forgettable. I think the quirk stealing quirk has officially been done enough, so I hope another villain doesn’t pop up in the future with that same thing. Nine’s original quirk controlling the weather was really cool, and I wish they did more with it. My Hero has some great and compelling villains in the series so I was expecting more from Nine and his crew. They were just your basic ” I want to create a new world” power hungry villains. Nothing more and nothing less.

Since the movie was mostly focused on Deku and Bakugo, I have to spend just a little time to talk about their fight. Like I said previously, the animation was amazing. I loved what Bones did with this fight. The colors were awesome and we were able to see many perspectives as the fight progressed. I loved seeing Deku and Bakugo work together. It gave us all the “oh my gosh” feelings. I wish i had happened more authentically. As we head to the climax of the battle, Deku make a decision to (MAJOR SPOILER HERE) transfer the One-for-All quirk to Bakugo. This results in them both having this super charged power up that mad their hair glow. We’ve already seen this in Deku after he fought and beat Overhaul, but this was the first time seeing Bakugo with a charged up form. The heroes really complimented each other in their battle. Bakugo is obviously the more aggressive fighting style, but it suits nicely against Deku’s powerful, but calculated strikes. I hope the potential to see this tag team appears in the anime, so we have more time to continue to develop their characters. The team up in the movie did feel rushed. But I guess that’s fine since the fans got the fight sequence they wanted.

There were definitely other plot holes and inconsistencies in the movie, which I would like to dive into deeper in a podcast episode. Overall, the movie was cool as a stand alone, not canon type of anime movie. If you’ve never seen My Hero Academia, you could watch this movie and enjoy the characters just as much as a devoted fan. That may have been the purpose all along, and if so the movie definitely succeeds. I would recommend Heroes Rising if you just want a cool story to watch with all of your favorite heroes from Class 1-A. It’s fun and has plenty of action to keep you entertained.

Thanks for checking out my review! Let me know what was your favorite part of the movie? Peace!