On the 26th of February 2020 I finally got to see the My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising film and it was incredible. It is the second film based on the manga My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi. The film was directed by Kenji Nagasaki, produced by Bones and was released in Japan on 20th December 2019. My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising was finally released outside of Japan on the 26th of February 2020. For those who are big My Hero Academia (MHA) fans this couldn’t come soon enough.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising begins with the league of villains, this is a great way to capture the audience attention from the beginning since the league of villains haven’t appeared in the anime for a while and it’s really exciting to see what they are scheming. The audience is then presented with the objective of their mission, to transport very important ‘cargo’, a person named Nine. Add in the professional heroes giving chase and you’ve got a very intense and intriguing opening sequence!
The plot of the film follows class 1A of U.A. High School that are on work placement on a quiet island (Nabu Island) off the coast of Japan. Not much happens on the island which is why the class has been dispatched there after the retirement of the resident hero. The class fit in well on the island helping out all the residents with minor problems such as taking granny to the doctors and bigger ones like finding missing children. However, not everyone on the island are convinced by the heroes, such as Mahoro Shimano and her little brother Katsuma. Mahoro sets out to prove to her brother that heroes are a waste of time and that he shouldn’t aim to be one when he’s older. Unfortunately for Mahoro, Katsuma is the object of the villain Nine’s desires and they both need help from the heroes to protect them.
What’s really great about the film is that it’s not just about the two main characters Izuku Midoriya and Katsuki Bakugo. It’s about all of class 1A. Instead of hiding behind Midoriya and Bakugo some of the characters play a significant part such as Uraraka and Zero consistently fighting the main villain even after Midoriya and Bakugo at first fail. However, after saying that, the final fight scenes between Midoriya, Bakugo and Nine are incredible and beautiful to watch. With the use of a variety of colour, shots and pace you can’t help but be drawn into the intensity of the battle.
Often films related to a manga and anime series will alter some of the characteristics of main characters to fit better within a film’s plot but this doesn’t happen in My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising. This film is placed really well within the anime currently streaming (MHA season 4 part 2), although avid manga readers will know that the correct place for it on the MHA timeline will be approximately after season 5 part one.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is a truly amazing film. It has a great plot, involves all of the heroes in training and has some really tenacious villains. The animation is excellent, especially the fight scenes and even the use of CG animation for effects is styled so that it fits in with the look of the rest of this 2D film. If you managed to see My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising in the cinema during its brief release, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you missed the film, I’m sure it will be released for purchase soon and it was rated 12A in the UK.
Published: 2019.03.13