Ryan Shoots First: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising
That’s right, I have not given up my duty of shouting the praises of My Hero Academia from the rooftops and with the second feature film out in theaters this week there is no better time to exercise our Quirks and dive right in.
The first feature movie Two Heroes was largly a prequel focusing on some backstory on the worlds #1 hero All Might. Heroes Rising takes a much different approach and takes our intrepid young heroes from UA Class 1-A and places them square at the center. The big differentiator from the first film and even the anime and manga is where the film takes place… we don’t really know. The exact time frame is not given but we know it is somewhat in the future. But not too far in the future as the kids are still all in school together. That both gives the film enormous freedom to do whatever it wants without being tied down to current events and also gives us a very interesting game while watching and reading future arcs as we try to anticipate and guess when the events of the film will come up. Or if they put themselves in a corner they can always take the approach of plenty of other Shonen Jump films and just pretend like the movie happened in a different timeline all together (looking at you Dragon Ball). I can see where some may think this aspect of the film hurts it as the stakes may not seem big since we don’t have context for where it is in the grand scheme but once you let go of that and just enjoy the spectacle of the film it is a very enjoying experience.
The fun thing this time jump gives us is a little space from the ongoing storylines of discovery of powers and getting over character flaws and issues with one another. By the time we get to the events of the movie our young heroes have developed their quirks (powers in the MHA universe) and seem to be more comfortable with each other and working as a team. Chief of this is Bakugo the hot head of the group, by the time of the film he seems to not be as hostile to his classmates and has set a side much of his issues with his rivals. Todoroki is another who we see dealing with issues related to his upbringing, the overwhelming expectations of his father and forging his own identity. In the movie he seems to be much further along in this journey. Our main character Deku is another who has developed his powers to an almost unimaginable level, something that has continuously held him back. Beyond just the character development everyone’s power is much further along allowing for some absolutely stellar action set pieces that on the big screen light up even more than the small screen. It is amazing to see what type of power we have always thought they were capable of realized, especially Todoroki and Bakugo who have been on the sidelines for the most part in the anime after failing their hero license test. It’s been too long since we’ve seen them cut loose and show what they can do.
But what is a good hero without some good villains and we have some uniquely dangerous, fresh new villains for our heroes to fight. Far away from UA academy the class is working to protect a small island where not much happens. What should be an easy case study turns into a struggle against powerful foes with backup hundreds of miles away. The class is forced to draw a line in the sand and protect the inhabitants of the island. Everyone in the class gets some great hero moments, beyond the big 3 mentioned above all the other members of the class get a chance to shine and show what they can do. The strength of the show has always been it’s deep stable of characters you just fall in love with and when the show is at it’s best the people we may think are not that strong show that their creativity and determination can make them great heroes as well.
The driving question behind Hero Aca since day one has been “what makes a hero?” That single question drives everyone to become more than they thought they could be or to rebel against the hero based society to make it all come crumbling down. Heroes Rising is a great benchmark in the MHA timeline and to get even a glimpse of the amazing heroes our favorite class will one day become is worth the price of going to the theater and dealing with all the Anime Kids. So when you’re thinking it is too embarrassing to go in public and deal with everyone in their best UA cosplay just remember… PLUS ULTRA!
