Anime Movie Review - My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

Even with its many flaws, I still find the manga of My Hero Academia by Kohei Horikoshi a really enjoyable reading. So when two weeks ago its first animated movie was released here in Italy, I decided to give it a chance and see how it was. The movie was made by Studio Bones, the studio which is also working on the animated series, and directed by Kenji Nagasaki. It takes place between the ending of the second season and the beginning of the third season, during the characters' summer break, and it's set on "I Island" in the occasion of a scientific Expo where an old friend of All Might lives and works.

Rather than aiming high for the first cinematic adventure of My Hero Academia's protagonists, the plot of the movie is a pretty linear and self-contained adventure, without any epic nor "big events". Two Heroes just takes every member of the main cast and gives each one the time to interact between them without defining any new arc for them, focusing only on giving to the fans the joy of seeing these characters on the big screen doing what they always do. There's a lot of good humor and nice action in every part of the movie, what's missing is something "new". Neither the story or the dialogues tries to convey anything new about these characters, their struggle, motivation or even about the themes of the original series. It's just a filler work that doesn't add anything to the franchise.

Equally contained is the work made for the visuals. Yes, there are scenes with really good animations, especially at the end of the movie, but overall My Hero Academia: Two Heroes just looks "okay". It almost never goes beyond anything that wasn't already done in the best episodes of the series and the directing of all the non-action scenes just feels flat. Despite this, I enjoyed a lot the action at the end of the movie, with a climax that really shines and some great animated scenes. Even if the whole script does nothing to build the drama of the last part of the movie, you can really feel the tension of the battle between Deku, All Mighty and the villain of the movie.

Taking place between two precisely story-arcs of the main storyline and by not contradicting it, the movie easily prides himself of the staus of "canon" even if it doesn't introduce anything that could have consequences on the series (the only elements that could have consequences, two inventions, are destroyed near the end of the movie). Instead, the movie seems to focus on reintroducing all the elements which are the foundation of the series, for the benefit of an audience who knows nothing of My Hero Academia and that at the end of the movie will come out knowing who are these characters, how they relate to each other and what's peculiar about the world in which they live. This focus impacts on the script not only with the flashbacks from the main series or the many gags between the main characters, but also on the new characters of the movie whose personal story is directly binded to the main themes of My Hero Academia. Melissa, for example, isn't anything else than a "mirror" of Midoriya, they even share the defining drama of not having a Quirk.

It happens all the time to see, in this kind of movie, villains who are dull and meaningless. My Hero Academia: Two Heroes makes no exception to this rule, offering us some really forgettable villains, both in their designs and in their characterizations, which I wouldn't have minded if at least they had tried to give them some cool and inventive power, but they didn't. However, the real flaw of the movie is the plot surrounding the two characters introduced: Melissa and David Shield. Melissa, as I said before, is nothing more than a mirror of Deku and only serves the purpose of reintroducing the dynamic that occurs between All Mighty and Deku (the hope in the new generation who has been inspired by the old one) only with her and her father. David Shield, her father, should have been the center of the drama in the plot, but his time on screen is really short and it's all concentrated near the end of the movie. The audience discovers his struggle at the end of the movie, when there isn't enough time to make a connection with him. So there's no pathos to the movie, no personal drama to lead the plot, only the sense of justice of the protagonists ('there are bad guys, we have to catch them'), also making the few plot twists really predictable.

In short, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is a movie who tries to be both a fanservice adventure for old fans and a nice introduction to the series for a new audience, succeeding in both. Where it does not succeed is in standing in its own, in conveying its own themes or saying anything new that hasn't been said already in the series. If you're looking for something interesting, you'll be disappointed. If you just want to have fun with these characters, give it a try.

So, this is my first article without Lupin The Third or Monkey Punch, however I hope you've still enjoyed it as much as those others. I'm trying to invest more time on this blog and in writing new articles, so be sure to visit it often! I've also decided to open a new Facebook Page to keep you update on new articles and to post things related to manga, anime and comics. If it's something you might be interested, please make sure to follow me. You can find the page here. Also leave me a comment to let me know what are your thoughts on the movie and my review!