My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising Review
/By Justin D Williams
Class 1-A visits Nabu Island where they finally get to do some real hero work. The place is so peaceful that it’s more like a vacation … until they’re attacked by a villain with an unfathomable Quirk! His power is eerily familiar, and it looks like Shigaraki had a hand in the plan. But with All Might retired and citizens’ lives on the line, there’s no time for questions. Deku and his friends are the next generation of heroes, and they’re the island’s only hope.
Story: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is a fun, action pack film that keeps the same charm and tone that you expect from the anime. As described in the synopsis Deku and his friends travel to Nabu Island to finally get to do some real hero work. For the most part, Nabu Island is a very calm, peaceful place and Deku and his friends don’t have much to do. Until a villain finally shows up with one of the best Quirk I’ve seen so far. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t tell you what it is but I will say that My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising brings an edge of your seat final battle with some really high stakes. Fans of the series will be very pleased with the story, action sequences, and the beautiful animation. I love the deeper look at the world without All Might and how it weighs on Deku. Deku still deals with the weight of trying to live up to his own expectations. One way the movie conveys this is through the actual battles. Deku and his friends are up against a villain who is way out of their league. All the confidence the team exhibit goes out the door once they are truly tested. This character arc for not just Deku but the others was great to see. We get to see how each character deals with this threat and for some bruised egos. While I enjoy the story as a whole I felt that two characters that are central to the plot brought the film down for me. The characters are two children that the villain is after. Children's characters are usually hit or miss with me. Unfortunately, these two while being very important to the story were a miss for me. I felt the characters to be annoying, They fall into the anime children cliche trope. You know when the trope where to protagonist encounters a kid and that kid looks up to protagonist but somehow gets in the way. That is the best way to describe these two kids. Thankfully they don’t take a huge junk of the screentime but since they are central to the plot they do appear enough Overall the story of My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising will have fans cheering. It has some great character moments, especially with Deku.
Animation: One thing I love about anime shows getting the movie treatment is the production is upgraded just a bit. My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is gorgeous. The film has some really great cinematography during the action sequences and some landscape shots are the best in the franchise. Nabu Island beauty is realized from the great use of color scheme and attention to detail to make it a standout location.
Voice Acting: The voice acting is spot-on in both English and Japanese dub. All the actors that you are use to bring there A game for this movie. I will say the standout, of course, is the villain this time. In the English dub, his motivations and reasons are just menacing and gave me a tense feeling.
Final Thoughts: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is a fun action packed film that kicks off 2020 anime movies with a bang. The story is solid and it has some great character moments. The villain is compelling and menacing and really humbles Deku and his friends, This is definitely a must watch for My Hero Academia fans.
