My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

The perfect companion piece to the stellar series.

僕のヒーローアカデミア THE MOVIE ～２人の英雄～ヒーロー

Boku no Hīrō Academia THE MOVIE: Futari no Hīrō

Directed by Kenji Nagasaki

Voice Talents: Daiki Yamashita, Kenta Miyake, Mirai Shida, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Ayane Sakura

Japan, 2018

Your enjoyment for My Hero Academia: Two Heroes really depends on how much you are invested in the series. Two Heroes waste no time in introducing existing characters and throws audiences right in from the get go. So one has to treat this film as a complimentary piece to the series opposed to a stand-alone film. Can you enjoy the film as it is? Well yes but you will be most likely lost in some of its more overt references and meanings, as well its intricately woven character arches that were developed in the series.

For those that don’t know My Hero Academia is one of Shonen Jumps more popular franchises. The anime series is currently in its fourth season, which is about a world that sees the population gaining super powers or Quirks as it is known in the series, as with human nature there are those that become villains and there are those that opt to be heroes. To become a hero those possessing Quirks need to get a license from the government sanctioned schools and it is here that the series focuses on our protagonists. ranked number one is All Might, the greatest hero of them all and is a symbol of peace. Youngster Midoriya greatly admires All Might but to his dismay he is born Quirkless. Through a series of events All Might bestows Midoriya his power allowing Midoriya to enroll in the highest honour hero school UA Academy. From here we meet various heroes and encounter many improbable situations. My Hero Academia follows much of the same tropes of anime with a huge cast of characters progressing though trials and tribulations with intermittent villains introduced.

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes follows the events after season 2 and we see our main protagonists Midoriya and All Might travel to the impenetrable secret floating island called I-Island by Melissa Shield who is the daughter of All Might’s previous side kick David Shield. Davie Shield is the worlds most notable scientific figure in the heroe community. During their stay on the island Midoriya bumps in to fellow UA academy class mates Bakugo, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Uraraka, Lida, Kaminari, Kirishima and Mineta and they are all invited to attend the prestigious dinner event the very same night. Unknown to all is that the evil Wolfram and his band of villains have managed to smuggle themselves onto the island with ill intentions. During the dinner gathering the villains make their presence known and manages to capture the various heroes in attendance including All Might and hold everyone hostage. Luckily the UA students late arrival has prevented them from capture and Midoriya along with his fellow class mates have to make their way to the control room to restore order to the island and save everyone.

That is the basic gist of the story and by divulging anymore will remove a lot of the enjoyment out of the film. Of course as with the anime series there are ulterior motives and double crossing involved. Most of the shows favourite characters make an appearance but some of them more so than others. As mentioned earlier Bakugo, Todoroki, Yaoyorozu, Jiro, Uraraka, Lida, Kaminari, Kirishima and Mineta all get to participate in the hero antics but other favourites from Class 1-A like Asui, Tokoyami, Shoji, Sero, Sato, Koda, , Ojiro, Aoyama and Ashido are either in a small throw away scenes or omitted entirely. The inclusion of the classmates on I-island is a bit contrived but you will be thankful for their presence as they pretty much add a lot of the films comedic highlights and fun interactions. Sadly David Shield who is quite a prominent character to All Might’s arch is never fully developed and remains a rather underwhelming addition. Audience will find it hard to really feel the connection and history between Shield and All Might and it is a great shame for Shield was an important figure in help shaping All Might’s path. As for Melissa Shield the film does try to instill some characterization to her but she does come off as rather bland, though intentionally similar to Midoriya, Melissa lacks the series character building afforded to Midoriya to create any genuine attachment.

A recurring problem that seems to crop up in My Hero Academia (and most anime for that matter) is the idea of the protagonist being at their limit and the sense of false peril before pulling the last of their powers to defeat there foe, this trope is still present in this feature. My Hero Academia’s inconsistency of how much power remains in All Might is sometimes confounding or Midoriya random fits of power surge is also puzzling but it has become a staple of the genre so for most people they have come to accept this already.

You will have to approach this as a 2 hour long episode for it feels very much like a product of the series and that is not such a bad thing considering the high quality that the anime possessed. The art style is pretty much in line with that found in the series with hard thick edges and a bright colour palette, as is the animation which is fluid. Yet a mild disappointment can be felt when the film employs the same corner cutting techniques usually found in anime series, where still frames and action lines are common place used to cheat speed and movement, this is still apparent in this feature and it would have been great to have had more character animations. The moments of intricate animations that do occur is well crafted with movements becoming balletic and the camera weaves amongst the action but these moments are few.

Director Kenji Nagasaki is no stranger to the characters and material having directed the majority of the My Hero Academia serial, with Two Heroes he retains much of the elements that made the series so enjoyable, with the offbeat humour, flashy visuals and endearing cast of characters. The voice actors return in their respective roles and as per usual they perform well. Most notable is the ever reliable Daiki Yamashita who instills Midoriya with a sense of awkwardness and at the same time confidence.

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes does not quite offer the standards of a big budget feature but its quality is still high. Those that have enjoyed the series will surely enjoy this feature for it retains much of the series formula and style. Those that have not invested in the series will be baffled by some of the characters and ramblings but there is enough energy and style to sustain enjoyment none the less.