Tag: My Hero Academia

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes 6.5/10

Nick SheedyLeave a comment

PG-13, 96m, 2018

With the Voice Talents of Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya), Christopher R. Sabat (All Might), Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugō), David Matranga (Shōto Todoroki), Luci Christian (Ochaco Uraraka), J. Michael Tatum (Tenya Iida), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Momo Yaoyorozu), Justin Cook (Eijiro Kirishima), Monica Rial (Tsuyu Asui),  Brina Palencia (Minoru Mineta), Kyle Phillips (Denki Kaminari), Trina Nishimura (Kyōka Jirō), Caitlin Glass (Mina Ashido), Ray Chase (David Shield), Erica Mendez (Melissa Shield) and Keith Silverstein (Wolfram). Directed by Kenji Nagasaki. Produced by Wakana Okamura, Yoshihiro Oyabu, Koji Nagai and Kazumasa Sanjōba. Screenplay by Yōsuke Kuroda. Music by Yuki Hayashi. Based on My Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi.

            Typically speaking, movies based on an anime series aren’t particularly good. While there certainly are exceptions such as Dragon Ball Super: Broly, One Piece: Stampede and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, more often than not a movie based on an anime series is typically viewed as a much lesser story when compared to the series the movie is based on and unfortunately My Hero Academia: Two Heroes falls in the same sub-par category.

The movie opens with a beautiful sweeping shot of Bald Eagles soaring in the sky, so you know this scene takes place in the United States. A young All Might (Christopher R. Sabat) and David Shield (Ray Chase) are seen stopping a vilian from getting away after robbing a casino. They successfully nab the perps and fly off in David’s car to stop another crime. We then learn this was all a dream as All might wakes up to Midoriya’s voice (Justin Briner). All Might and Midoriya are traveling to I-Island, which is man-made island where the scientists of the world reside and perform research on Quirks. A Quirk is this world’s name for a superpower, which 80% of the population possess. All Might is visiting the island to visit his friend and former sidekick David and to attend an upcoming expo on the island. David introduces All Might and Midoriya to his daughter Melissa (Erica Mendez), who wishes to become a scientist just like her father. As they travel around the island, Midoriya and All Might meet the rest of Midoriya’s classmates from U.A. Hero Course Class 1-A. They all arrived at the island for various reasons that serve no real purpose to the plot, but instead their reasons for being on the island serves as plot armor to get all of Class 1-A at the same place. At the expo, a dastardly group of villains led by Wolfram (Keith Silverstein) crashes the expo in order to obtain a headset that maximizes the power of a person’s Quirk. All of the Pro Heroes at the expo are blocked from using their Quirks to stop the villains, because if the do the villains will trigger the overridden security system to target normal people. Unbeknownst to the villains, Midoriya and a handful of students from Class 1-A are aware of the plot and are determined to stop the villains.

This film runs into some of the same problems a lot of movies based on shonen anime run into. The movie was released between the second and third season of the anime. This means that not a lot of lasting character development can occur, nor can any of the pre-established characters go through any real change. This takes away from any of the intense moments, because we know all of the characters we care about are going to turn out okay, since they’re in the next season of the anime. All of this makes the movie feel like an extended filler episode. It’s a rather entertaining filler episode, but the film does come across as unneeded.

            While the story may be lacking, the characters are anything but. A major reason for the popularity of the My Hero Academia franchise is its characters. We’ve seen plenty of movies and tv shows featuring magic schools for gifted youngsters such as Harry Potter and the X-Men films, but the My Hero Academia franchise feels fresh and that is mainly due to its wide variety of characters. Unfortunately given the length of the film, not all of the characters get as much screen time as I would have liked, and some are relegated to little more than a cameo role. The relationship between All Might and David feels guanine as the connection between the two feels like two pals that have been extremely close for many years and have developed a brotherly relationship over the years. It’s also really cool to see All Might during his youth as that aspect of the character is rarely shown in the series. The villains led by Wolfram feel generic and uninspired. This is extremely disappointing as one of the greatest aspects of the My Hero Academia franchise are the compelling and threatening villains. With its bland story, the movie could have at least provided interesting villains, instead all we get is a vilian that we’ve seen a hundred times and has no lasting impact. However, the fight between Wolfram and the combined efforts of All Might and Midoriya is a visual spectacle. The My Hero Academia series is well known for giving its viewers engaging and visually interesting fight sequences. This movie is no exception and the final battle sequence almost makes up for the generic villains with their boring motivations.

            One major issue I have with this film is its inconsistency of All Might’s power. While it is entertaining to see All Might fight, I can’t overlook the fact that he stayed in his empowered form all night. Some may find this to be nitpicking, but when the film constantly addresses the fact that All Might can’t stay in his empowered form for over a few hours, I’m unable to look past this little plot hole. This film is considered canon taking place after the twentieth episode of the third season entitled Save the World with Love. This further cements my issue with the film, as the movie glosses over an important element that cause major consequences later on in the series.

 Hero Academia: Two Heroes pales in comparison to the original series. The plot borrows many elements from films like Die Hard, only with less entertaining characters and lesser stakes. The movie is certainly entertaining to watch if only as an entrée to the next season. At best it feels like a standard shonen movie, there’s nothing insultingly wrong with the film, it’s just subpar compared to other shonen movies that are far better.

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising 7.5/10

Nick SheedyLeave a comment

PG-13, 104m, 2019

With the Voice Talents of Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya), Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugō), Dani Chambers (Mahoro Shimano), Maxey Whitehead (Katsuma Shimano), David Matranga (Shōto Todoroki), Luci Christian (Ochaco Uraraka), J. Michael Tatum (Tenya Iida), Colleen Clinkenbeard (Momo Yaoyorozu), Justin Cook (Eijiro Kirishima), Monica Rial (Tsuyu Asui),  Brina Palencia (Minoru Mineta), Kyle Phillips (Denki Kaminari), Fumikage Tokoyami (Josh Grelle), Trina Nishimura (Kyōka Jirō), Yuga Aoyama (Joel McDonald), Caitlin Glass (Mina Ashido), Mike McFarland (Mashirao Ojiro), Johnny Yong Bosch (Nine), Greg Dulcie (Chimera), Lydia Mackay (Slice), Brendan Blaber (Mummy) Christopher R. Sabat (All Might), Christopher Wehkamp (Shōta Aizawa) and Patrick Seitz (Endeavor). Directed by Kenji Nagasaki. Produced by Wakana Okamura, Yoshihiro Oyabu, Koji Nagai and Kazumasa Sanjōba. Screenplay by Yōsuke Kuroda. Music by Yuki Hayashi. Based on My Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi.

I went into this movie extremely skeptical. I didn’t care for the first film very much and I was concerned that this movie was going to commit some of the same sins. Halfway through the movie I leaned over and whispered to me friend “this movie is fantastic; it’s going to have to really crap the bed for me not to like it”. Towards the end of the movie I noticed a foul smell and I realized the film had potentially crapped the bed.

The movie opens with an intensely entertaining car chase between the League of Villains, who is transferring Nine (Johnny Yong Bosch) in a life support vat, and a group of heroes lead by Endeavor (Patrick Seitz). Endeavor manages to stop the van, however the League of Vilian escapes and Nine regroups with his followers Chimera (Greg Dulcie), Mummy (Brendan Blaber) and Slice (Lydia Mackay). We then cut to the hero class 1-A of UA High School on Nabu Island, who are performing temporary hero duties for the residents. The hero duties prove to be minor problems such as helping an elderly lady with her errands, jumpstarting a tractor and minor security as there hasn’t been an actual violent crime in quite some time. One day Midoriya (Justin Briner) receives a call from Mahoro (Dani Chambers) whose younger brother Katsuma (Maxey Whitehead) is missing. Midoriya finds Katsuma only to learn that Mahoro had only been testing the heroes in order to see how good they are. They come up short in her eyes, so she sends Katsuma to get a hero to fight a vilian, Bakugō (Clifford Chapin) rushes off to fight the villain, where he quickly discovers the vilian is an illusion created by Mahoro. Bakugō gets rightfully angry but he gets calmed down by Midoriya and he storms off. Meanwhile Nine is desperately searching for somebody who possess a cell regeneration quirk, so he can steal it and heal himself. Nine finds somebody who has this ability and this person just happens to be Mahoro and Katsuma’s father. Unfortunately for Nine, the father’s quirk only helps people with a Type-A blood type. Knowing that quirks can be inherited genetically, Nine goes after Mahoro and Katsuma. Now it’s up to Class 1-A to stop the dastardly villains or at the very least keep Mahoro and Katsuma out of harm’s way.

The movie is very forgiving to newcomers of the series who haven’t seen a single episode. This is all done masterfully without hitting audiences who are already in the know over the head with plot points we already know and without dropping so much exposition that newcomers would be lost. However, I will say that fans of the series should be familiar with events up to at least season four as several things are done or said that might be considered as minor spoilers for earlier seasons.

The final battle sequence is a hit or miss. On one hand it’s an amalgamation of everything one could love about a shonen anime. On the other hand, it could be potentially problematic and the way it ends is a deus ex machina. I say it’s problematic because a certain power has never been fully explored so therefore the ending could potentially work, but at the same time it could be a major cop out. Had the movie actually went through with a certain thing, it would have worked if the movie served as the series finally. Had this been the case I would have been satisfied with the series finally and I would have been left with a bittersweet feeling. The ending is going to make or break the film for a lot of people. The theater I saw the film at had people applauding the ending and the gaggle of girls seated next to me were crying towards the end.

The film gives most of the Hero class of 1-A a moment in the spotlight as most of the characters either contribute something to the plot or serve a vital role in an action scene. The only exception is Toru Hagakure, whose quirk is invisibility. The two characters that get the most attention are Bakugō and Midoriya. Their dynamic fighting styles look super interesting when paired up and both characters add emotional depth to the film that was powerful enough to bring some of the audience to tears. The villains while serviceable as well as interesting, were underdeveloped. I understand that the focus is meant to be on the heroes, but I wanted to know more about the villains and their motivation. Chimera and Nine were the most developed but even then, we got the most bareboned explanation about why they are evil. Nine wants to take over the world and instate a system ruled by the strong and Chimera follows Nine because he was viewed as a monster and villain all his life and Nine was one of the only people to treat him with kindness. Mummy and Slice are given absolutely no character development, so they sometimes come across as underdeveloped, despite this they do showcase some interesting abilities that do prove very threatening to the film’s protagonists.  All the audience is told about them is their powers and they follow Nine, for whatever reason. While the vilians’ motivation is generic, they’re still entertaining to watch. I particularly enjoyed Chimera who served as a fantastic secondary vilian. I would have preferred to learn a little more about him and to see him in action more as all his battle scenes were some of the film’s highlights.

The My Hero Academia series is beautifully animated. As it was given a larger budget, the animation of this movie is improved, and it looks absolutely stunning. The fight scenes are the visual high point of the movie. Although I will admit during the final battle there is a scene where the imagery looked way to similar to the Dragon Ball franchise for my taste. I like originality and while I understand paying homage to another property, there comes a point where it becomes almost a form of plagiarism. The only issue I have with the animation is the CGI, which is mostly thankfully used sparingly. Despite these little knit picks, I was completely satisfied with the visuals and the fight sequences are some of the best in the franchise.

            While I had problems with the films ending, I get why people are enjoying this film. The action sequences are great, the animation is beautiful, the music is epic and the story as well as the characters are a lot of fun. I know some will see this review as me not getting it or being too harsh, which I get because at the end of the day, this is a My Hero Academia movie and with that comes the faults of a shonen movie. Maybe I am being to harsh with this film, but I will visit this film again when the series is over and if the glaring plot hole I saw is resolved, then I’ll give the film a higher rating. Until then I’ll continue to enjoy the series and if the issue is not resolved, then I’ll just view this film as a fun shonen film.