Boku no Hero Academia the Movie 2: Heroes:Rising

I know before even writing this, I will be in the minority regarding my thoughts and feelings on this film. I will do my best to exclude spoilers but some talking points will probably require minor hints at what happens. Story: 6 The story for this film is as cookie cutter as it gets for a shounen anime, especially a MHA film. There's a villain who, surprise, wants to rule the world and use powers to make his own kind power-based fantasy realm that doesn't work if you think about it for more than a second or two. He, of course, has to be tied into theLeague but that isn't really used much in the film, much like the last MHA film. As seen in the trailers, the film revolves around two kids on an out-of-the-way island and how 1-A defends them and the island from harm. Basic superhero story stuff. The story, however, begins to falter as it goes further and further forward with the villains seeming much more overpowered than needs to be with no real way to beat them except the classic trope of "Try to do what you're already doing but better!" After the necessary team up fight the two main heroes of this film, Izuku and Katsuki, do what they have to do and save the day. Some might consider that a bit spoiler-y but y'know, this is a superhero film. Where the story loses a lot of points for me is how the dynamic duo take down the main villain. I won't say what happened or how it happened as it was truly unexpected but holy **** was it absolute rubbish. At what was supposed to be this film's ultimate climax and explosion of emotion and "We got this" I.... burst out laughing at how unbelievable it truly was. That's all I'll say regarding it as I can't explain much without completely ruining it. Art: 7 The art and subsequent animation that generally falls under this category was rather lackluster in regards to an anime film where animation tends to be a bit better and the drawings have a little more time put into them. As you would do, I spent a lot of the time comparing this to the last films art and animation (which I've viewed multiple times and even once before seeing this film in the theatre) and I was really let down by how just truly "eh" the film looked. The big fights and quirks looked more or less like they do in the actual anime which I felt kind of let down by. Overall though, this film still managed to achieve the MHA aesthetic and feel so that's why the art gets the highest score of this review for me. Sound: 5 WARNING: Being in the US, the theatre was playing the film in dub so that's what I'm reviewing The sound in this film was probably the biggest let down out of the whole film. Starting with what I found to be the worst part, the voices. I watch most anime subbed with dubs here and there and have actually watched most of MHA in both dub and sub as I usually really enjoy both voices for most characters. This film broke me. The dub was bad. Like really bad. Like I was wishing for them to switch to Japanese most of the time bad. The characters sounded washed out, reverberated like they were in a metal box, and overall some of the worst voice acting for this show and most anime I've ever heard. The line delivery was weak and the lines themselves felt like they may not have been translated as well as some other things. Conversations were awkward and people didn't always feel like they were actually talking to the people in the scene with them. After the voices comes the SFX in general. Again, the SFX just didn't hit me like most do in an anime. The explosions felt far away, the ambiance sounds (such as the ocean or the general summer sounds) sounded really poorly balanced and like they had been done by a "made for home release film" company. The SFX just weren't there for me. Now for the main part of sound that I never knew I'd miss as much as I did until it wasn't there: The music. The music in this film just isn't present in the way MHA usually uses music. Hype moments are punctuated with dull tracks, slower moments have light music at best and the climax of the film has some of the most awkward and weird feeling music I've ever felt and listened to. Due to the nature of the climax, I understood what they were going for but it just didn't land for me and I felt really disappointed by it as a whole. Overall regarding sound, the voices were lackluster, the SFX were very average at best, and the music just didn't play for me in the way I wanted an action film's music to hit Character: 5 This film quite possibly contains some of the lamest and unoriginal characters that have ever existed in the MHA universe. MHA usually has a plethora a fun and unique characters with weird powers that they use in a way that you fall in love with, regardless of the side they're on. Heroes:Rising does not really have that. As you discover in the early parts of the film, the villain is literally just an "All-for-One" clone, but a different person. He steals quirks and uses them to try and accomplish his weird goal of remaking Earth in his image. He's literally evil because he is evil. He is, naturally as aforementioned, accompanied by 3 "henchmen" that each have their own powers that make them equally as lame. One is just an infinitely scaling, all powerful animal dude that I was bored with every moment he was on screen. Another is literally just the Inhumans' character Medusa and the final one is a dude that controls bandages. They were so painful to watch and really unbelievable when together. The chemistry didn't exist and I often found myself wondering exactly why they all were even working together anyways. Aside from the villains there are the people of the island and the two Deus E....I mean kids from the poster. The people are typical MHA people who all have quirks or are more or less normal and they were fine as background characters. The two children, however, were certainly characters alright. A young boy, Katsuma, and his sister, Mahoro, are like a tiny Deku (except Katsuma has a power) and Kota respectively. One wants to become a hero but doubts himself and his power and his sister hates heroes and think they are a bad thing...until she is miraculously saved by one and instantly loves them. They, as primary characters that were deemed so important they were protected beyond everything, are drab and feel like they've been copy-pasted into the situation so our heroes can save the day. I did not like the added characters of this film. After these added characters, I feel I'm obliged to talk about the two selling points of the film, Izuku and Katsuki. This film was supposed to be them learning to fight and work together better so they could become a true duo for the future. They had those moments. The moments where you saw them as two friends fighting and combo-ing together to try and take down a villain and show how they were incredibly similar individuals in their convictions and overall goals. Like a lot of the film, these moments were sadly punctuated with a lot of fluff and action that just didn't seem like them as characters, even after they had grown. The climax was the highlight of this for me in where a sacrifice has to be made and it truly doesn't feel like either of them earned it or truly understand what it would mean if it actually happened the way they thought it was going to. I hated it. It felt forced and rushed and like the two characters didn't actually know what they were doing, even when the film was trying to sell you on the idea they had started to work in a sense of tandem and as a true duo, not two people fighting against the same guy at the same time. The rest of our class of 1-A had some nice moments as individual characters with many of them being forced to overcome personal obstacles or fight through limitations and...go Plus Ultra, but ultimately the rest of the cast fell very flat. Enjoyment and Overall: 6 Despite my many gripes with the film, I found myself enjoying certain aspects of the film and there were some cool action sequences. Sadly, these moments could not totally eclipse and overcome the glaring flaws of this film that caused me to laugh at the emotional climax and spend more time analysing and finding issues than enjoying what the film was trying so hard to be, a fun and fast paced superhero action film.

Long-running battle shonen adaptation spinoff movies have a number of inherent limitations caused by the very nature of their existence. Because they are attached to an adaptation despite being original works, they are functionally filler arcs and cannot do anything that would change the status quo, and any sense of genuine peril to said status quo loses all tension as a result of this. The first movie knew this very well, and so was as much of a fanservice movie as it could manage, focusing on fun character moments and action sequences, and framing it all around a story theme that not only builds on butalso improves the lore of the Hero Academia universe. Ultimately, it was one of my favourite movies of its kind. This movie does not fare as well. A lot of this movie centers around its villain, Nine, who is a much more present threat than the villain of the first movie, whom despite my near encyclopedic knowledge of this franchise I can barely remember the appearance of, let alone their name. Nine is essentially an off brand All For One, being able to steal up to Nine quirks (hence the name). While he is somewhat generic he works fine within the context of the movie, and is an active agent in the plot and a plausible threat. This movie's best accomplishment is getting all of class 1-A to be relevant and actually have something to do, some of whom have their best fights in the franchise here against Nine and his subordinates. And this movie really does go all out on these action sequences, not only having some of the franchise's best animation but also some of its best choreography. The coordinated team attacks by the members of Class 1-A are the highlight here and also give some of the less powerful class members a chance to do something useful. This is accomplished through a very awkward logical leap in its premise, however, in that the entire class has been abandoned with no supervision on an isolated island with no superpowers, this being in spite of everything that has happened to them in the series so far and them regularly highlighting on several occasions the importance of security. Being that this is for some reason set a lot later in the manga than where the anime has currently adapted up to at time of release, this could potentially be chalked up to the Hero Commission knowing the League are biding their time until spring, but that's still a significant stretch. There's going to be some significant spoilers from here on out, so consider yourself warned. The biggest development in this movie is the final battle twist, wherein the seemingly undefeatable Nine is taken down by Deku transferring One for All to Bakugo, and the two of them both using it in tandem. While it doesn't drive the plot the same way that the first movie's theme did, the main theme of this movie is the rivalry between Deku and Bakugou, and this is not only an inspired solution to an otherwise unwinnable battle, but also resonates excellently with the main motif of the movie. Unfortunately it absolutely does not stick the landing. Being that the status quo cannot be changed by this movie, it's obvious that One For All had to go back to Deku in the end. However the way this was accomplished was incredibly hamfisted - the excuse they give is that Bakugo passed out before it could transfer, which makes no sense given that he was still able to use it immediately (that in of itself being something that strains the suspension of disbelief) or possibly just that it was the will of One for All itself or something to that extent, which is a tremendously cheap copout. It's left intentionally vague exactly why but either answer is insultingly bad, which is made worse by how obvious the best solution to this conundrum really was. Bakugo should have voluntarily returned the quirk. This would have been a much more logical resolution - Admittedly they would have had to handwave why Bakugo's quirk wouldn't transfer along with it, but that'd be much easier to sell than what they actually did. This would have been an excellent way to resolve the character drama between these two throughout the movie, and certainly a much better resolution than Bakugo simply forgetting the whole thing happened. The tension in the final battle is also undermined by the characters repeatedly receiving major injuries that are totally forgotten about and vanish entirely - sometimes in the middle of the battle, such as the shot through the stomach Deku takes, which heals up (clothes and all) immediately afterwards. This goes against what I've always considered to be one of My Hero Academia's great strengths, that despite some degree of artistic license the battle damage taken is generally realistic and permanent. Ultimately the problem with this movie is that the tension is irrelevant for any change that you know will go back to normal, and in order for it to work the plot has to resonate on an emotional level. And despite that landing in some places, broadly, it doesn't. If, like me, you're a big fan of My Hero Academia, you'll still enjoy this movie (which, for all its flaws, I did have fun watching). But if you're not invested enough in the characters to care about their side stories, odds are this movie will not do anything for you.

Everything about this movie... WOW WOW WOW! 100 times better than the first. I never thought I would be able to see anime in the cinema. When the characters came on the screen I was so damn happy and excited. Will do my best to keep spoilers to a minimum! Story: 10/10 The best part about this film is that every one in class 1-A is included and have equal and awesome moments and screentime!! My favourite aspect of this movie is that they don't have pro heroes to rely on, they have to do everything themselves. We get to see how they all react in anactual deadly situation. I honestly am so proud of them all. On top of this, all of the awesome and underrated characters like Aoyama, Toru, Denki and Ojiro got their time to shine! Denki was particularly amazing haha. They all did great! My love for them all have skyrocketed. Especially my boy Aoyama, finally getting the recognition he deserves. The sheer amount of character development between Deku and Bakugo alone was.. wow. I was literally speechless. It could not have been presented in a better way. The lengths they went to to save Katsuma and Mahoro was so moving and emotional. While we're at it, the villains were also amazing. THAT CLIMAX... IF YOU SEEN IT YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKIN ABOUT! There are a few manga spoilers, which isn't the greatest if you're an anime only viewer, however these are not major. If you don't actually have the context anyway then chances are you won't even notice. HAWKS!! That's probably the most noticable spoiler. You probably know who he is already because he is a massive fan favourite, but if you don't there isn't a lot to worry about. He is beautiful though. So happy to finally see him animated. And to top it all off, Horikoshi, the author, originally wanted this movie to be the ending of the entire series, so that should tell you how well thought out and amazing it is. I would have been totally satisfied if this HAD have been the ending. Taken me so long to actually process everything that happened. Seriously, if you can, go see it in the cinema. I want to go and see it again but sadly it was a one time show... seeing everyone and all of the fights on such a big screen was so surreal. My jaw was dropped the whole time. Makes me sad that I will never get to see it again there. Art: 10/10 The animation during those fight scenes... absolutely unbelievable. I have never seen anything like it in anything BNHA-related in the past. It was so damn beautiful and seeing it in the cinema made the experience even better. The visuals... were so on point. The fights and the emotions the animation portayed was just.. I can't. The backgrounds were beautiful as well. If you have the chance, see this in the cinema. Much better experience than you would get at home. This film was made to be seen on the big screen. So beautiful. Sound: 10/10 The seiyuus in this were on point. Everything they did was performed perfectly. Daiki Yamashita (Deku) and Nobuhiko Okamoto (Bakugo) put in so much emotion in this. It was breathtaking to see. Everyone did such a good job. Honestly I do not think I could fault it even if I tried. The music during those scenes was also amazing. Awesome placement. And they used one of the only songs that has actually made me cry in the past (you know the one). Yuichi Nakamura (Hawks) did awesome in his debut. Couldn't have picked a better seiyuu honestly. So happy that Hawks got into this film before his actual debut in the manga. ED song was also great. Great way to end it off. Character: 10/10 Bakugo and Deku's development in this was amazing. EVERYONES development was amazing. The decisions Bakugo and Deku made in this film was just... perfect. It really shows how far they have come together. Bakugo has come so damn far. I cannot help but be proud. Those two made me cry a lot. The climax of the film... no one could have predicted it. Everyone else also grew a lot. I loved Todoroki's scenes (and Endeavor too hehe), he has come a long way to accept his flames. Everyone worked together. The chemistry between them all was great. Especially with Tokoyami... he did great. Everyone did great. Even Mineta did great, I actually don't hate him anymore. The villains! Beautiful designs and awesome quirks. I love Nine's story and why he did what he did. Shigaraki was so badass too. The others were also great. In every fight I was on edge, I couldn't tell who was gonna win or what was gonna happen. Katsuma and Mahoro were great too. Their quirks are so unqiue and cool. They did so well throughout the whole movie and I love them both. AND HAWKS!! HAWKS WAS IN IT!! AND HE WAS PERFECT!! Overall: 10/10 Honestly I cannot find one fault with this film. I had to give everything a 10/10 because honestly, I have never seen something so perfect. Everything was done perfect. It gives my scoring of a 10 a whole new meaning. Nothing I have seen so far equals to a 10 in comparison. I saw the subbed version, so I have no idea if the dubbed was just as good - but knowing the dub voice actors, I would assume yes. My only sadness is that the subtitles were not working for the first 5 or so minutes, so I cannot properly review what happened there. But the visuals were awesome. It wasn't the actual movie's fault, so it doesn't damper my score in the slightest. In my overall opinion, and this isn't just the hype getting to me, I have to say that this movie was way better than any of the arcs so far (in the anime anyway) and so so much better than the first movie.

This movie is insulting. Not only does it have no fucking impact on anything MHA (glorified and well animated filler episode that runs an hour too long), it's just a terrible movie through and through. It focuses a lot on my least favorite character (Bakugo) who I can frankly do without. The animation is great, so great in fact, Season 4 got gutted because of it because on the BEST arcs (Shie Hassakai) in MHA was passed over to make this dumpster fire look better. The story is a travesty and beyond forgettable. I could not find any enjoyment in this besides the animation. Bakugois obnoxious as usual, they literally do the same thing they do in each filler episode we have each season, like damn, I know each of these character's quirks, get to the action already. The new characters were just boring. Just give the villains back to Horikoshi, that mfer wrote Overhaul and Stain. The climax had me groaning. It was just cheesy (spoilers ahead) when they decided to give Bakugo One for All but oh, magically at the end, it stayed with Deku. THE WRITERS WROTE A VILLAIN TOO POWERFUL THAT THEY BROKE THE CANON OF THE SHOW AND EXPLAINED IT IN A THROWAWAY SCENE. Just to scratch the surface of plot holes, how in the fuck is this guy stronger than Overhaul and never mentioned once before. Stories are all about set ups and payoffs, there was no setup for the story and the payoff was beyond disappointing. Fuck this movie, 2/10

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