My 'My Hero Academia: Two Heroes' Review (Subtitled Version)

Unlike some of my friends (and the internet in general), I didn’t really have high expectations for the first tied-in movie for My Hero Academia. Not because I disliked My Hero Academia—I’ve been watching it ever since it blew up on Tumblr (around season 2-ish) and I enjoy the characters, settings, and overall structure a lot—but because I generally am not a fan of tied-in anime movies, especially of those that take place while the series is still ongoing.

I just find the constant introductions of characters, events, places, etc., that will probably never be talked about again to be annoying and sometimes these are done with lesser quality than the show itself and never with a story that really grabbed me.

With that said, I will say that Two Heroes does a much better job than most—which I highly appreciate. The animations are well-done and the story was pretty good. It isn’t perfect by any means but it did feel like you were watching a story from the My Hero Academia universe, which is all I can ask for when it comes to these movies.

Now for my thoughts on the story itself, this is spoiler-free. However, I am assuming you have seen the trailer for the movie. I’ll post the link to the dubbed version here. If you want the subtitled version, you can find it on Funimation’s Youtube channel. I feel the dubbed trailer tells more of the story than the subtitled one.

If you'd rather not watch the trailer, then a brief synopsis tells that All Might, Midoriya, and other Class 1-A students are going to I-Island, which is a place where people can freely use their quirks and has a school where all top scientists want to go. All Might introduces Midoriya to his friend/past-teammate Dave (or David in the dubbed version) and his quirkless daughter Melissa who both want/go to the school. They soon plan to open the island to the public and that is why most of the characters are there. But at the formal celebration of the night before party, a team of villains show up and it’s up to Midoriya and others to save everyone.

I will present my general feelings without going too deeply. And please know, as it says in the title, I only saw the subtitled version so little things here and there might be different depending on what you watch. And this is my personal opinion and may differ from others'.

To start off: I want to mention this for people who are going to watch the movie, or who are wondering when it takes place and if it has any spoilers to the series in general. This takes place right after the “Vs. Hero Killer” arc that takes place in season 2. There are spoilers for the “U.A. Sports Festival” arc in the movie. But, at the beginning of the movie, it presents the explanation of the My Hero Academia world and Midoriya’s story for new-watchers. But beware that the movie itself is not spoiler-free.

The better part of the movie is easily the first half, which includes a lot of laughs and the most character interactions/relationships, which I tend to favor over action scenes.

I especially loved Dave and All Might’s relationship and I kinda wish we had more of it. You can tell that the both of them really do care for each other and that they have known each other for multiple years as also shown with All Might and Melissa’s relationship. Dave was probably my favorite out of the new characters introduced, but he didn’t really have much competition.

Melissa, Dave’s daughter, was actually pretty unnecessary to the story (as much as the trailer would like you to think so). She was generally boring and eventually just became a pretty face that didn’t do anything for the whole movie (I personally think they could’ve gotten rid of her and it would’ve been a lot better).

Midoriya is thankfully in character and has lots of comedic moments, especially while casually bumping into the other students at I-Island. But do keep in mind the time where the movie took place in terms of the abilities Midoriya has (which is really odd coming from the end of season 3). And he has lots of screen-time with All Might and they are both comedic and dramatic throughout the movie and it really does show how well the two of them know each other.

All Might himself is just great, and he is a big part of the story. But during the second half, he is held back both literally and narratively. But it all pays off in the end. We also get to see a bit of backstory for All Might, which is just fantastic to see. And it also brought a good message to the movie that I honestly was not expecting.

All the other characters you see in the trailer get about the same amount of screen-time, some (Bakugou, Uraraka, and Jirou) getting more than others (Kaminari, Todoroki, and Kirishima). And that is because in the second half when all these characters are together, they can’t interact much because it’s the more action part. But you do get to see each of them have their own time to shine and I’m happy that they took the time to do that.

Mineta is there, unfortunately, and his screen-time is longer than others'. But honestly, in this movie it could have been done a lot worse.

However, despite the second half not being as enjoyable as the first, it really does come down into the final showdown that takes place in the last 15 minutes into the movie. I can’t speak too much about the fight itself nor its villians for spoiler reasons. But I can say that despite the villain’s boring personality, it does end up being a pretty awesome fight in the end and I was constantly holding my breath as I was blown away by the amazing visuals and music.

And the ending does bring a good lead into the next arc which is the “Final Exam” along with some extra details sprinkled throughout the movie as well.

Overall, it is one of the better tie-in movies I’ve seen with excellent animation, an interesting setting, and a great build-up to what’s to come. But, it does suffer from some unlikable or unused characters and a mediocre second half.

I hope if we do get more movies in future that they do learn and get better. But for now, I give it a 3.5/5 and recommend it for fans of the show only. Despite the time it takes to catch new fans up, I feel like just watching the show itself is a better introduction. And watching the movie without previous knowledge brings some heavy spoilers.

At the time that I’m writing this, the movie will still be in theaters for at least a couple more days. So if you are interested and went to see it, let me know what you think! Maybe I’ll do a spoiler review as well.

Thank you for reading and Plus Ultra!!

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