My Hero Academia has released 3 feature films to date with great success. However, these movies do not modify any source material and thus enter a controversial space for any anime adaptation.
When anime adaptations of successful manga become popular enough, they often host high budget movies to capitalize on their success. While series like demon slayer choose to use their movies to adapt more story material, but others like it My Hero Academia go the controversial route of creating completely original stories for their films, which can cause a myriad of problems.
Messing with the story progress
Although many people have problems with the way MHAAs the story progresses lately, complaints really started popping up after the “liberation war” arc, which has yet to be animated. All 3 movies so far take place before this point but are inconsistent with what happened in the anime at the time of airing.
At the micro level, the 2nd movie, heroes who rise, takes place after Season 5’s “joint training” arc, so includes power upgrades and character development first revealed within that arc. In the anime, Fumikage Tokoyami’s battle against Class B provides a perfect opportunity to reveal his new move, ‘dark Fallen Angel’, which allows him to fly. The reveal has all the pomp and circumstance a shonen power-up deserves.
In heroes who rise, however, he is simply shown flying with no special mention. To any manga readers or viewers who had already seen the anime, this comes across as natural. However, many viewers will have seen Heroes Rising first, which tweaked the reveal for them.
On a larger level, heroes who rise also includes the villain Nine, whose existence spoils a major twist in the coming war arc. In the manga, the revelation that Shigaraki was secretly pumped full of more quirks was a shocking and terrifying revelation, especially because of his actions in the “my villain academia” arc. However, Nine has already gone through this procedure and revealed this detail to fans years before the war anime adaptation in Season 6.
Disappointing villains
Speaking of Nine, he and the other movie villains aren’t all as convincing as even the weakest MHA villains. This is understandable given that they only get less than 2 hours to settle in, while the villains in the main story can spread out across entire storylines.
In the first movie, the main villain, Wolfram is completely forgettable as an antagonist and has very superficial motivations. Nine is an improvement as he is shown to act to find a quirk that can counter the debilitating effect of his own quirk. But other than that, he doesn’t have much character to hold on to. And finally, the third film’s Flect Turn gives some focus to the quirky singularity subplot, but ends up being just as one-note as the previous two villains.
A consistent problem with them is their lack of build up. Their small amount of screen time and one-note personalities mean that in the end they are nothing but a big spectacle for the heroes to blow up flashy moves. They compare even a villain as ephemeral as Gentle Criminal is night and day. Gentle had very little time to star but had a sympathetic motivation that made many fans support him as he was once a hopeful hero himself.
These issues hark back to the difference in time the movie villains had to settle in, but it begs the question of whether original villains are even worth it if they aren’t capable of fulfilling even the weakest villains in the main story.
Questionable Canon
Even if we excuse these other issues, the fact remains that the movies are original anime content and therefore have no actual impact on the main movie. MHA story. The value of non-canon anime movies is already a regular debate among anime fans. Some people feel that anything that doesn’t directly affect the story is crappy padding, while others argue that it’s worth seeing the characters in more fresh and less limited scenarios. And the movie budget makes for some of the smoothest and most bombastic animation a series can hope for.
In MHAIn this case, the films are dancing on the verge of canonicity. The armrest first seen in MHA: Two Heroes returns later in the manga. The story states that the item was imported from America, where Melissa Shield is based, implying that she is canon for the main story and still offers support items for the heroes. Star and Stripe is also revealed as one of the children All Might rescued in America at the start of this year Two heroes. It is also speculated that the end of heroes who rise could become relevant after a recent manga chapter.
With the aforementioned ways these movies get confused MHA‘s story structure, but it is questionable whether small plot details they add justify their existence. Someone could consume MHA in its entirety without ever seeing the 3 films and not missing anything essential. Avoiding movies can actually improve their viewing experience by removing extra fluff.
Should there be more?
Ultimately, the MHA movies make money, so they probably won’t stop making them anytime soon. There are even reports that the series is aiming for 10 films in total, so an extra 7 on top of what has already been released. It’s unlikely that new movies will deviate from the decision to use original stories, but as the series nears its end in the manga, it’s hard to see where in the timeline these new movies could go.
There’s one arc where protagonist Izuku Midoriya acts alone for a while, so a movie during that period could be able to fit neatly into a new story. Beyond that point, however, with the end approaching, there’s little room to plug in new stories. This means that movies that try to push themselves into the timeline can end up making themselves even more pointless.
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