Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Futari no Hero [Review]

Posted on October 3, 2018 by KiritoNarukami One comment

“The climactic finals are over, and U.A. is getting ready for the summer training camp. Deku and All Might receive an invitation from a certain person to go overseas to a giant artificial moving city called I-Island. This island, a kind of “science Hollywood” that gathers the knowledge of scientists from around the world, is holding an exhibition called I-Expo showcasing the results of Quirk and hero item research. In the midst of all this, Deku meets a Quirkless girl named Melissa and remembers his own Quirkless past. Out of the blue, the impregnable security system the island boasts is hacked by villains, and all the people on the island are taken as hostages. Now, a plan that could shake hero society has been put into motion. The man who holds the key to it all is the number one hero and Symbol of Peace, All Might.” -Anime News Network

Story:

On the Boku no Hero Academia timeline this movie is right between season 2 and season 3 of the TV show. While it is mentioned and promoted in the anime, the movie itself is an original story and doesn’t show up in the source material. This also means that we’ll, most likely, never see the movie exclusive characters ever again.

Moving on to the movie itself, the setting of I-Island is a great one, it expands on the world of supporters, which we a little taste of from Hatsume and her babies from the anime. The story touches a bit on the backstory of All Might when he was an exchange student in America while the main focus is on the Deku and Melissa saving everyone from Wolfram, the antagonist. Some of the students of Class 1-A do make it to the big screen. The movie does recycle a story element that we’ve already seen in the anime, the debate of whether or not they should take action even if they don’t have their provisional hero license. That scene felt dull, even expanding it more or adding weight to the consequences to make it fit the new situation they were in would’ve been better but it felt like a cookie cutter scene with a different colored icing on top. Other than that, the rest of the movie is a great job of incorporating the new characters and setting and tying it back to the anime.

Artwork & Animation:

The art and animation of Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Futari no Hero is an amped up version of what you saw in the anime. There were scenes in the movie that were clearly neglected, an entire minute of a colored outline of Deku and All Might as they were talking about I-Island. There should be no reason a movie would include a scene that’s unfinished. The final fight against Wolfram, on the other hand, was some of the best animations I’ve seen in a while. The fluidity of the movement, the explosions, the debris flying in all directions, the force behind the DOUBLE DETROIT SMASH, you heard right I said DOUBLE!

Character(s):

With Melissa Shield and Dave Shield, both being new characters, of course, we’re going to get a lot of character development for them. It was nice to see some backstory of Young All Might as well. While our main cast does steal the spotlight in most of the action scenes, there’s not that much character development. They’re doing what they’ve always been doing…being heroes!

Sound (OST & Voice Acting):

amazarashi wrote both the opening and ending theme of the movie, but they only performed the ending theme. The opening theme is performed by Masaki Suda. The overall soundtrack itself didn’t diverge too far from what we’ve already seen the anime, it was actually sold together with the season 3 soundtrack in one bundle. It continues to make great use of the strings for the more impactful scenes, I love the rock n roll sound for the background music during the appearance of Young All Might. Other than those two, everything else is clear cut.

Enjoyment:

I had the lucky chance to see the movie (subbed) in theaters and to be honest it might not be the best way to experience it. The movie itself didn’t completely fit the screen so like 1/5th of the subtitles were cut off at the bottom. If you were to go, it’s for the theater sounds and the crowd, cause oh boy that was fun. The number of groans when Mineta showed up on screen or the number of fanboys fainting at the sight of the girls in dresses had me laughing harder than I should. I also loved the full gauntlet and hope both Melissa and the gauntlet make a return, even though it may be impossible.

Overall: Score 9

Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Futari no Hero, despite having some mistakes here and there on certain story elements and art, is a fantastic movie. An original story is tough to pull off as it is but to also tie it back to the source material and still make it engaging is a challenge and a risk. That risk paid off as Boku no Hero the Movie was a huge success and is wonderful to watch.

After Credit Scene:

There is a little fun epilogue towards the end of the credits so don’t miss it!

Best Girl: Melissa Shield

YES, we’ve all been waiting for a character like Melissa! Her backstory has a similarity to Deku’s yet she took it a different way focusing on other ways to be a hero without a quirk! Her heart for heroes and passion for helping others makes you want to root for her.