Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. You know, I feel bad for Kōhei Horikoshi. The author of My Hero Academia has taken so much unwanted crap from people online who don’t know the first thing about storytelling, manga, and art. He draws his female characters too sexually; he named a character after a horrible human being who performed human experiments, the list goes on and it’s beyond stupid. No matter what anybody says in my eyes My Hero Academia is a great series. It’s one of my favorite mangas today and Horikoshi has done a great job on the series and should apologize for nothing. Once again people have been asking me to take a look at the anime and once again I would love to but with the anime continuously going on a yearly basis there’s just no room to review it, so I feel it’s best to wait until the anime is over to give my overall thoughts on the series. But hey, that doesn’t mean I can’t look at the movies. Like today’s movie, Heroes Rising. The second movie in the My Hero Academia released in 2019. Once again done by Bones who also works on the anime, this movie would take place after the events of the Meta Liberation Army arc. The movie performed well in theaters as it surpassed Two Heroes, made about $30 million worldwide, and received high praise from both fans of the series and critics. Let’s suit up and return to the world of My Hero Academia. This is Heroes Rising.
The movie opens up with a bunch of heroes chasing after the League of Villains who are transporting something. The league manages to shake their pursuers but get stopped by the Endeavor blockade (it’s like a regular blockade only meaner and scarier). The truck falls off the side of the cliff and Endeavor along with Hawks goes to investigate where they find an empty life support capsule (now you know Horikoshi stole that from DBZ). Hawks believes the league was transporting a new type of Nomu but no, it was actually a villain by the name of Nine who wants to create a society where those with strong quirks rule over the weak (Darwinism at its finest). He meets back up with his team (who were just there randomly, I don’t know) and prepares to carry out his plan.
We then cut to Nabu Island where class 1-A are working as heroes on the island as part of a safety program. They help out the locals, make sure everyone is safe at the beach, and help the injured or lost (it’s actually good training for them. The crimes aren’t too big or major but there’s plenty of problems that make good use of their quirks and also teaches them the ins and outs of running a hero agency). The only downside to this is that the students are all alone this time. No teachers or local heroes to guide them or watch their backs which means they will be held accountable for anything that goes wrong. While out on the island, Izuku along with the help of Jiro and Ochaco finds a lost child named Katsuma looking for his sister only to find out this was all a test set up by his sister Mahoro to test them. Suffice to say she’s not impressed with their work and says they took too long to find Katsuma (well aren’t you a little self-entitled Karen). Meanwhile, back on the mainland, we see Mahoro and Katsuma’s dad get attacked by Nine and his gang where we see Nine has the power to steal quirks thanks to All for One (I thought we gave him an isolated cell away from everyone?). Nine has the ability to possess up to 9 quirks however, it comes with a few catches. First off, his body can’t handle all of the quirks, so it causes him severe damage. Second, the stolen quirk must be compatible with his blood type. If it’s not compatible it will continue to hurt him and he can’t use it. Nine and his gang have been going around and stealing the quirks of other heroes and he attacked Mahoro and Katsuma’s dad to get his quirk which is Cell Activation, a healing quirk. Unfortunately, the quirk is incompatible with his blood type meaning he can’t use it, so he decides to go for his children.
Back on the island at night, Katsuma comes to the agency to report a villain on the island and Katsuki and Izuku go to investigate. We see that the villain is a large bug (so many questions) and is just an illusion that Mahoro made. This of course pisses off Katsuki (he has every right to be mad, what if there was a real emergency while he was dealing with this BS?) who scares the kids and Izuku holds him back while they run away. The next day Katsuma apologizes to Izuku for his sister’s action last night and says he has dreams of being a hero as well, but his sister is against it as she doesn’t want to see him in danger and because his quirk isn’t suitable for hero work (I beg to differ. He’d work out great as a medical officer). Sometime later, the island gets attacked by Nine and his gang who come crashing into the harbor (does the word subtlety mean anything to you guys?). They attack the island and destroy the cellular towers so they can’t call for backup or communicate with each other via phones. Our group of heroes each go out to face the villains and protect the islanders with Izuku saving Mahoro and Katsuma from Nine. Katsuki defeats one of the villains single-handedly and then goes to fight the others (score one for Katsuki. His attitude is scary, but his skills are legit). Izuku takes on Nine where he puts up a good fight but keeps getting overwhelmed by Nine’s many quirks. Nine even tries to steal One for All but finds that he can’t and discovers that Izuku has the ability to use more than one quirk as well. Katsuki arrives onto the scene to fight against Nine but just like Izuku he’s no match for him and the two get knocked out with broken bones and everything. Some of the other heroes arrive where they grab Mahoro, Katsuma, Izuku, and Katsuki to escape and Nine can’t go after them as he’s used his quirks one too many times.
We see the islanders are safe in a shelter with the heroes feeding them and giving them clothes. The island doctors treat Izuku and Katsuki who are still knocked out but could only close up their wounds. Katsuma comes and uses his cell activation quirk to help them out (so the boy is the golden child? Again, this is a very helpful quirk in the medical field). Katsuma’s quirk manages to heal Izuku and Katsuki and he volunteers to give himself up to protect everyone on the island but Izuku says to hell with that and says that they’ll protect him and the islanders no matter what. They come up a plan to lure the villains to the castle ruins where they’ll split them up and take them down one by one (or last long enough until help comes but screw that, I say we take them down ourselves). The group manages to take down Nine’s associates (barely) leaving just Nine who is at his limits thanks to the group’s multiple attacks. However, he recharges himself with some tubes on his back to give himself a power boost and finally starts to go all out. Just when he’s inches away from getting Katsuma, Izuku and Katsuki get back up to fight him where the two use all of their powers to take down Nine but are still no match for him. In a last-ditch effort to defeat Nine, Izuku transfers One for All to Katsuki via blood (well it’s better than the way Izuku got One for All. I hope he doesn’t have herpes). The two gear up for one final attack and through their combined efforts manage to bring down Nine and save everyone. All Might arrives with help where Izuku tells him what he did and thanks to plot convenience we see that Izuku didn’t lose One for All (the status quo is God as they say). So All Might theorizes that because Katsuki lost consciousness in the middle of the transfer it couldn’t be completed entirely and that the previous successors of One for All wanted Izuku to remain as the successor (yeah, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. They really wrote themselves into a corner here). As the army and heroes arrive to help everyone (the one thing you can say is that they didn’t go out like no bitches) we see Nine is still alive but in a very weakened state. He gets found by Shigaraki who kills him out of spite (there can only be one ruler and Shigaraki has no intention of playing second fiddle). The movie wraps up with the group remaining on the island and helping them rebuild (they really are heroes), Katsuki doesn’t remember One for All being transferred to him, and when it’s time for the group to leave Mahoro and Katsuma say goodbye to them with Katsuma promising to get stronger and one day become a hero like Izuku and Katsuki (scene here: https://youtu.be/CPW5ps_G31k).
Final Thoughts
Heroes Rising does a lot of things better than the first movie but it comes up short in a few areas. Let’s start with the positives first. Good use of characters. This time around they use all the students of Class 1-A instead of a few of them. All of our favorite characters from the class get a chance to shine in the movie and play a role in the final battle. Everyone is used well and it’s nice to see the group take on some more hero-like work. Mahoro and Katsuma are also good characters as well. They’re cute and both of them really care for each other. Mahoro doesn’t hate heroes she just doesn’t want to see her brother in any danger. It’s similar to how Izuku’s mom feels about him. She wants to support him in his dream but at the same time is worried for his safety as any good mom would be. Katsuma wants to be a hero in order to protect his family and those he cares about. While his quirk may not be the best for fighting crime, it can be very effective in helping save lives. I did like his scenes with Izuku as it really does seem like Izuku is looking at a younger version of himself in Katsuma. I also like how the class developed a relationship with the islanders. Even though they were only there for a short time, they did a good job establishing a bond of trust and safety with them. Second, better villains. My biggest complaint from the last movie was that the villains had no personality to them. Well they fixed that here by making them quite threatening and giving them a goal that they’re fighting for. Nine is intimidating and is a firm believer in social Darwinism. He believes he’s the strongest therefore he has the right to rule the world and his followers believe him. While we don’t get to learn about their past, it’s obvious that these guys were rejected by society in some way and wanted revenge. The fight scenes were great as well. Everyone pushed themselves to the limits and then some in order to protect everyone on the island. I liked how all the characters played a role in taking down the villains and it wasn’t just one on one fights. It was a group effort, and everyone played their parts well.
The final fight between Izuku, Katsuki, and Nine may have dragged on a bit too much for me and they wrote themselves into a corner here with Izuku giving One for All to Katsuki. There was no build up to it, it felt empty, and the cop out at the end really made no sense. On the plus side I did like how the movie showed the similarities Izuku and Katsuki share with All Might and how both of them admire All Might from different perspectives. For Izuku, he admires All Might’s ability to save everyone and is the kind of hero Izuku wants to be. No matter what the situation is he’ll be sure to save everyone that’s in front of him no matter what. For Katsuki, he admires All Might’s ability to win against anyone no matter the odds. In Katsuki’s eyes the best way to save people is to defeat any villain that presents itself. Both Izuku and Katsuki represent the best aspects of All Might and what made him so great. Both of them are aiming to be the number one hero and while their personalities are the complete opposite of each other, they both have a desire to be a symbol of hope for the world.
Final Score
The final score for Heroes Rising is a 7.5/10. Even though it has the same score as the first movie I actually would prefer to watch this movie over the first one. Once again, I do recommend reading the manga or watching the anime before checking out the movie otherwise you’re going to be lost. However, if you are a fan of the series then definitely check this movie out. It’s been said that this will be the last movie in the series, but I don’t know. A part of me feels that another movie will be made down the line. The series is just too good to have only 2 movies. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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