Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys it’s my 700th review. That right, lucky number 700. Since we’re in the middle of talking about My Hero Academia why not interrupt it by talking about My Hero Academia. . .movies. When it comes to the movies, My Hero Academia always seems to get everything right except one thing that derails it. The first movie had a good setup, but weak villains. The second movie had good villains, but a faulty ending. The third movie had a good premise but didn’t explore it as much as I would have liked it too. Then there’s the fourth movie. Yep, despite saying they were ending on a hat trick, Bones and Shonen Jump decided to make one more movie. Four is the new three. Released in 2024 and titled You’re Next, the movie would receive good ratings just like its previous movies and was seen as a celebration of the manga’s end. With a new director taking over, was this movie able to check all the boxes? Let’s find out. This is My Hero Academia: You’re Next. Warning: This review jumps ahead quite a bit in the story. I’ll try my best to omit spoilers, but I make no promises.
So the movie begins with a man watching some footage of All Might (and I thought Izuku was the obsessed fan). After witnessing All Might’s finest moment over One For All (we talked about that not too long ago), he vows to succeed All Might and become the next symbol of peace. We then hit the streets as some villains ransack some people and steal a bunch of food. Izuku along with a few students from class A stop them, but honestly it’s mostly Izuku showing off. After the opening sequence, we see Izuku and the others track down another villain who is holding a girl named Anna hostage. Izuku cuts off the villain but then a mysterious man with an eyepatch and mechanical arm riding a motorcycle appears (too many aesthetics) and tries to shoot her. She gets saved by another mysterious man who uses his quirk to create a bubble that slows down time (https://youtu.be/oFs3lOqr1UE?si=u7O8CRGDsmj4oGyz). He rescues Anna and then a flying neon ship appears (is it wrong to say I’m disappointed they don’t play the airship theme from Mario Bros.?) carrying the Gollini mobster family, the largest criminal organization in Europe. Their leader, Valdo, appears and he resembles All Might (if his face got plastic surgery). After pacifying Anna and using excessive force to take out the villain, Valdo jacks the airwaves to make an announcement (citizens of Japan! Lend me your ears). He announces to Japan that he will become their new symbol of peace, but Izuku speaks up for everyone and outright rejects him. Valdo doesn’t listen and uses his quirk, Alchemy, which is one of the most OP quirks out there (I’m surprise One For All didn’t go after him). If you’ve read or watched Fullmetal Alchemist (and if you haven’t what are you doing with your life?) then you’ll be familiar with alchemy and how it works. Valdo takes those rules, says shove it, and transmutes whatever he wants (suck it, equivalent change and Philosopher’s Stone). As if that wasn’t bad, transformed objects can still be actively changed if Valdo maintains contact with it. Using his powers he consumes everything in the vicinity including the rest of the class A students to create a fortress and dubs himself Dark Might (you suck at this hero stuff. Even your name sounds evil).
Izuku wakes up to see he and his team are in a jungle. Katsuki’s team is at an amusement park and Shoto’s team is outside of a city. Shoto’s team makes it into the city where they see a bunch of normal citizens unconscious thanks to Anna. They attempt to stop her but get taken out by a member of the Gollini family who traps them in a daydream that shows them what they’ve always wanted (man, Shoto’s dream hits hard. That’s never gonna happen). Katsuki’s team come across Dark Might (honestly, Nega Might sounds better) who throw them into a dungeon where they have to fight against monsters and the dungeon master (I doubt the DM is fair). Izuku’s team find a manhole where he goes down to investigate only to lose the ability to use his quirks and winds up by a lake where he meets the motorcycle man from earlier, Giulio. Izuku tries to get answers from him, but Giulio ain’t talking (his passive aggressive insults are a thing of beauty. He’s like Shoto if he was cynical). After using Izuku as a distraction he reluctantly lets Izuku accompany him (he’s the MC. Use him as a shield). They come across the one nullifying quirks and make quick work of him before they reach the same city Shoto and the others are in. The rest of Izuku’s team made it there as well, but got knocked out by Anna’s quirk. So what’s the deal with her quirk? Well it’s called Overmodification and it modifies the quirks of others. Her quirk can boost the strength of other quirks and grant new abilities to the users (she’s like a reverse Rogue from X-Men). However, it only works if you’re compatible with her. Anyone incompatible receives a kickback which knocks them out (and just like the lottery the chances of you being compatible with her are slim). Just like the others, Izuku and Giulio get trapped in the dreamworld, but thanks to the previous users of One for All (more on that later. I promise) he’s able to regain his senses but isn’t sure how to escape. He spots Giulio and Anna where we see Anna’s quirk has no off switch. It’s constantly on, causes her to suffer from seizures, and if left unchecked it could go completely berserk and evolve quirks to an uncontrollable degree. Guilo was her personal butler in the past who had a quirk that temporarily nullified her quirk and thanks to him she was able to live a somewhat normal life. However, as she got older her quirk only grew stronger and she was afraid that one day she would harm others. So she made Giulio vow that if that day ever came, he would kill her (well that’s a lot to put on a man who possibly loves you). Once Dark Might found out about her powers, he killed her father, kidnapped her, and left Giulio for dead (resulting in all of the aesthetics on his body). Returning to the movie, Izuku is able to get Giulio to come to his senses and he’s able to take out the family member causing the illusions and waking everyone up (shame. I wanted to see Ochaco’s dream. I imagine it involved Izuku, a pile of money and was naughty). Once they return to their senses, Giulio gets ready to kill Anna, but Izuku stops him (you tried to kill a girl in front of a hero. What did you think was going to happen?) and this allows Anna to get kidnapped again. Giulio says he can’t nullify her anymore. The power was in his right hand and that hand is long gone, but the others encouraged him not to give up (they’re used to do dealing with quirks getting nullified).
Dark Might tells everyone know that he’s heading toward U.A and plans to absorb the school into his fortress. While the pro heroes try to stop it from the outside, our heroes try to get all the citizens to safety while Izuku, Katsuki, Shoto, Tokoyami, and Giulio go to take down Dark Might (I’m glad they’re including Tokoyami in the big fight. He deserves it). So we get the traditional shonen trope of everyone facing off against other opponents while our MC takes on the big boss (I know some people have problems with this trope, but I like it). Izuku and Giulio reach the inner sanctuary of Dark Might. After taking down the bubble guy (way to use your head Izuku), Izuku and Giulio reach Dark Might and fight where he overpowers them with his quirk. Once Shoto and Katsuki arrive, Dark Might uses Anna to turn into alpha Dark Might (man, I didn’t think I would a make a FMA and Pokémon reference in a review of MHA but here we are. As expected for my 700th review), but our trio fight back and reveal Dark Might for the fake he is. After Katsuki and Shoto clear the way for him, Izuku unleashes a combo of smashes on him (keep going until you name all 50 states. Throw in a few cities as well. Might I recommend the Cincinnati Smash) and this manages to beat him. With Dark Might defeated his fortress starts to fall apart (thank God it’s not instant. A part of me thought everything he transmutated would just disappear instantly). This just leaves Anna whose quirk is going berserk on us. Dark Might regains consciousness and uses this to his advantage to turn into a monster and attack the others. They of course do the same thing giving us the best visual in the movie to take down Dark Might for good this time and Izuku unleashes his ultimate smash to destroy the fortress (the Cincinnati Smash always pulls through). Guilio reaches Anna where we see he’s compatible with her (well duh. You never checked to see if you were compatible with her? What the hell is wrong with you?). This allows her to overload his neutralization quirk which in turn allows him to neutralize her quirk entirely to the point that she’s now quirkless. With this, Giulio’s work is done and he tries to leave (get yo ass back here) but Anna convinces him to stay by her side and that’s the end (a little erupt, but given where we are in the series I understand).
Final Score
You’re Next does a good job checking all the boxes. It has a good villain, action, visuals, and music to go along with it. The only downsides are the story isn’t as strong as the other movies and don’t make the most use of all the characters as I would have liked. Aside from Shoto and Katsuki everyone else gets barely any real time to shine and it’s a shame because all these guys are just as good as our trio. Dark Might is a good villain because he exemplifies all the opposites of All Might. He’s selfish and uses his powers only for himself and to strike fear into those who don’t follow him. He may have altered his appearance to look like All Might on the outside, but on the inside he’s nothing but a man desperate for power and attention. I did like his quirk and the way he used it was cool. Again, I’m surprise All for One hasn’t stolen his quirk yet. I figured he’d be all over that. Aside from him, the rest of the villains don’t standout all that much and are pretty forgetful. As far as Giulio and Anna go they’re decent. I like Giulio’s passive-aggressive insults and how he eventually warms up to Izuku. Anna doesn’t have that much of a personality outside of damsel in distress and her quirk leaves questions to be answered such as how does this compatibility thing work? What decides it and can those incompatible at first become compatible down the line?
The story while not bad, isn’t as strong as the previous movies and despite Dark Might’s presence, he isn’t that big of a threat when compared to some of the previous movie villains and giving us low stakes. He’s a threat but it’s nothing Izuku and the others would have a problem dealing with. The animation is nice here. It’s nice to get out of the city and see more fantasy-like locations. It reminds me of the ending animation from season 2. This is probably the closest we’ll get to a MHA JRPG setting. The cinematography from the fight scenes are explosive and visually pleasing to the eyes. I think the third movie did it better, but this is a close second. The music once again matches the tone and setting of the scene and makes the fight scenes feel epic.
Final Score
The final score for You’re Next is a 7.5/10. This is probably my second favorite movie in the series and once again pays respect to the main series and feels like a good filler story from the anime. If you liked the previous movies check this one out, you won’t be disappointed. Thanks for reading my 700th review. I’m always grateful for your support and time. I’ll keep on moving forward and making fun blogs for everyone to enjoy. I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
