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Class 1-A of UA High School continue their progress of being the next wave of superheroes by acting as the temporary guardians of the peaceful Nabu Island. Unfortunately, a group of supervillains have traveled to the isolated isle in order for their Darwinist leader Nine to sap the "quirk" from a kid and kickstart their campaign of world domination. MY HERO ACADEMIA: HEROES RISING is sure to placate fans of the series while at the same time act as a potential gateway for newbies. However, it is a slightly disappointing follow-up feature to TWO HEROES. While the previous movie had a lot of fun with its DIE HARD premise and tight focus on a small group of the characters, HEROES RISING instead spins out a standard shonen story with stock stakes and flat antagonists that ultimately will end with nothing mattering at all to the franchise's canon. It aggressively tries to say otherwise about its importance by offering up a big twist during the final battle that should make everyone gasp but any observant viewer obviously knows that everything will be reset once the smoke has cleared. Even the gullible members of the audience that saw the movie with me didn't believe the implications the film tries to spout, instead remaining quiet or sneering at it. I will give director Kenji Nagasaki and studio Bones credit for doing their best with the twist, as they deliver some amazingly bombastic animation to the conclusion set to a haunting ethereal j-pop tune. Though I'm being a bit harsh on it for its rote plot, HEROES RISING is still fine enough to kill an afternoon for an anime fan. The power battles are impressively staged and animated and there are a lot of little character moments to make everyone happy. Diehards will enjoy the the hints and cameos sprinkled throughout it while new viewers can be quickly caught up on the world and characters before being entertained by the proceedings. The English dub cast all do a great job reprising their roles, easily fitting into them like a glove, and Johnny Yong Bosch does the best he can with Nine. It may not be a stellar shonen anime flick but its easily digestible enough.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
Like most people, I tend to make New Year's Resolutions whenever I feel like it. For 2020, I created a couple but the easiest one that I wanted to accomplish was to finally dip my toes back into the world of anime. I'm not talking about the occasional movie or shonen one-off that I tend to do but to actually see what's going on in the current scene and to play some catch up on some series. I don't plan to go full weebo, foolishly think to watch everything available and get totally involved in the discourse with the diehards. All I just want to do is have some fun and watch some anime.
Putting my foot on the pedal for this decision largely came from several factors: I wanted to continue some series whose runs are stunted on Netflix (Fairy Tail, Blue Exorcist), there were series that are currently being simulcasted that I wanted to watch beyond YouTube clips (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun), and I needed a strong alternative to the daily binging of YouTube videos. So I got myself an annual subscription to both Crunchyroll and Funimation and have been partaking on the offerings. To make the endeavor more interesting, I decided to jot down my thoughts on whatever title I feel like talking about.
To kick off this side project, I picked one of the most popular ongoing shonen titles today: My Hero Academia. My only experience with the franchise before finally binging the series was seeing the first feature film Two Heroes in theaters with a packed crowd. I really enjoyed the film and it even came close to making my top 20 of 2018. Also before the binge, I read the first manga volume digitally.
As of this writing, I've watched the first three seasons and I'm up to episode 63. I plan to continue watching up to the current simulcast episodes some time this week, as like many anime fans I'm a bit more excited in seeing the franchise's latest feature film Heroes Rising on Wednesday.
Overall thoughts on the series: I do really enjoy it but I can see why some find it a bit overrated. It takes the American superhero concept and gives it a nice Japanese spin to make it palatable for its local audiences and easily win over overseas audiences. However, at the end of the day, it still acts and feels like a shonen series. Not quite as great as One Pice but a fun alternative.
So 80% of the world's population has a "quirk", aka a superpower, while the rest have been labeled as "quirkless". 20% is still a large enough number so I don't really feel the plight of main character Izuku Midoriya as much as I'm supposed to be. Considering the size of his middle school, statistically there had to be other students who didn't receive a quirk.
I can fully understand the "You Can Be A Hero!" scene and its significance but it just doesn't do anything to me, not in the manga nor in the anime. I think I have just seen this type of scene too many times for it to have any meaningful impact on me.
The series already struggles in the early goings by essentially repeating the same story beats. Both the UA entrance exam and the first day exercises hit the same notes: Midoriya is scared of failing, on the verge of being kicked out, performs a mighty feat that injures him but wins over hearts and minds, barely passes, annoys a fellow teen who thought he was better.
The show does a great job on the various injuries Midoriya inflects upon himself when using his earned quirk "One For All". They all look and sound absolutely painfully.
Now to run down the entire class of 1-A:
Midoriya is a perfectly fine shonen protagonist that you can cheer for throughout the series. Justin Briner does an amazing job as his English voice actor. I just wished he was a bit smarter when it comes to keeping his new quirk a secret instead of just straight up telling the first person who actively and angrily wants to know.
I know that he has to have some admirers and probably does well on the character polls but I detest Katsuki Bakugo. Perfect rival material and I do kinda like his Owen Hart-like personality of constantly being royally pissed off that his immense prowess and strength keeps being overlooked by mightier displays of heroism and charisma. But all he ever does is whine, complain and shout at everyone ad nauseam. Why is everyone friendly to him? I also roll my eyes at how he's had a extensive free ride since he was four and seemingly never got in trouble despite the clear evidence throughout his tumultuous life.
Ochaco Uraraka is a fun pick as the series' main heroine. I do like her character growth, her fight with Bakugo is a great episode, and her struggles with her crush on Midoriya is adorable. Having Luci Christian as your voice actress also greatly helps.
I'm still utterly surprised that Tenya Iida is placed so high in the series. The comical class rep with a somewhat limited superpower as the main supporting male player? The show does well with him but it is a little sad that he kinda falls into the background after the Hosu arc.
Todoroki is great. A fusion of Iceman and Pyro is an easy superhero concept but his backstory of how his quirk came to be, along with his facial scar, is utterly disturbing. Far more excited for him to be Midoriya's main rival.
Asui was an instant favorite with the internet and it's easy to see why once seeing her in action at the USJ. Utterly lovable and one of the series' best all-around heroes.
Kirishima seems alright but let's face it, the guy is clear cut C-tier. If action figures were made of the entire class, his would be the ones that would clog up all of the hangers. In other words, he's Booster, not Turbo Man. It's a bit sad that his most important moment in the series is being a rescue hook.
Yaoyorozu suffers from the story being hot and cold with her. Her struggle to overcome her early stumbles is good but then she's in the background as eye candy again only to briefly come back up as a new potential leader only to then retreat again.
Tokoyami is a personal favorite. I kept dubbing him Falco until I finally got his name down. I especially love how he gets moved to the forefront with the Cavalry Battle and the tournament finals in the Sports Festival arc and keeps his position as the most prominent B+ player of the class.
I like Ashido because she helps reinforce that oh yeah these are are children. Being a cheerful friend to everyone and having a cool destructive quirk adds further points in her favor.
Jiro is such an easy choice for best girl. You got the 80s female best friend/punk goth look and then you have her quirk that makes something normally gross into something cool and very useful and you have yourself a great character. Too bad she doesn't really get the spotlight and often shown to be the weakest of the group.
It's funny how Sero is often the most useful in the show. The diamond in the rough of the class.
Kaminari is fine. The show needs an easy comic relief. Not much else to say other than his stupid state is pretty funny albeit overused.
Hagakure also works as comic relief but she and her invisibility never seem useful in the slightest. Then the show just ups and gives her light refractions as her ultimate move. Huh?
What made me like Mineta back when I first saw Two Heroes was largely Brina Palencia's voice performance. Seeing him in the series, yeah I can understand all of the hate for him.
Do I really need to say something about Aoyama? I do like the anime trope of the most useless character who's somehow utterly useful at crucial moments but he just blends in the background.
Shoji. He has gross arms. Useful at times. Makes me long for Goro. That's all.
Ojiro. He has a gross tail and a bland gi. Useful that one time he talked with Midoriya. That's all.
Koda. I loathe him and his stupid animal voice quirk. Please expel him ASAP.
Sato. Nobody's favorite. Please also expel.
Okay, now back to the rest of the show!
I haven't talked at all about the opening and ending themes. That's because they are largely very forgettable. The sole highlight is "Odd Future", the third season's first OP. That's because it does the job of pumping you up for the show and it's from UVERworld, who are known for their great anime tracks.
Okay, maybe I'm being a little too hard on the theme songs. LiSA's ending theme "Datte Atashino Hero" was also good. Though I was more enamored with its corresponding animation, depicting the superhero kids in a fantasy RPG world.
The first season ends very strong with the surprise attack on the USJ. Eraser Head gets to shine albeit with some gruesome injuries, it's great following the trio of Midoriya/Asui/Mineta, and All Might's entrance and subsequent fight with the Nomu is pretty cool.
Wait a minute, Shigaraki is supposed to be the show's main bad guy? Really? Yeah, he starts off as a creepy menace with a scary quirk but then he falters hard from all of his tantrums, poor managerial skills, and penchant of just sitting around. He's so lame that he literally goes up to Midoriya in a latter episode and asks his opponent to remind himself why he wants to be evil.
It's quite hilarious how bad U.A. High School is at running itself. Kids nearly killed by a sneak attack? Let's do our version of the Olympics to distract everyone! Kid with a grudge wants to intern in a city where a supervillain is killing heroes? Approved! Kids still in danger and are more actively being targeted by evil? Send them to the woods with little to no adult backup! They surely will not be traumatized, poisoned, injured and kidnapped there!
The Sports Festival arc does its job well of slowing the main plot down, introduce a ton more characters and pad the show out with fights. There are several great episodes ("Shoto Todoroki: Origin" being the best) and I certainly enjoyed the supporter hero Mei Hatsume. Too bad it ends on a whimper in order to move on to the Hosu arc.
Stain's a good creep and I liked the 3-on-1 handicap street brawl but his mantra and ideals are so eye-rolling. To make it worse, the show then takes them very seriously and it becomes the rallying cry for supervillains to rise up. Really, that basic mumbo jumbo about the dilution of superheroes' convictions?
I do appreciate the injection of realism into the proceedings. Having the cops and teachers brownbeat the kids for getting over their heads and committing vigilante justice was a nice touch.
"Everyone's Internships". More like some brief clips of everybody and then a full side-story about Asui working with the Navy.
Bummer ending to season two. Just another series of battles and then Shigaraki's trip to the mall.
Season three starts and oh great, here's a sad kid designed specifically for Midoriya to win over and be spirited away once the plot is done with him.
I do like the Camp arc and how it finally cuts some of the wings off of the kid's dreams about being superheroes.
The show does a very poor job at making you care about the Wild Wild Pussycat member who gets kidnapped and later stripped of her quirk. A total fridge job indeed. I felt more bad for Pixie-Bob after getting that the awful hit to the head.
Oh hai Deadpool! Nice Spawn cosplay! Too bad Stain already did it.
Wow, this one villain. Mr. Magnet Guy and his "I got out of bed late" attire. What a complete scrub and yet the show takes him seriously and allows him to walk away.
(EDIT: So, I later learned by watching season 4 that Magne is actually a transgender woman. Sorry about the incorrect pronouns. But wow, the show really did a bad job conveying that detail, literally shoehorning it in right before killing her off in a surprise twist.)
Come on guys, you don't need to break the rules again just to save someone from the clutches of the DEADLIEST VILLAINS YET! Plus, it's Bakugo. Let the piss-ant rot for all I care.
I'm supposed to boo the media for going after U.A. but they bring up good points save for that one guy who plays the "think about the children" card.
Oh come on, how can Blue Jeanist survive from that horrible wound?! What a stupid hero.
Okay, episodes 48-50 are pretty god damn incredible. No wonder people were going crazy when they premiered.
Oh hey, we finally get to see Bakugo's parents.
I really hope Midoriya's new Shoot Style leads to good fights.
Oh great, Sports Festival Version 2.0 aka the Provisional Exam arc.
Seriously though, I do like how this arc has the kids acting like real heroes. You just have to get through another new set of flashy yet empty hero wannabes and an overlong dodgeball battle. Also, that Meatball guy. Whenever the show goes full-on disturbing, it pulls it off way too well. See the later Twice-focused episode for further proof.
Yeah, it's nice that we see a different side to Bakugo with his second fight with Midoriya but I still don't like him.
You know, when I first saw an image of Mirio aka Lemillion, I instantly disliked him and thought he was a very poor All Might replacement. Seeing him in action in the last two episodes of the third season, yeah my gut reaction ended up being right. But wow the opinions of this guy from other fans.
So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed all of my rambling opinions about My Hero Academia. This was kinda fun so there's a chance I might be doing this again this year. Just need to find a juicy title to rant and rave about.
Unlike most critics online, I was generally fine with the Oscars broadcast. It wasn't as good as last year's and had some real duds but whatever, history has been made, memes have been created, and I'm happy with the ending.
13-11 again! I really blew it. Never expected their to be so much sharing all around.
First up we have the red carpet pre-show. Usual fluff but there were some moments.
I like Billy Porter but the greatness of his dress didn't translate to his interviewing skills. He stumbled a lot and called Michael Strahan, "Michael Strahorn".'
Billie Eilish is here. Really? What for? It was real cool though that she dropped that The Babadook and We Need To Talk About Kevin as films she loved while growing up.
Dear lord, Kirsten Wiig's dress. A red downward arrow mixed with a duster and a lasagna noodle.
Oh man, the look on the face of the female interviewer when while chatting with Brad Pitt she inadvertently said that Natural Born Killers is one of the best films of all time. Cringe at its best.
Oh great, Seacrest is back. Nice to show off the huge cue cards he's reading off from.
The show kicks off. Welcome everybody to this celebration of film. Here's a performance of a television show theme song!
I love Janelle Monáe but that opening was a bit of a mess. The trouble with he blouse button. The failed sweater zip up. The backup dancers largely dressed up as characters from royally snubbed movies (Midsommar, Us, Dolemite Is My Name). The not so hot call and response. Almost a flashback to the infamous Rob Lowe/Snow White duet.
The pure silence when Steve Martin and Chris Rock shouted out Jeff Bezos. The pompous billionaire then proceeded to not be amused at the jokes at his expense.
I was really enjoying the montages before every major acting category. Instead of the usual Oscar clip, you got to see more of why they were nominated. The Tony Awards-like reading afterwards of the nominees was clever.
Brad Pitt finally wins an acting Oscar. Nice job jabbing at the losers in Washington at the start and finishing his speech with a nice reflection of his journey and giving respect to stunt people.
Freaking Toy Story 4! Yeah, it was my #12 Best Film of 2019 but the fact that it won when Klaus was coming into the evening as the heavy favorite, with I Lost My Body being a potential dark horse, harshed my buzz.
At least I got Hair Love. And there's the first shoutout to Kobe Bryant.
I really liked the package of "Into The Unknown", from Josh Gad's hilarious intro to the decision to feature the Elsas from around the world. Still not hot at all for that song though.
Some nice funny banter between Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves. And wow, Bong Joon-ho getting Best Screenplay!
Oh my god, Timothée Chalamet. What is up with that jumpsuit?!
Happy for Taika Waititi, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of Jojo Rabbit. At least his script is way better than the book in some key areas.
Time moved slow with Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig stalling with an unfunny routine on acting. Billie Eilish is utterly confused at this shit. The singing mashup was good.
Of course the period piece with all of the fancy dresses would win Best Costume Design. Why did I second guess it?!
Okay, just right into the song for Breakthrough. So weird and so not like "Shallow".
What's with all of these odd introductions by presenters to other presenters?
Hah, a bunch of snubs in the Best Documentary montage. Seriously the Academy, you were apparently too good for Won't You Be My Neighbor? and now you want to hail it?
Want to win Best Documentary Short? Have a great eye-catching title. Tony Hawk was invited to the Oscars. I'm guessing he was a producer of the short? (Doesn't seem to be the case!)
Very touching speech by Laura Dern, giving a solid shout out to her acting parents. Congrats on the special birthday prize!
Lin-Manuel Miranda literally gave a shout out to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles song!
This song montage is amateurish YouTube crap. Why is it taking up precious air time?
Oh no. Really, Eminem?! He didn't even go to the Oscars when "Lose Yourself" won!
The Academy really needed to push the Mom's Spaghetti meme to get those young folks tuning into a non-advertised surprise performance.
Billie Eilish, bless her, is not having it. Idina Menzel doesn't know what to think about it. Scorsese is so tired.
A standing O?!! He barely sang it all and the rest was largely bleeped out!
Great, now people will have their brief speeches cut down even further.
Ford v Ferrari over 1917 in Best Sound Editing. Must have been those squeaky tires.
1917 gets Best Sound Mixing. One of the absolute best things about that movie.
Now a weird throw to Randy Newman. The large stage swallowed him up and the plain song lost all of its luster once removed from its movie. Yeah, it will not win.
This Oscar recap rapper, who I later found out is Utkarsh Ambudkar, is far and away better than Eminem tonight.
The editing was good in Ford v Ferrari but not that good.
The Academy needs to shill the hell out of there new museum so they got Tom Hanks to do it. We have an opening date (Dec 14). Nick shout out to Kirk Douglas at the end.
Cynthia Erivo certainly has the power but "Stand Up" is just another uplifter.
Of course newly Razzie nominated James Corden and Rebel Wilson are here to mock Cats and its now infamous visual effects. Wait what, 1917 was the best visual effects of the year?!
Geez, major spoilers for 1917 in Best Makeup. It stinks that the Bombshell didn't get to finish their speech. Eminem was just too important.
Loving that foreign language film montage. Loving even more with Parasite winning.
Elton John was far better than every one else. Nice for him to show up and jazz up the proceedings.
I'm getting sick of the same commercials airing constantly. "For Life", more like three seasons than cancellation at best. Stupid meme M&Ms. Stupid Qibi, the streaming service no one will ever remember fondly.
Damn, no David Lynch sitting in the audience. Not even for Laura Dern's likely win tonight, Davey?
Wow, that's one cool female conductor. Awesome outfit.
Hildur Guðnadóttir wins, thus concluding this tribute to women by Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, and Sigourney Weaver. Great speech by her about women hearing the music within them.
2nd Oscar for Elton. Bernie Taupin finally gets some gold love. "Wow, this didn't suck", indeed. Too bad Randy Newman can't say the same after seeing his two chances wiped out in a row.
Spike Lee with the Kobe Bryant tribute suit. I thought he was a diehard Knicks fan?
Holy crap, what an upset in Best Director. Bong Joon-ho gave some nice love to Scorsese and Tarantino for their work and appreciation.
Oh, so that's why Billie Eilish is here. Please Oscar producers to remember to cut out the crowd mic.
Who got Farina'd in the "In Memoriam"? Luke Perry, Sid Haig, Tim Conway, and Ron Leibman to name a few.
Oh no, here comes Joaquin, primed and ready to blow.
... Okay that was something. Sad to see that he's still affected by River's untimely death.
Renée got it. Oh phooey. Now she's competing with Joaquin on who can have the most rambling speech of the night.
I just noticed that they cut out the Best Picture clips throughout the evening. Wise decision.
Jane Fonda looking real good.
Oh, wow wow wow wow! I'm utterly ecstatic! Parasite makes history! Justice for Roma!
A weird last note with the producers cutting the lights only to bring them back due to the crowd only to then cut them when there was an opening.
The Irishman was completely shut out. Good, says the man who still hasn't watched it.
As always, these are my predictions to win, not who or what movie I wish would win.
Best Picture: 1917
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix - Joker
Best Actress: Renée Zellweger - Judy
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt - Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern - Marriage Story
Best Director: Sam Mendes - 1917
Best Original Screenplay: Noah Baumbach - Marriage Story
Best Adapted Screenplay: Greta Gerwig - Little Women
Best Animated Film: Klaus
Best Foreign Film: Parasite
Best Documentary Film: The Cave
Best Documentary (Short Subject): Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
Best Animated Short Film: Hair Love
Best Live Action Short Film: Nefta Football Club
Best Original Score: Hildur Guðnadóttir - Joker
Best Original Song: "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" - Rocketman
Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins - 1917
Best Film Editing: Yang Jin-mo - Parasite
Best Production Design: Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh - Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood
Best Costume Design: Arianne Phillips - Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, and Vivian Baker - Bombshell
Best Sound Editing: Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate - 1917
Best Sound Mixing: Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson - 1917
Best Visual Effects: The Irishman
Sorry for this being posted late. I was spending most of the day, and pretty much all of awards season, paying attention to what's happening in the world of Eurovision. At least there you have some real drama and stakes compared to this year's Oscars.
Sadly not much has changed since the Golden Globes. I thought 1917 would lose steam but it has been doing well at the other award shows. I definitely know it will pick up several technical awards, most especially Best Director and Best Cinematography, but it has a very strong chance taking the big prize away from Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood and Parasite. Some critics think Parasite has a strong shot but as displayed in this year's Brutally Honest Oscar Voter interviews via The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy would prefer that the Best Picture go to an American feature. See last year's decision of Green Book over Roma as an example.
I do think Sam Mendes will be the person to bring back the double whammy, aka a movie winning both Best Picture and Best Director.
Nothing really to say about the acting categories. Phoenix has been on a roll despite the weird and provocative things coming out of his mouth and the industry has such a hard on for Zellweger to be a comeback queen. That plus the Academy needs to give an acting Oscar to a non-fiction character every year or else they will riot.
Hopefully the Academy are like me and want to give the real-life couple of Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig corresponding Oscars for their writing work last year.
It's still amazing how much Toy Story 4 is just not resonating nowadays. It still has a mighty shot at winning Best Animated Feature, largely thanks to the amount of Disney people in the Academy, but Klaus has been doing very well all over the place, most notably sweeping up a lot at the Annie Awards.
Who knew Best Documentary Short Feature would be so controversial: I like most found out that Life Overtakes Me is embattled with strong accusations of an interviewee falsifying their accounts of experiencing Resignation Syndrome and the filmmakers distorting the words of a doctor.
I really hope Hair Love wins Best Animated Short just to shut up that Brutally Honest Oscar Voter who somehow didn't get it. More like Brutally White Oscar Voter.
Man, the Best Original Song performances might be a hard sit. None of them are really the best of last year. But whatever, at least Elton John will get another Oscar.
See you on Monday with my reactions to the awards and the ceremony itself.
