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
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