'My Hero Academia: Two Heroes' Isn't Exactly a Must-Watch

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (a.k.a. Boku no Hero Academia the Movie: Two Heroes) is the first movie of the My Hero Academia franchise.  It is set between season two and season three of the anime series – during the summer vacation.  It follows main protagonist Izuku Midoriya a.k.a. Deku as he accompanies All Might to I-Island – an artificial, mobile, state-of-the-art island where the world’s best scientists live, conduct Quirk-related researches, and develop gadgets and technologies that will aid heroes.

There, All Might has a happy reunion with his close friend and former sidekick David Shield, who is one of I-Island’s most distinguished scientists.  Meanwhile, Midoriya gets acquainted with David’s daughter, Melissa, who is aspiring to become a successful scientist like her father.  As Melissa shows Midoriya around the island, they bump into his U.A. classmates Bakugo, Uraraka, Iida, Todoroki, and several others, who happen to be in the island as well.  Everyone gets invited to a formal party that night.  But before anyone can start having fun, terrorists led by a villain named Wolfram take over the island’s security system and hold everyone in it hostage.  And the only ones left in position to stop them are Midoriya and his friends.

This movie is definitely fun.  But, honestly, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  Why?  Because My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is basically just the obligatory anime movie that typically comes out of popular shonen properties.  This type of movies may be decently entertaining, but in the end, it's underwhelming because it’s inconsequential to the series.  Sometimes, these movies are even non-canon.  Even when they do fit into the continuity, they might as well be non-canon because, usually, whatever events and introduced elements in it won’t affect, recur, or be further expanded – significantly or at all – during the series’ overarching storyline.

I don’t know why I expected My Hero Academia: Two Heroes to be more than this, but somehow I did.

It also doesn’t help that this movie is set before the most recent season – which was quite an epic one (it ended up being my choice for most favorite anime show for the second straight year).  By already knowing the experiences and growth that would happen to these characters in their future, whatever they undergo and do in this movie unfortunately pale in comparison.  Its bombastic set pieces should gratify, but they won’t necessarily be fondly etched in one’s memory.

In the end, let me reiterate that My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is fun.  There’s no denying that.  By itself, it suffices in delivering good shonen entertainment.  However, all things considered, it’s not exactly what I would consider a must-watch anime film.