Updated April 1, 2023 by Ernie
My Hero Academia is one of the most anticipated anime of the year. It grew in popularity at a tremendous rate and for good reasons.
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Not only is the story well thought out, but the whole series was also carefully designed and nurtured to become one of the best anime fans could ask for. All these movies are fun to watch, trust me. Aside from interesting stories, you could transparently see how much our beloved characters have grown! I mean their personalities and how much they have developed into better ones. That being said, put these movies on your watch list if you haven’t seen them!
And the three My Hero Academia movies are standalone stories that can be watched independently apart from the anime series. Still, since I am a fan, I do recommend watching them in the order of release to avoid any potential spoilers or confusion!
HOW TO WATCH MY HERO ACADEMIA MOVIES!!!
My Hero Academia Movies Chronological Order:
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019)
My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (2021)
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is the first animated movie from My Hero Academia series that was produced. It was written by Yosuke Kuroda and directed by Kenji Nagasaki. It premiered on August 3rd, 2018.
Synopsis
The main character, Deku, and his Nakama’s are facing a catastrophe. The villains hacked into I-Expo, an exposition that will be displaying the world’s leading hero item and All Might will be attending.
They managed to trap the number one hero in the venue along with all the guests. Unable to move comfortably while protecting everyone, All Might has to rely on the new generation of heroes to save the day.
Plot
The movie starts with a flashback. We can see All Might during his youth in California defeating two villains. One of them was extremely slim and was hiding his face behind a red mask while the other was an enormous six-armed blue monster.
They were trying to rob the casino when All Might appeared and stopped their evil plan, with the help of his classmate and his trusted friend, David Shield. David is now a famous scientist and is in charge of designing the Heroes’ suits.
Back to the present. The I-Expo will be starting soon, All Might was invited by Melissa to attend so he can surprise her father, David. He asks Izuku Midoriya or Deku to accompany him to I-Island, where the expo will be held. I-Island is a city that soars through the sky, always on the move, it’s one of the most incredible inventions of modern technology.
After many years, the two friends had an emotional reunion. The happiness quickly fades after David learns through tests that his old friend’s Quirk is nearly depleted. Not only terrified for All Might, but he also fears that that world will lose their Symbol of Peace, a Symbol they desperately need.
While they were catching up, Melissa was giving Midoriya a tour of the island. After wandering around, they kept running into their classmates from Class 1-A. Each one of them was coincidentally invited to the expo for different reasons. Multiple events were being held on the Island and the students made the best out of the one-of-a-kind experience. After exploring every corner of the special venue, they were invited by Melissa to attend a formal party being held in the honor of all the heroes present on board.
They all accepted the kind invitation and while they were in their way, Melissa discretely reveals to Deku that, like him in the past, she was quirkless. Her confession deeply touched him and, of course, surprised him. Right after, she entrusted to him the “Full Gauntlet” that item that will allow him to use his quirk at full power without getting hurt.
At the same time, a terrorist called Wolfram snuck on the island with the purpose of taking over the whole security system of the facility. He successfully did so and announced to all the passengers that their lives were now in his hands. He confines all the heroes present, which includes All Might. He took as hostage David and Samuel Abraham, the scientist’s assistant, and is now forcing them to open the island’s vault.
Too busy dealing with the full fledges heroes, the terrorist neglected to catch the young students. Taking the matter into their own hands, the wanna-be heroes are now attempting to reach the top of the tower where the controls of the security system are. If they deactivate it, they can free their senpais and save the guests at the same time. Two birds with one stone.
The rookies were discovered in no time and their enemies were now on their tail. They decide to split up into small groups, each of them dealing with different villains. Midoriya and Melissa were finally the ones to reach the final destination. At the top, they discovered who the true perpetrators were. The real villains were none other than David and Samuel. The invaders were fakes, paid to create a distraction to remove the attention of the heroes from their real purpose.
David’s goal was to take possession of one of an invention that maximizes the power of any quirk. It was his own invention and yet it was unfairly sealed by his sponsors. That invention is the only thing that will help All Might stay as the Symbol of Peace. His intention was pure, however, the method not so much. Second plot twist, Wolfram is no fake, Samuel backstabbed David to get the invention for himself and he was the one who hired him. Wolfram, now in possession of the device, decided to keep it for himself and kill his employer and Melissa.
Saved by Deku and David, Wolfram makes a run for it, taking David with him and escaping by helicopter. Meanwhile, Melissa arrives at the controls and frees everyone. Wolfram uses the item on himself, now overpowered and an already incredible foe became almost unstoppable. He easily overwhelmed All Might and tells him that his real boss is All For One.
Realizing that he had no chance on his own, All Might teams up with Deku and the rest of the class who just arrived on the scene. Together they defeat the villain and retrieve David in one piece. In the end, David came to a realization, event after All Might is gone, the world will stay in good hands under the protection of the new generation of heroes.
When did this happen?
The timeline where this movie happened was honestly a bit confusing. (haha!) Well, in the anime, other sources would say this happened in the middle of epi 38 and 39. So that would be before the Forest Training arc but after the Final Exam arc. However, when we try to look at the manga, it all took place in the middle of chapter 70, still before the Forest Training arc just right after the incident with Shigaraki.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019)
The second movie of My Hero Academia franchise premiered in Japan on December 20th, 2019. The movie was released internationally last February 26, 2020.
Synopsis
As expected from any hero movie the purpose is to smash some villains, save a bunch of people and do it as a team. Deku’s class finally has the chance to work as real heroes. The mission that was given to them brought them to Nabu Island, an island so magical that they feel that they went on vacation.
That was the case until they got ambushed by their enemies and one of them had a very familiar Quirk and not in a good way! Class 1-A now has the crucial task of saving the island and all its inhabitants.
Plot
Endeavor and Hawks are currently chasing The League of Villains who are escaping in a truck transporting a life support capsule. The two heroes catch up to them managing and pulverizing the vehicle along with the villains that were riding it. However, the bodies turned out to be clones created by Twice’s Quirk. The person laying in the capsule is a well-known and very dangerous villain going by the name Nine. A crazy individual who voluntarily agreed to become a guinea pig and be experimented on by Daruma Ujiko.
Nine woke up before the crash, managed to escape, and rejoined his old comrades. He and his team of villains always had one ultimate goal, eradicate the weak and make sure that the Earth is ruled and populated only by people possessing strong Quirks. After many experiments on his body, Daruma finally managed to give his test subject a copy of All For One’s Quirk along with eight other ones.
Now that Nine got what he wanted, he still needs to take care of another problem. Due to the side effects of his body modifications, he needs a unique Cell Activation Quirk to cure himself of a life-threatening disease that he contracted, a disease that is already at a terminal stage.
Meanwhile, the students of Class 1-A were sent to an island called Nabu Island to participate in a summer semester safety program. Deku, the current possessor of the Quirk, One for All, gets acquainted with Mahoro Shimano and her younger sibling, Katsuma, two inhabitants of Nabu Island. They quickly became friends even his rival, Katsuki Bakugo, started getting attached to the siblings.
As they spent more and more time together, they learned that Katsuma desperately wanted to become a hero just like his two new friends. However, Mahoro is strongly against the idea and has been trying to change his mind ever since he brought the topic up.
At the same time, the father of the two young siblings gets attacked by Nine and his gang who are now in possession of his Quirk. Bad luck for Nine, his newly stolen Quirk is incompatible with his blood type thus, can’t be implanted. He figured that the offspring of the man might have a similar power more adequate for his body. And now the hunt began. Nine started off by sealing all means of communication off the Island and destroying all the means for leaving this small paradise.
Right after this was done, Class 1-A realized that something bad was going on and understood that they were being invaded by the enemy. To be more efficient, they divided themselves into groups and scattered to stop the villains and protect the residents. The witty Nine finds the children he was seeking in no time to get a hold on Katsuma. He checks his Quirk and confirms that this variant will be the one that will save his life. Luckily, Deku arrived at the scene at the perfect moment, right before he went off with the boy.
However, he and Bakugo were no match for Nine and were easily overpowered. Because of his condition, it’s impossible for Nine to use his Quirk for a long period of time. The young heroes still struggling managed to hold on just enough to force him to fall back.
Now that the situation died off, Class 1-A regrouped. Katsuma uses his Quirk on his saviors and when they regain consciousness they decide to launch a counter-attack. The hunters were about to become the hunted.
They thought of the safety of the residents first and decided to evacuate them. On another hand, another group successfully defeated Nine’s gang. But the real challenge was Nine and he managed to put down the whole class except for Midoriya and Bakugo.
In a desperate attempt to grasp victory, Deku decides to transfer his Quirk into Bakugo. A strategy that miraculously worked seeing that they swept the floor with Nine. When the full-fledged heroes finally decide to show up, they find an unconscious Bakugo and Deku. One For All was back in Midoriya’s body. Tomura Shigaraki went after the weakened Nine who was attempting to escape. He kills him in cold blood just out of spite.
Everything was going back to normal. The threat was dealt with and the heroes were helping the residents repair their Island before going back. Midoriya and Bakugo said their final goodbyes to Katsuma and Mahoro. Just before leaving, Deku tells Katsuma that he is sure that he will someday become an amazing hero.
When did this happen?
For Heroes Rising, the second movie of the franchise, is actually a bit, I could say, a spoiler. If you wish not to know those, you should watch until episode 112. Then I think that is the right time to see this movie. Technically, all the events in this movie falls within the same timeline as episode 101, where the UA students haven’t gone to their work studies yet. Hmm, let me think, ah yes! It all happened in between the Meta Liberation Army and Endeavor arcs. (hope that clarifies it!) In the manga, it is somewhere along chapter 257, in the middle of it, to be precise.
My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (2021)
My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission is the third and last movie. It was announced on March 27th, 2021 and it premiered on August 6th, 2021. Released internationally last October 29, 2021
Synopsis
Out of no where, a terrorist organization made an announcement, they will wipe out the entire superhuman society from the face of the Earth. The world as we know it was about to change, and the only people who can restore the balance are our young generation of new heroes.
The clock was ticking, the fall of civilization was only hours away and the ones with the burden to stop the calamity were none other than Deku, Bakugo, and Todoroki. However, the biggest thorn in their foot isn’t the villains’ plan but the fact that Deku is currently wanted for murder!
Plot
Humarise, a terrorist organization, strongly believes that Quirks are a threat to humanity. That at some point in time, the wielders will become so powerful that they will take over the world for themselves and no one will be able to stop them.
Fearing for their future, they hid bombs all over the world! Those bombs are made out of “Trigger” a gas that only kills Quirk users. The boss of the terrorists named Flect Turn really believes that he is acting as the savior of humanity by killing off the Quirk threat.
To make the world realize how serious they are, they gave the Quirk users a demonstration and detonated one of the Trigger’s. When they understood that a catastrophe was brewing, they dispatched all the pro heroes to deal with the imminent threat that is Humarise.
Izuku Midoriya, Katsuki Bakugo, and Shoto Todoroki are some of the chosen ones, entrusted with the fate of the world. They set course to Otheon, where the headquarters of the terrorist group was supposed to be. However, when they arrived there was no one there and they were left on standby. With nothing left they can do, when the three heroes witnessed a jewel robbery, they decided to intervene.
Todoroki and Bakugo went after the thieves and Deku went after the courier, Rody Soul, a poor soul that only took the job to bring food to the table for siblings. At the same time, a scientist from Humarise was escaping with a mysterious briefcase. She was intercepted by Beros. Their skirmish happened to take place exactly where Deku was dealing with Rody.
By pure accident, Rody took the briefcase and that’s when Deku finally catches him. Midoriya and Rody are now being chased by the police, however, they manage to escape successfully. Framed for mass murder by Otheon’s chief of police, a Humarise agent, Deku decides to hide as per Todoroki’s advice.
He and Rody fled to Klayd, a neighboring country where the Otheon police have no jurisdiction. Midoriya keeps Todoroki updated on his movements through coded messages. Todoroki and Bakugo regroup with Deku.
Rody, trying to escape his situation, had the genius idea to secretly contact the police who immediately appeared at their door. One problem though, these people aren’t the good guys. Deku luckily wakes up and saves the idiot but was gravely wounded in the process.
Beros was caught by the three heroes, but before they could get anything out of him, he commits suicide. While checking the briefcase for some more clues, they find a hidden compartment containing a puzzle.
Rody cracks the riddle and gets his hands on a USB. The USB reveals a note from Kay. The note said that Rody’s father, Eddy Soul, was forcibly made to create the bombs by Humarise. She also revealed that they all have a kill code.
Now with only two more hours on the clock, all the heroes have to do is find the bombs and use the info to defuse them. Now in Humarise’s headquarters, Bakugo and Todoroki are dealing with highly trained professional Humarise agents, while Midoriya is facing off against Flect Turn.
Flect, who ironically turned out to be a Quirk user, overpowers Midoriya. About to be defeated, Rody arrives and backstabs Deku in exchange for the safety of his siblings. However, Deku realizes that his new friend was acting and thanks to him he managed to catch Flect completely off guard and defeat him. In the meantime, Rody was busy defusing the Bombs. The world is now safe and a new hero was born.
When did this happen?
Just FYI!!! I am doing this for everyone’s sake. If you haven’t seen Season 5, or if you are nearing the end of it, then please finish it first before watching Two Heroes and World Heroes’ Mission. Promise me, okay? Because these 2 movies actually contain spoilers! Basically, all the events in the World Heroes’ Mission happened at the end of Endeavor arc. Taking that into account, you should see this movie after episode 113. I don’t want your excitement to be spoiled and end up hurting, kay?
Conclusion:
My Hero Academia is one of the most action-packed movies in the history of anime. Amazing fight scenes mixed with exceptional graphics and elaborated plot twists, if you liked the series, the movies won’t disappoint you.
Only three movies are on the list till now, however, more of them are guaranteed to come out sooner rather than later. So stay tuned for more updates on the topic!
