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My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising is a Japanese anime film centered on My Hero Academia. It premiered on December 20, 2019 in Japan and on February 26, 2020 in North America and the United Kingdom.
The film is set sometime after the manga's Pro Hero Arc. As part of a program sponsored by the Hero Public Safety Commission, Izuku Midoriya and the rest of Class 1-A are stationed as a "hero agency" on the isolated and peaceful Nabu Island. This training exercise is intended to help them become the next generation of heroes; as the island never sees extreme villain crime, the students can help out around the town without the direct supervision of their mentors.
However, this idyllic training is interrupted when a villain named Nine, one of the strongest foes yet, arrives on the island looking for someone to help him usher in his dream of a world where the strong rule over the weak. Cut off from communication with their mentors, Midoriya and his classmates must put everything on the line to stop him and his group of villains and protect the islanders.
Kōhei Horikoshi has stated that the film contains some elements he originally wanted to use to end the series and considers this film to be a "final chapter" of sorts.
To tie in with the movie, a two-chapter manga, Deku And Bakugo Rising about a middle school incident where Bakugo and Deku encountered a villain and a one-shot called League Of Villains UNDERCOVER about Nine's past was published.
Tropes:
- AB Negative: Downplayed, but still an important plot point. When Nine steals Mahoro and Katsuma's father's Cell Activation Quirk, he is seemingly revitalized... until he isn't. He realized that the original user has type A blood, and the Quirk is incompatible to Nine's type B. Since specific Quirks are rarer than blood types, Nine is forced to find the only other candidate for his needs: Katsuma.
- Adults Are Useless: Because they were placed on the island with no adult supervision and communication with the adults is cut off early on, it falls entirely to the teenagers of Class 1-A to hold off a formidable villain threat. After Deku and Bakugo get injured in battle, the adult doctors' Quirks are too weak to heal them, so Katsuma—the youngest character in the whole movie—has to step in.
- All Your Powers Combined: Nine is able to steal and use the Quirks of others, much like All for One. However, his body can only handle nine at a time, and part of his quest involves getting a Quirk to offset his weak body.
- Anachronic Order: Very unusually for an anime film tied into an ongoing anime series, the movie is set at a point in canon the anime had not reached at the time of release. Everything (the winter setting, Hawks, Deku's current knowledge of One For All, Shigaraki's current status quo) points to it being set between the end of the Meta Liberation Army Arc and the beginning of the Endeavor Internships Arcnote , but the anime was in the middle of adapting the Internship Arcnote . This allows the film to fit into canon, something a Non-Serial Movie (what the vast majority of tie-in anime films are) never has to worry about.
- And Your Reward Is Edible: After they've spent the day helping out with various mundane tasks, the residents of Nabu Island reward Class 1-A by bringing a homemade feast to their agency's building.
- Award-Bait Song: "Might+U" by Makayla Phillips
, which plays during the final battle. - Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In the end, Shigaraki kills Nine to usurp his goals.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist is Nine. His attempt to steal Katsuma's Quirk is the main conflict of the movie.
- Big Brother Instinct: Gender-flipped variation with Mahoro. Despite her adherently judgmental attitude towards heroes (and incorrectly assuming how unbecoming Deku and Bakugo were), she is always nice and looking out for her little brother Katsuma and trying to coax him not to become a hero himself. She also never leaves Katsuma's side when it's clear Nine intends to come after his Quirk.
- Broken Faceplate: During the battle against Nine, Sero gets half of the visor of his helmet broken, slightly revealing his face. It gets fully broken when he tries to get back into the fight a second time.
- Call-Back:
- When Katsuma sees Mahoro in danger thanks to Nine threatening to kill her, he immediately runs towards Nine without thinking. Just like Deku does when he sees Bakugo in trouble thanks to the Sludge Villain.
- A major component in the final fight is one of the first feats we ever saw performed with One For All: All Might changing the weather with a single punch.
- Once Deku gives Bakugo One for All and fights alongside him, naturally there are various call backs to when All Might faced off against All for One a 2nd and final time. With Deku even saying goodbye to One For All once he unleashes his final attack to defeat Nine.
- Casts No Shadow: Bakugo quickly figures out that the giant "monster" he was fighting was an illusion created by Mahoro because it didn't have a shadow.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: With communications cut, Yaoyorozu has to use her Quirk to create a drone in order to send a distress message to the pro heroes on the mainland, which she says will take six hours. By the time the heroes arrive, Nine and his crew have been defeated by Class 1-A, and all the pros have left to do is assist with apprehending the villains and bringing the wounded to safety.
- Crying Wolf: Because Mahoro and Katsuma played a prank of a villain attack, Bakugo doesn't believe them when they call that real villains are attacking this time. Izuku is barely able to intervene before communications are cut and the rest of Class 1-A is caught blindsided.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Bakugo ends up playing this role; he doesn't bother helping with any of the townspeople's mundane requests because he wants to be ready to battle a villain if one comes along. Everyone makes fun of him and thinks he's just being lazy but, of course, some formidable villains do show up, and he ends up being the first hero to successfully take one of them down. Ironically, when Mahoro first calls in about the villains, Bakugo doesn't believe her because the kids faked a villain attack the night before.
- Cut Phone Lines: Nine's gang destroy all the ships and communication towers to cut the island off from the mainland, leaving the students to fight them off alone.
- Darkest Hour: At the climax, Nine is unleashing more power than ever, everyone from Class 1-A is defeated or exhausted, and backup is nowhere in sight. Deku strains to think of something left... And then he hears the children push him and Bakugo to keep fighting.
- Deadly Upgrade: Deku gives Bakugo One for All so they'd both have the manpower necessary to beat Nine. While they both push their bodies to the point of breaking their arms, for Deku this meant this would be his final battle as a hero. Or so it would seem...
- Demoted to Extra: Unlike the previous movie, Two Heroes, all of Class 1-A take part in this movie's plot, thereby averting this trope.
- Early-Bird Cameo: No pun intended. Hawks has a supporting role in this film, despite not having been introduced in the anime when this film released.
- Exactly What I Aimed At: Slice scoffs at Yaoyorozu when the latter's cannon attack hits the ground instead of her, but moments later the ground collapses and Slice falls into a huge cavern, where Ashido and Tokoyami are waiting to battle her—giving the latter an advantage, since it's nice and dark down there.
- Evil Overlooker: In the poster, Nine's head looms over the group shot of Class 1-A, while his minions look off to the side. Also looking sinister on top is Hawks, whose involvement with the villains is unmentioned in the film proper.
- Expy: Slice. A superhero character (a villain, granted) with long dark-red hair, which also happens to be her primary weapon in battle. She's Medusa from The Inhumans. Hell, her mask and costume's color scheme are even nearly identical.
- Foreshadowing: Some elements of the movie would become relevant to the manga months after its release.
- The experiments that allowed Nine to acquire a copy of All For One's Quirk would later on allow Shigaraki to acquire the real one.
- Chimera discusses how people call him a "monster" because of his beastly appearance from his Quirk, and wonders if Shoji had to deal with this himself at some point. The main series tackles this subject at times and Shoji's origin confirms his own dealings with such prejudice, which plays a vital role in a late battle.
- One For All remaining with Izuku despite giving it to Bakugo hints at the Quirk gaining a degree of sentience through the will of the predecessors. It's later revealed that he can't give up One for All because it's literally connected to him.
- Glowing Eyes: Both Midoriya and Bakugo get glowing irises after Midoriya transfers One for All to Bakugo, triggering a Heroic Second Wind.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: Though she dislikes and distrusts heroes, and Class 1-A in particular, Mahoro still sends up a Deku-signal to summon his friends when he's on the ropes fighting a villain. Bakugo—despite his anger at Mahoro for her illusory villain attack—rockets in to help within seconds, followed by several others a bit later.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: The past users of One For All. They thwart Nine's attempt to steal One For All. Later All Might suspects that the heroes willed One For All to remain within Deku instead of completely transferring to Bakugo.
- Greater-Scope Villain: It was the League of Villains experiments that gave Nine a weaker version of the All For One Quirk. There are also some hints that they were manipulating Nine to cover their own theft of an unnamed Quirk that would be blamed on Nine.
- Harmless Electrocution: Played With. Nine electrocutes Bakugo and Midoriya once with lightning, which significantly contributes to their grievous injuries — they were only able to bounce back thanks to someone with Healing Hands. Nine is understandably surprised when they seemingly survive the same attack later on, none the worse for wear. They explain that they had foreseen that he would reuse that trick, so they had Kaminari — who is justifiably immune due to Required Secondary Powers — act as a lightning rod.
- Harmless Freezing: Shoto defeats Chimera by completely freezing him solid, including the inside of his body; however, after the final battle, Chimera is shown being led away by the authorities.
- Healing Hands: Two of the medics living on the island have these literally as their Quirk. Katsuma and his father's Cell-Activation Quirks are much more effective, but only work on certain blood types.
- Healing Factor: Nine's goal throughout the film is to obtain one, since his multiple Quirks are detrimental to his body. He ultimately targets Katsuma, whose Cell Activation Quirks work on his blood.
- Hero Does Public Service:
- Since Nabu Island is a small, tightly-knit community, it has a very low crime rate, so Class 1-A mostly just does community service. At the start of the movie, they're helping out at the beach (Tsuyu and Sato rescue a drowning child, Shoto makes ice for a stall vendor...), and they do similar jobs all around town as well (Iida carries an old lady who's hurt her back, Kaminari helps charge the battery of a farmer's tractor). Although Bakugo complains about it, it's pointed out that this aspect of heroism is important as well as it allows heroes to connect with the people they protect, and the class enjoys the work.
- Once Nine and his crew make their way to the island the story shifts to the traditional villain-stopping definition of heroism; after his defeat, the students stay to help out with the rebuilding.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A non-lethal version. Midoriya is willing to pass on One for All to Bakugo so they have the power to defeat Nine, despite knowing that it would end his dream. It ends up being averted as it seems that One for All still remained in Midoriya with Toshinori theorizing that the former users broke the connection during the transfer.
- Heroic Second Wind: During the Darkest Hour Midoriya is jolted to his senses by Mahoro and Katsuma cheering for him and realizes what he can do to keep the battle going — give Bakugo One for All. Both are renewed by this newfound power and proceed to kick ass.
- Hulking Out: Happens to Tokoyami during his fight against Slice: when Ashido's leg gets injured by Slice's last-ditch attack, Tokoyami loses control of Dark Shadow and goes all-out against his opponent. While defeating Slice, his attack also destroys the cave's ceiling, and the light coming from outside brings him back to normal.
- Implacable Man: Both Nine and Chimera have this in spades. The former continuously marches to his destination only casually emitting his powers to defend himself, while the latter is a super strong beast-man who takes as much as he can give. Not even health issues and poison respectively can stop them for long when they go all out.
- Immunity Attrition: As powerful as Nine's powers are, he can only use them so much before his body gives out. Midoriya exploits that weakness by holding a siege on the castle ruins island.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Towards the end, after Nine is defeated by Midoriya and Bakugo, he survives the battle in a severely weakened state, only for Shigaraki to arrive and kill him off.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The movie ends up spoiling a lot of stuff that happens well after where the anime was airing at the time of its release. In particular:
- That One for All has multiple Quirks inside it, as well as showing most of the predecessors.
- Endeavor's Eye Scream from his battle with High-End. This one is a bit more Downplayed as it's hard to notice unless someone pays close attention.
- "The Doctor" and his role with the League of Villains.
- Several of the 1A students' new supermoves, like Shoji's Octoblow and Tokoyami's Black Fallen Angel.
- The most extreme one, and one that wasn't even revealed until several months after the film came out, was that it was possible to create artificial versions of All For One, which is something that becomes relevant for how it plays in Tomura receiving the real All For One.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Bakugo has no memory of his brief possession of One For All when he regains consciousness after the battle.
- MacGuffin Super-Person: Katsuma is sought after by Nine for his Cell Activation Quirk.
- Mundane Utility:
- In the first act, the students' Quirks are mainly used for Hero Does Public Service — Kaminari uses his Shock and Awe to charge an old farmer's tractor, Iida uses his Super-Speed to bring a grandmother to a clinic, and Yaoyorozu uses her Creation to make a spanner to fix a bicycle. Played more dramatically when they decide to evacuate the citizens and Yaoyorozu and Kaminari exhaust themselves by creating utilities and powering generators and batteries respectively.
- Even the villains get in on this; Chimera uses his Breath Weapon to light his cigar.
- The Needs of the Many: Katsuma suggests giving himself over to Nine to protect the other islanders. Midoriya and the rest of the class staunchly refuse.
- Non-Serial Movie: Like the previous movie, averted. The movie takes great pains to not contradict the larger ongoing story of the manga, to the point of being set after the manga's most recent completed arc when the anime
was easily an entire season's worth of content behind. That said, Bakugo conveniently forgets he ever shared One-For-All while Midoriya still has it despite intending to pass it on, thus maintaining the status quo for future. - Person of Mass Destruction: Nine is this even without his additional quirks, as his natural weather powers are capable of easily leveling cities.
- Series Fauxnale: The movie is meant to feel like a final chapter and borrows much from Horikoshi's originally planned finale for the manga, but it seems to take place squarely in the middle of it instead, and the manga still goes on.
- Shonen Hair: Notably, both Bakugo and Midoriya get spikier versions of their normal hairstyles when they both possess the powerful One for All.
- Shout-Out: Horikoshi's Star Wars naming habit continues: the island where the film takes place is named Nabu.
- The Siege: In order to hold out until backup arrives, Class 1-A moves the residents of the island to the castle ruins that are only accessible by one land bridge, and intend to hold back Nine and his henchpeople for as long as possible.
- The Slow Walk: When Nine is approaching the castle ruins, he slowly walks along the path, only slowing down to block Class 1-A's attacks.
- The Social Darwinist: Nine and his gang. Their entire plan is to get him enough power (as well as a way to fix his weakness) so that he can create a world order where the strong live over the weak; what they believe is the ideal world order for a superhero society.
- Status Quo Is God: After the final battle, Midoriya has transferred One for All to Bakugo, and used up the last of the embers to defeat Nine. However, One for All doesn't fully transfer, and Midoriya regains his Quirk, while Bakugo forgets all about the incident.
- Sudden Soundtrack Stop: When Katsuma is about to give Nine his powers, the emotional music starts to swell... and it goes silent as soon as Midoriya shows up and kicks Nine in the face.
- Super-Deformed: An in-universe example—Mahoro creates a gigantic chibified illusion of Midoriya to signal his friends to come help him fight Nine.
- Take My Hand!: Midoriya and Bakugo reach for each other's hands when both are trapped by Nine's Water Dragons so Midoriya can initiate the transfer of One for All.
- Techno Babble: Katsuma and his dad's Quirks are described as "cell activation," which doesn't really mean anything and never gets a clear explanation, but in practice acts as a weak Healing Factor.
- Tempting Fate: When All Might questions if it's a good idea to send the students to a remote island with no immediate backup, Aizawa responds that they'll be fine because in 30 years, the island has only ever seen petty crime. Shortly after, powerful villains attack the island and sever communications, leaving the kids to fend for themselves.
- Theme Naming: Continuing the trend from the main series, Nabu is also a planet from Star Wars (Naboo), appropriate for an isolated location that is relatively peaceful until the villains take interest.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Aside from a few moments of jerkassery here and there, Bakugo is much much more civil towards Midoriya in this movie than he is in the manga or the anime.
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Nine attempts to steal One For All from Midoriya, but fails because he's limited to nine total Quirks, and One For All contains all the Quirks of its former users, though Midoriya has not yet learned to use any besides the basic Lightning Bruiser one. It's also been stated that One For All cannot be taken forcibly.
- Tropical Island Adventure: The class is sent to a subtropical island in the middle of winter, where they get to enjoy acting as a hero agency for the tightly-knit community. The film opens with shenanigans on a beach, for example. The isolation of the island is also a plot point, since it means the pro heroes can't help Class 1-A when villains attack.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee:
- Midoriya and Class 1-A's plan to hide out in the ruins and split up the villains is laid out, so it doesn't go as well as they hoped. Although Chimera and Slice are taken out, albeit not through their initial plans, Nine is far more implacable than they thought they would be.
- Todoroki's unspoken plan to bring down Chimera by freezing him from the inside out works perfectly.
- Victory by Endurance: Essentially Deku's plan to defeat Nine: have Class 1-A barrage him and force him to spam his quirks until he reaches his physical limit. The plan works, but Nine snaps and goes utterly berserk when he realizes it.
- Villainous R Ro D: Deku realizes that Nine becomes physically exhausted when he uses enough of his quirks in a short period of time. The heroes later exploit this in the final battle.
- Worf Had the Flu: Kaminari and Yaoyorozu are largely out of commission during the final battle since they had exhausted their Quirks the night before by providing utilities for the evacuated islanders. However, they are still able to support the plan by contributing during crucial moments.
- You Will Be Spared: Nine tells this to his victims, as all he wants out of them are their Quirks. The one time he doesn't, he's unhinged by Class 1-A's stalling tactics so much that he threatens Mahoro's life for Katsuma's compliance.
