Anime / My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

aka: My Hero Academia The Two Heroes

Who is your hero?

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is a Japanese anime film centered on My Hero Academia released in August 2018.

The film is set before the events of the Training Camp Arc, with All Might receiving an invitation from an old friend to visit the floating and mobile city "I-Island". Researchers from around the world are gathered to research Quirks as well as Hero supplemental items at the special convention that is held on the island. While this is going on, All Might looks back on his past before he became the Symbol of Peace.

During his trip there along with the other Class 1-A students, Deku meets Melissa, a Quirkless girl, who reminds him of his own Quirkless past. Suddenly, despite the security surrounding the island, the entire island system is breached by a Villain who hacks into it. With the entire island under Villain control, the Heroes must find a way to restore control and contain the chaos before it turns into havoc.

The film was released on August 3rd, 2018 in Japan. Funimation provided a limited showing of the film's English dub in theaters from September 25 through October 2, 2018 in the United States and Canada. There was also a special showing at Anime Expo on July 5th.

A one-shot prequel manga There Will Always Be Someone Out There Who's Someone Else's Hero about Melissa's past and how she met All Might was published to tie in with the movie. Melissa is also set to appear in the Team-up Missions spin-off manga.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Long Stairway: The central tower of I-Island has 200 floors and a stairwell that goes all the way up to the top. Melissa initially suggests that the team head up the stairwell to avoid catching the villains' attention until they find the stairwell barricaded on the 80th floor.
• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • The reason Kirishima and Bakugo show up at just the right time to fight the two elite mooks? They somehow ended up on the 80th floor while looking for the reception area on the 2nd floor.
  • When Melissa thanks Deku for even wearing her gauntlet during the party, he responds (with a completely straight face) that he couldn't figure out how to get it off.
• Air-Vent Passageway: Mineta has to climb up one to help his friends, since he's the only one small enough to fit and the only one whose Quirk lets him move vertically in such a confined space.
• All for Nothing: David's plot to retrieve the Quirk-boosting device in order to re-power All Might completely fails after it's destroyed, only learning at the end that he has a successor to carry his role and very likely loses his own job and reputation since the invasion was his idea. In the end, all parties involved are pretty much worse off.
• Animation Bump: The quality of the animation in the fight scenes is even higher than some of the most well-known scenes in the main series. The animation quality can dip a little during the lulls in the action.
• Arms Dealer: The true job of Wolfram's mercenary group on the island. They never intended to complete the contract with David and Sam in the first place when Wolfram realized the money they paid him was absolutely nothing compared to how much he could make selling the Quirk enhancer on the black market.
• Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Although the Full Gauntlet was made with All Might in mind, its appearance is coincidentally appropriate to someone like Deku, as it resembles a bandage cast, but not only that it's colored red which fits well with the color of his shoes.
• Badass Back: How young All Might makes his first appearance in the opening flashback sequence, complete with his awesome Plus Ultra jacket blowing in the wind.
• Badass in Distress: All Might and numerous other pro heroes are restrained by the tower's security system, and they can't break free under the threat that civilians in the room will be killed by the villains if they try. Once Melissa gets to the security room and reboots the system, the pros are free to turn the tables on their captors.
• Big Bad: Wolfram, the leader of the terrorists.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Most of the male Class 1-A members that came along have to wear suits instead of their hero gear when fighting the villains and they damn look good doing. Especially Bakugo, Todoroki and Iida.
• Battle Butler: Kaminari and Mineta end up fighting through the invasion while still dressed in their waiter uniforms.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Bakugo and Kirishima come to the rescue twice, once completely by accident.
  • All Might arrives just in time to stop the helicopter, and Deku saves All Might when the Big Bad surprises him with his second Quirk.
• Bittersweet Ending: The heroes save the day, no hostage in I-Island has been harmed in the end, and Melissa has a bright future as a scientist ahead. However, even if he was double-crossed and tricked by Sam, David was still complicit in a crime that endangered thousands of people and almost made villains acquire a dangerous technology; his own career is probably over. He's last seen as Melissa visits him in an hospital room guarded by policemen, and the last shot of the movie is of All Might and Deku somberly looking at I-Island.
• Bloodier and Gorier: This is the first point in any of the animation where someone is gravely wounded and losing massive amounts of blood, as well as the first time in the series where someone is shot on-screen with a regular firearm. The manga's Internship Arc is no slouch in this department, but seeing someone get brutally wounded is an animation first.
• Book Ends:
  • The movie opens with two bald eagles flying in the sky just before All Might's and Dave's debut. It then closes with a similar shot of two bald eagles after the events of I-Island.
  • Similarly, Dave reminisces about All Might's glory days in an old photo that has the hero jumping into the sky with his fist stretched out in front of him near the beginning of the film. Izuku strikes the same pose after he and All Might defeat Wolfram.
• Brick Joke: Momo pushes her calorie based powers to the limit during the film. At one point in the epilogue, the heroes are at a barbecue celebrating the victory, and Momo is on her sixth plate and still going strong in order to recharge.
• Busman's Holiday: The cast go to I-Island to attend an expo and take a break, only for villains to take over the island.
• Call-Forward:
  • This will not be the last time Midoriya uses gauntlets to help control his Quirk. Also, Quirk-enhancing drugs are mentioned here, but don't appear in the main story until the Internship Arc.
  • Iida looks at Midoriya with a worried face as he explains his plan and reasoning to save the hostages. This subtly references his future concerns during the Hideout Raid arc.
  • Melissa's pogo stick and gauntlet are able to be compressed into a small size to a ridiculous degree, using a very similar if not identical High-Tech Hexagons energy effect to the Detenerat weapons introduced much later in the Meta Liberation Army arc.
  • The little glasses-wearing girl that All Might saves in the prologue reappears much later as Star and Stripe, the No. 1 hero of the United States.
• The Cameo: Sato, Sero, Tsuyu, Mina and Hagakure makes guest appearances in the movie, being stuck in their hotel rooms while the plot kicks off.
• Card-Carrying Villain: One of the only aversions so far in the franchise. While Wolfram and his thugs are violent, sadistic jerkasses, they never really care about the whole "superheroes vs villains" morality narrative that every other antagonist in the series has focused on. Justified, as Wolfram's men are hired guns in the first place, so being Only in It for the Money makes more sense. The only reason he tries so hard to kill All Might in the climax is to make more money off of his stolen device.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Melissa gives Midoriya a special gauntlet to reinforce his arm, and says it could probably withstand 3 full-power punches from "Uncle Might" before breaking. Guess how many times he ends up using it.
  • Also David's invention, the Quirk enhancer. It's revealed late in the movie as the true focus of the heist, and Wolfram uses it on himself in the climactic battle.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: The intro flashback sequence shows that All Might has always been like this. He and David are already late for class due to stopping a bank robbery, when a police band broadcast reports a hijacking. David protests that they have to get back to school, but then sighs and says "You can't not help them, can you?"
• Clothing Damage: While stopping a bank robbery in his youth, the villain with the rocket launcher scorches off All Might's jacket, revealing the first costume Dave made for him. Said costume was made in response to how they both met after All Might saved him from a burning laboratory, at the cost of some of his civilian clothes. By the end of the movie, Izuku's and All Might's final blow against Wolfram ends up shredding Izuku's dress shirt, leaving him shirtless. Iida's pants get similarly destroyed from the knee down by his reciprobursts.
  • Iida, Bakugo and Todoroki get their clothes damaged either because of the use of their quirk or just plain old fighting.
• Combination Attack: Double Detroit Smash!
• Contrived Coincidence: How did a select handful in Class 1-A join Midoriya for I-Island's Expo preview and become a part of the central plot?
  • Yayorozu receives some invitations to the Expo preview because of her father's connections.
    • Jiro and Uraraka join her as plus ones after competing with the other girls over rock-paper-scissors. Mina, Tsuyu, and Hagakure do tag along and are seen back at their hotel during lockdown.
  • Iida's family usually takes part in the Expo, but he is the only representative this time.
  • Bakugo was invited for winning the UA Sports Festival, and Kirishima joins him as a plus one.
  • Todoroki shows up as a representative for his father Endeavor.
  • Kaminari and Mineta arrive to work in exchange for a free trip. They later join the others after Melissa hands them extra invites.
  • No explanation for why Shoji, Tokoyami, Sato, and Sero are there is ever given though.
• Cool Car: David is shown driving one during the opening flashback to his time working with All Might. It's fast enough and powerful enough to keep up with All Might, shoots missiles that release bubbles to nullify explosions, and can transform into a rocket-powered jet.
• Cowgirl: The opening of the film shows an American hero named Cow Lady who has a cowgirl theme in more than one way; not only does she dress like a cowgirl, but she also has cow ears and horns and her Quirk lets her shapeshift into a cow.
• Demoted to Extra: Half of Class 1-A (Deku, Uraraka, Iida, Bakugo, Todoroki, Kirishima, Mineta, Kaminari, Jiro, Yaoyorozu) and All Might take part in the movie's plot. The rest do appear on the island, but only in a couple of short scenes due to not having early access passes to the expo; mostly when they're in their hotel rooms being comic relief or experiencing the island's complete lockdown.
  • Aoyama, Ojiro, and Koda at least get a cameo in the credits.
• "Die Hard" on an X: Villains take over the island and capture the professional heroes. And miss a few hero students, who are forced to climb a skyscraper full of hazards and bad guys.
• Dodge the Bullet: In a first for the series for any character on screen even up till the current manga, Deku dodges automatic weapons firing real bullets by jumping around on the ceiling at high speed when taking down two of the mercenaries.
• Doomed New Clothes: Kirishima buys Bakugo and himself formal outfits for the gala. They get partially shredded during battle.
• Double-Meaning Title: The title could refer to either All Might and his old partner David, Izuku and Melissa, or Izuku and All Might.
• Drama-Preserving Handicap: All Might holds his muscle form while held hostage to hide his secret for almost the entire movie. By the time of the final battle he's too drained to fight in top shape and needs everyone to help him.
• Dramatic Irony: The lengths All Might goes to keep One for All a secret, so that All For One doesn't target them, includes his friend and former side-kick, David Shield. Because of this, David created a device to try and restore All Might's power back, and staged a villain attack to get it when it was confiscated. And the hired guns turned out to be empowered by All For One as well...
• Escort Mission: The majority of the movie is class 1-A helping Melissa, who's Quirkless, get to the top of the tower so she can fix I-Island's hacked security system.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Sam planned to give the Quirk enhancer to Wolfram because he was mad at David for letting it confiscated in the first place. Then Wolfram gives him his just reward...
• Evil Is Petty: All For One gave Wolfram a second Quirk, in the full expectation that he would fail anyway, just to screw with All Might.
• Fan Disservice: All Might gets a Shirtless Scene while he's in David's lab... but in his emaciated true form, with the grotesque wound he got from All For One on full display.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: After Wolfram suddenly pulls out a second Quirk of Super-Strength, the all-too familiar wailing of All for One's theme also starts playing. Guess who's also partly behind this?
• Forgot About His Powers: Played for Laughs. After defeating the Elite Mooks, Bakugo and Todoroki check to see if Kirishima is alright (who had been smacked into a wall at the start of the fight). Kirishima asks for help because he's stuck, only for Bakugo to tell him to deactivate his Quirk, freeing him much to his own embarrassment.
• Foreshadowing: There are a few pieces of foreshadowing to The Reveal that David setup the entire villain attack:
  • The villains' plan works too perfectly, and only unravels itself because the heroes happened to arrive late to the party. Melissa mentions they don't seem to fully have grasps on the security system, which is shown to be not an issue since it wasn't their original plan. Since they had Sam and David helping them, they knew what to do and how to do it quickly.
  • Wolfram picks Sam as the scientist to take hostage, even though the room has several other scientists to chose from. It seems contrived, until its revealed he knew all along who to pick.
  • David's surprise at All Might's visit is just as happy as it was worried. He even tries to stop All Might going to the party last minute before changing his mind, and he looks longingly at his old picture of All Might in his younger, stronger days. Everything he did it was to help All Might.
  • The fact that the villains even managed to get onto the highly secure island in the first place serves as a huge example early on. Early on its mentioned only people with permission can get into the island, yet the villains somehow sneak in with no security systems going off at all. It turns out they were hired to do so, and thus were allowed in by David.
  • The fact the villains are not actors is foreshadowed by the fact that the villains are willing to fight using their Quirks against the students. Had they truly been actors, they would have likely backed down or told the truth. The fact they instead attacked to kill hints that they truly aren't paid actors at all, especially when one manages to cut Melissa.
• For the Evulz: Wolfram may be Only in It for the Money, but All For One helped him orchestrate his plan just to screw with All Might some more.
• Geo Effects: Wolfram's metal-manipulating Quirk becomes extremely powerful when on an artifical island and especially a hi-tech skyscraper while using the Quirk-booster, but he's a lot more vulnerable in the air with only a helicopter to work with.
• The Gloves Come Off: While Shoto restricts himself to using ice most of the time, he does switch to using his fire on two occasions in circumstances when ice wouldn't be of any use.
• Greater-Scope Villain: All For One's destructive injury to All Might comes back to bite not only him, but also David Shields. Because All Might was seeking a successor and chose Midoriya to inherit One for All, his own Quirk levels were diminishing further, causing David to invent the Quirk Booster only to then have it shut down by his superiors, leading to his plan to stage an island-wide hostage scenario and the main conflict overall. All For One even gives Wolfram a second Quirk to screw with All Might further.
• Heroic RRoD: For the first time in the series, Yaoyorozu reaches her creation limit when the group tries to stall the horde of security drones using a cannon. Mineta also starts bleeding from his scalp during the same fight.
• Hope Spot:
  • Played for Laughs. Kaminari amps up his Quirk to the point where he goes into his stupid mode fighting an entire army of security robots. After a small Beat they immediately reactivate and capture him.
  • All Might nearly defeats Wolfram, only for Wolfram to reveal that All For One gave him a call when his connections found out about Wolfram's little job and gave him the gift of a second Quirk to to make sure All Might suffered more.
• Irony: Despite Iida's repeated orders to arrive on time and fury that Midoriya, Melissa, Bakugo, and Kirishima were late to the party venue, none of them making it there on time keeps everyone from being taken hostage since the tower's outer area where they were waiting was empty. Additionally. Bakugo and Kirishima getting lost and climbing the tower put them in position for their accidental Big Damn Heroes later.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Male and Female version. Because all the 1-A students were headed to a party when the attack went down, they spend half the movie in formal wear rather than their hero gear. This does not prevent them from kicking ass when necessary.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • Sam only told David that he was hiring actors, he never once thought they might be violent mercenaries for real.
  • All Might/Toshinori doesn't tell his friend David about how One for All works; only that he's losing his Quirk over time. It is because of this that David created the Quirk enhancing headband in the first place; to try and restore All Might back to his former self.
• Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: When Melissa suggests she and the UA students take the stairs up I-Island's central tower, she does so in restrictive dress heels. It isn't long before she starts falling behind the pack, and tears them off her feet without a second thought. Ochako offers to relieve the effects of gravity, too, but Melissa declines.^note Curiously, Momo could have used her Quirk to fashion new shoes for Melissa that were more appropriate for the situation, yet it never comes up, as learning Melissa's exact shoe size would take time in an already desperate plight.
• Magic Skirt: Melissa's short skirt, full stop. Climbing ladders, floating, jumping, diving, and getting thrown around. Nothing that happens results in a panty shot.
• Musicalis Interruptus: All Might's theme is playing as he saves Dave from Wolfram and seemingly saving the day, only for Wolfram to reveal that he used the Quirk Enhancer on himself, smashing All Might into a wall and stopping the theme music.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Nearly all of the promotional material including the official movie poster shows the main characters in costume, but almost all of the movie's run time has them in formal wear because they were supposed to be at a party. This limits some of their abilities, especially Bakugo and Jiro. The former ends up hurting himself during the final battle by trying to create explosions bigger than his body allows without his grenade arms, and the latter can't fight enemies on her own without her speaker legs.
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: David's Quirk-enhancing device is the only one in existence, and for some reason he can't just build a new one without access to the original. Of course, it was mentioned that all the research was confiscated and further development frozen due to pressure from various countries, and he felt that All Might didn't have enough time left for him to build a new one.
• No Sense of Direction: Kirishima demonstrates Roronoa Zoro-caliber navigational skills when he manages to lead himself and Bakugo to the 80th floor of the tower while trying to find the lobby.
• Non-Serial Movie: Averted; Horikoshi had a lot of input in the movie, and it's placed at an explicit point in the canon story. The manga also had a special tie in comic showing when All Might lost his master and when he met Melissa and the anime adds an extra episode to set up the trip. The movie itself also doesn't contradict any of the plot elements from the main story, and the main story itself makes efforts to make nods to the movie, such as Midoriya using variants of the Full Gauntlet while acting as a Vigilante, the American hero Star and Stripe being the adult version of one of the girls All Might saved during his debut with said moment inspiring her, and Endeavor's second hero costume explicitly confirmed to be the work of Melissa.
• Not What It Looks Like: A G-rated example when Melissa and Midoriya are exploring the expo together—they unexpectedly run into Ochaco, who has a brief Heroic BSoD while Midoriya frantically tries to explain to her friends that they're not on a date. Thankfully, they pretty much forget about it over drinks.
• Oh, Crap!: a villain with a matter-displacing Quirk gets a brief one when one of his attacks leaves him with some pieces of Bakugo's shirt in his hands, which also means that his hands have some of Bakugo's nitroglycerin-like sweat on them. Cue Todoroki lighting him up
• Origins Episode: The movie as a whole accounts for a lot of events of All Might's earlier years as a hero. Horikoshi's art for the movie was a mock up of a manga cover for it that was numbered as "Vol. Origin".
• One-Winged Angel: Wolfram puts on the Quirk-enhancing helmet, increasing his metal-manipulation abilities and turns himself into a giant scrap metal version of Perfect Chaos.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: One of David's greatest inventions had its funding cut by a shadowy committee of executives, and he was forced to stop developing it. At least, that's his perspective on it. Even by this point, though, it's clear that his invention could be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. The final battle with a souped-up Wolfram clearly demonstrates why the higher-ups cancelled the project, making this a subversion.
• Poor Communication Kills: David decides to hire villains to invade the island and help him retrieve his Quirk-enhancing helmet from secure storage because All Might didn't tell him why his powers have deteriorated, so David thought his invention could restore him to full strength. Ironically, All Might kept this secret from David and Melissa for their safety, so they wouldn't get caught up in all the villainous plots against him; as a result, both of them, along with everyone else on I-Island, end up in a whole lot of danger.
• Power Fist: Melissa gives Izuku the Full Gauntlet, a device based on All Might's combat data, to help him handle his own Quirk. It's designed to be able to take inhuman amounts of punishment, allowing Izuku to push his use of One For All up to 30% without injuring himself. It can even take three 100% smashes before shattering, which Izuku is sure to use of throughout the film. Its sturdy construction also makes it an excellent defensive tool for blocking bladed weapons.
• Precision F-Strike: In the sub, All Might has a couple instances where he drops a "SHIT!" in English.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Wolfram gives one to his more well-intentioned accomplice David Shield, noting that for all the latter's good intentions, he still ended up becoming a criminal.
• The Rest Shall Pass: While the main cast is traveling up the inside of the tower to get to the security controls on the top floor, a couple of times they leave several of their number behind to fight against encountered opponents so the rest can press on.
• The Reveal:
  • David and Sam were behind the attack in order to steal a device they created. Another one immediately follows: Wolfram and his gang are not actors or small time criminals, they're real mercenaries and Arms Dealers who have no intention of letting the two scientists take a device that could go for billions on the black market.
  • All for One got in contact with Wolfram and gave him a second quirk.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Wolfram shoots Sam, who not only betrayed I-Island but also his boss David, as soon as he has the Quirk enhancer. In a twist, Sam isn't killed as far the audience is shown.
• Scienceville: The I-Island was created specifically for scientists to safely research on Quirks.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: All of the girls get focus on this during the arrival to the party, especially Melissa.
• Shout-Out:
  • Wolfram's appearance seems to be one to the Batman villain Hush. His mask, despite being made of metal, looks like bandages; he has facial scarring underneath; he wears a Badass Longcoat with a large collar; and, unlike the vast majority of the series' villains, he wields a pistol rather than use his quirk (until the final act).
  • While stuck with no digital entertainment, Hagakure pulls out a pack of UNO cards.
• Spanner in the Works: The perpetrators of the villain attack did not account for the presence of All Might or so many U.A. students, which ends up derailing their plan just as it's about to come to fruition.
• Story-Breaker Power:
  • There's a reason David's Quirk enhancer device was movie only. Such a device would have made whoever got it overpowered to the point where few characters would have a chance of winning. Someone like Midoriya with it would be almost unstoppable.
  • Midoriya gets the Full Gauntlet, a support item which allows him to perform 100% Smashes with no consequence provided that he's careful with it. It's pretty obvious that he won't get to keep it, considering how it nullifies his biggest weakness (not to mention the movie is set between seasons 2 and 3, and he doesn't have it during season 3). At the movie's climax, Deku fires off the Double Detroit Smash with All Might, which is so powerful it completely disintegrates the Full Gauntlet, and Melissa doesn't make a new one. He wouldn't get a permanent but inferior option officially until Season 4, provided by Mei Hatsume. He does get a similar set of mid-gauntlets from America in the manga, after dropping out of UA however. The implication being they were built by Melissa or David, but they are somewhat weaker than the version in this movie.
• Super-Empowering: David's device that was locked by government officials can increase a person's Quirk without doing any damage to the user. When used by Wolfram, he becomes just under All For One in terms of power.
• Taking the Bullet: After Sam gets shot in the shoulder by Wolfram, David throws himself into the path of the second shot, which would have killed Sam if he hadn't.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: There is a vent that is too small for most of the teens to fit in, and out of reach. Good thing tiny Mineta can climb up there with his powers.
• Trick Bomb: When confronted by a wave of very resilient robots, Yaoyorozu creates a stack of chaff grenades to disrupt their sensors.
• Unsorcerer: Like Midoriya prior to inheriting One for All, Melissa Shield is Quirkless. She doesn't mind about it and focuses on her research and support item creation.
• Villain Has a Point: While Wolfram is a utter Jerkass, he correctly calls out David for hiring villains to stage a "fake" hostage situation, since it means he basically did the same thing a villain would do and thus he will need to face his crimes for it. This is enough to make David go into a My God, What Have I Done? state for the rest of the film.
• Wham Line: Wolfram revealing that All for One was behind the plot to All Might.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: David hired the villains to cover the theft of his Quirk enhancer. He hopes to restore All Might to full power, so he could continue to serve as a symbol of peace.
• You Shall Not Pass!: The classmates all help at various points to make sure at least Melissa and Deku reach the top of the tower, holding off security robots in the process. Subverted with Ochaco however, who gets ready to do one, but is assisted by Bakugo, Kirishima, and Todoroki before they attack her.

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