A few things to note before reviewing Two Heroes. One, I love My Hero Academia. It’s a great story that pays homage to Western superhero stories while forging its own distinct path with a fresh, unique setting and a large array of strikingly three-dimensional, colorful characters—both heroes and villains. It comes with the praise that the series is also well-written. It’s not perfect—I have gripes from time to time, with certain arcs having some more notable faults—but the series’ pros have, so far, vastly outweighed the issues that occasionally arise. The series has also had the good graces of being given a solid anime adaptation by Studio Bones, who also produced Two Heroes.
At this point, I'm just going to spoil the obvious beans here and reveal that Two Heroes is made for fans of the series. People who have never seen the show and/or read the manga can follow the film to an extent, but will more than likely get very confused with certain areas. As such, from this point forward I'll be discussing the film as if the readers are knowledgeable of the series.
At this point, I'm just going to spoil the obvious beans here and reveal that Two Heroes is made for fans of the series. People who have never seen the show and/or read the manga can follow the film to an extent, but will more than likely get very confused with certain areas. As such, from this point forward I'll be discussing the film as if the readers are knowledgeable of the series.
Two Heroes marks the first time in over seventeen years that I saw a tie-in animated feature of an anime/manga series in theaters (note the last part as I have seen plenty of them at home and/or online). Last time I did that was when Pokémon 3: The Movie came to the states back in 2001. In fact, Two Heroes is also the first tie-in animated feature of an anime/manga series I’ve seen in theaters (that’s a real mouthful) not dubbed by 4Kids Productions—instead under the far more respectful wings of Funimation Productions (personally, I’m more of a subs guy, but the showing wasn’t available at the time and the dub is overall solid enough…though Mineta’s overly-geeky dubbed voice can get annoying).
In terms of theater experience, I was dissatisfied by my particular showing. The audio was off-kilter between the voice acting and the soundtrack, with the latter drowning out the former during the fight scenes (where the OST was blasted). The theater screen’s aspect ratio was even worse, with Two Heroes being zoomed in to properly fit the screen. This became painfully notable during the film’s less detailed scenes, such as when a faceless Deku and All Might have a conversation with no mouths. I’m not sure how much blame to give to the theaters, and how much is Funimation’s bad—as I can only judge what I saw at my only showing—but it was some shoddy workmanship that made this special occasion more disappointing than it should have been.
In terms of Two Heroes actual cinematic quality, it’s an overall good film—very good as an animated spectacle, but the standard for tie-in animated features. The film does a decent job trying to fit itself into the actual series continuity, but there are some clear jagged edges to this puzzle piece that prevents it from being completely canon—such as characters going way beyond their limits and All Might just straight up killing some goons when there were likely better alternatives. Basically, All Might’s backstory is true to the actual series’ lore but the rest can be taken with a big grain of salt (think Hunter × Hunter: Phantom Rouge).
Many of the tropes found in other tie-in anime films are found in Two Heroes. Character personality stereotypes being overemphasized—Uraraka’s envy, Iida’s hyperactive intensity, Bakugo just being a major dick, etc. (surprisingly, the film seems to downplay Mineta’s depravity)—new, movie-only ultimate moves that will never be seen in the series, and bland, cliché villains. There’s also fanservice, yet surprisingly more female gaze than male. Yes, the ladies are shown in pretty outfits, but that’s far more elegant than the multiple showings of All Might shirtless or in only his underwear. The film also subtly teases around with the ships, such as Bakugo saving Uraraka (which you know was only put in for the ship’s fans) and Bakugo (a lot of Bakugo ships here) sharing a seemingly single-bed room with a shirtless Kirashima.
That said, Two Heroes also emphasizes the good qualities and themes of the series. An aspect I love about My Hero Academia is its emphasis on gender equality (an unusual quality to find in a Weekly Shōnen Jump series). Two Heroes has colors of this, most notably with its designated poster-female Melissa. There is this one scene that really stood out to me. Midoriya is fighting this generic Quirk character who gets the upper hand and Melissa rushes in to help despite her frail stature—getting easily knocked away. All pretty typical anime stuff so far—weak girl gets hit by the cruel villain, the hero gets pissed and takes villain out—but then there’s the follow up between them:
Midoriya: I apologize. I couldn’t protect you.
Melissa: I think you mean “thank you”.
Midoriya: …oh, right!
I just love how it flips the expected dialogue from Melissa’s stock character—possibly my favorite dialogue in the film—after all, her actions are little different from a certain Qurikless kid in the past rushing into an impossible battle to save his far more powerful bully. There is, additionally, a nice morally grey twist to the supposed antagonist’s agenda that plays upon the series’ more complex brand of villainy…that is until the true antagonists reveal their cardboard selves.
Two Heroes' premise is a lot like Die Hard but with superheroes, though it also recycles plot elements from its series arcs—such as the Hideout Raid and some future manga stories yet to be told in the anime. Given it’s a tie-in with no real room for innovation, I'm alright with Two Heroes’ less-than-stellar storytelling, though it does take some questionably complicated paths in telling so. For example, the story gradually introduces most of Class 1-A by revealing them and their reason for being on the island. It’s a bafflingly tedious, overly coincidental way to involve the Class in the story, especially since none of them apparently knew the other small groups were going (does no one in 1-A communicate with one another or use a phone or a social media site that may inform what their other classmates are doing for the summer?) Why not just have it that Class 1-A won a free trip to be on the island and Midoriya just happened to tag along with All Might when he went to visit his old friend?
The villains are about as generic as you can get. The main baddie has the power-mix of Magneto and the Fullmetal Alchemist (Bones also adapted Fullmetal Alchemist twice so that may explain the similarities between powers) and the personality of Snidely Whiplash. To the film’s credit, it’s plenty aware of this, even making a humorous jab by calling them a “Lame final boss”. To make up for the antagonist’s lacking personality, the film compensates by giving ONE OF THE BEST DAMN ANIMATED FINALES I HAVE SEEN! By god, the amount of effort placed into those last ten or so minutes is phenomenal! The beautiful animation, massive set pieces, overflowingly fluent sakuga, wonderful choreography, great usage of the soundtrack (You Say Run playing at just the right time), and absolutely epic final sendoff to All Might as the Symbol of Peace—it had my jaw dropped in awe and laughing in sheer amazement.
Unfortunately, with such an awe-inspiring finale, the animators had to compensate in certain areas—namely those aforementioned scenes where characters are missing faces (made even more notable by my theater’s zoomed screen) and lots of flashbacks and/or lengthy recaps reusing scenes from the anime. The film caters towards said fans and is not made for though unfamiliar with the anime/manga. Two Heroes is far from an exceptional tie-in (excluding that exceptional final battle), but it's a solid first film for the series and enjoyable fun for those into
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