The My Hero Academia franchise is stronger than ever and it's expanded far beyond author Kohei Horikoshi's original (and ongoing) manga series. The anime is working hard to do the original manga justice on the small screen, and spin-offs such as My Hero Academia: Vigilantes along with the original movies are helping to further expand the universe.
Watching the My Hero Academia movies is not absolutely essential for following the plot of this franchise, but they've added a lot to the characters and lore. In fact, the two recent My Hero Academia movies do some things even better than the anime itself, and the third and upcoming movie may do the same.
10 The Movies Add New Settings, Like I-Island
The original anime sticks to a handful of familiar settings, such as the U.A. school campus, the League of Villains hideout, and even the U.A. student dorms, among others. But there isn't time to explore huge, fancy new settings in the show, so the My Hero Academia movies take care of that.
The first movie, Two Heroes, depicts the artificial I-Island, located close to the United States, and it's a sight to see. The second movie brings class 1-A's students to an idyllic island where villains soon launch an attack.
9 The Movies Feature One-Off Spectacles That Wouldn't Fit In The Anime
In some ways, anime movies can act as a playground for all sorts of "what if?" scenarios that would disrupt the flow of events in the original anime series. Many franchises have done this, and in My Hero Academia's case, the movies are free to explore new ideas like Izuku Midoriya sharing the power of One For All.
This would be rather awkward in the actual anime, but such a scene fit nicely into a one-off adventure, like it did in the second movie, Heroes Rising. It's exciting and helps deepen the characters while not disrupting the original anime in the process.
8 The Movies Add Incidental Villains
Plenty of villains are featured in the original anime, most of them belonging to the League of Villains or Overhaul's Eight Precepts of Death. Even then, fans want more villains and the anime only has room for so many villainous powerhouses.
The first movie introduces the villain Wolfram, and it took everything Izuku and his mentor All Might had to take him down. The second movie, meanwhile, introduced the Quirk-stealing antagonist known as Nine, and a feature-length movie was exactly the right place to introduce him.
7 The Movies Add Personal Details & Flair To The Characters
The original anime and manga found time to explore the backstories of certain characters for the sake of fleshing out their motivations and relationships, such as how Eijiro Kirishima was inspired by Mina Ashido in middle school and how Tenya Iida looks up to his pro hero brother Tensei.
The two movies, meanwhile, are an opportunity to depict these characters in more mundane settings, where they can relax, be themselves, and express who they are. A good example is showing how they dress up in formal wear, and how they handle themselves on an idyllic island with no villains to fight. The anime couldn't have done that.
6 The Movies Provide A Cinematic Experience
Going to the movie theater to see an exciting film is always an adventure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, movie lovers realized just how much they missed the act of going to a theater, watching something on a big screen, and being blown away with lights and sounds. It's totally different from watching something on TV or a PC.
Now that cinematic experience is returning as theaters re-open, the third My Hero Academia may bring that experience back to life to thrill and wow audiences. Something similar happened with the highly-acclaimed Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie, after all.
5 The Movies Have Amazing Original Scores
An anime movie can provide not only a unique setting and new villains, but also a new soundtrack, or a remixed version of the original show's OST. Many anime series are known for their excellent soundtracks, including My Hero Academia, and the movies follow in the anime's footsteps.
Both movies had exciting and heartfelt soundtracks to them, which can freshen up the experience and make My Hero Academia feel new all over again. Fans must have loved it when a slower, more dramatic version of "You Say Run" played during the climax of the first movie.
4 The Movies Can Kill Off Characters More Easily
Many anime series hold back somewhat on killing their own characters, with Attack on Titan being a notable exception. Characters have indeed died in My Hero Academia, but only rarely, such as Sir Nighteye and the villain Magne. For the most part, everyone survives to fight again, or ends up arrested or retired.
However, many characters who are unique to the movies have much thinner plot armor, since they will not appear again, and thus the main plot is not affected by their deaths. This adds more tension and stakes to the narrative.
3 The Movies Have Top-Tier Animation
Shows such as My Hero Academia, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen are famed for their high-quality animation and visual styles, but even then, there's a little bit of room for improvement. Studio UFOtable, for example, outdid itself with the Mugen Train movie.
The My Hero Academia movies did the same, taking the anime's high-quality animation and pushing it to the next level to animate some truly unforgettable action sequences and special effects, including those for movie-only Quirks. Superhero action has never looked this good.
2 The Movies Get More Hype & Advertising
New anime seasons get promotional material such as teaser posters and clips, to be sure, but promotional material for movies tends to be a step above. Animated movies are usually a bit shorter than typical live-action features, but they still have enough material for a proper trailer.
The My Hero Academia movies got full-length trailers around the 2-minute mark, a fairly standard length for movie trailers. The anime can't easily make a trailer like that, and cinematic trailers always feel a little different, more special, more unique. And don't forget the official movie posters.
1 The Movies Have More Exciting & Impactful Uses Of One For All
The Quirk One For All is almost as much of a protagonist as Izuku himself, and All Might used his last vestiges of this Quirk to defeat All For One with a United States of Smash attack. Izuku, meanwhile, defeated the villain Muscular with a 1,000,000% Smash, but not even this can compare to the movies.
The two recent My Hero Academia movies had One For All fight scenes that were simply on another level entirely. In the first movie, Izuku and All Might used it together to defeat Wolfram while that slow version of "You Say Run" played, an incredible experience that the anime has not yet matched. Then in the second movie, Izuku and Katsuki Bakugo shared One For All to fight back against Nine, something that would never happen in the anime.