Can you honestly tell me that 80% of anime battlers don’t have the exact same power? It’s all some sort of energy blast. I saw one dude who looked like Dr. Who face off against a kid with crazy pink hair and the only difference seemed to be that Dr. Who shot green light out of his fingertips and pink hair emitted orange light from his palms. It was the exact same thing.
And if it weren’t the same power, can you show me even one of these films that doesn’t end in an hour-long battle royale? You can’t, can you? Welcome to My Hero Academy, where all your dreams come true so long as you dreamed about being the same X-Man. The Academy seems to exist on the Island of Misfit Boys (and Girls). And for the sake of plot, some bad guys have shown up on parents and special friends day.
Somewhere on this magical island, a kid actually has a different power, “Cell Activision.” Sorry, that’s “Cell Activation.” This is essentially the same “quirk” as Wolverine from X-Men and it’s owned by either of two child sibs, Mahoro and Katsuma. Luckily for the bad guys, this is a Japanese animated film, so the five- and six-year-old children can essentially wander all over without ever having a parent concerned about their whereabouts. I want to blame Hayao Miyazaki, but this has been going in Japanese film since before two moronic children discovered their pet turtle was Gamera.
The lead bad guy is Nine. Do you know why he’s called “Nine?” Because “Eight” was taken, I guess. No, seriously, he’s called “Nine,” because he’s figured out how to collect up to nine powers (before his CPU runs out of memory, I guess). It doesn’t really matter, because eight of the powers are “blasting somebody with your hands.” Well, no wonder the dude wants Cell Activation; then he’s got the whole set (of two). Can the girl whose power is having a big rack defeat him? Probably not.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising seemed a little better than the average anime brawl … after all, this was clearly an X-Men ripoff and not a Justice League ripoff. You know what? I don’t even know if that’s fair; I don’t know who stole what from whom or if any theft occurred at all. Here’s what I do know: My Hero Academy is just like X-Men Academy, except, and I’m not kidding, I swear everybody has the same power. And the film still ends in an hour-long brawl. I prefer this mildly to the Dragon Ball world, but I’m not exactly sure why; it’s the exact same thing: crazy hair and an hour of blasting foes into the end credits. If this is your thing, here’s another.
I need to show off now and then
For my power goes one beyond “ten”
Critiques may examine-a
My heroic stamina:
The ability to watch this again
Rated PG-13, 104 Minutes
Director: Kenji Nagasaki
Writer: Yôsuke Kuroda
Genre: Finger blasting
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Enrollees at My Hero Academy
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Enrollees at X-Men Academy
