My Hero Academia: You’re Next Puts a Fascinating Twist on All Might

For the most part, the My Hero Academia movies have been solid enough for spin-off anime feature films, but they’ve been nothing too special. (The sole exception of Heroes Rising, due to its phenomenal ending.) Fortunately, My Hero Academia: You’re Next does enough to challenge, but not quite overtake, that particular movie with great pacing and action. It is a worthy watch.

You may have already seen the trailers, but the general idea of this movie is it revolves around Dark Might. He is the essentially opposite version of All Might. Dark Might is a completely separate character, and I actually really like how he comes about. He is a twisted, seemingly rich man who takes All Might’s signature point at the conclusion of his battle with All for One a little too seriously.

As such, Dark Might takes it upon himself to be the next All Might, except really evil for some odd reason. This premise is an intriguing one, and it is nice to explore someone who is essentially the other side of the coin from the series protagonist Deku. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long to see this since the movie has swift pacing and gets off to an action-packed start.

This fourth My Hero Academia movie wastes no time whatsoever and gets straight to the action. Set between Seasons 6 and 7 of the anime, it immediately jumps from the Class 1-A students saving civilians to fighting the next big bad and his entourage of fellow villains. This movie has such a large cast with many intriguing quirks shown off throughout the constant fighting sequences.

It helps that the animation is similar to Season 7, but certainly more detailed for the silver screen. This extra layer of visual effects and boldness helps the movie to be the best-looking version of MHA thus far. This also shows off in the surprisingly colorful and vibrant areas the cast visits on board Dark Might’s ship.

At its core, though, this movie is all about the action. It feels like this has the most action sequences of the movies thus far and certainly the most bombastic. There is little quiet time, except for a notable point about halfway through the movie. This might be off-putting to some, but My Hero Academia: You’re Next understands how to do a spin-off well.

Almost every battle has some level of twist or emotional resonance that gives it that extra oomph. This could be a surprising quirk power or Deku’s charming tactics. This is helped along by the new cast of characters. Once again, Deku has a new companion who accompanies him for most of the movie. This guy is slightly similar to World Heroes’ Mission’s Rody, but much more brooding and morally gray. Because of this, I liked him a bit more, too.

In addition to Deku’s new pal, there is a young woman who is at the center of Dark Might’s schemes. I won’t say too much about her, but her part in the story is one of the better parts. And then there is Dark Might himself. He has a ton of underlings, but they are almost all forgettable. Dark Might, though, is the most stylish and memorable villain of the four memories so far.

My only issue with Dark Might is I don’t think the movie, ironically, has enough of him. He starts out the film strong with his intro and it, of course, ends well with him in the final act. However, he is mostly taunting and too much in the background for everything else in between. It is a shame since he is one of the best parts of the movie with his weird personality and motives.

Even stranger than that is a significant sequence that happens in the middle. I won’t spoil it, but if you watched a certain other popular action anime series’ feature film, it will feel way too familiar and nearly copy-paste. And, honestly, it’s not as impactful or emotional as that other movie’s version of this storytelling device.

This movie also puts very little focus on the other members of Class 1-A. Sure, characters like Todoroki, Ochaco, and Bakugo all appear here. But this is pretty much about Deku and the new characters. Despite this, I genuinely enjoyed My Hero Academia: You’re Next. It has arguably the best action in the four movies thus far, the best villain, and certainly the strongest animation. The pacing is on point, never wasting a moment, either. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Heroes Rising, it is certainly my second-favorite My Hero movie.

My Hero Academia: You’re Next will release in theaters in the United States on October 11, 2024.