• Directed by Tensai Okamura
• Screenplay by Yōsuke Kuroda
• Based on My Hero Academia by Kōhei Horikoshi

Before You’re Next, my exposure to My Hero Academia was incredibly limited. I had read a few issues here and there, mostly when news of major events crossed my social media, and I have a general awareness of the plot and characters due to just being active in anime communities, attending conventions, and talking with cosplayers. So, I came into the movie with very little knowledge of the world or its characters, other than a love of Froppy and her adorable design. 

To be honest, my tastes in shōnen stories runs a bit darker, more like Hell’s Paradise, and my preconceived notion was that MHA was more on the lighter side. But I had just spent several days immersing H³ in horror, so we were looking for something on the lighter side. But as an almost total newcomer to the IP, was starting with the fourth movie in a long running story with a vast cast and multiple plotlines a bad idea?

Spoilers Ahead

You’re Next starts with All Might soundly defeating a villain; Wikipedia tells me that this was his final battle against All For One. An obsessed fan watches this fight from his All Might shrine, and as the hero symbolically passes the torch to the next generation of heroes, believes that All Might is talking to him instead. Even without knowing anything about these characters, this was instantly unsettling; superfans are bad news, superpowered superfans more so. 

After that cold open, the movie cuts to the ruins of a city, destroyed in the recent supervillain battles. Our heroes, and there are a lot of them have divided up into smaller teams to stop raiders and deliver aid to the survivors. Deku and his group are tasked with recovering stolen supplies in a sequence that gave me a pretty good idea about both the powers of the team and generally who Deku is. 

During this, a new character is introduced: an eyepatch-wearing cyborg sharpshooter who will later be introduced as Giulio. He makes tea with expert precision and rides a motorcycle while searching for Anna, a mysterious woman whose photograph he carefully tucks into his shirt pocket. I’m sure they’re just friends.

The heroes are warned that a villain with the Quirk “Gluttony” and a mouth on his stomach ala The Thing has escaped, and they quickly form a plan to recapture him. Turns out he also has a hostage, Anna, and he’s grown some extra arms and mouths. Deku tries to save Anna, but touching her causes him pain and visions of roses. The villain however keeps getting stronger as he holds on to Anna. 

Giulio shows up at this point and, in the most “I’m helping!” move ever, tries to shoot Anna. He would have succeeded too if not for the superpowered mobster (Bruno) who can slow time.  This mobster swoops in and grabs Anna before making his escape on a giant flying boat covered in neon lights. The visuals here are kind of wild. The main villain makes his appearance, and he’s decided that he’s the new All Might; he even looks like All Might, hair and all. He will be their symbol of peace, regardless of what they have to say about it.

Deku and friends take some offense at that, but as long as the imposter is touching Anna, his Quirk seems to be supercharged, able to transform coins into structures and other objects. Using Anna’s ability, Fake All Might creates a mass of light that quickly envelops the city and everyone in it. This seems to have a negative reaction for Anna, as she grows weaker and her blonde hair starts to turn dark.

When the light dissipates, a massive flying ship is in its place and everyone, heroes and civilians included, have been sealed inside. Weirdly, they have been split up into different themed areas: jungle, mountain etc. It makes for more interesting fight scenes, but it’s one of those things you probably don’t want to think too hard about.

As the flying ship makes its way across the country, the imposter calls the Hero organization and taunts All Might, calling himself “Dark Might”. It’s after this that the older heroes are able to identify the identities of Dark Might’s entourage, members of an organized crime family.

Meanwhile, after wandering through the jungle, Deku and Uravity discover that the trees are hollow; the things that Dark Might creates aren’t real, they’re more like props. Shortly after, they find a manhole that leads to a pipe system. While Deku and Uravity explore. Deku’s Quirk is suddenly negated, and he slides out while she escapes back out to the group.

On the other side of the pipe, Deku encounters Giulio, and together they fight off some of the mobsters sent to kill them. After Paulo fails to stop Giulio and Deku, Dark Might drops him in a black hole. While Deku and Giulio are learning to work together, Bakguo’s group makes its way to the main city by way of a dungeon they just blast through rather than try to solve. There, they encounter Deborah, another mob family member with the ability to brainwash people and trap them in their dreams, has the citizens and Anna doing something weird. 

When Deku and Giulio get to the city, we finally get some answers. Anna’s Quirk is “Overcharge”, but only with people she is compatible with; everyone else just gets pain and flowers. Before they have a chance to save her, Deborah traps them too. In the one scene that truly lost me, Deku is saved from his dream by ghosts? The internet says that these spirits were the remains of “One For All”, the Quirk he inherited from All Might. I’m guessing that these were previous owners of the Quirk? They tell him that to get out, he must wake up Giulio. 

In Giulio’s dream, he can see his painful history with Anna. His ability is “Neutralization”, and it’s the only thing that can keep her Quirk from growing out of control and causing pain, death, and general chaos. Giulio has promised to kill her if that ever happens. But he’s brokenhearted about it, because he’s really in love with her and blames himself for her current situation, after all, his Quirk can’t work with his cyborg parts, right? He breaks out of the dream and shoots Deborah; he’s about to shoot Anna too, but Deku won’t let him. Heroes try to save everybody, and Deku’s friends are there now to help out. But before they can do much, Dark Might grabs Anna and takes off. 

Giulio, Deku, Bakugo, Todoroki, and Tokoyami go after Dark Might and Anna, while the others get the civilians to safety. Tsukuyomi stays behind in a colosseum to kill homunculus-style monsters, and Bakugo and Todoroki must deal with a teleporter/ telekinetic team up. Deku and Giulio get another rematch with Bruno and his time-slowing ability. Deku solves this by just being really freaking fast. I enjoyed all these fights due to their simplicity. Bakugo and Todoroki figure out their opponents’ powers and limitations, and then solve them by just blowing everything up. Based on what we’ve seen already, it’s a perfectly in-character resolution to the conflict. 

Deku and Giulio face off against Dark Might, while outside the fortress, the other heroes try to break in and help with the rescue. For the first half of this fight, Deku gets slapped around by Dark Might while Giulio gets stuck dealing with Deborah again and is only saved due to his cybernetic parts.

After the citizens are rescued by Endeavor blowing a hole in the side of the fortress, the older heroes join the students in kicking the crap out of the constructs. Hawks gets a particularly cinematic moment; I’m guessing he’s a fan-favorite. 

Bakugo and Todoroki finally show up to help Deku, and together the three of them are strong enough to literally smack Dark Might’s fake face off. There is a lot of important dialogue here, but I’ll get into that later, because even when Dark Might is down, the danger isn’t over yet. Anna’s power is out of control, and Giulio might not be able to save her; after all, he’s more machine than man now…

Anna’s Quirk turns what’s left of Dark Might into an oversized mutant beast, and our trio gets back to work. As they finish defeating the monster—literally kicking him through his own statue like a bullet—Giulio navigates through the swirling mass of thorns that has grown around Anna and finally embraces her. As he does, her Quirk overcharges his, and he’s able to shut hers down, permanently.   

With everything resolved, the fortress collapses and Anna and Guilio can finally be together as equals. 

Whew.  That was a lot. And that wasn’t everything, just the highlights. 

Before we get out of spoiler territory, I want to talk about one more scene. Towards the end of the movie, they show a flashback where Dark Might kills his father and takes control of the mob. There is a line of dialogue his father says to him before he’s shot: “That’s your flaw, you mistake power for strength”.  It’s an interesting concept that’s touched on a lot in the movie, as Dark Might continuously misunderstands why people respect All Might. He wants to be the symbol, but he doesn’t know how, and he isn’t capable of learning. He’s a very timely villain, as he’s literally draining someone for his own success. There’s a lot of that going around these days.  He’s also uncomfortable to watch; the exaggeration in the animation during his speeches is excellent. Good hero stories depend on credible villains, and on Dark Might alone, for me, You’re Next succeeds.

End Major Spoilers

Turns out MHA: You’re Next was pretty newcomer-friendly after all.  While it didn’t spend a lot of time reviewing the world or characters, there is enough dialogue that fills in the gaps without being overly expository. Most of the characters are defined enough to get a sense of who they are, either through their Quirk or their spotlight moments and fight scenes. For example, Bakugo seems to be the always ready-for-action hot head; Uravity is seen as more problem solving and lending aid to civilians.  

Helping non-combatants is a large part of the movie. Deku and company prioritize saving people over chasing villains. Dark Might even mocks them for it, emphasizing the divide between what he thinks is important and what truly is. It’s a nice touch and does a lot to establish the values of the world in a short time. In an entertainment landscape littered with cynical takes on superheroes, and one where even the “big two” are more likely than not to prioritize fighting the big bad over rescue missions, it’s refreshing to see a world of heroes that put does put priority on helping people and then repeatedly demonstrates its characters following through.  

None of the main characters is given much in the way of a story or character arc.  Those narrative beats are left for Guilio, with Deku acting as the reason for his growth but given that this is a side story in an ongoing series, I don’t consider that a drawback. Especially since Guilio’s arc does serve as a decent introduction to the values of the team and Hero Organization as a whole.  Which is not to say that they solve everything with the power of love and friendship; it’s the power of a good old-fashioned smackdown that really comes through in the end. 

And that smackdown looks good too. I was so impressed with the animation and to be honest I might have been expecting something…just lesser.  The art works so well with the different styles of Quirks, and every single hero looked and felt distinct. (Special shout out to the guy who could phase through walls. I love you, but I do not know your name.)  While the film is beautifully rendered, the final fights in particular really stood out. Incredibly fluid art made the action incredibly easy to follow even with all the effects from the quirks exploding everywhere. 

Final Thoughts:

Needs more Froppy. Cutest character in the whole franchise and she got one line.  Other than that, it’s a solid introduction to a long-running series that makes me want to check out the rest of the show, dive into the manga or watch the other movies.  I saw the dub; I’m usually a subtitle viewer and I was really impressed with the VA’s.  Deku is incredibly likeable, and the supporting cast is fun.  I’m not sure where You’re Next falls in continuity, but that didn’t prevent me from enjoying it. I guess,  I don’t really have anything bad to say about this one. 

Recommended for fans of fun super heroics, and all ages action. 

My Hero Academia: You’re Next is playing now in theaters.