My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising does a magnificent job at appealing to its established anime fan base as well as quickly introducing the rich world to new audiences like myself who are not familiar with this highly-acclaimed show. In fact, the film may persuade new viewers to go and explore the world further by tuning into the anime, which is currently on its 4th season.

Most of the population has a single power that all the characters refer to as a Quirk. Justin Briner voices protagonist Izuku and he, along with his fellow high school friends, are tasked with training on the seemingly peaceful Nabu island. Unbeknownst to them, a tyrannically powerful villain who can possess multiple quirks aims to steal a native young boy’s quirk needed to carry out a sinister plan and is willing to destroy anyone that attempts to protect him. Our heroes must rise up, team up, and make some difficult decisions in order to overcome his menacing presence.

Izuku is an extremely likable protagonist because of his desire to save, help, and put others above his own needs and that allowed me to root for his desire to protect two children, who you also become quite fond of. This is an action-filled anime with extremely long battles but what makes these sequences work is not only how epic they feel, but because of the heart and motive behind the fights that are taking place. You understand why the villain chooses to wreak havoc, as he will literally die without obtaining the child’s ability. Therefore, there is meaning behind each punch and every power seen on screen.

If elongated action scenes don’t turn you on, skip Heroes Rising because that is a large portion of the film but if you can get behind the heart of our heroes you will have a fun time watching them take on this impressively sinister force, whose actions also feel realistic and threatening.

The conclusion is easily predictable and the film would have been more interesting if it had more surprises, but instead the ending plays out quite conventionally. Also, numerous supporting characters take up several beginning action scenes and their battles weren’t nearly as interesting as the rest that proceed as we hardly know anything about who these other people are. Nevertheless, it would’ve been impossible to showcase who everyone is due to time and viewers of the anime will surely have more admiration for the minor characters. Still, as someone who has not seen the anime, I was engaged with the lead characters that it does develop superbly.

Note: I saw the English Dubbed version of this film in 4DX and enjoyed the voice acting and special effects included in the 4DX experience. The lightening was captilized by white strobe lights around the screen and fans blew a pleasant wind during flying or tornado/gust scenes.