How The Live-Action My Hero Academia Movie Can Be Better Than The Anime

The live-action My Hero Academia adaptation has the potential to be better than its anime source material. The anime, also called Boku no Hero Academia, is based on the manga series created by Kohei Horikoshi in 2014. Set in a futuristic world where about 80% of the population has a superhuman ability known as a “quirk,” quirkless Izuku Midoriya wants nothing more than to become a hero as great as his idol, All Might. A chance encounter gives Izuku his own quirk and the ability to enroll in U.A. High School, Japan’s most prestigious hero school. My Hero Academia is currently on season 5 and has just released its third animated feature film. Yet, despite this success, the anime has also received some legitimate criticisms.

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For starters, the ongoing series contains an ever-increasing number of characters and storylines. As a result, several seemingly important plot threads have been dropped entirely, such as an alleged traitor within U.A. Only the U.A. teachers and the Wild Wild Pussycats hero group knew the students’ location during the Forest Camp Training Arc, but the League of Villains showed up, anyway. Discussions of a traitor went nowhere, and it was not mentioned again for so long fans began speculating that Horikoshi must have forgotten about it. So many storylines also detract from potential worldbuilding, leaving many important questions about quirks in My Hero Academia unanswered.

The My Hero Academia live-action movie, being produced by Legendary Entertainment, can improve upon the anime by narrowing its focus to a core group of characters and streamlining the plot. While the anime seeks to explore multiple classes of hero hopefuls, their teachers, other pro heroes, and the villains they face, it often only scratches the surface of everyone’s backstories and motivations. The series tends to jump between various groups, introducing small bits of information for them before returning to Izuku and the primary conflict. Juggling such a large cast means the majority of them are repeatedly pushed aside in favor of less vital characters. Even Izuku’s closest friends in My Hero Academia, such as Ochako Uraraka and Tenya Ida, rarely maintain important roles in the narrative. Since a film only has so much time to tell a story, it must limit the number of characters it can properly develop, thus keeping the focus on the protagonist.

Of course, one downside to this approach is that not everyone’s favorite characters can have the spotlight, but those that do can provide larger contributions to the narrative. The movie has the chance to dive deeper into select characters’ histories and flesh out their strengths and weaknesses. Audiences can more easily keep track of whichever heroes, students, and villains the film chooses to highlight. There will also be less space for potential misunderstandings, such as Minoru Mineta’s supposed love confession to Deku (Izuku) that sparked much confusion online. Limiting principal characters also gives writers more room to develop the world’s mythology.

Another criticism of My Hero Academia is the amount of exposition. The series often tends to tell instead of show, which can dilute the excitement of an episode. Izuku frequently provides voiceover explaining events or recapping previous episodes, and conversations between characters sometimes do this, as well. Time constraints will necessitate minimizing exposition for the live-action film, so it shouldn’t be as confusing for the audience to keep up with.

The live-action My Hero Academia movie has the opportunity to correct many mistakes made in the original narrative. Animating unfinished material poses the risk of having to retcon details that no longer fit or spoiling twists ahead of My Hero Academia‘s manga reveals. Knowing the entire story from the beginning also helps filmmakers ensure nothing is forgotten or pushed to the side to make room for something else. A streamlined plot and fewer characters can only strengthen what is already a beloved series. This will be the franchise’s first live-action adaptation. Although anime has struggled with live-action in the past, My Hero Academia may be able to change that.

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