It's the fourth and I'd guess last theatrical movie for My Hero Academia. As usual with these, it's a side story that doesn't touch the main narrative, so it doesn't matter whether you watch it or not... but here even more so than usual. Other films got acknowledged in the manga, but here that was impossible since the manga was ending when this came out.

The plot's fine. Standard superhero stuff. It's set after the hero apocalypse of Season 6 but it doesn't want to be depressing, so this is a jolly, upbeat version of the near-collapse of civilisation. Midoriya and his friends are doing good. They're hunting down jailbreakers, even if the target of the latter's super-crimes is to steal food. This is fun and exciting. (Similarly, the only acknowledgement of what's coming next is a fifteen-second cameo of All For One and Shigaraki after the end credits.)

The film's baddie wants to be the next All Might and he's nailed the look, the super-strength and the hammy overacting... but he's evil. We'll call him Dark Might. (Before going bonkers, he was in the mafia.) He's a laugh. He gets more interaction with Class 1A than most movie villains, while being so colourful and over the top that he's fun to watch. Midoriya's epic beatdown of him at the end is extremely satisfying, though. The animators go berserk. Midoriya goes apeshit with pretty much every Smash attack he has and you might get ideas for a fandub. "Damn, the USA only has fifty states and this scumbag needs pulverising! Well, let's go British. SURREY! DEVON! ABERDEENSHIRE! RUTLAND! CORNWALL!"

He arrives in a flying ship full of smug rich bastards and his superpower involves throwing around money. Yes, literally. His gold coins transform on touch. The support villains don't add much, but a human dimension is provided by more complicated supporting characters. A butler is trying to kill the mistress he loves.

This film isn't story-heavy. The tone's light and it's mostly just a superhero romp (plus that butler, whom I liked). Most of the franchise's regular cast get sidelined, but that's sensible given the impossibility of doing justice to several dozen protagonists in one movie. That said, though, the Bakugo-Todoroki team-up is great and I remain convinced that Bakugo is this show's funniest and paradoxically coolest character. (He's a snarling, ultra-macho dick, but that's why he makes he laugh.) This is a perfectly decent film. You'd be dead if someone ordered you to summarise the plot afterwards, but it's entertaining and it'll please fanboys. If nothing else, this was the franchise's highest-grossing film, it got an international release and it was Japan's tenth highest-grossing domestic film of 2024. It's successful. It did its job.