This past week, anime audiences in the U.S. and Canada rushed to watch My Hero Hero Academia the Movie -Heroes Rising- (read our review of the FUNimation Heroes Rising English dub).
But fans may have walked away wondering why the characters and quirks seemed slightly off in comparison to what they have watched in the anime TV series.
Oddly enough, the setting of the story of the MHA: Heroes Rising movie was significantly ahead of even the upcoming My Hero Academia Season 5 anime in the overall timeline.
In fact, Heroes Rising movie director Nagasaki Kenji once admitted, “If we take into consideration the timeline of Season 4, this movie takes place quite sometime after the current events in the anime.”
Warning: The following contains minor spoilers concerning the Heroes Rising movie and My Hero Academia Season 5 and 6.
Season 5 will likely adapt at least three story arcs in the manga series created by Kohei Horikoshi. This will include the Pro Hero, Joint Training, and Meta Liberation Army story arcs.
The film featured Izuku Midoriya generating air pressure wave attacks that he calls the Delaware Smash Air Force. However, Mei Hatsume won’t create the special gloves necessary for this long-range attack until Season 5.
The movie also revealed multiple techniques and special moves that Class 1-A characters develop during the Joint Training story arc.
The relationship between Deku and Katsuki Bakugo also progressed far beyond what’s been shown in the anime TV series. Without getting into major spoilers, any major character progression was immediately retconned by the movie’s ending since it’s a side story.
In December 2019, Weekly Shonen Jump magazine revealed the movie’s exact placement in the My Hero Academia timeline for the manga series.
The Cultural Festival arc, which is currently being adapted by Season 4 of the anime series, takes place in the fall, while the Pro Hero, Joint Training, and Meta Liberation Army story arcs are set in the winter.
Heroes Rising is set shortly after those events. So, it’s not too surprising that some anime-only audiences were scratching their heads after watching the My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising movie.
But that official info still doesn’t say the exact manga chapter, nor which anime season corresponds to the film’s plot. Sharp-eyed anime fans probably noticed that Endeavor was sporting his large facial scar in the movie, but the fiery hero received that appearance change in Chapter 192 of the Pro Hero arc, which will be adapted by Season 5.
Villain Shigaraki’s appearance was also changed in the Heroes Rising film, which was also the biggest hint. That makeover doesn’t take place in the manga until the Paranormal Liberation Front mission in Chapters 239 and 240, the end of the Meta Liberation Army arc.
Chapter 242 had the characters celebrating Christmas, which is the general time frame for the Heroes Rising movie. But the only major gap in the timeline is in Chapter 258 when Hawks and Twice discuss the previous events of a four-month-long time skip.
Ending the fifth season before the time skip is probably the best stopping point for the anime TV series. Therefore, it’s possible the movie actually takes place during the early events of the My Hero Academia Season 6 anime.