Review: My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission

 Izuku's going international.

Alright, so last time on My Hero Academia show, Uraraka and Tsu worked with Ryukyu and Hajime and Selkie to stop some smugglers from moving ingredients for the Quirk enhancing drug Trigger. They stop the smugglers, but a mysterious man in white tells his henchmen that they have enough Trigger as it is for their plans. Lets get to it.

 

Still don't get why the leader of the Supremist 
group in fact has a Quirk.

This story begins with Flect Turn, a blue man in a weirdly pope like robe, talking about the evils of superhuman abilities aka Quirks. He claims that the “shining baby” was the beginning of the end of the human race. They believe in the “Quirk Doomsday Theory,” an idea that powers will continue to mix together with each generation, growing more potent until those with powers won’t be able to control them and destroy the world. This group Humarise wants to “save” the world by destroying those with Quirks, for the salvation of Humanity. As they chant that, one of their robed figures runs out and unmasks, revealing a dude with an eyepatch. Mr. Eyepatch starts running as Flect turns on a giant device. The device is a bomb of some kind and it unleashes a cloud of green smoke onto an unsuspecting town. The smoke seems to cause Quirks to flare out of control, making one man turn into a turtle, while causing other powers to go off continually or grow to exponential size. The whole city is destroyed as powers go out of control and the people are killed either from the destruction or from their powers overloading. We’re shown one man without a Quirk survive as  Humarise member approaches him and congradulates him on being saved. Creepy.

 

We jump to some big military planes flying into the fictional country of Otheon. The plane is filled with heroes, including Endeavor, his sidekicks and his three Work Study students, Shoto Todoroki, Katsuki Bakugo and Izuku Midoriya. We get some exposition about Humarise, it’s a human supremacy group founded by Flect Turn and who wants to “save” humanity from the Quirk Doomsday Theory. Just going to pause right here and point out the weirdness of the leader of the “Human’s good, Mutants suck!” club being one with a very obvious inhuman appearance. Back to the story, they explain that the smoke used was called Ideotrigger, a more potent form of Trigger that has appeared in the past. Groups of heroes in Otheon, Japan, Egypt, France, and the US have been gathered to search the 25 known Humarise compounds around the world to look for Trigger Bombs. All Might comes in on the intercom and tells everyone to bring smiles back to the people frightened by terrorism. Izuku and his team, all three wearing cool black costumes, raid the main Humarise compound and are looking for the Trigger Bomb. They have a pretty easy time walking through the Humarise members as most of their members don’t have powers. Izuku is with the team that go for Flect Turn’s office only to find him gone. None of the branches were able to find bombs, and Hawks theorizes that the attack was orchestrated by a smaller inner group of Humarise as none of the captured goons even knew that the bombs were a thing. They theorize there is a final secret base that they’ll need to find where the bombs are hidden. The director orders the teams to go on standby why they figure this out.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Eyepatch is running with a suitcase. He thinks to himself that he needs to deliver the package or the world will be destroyed. Oh my.

 

We jump to a small slum built near the Otheon Airport and are introduced to Rody and his younger siblings Roro and Lala. The go through a short checklist of what they have to do while Rody is out before he heads out with his bird Pino. He runs through town to a bar. He pays for a tip and is told he can pick up a package at East 3^rd street and dropped at the Chinese restaurant in South Grove. Rody accepts the job, steals the bartenders bike and rides out to do his job.

 

Different continent, same Bakugo.

While that is going on, Izuku, Bakugo and Todoroki are buying groceries for the other heroes while on standby. Their errand is interrupted by a pair of crooks robbing a bank. Bakugo chasses after one while Todoroki and Izuku chase the other with the case. Bakugo takes out his guy almost right away. The second hands off his case to Rody as he flies buy. Todoroki catches him, but Rody runs off. Izuku spots him and chases after him. Rody’s bird attacks Izuku, seemingly stunning him with a fart. Izuku chases him over the rooftops, Izuku is obviously faster but Rody seems to know the area so well that he keeps finding shortcuts and little distractions to get ahead. Meanwhile, Mr. Eyepatch has been tracked down by one of Humarises actually useful members, a woman who can make a bow from her hands. She peppers his car with arrows and causes a car accident. Todoroki sees and says he’ll handle the crash and Izuku should go after the thief. Rody escapes onto the subway, but Izuku sees and literally chases him down to the next stop. Rody plays it cool and tries to talk his way out of Izuku’s investigation. Izuku tries to get him to show him what’s in the case but Rody uses the whole fact Izuku’s from out of town to get him back off. They fight over the case, it pops open and it’s shown to be full of papers and documents. How odd.

 

Well, that's unfortunate.

Back on the bridge, Todoroki learns from the local cops that the car was attacked somehow, it having been peppered with arrows. Arrow lady meanwhile recovered a case, but it’s filled with jewels instead of the documents she was after. She reports to Flect who says they’ll take the necessary precautions and that this woman, Beros, needs to keep tracking. He tells her to do it as it’s the only way for Quirk havers to find salvation and she runs off.

 

Izuku loudly apologizes for, seemingly, attacking Rody for no reason. Rody realizes that he grabbed the wrong case during the crash and runs off to try to find the right case. Izuku follows him and tries to ask if everything is all right. The cops arrive and almost immediately open fire on them, Izuku, being a good kid, grabs Rody and does hiss best to evade the police. Using his jumping and Blackwhips, they land on a train heading out of town. Beros spots them and launches an arrow from across the bay at them. Apparently her quick lets her control arrows fired from her Bow-hand like drones. Izuku and Rody dodge around them, Rody passes out and almost falls to his death, but Izuku saves him and dives into the water to escape Beros.

 

Back at their hotel, Bakugo and Todoroki are being chewed out by Endeavor for getting involved in local problems when they’re on an important mission. They realize Izuku is still missing and wonder where he is. Speak of the devil, Izuku calls Todoroki and explains what happened with the cops. They learn this just as another hero calls them over and they hear a news report. Izuku is being accused of being a mass murderer, having killed 12 people and is on the run from police. Damn, that feels like a reach… but they are in a foreign country, I guess they’ll believe an international hero might kill people. Todoroki tells Izuku about the charges and tells his friend to get off the grid while they figure this out.

 

All of Izuku’s friends react to the news that he’s wanted for mass murder and, thankfully, not a single one of them believe the accusation.

 

Imagine going out to do a crime, but then being
accused of a much, much worse crime.

Rody yell at Izuku for getting him wrapped up in all of this. Izuku realizes that the circumstances suggest that who is after them wants their case so bad that they don’t care if Izuku and Rody are dead or alive. They look through the case but don’t find anything incriminating. Rody first wants to turn the case over, and then to destroy it when Izuku points out they’ll probably get killed for handing it over anyway. Izuku says they need to calm down and think. Izuku suggest that they go on the run and cross the boarded into Klayd, the neighboring country, to hide out. Rody slips into town and gets them disguises. They slip onto the top of a bus, Izuku using his powers to pay the fare because Izuku Midoriya.

 

Meanwhile, Endeavor is yelling at the Commissioner General of the Otheon police for information about their case against Izuku. The commissioner says the case is ongoing and he won’t discuss it with Endeavor. Once Endeavor leaves in a huff, we learn that the Commissioner is a Humarise member and that Endeavor would be classified as a “stage 5” Quirk infected. Todoroki learns from another hero that the car crash victim was attacked by a Quirk user and that he is a Humarise member. And they learn the jewels stolen from the bank were found by the scene scattered about. Izuku texts Todoroki, telling him via code that he’s going to Klayd. He grabs Bakugo and they go to meet him. They spy police following them. As they go, Rody looks at a locket with a pic of him and his siblings inside.

 

Rody slips off and makes a call to the bartender from earlier, Stanleyk, and asks him to go and tell his siblings he won’t make it home tonight. Stanleyk then takes a second to yell at him for botching the job he was paid to do. He tells him to hurry and deliver the goods if he doesn’t want to die. Rody angrily hangs up the phone and plays it cool when Izuku asks if he’s okay.

 

Bakugo and Todoroki are on a train to Klayd. They realize that the cases must have been switched in the fighting earlier. They rationalize that Humarise had infiltrated the police and that’s why they’re after Izuku. Bakugo calls him an idiot.

 

It's bad when your conscience bird is yelling at you.

Izuku and Rody hide out in an old barn for the night. Rody complains for a bit before they hit the hay. While he sleeps, Rody remembers his childhood when he and his siblings lived in a nice house with their dad. Seems like they have a really nice life. Rody’s dad gives him a complicated little puzzle. Rody opens the puzzle, with a little help from his dad, and gets his father’s locket. A few years later, though, his father left them to join Humarize. They get ostracized from their community for their Dad leaving to join that group and ended up in the slums, where Rody swore to always look after them. When he wakes up, Rody steals the case from Izuku and tries to slip off. His bird starts flipping out at him but he slips away from Izuku regardless. He goes and makes a call.

 

Izuku is woken up by the bird, Pino, some time later and lead out to find Rody. A helicopter lands and Rody hands over the briefcase to the man that gets out of it. He transforms into an ogre and goes to attack Rody, assuming he figured out what is in the case. Izuku arrives and knocks the dude back into the copter. He then takes an arrow from Beros when he protects Rody from her shot. They grab the case and they escape. Izuku’s phone was destroyed by the shot but it seems like it saved him from a worse injury. They patch him up and find a cave to hide out in. Rody asks why Izuku saved him when he betrayed him. Izuku doesn’t really understand the question, and he explains that Izuku believes in helping people regardless of circumstance. He tells Rody he want to be like All Might. Rody is much more pessimistic about his circumstances, as he feels like he’s kind of stuck where he’s at as he needs to provide for his family. They bond over the feeling that they aren’t good enough, Izuku cheering Rody up with how earnest he is. He finally introduces himself and Pino to Izuku. Feels weird they went a whole day without that.

 

The commissioner reports the situation to Flect. Flect tells him to keep looking and glares at Rody’s picture.

 

Road trips are fun, regardless of circumstances.

The next morning Rody arrives with a beaten up old truck he “borrowed” from a nearby farm. He left him a note to talk to the World Hero Organization for compensation. Huh. Rody says that he wished it’d been a plane so they could have flown the whole way as they get in. Rody explains his backstory to Izuku, that he lived with his dad and siblings after his mother’s death and that things were good until he disappeared. He says that he doesn’t think too much about his dad anymore as he’s busy looking after his siblings. They almost crash as Rody gets too into talking about them, which is sweet. We get a little montage song break as Izuku and Rody drive across the country.

 

They stop for the night and Izuku asks about Rody’s quirk. Rody says it’s kind of weird… but then we cut away. Kay. I’m sure that won’t be important later. Izuku and Rody make it to a mountain pass. The train through to Klayd is heavily guarded. Izuku wants to carry Rody up the mountain and away, but Rody tells him to take the case and go as he knows Izuku’s injury would make carrying him hard. They’re interrupted by Beros arriving in a helicopter and lobbing size changing balls of death at them. Izuku is able to get a Blackwhip on the copter, pulling them up and getting an Air Force shot on them to knock the copter away. They land and Rody goes for the case, but is knocked off the side of the cliff. Beros’ helper goes to crush Rody and Beros is keeping Izuku back from saving him. Rody throws the case and drops… only to be saved by a Todoroki ice slide. He chastise Izuku for not learning anything from Hosu and sending too hard codes and he and Bakugo help him with theses psychos. Bakugo flies around the copter, making Beros use up her arrows. When she runs out, she jumps from the copter, killing herself. Damn. Todoroki brings Izuku the case and reveals that they found Izuku thanks to the flashy attacks they could see from the train. Izuku notices that the case has a secret compartment with a puzzle thing inside it.

 

The boys hide out as Izuku tries to get the puzzle open. Rody, recognizing the puzzle as one like one he did as a kid, takes it and solves it in about a minute. Inside is a flashdrive and SIM card. They plan to hide out in a nearby cave to figure out what’s on them.

 

The Commissioner tells Flect that they lost the boys and they think they fled to Klayd. Flect doesn’t care as he believes that Izuku left he can’t interfere. … He has no idea who he’s messing with if he thinks Izuku is actually gone. He presses the activation button on the Trigger Bombs. They activate across the planet, and Flect broadcasts his “I win speech” across the world. He tells everyone that in 2 hours his bombs will go off and cleanse 25 countries of Quirks. He’s giving them 2 hours because movie… I mean to show mercy. The hero teams are given the go order. Things are complicated by citizens freaking out about their imminent deaths. Heroes scramble to both help evacuees and to find the trigger bombs.

 

Izuku and co, in Klayd, get access to a computer and are able to access the files on the SIM card they got. It’s from Eyepatch, aka Alan Kay, who explains he and several other scientists were kidnapped by Humarise and forced them to make Trigger Bombs. He explains the first attack was only meant to lure the worlds top heroes into areas where Humarise had their bombs set up. They’ll set them off, killing the best heroes and create a power vacuum where they can kill the rest and set up a world for non-powered humans only. … This plan only works if Quirks stop manifesting... but whatever. He mentions that Eddie Soul, Rody’s father, was killed helping him and that he made the key to disarm the bombs. Pino starts crying on Rody’s head. The kids hear about the Humarise deadline via the news. Todoroki wants to warn the heroes about what is happening, but Bakugo and Izuku know that the heroes won’t leave even if they know they’re the real targets. They resolve to use the key to disarm the bombs themselves. Bakugo does a quick search and finds the location of their base. Its 400 km away, which obviously is too far to go in 2 hours… unless you maybe fly. They steal a plane from the Klayd airport and Rody flies them out. Izuku, Todoroki and Bakugo suit up and resolve to stop the bombs.

 

Todoroki sent an update to headquarters and All Might letting them know the situation. The heroes are all told and Endeavor’s team finds one of the bombs. They’re attacked by Humarise Quirk users. The others find bomb but are attacked by Humarise Quirk users. This cult is super inconsistent with their rhetoric. They have 30 minutes left.

 

The kids find the base, Izuku tells Rody to fall back and the three leap out, using their powers to land safely and raid the base. Bakugo is left outside to fight the guards stationed there as Todoroki and Izuku slide father in. He’s attacked by a pair of twins with the ability to turn their arms into extendable blades. They explain that they’re helping Humarise to get a place in their new world, much to Bakugo’s annoyance. Rody landed and is going in to help, but is captured by guards. At least he tried.

 

Izuku and Todoroki get separated, Todorokie staying backc to fight guards. He uses a combo fire and ice attack to blast them all away. He gets attacked by a Quirk user who turns into a hulk with bloodwhips. Todoroki is slammed through the ground into an underground river by this ting. Bakugo is having trouble fighting the twins as it’s two on one and their blades are incredibly fast and flexible. He keeps blasting, though, because he’s Bakugo. He unleashes an AP Shot and several bombs, attempting to bury them in the rubble. The take Trigger, though, and their powers increase, turning their two blades each into six. Bakugo prepares to get crazy on these fools.

 

Izuku makes it to Humarise’s inner sanctum. Flect comes out to meet him and activates his defenses, sealing them in and revealing a bunch of lasers. Flect gives a bunch of anati-Quirk rhetoric that is SUPER hypocritical coming from him and Izuku rushes to kick him. He hits a barrier of some kind, which knocks back Izuku’s leg back. Flect reveals that his quirk cause him to automatically reflect anything that comes into contact with him. Flect reveals that he hates himself because his quirk keeps him from touching anyone or thing. He wants to “save” people from powers that run rampant. Izuku tries to hit Flect, only using OFA at the point of impact but is till knocked back. Izuku tries to run past him, but Flect activates a laser grid that hits Izuku. He drops and Flect pontificates about his victory. Izuku gets back up and swears to stop the Trigger Bombs. On Flect’s video screens, he sees all of his friends fighting as he gets shot repeatedly. We also see Bakugo and Todoroki struggling against their opponents. Izuku tries to think how he could beat this guy. He drops, but Rody saves him. Rody takes the disarming key from Izuku and says he’ll give it to Flect. He reveals that he was told they’d stop the Otheon explosion if he helps them. Izuku ties to stop Rody, but he’s beaten up to the point of near death. Flect reveals that he forced Eddie Soul to help make the bombs or have his kids killed. Izuku keeps struggling but can’t get to them. Rody keeps saying pessimistic, defeatist things… but then Izuku sees Pino in Rody’s hood, shaking his head. At the last second, Rody flips the key into the air and Pino grabs it. Izuku rushes Flect and keeps him busy while Rody runs. Rody takes a laser shot to the side, but Izuku can’t get passed Flect to help him. Rody gets up and tells Izuku to stop Flect, he’ll handle the bombs.

 

Izuku keeps flighting Flect, but his refraction is still super intense. We finally hear the whole conversation about Rody’s quirk. He explains that Pino, his bird, is his quirk. The little bird always reflects what Rody is really feeling. Rody can lie about, say, not feeling angry but Pino gives it away by being angry, that sort of thing. Rody leaves a bloody trail as he walks down to the computer.

 

Outside, Bakugo is getting overwhelmed by the blade twins. He finally slams them into the canyon wall, and unleashes a massive Howitzer Impact to finally disable them, crushing them under rubble. Okay, so Bakugo has finally killed some people.

 

Todoroki is drowning when he and his captor come toward a waterfall. Todoroki creates an ice shell around himself to break free. He hits the creatuere with a Flashfreeze Heatwave attack. He and the creature have a fire fight, literally, Todoroki unleashing a Flash Fire Fist to finally stop it. He and it dop to the river below, him praying that Izuku stop them.

 

Power of Friendship, UNLEASHED!

While Izuku’s fight continues, Rody makes it to the computer core but drops from blood loss. He wants to be like his dad, like Deku and not give up, but he passes out. Flect calls Rody scum and that royally pisses off Izuku. He tries to kick Flect but it gets reflected. He says he believes in Rody because he believes in heroes. We’re shown the heroes getting the Trigger bombs out of the area and finding more bombs. Inspired by his friends, Izuku attacks Flect again and hits with enough force to force him back a step. Izuku notices that Flect’s reflection is weakening, realizes there’s a limit to how much punishment Flect can take and in classic All Might fashion resolves to surpass Flect’s limit. He tells Flect that he’s a failure for giving up and stop trying to exist with people. Izuku and Flect clash multiple times, completely wrecking the inner sanctum. Izuku ends up on the ground and hitting him with a full Detroit Smash that sends him to the ceiling. They brawl but Izuku is knocked to the ground. He’s reminded of All Might’s words of encouragement, enters his sort of Super Saiyan mode from the last movie and attacks Flect full force. He unleashes thousands of rapid blows before unleashing the United States of World Smash. Flect slams into the ground, defeated but saying Izuku is too late.

 

Izuku runs and finds a beaten and broken Rody. The bombs, though, don’t go off. It’s revealed that Pino made it the last few feet and got the key placed in time. She’s a good little bird. Izuku tells Rody that he’ll get him to a hospital, and that, yeah, he protected his family like his dad did. Like Deku would. They start laughing together when Rody says that he is pretty cool.

 

It's all about the friends we make along the way.

Humarise members are arrested, Izuku and his friends are taken out to get medical help, and Izuku praises Rody for giving his all and saving the world. As Izuku prepares to leave, Rody meets him, and they say their goodbyes. Rody says he’s going back to his normal life for now but maybe something interesting will happen. He tells Izuku to go back to Japan and stay there as bad stuff happens when he’s around… but Pino starts crying revealing how he feels. Izuku hugs him, promising to visit. Rody goes to Stanlyek’s bar and asks to get a real job, which Stanlyek gives him. It’s not much but it’s a start. Over the credits we see Izuku and his friends reuniting and celebrating, Rody starting his honest job and his siblings going to school and making friends, and finally Rody looking over books about flying to prepare for a flight exam. So, everyone is where they need to be, so that’s nice.

 

So this is a movie that I like but there’s one element that bugs me. Namely, I don’t *get* the number of Quirk Havers in the human supremacist group founded by a Quirk haver. Do these kind of groups always have a few members that are a part of the demographic they hate, thus showing that the group itself is hypocritical as hell because they’ll put aside their hatred and biases to use people? Yes, but they’re never in leadership positions! Hell, in the X-Men continuity, Graydon Creed, the leader and founder of the Friends of Humanity, lost his entire organization when they found out he was the non-powered son of two Mutants. So Flect being in charge and having a few hundred Quirk having minions seems… unlikely. I know, in this kind of story that means the normal humans would need a lot of tech and such to overcome the differences between themselves and the Heroes they’re fighting, and that can be a bit of a copout too, but I like internal consistency. Flect could have easily been the exact same character if he was in the favored minion spot with someone else doing the anti-Quirk rhetoric is all I’m saying. Okay, onto the stuff I like. I like Rody and Pino. They’re a fun addition to this story, a pessimistic criminal that the superhuman society failed big time but finds hope again because Izuku “Too Pure for this world” Midoriya encouraged him is just a fun team up. We’ve seen Izuku encourage a Quirkless person in Two Heroes, and a kid with a potentially non-strong power on paper in Heroes Raising, so it’s nice that he helping an adult find hope again after life kicked him down hard. Well, semi adult, if Rody is over 19 I’d be shocked. Plus, Pino is just a sweety. Seeing that little bird acting like Rody wants to is just a nice visual. The fights were pretty good in this, the visual of Flect’s reflection being a giant spiral cloud that forms behind him before bouncing backward was particularly neat. But there’s less oomph to them for some reason. I think it’s in part because while we get a lot of Flect in this, he doesn’t have a right hand like Nine had in Chimera to give a second, less intense but still kind of emotional fight. All of his goons are either religious self-hating zealots or in it for the pass on a metaphorical ark. Its not even “I was treated like a monster so now I am a monster!” complicated. The musical interlude where we just see Izuku and Rody traveling to a kind of somber song was odd, but I liked it. It allowed us to see them bond quickly. I’m realizing that I need to catch up on the manga, I’m wondering if Izuku’s One For All kind-of-Super-Saiyan form is movie only or if he’s been doing this during the fight with the Meta Liberation Army and I just never got to it. So, yeah, a fun movie with just a storytelling bit that’s stuck in my craw. Next time, back to the main story. See you then!

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