The follow-up film to My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, premieres four new ultimate moves that have never been featured before on the anime series. While the plot of the first film, Two Heroes, followed only a select few members from class 1-A, all twenty of the aspiring heroes get a chance to shine in My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising and show off the progress of their hero training at U.A. High School.
My Hero Academia takes place in a superhuman society where eighty-percent of the population inherit a special ability known as a "quirk," inventing the career of hero overnight. Heroes Rising takes the members of class 1-A to Nabu Island, a tranquil coastal town with both a low-population and a low-crime rate where Izuku Midoriya (Justin Briner) and his classmates are recruited to run a hero agency as part of the Hero Work Recommendation Project. Managing their first real job as professional heroes, Izuku and the rest of class 1-A enjoy working as heroes without supervision until a group of villains, including Chimera (Greg Dukie), Slice (Lydia Mackay), Mummy (Brendan Blaber), and their leader Nine (Johnny Yong Bosch), invade the island intent on stealing the quirk of the Nabu resident, Katsuma Shimano (Maxey Whitehead).
Since season four of My Hero Academia mainly follows Izuku and his classmates Tsuyu Asui (Monica Rial), Ochaco Uraraka (Luci Christian), and Eijiro Kirishima (Justin Cook) as they investigate the Yukuza group the Shie Hassaikai, it’s refreshing to revisit some of the more minor characters from class 1-A, who have been missing from the screen for some time, within Heroes Rising. As the entirety of class 1-A uses their quirks to protect Katsuma and the other residents on the island from the villains, a few of the heroes-in-training showcase new ultimate moves, adding them to the My Hero Academia canon.
Air Force
In Heroes Rising, Izuku Midoriya premieres the new ultimate move Air Force. An updated version of the special move Delaware Smash, Air Force allows Izuku to release weaponized blasts of air instead of a single massive gust. With the help of a hero support item installed within his gloves, Izuku is able to consolidate the powerful burst of air created by Delaware Smash, opting for a new ultimate move more suited to his close-combat fighting style.
While Izuku has relied on support items in the past, including Melissa’s gauntlet from the film Two Heroes, those support items were mainly used to protect himself from getting injured when implementing One For All at 100%, not as a supplementary weapon. Izuku is first seen utilizing Air Force within his first fight against the villain Nine, and while the move doesn’t cause any damage against Nine’s ability to create an invisible wall of air, it successfully delays Nine from reaching Katsuma.
Black Fallen Angel
Debuting ahead of its premiere in the anime/manga timeline, Fumikage Tokoyami (Josh Grelle) can briefly be seen showing off his new ultimate move Black Fallen Angel in Heroes Rising. A lot of Tokoyami’s growth as a hero has been happening behind the scenes, including the fact that he completed his internship and work study under the tutelage of the current number two Pro Hero, Hawks (Zeno Robinson).
Introduced within the plot of Heroes Rising, Hawks is the youngest Pro Hero in Japan to make the top 10 Hero Billboard Chart and is distinguished by a pair of large red wings. Under his guidance, Tokoyami cultivated the new ability Black Fallen Angel, which allows him to fly through the air like a bird using his quirk Dark Shadow. As Tokoyami hides Dark Shadow beneath his cloak, Dark Shadow wraps himself around Tokoyami and flaps his wing-like arms, giving Tokoyami the ability to fly. The new ultimate move makes an appearance in the early scenes of the film when Tokoyami is flying around Nabu Island on patrol.
Toxic Mucus
Tsuyu Asui, also known by her hero name Froppy, finally unveiled a special move involving one aspect of her quirk that was teased early on in season one of the anime but was never seen in action. During the incident at the U.S.J., Tsuyu detailed the many abilities associated with her quirk, including that she can secrete a toxic mucus that doesn’t do much beyond stinging her opponent. It seems, however, that Tsuyu was being quite modest about the potential of the ability, since Froppy is able to detain one of the strongest characters ever seen within the My Hero Academia franchise, the villain Chimera, using her toxic mucus.
While the ultimate move doesn’t have an official name yet, it debuts when Tsuyu is fighting Chimera alongside Tenya Iida (J. Michael Tatum), Shoto Todoroki (David Matranga), and Kirishima. Tsuyu coats Iida’s legs and Kirishima’s arms in her toxic mucus so that when they’re fighting the villain, the mucus will make contact with Chimera’s skin and paralyze him. Even though Tsuyu's toxic mucus only temporarily paralyzes Chimera, it in no way reflects the efficiency of Tsuyu’s new ability since Chimera stands out as one of the most powerful villains they’ve ever faced, and when used for everyday hero work, the ultimate move will set her apart as one of the up-and-coming pro heroes.
Supernova
Yuga Aoyama (Joel McDonald), one of the most eccentric and misunderstood characters from My Hero Academia, has perhaps the weirdest and the most distinctive quirk out of the entirety of his class, which is the ability to shoot a laser from his belly-button. Similar to Izuku’s quirk One For All, Aoyama’s naval laser is incompatible with his body and causes him to get stomachaches whenever he uses the ability for too long. While Aoyama has struggled using his quirk in the past, the bizarre character presents the new ultimate move Supernova during the climactic finale of Heroes Rising.
Unlike Aoyama’s other special moves, Supernova is the first ultimate move that lends the character the potential to go from a hero-in-training to a Pro Hero, since the ultimate move allows Aoyama to release all of his power in one intense blast of light. In Heroes Rising, Supernova debuts towards the end of the film when Nine launches his final attack against class 1-A. Alongside Momo Yaoyorozu (Colleen Clinkenbeard), Aoyama is part of the first wave of defense, using Supernova to separate Nine from the other villains in his group.
With over twenty characters to equally feature and develop, Heroes Rising does justice to the varied cast of My Hero Academia characters by showcasing the progress of each one as they take on their first job as professional heroes. While some of the more minor characters have disappeared from the plot of the anime during the first half of season four, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising brings them back into the fold and provides them with ultimate moves to remind fans that they are just as capable of becoming the next number one hero as the leading characters in the series.