My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is the culmination of four years of heroic training, leading to Class A-1 testing out their skills on their own. After four years of schooling in the globally popular anime, the second feature film sees the students of U.A. high school putting their Quirks to the test in the real world.
For the uninitiated, a Quirk is a unique power that almost every human in the series possesses - and which oftentimes allows someone to become a hero or villain. Young Izuku Midoriya, however, is Quirk-less unless the famous hero All Might gifts him his power. It is at that point that he s the school for heroes and partakes in the adventures of My Hero Academia, teaching fans all over the world to reach for the stars.
My Hero Academia is a bright and hopeful series, and Heroes Rising follows in that same vein. Every character has therefore experienced tremendous growth over the last four seasons and two movies, meaning there are plenty of moments for the cast to look back on with satisfaction. At the premiere of My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, Screen Rant asked the cast of the English dub which moments in particular made them proudest of their characters.
Justin Briner (Midoriya): There was a moment when they were trying to get everyone into the dorm rooms after a villain attack. And All Might goes to Deku's house and talks to his mother and says, "Hey, can your son move into the dorms?" And she says, "No, because he's been breaking his bones every chance he gets."
And Deku gets pretty upset, but he comes back and says, "Hey, listen, Mom, I respect what you said, but I'm going to be a hero no matter what happens. And however it happens for me, I'm going to do it." That is so that is so him. That encapsulates everything that he's been through so far. No one can tell him no, and I think that's amazing.
Chris Sabat (All Might): Oh, my proudest moment. I mean, I still love the earlier episodes. I still love that transfer of power between All Might and Midoriya. And I also really love the scene where he has to go and talk to Midoriya's mom and say he wants him to continue on at the school. And Mom's like, "No, sorry." And he has to really convince her that, "I'm sorry, I haven't been the best protection for your son. I've been training him, but I really haven't looked after him as much as I should have."
This whole show means so much to me. I've worked on so many other shows, and I've never played a character that I can connect with as much as All Might. Not because he's huge and powerful, but because he can maybe sustain something awesome for like an hour, and then he's tired. And then he's trying to his skills on to somebody who's awesome.
And what's fun about him is that I get to be both. When he's all buffed out, I get play a huge hero. But the rest of it? That's where the real acting comes in. I get to play a real guy. As opposed to some of the other characters that I've played, like Zoro [in One Piece], I'm kind of angry all the time. All Might's not angry. He's a nice guy; just very tired.
Clifford Chapin (Bakugo): Oh, man. Probably the fight against Deku in season three. But, really, this movie. Heroes Rising is incredible, with some really great character development for Bakugo and Deku, and their interactions with each other.
David Matranga (Todoroki): Oh, you know, it's a real big toss-up between the sports festival where he finally sort of accepted his fire side - although he doesn't fully accept it - and the Stain fight. I think they really became a team, and he ed Iida during that.
Zeno Robinson (Takami): Ooh, that's hard. It's not my character, but my favorite moment would probably have to be when Deku fought Todoroki. That was crazy. It was a testament to Deku's ingenuity and his ion to overcome. He was trying to figure out how to compete against the top dog in the school without being able to fully control his power yet. It's a testament, to his perseverance, which is so dope.
Patrick Seitz (Endeavor): He is a jerk, but he's learning. I'm proud of him personally, because I'm a sucker for redemption arcs and redemptive character. Seeing him sort of slowly, glacially veer towards good gives me [glee].
Jason Liebrecht (Dabi): For me, I guess it was my introduction to my character. The whole operation where they were trying to kidnap Bakugo, and he's just standing alone in that forest that's lit up with blue flames. It was super cool and badass, and it kind of gave me an indicator as to who I was going to be playing.
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising arrives in theaters on February 26.
