My Hero Academia’s Fourth Film is Going to be Bigger Than…

Summary

The fourth My Hero Academia movie titled "You're Next" has the potential to be the best one yet, with impressive concepts and a talented director.
The movie begins with All Might's climactic battle against All for One, then moves forward to Class 1-A fighting against an impostor of All Might.
Tensai Okamura, the director of popular anime like "Darker than Black" and the first Naruto movie, brings his expertise and cool action to the film, making it a dream pick for shōnen fans.

Warning: The following contains spoilers for My Hero Academia Seasons 3 and 6, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

While My Hero Academia's cinematic escapades are dubiously canon at best, they never fail to deliver a good time and often bring to life concepts that don't make it into the main series. With three increasingly impressive films already under their belt, the standard is high for the fourth, but between the concept and the man directing it, it has the chance to be the best one yet.

My Hero Academia's first feature film, Two Heroes, premiered in the Summer of 2018, followed by Heroes Rising at the end of 2019, and finally, World Heroes' Mission in 2021. The newest movie, titled You're Next, is slated to premiere in Japan on August 2, three months after the premiere of Season 7 on May 4.

What's The Story of 'You're Next' Going to Focus On?

Rather than begin with the future, the newest trailer for Movie 4 begins with a blast from the past; All Might's climactic battle against All for One from Season 3, which marked the end of his career. Having claimed victory, he points to the news camera and proclaims ominously over the broadcast, "You're next," but the first big difference is who receives that message.

Next, fast-forward to the present, where the first footage from the new film graces fans. After reuniting with his classmates from UA, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya and the rest of Class 1-A are hard at work restoring order to a devastated and demoralized Japan. As tends to happen in these films, things somehow get worse when a floating fortress appears to swallow up a city, its inhabitants, and the heroes protecting both.

Amid the chaos, a mysterious man is shown taking off his mask, and though his face isn't revealed, his hair is a dead giveaway. He is an impostor of All Might who no doubt intends to fill the void left by him by any means necessary. So, in simple terms, the fourth movie is about the members of class 1-A battling the most problematic All Might stan since the Hero Killer Stain.

The Film's Director is a Big Deal

In a pretty significant turn of events, You're Next is the first time that the anime's chief director, Kenji Nagasaki, is not directing the film. Instead, it is being helmed by none other than Tensai Okamura, a man whom longtime fans of Studio Bones should be intimately familiar with, as he was the creator/director of 2007's Darker than Black.

Darker than Black is a cult classic, but one which plays to its target audience's love of sleek superhero/vigilante aesthetics to a similar success as My Hero, albeit with a darker tone. It's more like a spy story crossed with Batman Beyond but set in contemporary Japan and while it might not be Bones' best, it's undoubtedly one of its coolest, with some of the sickest action to boot.

Before that, Okamura directed 2003's Wolf's Rain, another gem from Bones' early days, and even the first-ever Naruto movie from 2004. Later, he would direct the first season of Blue Exorcist at A1 Pictures, and the first season of The Seven Deadly Sins. Essentially, this man is a dream pick for a shōnen theatrical film.

Okamura is joined by screenwriter Yousuke Kuroda, who has penned the adapted screenplay for the entire TV series as well as the films, as well as - naturally - composer Yuki Hayashi. Nagasaki isn't straying too far from the project either and is credited as an animation supervisor. It wouldn't be a surprise if he acted as "chief director" as he has for the TV anime since Season 4.

Will the Film Be Canon?

The above question feels obligatory, and as is customary with shōnen theatrical films, the answer is complicated, with the safe bet being "no, but only if you think about it too much." Past films were written such that they could fit semi-comfortably between the canon arcs, though as the anime has progressed into the Final Saga, finding time for a side story is getting a lot harder.

At the end of Season 6, All Might concluded that there might only be 3 days until Shigaraki has reached his full power. It would be a bit odd for everyone to get side-tracked by an All Might copycat and then get right back to business in so short a time. With that said, the film is premiering after the start of Season 7- and thus the Star and Stripe arc - leaving plenty of time for a natural gap between key events to present itself, which this film could occupy.

Even as the anime industry has started to change its approach to movies, making them more explicitly canon, it's nice to see at least one popular shōnen keeping the tradition alive. Even if My Hero Academia: You're Next doesn't impact the final arc of the show, so long as it is made with passion, it will be a blast. Judging by the director, it's a safe bet it will be just that - at the very least.

My Hero Academia: You're Next premieres in Japan on August 2, 2024.