By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
Anime is bigger now outside of Japan than it’s ever been, and the continued success of the medium on Netflix is proof. Devil May Cry and Demon Slayer have been among the streaming services most-watched programs in the last few months, but now, My Hero Academia: You’re Next, the latest movie in the Japanese superhero series, managed to spend multiple days in the top ten, not for anime and not for kid’s movies, but the overall top ten on the largest streaming service in the world. It doesn’t unseat Heroes Rising as the best of the movies, but it’s an incredible achievement for a series that’s often considered less than its Shonen peers, Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen.
The Next Big Villain
Taking place between Season 6 and Season 7, My Hero Academia: You’re Next shows the unexpected aftereffects of All Might’s battle with All For One by turning his triumph, “It’s Your Turn,” into a rallying cry for a new villain, Dark Might. In reality, he’s Valdo Gollini, part of the Gollini crime family, but in his twisted mind, he’s going to become the new Symbol of Peace by eradicating all the other heroes until he’s the only one left standing to protect Japan. Using his Quirk, Alchemy, Dark Might resembles the real All Might in appearance and, thanks to a captured young girl’s Overmodification Quirk, he’s as strong as One For All.
Dark Might is one of the best parts of My Hero Academia: You’re Next, which follows in the footsteps of Heroes Rising and gives the villains plenty of screen time. Giulio, one of the Gollini crime family’s associates, has an arc better than any of the original movie characters in the franchise, and while it comes at the cost of sidelining most of Class 1-A, the end result is worth it. Echoing the darker themes of the later seasons, the film has competing ideologies over the future of society, and how exactly it should change, represented by gorgeous battles filled with fun new Quirks.
My Hero Academia Keeps Getting Better
When it was released in theaters, My Hero Academia: You’re Next brought in $32 million, outgrossing Borderlands with a third of the theaters, and a small fraction of the same budget. It’s an impressive performance, but then again, the anime is one of the most popular in history, and the manga has been dominating the best-seller lists for years. What was once thought to be a big fish in a small pond has proven, with the recent success on Netflix, that it’s not a fluke. Despite the naysayers, Izuku Midoriya and the students of UA are indeed popular, after all, Devil May Cry didn’t crack the overall Netflix top ten.
The manga has come to an end, the anime’s final season is arriving in a few months, and a spin-off prequel, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, has started its first season, which, barring a major surprise, will make You’re Next the final film of the franchise. According to the fans, the series is going out on a high note and proving that, like the series, the films have become better with time. Anyone who wants an upbeat, optimistic anime that deserves to be part of the modern big three, alongside Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, stuffed full with inventive character designs, fun powers, and some of the coolest animated fights in history, has a few months to binge the series before the explosive finale.
My Hero Academia: You’re Next is now streaming on Netflix.
