By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

Alright y’all–if I get sick because of attending this movie, I hope you all enjoy the post as appreciation. Last Friday I had an emergency appendectomy, this Friday I drove to see the premier of MHA’s 3rd movie, World Heroes’ Mission. Am I in some pain? Yes. Should I maybe not have gone for my compromised immune system? Also, yes. And am I putting off some freelance work and late homework to write this post in a timely manner before crashing into bed? Yes, okay? I am. Moving on.

Be warned, this post contains some SPOILERS. Why? Well, because I’m going to talk about what’s in the book you see above and the book has several warnings about how many spoilers are in it for the movie (I counted at least three times it warns readers to consume it’s contents after the viewing rather than before). So, now I’ve done my duty. Read further at your own risk…

INTRO

The first ten pages is a brief preview of the story thus far–there are a bunch of mini-screenshots from the series explaining Deku’s journey and the goals of our Plus Ultra Class 1 characters. 

Character Reports

Then we have the “Character Reports.” This is filled with some basic character sheets (the kind you probably see pretty often if you read a lot of manga) for the new and old characters appearing in the movie. They’re a little similar to this: 

Except in black and white, and showing the major players in the movie (villains and heroes). Nothing you can’t really get online from looking up character sheets for the movie. Also, nothing information-wise you won’t be able to find on the MHA wiki in the coming weeks (assumably). 

Special Writings

“Special Writings” is the next section, though the actual title once flipping the page is “Successful Editors Symposium.” In it, the four different Japanese editors for MHA answer a few questions. The editors are: Hitoshi Koike (June 2013 to June 2014); Kengo Monji (June/July 2014 to December 2017); Ryosuke Yoritomi (December 2017/January 2018 to September 2020); and Hikaru Taguchi (September/October 2020 to Present). 

The Questions: 

When were the times you were delighted or surprised in the good sense of Mr. Hirokoshi’s good sense? 

Notable response(s): All the editors are in awe of Mr. Hirokoshi’s drawing abilities. He is very quick and has a clean art style so he doesn’t require a lot of clean up time for his pages. One editor gave the example of Mr. Hirokoshi finishing 19 pages in a day and a half, and how shocking that was when compared to the usual time it takes a creator to complete pages (Monji). 

My Hero Academia presently seems to have a harsher storyline than in the beginning where it was more like a campus-life story. Have Mr. Hirokoshi’s source of ideas and ways to elicit stories changed since the beginning?

Notable response(s): The main idea that is built from these responses can be summarized as “abundant accumulation gives value to works” (p 34 of booklet). A lot of creators will tell you something similar. For example, Andy Kubert (a famous comic creator) recommended that those interested in getting into comics should look at building a cinematic background and foundation of knowledge. Hirokoshi is an avid consumer of videography, both mainstream movies and the unknown, and such consumption informs his work in many ways. 

Which scene in the previous two movies do you like?

Notable response(s): N/a

Since it’s a rare opportunity, please tell us your Quirk in association with My Hero Academia.

Notable response(s): N/a

Lastly, please give a message to the fans of My Hero Academia.

Notable response(s): Editor Monji notes that comic creators in Japan typically end their comics based on sales, so a story can be forced to end at almost anytime. Hirokoshi’s work is super popular, so it’s nice that he is not being forced to take his story in a direction that he may not want. 

Horikoshi’s Precious Drawings

Nothing really notable here (at least not textually). Similar to character pages, this holds a lot of sketches from Hirokoshi of the different characters. Again, nothing here, information-wise, you won’t be able to find on the MHA wiki in the coming weeks (assumably). 

Q&A My Hero Academia

The next section is a very short Q&A. A lot of it is fan directed questions about events from the show/manga that haven’t really been answered for timing reasons (like, what do Tsuyu, Mineta, and Bakugo’s rooms look like or was the ball Ochaco threw in the Quirk proficiency test still flying? [p 56 of booklet]). However, two Q&A’s of note that I found are: 

Q14: When will the faces of (Toru) Hagakure and (Mezo) Shoji be revealed?

A: “Shoji’s face will be revealed someday. Hagakure’s is still in the dark” (p 58 of booklet).

(BTW, their is no official face-release info for Hagakure yet, regardless of what a quick Google search for that Twitter post by Anime Icons may tell you. – Peggy)

Q22. Can you tell us one secret about My Hero Academia that you can share only here?

A: “The AI used in U.A. robots and others once rose in rebellion” (p 60 of booklet).

The One-Shot

Pages 63 to 71 is a one-shot comic of the hour or so pre-flight period between Endeavor, Todoroki, Midoriya, and Bakugo as they prepare to board the plane for Otheon. 

It’s a very cute story, in which the three hero-students talk out their nerves about the World Mission to hit all the Humarise locations. (Humarise being the villainous terror organization that they’re fighting against this movie). Then Endeavor appears and tries to get his son to sit with him. Hawks steps in to stop their arguing. Hawks then gives them a seating arrangement that makes everyone happy (with Bakugo next to Endeavor, Endeavor in front of Todoroki, and Midoriya in the final spot right behind Bakugo). 

There you have it: A brief summary of the booklet you may not have been able to get at the movie’s release. Okay, I’m off to recover. Night y’all.