My Hero Academia is one of the most popular anime series of the past decade, running for five seasons so far and inspiring three movies. Each of the movies associated with the series tells a story outside of the events of the show but using its established universe and characters.

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The second film in the franchise, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising launched in 2019 and its events take place after the Meta Liberation Army arc from the manga. The film’s success has seen a direct sequel set to hit theatres later in 2021.

Fans may be wondering if the film and its events are canonical to the overarching My Hero Academia story. Well, it isn’t so simple.

Is My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising canon?

My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising is canon to the anime, but it isn’t canon to the manga series. That’s because it wasn’t written by the franchise’s original creator Kohei Horikoshi.

The film was produced by Bones Animation Studio and was supervised by Horikoshi himself, but its events aren’t considered canon to the manga’s storyline.

Even without Horikoshi’s writing, Bones had been working within the series for many years prior to the film, which is a factor in its impressive quality and feeling right at home with the anime series.

Those who have seen the movie will know that its events don’t rely heavily on the surrounding events taking place in the series and, fortunately, this means it can be enjoyed as its own standalone movie, or within a watch-through of the franchise.

The next film in the series My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission will be launching on August 6 and its events, similarly to those of Heroes Rising, won’t be canonical to the anime itself. You can check the film out in theaters when it drops next month.