My Hero Academia Heroes Rising Cast On Challenges For Voicing Feature Film

In early 2020, the feature film My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising hit theaters, a month before the COVID-19 pandemic hit America. But if you missed the chance to see it in theaters, you're in luck as there is a Heroes Rising home release on October 27.

For the American voice actors behind your favorite characters, getting into the mindset of their roles for the movie wasn't as easy as you think. "What was tricky about this movie was that this movie is set a little bit ahead of the current continuity of the anime," Clifford Chapin, who voices Bakugo in the film and on the anime, told GameSpot. "Possibly in Season 5, or maybe even later, it's not completely clear exactly where in the timeline is landing. And if anything was tricky about it, it was navigating the growth of the characters that we haven't yet gotten to experience [on the TV series]. So knowing that this is set at a further time, knowing that there was further character growth--for our characters--past what we've already worked on and recorded on in the normal series. And being faithful to those characters still, but also faithful to where they're supposed to be then.

"So with Bakugo, the beginning of the movie might have been almost more challenging than the rest of the movie for me because they're hanging out in a building where they're deploying people for little odd jobs and such," Chapin continued. "And Bakugo is so much more relaxed than in the series where he's always ready sort of to fight and be aggressive. He's a lot more conversational, or he's a lot more relaxed with the other characters, and approaching them not in a point of aggression. But in a point of like, well, I'm just doing what I'm doing. That was almost the biggest challenge for the character in that that film."

As for Justin Briner, who voices Deku in the movie and on the TV series, the most challenging moment was maintaining his energy for a project he was exceptionally excited about: "I was so enthusiastic about the material that I didn't want to let everything go at once," Briner explained. "I'm glad that I had directors that were able to shepherd me on the way."

When auditioning for the role on the anime series, Briner felt that Deku was where his strengths lay--Chapin felt the same way about Briner. However, it wasn't just the characters Briner felt attracted to: it was the world as well. "I loved that the world felt very lived in. The first thing you're faced with is this difficult relationship between Deku and Bakugo and how there are downsides to this superhero society and weird conditionings," Briner said. "Superpowers aside, this is something that there is a real kid out there dealing with struggling with his self esteem or self worth etc. So I thought like if I could help to tell that kind of story and inhabit this character and and make it honest and truthful and really cool to that that would be just a great experience."

You can pick up the home release of Heroes Rising on Blu-ray, DVD, and digitally on October 27. The home release includes the feature-length movie, promo videos, and a behind-the-scenes featurette with the cast. In GameSpot's review of My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, Jordan Ramée said, "The movie takes the time to contend that being a hero doesn't always mean beating up bad guys, while also delivering on a satisfying multitude of well-animated fights."