Justin Briner and Clifford Chapin On Why Deku and Bakugo Are Ride Or Die In World Heroes’ Mission

 

There are countless anime series that have made a major impact over the past few years, but My Hero Academia continues to be a rocket ship of success that only flies higher. Kohei Horikoshi’s coming of age shonen series beautifully leans into superhero staples and anime archetypes to craft a powerful story where Izuku “Deku” Midoriya and his friends train to become the next generation of heroes. My Hero Academia’s popularity has led to the release of two previous feature films, but the series’ new movie, World Heroes’ Mission, is by far the franchise’s biggest story yet. 

My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission begins in familiar territory, only to quickly force Midoriya into an impossible situation that affects both his own wellbeing and how his closest friends look at him. For years, both Justin Briner and Clifford Chapin have done exceptional work bringing Midoriya and Bakugo to life in My Hero Academia’s English dub. Briner and Chapin passionately open up about the newest chapter in the My Hero Academia saga, how their characters get pushed out of their comfort zones in this movie, and why World Heroes’ Mission is such a structural and genre shift from previous My Hero Academia adventures. 

 

Daniel Kurland: The relationship between Deku and Bakugo continues to evolve in fulfilling ways and why do you think it’s such a fascinating element of the series for a lot of the audience?

Justin Briner: I think there’s something very fascinating and evocative about the fact that they’re childhood friends. They’ve been hanging out before they can probably truly even remember. In many ways, they know each other better than they know themselves, for both better and for worse. They’ve cooled off a bit since the beginning of the series, but they’re still always pushing each other to be the best versions of each other that they can be. I think that’s especially easy to get invested in and root for, particularly after all of this time.

Clifford Chapin: I completely agree. In terms of this movie, once it’s out there that Deku maybe did something that’s really, really bad, it’s pretty interesting to see how Bakugo and the other characters react to this news, but also what they do to rally behind Deku. This is even true for someone like Bakugo, who the series has spent so much time highlighting the difficulty and animosity that he can exhibit towards Deku. It’s a really interesting side to the character to get to explore in this movie and I’m just excited for people to see it.

Daniel Kurland: Deku becomes aligned with Rody here and they form a great team. Justin, talk a little on this new relationship that Deku forms, and Clifford, if Bakugo becomes territorial towards Rody and if he feels replaced at all during the events of this movie?

Justin Briner: Yeah, so I think the third movie is quite cool and unique in that regard. The first two movies were very invested in the bombs that already existed between characters that the audience knows well—Deku and All Might, Deku and Bakugo….This movie gets to highlight the building blocks of a new friendship between Deku and Rody, which is fun because they’re kind of unlikely allies who meet under unlikely circumstances. So it’s great. It’s really interesting to see these two characters from totally different worlds get to know each other and lean on each other. The fans should feel quite rewarded in terms of how all of that plays out.

Clifford Chapin: In terms of Bakugo and whether he feels like he’s being replaced; I don’t think that ever crosses his mind! It’s certainly not an aspect of the character that I had any dialogue about, if it were! A lot of the focus in this movie, at least on Bakugo’s side of things, is to catch up and figure out what’s really going on. You mentioned how the movie develops Deku and Rody’s relationship, which puts characters like Bakugo and Todoroki into a greater state of mystery. “What’s going on with these guys? Where are they? Who’s really pulling the strings here?” So the dynamic that Bakugo ultimately brings into the film is something that I think is quite different from what Deku brings into the film. Deku and Rody move one part of the story along while Bakugo and Todoroki try to figure out the best way to help.

Daniel Kurland: The whole framed and on the run aspect that Deku gets caught up in feels evocative of The Fugitive and there’s also this ticking clock element throughout it all. Was it refreshing to get to tell a story that’s a bit more of a thriller in some ways?

Justin Briner: Definitely. Any time that you get to tell a story that’s in a different location than the typical adventure of My Hero Academia in Japan allows you to explore really interesting elements about the world around them, and what that expanded world actually looks like! That’s always really fascinating to me when it comes to the series’ world-building and how heroes from other countries are treated and presented. It’s cool because there are chase elements and lots of suspense in this movie, which weren’t necessarily missing in the other movies, but this one occurs in several different places while the previous movies were more insular to their initial starting points. It’s just a fun ride.

Clifford Chapin: I think this film is very different from the last two. Two Heroes was a very fun setpiece kind of movie where it sets up a scenario where the heroes can get dressed up and look forward to fun, only for danger to interrupt and that’s where the action grows from. Heroes Rising was progressing the work studies aspect of the series and how these characters function as heroes on their own when there aren’t more professional figures to watch over them. For World Heroes’ Mission, the premise is just so different—like you said there’s a lot of suspense elements—but it also allows for some really fun character moments. 

There’s something that Bakugo does towards the middle or the back-end of the film that I didn’t even know this thing about him because it’s never been shown before! This one little detail—which I don’t want to spoil—is such a little thing that might not register for anyone else, but it’s still a new facet of the character that’s never been explored before! It’s definitely a change of pace from the previous films, but better off for it.

 

‘My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission’ is now playing in select theaters