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Warning, vague spoilers ahead!

I'm giving this a 10 because All Saints Street (or Wan Sheng Jie) does what it sets out to do perfectly. What I mean by that is that this show's format is intended to be concise and simple, with each episode running for only a few minutes. The plot of each episode consists of random antics between cast, and are usually wrapped up relatively neatly at the end of each episode. I say relatively because the beginning of the series is a flash forward, while the final episode ends on a cliffhanger. Other than that, you can watch any of the episodes ... from this show in a vacuum, which is what I believe it was intended to be made as, for the most part.

Speaking of the story, the antics I mentioned earlier are very cute and heartwarming, and the personalities of each character bounce off of the others very well. The series succeeds in this aspect, and each character is super lovable and enjoyable to watch.

WARNING! This review contains spoilers I felt were necessary to bring up in order to fully discuss the quality of the film.

Most of the problems I have with this film come in the form of the climax. Everything before is simple cookie cutter shonen movie filler that is boring at worst, inoffensive at best.

Following suit from the previous movie, the film begins with Class 1-A in an area split off from the main world of the series, which was done so that this movie wouldn’t affect the main series canon at all, and this concept is what will eventually lead into absolutely ruining any sense ... of emotion that the climax of this movie had created. I don’t mind this, as it can be done well. For example, in the previous movie!! Although there was some amount of emotional weight behind the climax of Two Heroes, the stakes weren’t even near as close to being inflated as large as they were in Heroes Rising. With All Might and Deku triumphantly one-shotting the main villain in an epic and equally insanely animated cut, without trying to build up any consequences from the final attack, it’s easy to enjoy this as mindless, fun action, and just as easy for the writers to close off the film without having to create a bunch of convoluted retcons so that the story can comfortably fall back in line with the main canon.

Heroes Rising does not do this. The writing staff tried to have their cake and eat it too, in a sense. With these types of movies, it’s impossible to affect any core plot lines from the main canon without having to create an unfulfilling ending that frustrates the viewer if they attempt to think critically in regards to it in any amount. In the final battle against the main villain, Nine, Deku passes on One-for-All to Bakugou in an attempt to overpower the enemy using two One-for-Alls (ironically paralleling the first movie despite their tries to make it seem different). This leads to an extremely emotional and tender moment, and the direction reflects this through creating a sense of finality, showing the entire island being ravaged by Nine’s power, while Deku and Bakugou stand triumphantly against this destruction, both being powered by OFA Full-Cowling 100% (Another concept that would ruin this scene if you consider how they aren’t dead following these events). I can’t even completely trash this climax. It’s such a well done scene in terms of animation, soundtrack, and direction, but immediately following it is one of the worst retcons I have ever witnessed in a piece of media.

After Deku and Bakugou lose consciousness following the defeat of Nine, Deku wakes up to All Might watching over him. It is here that Deku has another great emotional moment, stating that he doesn’t regret giving OFA to Bakugou, as he did it to save people as a hero. Seconds later, this is absolutely destroyed by Deku getting One for All back, as the new user losing consciousness during the transfer somehow cancels it out. Conveniently enough, Bakugou also forgets the entire final fight. This is bullshit. Bakugou as a character wouldn’t care that he lost OFA, and they could have just as easily had Deku try to give it back to him, before responding with something like “Pshh.. It’s more suited for you anyway, dumbass,” or something like that. As I stated earlier, this is all necessary in order to have the plot comfortably fall back in line with the main series. But this is at the cost of ruining the climax of the film, and it’s not better for it either.

This is the fatal flaw of the concept of non-canon (or out-of-main-series) spinoff movies. I don’t blame the staff at Studio Bones for trying to differentiate this movie from the previous entry, but they ultimately failed in their attempt to create an insanely climactic finale, which almost comes off as the finale for the entire series, again, had this not been a movie. It tries to be serious in a way that is impossible for it to achieve, at least for now. Perhaps this is actually a strong suit of these types of movies? Horikoshi would absolutely not be able to create this type of fight in the main series, as it would shake the foundations of the plot too heavily to recover from at the current state of the plot. I suppose these films can be used to explore concepts like such, that wouldn’t be able to be covered in canon.

I did enjoy the concept of two OFA-powered people fighting together, and the fact that it was Bakugou who fought alongside Deku made it just that more meaningful. However, the way these movies are formatted will make it impossible for a person like me to enjoy these scenes without having a constant lingering thought of “Oh god, how bad is it gonna be when they have to write all of this away in 10 minutes…?”