There has been a debate among fans as to whether the events of the My Hero Academia movies are canon to the main story. Most of them don’t have a profound effect on the manga’s plot and nobody even brings up what happened during them. One of them is also tricky to place on the timeline. However, the latest chapter of the manga seems to have added something key to this argument in favor of the movies having happened.
Chapter 384, “It’s a Small World,” featured brief cameos from characters who were originally only in the MHA movies. This marks their first physical debut in the manga and proves that they’re canon to its continuity. As for whether it confirms that the stories of the movies are canon, that’s going to require further analysis.
How Well Do the Movie Characters Fit Into the Canon Timeline?
The first of these movie characters worth talking about is Melissa Shield from the first MHA movie, Two Heroes. She was a student at I-Island Academy and the inventor of the Full Gauntlet, a support item that would help Deku withstand using One For All’s full power. Deku’s Mid-Gauntlet from the Dark Hero Arc was presumed to be another of Melissa’s inventions, but her name never came up. Now that she’s officially appeared in the manga, it’s much safer to assume that she’s the one who designed the Mid-Gauntlet, even if nobody brings it up. Between this and how neatly the movie fits into the timeline, it’s probably canon.
Katsuma and Mahoro Shimano from the second movie, Heroes Rising, also appeared in Chapter 384. Fans consider this movie the hardest to place within the MHA canon. Unlike the other two movies, Heroes Rising is set relative to the events of the manga’s latest arc; because of this, it has elements that seem like they belong either during Season 4 or between Seasons 5 and 6. Katsuma and Mahoro’s presence seems to suggest that these movies could be canon, but it would still be difficult to argue.
While Rody Soul from World Heroes Mission wasn’t present in this chapter, his younger siblings Rola and Lala were. This movie dealt with a worldwide terrorist attack, so it’s hard to believe for some viewers that nobody ever mentioned its events afterward. Regardless, it fits cleanly enough on the timeline during the Endeavor Agency Arc, so fans should have no trouble acknowledging it as canon.
While the canonicity of the movies was previously nebulous at best, the informal introduction of its main characters to the manga seems to validate their existence. If the events of these movies didn’t happen, then the appearance of their characters in Chapter 384 wouldn’t carry nearly as much meaning; the importance of their showing up is to remind audiences of their connection to Deku. While these cameos technically only confirm that these characters exist, it should be inferred that the events of their respective movies happened in one form or another.