My Hero Academia Official Live Concert Review: PLUS ULTRA in Music Form [AnimeNYC 2021]

10:00 AM November 23, 2021

Anime News [Article Category]

“PLUS ULTRA in Music Form”

Event: My Hero Academia Official Live Concert
Date: Friday, November 19, 2021
Location: Javits Center, New York, NY

Intro: Heroes to the Tunes

My Hero Academia has been easily one of the most popular franchises as of late not only due to the wonderful manga series but the truly impressive anime as well! However, as amazing as the anime is, what helps propel it to new heights is the addicting OST that fuels every battle, opening, and ending of every new season! My Hero Academia has such an addicting soundtrack that we rarely meet a fellow otaku out there saying nothing but but positive things about any given song from the various seasons/movies. That’s why, when Anime NYC 2021 announced a My Hero Academia live concert, you know we had to fly down to NYC ourselves and take in this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The event started off like most Japanese concerts, we were told the rules—no filming or recording—and then we were all hyped up to get us in the mood! When the band came out, they wasted no time showing they were fans of My Hero Academia as much as we all are as they talked a little about the series and what it meant to them. Yuki Hayashi also gave us a bit of a surprise piece of information regarding how he named one of his My Hero Academia songs “New York” for the first MHA movie—My Hero Academia: Two Heroes—where the image of what he thought was the Statue of Liberty made the tune an easy name to come up with. That was until later, Yuki learned that the image he saw wasn’t saying the movie took place in New York but somewhere else entirely. This was a laughable moment and we all cracked up in the audience but it showed that Yuki truly lavished in his mistake and knew it was a perfect story to tell us as we were literally in NYC!

There were so many surprises during this concert!

My Hero Academia has such an amazing OST already, and this concert blended genres together in a really unique way!

Performance: Time to Power Up!

The performance is where the My Hero Academia concert really began to shine. Initially, the first song to play was the fan-favorite song You Say Run and watching as both the band members united with the orchestra was like watching a beautiful piece of art being created right in front of you. The bass, guitar, drums, and electric guitar all kept the pace going but when the song would slow to allow the brass instruments a time to shine, it was like the song became something else entirely. Every song from their playlist used this same design to make one of the most interesting concerts we’ve ever attended here at Honey’s Anime.

The music wasn’t the only surprise for us listening in the audience. After a few songs were played, the band stopped to chat with us and they began revealing guest appearances left and right. It started off with the announcement that Yuki Hayashi had come from Japan to join the event—more on him in a minute—and give his blessing to both the rock band performing his music and the orchestra that was also breathing life into each tune. They even had several English dub voice actors from the series appear such as Anairis Quinones—the voice for Mirko—and Hawks voice actor Zeno Robinson! Even Robbie Daymond made an appearance as the voice for the recent My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Missions main enemy Flect Turn which led to some tunes being played that were more for the villains of the MHA series!

Yet, the finale was where the My Hero Academia concert truly went with some huge final surprises. Yuki Hayashi re-appeared at the last two songs to not only say some words but also reveal he’d be performing with the team two of his favorite songs Hero Too and Might U! He need help though and we were given Ama Lee as the final surprise guest who gave her amazing singing voice for both songs’ vocal parts! Everyone in the audience—of 2000+ people—clapped and made noise as we lost ourselves in their epic final set!

My wings were tingling! Hero A played live was a real show stopper!

I don’t know, I think Might U performed by Ama Lee, the rock band/orchestra, and Yuki Hayashi was the best part of the entire show!

Outro: A Strong Future

When the final song played, we all stood up, clapped hard—to the point our hands were tired—and watched as the band/orchestra bowed. The musicians even took a selfie with the audience in the background—we hope we’re in the shot somewhere—just to commemorate the entire experience! As everyone left the room, there was a mixed feeling in the air. On one hand, we were happy to head to our homes—as it was getting quite late—but a bit sad that the experience was unfortunately over. The slow crawl out of the packed room was filled with fans screaming about their favorite songs, who they thought made the biggest impression in the group, and their thoughts on the concert as a whole. Needless to say, as audience members, we had gained something only those in that audience could say they obtained, a true musical experience that we may not have again for some time. It’s ironic because before the songs played, when the MC was telling us not to record and film—we didn’t as we respect the rules presented before us—the MC also added this interesting line. “We know many of you want to relive this experience later but instead we advise you all to live in the moment.” Those words couldn’t be any truer as we thought about and realized that was the only way this magical concert could be enjoyed to its fullest, in the moment. We can only pray both in our minds and out loud that this concert would happen one more time in the near future so we can relive the beauty of My Hero Academia via its magical power.

My hat goes off to Yuki Hayashi and the incredible band that played his music, they were fantastic and made the experience very sweet.

I agree! These men and women showed My Hero Academia means a lot to them and they did its incredible music justice from beginning to end! Let’s hope they come back to Anime NYC one day!

SETLIST

We weren’t provided a setlist but several of the big My Hero Academia songs were played.

You Say Run

Watashi ga kita (All Might’s Theme)

Hero A

Might U

among others.

Yuki Hayashi performed several of his favorite tunes alongside special guest Ama Lee (Amanda Lee) who provided vocals for two songs—Hero Too and Might U—herself.

Writer

Author: Aaron

Hey everyone I’m Aaron Curbelo or Blade as I’m called by my YouTube Subscribers. I’ve been an anime/manga fan since I was a young kid. In terms of anime I have watched nearly a thousand shows and have read hundreds of manga series. I love writing and honestly was so happy to join Honey’s Anime to get a shot to write articles for such a wonderful site. I’m a firm believer in respect in the anime community being the most important embodiment we should all have. We all love anime and we have varying opinions of series but we should respect one another for those differences! Life is too precious to spend it making needless arguments in a community that should be the shining example of loving an amazing medium. I hope as a writer for Honey’s Anime I can bring you folks some amazing articles to read and enjoy!

Top 5 Anime by Aaron