How to Watch My Hero Academia in Order

As the superhero anime prepares for its final season, here's a a full guide to watching My Hero Academia in order, including movies and OVAs.

Mar 31, 2025 - 23:32

My Hero Academia came out at the perfect time, releasing just a couple of years before Infinity War, at the height of superhero dominance of pop culture. While Marvel movies were delivering world-ending stakes, the simplicity and relatively small scope of My Hero Academia felt new and refreshing even if it was familiar — especially to anyone who watched Sky High in the mid-'00s. The show is just a very effective battle shonen with everything you'd expect from a series in the genre, including memorable characters, themes about friendship and self-improvement, a sense of escalation, and stunning animation.

But most importantly, the show has an interesting portrayal of a world of heroes where superpowers impact every single aspect of culture and society. Like most shonen, there is plenty of supplementary material, like movies and original video animation (OVAs) and even spin-offs that expand the world of the anime. Whether you're just getting into the show or you want to see what you've missed along the way, here's how to watch My Hero Academia (including the movies) in order.

How Long Is My Hero Academia?

Adapting Kōhei Horikoshi's manga of the same name, My Hero Academia has been airing for seven seasons across almost a whole decade. In addition to the main show, there have been nine OVA's that expand the story, either with silly little side stories or adaptations of one-shot manga, as well as four movies.

How about canon, though? Well, anything that doesn't directly adapt the manga, like the movies and most of the OVAs, aren't technically canon. Sure, they're fun and the movies do often tease some new power-up that is to come in the anime later on, but they're not necessary to the story.

How to Watch My Hero Academia Online

Almost everything MHA, including every season of the show, most of the OVAs, and all four movies, is streaming on Crunchyroll. The best anime streaming service, Crunchyroll offers an ad-supported free tier as well as a seven-day free trial of its Premium membership, which starts at $7.99/month. In the U.S., all seven seasons of My Hero Academia are streaming on Hulu, while the first four seasons are on Netflix. The My Hero Academia movies are also available as physical releases.

How to Watch My Hero Academia in Chronological Order

1. My Hero Academia Season 1 (Episodes 1-13)

Entrance Exam Arc
Quirk Apprehension Test Arc
Battle Trial Arc
U.S.J. Arc

2. OVA: My Hero Academia: Save! Rescue Training!

The first My Hero Academia OVA that was released feels like a blast from the past, an episode that is entirely about the students of class 1A and the teachers reeling from the USJ Incident from the first season. Now, the students are finally set to resume training, and they make groups as they are assigned to rescue each other, then face a fight against a villain.

Because the episode was only released in Japan at the annual Jump Festa fan convention celebrating the various Shōnen manga magazines, the OVA is full of funny fourth-wall breaks and nods to the audience.

3. My Hero Academia Season 2 (Episodes 14-38)

U.A. Sports Festival Arc
Vs. Hero Killer Arc
Final Exam Arc

4. OVA: My Hero Academia: Training of the Dead

Teacher Aizawa is a little bit unorthodox. In this second OVA, he decides to throw his students headfirst into a training exercise with students from the Isamu Academy High School – which spirals out of control when one of the students (named Romero in a touching tribute to the father of modern zombies) uses his Quirk and turns a whole bunch of people into zombies. What was meant to be a simple exercise about survival turns into a proper zombie apocalypse. The OVA has some hilarious moments like seeing the panic in Deku's eyes when he sees All Might in his weakened state, only for everyone to think he's a zombie.

5. OVA: My Hero Academia: All Might Rising

While this OVA could have technically kicked off the timeline, it's best enjoyed as a prologue to the Two Heroes movie it released alongside. This is as close as we got to a proper All Might prequel, and it is delightful to watch All Might rise from a grieving student who just lost his teacher to becoming the ever-smiling Symbol of Peace we know and love.

6. My Hero Academia: Two Heroes

The first My Hero Academia movie sets the winning formula that would follow in every movie in the franchise since. What starts out as a fun getaway vacation where Deku accompanies All Might to visit an old friend of the hero ends up as a big test to Deku as the floating island is taken hostage by a villain. This is the movie for All Might fans as we learn a bit more of his origin and his time in America.

7. My Hero Academia Season 3 (Episodes 39-63)

Forest Training Camp Arc
Hideout Raid Arc
Provisional License Exam Arc

8. OVA: Make It! Do-or-Die Survival Training

Why does every Class 1-A training exercise end in disaster? This time around, the entire abandoned mall that the teacher decided to set this training in starts to collapse and the training exercise quickly becomes a fight for survival. These episodes are really for those who don't like that the main story moved away from the school part of the story too quickly, and delivers the kind of Saturday Morning Cartoon-type school shenanigans of the earlier seasons.

9. My Hero Academia Season 4 (Episodes 64-88)

The Shie Hassaikai Arc
Remedial Course Arc
U.A. School Festival Arc
Start of Pro Hero Arc

10. My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising

This is by far my favorite My Hero Academia movie to date. Heroes Rising showcases Class 1-A working together as proper heroes without relying on a mentor, a cool location, and also a cameo from the best hero, Godzillo. Most importantly, this movie is a treat for Bakugo and Deku fans, giving us more insight into their relationship and dynamic. It also has the best climax of any of the movies by having Deku and Bakugo work together and deliver a phenomenal joint attack.

11. My Hero Academia Season 5 (Episodes 88-106)

Rest of Pro Hero Arc
Joint Training Arc
Endeavor Agency Arc

12. OVA: Departure

This is another short OVA, and one that actually adapts a one-shot from the manga. It is mostly a comedy sketch about Hawks that ties into the next movie, but what makes it stand out is its stunning animation.

13. My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission

This movie has the highest stakes of the movies up to this point and a cool visual style, but what really makes World Heroes' Mission special is the introduction of best boy, Rody. He instantly becomes one of the best characters in the franchise and seeing his dynamic with Deku is fantastic. Timeline-wise, this is the one place My Hero Academia gets a bit funky, as the anime deviates from the manga.

14. My Hero Academia Season 5 (Episodes 107-113)

Meta Liberation Army Arc

15. OVA: Laugh! As If You Are in Hell

What if our favorite heroes had to stop a criminal whose power made everyone around him laugh uncontrollably? That's the simple but sweet premise of this OVA, which is one of the funniest episodes of My Hero Academia. The villain is essentially a Joker type who makes everyone laughs and he is a treat to watch, even if the episode itself doesn't offer much that we hadn't seen before.

16. OVA: HLB

A baseball episode! A classic trope of the anime medium, and one that My Hero Academia does spectacularly. Sure, there are few surprises to be had, but that's fine, because the fun is just watching the wild display of Quirks used for something as mundane as a sports match.

17. My Hero Academia Season 6 (Episodes 114-138)

Paranormal Liberation War Arc
Dark Hero Arc

18. OVA: U.A. Heroes Battle

What if My Hero Academia turned into Yu-Gi-Oh? Bored during Winter Break and sequestered in their dorms, the 1-A students pass the time by playing a new heroes card game. It's essentially an excuse to show the characters battle each other (in a VR recreation of the card characters battling it out), but it is great "what if" fun – like seeing All Might fight… a dog.

19. My Hero Academia Season 7 (Episodes 139-159)

Star and Stripe Arc
U.A. Traitor Arc
Final War Arc

20. OVA: A Piece of Cake

Deku is a huge hero nerd, that much audiences have known from the start, but sometimes the anime seems to forget about it. That's where A Piece of Cake comes from, adapting a one-shot manga that's all about the 1-A students discovering Deku's journal with extensive notes about their Quirks, and having wild reactions to his tips, suggestions, and silly drawings. It's a fun rest in what's otherwise a rather bleak chapter in the story, and a fun side story where the kids get to be kids (possibly for the last time).

21. My Hero Academia: You're Next

The latest My Hero Academia movie has some jaw-dropping visuals and a great final fight. The story introduces fascinating characters, including an anti-All Might villain as well as a new protagonist that has great chemistry with our main heroes.

My Hero Academia in Release Order

Season 1 (2016)
OVA: Save! Rescue Training! (2016)
Season 2 (2017)
OVA: Training of the Dead (2017)
My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)
Season 3 (2018)
OVA: All Might Rising (2019)
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019)
Season 4 (2020)
OVA: Make It! Do-or-Die Survival Training (2020)
Season 5 (2021)
My Hero Academia: World Heroes Mission (2021)
OVA: Departure (2022)
OVA: Hero League Baseball (2022)
OVA: Laugh! As If You Are in Hell (2022)
Season 6 (2022-2023)
OVA: U.A. Heroes Battle (2023)
Season 7 (2024)
My Hero Academia: You're Next (2024)
OVA: A Piece of Cake (2025)

What's Next for My Hero Academia?

My Hero Academia is reaching its end. The final season of the show will begin airing this October, but for those who aren't ready to let go of this universe, fret not. There are bound to be more OVAs or movies in the future, and in the meantime, we do have the spin-off series, Vigilantes, to look forward to. The upcoming spin-off takes place five years before the events of the main series, has a darker and more mature tone, and features appearances by some fan-favorite characters. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes starts airing in Japan next week, on April 7.

Rafael Motamayor is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything anime and animation.