Is Melissa Shield Canon in My Hero Academia? Theory Explained
One of the things that we know about anime movies is that they can be somewhat different compared to the main story of the anime series or the manga due to the fact that most of the films explore storylines that aren’t connected to the anime or manga at all. Of course, My Hero Academia has its fair share of movies as well, and one of the characters we met in the Two Heroes movie was Melissa Shield, one of that film’s main characters. So, is Melissa Shield canon in My Hero Academia?
Melissa Shield is actually canon. In an interview, My Hero Academia author Horikoshi Kouhei confirmed that Two Heroes and the manga are connected. That means that Two Heroes is canon and that the characters that appeared in the movie, including Melissa Shield is canon.
Even though some fans that stick to the manga as the only source of what’s canon or not would still stick to their belief that Two Heroes and Melissa Shield are not canon, the thing is that the author himself said that they are canon. In that regard, we are not in the position to actually say that the author is wrong, as he is the primary authority when it comes to what is canon and what’s not. That said, let’s look into this topic on a deeper level.
Who Is Melissa Shield?
It is quite common for anime movies to introduce new characters that weren’t in the main anime series and the manga. That was the same for My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, which introduced the character of Melissa Shield. But who is Melissa Shield in My Hero Academia?
Melissa Shield is the daughter of David Shield, who was the man responsible for creating All Might’s hero costume and is a very close friend of the Symbol of Peace. However, unlike her father, Melissa was born Quirkless, which meant she couldn’t be a hero. Inspired by All Might, who visited their island and saved it from a disaster, Melissa learned that she could still be a hero by becoming a capable inventor who could serve heroes like All Might.
As such, during the main events of the Two Heroes movie, Melissa is portrayed as a genius inventor who befriended Izuku Midoriya when he and his classmates visited I-Island with All Might.
But a villain suddenly attacked the island and took David’s invention, which was supposed to amplify All Might’s powers, after he learned that his good friend had already passed One For All to Deku. The villain used this invention for his own selfish desires as he gave Deku and All Might a lot of problems in their fight. But thanks to Melissa, who gave Deku a gauntlet that allowed him to deliver a 100% punch three times without injuring himself, the villain named Wolfram was defeated.
After the movie, both All Might and David talked about how their successors, Deku and Melissa, could make the world better by carrying on their legacies. As such, Melissa became the inheritor of her father’s will as she now has to work harder than ever to invent support items that could help heroes despite her status as a Quirkless individual.
Is Melissa Shield Canon?
Of course, while we know that Melissa Shield was an important character in the Two Heroes movie, the thing about anime movies is that they are usually written independently because they are not part of the manga. After all, plenty of anime movies have been written off as non-canon because they were not part of the manga and were not even created by the authors of their respective manga. So, is Melissa Shield canon?
The good thing about My Hero Academia is that the author of the manga, Horikoshi Kouhei, actually takes an active role in writing the movies of this anime series. In an interview, he admitted that he actively designed and created both David and Melissa Shield.
Interviewer: Horikoshi, you are listed as the creator and supervisor of the movie. Exactly what did you work on?
Horikoshi: I worked on many things, such as the design for David and Melissa, as well as what I want to have in the movie’s plot, what I want the characters to do, and we discussed this thoroughly with Director Nagasaki and the movie staff. I also read the scripts and offered my own opinions with the direction of how the story should go.
Then, in another interview, Horikoshi admitted that he used the Two Heroes movie to present All Might’s past and how he studied in America. He even said that the movie and the manga are connected.
Interviewer: The movie contains an original story, but does it have any correlation to the current story in the serialized manga?
Horikoshi: I always wanted to include a chapter about All Might’s past, or rather, I thought that I definitely NEED to write about his past. In the movie, the young All Might is shown studying abroad in America, and I thought this might not be something that could be brought up anymore in the actual manga story up until now, so I saw the movie as a chance to present this. Of course, without a doubt, the movie and manga are adjoined, and the movie’s story is connected to the manga story that happens after it.
As such, it goes without saying that My Hero Academia: Two Heroes is canon. By extension, Melissa Shield is also a canon character despite the fact that she never appeared in the manga. And this is all because the author took the time to involve himself in the creation of the movies and the characters involved in them.
This allowed Horikoshi Kouhei to ensure that the events and characters of the movies of My Hero Academia remain consistent with the flow of events happening in the main anime series and manga. As such, this explains why Melissa Shield and the events in Two Heroes don’t clash with those in the anime and manga.
