My Hero Academia: I Am a Hero Too is an Eri-focused anime short screening in Japanese theaters on August 1–2, 2026, with a streaming debut on August 3. Tomo Okubo directs, Yosuke Kuroda writes, and the story follows Eri as a high school student preparing for her first street performance.
Production revealed the preview, synopsis and main staff this week, filling in the last blanks on a short that has been circling since spring.
My Hero Academia: I Am a Hero Too release date and where to watch
The short premiered ahead of everything else at Anime Expo 2026 in early July. The wide rollout splits into two windows, which is why you will see two different dates quoted:
- August 1–2, 2026 — theatrical screenings in Japan.
- August 3, 2026 — streaming debut, with Crunchyroll reported as the streaming home.
Both dates are correct; they simply describe the theatrical window and the streaming window. International platform specifics beyond the streaming date have been communicated sparingly, so check your regional listing before the weekend.
The story: Eri, after the ending
The official synopsis is short and unusually pointed: “Now a high school student, Eri continues to pursue her dream of making music. With her first street performance coming up that weekend, she visits U.A. High School.”
The short is set after the events of the anime’s finale and adapts a bonus chapter drawn by series creator Kohei Horikoshi. It is part of the franchise’s 10th anniversary project slate.
Who is making it
The staff list is the detail that should reassure anyone worried this is a farmed-out side project. It is largely the TV anime’s own core team.
| Role | Name |
|---|---|
| Director | Tomo Okubo |
| Script | Yosuke Kuroda |
| Storyboard | Naomi Nakayama |
| Animation directors | Yoshihiko Umakoshi, Hitomi Odashima |
Kuroda handled series composition on the main My Hero Academia anime and Umakoshi designed its characters, so the short carries the same authorial fingerprints as the series proper rather than a house style approximation.
Our take: the title is the thesis
It would be easy to file this as a gentle epilogue — a nostalgia lap for a beloved side character. Read the synopsis against Eri’s actual arc and something more deliberate emerges.
Eri’s entire presence in the main series was defined by what was done to her. Her Quirk was a weapon other people wanted. Overhaul’s plot used her body as raw material. Her most important story beats are rescues — things other characters accomplish on her behalf. For a franchise obsessed with agency, Eri had strikingly little of it.
“I Am a Hero Too” inverts that in the title alone, and the synopsis backs it up. She has a goal that is entirely her own, and it is not a Quirk, not a hero license, not combat. It is music. Her first street performance is framed as the event the short is built around.
That matters because of where the series ended. My Hero Academia closed with the professional hero system itself under real scrutiny — its costs, its incentives, what it did to the people inside it. Choosing, as the anniversary follow-up, a story in which the “hero” is a girl performing on a street corner is a quiet argument about what comes after. Heroism, this short proposes, does not have to be issued by an institution.
Her visit to U.A. supplies the emotional hinge. She returns to the place that represents the old system, but she arrives as a musician rather than a student of it. If the short works, that contrast is why.
For more on the franchise, see our guide to what a Quirk actually is and our ranking of the strongest My Hero Academia characters.
Frequently asked questions
When does My Hero Academia: I Am a Hero Too come out?
It screens in Japanese theaters on August 1–2, 2026 and debuts on streaming August 3, 2026. It premiered earlier at Anime Expo 2026.
Is I Am a Hero Too canon?
It adapts a bonus chapter drawn by series creator Kohei Horikoshi and is set after the anime’s finale, so it comes directly from the original author rather than being an anime-original side story.
Do I need to finish My Hero Academia before watching it?
Yes. The short takes place after the finale and depends on knowing who Eri is and what happened to her, so it will spoil major late-series developments.
How long is the My Hero Academia Eri short?
It is a short film rather than a feature, but an exact runtime has not been publicly confirmed.
Sources
- Anime Corner — preview, synopsis and staff
- Crunchyroll News — August 3 release date
- Anitrendz — streaming debut and Anime Expo premiere
