All Might’s Iron Man Suit In My Hero Academia Season 8 Officially Makes A 100% Rated Movie Canon

My Hero Academia kicked off Season 8 with a neat little curveball: the Armored All Might suit we first saw in Season 7 wasn't built by U.A.'s resident gadget gremlin Mei Hatsume. It was Melissa Shield. Yep, the movie character from My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. If you assumed Hatsume, join the club.

So who built All Might's armor, and why does it matter?

Episode 1 finally spells it out. After retiring, All Might spent time in the U.S. and handed Melissa Shield his specs and a rough design for a battle suit. She refined it, finished it, and now that the final season has All Might squaring up with All For One, this mech is basically his only offense and defense. It's loaded with tech that riffs on Class 1-A's quirks and support items, letting the former No. 1 Hero fire off student-style abilities on command. Very Iron Man of him, in the best way.

Inside baseball: anime films are often non-canon side quests (see: most One Piece movies). Kohei Horikoshi doesn't play that way. Making Melissa the brains behind Armored All Might cleanly stitches the main series to Two Heroes, instead of pretending the movie never happened.

Quick refresher: Who is Melissa Shield?

Two Heroes takes All Might back to California and reunites him with David Shield and his daughter, Melissa. All Might is basically an uncle to her. Melissa's quirkless, same as Izuku Midoriya and All Might were originally, and she chases heroism by inventing support gear. David is a genius who helped All Might on his way to becoming the Symbol of Peace. When David's choices put people in danger, Melissa steps up in a big way alongside Izuku — they're literally the 'two heroes' of the title. Until now, that movie was the first and last time we saw her. Tying her to All Might's armor is a smart, earned way to bring her into the core story.

And if you're wondering about Mei Hatsume: she's the Support Course tinkerer at U.A. (often mislabeled online as Class 1-H). She didn't build this suit — which is exactly why this reveal raised eyebrows.

Are the movies canon? Horikoshi already answered this

Back in August 2018, Horikoshi told Toho Cinema Magazine (translation via Aitai Kimochi) that the films and manga are connected. His words, not mine:

"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."

He specifically saw Two Heroes as a chance to write All Might's American past, and he personally supervises the movies — from the scripts to the character designs — which is a big reason they tend to go over well with fans.

• My Hero Academia: Two Heroes — IMDb 7.3, Rotten Tomatoes 100%, MyAnimeList 7.52
• My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising — IMDb 7.7, Rotten Tomatoes 92%, MyAnimeList 7.93
• My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission — IMDb 7.0, Rotten Tomatoes 87%, MyAnimeList 7.58
• My Hero Academia: You're Next — IMDb 6.9, Rotten Tomatoes 95%, MyAnimeList 7.51

Bottom line

Melissa Shield building Armored All Might isn't some random cameo — it's the series cashing a check Horikoshi wrote back in 2018. He expected this day to come, All Might expected this day to come, and Melissa was the person both trusted to make the suit real.

Did the reveal surprise you? Did you catch the Two Heroes connective tissue right away? My Hero Academia Season 8 (the final season) is streaming on Crunchyroll if you want to rewatch that opener and squint at every bolt on All Might's armor like a conspiracy theorist.