My Hero Academia: Make It! Do-or-Die Survival Training

僕のヒーローアカデミア生き残れ！決死のサバイバル訓練 (Boku no Hero Academia: Ikinokore! Kesshi no Survival Kunren)

9.0(1)

OtakuDen

7.2(104,052)

MAL Score

Ranked #3878

Popularity #1397

Action
School
Super Power

Episodes: 2
Duration: 23 min per ep
Aired: Aug 16, 2020
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Set before the Provisional Hero License Exam arc, *My Hero Academia: Make It! Do-or-Die Survival Training* shifts the focus to a survival training course designed to sharpen Class 1-A’s ability to endure and adapt under pressure.

Still without provisional licenses, the students arrive eager to push themselves—and enjoy the break from routine—until the exercise proves far more perilous than expected. With no room to treat it like a simple drill, they’ll need to rely on their training, teamwork, and fast decisions to make it through the assignment.

Otaku Consensus

Make It! Do-or-Die Survival Training lands as a sturdy 7/10-style bonus chapter: Bones’ established My Hero Academia staff keep the two-episode format brisk, and the OVA works best when it lets Class 1-A solve a practical emergency as an ensemble rather than chase a villain-of-the-week spectacle. The clearest fan-favorite element is Momo’s command presence during the search-and-rescue flow, while the recurring criticism is equally clear: because it sits between larger Season 3 arcs and changes no long-term status quo, it is enjoyable but easy to skip.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want My Hero Academia in pure training-mode: teamwork, tactical quirk use, and school-exam pressure without the heavy villain lore or tournament escalation. It scratches the same itch as the best practical-drill episodes of Naruto or Assassination Classroom, where the fun comes from seeing young fighters apply classroom theory under stress instead of simply powering up. The two-episode length is a strength for completionists: it gives more time to the Class 1-A ensemble than a single bonus short, but it never asks for the investment of a movie. It is especially worthwhile for viewers who enjoy Momo’s leadership moments, Bones’ TV-series visual continuity, and Yuuki Hayashi’s familiar heroic musical vocabulary in a compact side story placed before the Provisional Hero License Exam arc.

Key Characters

M
Momo Yaoyorozu
Fans singled out Momo here because the OVA gives her a clear leadership showcase, emphasizing planning and coordination over flashy one-on-one heroics.
C
Class 1-A
The ensemble appeal is the point: the OVA is built around watching the class function as a collective problem-solving unit before the Provisional Hero License Exam raises the stakes.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
It is a compact two-episode OVA rather than a film or recap special, which lets it operate like an extended training interlude without interrupting the main anime’s arc structure.
2
The placement before the Provisional Hero License Exam arc gives the special a specific continuity function: it spotlights survival judgment and emergency response before the series formally tests hero readiness.
3
Studio Bones handled the production, keeping it visually aligned with the main My Hero Academia anime rather than giving it the looser feel of a disposable bonus episode.
4
The creative spine is unusually close to the main series staff: Kouhei Horikoshi is credited as original creator, Kenji Nagasaki as chief director, Masahiro Mukai as director, Yousuke Kuroda as both series composition and script, Yoshihiko Umakoshi as character designer, and Yuuki Hayashi as composer.
5
Its reception profile is consistent across fan commentary: praised as light, enjoyable ensemble material, but repeatedly labeled nonessential because it does not carry the narrative weight of a core season arc.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The OVA aired on August 16, 2020, and finished as a two-episode release rather than a one-off special.
Fun fact 2: Yousuke Kuroda is credited twice in the key staff data, handling both series composition and the script, which helps explain why the special feels structurally consistent with the television anime.
Fun fact 3: Norimitsu Suzuki is listed for key animation, while Yoshihiko Umakoshi’s character design credit ties the OVA to the recognizable My Hero Academia look used across the main adaptation.
Fun fact 4: The special has a broad audience footprint for a side entry: MAL lists a 7.17 score from 104,052 votes, with a popularity rank of #1397, while AniList records a 70/100 score and 576 favorites.
Fun fact 5: The available localization credits point to international handling beyond English-language fandom, including Laura Corbelli for the Italian script and Fábio Campos as Brazilian Portuguese ADR director.