Yuta Okkotsu

Jun 09, 2022

My Hero Academia

The series focuses on 

, a young man who dreams of becoming a 

despite being bullied by his violent childhood friend 

for lacking a Quirk. Both youths idolize one of the world's greatest heroes 

, who they both met with Izuku being one of few to know of a critical injury All Might has been concealing from the public eye to maintain morale. All Might also reveals the nature of his Quirk "One For All" and passes it down to Izuku to succeed him after seeing the youth's determination in the face of danger. As Izuku begins his path to becoming a hero in attending U.A. High School

(雄英高校, Yūei Kōkō)

alongside Bakugo and the friends they make in Class 1-A, a nemesis to the "One For All" users named All For One conditions his apprentice Tomura Shigaraki to destroy the current society and its heroes.

Development

Horikoshi stated that after his previous series was cancelled after just two volumes, he was sad and out of ideas. In order to get more ideas, he revisited a he previously published in , titled My Hero (僕のヒーロー, Boku no Hīrō). This would end up being the basis for the series. Horikoshi was also a big fan of American films and comics, like directed by , , and , which he used for inspiration. Horikoshi cites 's as being the main influence for his art, specifically stating it gave him a love for drawing hands. Horikoshi has also cited , , and as sources of inspiration.

Themes and analysis

Horikoshi has stated that the main theme he focuses on is "what makes a hero." Horikoshi has also stated that he likes stories with bad endings, as well as horror stories. However, he finds these difficult to draw since his mood when he draws is the same in the story. In order to combat this, he puts in more silly-looking characters like , in order to keep the mood up.