My Hero Academia and One Piece are the top ongoing Shounen anime out there. Fans are always curious to know how involved the mangakas are with the anime adaptations of their works. Eiichir Oda and Kohei Horikoshi have found the supervision style that fits them the best.
While both franchises have reached critical acclaim, the behind-the-scenes process for them is quite different.
My Hero Academia Movie Director Discusses Kohei Horikoshi’s Engagement
In an interview at Anime Expo 2016, Kenji Nagasaki and Wakana Okamura, the director and producer of My Hero Academia, discussed the behind-the-scenes process of creating an anime. After discussing their most memorable series, influences, and various personal interests, they finally reached the topic fans have been awaiting: Kohei Horikoshi‘s involvement in the My Hero Academia anime.
According to Nagasaki, Kohei Horikoshi just left the staff in charge of the anime. He did extend help whenever they needed him but never over-reached the boundaries. He also helped with extra background setting, or explained characters whenever needed.
Okamura was also of a similar opinion.
Horikoshi was very excited about the anime and was supportive.
According to her, Horikoshi was supportive mainly because Nagasaki was the director and the animation production was under Studio Bones.
So, he was very excited and often tweeted about special episodes and more about the anime; he was personally and emotionally involved.
While the author is politely helpful with the anime, he is extremely involved in the creation of My Hero Academia movies. In an interview, the author stated that he overlooked the script, characters, plot, and many more aspects of the movie. This could stem from the fact that My Hero Academia movies have original plots by Kohei Horikoshi.
Since the movies don’t have a source material to adapt from, Horikoshi has to inevitably become more involved to ensure a smoother creation process with fewer mistakes.
Eiichiro Oda’s Involvement in the One Piece Anime
While Horikoshi is minimally involved in the creation process of the My Hero Academia anime, the same cannot be claimed about fellow mangaka, Eiichiro Oda.
Oda is said to be extremely involved with the anime’s creation process. In the question corner of a One Piece volume, the author also illuminated the other staff members who made the series possible.
First and foremost, I am a manga artist. But I do help out with character designs for original anime stories and movies based on my manga.
But the mangaka realizes that at the end of the day, he would have to entrust the world of One Piece to the anime staff. He especially mentioned Konosuke Uda, the series director of One Piece, who he seems to admire the most.
If he and I didn’t see eye to eye, then Luffy would immediately become un-Luffy-like, and the world of One Piece would be completely different.
Oda boldly claims that no matter how poignant his story was, if the director messes up, the anime is ruined. However, he never faced any such problems with Uda and the team completely understood One Piece.
This alone shows just how involved Eiichiro Oda is with the One Piece anime. Not only does he help with the designs, but he is also completely aware of the production procedure and on the same page as the staff.
Both Horikoshi and Oda have different styles of overlooking the anime adaptations, and both have found the best way to ensure the superior quality of the anime.
You can read One Piece and My Hero Academia on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
