The My Hero Academia manga has recently ended after a decade-long run. In order to deal with the loss, it’s time for fans to re-read the manga, its spinoffs, and additionally some fanfics. Kohei Horikoshi gave the heroes an ending they deserved, especially Deku.
But as past interviews are surfacing again, Horikoshi’s inspirations for the manga as well as his goals, are re-iterated. In one such interview, Horikoshi explained how he always wanted My Hero Academia to be one of the top series.
Kohei Horikoshi’s Obsession with Being No. 1
An interview with Kohei Horikoshi was published online via Natalic Comics in July 2018, in which he discussed his concept of a hero as well as the different arcs of My Hero Academia. In the interview, it was revealed that Horikoshi was worried about keeping up with the demands of readers.
My Hero Academia has been one of the most popular Shonen manga for years now. After receiving multiple anime seasons, games, light novels, and movies, the franchise seemed to be doing much better than many other manga series. So, why was the author so worried about the manga’s performance?
The mangaka explained that the most relevant way to know about his manga’s performance was to keep track of the polls. He further revealed that he has always aimed for the top and did not want to lose any traction. The poll results of My Hero Academia have always been unpredictable, and there were times when its performance had dipped.
I want to create an amazing story that can reach the Number 1 ranks, and I create the content with the hope that it will reach Number 1.
Horikoshi claimed that when the series received its anime debut, he began to think that he had to put everything into the franchise but soon realized how faulty his thinking process was.
At first I thought that since the anime has started, I really needed to put my all into this, but if I keep thinking that, then I would probably break from the pressure, so that’s why right now I just want to focus on the contents of the manga.
Fans are glad that Horikoshi eventually began to see logic and focus on the manga itself, rather than stretching himself thin over all the different adaptations. Still, the author is extremely involved with the My Hero Academia manga and made a significant contribution to the movies.
Did Kohei Horikoshi’s Ambition Impact My Hero Academia Negatively?
Back when My Hero Academia was only at its third volume, Kohei Horikoshi had a discussion with Masashi Kishimoto, where he mentioned that he was perplexed about how he could keep up with the demands of readers. The author was presumably trying to please his readers for the first few years of My Hero Academia‘s serialization.
Adding to the fact that he was already obsessed with poll results and coming out on the top, it is a common recipe for disaster. Many authors become incredibly fixated on giving fans what they want so they can stay at the top. However, this leads the author to create a fan-fiction rather than an original work. This results in an eventual decline in the manga’s popularity.
Thankfully, Horikoshi pulled out of this mentality when the My Hero Academia anime debuted, and he decided to focus only on the manga. This led fans to think that maybe for a few years in between, the author did not actually write what he wanted to but rather tried to follow popular demand. This must have led the mangaka to go against his original storyline.
Fans are thus lamenting over the lost potential that the series could have turned out to be much better than the present result. Of course, no one can complain that the manga had an awesome run, but it will always be debatable if Kohei Horikoshi actually wanted to create or develop an aspect of the story that he never could.
You can read My Hero Academia on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
