The tale of superheroes and their journey, My Hero Academia, has finally come to an end after entertaining anime and manga fans for ten years. Kohei Horikoshi’s series was considered one of the best anime and manga series in the world because of its brilliant narrative and unique characters that fans never saw in any other franchise.
However, the main reason why the series became such a cult classic is the moral and theme that the series promoted through its narrative. Horikoshi has always been a fan of superhero stories, and he wanted to portray the two main themes of every superhero movie or series through his own work.
These two themes were reassurance and hope. The manga creator once revealed that he took these two traits from his favorite heroes, Goku from Dragon Ball and Spider-Man from Marvel comics, and illustrated them in his own manga. This in turn gave him one of the highest-selling stories of all time.
Kohei Horikoshi’s Favorite Heroes
Before My Hero Academia got an anime adaptation, Horikoshi was interviewed about his manga, and this interview was shared by @nakurawari on Tumblr. During the interview, Horikoshi was asked about his favorite heroes and how he used their influence in My Hero Academia. The manga creator pointed out his favorite fictional characters and the lessons he learned from them.
Horikoshi stated:
Probably have to be Goku and Spiderman. To me, when mentioning heroes, these two are the ones that I think of. In Goku’s case, it’s the reassurance that everything is going to be fine he brings when arriving.
Goku’s character not only represented power and strength, but it also brought reassurance in the eyes of his friends, and Horikoshi found that aspect to be amusing. While talking about Spider-Man, the mangaka stated:
In Spiderman’s case the first experience I had with this character was the movie, in which there were a lot of scenes with him rescuing people, which I felt that was really cool. The moment he “saves somebody” is really awesome.
Horikoshi first saw the character in a movie saving a lot of people. The moment when Spider-Man saved a lot of people gave hope to others, which according to Horikoshi was quite cool. Thus, he idolized the character and took inspiration from him.
Kohei Horikoshi’s Illustration of Heroism in My Hero Academia
While talking about his favorite heroes and the aspects of life that they taught him, Kohei Horikoshi revealed that for him, they were the ideal heroes, and he wanted to implement their mindset and their morals in his own story. Thus, he used these aspects as the main theme of My Hero Academia, and it worked wonders.
Horikoshi stated:
That’s probably what it means to be a hero. Of course everybody has a different view on what it means to be a hero, and some people might say “heroes aren’t supposed to be like that”, though to me that’s what being a hero means, and that’s the aspect of heroism that I want to illustrate in My Hero Academia.
The central element of My Hero Academia is the assurance and hope that Deku and the rest of the superheroes gave to the general public even though they lost almost everything.
They stood firm on their grounds even in the face of danger as big as All for One and ultimately defeated him with the power of Plus Ultra, bringing an end to the epic tale.
You can watch My Hero Academia on Crunchyroll.
