Kohei Horikoshi, the legendary mangaka renowned in the manga world, has achieved a lot of tremendous feats that most can only dream of. One of these is none other than his masterpiece My Hero Academia, which, after becoming one of the biggest fan-favorite mangas of all time, went on to achieve incredible success as an anime, and is now all set for a live-action project.
However, many would be surprised to know that there was a chance that this very piece that screams perfection wouldn’t have been created in the first place. In fact, had it not been for a stroke of sheer luck, there was a chance Horikoshi sensei wouldn’t have come as far as he did to create MHA!
How a Stroke of Luck Ultimately Led to Kohei Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia
Everyone loves Kohei Horikoshi sensei’s My Hero Academia. But what they don’t know, is that a major reason why this saga eventually came to be, was that one of the mastermind’s one-shots got featured in Shonen Jump magazine.
Allow us to delve into the entire backstory: Since Horikoshi sensei had been drawing ever since a child, growing up, he eventually knew which field he wanted to make a career in. Thus, he went to design school to further polish his skills to become “a manga artist.”
During this time, he also started to work part-time “as an illustrator,” as he shared in an interview with Anime News Network. And it was while working as an illustrator when the mangaka sent in an entry for the Shonen Jump.
“In college, Jump had a lot of submission contests,” Horikoshi shared. “I submitted one back then and won… I think I got lucky.”
For the record, scoring a position in the Shonen Jump magazine is something that literally every aspiring manga artist wants to be featured in. This is why achieving this feat with only one submission was indeed an incredible achievement for the mangaka.
In fact, Horikoshi sensei himself shared in an interview with Team Jump at the Jump Festa 2016 just how much scoring a spot in Shonen Jump mattered to him:
“Getting into Shonen Jump has always been a dream of mine.”
Thus, with this new confidence booster earned through a spot in a 2007 seasonal edition of the Shonen Jump magazine, Horikoshi sensei continued to work and stayed deeply invested in his manga work — something that ultimately led to him giving birth to the masterpiece that is MHA!
More Proof That Shonen Jump Boosted Kohei Horikoshi to Make MHA
Besides acknowledging his Shonen Jump dream, Horikoshi sensei also admitted that the way his work affected his audience was what kept him going. Speaking with Team Jump, he said:
“I’m simply overwhelmed by a feeling of appreciation for the fans,” Horikoshi admitted. “I also get the feeling that I can’t just create the series to enjoy for myself. I have to consider how the series touches other people. I’ve become aware that it no longer belongs only to me.”
Since the reaction he got to his work was what kept him going, his getting a place in the Shonen Jump must have inevitably further boosted his confidence to keep going. Thus, he continued to develop more projects for his audiences, and eventually, a great piece of work like Izuku Midoriya’s saga too.
You can read My Hero Academia on Shueisha’s Manga Plus and stream the anime on Crunchyroll.
