10 Facts That You Might Not Know About Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia)

As you can read in my previous post, I love My Hero Academia. Along the way, I found several interesting things that people might not know about this series. So I present my list of 10 Things That You Might Not Know About Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia):

1.  From A Fanboy to A Mangaka 

Kohei Horikoshi's artwork that was featured in One Piece!

The manga author of My Hero Academia was once a fanboy of other famous mangaka. Kohei Horikoshi submitted his artwork for One Piece in 2002 and it was featured as part of the Usopp Gallery Pirates segment in One Piece volume 23! Eight years later, this fanboy has his first serialization in Shonen Jump alongside One Piece! Eiichiro Oda himself talk about this in the SBS Volume 77, cheers for him and promote My Hero Academia series.

Beside Eiichiro Oda, Kohei Horikoshi also known as a big fan of Masashi Kishimoto, Naruto's author. In an interview, Masashi Kishimoto speak warmly about Kohei Horikoshi, stated that he felt My Hero Academia had taken Naruto's mantle since it appeared at around the same time Naruto concluded. He also predicted that My Hero Academia would succeed overseas as Naruto had before it. Not only that, Masashi Kishimoto also make an artwork to cheers on the start of My Hero Academia anime.

Masashi Kishimoto cheers on My Hero Academia anime

Wow. I wonder if Kohei Horikoshi have the same feeling with Izuku Midoriya when All Might said, "You can become a hero", when he saw the mangaka that he admires cheers on him.

You could read more about those sweet interaction here and here.

2. It Was Based On Kohei Horikoshi's Old One Shot

Much like its main protagonist, Izuku Midoriya, things didn't come easy for Kohei Horikoshi. Before creating My Hero Academia, he has had 2 short-lived serializations in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2010 - 2012. All of those series discontinued quickly, particularly the 2nd series -Barrage- that was axed after such a short time of serialization. Kohei Horikoshi was pretty depressed about that, but finally in 2014 he was able to come out with My Hero Academia that earn him his first success.

My Hero one-shot

Since he was depressed about his previous serialization, he decided to make a new work based on his previous work that he enjoyed drawing. His one shot that he make back in 2008, My Hero, is a particular work where he was happy when he draw it so he decide to make that one shot as his foundation and create My Hero Academia from it.

3. Some Characters Had Different Gender From Their Original Concept

Tsuyu Asui, Tooru Hagakure and Mei Hatsume are originally intended to be male characters, but since Horikoshi-sensei think the manga lack female characters, he changed them. He's glad with his decision. So do I.

4. Katsuki Bakugou's Character Comes From The Author's Previous Serialization

逢魔ヶ刻動物園やっと全部読めた記念…
シシドくんと爆豪勝己 pic.twitter.com/16Pv5IXu1E

— おこめ🍚 (@kmkm3_) June 6, 2017

In the previous serialization of Kohei Horikoshi, Oumagadoki Zoo, there's a character that like the prototype of Katsuki Bakugou named Shishido. Horikoshi-sensei decide to rework him as character who still has mentality like a child, really strong, with way of fighting like jumping and flying around. This is because Horikoshi-sensei like Akira manga where the main antagonist Tetsuo Shima is really strong although he's a kid and he uses his power like a kid too. With that, comes Katsuki Bakugou

He initially mean to be a nice boy but spoke without thinking that he inadvertently hurt others without any malicious intent. In the end, Horikoshi-sensei decided to make him a big jerk instead, but with added layer where he's working really hard in his own way to be a hero. Because of the nature of the character, Horikoshi-sensei really surprised with Katsuki Bakugou's popularity, which is the no 2 and no 1 most popular character in the 1st and 2nd popularity poll, respectively.

5. Spider-Man is a big influence to My Hero Academia

Horikoshi-sensei started reading American comics from time to time and watching American hero movies after he watched Sam Raimi's Spider-Man which he thought super impressive. He said Spider-Man is a huge influence to My Hero Academia for the fact that Spider-Man is also a teenage hero. If there's a chance of cross over with American comic, he would like it to be Spider-Man. Horikoshi sensei also draw inspiration from other American comics or movies. For example, All For One design is inspired by Darth Vader.

6. The Animation of My Hero Academia Has More Drawings Compared To Normal Anime

Normal anime has 4000-5000 drawings for 1 episode but for My Hero Academia it's 7500-8000 drawings. No wonder the animation is so good! That's Studio Bones for you!

Ep1 - normal anime: 4000-5000 drawings
HeroAca: 7500-8000 drawings pic.twitter.com/qhNA3tYdP6

— リボレクさん (@liborek3) April 9, 2016

7. The Name of The Character Represent Their Characteristic

Horikoshi-sensei give name for the character that represent their characteristic. The name of Izuku Midoriya has kanji for green refering to his green hair. Kaminari Denki's name contain kanji of electricity. Katsuki Bakugou's name had kanji for explosive and win. Tooru Hagakure's name had kanji for transparent, and so on.

8. The Manga Author Only Spend 1 Day For The Final Art Of Each Chapter

It kind of unbelievable, but Kohei Horikoshi stated in one interview that he spend a lot of time on storyboard for the weekly chapter of My Hero Academia and only spend about 1 day for the final art. Sometimes the storyboard itself need 6 days to be completed because Horikoshi-sensei need time to revved up. Well, when I saw a video where he draw so quickly and effortlessly I don't really doubt his statement.

9. Dragon Ball Influenced All Might Design

Because of Dragon Ball's influence, Horikoshi-sensei feels that strong characters are packed with muscles. He really like the body shape of Goku when he goes Super Saiyan, which might be where All Might's concept came from.

10. Kohei Horikoshi Cry When He Saw The Anime

Horikoshi-sensei is really happy his manga is adapted into an anime that he's grinning when he first saw the PV. But when he watched the fight between Izuku Midoriya and Shouto Todoroki in the 2nd season of the anime, episode 10, he really touched to the point he's crying. He told it in the author comment's of Shonen Jump No 26 Year 2017.

Okay. That was all the facts from Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) that I don't think many people know and hasn't really stated in other articles. I compile it from various interview and sources. I hope this series will become better and better.

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My Hero Academia (Review)

So, I've been missing from this blog for almost 2 years due to relentlessly workloads and various circumstances. But here I am, rising from my grave thanks to this series. My Hero Academia (or Boku no Hero Academia, in Japanese) is one of the rising manga in Japan that has been serialized since 2014. It touched me to the point that I bother to write this useless article.

On a Saturday night 3 weeks ago, I had a free time so I thought it's okay for me to watch anime in streaming sites. My original intention was to watch Yuri on Ice since there's many people that seems going crazy about it. Moreover, it's about ice skating.  I'm interested because it's something that I haven't seen before in anime. But at the website main homepage where they list the newest anime episodes, I saw My Hero Academia and change my original intention.

I can't say that I'm a fan of Shonen Jump, but it's true that I follow many Jump series. From Dragon Ball to Naruto. From Rurouni Kenshin to Gintama. Shonen Jump has many famous shonen series, including one of my all time favorite, Death Note. I've been hearing about My Hero Academia as one of the recent Shonen Jump famous series, but I haven't check it yet. So out of curiosity I clicked and watched it.

My Hero Academia take place in the future where 80% of human population have special powers called "quirk". Due to rise of people with superpowers, the criminal rate is also exploding and the world come into chaos. But this is also make a profession come into the limelight. Heroes fighting villains, saving people, and now become an established position where they are paid by the government based on their performance. This manga follow story of the main protagonist on his journey to be the greatest hero, starting from his high school days in hero course of the elite U.A High School.

If you asked me whether My Hero Academia offer something new to shonen genre, I will say not yet. So far, it gives me "been there, done that" feels. But it's done in an excellent way, you couldn't help to love it anyway. It really has all the best that are offered by a Shonen series. Heartfelt story? Check. Amazing battles? Check. Interesting characters? Check. I had watched thousands episodes of anime, but My Hero Academia managed to snatched my weaves just after a mere 2 episodes.

The main protagonist of My Hero Academia is Izuku Midoriya, a young boy without superpower in a society full of people with superhuman abilities. He idolized the no. 1 superhero, All Might, who always save people with smile no matter what trouble they're in. Dreaming to be a cool hero in the future, he experience setback when it was known that he was born "quirkless". Nevertheless, Izuku keep chasing his dream even when people mock him, told him to give up, and even when his mother thought it will be hopeless for him to become a hero. But a fateful encounter with his idol, All Might, bring miracles to Izuku's life. He was chosen to inherit All Might's quirk, One For All.

The question that change everything

At first, All Might said that people can't be a hero without power since pro hero always risking their life. But one accident where Izuku show his heroic nature make him acknowledged by All Might who eventually told him "You can become a hero". Honestly, that scene touched me so much I end up downloading all the episodes & read the manga right away.

What I like about My Hero Academia is the characters are simple but at the same time there's also layers of their personality to keep your interest in them. Here what I thought about them:

• Izuku Midoriya

Izuku Midoriya is introduced to us as a sincere, selfless, diligent, timid with great analytical skills and hero fanboy passion. But as the series progress, we know that despite seems timid at first, he actually a strong-willed boy. He's still a crybaby though, but that makes him even more adorable. He become more confident as he progress in controlling his power and we found out the polite boy surprisingly has a brash and abrasive side that comes out when he's in combat.

I really like Izuku since the first time I saw him. He's the kind of boy that make you want to root for him. Many protagonist in shounen manga are all brawn and no brains, but Izuku is a smart boy who usually think before act (except when someone is in danger and need help, his body move without thinking), able to form complex plans and execute it. He has this hilarious habit of analyzing everything too much, which makes him start mumbling to himself a lot.

Some people might think Izuku is just a lucky boy since his encounter with All Might is the event that make it's possible for him to become a hero. The others might also think that it's better to have someone more powerful to get One For All rather than a quirkless boy like Izuku. But honestly that's just motivate me to cheer for him more. As All Might said, received something because you're lucky and being given something because you're recognized are different. Whether Izuku can prove that he's the worthy one to wield One For All is a challenge that pops out not only in reader's mind. When I write this review, the story is precisely discuss about this topic since the one who originally suggested by many people to inherit that power is the best student called Mirio Togata, a 3rd year student in U.A. So, I'm pretty sure the mangaka (Kohei Horikoshi) will present us with satisfying conclusion about that.

• Katsuki Bakugo

The deuteragonist of the series is Katsuki Bakugo, Izuki's childhood friend as well as his former bully that violent, arrogant, and aggressive.  I think the relationship between Izuku and Katsuki is fascinating and will spark many different opinions between people.

At first, I terribly hate Katsuki, mostly because his aggressive behaviour & casual remarks for Izuku to pray he will have quirk in his next life and suggest Izuku to jump off the roof (indirectly suggesting suicide, most probably because he speak without thinking. But it still so ewww, I want to smack him for this). Although Katsuki's other pals comment that he's being harsher than usual, I still think that kind of behaviour is inexcusable. Kohei Horikoshi actually plan him to be an airhead character that inadvertently hurting others without any malicious intent. But since he felt that will be lame, he make him into a detestable character instead.  He promised to handle Katsuki's character with care and as the series progress, we will see more about Katsuki's psychology and come to understand him, bit by bit.

Katsuki is the case where too much talent, power and enormous praise from other people inflate his ego and propel him towards the wrong path. He is smarter and stronger than anybody in his school since he was a kid, making him having too high opinion about himself and belittle other people.

This is especially the case in Katsuki's attitude towards Izuku, which in his opinion is the least amazing of them all since Izuku was born quirkless. That's why it's irritated him when Izuku show genuine concern about him, thinking Izuku look down on his ability and leading Katsuki to bullied Izuku for years. Overall, I think Katsuki is an insecure teen with superiority complex who lived his whole life for validation from his peers, unfortunately without any self-actualization.

It's funny that despite his past as a bully, in U.A he is the one who often get teased by his classmate, shocking Izuku. Now Katsuki are surrounded by fellow students with high ability that he start evaluating himself, even briefly intimidated by Shoto Todoroki's strength. All of that make Katsuki's realized that he still have a long way to go & motivate him further to become no 1.

I was worried that Izuku - Katsuki relationship will become like Naruto-Sasuke relationship (both relationship have similarity: intense rivalry where the main protagonist admire the deuteragonist's strength & the deuteragonist jealous with the main protagonist's spirit & great progress), but it seems that's not the case. It's fascinating how Katsuki's behaviour might seems villain-like for others, but his determination to become a top hero is unwavering and greater than most people. Hence, he wouldn't be seduced to join the dark side like what Sasuke did. I still very much hate the fact that Sasuke turns into villains, even had goal to destroy Konoha in the past. I don't think Katsuki will fall into that kind of dark path though.

By the way, although most people will be appalled by Katsuki's attitude in chapter 1 of manga/1st episode of anime, I think 119 chapters later many people will start seeing Katsuki in different perspective.

• All Might

Toshinori Yagi, more commonly known as All Might, is the "Symbol of Peace", the greatest hero that both Izuku and Katsuki's admired since childhood. Some people who love Japanese anime might dislike All Might since his character design pretty much resemble American superhero. The fact that he has hero-mode and normal-mode is source of comical relieve in the anime and manga. In his hero-mode, All Might is colorful and has dramatic flair (like comes out with big smile and loud laughter, shouting "It's fine now. Why? Because I'm here"). In normal mode, he's less dramatic. 

All Might is the one who chose Izuku as his successor. He is Izuku's mentor as well as a teacher in U.A high School. I love his fatherly attitude to all students of U.A, such as when the battle training and when he's presenting the awards for the winners of U.A Sport Festival. 

Damn ninja cutting onions again! I really love Izuku and All Might disciple - mentor relationship

All Might give advice to Katsuki and Izuku.

• Shoto Todoroki

When I thought that the main rivalry in this manga is between Izuku and Katsuki, here comes Shoto Todoroki which become the 3rd rival. He hasn't really prominent yet in Season 1 of the anime, but he is one of the main focus in Season 2. Hailed as the best in class 1.A, even Katsuki was briefly intimidated by his strength. He is a character in My Hero Academia with one of the most interesting backstory (although somewhat tragic).

Shoto Todoroki's quirk, Half Cold Half Hot

Shoto Todoroki is my favorite character and I want to thanks Izuku for helping Todoroki to see that he is not his father.

It's going to be interesting to see the rivalry between Izuku, Katsuki and Todoroki to become the strongest. I personally really like their rivalry that push each other to become better. It's a bit unfortunate he didn't do his best when he battled Katsuki (he still unsettled about using fire power like his father, really understandable), I wonder who will win between them at full power. Having said that, the 3 of them still far from their full potential and I can't wait to watch their improvement.

I want to talk about Tenya Iida, Uraraka Ochako, Eijiro Kirishima and other characters too like Shota Aizawa, but I'm afraid this post will be very long so I will stop right here.

If there's something from My Hero Academia that I wish to be better, it's about the villain. I would like to have a strong villain with interesting goal. The biggest villain in this series so far is All For One, but his true motive is still unclear. All For One's successor, Tomura Shigaraki, is an interesting villain but his story hasn't really live up to his potential.

Tomura actually has an interesting backstory. During his childhood, he suffered from an incident where no hero came to save him. Additionally, people who passed by never offered to help him, because they assumed that a hero would take care of it, leaving him to be ignored.  I think if the story explore more about the shortcomings of a society that too rely heavily on heroes, it will be more interesting. But so far Tomura is just a childish villain and his hate for heroes still appear too shallow. It will be interesting to see what will he become in the future since All For One is All Might's archenemy, consequently Tomura will become Izuku's archenemy since both of them are the chosen disciples.

I wish the villain is someone like Shogo Makishima in Psycho Pass, someone with an ideal that you can't really deny. In Psycho Pass, Shogo Makishima want to liberate people from Sybil System since it's making human society become mere "sheep" that aren't able to think by themselves. I honestly swayed by his ideal since I also thought Sybil System took people's freedom to think and act (I really think it's dumb how people create Sybil system in the first place to control society). But his method of using violent to give shock value to open people's eyes about the shortcoming of Sybil System is evil and I can't agree with him on that.

In regards with this, in My Hero Academia there's a villain called Hero Killer Stain. He actually has an interesting ideal where he believe heroes must not desire rewards or compensation, and that people can only have the title of hero when they commit the ultimate acts of self-sacrifice. He kills many heroes because he believe heroes nowadays are fakes who pretend to be hero. He's actually interesting but he soon defeated by Izuku, Todoroki and Iida. But maybe the mangaka still preparing another big story where he will appear again since he is now in the same prison as All For One. There's possibility those 2 villains will team up.

That's all I can say about My Hero Academia. Overall this manga and its anime has potential to be very big and to become the next flagship series of Shonen Jump. If you want a light series with heartfelt stories, interesting characters and amazing battles, this series is for you.

Have you read/watch My Hero Academia? What do you think about it? Comment below and let me know.

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