My Hero Academia Almost Never Happened: Horikoshi Reveals How His Editor Stopped Him From Quitting The Industry

In a recent interview with Nippon TV’s news zero, Kohei Horikoshi made a surprising revelation regarding My Hero Academia as the manga wrapped up its 10-year run on Aug 5, 2024.

During the interview, Horikoshi revealed that My Hero Academia almost didn’t happen, as he considered quitting manga after two of his previous series Oumagadoki Zoo and Barrage, were cancelled due to low readership.

However, it was only the encouragement of his editor that convinced him to give it one more try, a decision that would ultimately lead to the creation of one of the most popular manga in the world.

“I had two series canceled, and I thought, ‘I’m done with manga.’ The editor in charge at that time told me, ‘Don’t give up,’ and ‘Do your best,’ so I thought, ‘Let me try one more time,’ and I decided to draw it with all the things I like and only the things I’m good at drawing.“

The editor in question is Hitoshi Koike, who played an important role in motivating Horikoshi when he was at his lowest.

Seeing that one of his previous one shots – Boku no Hero – still held a special place in Horikoshi’s heart, Koike encouraged him to turn it into a serialized work.

” I wanted to read Horikoshi’s next title, and had been encouraging him and telling him that wasn’t the case. Those weren’t just some lighthearted words, as I truly believed he could create a great title if he just had the motivation. Rather than throw together a lofty title and have him draw it, I knew it would better to have Horikoshi draw a title that would excite him and that he would feel confident enough about to say ‘Isn’t this interesting?!’ I didn’t know how well things would turn out, but I was focused on upping his motivation,” Koike had said in one of his previous interview.

While the general concept for My Hero Academia was set in Horikoshi’s mind, Koike wanted to make sure that the author, who he believed was talented, would write for the mainstream. And after endless discussions about the concepts and the character designs, the storyboards for the first three chapters were finally submitted.

These storyboards would go on to get accepted, however, the editor in charge was changed from Koike to Monji. Koike, however, didn’t tell this to Horikoshi until the last moment.

Interestingly, while Horikoshi’s love for heroes, American comics and even Sam Raimi’s Spiderman is known, he also has included two characters from his previous work – Oumagadaki Zoo – in MHA. The characters in question are Uwabami and Gang Orca.

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‘I Feel Surprisingly Lonely’: Horikoshi Reflects On 10 Years Of My Hero Academia As Final Chapter Releases

As the series wraps up, several commemorative releases are planned following the series’ end. The final volume 42 will be released in December, a fan book in January next year, and the first art book of the series in April. Additionally, a large-scale original art exhibition is scheduled for next summer.

Adding to the excitement, a secret project related to the series is also set to be revealed on Aug 5, 2024.

Kohei Horikoshi started serializing the manga in Shueisha’s shonen manga magazine Weekly Shonen Jump in July 2014. Its chapters have been collected in 41 tankobon volumes as of August 2024.

The series has numerous spin-off manga, including My Hero Academia: Smash!!, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes and My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions.

Source: Oricon