100 Facts About My Hero Academia That You Didn’t Know

My Hero Academia is a renowned anime that has recently taken off in the anime and manga world! At the time of this article, My Hero Academia will have it’s fourth season premiere this upcoming fall. As many fans get ready to watch this next adaption to the ever so popular manga, there are a lot of facts that not even true fans may know! In this article, we will be unraveling 100 Must Know My Hero Academia facts! Without further ado, let’s begin!

100 Must Know Facts About My Hero Academia

#1. My Hero Academia, or Boku No Hero Academia, is a manga and anime series that was created by Kohei Horikoshi. The manga made its debut on July 7th, 2014, and it is currently ongoing in Weekly Shonen Jump. As of writing this article, there are currently 23 volumes consisting of 235 chapters

#2. Before My Hero Academia, Horikoshi previously worked on his other series, Oumagadoki Zoo, and Barrage, along with a few other one shots.

#3. Horikoshi’s dream was to have a long-running serialization in Shonen Jump; however, unfortunately for Horikoshi, that dream was seemingly crushed after his second series, Barrage, was cancelled after such a short serialization. This ended up sending him into a bit of a depression. Because he was in such a sad and depressed state of being, he wanted to focus the happy aspects of his previous works into whatever new manga he decided to create; thus led to when he thought back to a one-shot he created back in 2008 called, and you guessed it, My Hero. This one shot was essentially My Hero Academia before My Hero Academia and contained a lot of elements from what would later become what we know as My Hero Academia. Horikoshi thought back to how happy he was while he created that one shot, and decided to build off of it for his next manga; which would of course later become My Hero Academia.

#4. The My Hero one-shot does have quite a few differences from what would later become the main series, but the biggest difference was the fact that the one-shot centered around an adult, named Jack Midoriya. When Horikoshi began reinventing the one-shot into the full-fledged manga, he didn't think he'd be able to get back into Shonen Jump with an older protagonist because the audience for Shonen Jump are generally younger; therefore, they would not relate with an older protagonist. This made Horikoshi decide to change the setting to a school, and reinvent Jack into who we now know as Izuku Midoriya: the rest is history.

#5. Horikoshi has stated that one of the reasons he decided on a school setting is because he absolutely loves origin stories; specifically seeing how an aspiring hero learns how to become a hero and all the different things a hero must learn and deal with along the way. He's also stated that the only issue with a school setting is the fact that it limits the overall scope of the series due to the difficulty of adding different potential storylines.

#6. The manga was eventually adapted into an anime series that is still currently ongoing. In fact, as of this year, the fourth season will start airing it’s first episode. Some lucky fans were able to see the entire first episode at Anime Expo 2019 Anime in California! The first episode of this anime officially aired on April 3rd, 2016; however, even though the anime first aired in 2016, the anime was greenlit for development before the manga was even a year old.

#7. Apparently, Horikoshi first heard about the series being adapted into an anime during a casual meeting he has weekly with his editor. Because the news was dropped so casually, it took a few days before the exciting news really sunk in for Horikoshi.

#8. It's no secret that My Hero Academia was heavily inspired by American superhero comics and movies. The biggest inspiration came from Spider-man. To Horikoshi, Spider-man is what comes to his mind when thinking of what it truly means to be a hero. To Horikoshi, a hero is someone who helps and brings reassurance to others; which to him is what Spider-man is all about. He built my hero academia around this philosophy.
The fact that Spider-man is also a teenager helps fit the school setting of MHA as well.

#9. As of 2017, My Hero Academia has currently sold over 10 million copies. Considering that it is now 2019, and the series is still becoming increasingly more popular, that number is likely getting close to doubling or tripling if it hasn't already.

#10. When Horikoshi first heard that the series was going to be published overseas, he didn't think anyone outside of Japan would enjoy it. Luckily for him, My Hero Academia became a huge success overseas. That being said, he still has his doubts!

#11. Before Horikoshi created any one-shots or anything of that nature, Horikoshi’s first manga debut was actually in a One-Piece art segment named Usopp Gallery Pirates. Horikoshi submitted a postcard of Smoker that actually ended up getting published in volume 23 of One-Piece back in 2002! With an interesting turn of events, Horikoshi’s manga is now getting published right alongside One-Piece in  Weekly Shonen Jump.

#12. Some of Horikoshi’s favorite manga series and inspirations include Dragon Ball, Tekken, Naruto, One-Piece, Boys on the Run, and Akira.

#13. Before Horikoshi was creating his own manga, he was formerly an assistant for Yasuki Tanaka, the creator of the manga series Hitomi no Catoblepa and Kagijin.

#14. Because Shonen jump is a weekly publication, there's almost always a new My Hero Academia chapter every week. When it comes to Horikoshi’s creative process, he spends most of his time working on the storyboard. He has stated that it can sometimes take up to 6 days. Afterwards, he spends close to a whole day on the final art, which is incredibly fast! Although he has mentioned it is not strictly linear and he does draw some art during his storyboarding, the speed at which he needs to accomplish this entire process is insane!

#15. Horikoshi began the series already knowing how it was going to begin and end, along with everything that needed to happen in between. Different things throughout the series will of course be tweaked and expanded upon, but it's interesting to know that the end of the series has already been decided.

#16. In August of 2016, a spin-off prequel series began that was named My Hero Academia Vigilantes. The series isn't written by Horikoshi, and is instead written by Hideyuki Furuhashi and is illustrated by Betten Court. Thus far, it has received good reception due to it’s darker tone compared to the main series as well as receiving Horikoshi's seal of approval.

#17. On August 3rd, of 2018, there was a movie adaption of My Hero Academia that was released, My Hero Academia: Two Heroes. In regards to the MHA timeline, this movie took place after the Final Exam arc, which means it happened before season 2 and 3 for those who have yet to see it! 

#18. So far, there have been two video games based on the series. The first was released only in Japan for the 3ds which was called My Hero Academia: Battle for All. The second game was called My Hero Academia: One’s Justice which was released on August 23rd, 2018 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Deku has also made a guest appearance in Jump Force!

#19. When it comes to those nasty cliffhangers at the end of the chapter, Horikoshi has stated that he tries his best to avoid them whenever possible. He believes if the cliffhanger doesn't have that great of a payoff for the reader, then they won't enjoy the following chapter. 

#20. During the process of adapting Jack Midoriya into Izuku Midoriya, he went through a few different changes. First of which was before his name was officially Izuku Midoriya, his working title was Mikumo Akatani and before that it was Yamikumo. Appearance-wise, he does look pretty similar to the finalized Izuku; however, with longer hair that covers one of his eyes. The longer hairdo was scrapped because instead of looking more serious, as Horikoshi intended, he ended up looking like he was in a real need of a haircut! This concept also has Mikumo being quirkless, like Izuku, but instead of later receiving a quirk, he instead relied heavily on his own luck and assorted gadgetry. As we've seen in some of the latest chapters with Izuku donning some gauntlets to assist with his powers, it looks like part of this concept is going full circle.

#21. Before All Might became the mentor and a symbol of peace that he was meant to be, he was originally meant to play a much lesser role than he would end up playing later on. In the earlier drafts for the character of All Might, he was meant to be a much older veteran hero who would only appear in the beginning of the story to convince a Izuku, or Mikumo, to become a hero even though they didn't have a quirk. 

#22. In addition to the last fact, All Might was also the character who went through the most design changes over the course of the series creation. Apparently, no matter how he was drawn, everyone Horikoshi showed the designs to only saw All Might as some old guy and didn't really notice anything special about him. Although this would normally demotivate someone, Horikoshi used this criticism to improve All Might by constantly tweaking the design. Little did he, or anyone else, know All Might would become a fan favorite, and in my opinion one of the best anime characters to date.

#23. When it comes to Bakugo, he was originally supposed to be a completely different character in terms of personality. Originally, Bakugo was supposed to be a genius who was extremely kind and gentle towards others; however, he would have been slightly socially awkward, in the sense that he would unintentionally say things that were very hurtful to others. Appearance-wise, he was practically the same. Horikoshi later decided that this version of Bakugo would be too boring and instead decided to make him the arrogant asshat that we know and love today!

#24. Continuing off the last factoid, Bakugo’s asshat personality was actually based off of one of Horikoshi other characters from his previous manga, Oumagadoki Zoo. The character in question was the lion, Shishido, who also had a similar personality; however, Horikoshi took it to the extreme with Bakugo.

#25. One of Horikoshi’s favorite things to do, and also most difficult things to do, is name his characters. This is mainly because their names usually carry some sort of hint towards the individual’s quirk, a pun, or some other characteristic about the character within the kanji in their names.

#26. Horikoshi also likes to develop very detailed backgrounds for the side characters within the manga. One example of this is the newscaster who briefly appeared on television. The newscaster, Daikaku Miyagi, only has one horn - as you may have noticed. This is because he is so dedicated to the news that he ended up cutting one of them off so that it no longer interferes with the camerawork behind him. This actually led to a controversy as many people praised him for his dedication and attention to detail, while others claim that what he did was a form of quirk discrimination. To this day, Daikaku Miyagi is still delivering the news to his loyal viewers!

#27. Aside from Izuku, the only character from the original My Hero one-shot to make it into the main series with little to no changes was the hero Snipe.

#28. As for Iida, he went through two different designs, mainly because he was one of the last characters created. The first concept art for him was back before a school setting was even decided, thus it is vastly different from the Iida we know today. His first version of Iida was incredibly buff, and happened to wear some sort of dinosaur or skeleton-like mask. His second concept was also still vastly different from his final appearance. Iida looked like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

#29. When it came to the anime’s release, the thing Horikoshi was most looking forward to was the action scenes. This was in part due to the fact he had received criticism that some of his action scenes were hard to follow in the manga. Horikoshi figured the animated version would do a much better job showing what was actually going on.

#30. Tsuyu, Toru, and Mei were all originally supposed to be male characters, but Horikoshi wanted to create more diversity within the cast because he was lacking female characters. He then ended up gender swapping them all to become females. He has later stated that he was very happy with this decision and while on the topic, so am I!

#31. The hero 13 was introduced in chapter 13 on page 13. If you may have noticed, this also happens to be fact #31, and if you flip 31 around, what do you get? 13!!!!!!

#32. Out of all the characters, Horikoshi thinks that Fumikage is the coolest, but within the story itself Fumikage doesn't come across as cool to many.

#33. in 2017, the manga won both the Sugoi Japan Award and the Japan Expo Awards. #34. The first three characters to be developed for the story were Izuku, Bakugo, and Uraraka, making them the main trio, with Todoroki being created right after them. 

#35. When it comes to the anime, the average episode of My Hero Academia takes around 7,500 to 8,000 unique drawings. For comparison, most other anime take around 4,000 or 5,000 unique drawings. This explains why the anime fight sequences and overall animation comes off as so well polished.

#36. Daiki Yamashita, who is Izuku’s Japanese voice actor, was originally part of the VC, or voice comic, reading before the official cast for the anime was decided. He, of course, ended up moving on to officially play Izuku. The main reason for this is because Horikoshi originally didn't have any voice for Izuku in mind, but after hearing Daiki play Izuku he couldn't imagine any other voice for the character.

#37. In the first chapter of My Hero Academia, while explaining how heroes came to be, the silhouette’s  of other popular heroes from other comics can be seen such as: the Japanese hero Ultraman, Superman, Wolverine, and of course Spider-man! 

#38. As far as we know, a pro hero's popularity ranking goes up to at least 10 heroes. So far, out of the top 10 most popular, we know the following: Gang Orca, also known as Kugo Sakamata,  is number 10, Ryukyu is number 9, Headshot is number 5, Best Jeanist is number 4, Endeavour is number two, and then All Might is number 1!

#39. While the students were looking at possible hero agencies to intern for, on Todoroki’s paper, at the very bottom, one of the offices is called the Kal-el Hero Office, which is of course a reference to Superman. 

#40. Ashido’s original design was very similar to her final design, aside from being a little skinnier and having much longer, curvier horns. The longer horns were scrapped because they were too difficult to consistently draw.

#41. Despite seeming like a very manly hero, Gunhead apparently has a really girly voice, and he also really enjoys skincare products.

#42. Mineta’s original design was almost exactly the same as it is now. The only difference being that his hero costume had a stem-like object sticking out of his head, making him seem more like a human grapevine!

#43. Mt. Lady can grow up to 68 feet tall 

#44. Not too much is mentioned about the geography of the My Hero Academia world but it's hinted that it's pretty much the same as our world. This conclusion has been reached because Japan, Thailand, China, and America have all been mentioned as countries within this universe.

#45. Although almost everyone in class 1-A are the same age at this point, the youngest in the class by birth date is Shoji while Bakugo is the oldest

#46. Gran Torino’s hero name was likely inspired by the movie Gran Torino that was created by Clint Eastwood! If you want to pay homage to this awesome character’s name, make sure to watch it!

#47. Midnight was originally meant to be the homeroom teacher for class 1-A; however Horikoshi ended up drawing her way to sexual and felt she would no longer be appropriate for that role. her costume was also slightly different in her early drafts.

#48. In a chapter extra, we learned that Present Mic was the one who came up with Eraser Head’s hero name! Also, if you didn't know already, these two characters were in the same graduating class.

#49. If it wasn't obvious already, All Might was heavily designed after classic American comic book heroes. Horikoshi has made sure that all of All Might's signature moves are named after various states from America: including the United States of Smash!

#50. So far, there have been three official different character popularity polls. The first pole saw Izuku in 1st, Todoroki in 2nd, and Bakugo in 3rd place. However, the next two polls had different results! Bakugo rose to 1st place, while Izuku became 2nd, and Todoroki became 3rd!

#51. Continuing off of the last fact, Horikoshi was actually very surprised with Bakugo’s popularity as he intentionally made Bakugo a jerk and thought that most people would naturally hate him.

#52. before Denki was officially created as a character, his original design looked much different from what he would later become, in the first concept design, he had much spikier hair, and a more much more sinister look. This concept at first was just a random electricity user at the time, and it wasn't until much later that this concept became the basis for Denki’s character!

#53. While Present Mic is explaining the point system in the UA entrance exam in the manga different assorted Mario character silhouettes can be seen to describe the points; however, in the anime this was simply changed to the robots in the exam to avoid copyright!

#54 Tsuyu’s appearance was originally much less frog-like, in the manner that her face and eyes were much smaller. This concept art also made it seem like she was originally meant to be a more docile, submissive, and quiet character.

#55. According to the official My Hero Academia Twitter, Tsukauchi has a code name within the police force which is True Man; this is likely stemming from his lie detector quirk!

#56. Toru's original costume was supposed to have a little bit more than just boots and gloves. In the original design, she was also supposed to be wearing some sort of smiley face mask, along with having some sort of mirror like objects attached to her gloves.

#57. The UA motto “Plus Ultra” is actually Latin for “further beyond”.

#58. Shoji's full-face has yet to be revealed in the series, and it's unknown if we ever get to see it. However, in some of his concept art, we got a glimpse of what could possibly be his full face!

#59. Sato’s regular design and costume design are based off of both Kinnikuman and Silver Age comic heroes.

#60. In the original concept of the series, Endeavour was going to be an instructor at UA. This was scrapped for a better series dynamic and to shift the balance of power away from the protagonists.

#61. We currently know little about Izuku’s father but since he's such a mystery let's go over what we do know! His name is Hisashi Midoriya, and his quirk is apparently breathing fire! We know that at some point he married Izuku’s mother because they share the same last name, and in a chapter extra we also learned that the reason he isn't around is because he works abroad. However that is all there. Some theories believe that All for One is his father, but that’s for another blog!

#62. Jiro is currently the only character in the series who was revealed to have the same exact quirk as one of her parents: which is the earphone jack quirk that she shares with her mother. There are similar examples like Todoroki having a flame quirk like his father, and Tsuyu having a frog quirk like her parents and siblings, but like Todoroki and many other characters, their powers were developed through a mixture of powers and as far as Tsuyu goes, her parents quirk’s have not yet been officially named to confirm whether they are the same frog quirk that Tsuyu has or perhaps if they are some other variant.

#63. Horikoshi has stated that Himiko Toga is currently the hardest female character for him to draw, mainly because of her eyes and hair!

#64. Tamura was originally going to have a much creepier face underneath that hand, not that it isn't creepy already... Instead of eyes or a mouth, they would have instead just been empty black holes - kind of like something from Hunter X Hunter.

#65. Horikoshi has stated that both Kirishima and Denki were created to tie the class together with their personalities

#66. According to Horikoshi, Neito is one of the few characters whom he based off of a person he knows in real life!

#67. When dealing with so many different characters and forming their personalities out of pure imagination, it's only natural that Horikoshi isn't going to resonate or understand all of them, but one character he openly admits to not understanding at all is Aoyama. That being said, he enjoys drawing him so he claims it's not so bad

#68. Although it may not seem like it because almost everyone that is introduced in the series these days has a quirk, 20% of the world's population is still quarkless. Albeit that is the minority, it still adds up to be quite a lot of people, especially if My Hero Academia's population is anything like ours!

#69. In the early versions of the series, Mount Lady was originally going to replace Uraraka’s role as the main female character, or at the very least Uraraka would look the same appearance-wise however her quirk would have been gigantification. Horikoshi later felt that the quirk was too flashy to fill that role, so he later replaced it with zero gravity.

#70. The villain Stain is likely derived and inspired appearance-wise from both The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and at the anti-hero Spawn; but personally I've always thought he looked like Insaniac from the Small Soldiers!

#71. Momo's original design was pretty much the same as she is now, but her hero costume’s original design was slightly different! Instead of there being an opening down the center, it was instead exposing her entire stomach and part of her legs - along with the addition of a small mask over her nose.

#72. Present Mic was originally going to be an old, average sports announcer, but Horikoshi thought that would be a bit too boring. This made him redesign Mic into the upbeat version we have today! 

#73. It was mentioned pretty early on that four students made it into UA through a scholarship recommendation. So far, we know that three of these students were Momo, Todoroki, and Juzo; however, the fourth and final student is still unknown.

#74. In addition to the last fact,  at UA each class is only supposed to have 18 students; however, if you didn't notice, both class 1-A and class 1-B have 20 students. Horikoshi confirmed that the reason for this is because the students who got into the school via scholarship recommendation are not counted in that lineup. This then confirms that the final student who got in on recommendation is in class 1-B.

#75. The English voice actor for 13, Morgan Berry, confirmed for us that 13 is androgynous, which means that they identify as partly male and partly female, but 13’s actual gender by birth is currently unknown. 

#76. To continue on the gender train, there have so far been two confirmed transgender characters. The first is Yawara Chatora of the Pussy cat’s who actually had full-on sex reassignment surgery over in Thailand to transition from female to male. Yes, that is confirmed to have actually happened!!! The second character was the villain Magne who was a transgender female.

#77. At one point in the series, the students point out that All Might is wearing a silver age costume, which is a reference to what is known as the Silver Age of comics which took place from 1956 to 1977.

#78. Endeavor’s blood type is AB while Todoroki’s blood type is O; the reason that I bring this up, is because apparently it's genetically impossible for an AB blood type to produce offspring with an O blood type, unless Endeavor has a very rare genetic mutation known as Cis A-B. Considering the whole concept of quirks came about through natural evolution, it makes perfect sense in the series for other genetic mutations to have also occurred.

#79. In addition to the last fact, Todoroki also has another genetic mutation called heterochromia; this occurs when an individual or animal has two completely different colored eyes. In Todoroki’s case, he has one light blue eye like his father, and one gray eye like his mother.

#80. When it comes to the character Horikoshi relates to the most, he claims it has to be Izuku because he cries easily and cowers. Horikoshi claims that the two are very similar in that regard.

#81. It is still unknown whether Principal Nezu is a dog, a mouse, a bear, or a mixture of all three.

#82. In chapter 34 of the manga, there's one panel where the reader can see The Flash from DC Comics sitting in the stands cheering Todoroki on!

#83. Back in 2016, an anime cafe in Japan did a collaboration with the series and provided My Hero Academia themed food for a limited time. The possible items included Izuku’s katsudon, All Might’s smash soda, and Uraraka Ochico's sticky chewy zero-gravity parfait. With every purchase during this limited time, customers were also given a randomly selected My Hero Academia themed coaster.

#84. In 2017, the SAME anime cafe came back with another collaboration, centering around the sports festival. The dishes available included: UA sports festival gold medal pasta, All Might’s bento, Ochico’s meteor shower iced tea,  and stun grenade - katsuki’s flashing lemonade!

#85. Even though Horikosh’si first serialization Oumagadoki Zoo was cancelled pretty early on, some of the characters from that manga later made an appearance in My Hero Academia. The character who plays a bigger role is Uwabami, who was later added to My Hero Academia with the same appearance and name; however, other characters from Oumagadoki Zoo such as Toy Toy have made cameo appearances

#86. When it came to marketing the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Japan, Horikoshi was actually asked to create some promotional art for the film. More recently, another marketing collaboration was done to help market Avengers: Infinity War to Japanese audiences. This time the anime character designer Yoshihiko Umakoshi drew many of the My Hero Academia characters in a very similar pose to the recently released Infinity War promotional poster!

#87. On the topic of Star Wars, there are a few different Star Wars related easter eggs and inspirations throughout the series. A great example of this is that some of the locations at the beginning of the series are named after different planets in the Star Wars universe such as: Dagobah Municipal Beach Park, (where All Might began his training with Izuku) and Tatooine Station which appeared at the very beginning of the series.

#88. When it comes to the actual Star Wars inspiration, the most popular example would be All for One’s black mask and life-support system: both being very similar to Darth Vader. Along with this,  Mirio also has a special move called Phantom Menace which is named after Star Wars Episode I.

#89. When Horikoshi was asked in an interview how he is able to keep drawing manga every week, he stated that it is not so bad if you enjoy what you're drawing. In his case, he enjoys drawing superheroes!

#90. The character Bubble Girl was actually created by a fan, rather than by Horikoshi. At one point, a hero design contest was held and Bubble Girl was picked as the winner, which meant she would be added to the series.

#91. Apparently Tamaki's anxiety problem is based on a real-life situation Horikoshi went through; he was attending Jump Fest 2017 and had to go onstage for a huge crowd of people and fans. It was very nerve-wracking for him.

#92. At one point Himiko Toga is seen wearing a gas mask that has a striking resemblance to a certain villain from The Dark Knight Rises, any guesses? (SPOILER ALERT: It’s Bane) 

#93. The city of Yokohama in My Hero Academia's Japan has a small area called Kamino; this is actually another reference to Star Wars and also a hint of what was going on there. Kamino was the planet where clone troopers were being created and in My Hero Academia, Kamino was the area where All for One was creating his various Nomu. Had you understood the reference, you could have learned of this plot point ahead of time!

#94. In an interview with Horikoshi back in 2017, he hinted that Hitoshi is likely going to have some interesting character development in the near future

#95. Shiozaki was originally going to be a member of class 1-A, but at some point Horikoshi moved her over to class 1-B. Apparently, he has no recollection of the reason as to why he moved her.

#96. Horikoshi has stated that he really enjoys drawing Denki, among other characters. That being said, the only problem with drawing Denki is that he can never seem to draw his hair consistently, meaning that it's always slightly different in each of his appearances.

#97. Aside from being the fourth most popular hero, Best Jeanist runs the fashion industry that is marketed towards young and adult men. He is also extremely popular within this fashion industry, which could be why he is such a high ranking hero.

#98. When asked about the possibility of a time-skip, Horikoshi explained that at some point he does intend to have a time-skip for the series, however he is not sure when. 

#99. When it comes to why My Hero Academia is so popular overseas, there's really no definite answer other than it may have something to do with how superhero’s happen to be the trend, but the manga author who wrote Naruto Kishimoto is not only a big supporter of My Hero Academia, but he also believed it would be pretty popular overseas: especially because Naruto Shippuden ended right around the time My Hero Academia began.

#100. Back in 2016, Horikoshi mentioned that the series was about 20% complete at the time. Considering the series has been ongoing since 2014, that means the rate of completion is about 10% per year, give or take, so now if we take 2019 and this assumption is correct... the series is about 50% complete right now. This also means that if the series continues to complete about 10% of the story per year, the series will likely be ending in 2024. This is, of course, assuming that Horikoshi doesn't take a big hiatus and does not add a lot more fluffing than he intended to the story. This also means that the anime for My Hero Academia would also need to keep up in producing content consistently as well; the good news we can take from this is that we will be having My Hero Academia around for quite a while!