Kohei Horikoshi revealed that his hit series, My Hero Academia, came to life only after he abandoned the idea of creating a protagonist similar to One Piece’s Monkey D. Luffy. This was revealed in a conversation with Kagurabachi creator Takeru Hokazono published in Jump GIGA 2025 Autumn.
Horikoshi explained that after his second serialized manga, Barrage, ended, he wanted to develop a lead character with the same charisma and energy as Luffy, whom he had admired for years. However, that approach quickly led him to a creative dead end. Horikoshi realized that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reproduce the same kind of energy Oda had infused into Luffy.
The realization, “There’s no Luffy in me,” as he put it, became a turning point that pushed him to build a story that reflected his own creative style.
After coming to terms with that realization, Horikoshi revisited his earlier work, particularly a 2008 one-shot titled My Hero, and saw potential in its protagonist. Deciding to use that story as a creative springboard, he began developing what would eventually become My Hero Academia and focused on creating a protagonist that was easier and more natural for him to draw.
“I believe that from when the concept was first created to the first chapter’s storyboards were completed, it took around 1 year for it to all come together. I made several versions of the beginning part drafts, didn’t have the characters’ traits decided yet, I was going through it. But after quickly reaching the phase where the character All Might was created, I thought ‘If this guy is here, then I can pull through’,” he stated.
In addition to Luffy, Horikoshi also cited admiration for Dragon Ball’s Goku, noting that he used to draw his own “Super Saiyan” characters as a child.
This isn’t the first time Horikoshi has spoken about the creative process behind My Hero Academia. In 2019, a mini-volume titled Volume R (Volume Rising), distributed with tickets to My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising in Japan, featured an earlier interview where Horikoshi recounted how the series emerged from a period of creative burnout.
My Hero Academia manga wrapped up its 10-year run 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: X
