My Hero Academia Creator Got His Start Drawing Bleach Fan-Art

No matter how talented you are at something, you had to start somewhere. Even the greatest athletes had to walk before they ran, and artists had to sketch things out before making a masterpiece. For the artist behind My Hero Academia, he began drawing from a young age, but he didn’t get into a manga mindset until he was in school. And as it turns out, Kohei Horikoshi began doodling with Bleach in mind.

Not long ago, Horikoshi did an interview with Tite Kubo, the creator of Bleach. Thanks to fans, the chat was translated into English for all to read, and it was there fans learned how influential Bleach was to Horikoshi during his middle school years.

“At the time, I had never drawn anything resembling manga before, so I’d doodle randomly while daydreaming about settings or characters. I used to copy art of people holding Zanpakuto, among other things,” the artist shared.

Of course, Kubo was blown away by this admission. Bleach was a powerhouse manga back when Horikoshi was in school, and it was hard to avoid Ichigo. The Soul Reaper was considered one of the big three with Dragon Ball and Naruto at the time, so Horikoshi told his senior how he used Bleach as a template.

“Their blades could transform, just not into Bankai. Anyways, I came up with a bunch of those,” he said.

Sadly, Horikoshi revealed those drawings are likely gone given their age. He remembered drawing them in his notebooks at home, but fans are holding out hope these sketches might just resurface. At the very least, the addition of a Bleach-influenced character to My Hero Academia would satisfy fans’ and their desires for a crossover.

Would you like to see this old artwork resurface…? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

My Hero Academia was created by Kohei Horikoshi and has been running in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump since July 2014. The story follows Izuku Midoriya, who lives in a world where everyone has powers, even though he was born without them. Dreaming to become a superhero anyway, he’s eventually scouted by the world’s best hero All Might and enrolls in a school for professional heroes. The series has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015. My Hero Academia will also be launching its second big movie, Heroes Rising, in Japan this December.