New My Hero Academia Stage Play Renews Conversation About Momo's Costume

Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia is currently closing out its fifth year of publication in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and in that time the series has blossomed from a manga series to several spin-offs, anime, movies, and is even preparing a live-action film effort. But while there's been a concern as to how the series will translate to live-action, the stage play for the series in Japan has been a great preview as to how the character's various hero costumes could look in the real world.

When the play first debuted its looks for the cast, one of the topics surrounding its Momo Yaoyorozu costume was the improvements it made on the original by allowing the actress to have a zipper. With the play returning for a second outing, it's got fans discussing this choice again such as this example from Iced_Lemon_TeaZZ on Reddit.

I think this cosplay of Momo from the official live stage play in Japan is a good interpretation of Momo's hero costume IRL by both being sufficiently accurate to the design but not exaggeratedly exposed to wear in a convention. from r/BokuNoHeroAcademia

Momo Yaoyorozu's hero costume has been a point of debate for fans ever since it was introduced into the series with it even being censored completely in some regions. While her costume has been a popular choice for cosplay, it certainly has fans wondering about its practicality. Because Yaoyorozu's quirk uses the lipids in her skin to create objects, she needs to have as much open skin as possible to produce things -- even going as far as opening her vest completely to produce bigger items at a few moments.

But the introduction of a zipper was a popular idea given that she can just unzip it to create items and re-zip when not in action. There are arguments for the other side as well which defend Yaoyorozu's current costume as one that not only fulfills Shonen Jump's usual fan-service quota but also serves as a shout out to the more open Western comic book hero costumes.

Both options have their pros and cons, but at least there are options to the costumes. The zipper would certainly be a better idea for her Winter hero gear, which instead sees her drape a cape over her bare skin. What do you think? Do you think Yaoyorozu would change significantly if she was given a zipper? Is it a big enough change to matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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.