'My Hero Academia' Creator Opens Up About Toga's Sexuality
02/14/2019 05:57 pm EST
My Hero Academia fans recently got some insight into an exciting piece of trivia: a look at the original prototype design sketches for fan-favorite villain, Himiko Toga! Well, in addition to the excitement of seeing what Toga could've looked like in the manga, the sketch also included some character details for Toga by series creator Kohei Horikoshi, including a major reveal about Toga's sexuality.
You can read a translation of the reveal, via @aitaikimochii, below:
"Toga's prototype design has the line "she falls in love with people and wants to become them [...] it doesn't matter if it's a guy or girl (?)"..."
That's right; according to the notes in Horikoshi's original sketches, Toga swings both ways in terms of sexual preferences!
That revelation is a lot different than the impression fans got from Season Three of the My Hero Academia anime. The anime made Toga out to be "boy crazy" in a very unorthodox way: by stealing blood to impersonate other people , all so that she could get close to Izuku Midoriya, who she is hopelessly fixated upon. That made it seem like Toga was traditionally heteronormative, but apparently that's not what Horikoshi had in mind for her. It's definitely fitting for the character as Toga's real "love" is a level of intimacy with someone so deep, she actually "becomes" them. Since that obsession isn't necessarily sexual in nature, it could easily apply to both men and women. Saying that Toga has "sexuality" at all is probably the more debatable part of Horikoshi's notes.
As a lot of fans have noted, the actual My Hero Academia series has not yet revealed any bisexual leanings in Toga's character, or at least nothing pronounced. During the "Hero License Exam" arc, it was revealed that Toga had infiltrated the government's superhero exam disguised as Camie from Shiketsu High; after hearing the details in these original character sketches, one now has to wonder what tricks she may have used to get close enough to Camie to get the necessary blood sample.
My Hero Academia Season Three ended with Toga having obtained a sample of Izuku's blood from the Hero License Exam, and will no doubt be putting it to not-so-good use in the near future. Fans of the manga already know how that plays out, and fans of the anime won't be disappointed!
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.
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