My Hero Academia Originally Wanted Its Traitor Reveal to Be Very Different

My Hero Academia is working through its final act, and its creator is rightfully nostalgic over the manga’s run. As one of the industry’s most popular series, Izuku Midoriya commands respect, and the same can be said for everyone else at his school. Of course, that changed recently when the school’s traitor was revealed, and Kohei Horikoshi just confirmed he originally meant to reveal the character’s identity in a totally different way.

The whole thing came to light when the manga put out its latest volume in Japan. Creator Kohei Horikoshi shared a bunch of notes in My Hero Academia volume 34 for fans to study, but one thing took the whole fandom by surprise. After all, the artist informed fans he originally planned to reveal the traitor at U.A. High School during the Training Camp arc.

“Originally, I planned to reveal that Aoyama was the traitor in the training camp arc (volumes 9 and 10). That was a huge change,” Horikoshi shared.

Readers will know the school’s traitor was first teased after the USJ incident, and the teachers were tasked with investigating their students while Principal Nezu did his own search in secret. The pros had no leads by the time the Training Camp arc got underway, and they were blindsided when the League of Villains ambushed the trip.

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If the reveal had gone down as planned, fans would have been informed about Aoyama’s true allegiance way earlier. The boy was certainly terrified of Dabi as he hid in the forest, but Aoyama did try to save his friends from afar. This selfless action helped ward theories about him being the traitor, but as My Hero Academia continued, fans couldn’t help but suspect the boy. Volume 34 contains the chapters which confirm Aoyama is the traitor. But despite his unsavory ties, the boy seems determined to help his classmates win against All For One as Aoyama never wanted to assist the villain.

What do you make of this behind-the-scenes update? Did you ever suspect My Hero Academia of shaking up things with Aoyama? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.