My Hero Academia Unravels Hawks' Connection to Lionel Messi
My Hero Academia is seeing its heroes experience tragedy in both its anime adaptation and its manga, as the Paranormal Liberation War has ended on the small screen and the Final Arc continues in the manga. With the World Cup recently ending as well, an editor for the Shone superhero manga had dropped a bombshell when it came to how Lionel Messi was an inspiration for a certain number two hero who is struggling against the forces of All For One and Shigaraki.
My Hero Academia editor, Honyasan had an interview for the Fifth Anniversary Project in 2019, revealing that Hawks was inspired by the soccer star, documenting how Hawks was modeled from the legendary player:
"You might be familiar with the overseas soccer player Lionel Messi, but his backstory is that at a young age, he was scouted by Barcelona and joined. His father had lost his job and couldn't afford the home medical treatment Messi needed for his illness, but thanks to his talent for soccer, FC Barcelona agreed to cover the medical expenses for them. In exchange for receiving that money, Messi had to agree to live in Spain and only play soccer from a very young age."
Messi The Number One Soccer Hero
Honyasan continued, explaining how his love of the sport helped in creating the winged wonder who has played an essential role in both the sixth season's War Arc along with the Final Arc currently taking place in My Hero Academia's manga:
"During the World Cup, I told that story to Mr. Horikoshi. I love soccer and when Mr. Horiksohi found out he started putting on the World Cup whenever I was there waiting for the manuscript and such. While watching it, Mr. Horikoshi himself slowly started getting interested in soccer too, and when I told him about Messi, he told me he thought it was an interesting story. The next week, or maybe the week after that, Hawks' story was born. So it's kind of a modification, like he kind of wanted to make the other party seem a big bad, that kind of thing."
What do you think of the number two hero's football origins? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of UA Academy.