It may come as little surprise, but the creator of My Hero Academia is a geek through and through. Kohei Horikoshi is no stranger to geek culture thanks to his love of comics and Star Wars. In fact, some of his most popular characters were inspired by his favorite series growing up, and Gran Torino was no different.
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For some time, fans have long discussed Gran Torino and all of his quirks. The older man is who All Might first trained under after Nana Shimura was killed, and Gran Torino had no mercy. As an elderly man, the hero was asked to lead Izuku Midoriya with his quirk during a brief internship, and it was there fans felt a strong connection between Gran Torino and Yoda.
And as you would have it, their similarities were not a coincidence at all.
In a previous biography for Gran Torino, My Hero Academia‘s creator did address the character’s so-called Dagobah feel. “Some people will instantly recognize the Dagobah sensibility about him. For the teacher’s teacher, I had to go with this sort of gag-oriented guy,” the artist shared (via Gran Torino – Behind the Scenes (Colored) from r/BokuNoHeroAcademia
“I absolutely love the fusion of an old man with a simple/cliche superhero costume and the aforementioned Dagobah feel.”
If you need a refresher on the whole Dagobah mention, the location refers to a well-known planet in Star Wars. The area showed up in the original series after Yoda hid himself on Dagobah in exile after the Jedi were hunted into extinction. The place is where Luke Skywalker traveled to train under Yoda after his master Obi-Wan Kenobi died, so you can see how Gran Torino would relate to Yoda in some form. Aside from their mismatched skin colors, the only other thing separating the pair is how they speak, but even My Hero Academia fans can admit Yoda wins with his iconic brand of grammar.
Can you see the similarities between these two characters? 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 is gearing up for an even bigger end of 2019 with both a fourth season of the anime and second big anime film too.
