My Hero Academia Creator Admits He “Competes” With the Anime

My Hero Academia’s manga is gearing up for its grand finale in just a few more weeks, and the creator opened up about the kind of competition he’s sparked with the anime! My Hero Academia has been making its way through a special epilogue arc following the end of the final fights with the villains, and the anime itself has been kicking off these final battles in full. This means both the anime and manga are basically working through the same material for the first time in a while, and even the creator feels the pressure of it all from time to time. 

With My Hero Academia’s manga coming to an end later this Summer, series creator Kohei Horikoshi opened up about some of the series’ highlights in a special interview with Da Vinci magazine (as spotted by @shibuyasmash on X) where he had admitted that he has a sense of competition with the anime because while the team continues to make it better than what was seen in the manga as he instructed, he also explains that he also challenges himself to do something only the manga can instead. 

How My Hero Academia’s Creator Competes With the Manga

“When I watch the anime, I feel like I don’t want to lose to it,” Horikoshi begins. “I tell the anime staff that I want them to make the anime even more amazing than the manga, but when they succeed I regret it. I try to compete with the anime in a way, doing stuff it can never do, challenging myself to create something powerful in a way that can only be done with manga. But that means I spend even more time on my drafts and drawing details, and it’s gotten more and more difficult.” 

But there won’t be too much competing for too much longer as My Hero Academia’s manga will be coming to an end on August 5th in Japan. The anime, meanwhile, will be streaming through the rest of the Summer when Part 2 of Season 7 kicks in just a little under a week from the time of this publication. If you wanted to catch up with My Hero Academia‘s manga, you can find the latest chapters with Viz Media’s digital Shonen Jump magazine or Shueisha’s MangaPlus service. For the anime, you can find it streaming with Crunchyroll, Hulu, and more.