'My Hero Academia' Hits Big New Sales Milestone

Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia has quickly become one of the most popular series to come out of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump in the last few years, and now its sales hit a huge milestone worthy of the popular phenomenon.

The official Twitter account for the series has revealed that the My Hero Academia manga has now crossed over 16 million volumes sold in Japan.

『僕のヒーローアカデミア』原作コミックス@myheroacademia のシリーズ累計発行部数が1600万部を突破!! 堀越耕平先生@horikoshiko おめでとうございます!!
原作も、TVアニメも、そして劇場版も、更に向こうへ! Plus Ultra!!#ヒロアカ #heroaca_a #最新20巻は9月4日発売 pic.twitter.com/hYBQmuwolx

— 僕のヒーローアカデミア_アニメ公式 (@heroaca_anime) August 7, 2018

There are currently 19 volumes of the manga available in Japan, with Volume 14 now available for purchase in the U.S. (with Volume 15 following in October). It's no mystery why the series has become such a hit in the last few years as fans have quickly grown attached to the series' lead Izuku Midoriya, the extended cast of heroes and villains, Horikoshi's strong character design, and the pacing of the story beats.

This fervor for the series has only increased since the anime adaptation premiered in 2016, which helped its popularity boom in the United States as well. The world wide popularity took Horikoshi by surprise recently as well. When the creator arrived to celebrate the series with fans during San Diego Comic-Con 2018, he did note that he felt a certain pressure given the series' popularity.

But fans in the U.S. have been nothing but supportive as the series quickly filled the attendance halls during the My Hero Academia panels, and essentially had the most popular of the panels among the superhero comics that normally get time on the big stage.

The success of the series comes from Horikoshi's ability to blend both superhero comic sensibilities with the powerful manga editing usually found in the pages of Shueisha's magazines. Rather than feelings like Horikoshi was taking elements or inspiration, the series instead creates an entirely unique world that easily draws fans and interested onlookers in.

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 super powers but 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 collected into 19 volumes so far, and has been licensed by Viz Media for an English language release since 2015.