Did My Hero Academia Just Make A JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Reference?

My Hero Academia is unique among some other Shonen stories in that it has a number of spin-off stories that are being released on a steady clip. With Vigilantes, we are given not just a look at some new heroes as they take a different path to protecting their city, but also a more in-depth look into the past of some of the franchise's most well known, older characters. Such is the case with Aizawa, Eraserhead, and Midnight as they attempt to find their way into becoming heroes themselves. One new hero introduction may just reference a certain Bizarre franchise itself with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure finding a way into the popular manga story.

As the recent chapters have followed Aizawa's attempts at excelling during his time as a student at UA Academy, our latest entry sees "Team Purple Revolution" attempting to stop a villain who looks shockingly like Dragon Ball Z's Majin Buu, even going so far as to release steam from tiny holes along his body. With the trio of Eraserhead, Midnight, and Loud Cloud doing their best to stop the villain in his tracks, they unfortunately are undone but not before their leader, His Purple Highness hits the scene.

Clearly a knock off of "Prince", His Purple Highness strikes a series of poses that are amazingly reminiscent of those often found in the JoJo franchise as he attempts to give the young Eraserhead some much needed expertise. Being told to smile more and not wear a "gloomy face", Aizawa decided to instead add a new tool to his heroing: a set of goggles. As you may know, these goggles become a permanent part of Eraserhead's superhero attire.

The goggles in general allow Eraserhead to blow past the smoke coming his way from the "Buu" style villain, leading into a final blow delivered by Loud Cloud. Needless to say, this particular chapter seemed to be fit to bursting with references from other popular anime franchises!

Do you think His Purple Highness is a clever wink to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and UA Academy!

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.