My Hero Academia: How Much Longer Will the Manga Last?

How much longer will My Hero Academia‘s manga last – or maybe the better question is, how
long can it last? Fans of My Hero Academia are once again plagued by that question, following the climax of the manga’s latest arc. America’s No. 1 hero Star and Stripe came to help defend Japan from the ultimate villain that is the fusion of Tomura Shigaraki and his mentor All For One. That pivotal battle has left My Hero Academia‘s at something of a crossroads: fans are now wondering if a filler arc is to follow – or perhaps the final battle! 

(WARNING: My Hero Academia manga SPOILERS Follow!) 

It was revealed that Star and Stripe’s god-like quirk of New Order had been one of All For One’s key targets for his master plan of world domination – which would allow the villain to rewrite reality itself. Even though AFO Shigaraki ultimately got the upper hand and snatched Star and Stripe’s New Order quirk, the American hero managed to turn the tables in her last moments. A rewrite rule of New Order made it the ultimate poison for a being like All For One, causing war against the other quirks the archvillain had stolen and stockpiled over the decades. In the end, the battle was a stalemate: Star and Stripe died, but New Order was taken off the board altogether, and AFO Shigaraki was left de-powered and in need of additional rest for his power boost (about a week longer).  

So where do things go from here? 

Over on Reddit, My Hero Academia fan polls seem to indicate that fans want creator Kohei Horikoshi to slow down the pace of the story a bit. That may seem like a hard brake to pull at this point, as so many of the principal characters (Izuku Midoriya, All Might, All For One, Tomura Shigaraki, Bakugo, Dabi, Endeavor, Shoto Todoroki) have been powered-up (or down) to balanced levels, and positioned on the chessboard to face each other in the ultimate final fight. And if you’ve been following the deeper themes and character arcs of My Hero Academia, it indeed seems like we’re approaching the end.

…Or are we?

Other fans (like the one who started this epic Twitter thread above) point out the sheer number of dangling subplots, character arcs, mysteries, and small logistical steps to go before the final battle can be fought, and a full, fulfilling ending to My Hero Academia can be reached: 

it’s very true that My Hero Academia‘s manga could go right into one big final battle arc from here. The next chapters have to simply pick up from a week down the line, when AFO Shigaraki emerges from his healing/power boost process, ready to fight with whatever quirks he has left. While the thread above makes some good points about how we could still see filler material like how Class 1-A/League of Villains get suited and armed up for the final battle – but then again, that kind of information doesn’t have to be explained in a linear fashion. Kohei Horikoshi has repeatedly relied on the narrative technique of cutting away from a present fight or battle to reveal background and/or contextual information about the fight or its fighters, through flashbacks. My Hero Academia could easily start its final battle and spend a long stretch of chapters slowly progressing the main action while padding it with background filler (see: the War Arc). 

The same idea goes for individual character arcs that are (seemingly) still unresolved. The War Arc was a testing ground for how Horikoshi stages a massive battle between heroes and villains, and that got handled by cutting the action up into smaller battles and character interactions and having the outcome of the war determined by the sum of those parts. We should probably expect that the final battle in My Hero Academia will be no different, with characters like the Todoroki family getting entire sub-arcs housed under the larger main fight. 

That’s our take – do you think My Hero Academia will be ending soon? Read the latest manga chapter FREE online.