My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi is a big fan of Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Horikoshi's impressions of the movie were posted in publisher VIZ's latest round-up of author comments from famous Shonen Jump creators. The MHA creator's statement was solely focused on praising Peter Parker's dimension-twisting adventure, saying "I watched Spider-Man! I never thought my favorite movie of all time would change at my age."
Horikoshi has repeatedly professed his love for American superhero comics in past interviews. The artist has listed both DC and Marvel comics as a direct inspiration for his own series, and has even hidden references to heroes from both publishers within his manga. In 2021, Horikoshi specifically cited Dan Slott and Ryan Stegman's Superior Spider-Man as one of his favorites.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was released in Japan in January, where it briefly knocked Jujutsu Kaisen 0, the record-setting first movie in Gege Akutami's popular manga and anime series, out of the top spot at the box-office for a week. Peter Parker's latest theatrical adventure has been a massive commercial success around the globe, and is now on track to surpass the box-office earnings of James Cameron's Avatar. The movie was recently nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Visual Effects.
My Hero Academia's unique blend of Japanese aesthetics with western superhero influences has caused it to become one of the most successful manga series of all time, as it was recently revealed that the series has achieved a worldwide circulation of over 65 million copies. The series was originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2014 and has spawned numerous spinoff manga, several video game adaptations, and a hit TV anime that recently wrapped up its fifth season and is currently in production on its sixth. The franchise's third movie, World Heroes' Mission, was released worldwide in 2021 to the best box-office performance in the franchise's history.
Despite its continued popularity, the series is nearing its end, as Horikoshi announced at this year's Jump Festa convention that he is planning to conclude the manga's story sometime before the end of 2022, barring any unexpected hiatuses or other production delays. Prior to the official announcement, the manga had already begun wrapping up several long-running story threads, including revealing the identity of the traitor within UA High School and setting up plans for the heroes' final battle with the series' primary villain, the power-hungry All for One.
All five previous seasons of the My Hero Academia anime are available for streaming through Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll and Funimation. A sixth season is scheduled to premiere in late 2022. The first 30 volumes of the manga are currently available in English from publisher VIZ Media.
Source: VIZ
