My Hero Academia‘s special panel at Jump Festa 2023’s Jump Super Stage screened a special message from the manga’s author Kohei Horikoshi, in which he talked about the series’ ending.

The author, who had stated at the previous Jump Festa that My Hero Academia manga will be ending in a year, said that his estimation turned out to be wrong, and that he was just a sweet summer child.

“At last year’s Jump Festa I wrote a letter saying that ‘if everything goes according to plan, the manga will be over in 1 year’. Well, 1 year has passed and the manga is not over yet. And that’s not because I slowed the pace the pace or stretched the story. I was just too innocent, a sweet summer child as sweet as Sato’s chiffon cake,” Horikoshi’s message read.

He however continued, saying that the ending of the manga is very close, with both heroes and villains giving their all to achieve their goals.

“My estimations are always wrong, but the finish line is indeed very close. Both heroes and villains are giving it their all to achieve their goals. And I’m going to keep doing my best, just like Deku, to the very end.”

The author also thanked fans for their support, stating that they were the reason he was able to keep working on the manga for eight long years. He compared the serialization of MHA to One For All while doing so.

“Some of my series have been canceled in the past, so I still have nightmares about it. I dream that Oonishi-san from the editorial department tells me ‘look, you have to end the story in 3 months’. Then my mind goes blank and I wake up. And the reason this terrible nightmare doesn’t come true is because of your support. The support from each and every one of you connects to each other and allows Deku and company to keep moving further and further. In a way, it’s as if the serialization itself is like One for All,” Horikoshi said.

At Jump Festa 2022, he had stated that Daiki Yamashita, the voice actor for Deku might have to read out a similar message about the manga’s impending ending if things don’t go smoothly, and events have transpired in exactly the same way.

My Hero Academia manga entered its final arc in March 2021.

My Hero Academia has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since July 2014, with its chapters collected into 36 tankōbon volumes as of October 2022.

The manga received a TV anime adaptation by Studio Bones. Its first season aired in Japan from April to June 2016, followed by a second season from April to September 2017, third season from April to September 2018, fourth season from October 2019 to April 2020, and a fifth season from March to September 2021.

The sixth season of the anime is currently airing.

It has also received three animated films, titled My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, and My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission respectively.

It is also receiving a live-action Hollywood film produced by Netflix and Legendary Pictures, with Shinsuke Sato taking the director’s chair.

MAL describes the plot of the manga as follows:

The appearance of “quirks,” newly discovered super powers, has been steadily increasing over the years, with 80 percent of humanity possessing various abilities from manipulation of elements to shapeshifting. This leaves the remainder of the world completely powerless, and Izuku Midoriya is one such individual.

Since he was a child, the ambitious middle schooler has wanted nothing more than to be a hero. Izuku’s unfair fate leaves him admiring heroes and taking notes on them whenever he can. But it seems that his persistence has borne some fruit: Izuku meets the number one hero and his personal idol, All Might. All Might’s quirk is a unique ability that can be inherited, and he has chosen Izuku to be his successor!

Enduring many months of grueling training, Izuku enrolls in UA High, a prestigious high school famous for its excellent hero training program, and this year’s freshmen look especially promising. With his bizarre but talented classmates and the looming threat of a villainous organization, Izuku will soon learn what it really means to be a hero.

As of January 2022, the manga had over 65 million copies in circulation worldwide.

The series has numerous spin-off manga, including My Hero Academia: Smash!!, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes and My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions.

Source: Twitter