Kohei Horikoshi

Kohei Horikoshi (born November 20, 1986) is a Japanese manga artist from Aichi Prefecture, best known as the creator of My Hero Academia. He attended Toho High School and Nagoya University of Arts, where he studied illustration. In 2006, his one-shot Nukegara received an honorable mention in Shueisha's Tezuka Award, a major prize for new manga talent. That recognition helped establish his connection with Shueisha, the publisher that would later serialize his best-known work in its flagship magazine. His career also shows his preference for tightly designed fantasy settings and energetic action, elements he would develop on a larger scale. His first serialized series, Oumagadoki Zoo, ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2010 to 2011. Its protagonist, Hana Aoi, takes a job at a zoo whose animals can assume human forms; the facility is led by Shiina, a rabbit-headed caretaker. Horikoshi next created Barrage, serialized in the same magazine in 2012. That science-fiction adventure centers on Astro, a boy who is mistaken for the missing prince of a planet and inherits the prince's position and weapon. Both series ended relatively quickly, but they gave Horikoshi experience working under Weekly Shonen Jump's demanding serial schedule before his defining superhero epic began. My Hero Academia began in Weekly Shonen Jump on July 7, 2014, and concluded on August 5, 2024, after 430 chapters. The story is set in a society where most people possess superhuman “Quirks.” Izuku Midoriya, born without one, nevertheless wants to become a hero. After meeting Japan's leading hero, All Might, Izuku receives the transferable power One For All and enters U.A. High School. There, he trains alongside classmates including Katsuki Bakugo and Shoto Todoroki while confronting villains such as Tomura Shigaraki and All For One. Horikoshi has used superhero comics as an important influence, especially Marvel's Spider-Man stories. The series became a global commercial success and was adapted by studio Bones into a television anime that premiered in 2016. Its animated franchise expanded through theatrical films, including My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018), Heroes: Rising (2019), and World Heroes' Mission (2021). Horikoshi remained credited for the original work and character designs on those films. In April 2024, Shueisha announced that the manga had exceeded 100 million copies in circulation worldwide, including digital editions. My Hero Academia also won the 2019 Harvey Award for Best Manga. After ending the main serialization, Horikoshi returned to its world with a 2024 epilogue.