My Hero Academia
After garnering millions of viewers and fans in Japan after its original release in 2014, "My Hero Academia" immediately established a strong following among American anime enthusiasts. The series is often lauded for its vibrant, multi-layered group of characters and the very well-crafted plot storylines that Kohei Horikoshi tends to elevate with the arrival of new, deadly antagonists. With the announcement of a highly anticipated video game, the third season premiering Saturday, a spin-off series presently in production, and a film arriving in Japan and America, the series' enthusiasm shows no sign of abating.
"My Hero Academia" is set in the future where most citizens have obtained superhuman abilities known as "quirks." Superheroes became the norm by fully embracing these abilities, defending citizens against those seeking to use their eccentricities for evil.
Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, the series' protagonist, is given birth without a quirk, yet he aspires to be the world's greatest hero.
It's no accident that this narrative has a strong resemblance to Marvel's "X-Men" comics, given that the series' creator leaned extensively on conventional comics. Rather than spouting a slightly tweaked version of the famous comic, Horikoshi developed a unique manga that many people rate higher than the DC and Marvel books. The anime adaptation of the manga gained popular attention after The New York Times named it one of the year's greatest television series.
Year of Release: 2014
Author: Kohei Horikoshi
2021 Sales: ~7.02M copies
