Kohei Horikoshi

Kohei Horikoshi, born November 20, 1986, is a Japanese manga artist known for creating the manga series My Hero Academia.

Biography#

A mangaka from Aichi Prefecture, Kohei Horikoshi is a graduate of the Nagoya University of Arts. He was a former assistant for Yasuki Tanaka, creator, and author of the manga series Hitomi no Catoblepas and Kagijin.

Horikoshi's favorite manga series include Naruto (series), Dragon_Ball_(manga), One Piece (Manga), and Akira_(manga). In a farewell bid upon the conclusion of the former, Horikoshi referred to it as the greatest shonen manga ever, as Naruto made up his childhood and was one of the primary inspirations behind My Hero Academia. In turn, upon the release of the My Hero Academia anime, Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto congratulated Horikoshi in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Works#

Oneshots#

Title Issue Pages

Anthology Issue Number and Year Release Date

Tenko
(テンコ) Akamaru Jump Summer, 2007^[1] September 25, 2007 47

My Hero]]''
(僕のヒーロー Boku no Hīrō) Akamaru Jump Winter, 2008^[2] February 8, 2008 47

Shinka Rhapsody
(進化ラプソディ Shinka Rapusodi) Akamaru Jump Summer, 2008^[3] September 25, 2008 49

Oumagadoki Zoo
(逢魔ヶ刻動物園 Ōmagadoki Dōbutsuen) Weekly Shonen Jump 2, 2010^[4] December 14, 2009 47

senseinobulge|Uchū Shōnen Bulge|Space Shonen Bulge}}''
(宇宙少年バルジ Uchū Shōnen Baruji) Jump NEXT! Summer, 2011^[5] August 12, 2011 49

Quit Laughing, Shijima
(笑わないでよしじまさん Warawanaideyo Shijima San) Weekly Shonen Jump Summer, 2026^[6] August 9, 2026 61

Serials#

Title Anthology First Issue Last Issue Span

Chapters Volumes

Oumagadoki Zoo}}''
(逢魔ヶ刻動物園 Ōmagadoki Dōbutsuen) Weekly Shonen Jump 32, 2010
July 12, 2010 19, 2011
April 18, 2011 37 5

Barrage (manga)|Barrage}}''
(戦星のバルジ Sensei no Baruji) Weekly Shonen Jump 25, 2012
May 21, 2012 41, 2012
September 10, 2012 16 2

My Hero Academia]]''
(僕のヒーローアカデミア Boku no Hīrō Akademia) Weekly Shonen Jump 32, 2014
July 7, 2014 36-37, 2024
August 5, 2024 430 42

Mentors#

Yasuki Tanaka (Hitomi no Catoblepas, Kagijin)

Assistants#

Shingo Sasai
Yoco Akiyama (Volume 1 to present)
Hirofumi Neda (Volume 1 to Volume 6; Left to focus on his spin-off manga in Jump)
Takuo Nagoya
Hiroyuki Fujiya
Kazuhiro Watanabe
Mitsuo Yuzawa
Ryu Horie (Volume 1 to Volume 6)
Ippei Watanabe
Keisuke Ikeda
Fujiya Hiroyumi
Rin Matsui

Editors#

Koike (Horikoshi's Editor, One-Shot - Volume 1)
Monji (Horikoshi's Editor, Volume 1 - Volume 18)
Yoritomi (Horikoshi's Editor, Volume 19 - Volume 29)
Taguchi (Horikoshi's Editor, Volume 30 - Volume 36)
Imamura (Horikoshi's Editor, Volume 36 - Volume 42)

Sketches#

<tabber> Chapters=

</tabber>

Author's Notes#

The collection of Kohei Horikoshi's Notes of My Hero Academia: Author's Notes.

Trivia#

According to an interview with Horikoshi in Volume Rising:^[7]
He was inspired to become a mangaka from drawing in his childhood and his mother liking his artwork. Horikoshi loves drawing as a hobby, but didn't take his career into serious consideration until high school.
He drew his first ever manga at university, which received an honorable mention in a Tezuka Award.
His editor believed that his My Hero one-shot was his best work, inspiring him to rewrite it into a series. He also decided that the initial protagonist, Jack Midoriya, being a businessman wouldn't work very well, leading him to make it a school series.
Horikoshi writes his characters with many complexes, reflecting on his own self-esteem issues. When he started writing My Hero Academia, he believed that it would be his last chance to write a manga series, and this led to many of his characters having comeback arcs.
Horikoshi struggles with drawing every character in his series, with it being a physical effort on his end due to how many there are. To help make his characters easily distinguishable, Horikoshi tries designs that he's never done before, changes drawing styles, and adds little decorations to make them stand out.
Horikoshi initially struggled to believe how popular My Hero Academia had become overseas until he attended Comic Con in America, meeting many of his fans face to face, including a woman cosplaying as Mt. Lady, inspiring him to work on his series even harder.
In November of 2014, Horikoshi asked his followers on Twitter to think of ideas for new Quirks and send them to him. He then goes on to say he might turn that Quirk into a real hero and announce it at Jump Fiesta 2015.
Horikoshi's favorite character to play in My Hero One's Justice 2 is Twice.^[8]
On May 29th, 2018 it was announced that Horikoshi would be attending San Diego Comic-Con International. This was his first trip to the United States, and his first trip outside of Japan.
Horikoshi 's rankings in the Popularity Polls are as follows:
In the first Popularity Poll, Horikoshi ranked 17th.
In the fifth Popularity Poll, Horikoshi's hand ranked 35th.
In the sixth Popularity Poll, Horikoshi ranked 39th.
According to the Ultra Age fanbook:
Horikoshi loves all his characters and rarely prioritized his own preferences when deciding how much screen time they got. However, he was really pleased by the major role he gave Fumikage Tokoyami in the Final War.
Out of all story elements, Horikoshi loves seeing characters stand up and continue to fight even after being utterly beaten, being inspired by Dragon Ball Z as a child, specifically seeing Goku with his martial arts gi always torn from battle.
Volume 35 of the manga is the most memorable to Horikoshi, having worked hard to make it look really cool.
As My Hero Academia continued, Horikoshi felt pressured to live up to the expectations of all the readers, saying that this drive motivated him to continue drawing, even when it led him astray. He says that it got very tough for him at times and even took a physical toll, but believes it was a fun journey regardless.
Horikoshi loved drinking Suntory Craft Boss while working on his series' manuscript and would drink up to five to seven bottles a day. He has since cut back after drinking it in abundance and urges others not to copy him.
He advises aspiring mangaka to simply keep working, while also saying that perceiving his characters as actual people really helped him draw them better.
Horikoshi's typical day involved waking up, then heading straight to his desk to think before getting to work. If he couldn't think of anything, he would either take a nap or find something else to do before going back to his desk and resuming.
Horikoshi either slept or played games on his days off.
Horikoshi says that for him, the highlight of My Hero Academia was seeing the survey results of Chapter 2, believing that a second chapter helps tell how a manga series will start off and was really excited to see positive results compared to his previous two series.
Horikoshi was a guest artist in Chapter 10 of the Shonen Jump/Marvel collaboration, Deadpool: Samurai, which featured a cameo appearance from All Might, through both reused and original art from Horikoshi.
Horikoshi decorates his studio with various figurines of Marvel Comics and Hollywood films such as Star Wars franchise, and kaiju from Gamera and Godzilla franchises.^[9]
Horikoshi's favorite scene in the anime adaptation was Shoto's first use of his left side in Episode 23. He believes it surpassed his own depiction of the event, and it greatly motivated him to rise to the show's standards when working on the manga.^[10]

External links#

Kohei Horikoshi (Twitter)

Birthday	November 20, 1986
Age	39
Occupation	Mangaka
Affiliation	Weekly Shonen Jump
Gender	Male
Birthplace	Aichi Prefecture, Japan