After 8 amazing seasons and nearly 200 episodes, it looks like My Hero Academia’s anime is finally over. It’s been a thrill watching Deku and the rest of Class 1-A become some of the strongest characters in the franchise, fighting evil at every corner.
While the landmark series has finally reached its conclusion, series creator Kohei Horikoshi seems to have found his spiritual successor. There’s one manga series that has been dominating Shōnen Jump that even Horikoshi can’t seem to take his eyes off of.
This new series looks to be even darker and grittier than My Hero Academia, and if it gets animated, it might lead the newest generation of shōnen anime. Horikoshi is one of the most celebrated mangakas around, and he’s passed the torch directly to this highly anticipated series.
My Hero Academia Is an All-Time Great Series
My Hero Academia is undoubtedly one of the best shōnen series of the modern day. It’s going to go down in history as the premier anime about superheroes, just like how Naruto and One Piece are viewed as the best anime series about ninjas and pirates respectively.
My Hero Academia was always great, but the last few seasons took the franchise to another level. Watching Deku gain access to every Quirk in One For All was just as amazing as watching his character development, and there are few series in anime that could pull it off so well.
My Hero Academia was fun, powerful, and emotionally gripping. There aren’t many series that can marry so many different aspects as well as My Hero Academia did, and it will forever be regarded as an all-time great because of it.
After 8 Amazing Seasons, My Hero Academia Is Over
After 8 amazing seasons of top-tier animation, My Hero Academia is finally over. While there might be one more episode for the series, the anime as a whole is just about over. The anime adapted 430 chapters of the manga, leaving chapters 431 and 431.5, the two last chapters of the manga, up for a potential OVA.
The final season of My Hero Academia was absurdly good. It featured some of the best fights in anime history, and Bakugo might have cemented himself as one of the greatest deuteragonists in shōnen. The final season also did a great job of bringing a lot of the story together, creating a succinct ending for the stellar series.
My Hero Academia was often considered part of “The New Big Three”, next to Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen. These three series are some of the best shōnen ever, and they’re much darker than their predecessors. Now that My Hero Academia is officially over, however, fans are wondering what will come next.
Horikoshi seems to have his sights set on the next big shōnen series. In a recent interview, it seemed like the My Hero Academia creator might already know which series will dominate the next generation of shōnen.
Horikoshi Says That Kagurabachi Is Up Next
In a recent joint interview featuring both Kohei Horikoshi and the creator of Kagurabachi, Takeru Hokazono, Horikoshi had nothing but praise for Hokazono’s creation. Horikoshi spoke about the things that stood out to him in Kagurabachi, and it seemed like he had no shortage of compliments.
His camera work and use of black shading are outstanding. The moment that made me say, ‘You have to be kidding me,’ was the scene where Samura appears sensing the unsheathing of the enchanted blade. – Horikoshi on Kagurabachi
The interviewer asked Horikoshi what he would like to emulate regarding Hokazono’s techniques, and the My Hero Academia creator went into depth about how well Hokazono uses both camera work and black shading. Horikoshi also went on to say that Hokazono’s drawing is “Genius level” and that “It felt like a religious painting that conveys mythology through imagery alone.”
Horikoshi has sold over 100 million copies of manga, making these words high praise for the Kagurabachi creator. If there’s anyone who can predict which manga will be good, it’s Kohei Horikoshi, and it looks like Kagurabachi is up next in the shōnen genre.
Kagurabachi Will Dominate the Next Generation of Shōnen
Kagurabachi has so many things going for it that it almost feels too good to be true. The manga recently won the Next Manga Award, an award previously won by none other than Kohei Horikoshi and My Hero Academia. Series creator Takeru Hokazono is also only 25-years-old, an incredibly young age to be reaching such heights.
Kagurabachi has recently been nominated for both the 70th Shogakukan Manga Award and the 49th Kodansha Manga Award in the shōnen category, showing just how popular this series is becoming.
Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach were the original Big Three of shōnen, then came Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, and Jujutsu Kaisen. The New Big Three are much darker than their predecessors, and Kagurabachi might be even darker yet. If there’s one new series to bet on in the shonen genre, it’s undoubably Kagurabachi.
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- Movie(s)
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My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018), My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019), My Hero Academia: World Heroes’ Mission (2021)
- First Film
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My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)
- Cast
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Daiki Yamashita, Kenta Miyake, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Ayane Sakura, Yûki Kaji, Aoi Yuki, Kaito Ishikawa, Toshiki Masuda, Marina Inoue, Yoshimasa Hosoya
- TV Show(s)
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My Hero Academia
- Character(s)
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Izuku Midoriya, All Might, Katsuki Bakugo, Ochaco Uraraka, Shoto Todoroki, Tsuyu Asui, Tenya Iida, Eijiro Kirishima, Momo Yaoyorozu, Fumikage Tokoyami
- Video Game(s)
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My Hero Academia: Battle for All, My Hero One’s Justice, My Hero One’s Justice 2
My Hero Academia is a multimedia franchise that follows a young boy named Izuku Midoriya, who dreams of becoming a hero despite being born without superpowers. These superpowers, known as “Quirks” are found in most people after birth, but Izuku wasn’t so lucky – until a fateful encounter with All Might, Japan’s greatest hero, Izuku inherits his Quirk and enrolls in U.A. High School to learn the true meaning of heroism. Alongside his classmates, each endowed with unique abilities, Izuku faces rigorous training and lethal threats from villainous forces.
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- Created by
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Takeru Hokazono
- Character(s)
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Chihiro Rokuhira, Kunishige Rokuhira, Togo Shiba, Gaku Ichimonji, Ayame (Kagurabachi), Hikobe (Kagurabachi), Hifumi (Kagurabachi), Shinnosuke (Kagurabachi)
Kagurabachi is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takeru Hokazono. It began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Jump in September 2023. The story follows Chihiro Rokuhira, an 18-year-old aspiring swordsmith whose father, Kunishige Rokuhira, was a renowned blacksmith known for forging six enchanted blades instrumental in ending the Seitei War. After his father’s murder by a criminal gang of sorcerers called the Hishaku, who also stole the enchanted blades, Chihiro embarks on a path of vengeance to reclaim them. Armed with his father’s last enchanted blade, Enten, Chihiro confronts various adversaries, including the Hishaku and other antagonistic groups.
