My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 2014 to August 2024, with its chapters collected in 42 volumes. Set in a world where superpowers have become commonplace, the story follows Izuku Midoriya, a boy who was born without a Quirk but still dreams of becoming a superhero himself. He is scouted by the world's greatest hero, All Might, who bestows his Quirk to Midoriya after recognizing his potential, and helps to enroll him in a prestigious high school for superheroes in training.
The manga spawned a media franchise, leading to numerous spin-off manga, such as My Hero Academia: Smash!!, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions. The series has also been expanded into light novels, stage plays, and various types of merchandise and media, including numerous video games. It has been adapted into an anime television series produced by Bones, which aired for eight seasons from April 2016 to December 2025. It has also spawned four animated films, subtitled Two Heroes, Heroes Rising, World Heroes' Mission, and You're Next, as well as ten original video animations and an upcoming television special that adapts a bonus chapter from the final volume of the manga. A live-action film by Legendary Entertainment is in development.
My Hero Academia became a commercial success and has appeared on The New York Times best-seller list several times. By April 2024, the manga had over 100 million copies in circulation, including sales of spin-offs, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The series received praise for its art, characters, storytelling, action scenes, and its pop culture references to Western superhero comics. It has won several awards, including the Sugoi Japan Award and Harvey Award for Best Manga, and is considered one of the best of the 2010s.
Synopsis
Setting
My Hero Academia is set in a world where about 80% of the human population has gained superpowers called as a result of recent human evolution. Quirks vary widely and have the possibility of being genetically inherited, with the series' focal Quirk "One for All" being the only one that can be passed on without heritage. Most Quirks are generally small in scale, but some exhibit near god-like ability. Almost every Quirk has some sort of physical drawback, whether it be a usage limit or self-injury. Some Quirks also cause physical mutations to a person's body. Known as Mutants, people with these Quirks face discrimination and are given the pejorative "heteromorphs". The 20% of the population without Quirks, known as "Quirkless", also tend to get this treatment, albeit less severely. Quirks will generally manifest in an individual just after their toddler years.As Quirks became dominant among the population, society melded around their existence and largely commodified around them. Although the first case of a Quirk was in China, in the following years Japan emerged as the country with by far the highest percentage of Quirk population and strength, using this influence to become a superpower country. Despite this, other countries such as the United States also have heavy Quirk populations and influence.
Among the Quirk-enhanced individuals, a few of them earn the title of Heroes, who cooperate with authorities in rescue operations and apprehending criminals who abuse their Quirks, commonly known as Villains. Heroes work out of Hero Agencies, which serves as their base of operations and a means for them to operate a business from their heroics. There are two different kinds of Hero Agency structures: one in which there is a single Hero owning the agency who also employs lower-level heroes called Sidekicks, and another in which a group of heroes will own an agency together as a team. In addition, Heroes who excel in their duties gain celebrity status and are recognized as. Heroes are ranked in popularity via the Hero Billboard Charts, with higher ranking heroes receiving public appeal, although it is not uncommon for novice heroes to gain popularity as well.
Pro Heroes begin their initial training in high school, of which U.A. High School in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan is considered by far the most prestigious. In addition to regular schooling, students are taught different forms of hero training such as combat and rescue operations, as well as how to meld their individual skills and overcome their drawbacks. Companies will also sponsor the students, mainly by constructing, repairing, and remodeling superhero suits for them. They also take part in events to show their skills to the public, such as sports festivals and cultural festivals. These events also serve as a way for Pro Heroes to scout students to intern for them. While initially forbidden from heroic work, students will eventually partake in the Provisional Hero License Exam, which gives them a temporary amateur Hero License before they become fully registered.
There are two types of internships that offer the opportunity to become a Pro Hero. The first type is the Hero Agency Internship in which the Pro Heroes can send a request to students that wish to work under them, such as in the aftermath of the Sports Festival. It involves a student shadowing a Pro Hero, listening to their advice, and watching them in action for a week. The second type is the Hero Work-Study, where, after a student acquires a Hero License, they can apply to function as real sidekicks. This also allows them to gain experience and can help them get noticed by other Pro Heroes who might hire them as full-time sidekicks once they graduate.
Initially the people who volunteered to do their heroic duties without permission were recognized as. Students who have acted as vigilantes are not allowed to work as heroes due to Quirk restriction laws managed by the Hero Public Safety Commission. While the act of vigilantism is inherently illegal, the vigilantes themselves represent a moral gray area. The Hero Public Safety Commission originally enlisted vigilantes to do their dirty work until they became too organized for the vigilantes to properly deal with, so they abandoned the idea and instead focused on recruiting Pro Heroes. Some vigilantes wear costumes, but since they do not have access to support companies like heroes do, they are made out of regular clothes and everyday items.
Plot
is a Quirkless boy who, despite his lack of powers, dreams of becoming a Hero and attending U.A. High School, idolizing Japan's No. 1 Hero, All Might who also attended U.A. He is frequently picked on by others for this, particularly his childhood friend Katsuki Bakugo. One day, All Might witnesses Deku attempt to save Bakugo from a villain, making him choose Deku to inherit his Quirk "One For All"—which gives him the ability to stockpile his raw power and pass it on to others—and become his successor. All Might was severely injured by his arch-nemesis All For One, whose Quirk allows him to steal other Quirks for his use and pass them over to others at his will. After nearly a year of physical training, Deku inherits One For All and passes the entrance exam to U.A. by saving Ochaco Uraraka. Deku, Ochaco, and Bakugo are among the twenty students placed in Class 1-A, where Deku's tenacity earns him several friends. During one of their classes, Class 1-A encounters the League of Villains, led by All For One's apprentice Tomura Shigaraki. Shigaraki attempts to use an artificial being called a Nomu to kill All Might, but All Might overpowers it.Class 1-A takes part in a sports festival with the rest of their grade. During this, Deku helps his classmate Shoto Todoroki move on from his resentment of his father–the No. 2 Hero Endeavor–for mistreating him and his family. As the sports festival ends, 1-A's Class Representative Tenya Ida's older brother is crippled by Stain, a villain who believes most heroes only desire fame. As the U.A. students go on their Hero Agency internships, Ida finds Stain and attempts to get revenge, though Stain is ultimately defeated by Deku and Todoroki. Stain's ideology spreads, and many of his believers join the League of Villains, including Dabi, Himiko Toga, and Twice. After the class finishes final exams, the League of Villains' recruits ambush Classes 1-A and 1-B while they are training at a summer camp, and kidnap Bakugo in the hopes of recruiting him. All Might leads several heroes in locating the League of Villains' hideout, where All For One reveals himself. Deku and some of his friends rescue Bakugo as All Might battles All For One. All For One is defeated and imprisoned, but All Might exhausts the last of One For All's power and retires. Endeavor, now the No. 1 Hero, is humbled by his added responsibility and begins trying to make amends with his family.
The class partakes in their Provisional Hero License Exam, which Todoroki and Bakugo fail and take remedial courses handling children with powerful Quirks. Afterwards, Class 1-A meets with the "Big Three", U.A. High School's top-ranked seniors who select a few Class 1-A students to join them as interns; one of the Big Three, Mirio Togata selects Deku to join his internship with All Might's former sidekick Sir Nighteye. Nighteye's team comes into conflict with the Shie Hassaikai, a yakuza group formerly allied with the League of Villains who are experimenting on their boss's granddaughter Eri to produce Quirk-Destroying Drugs. Nighteye leads his agency, alongside those of the other Big Three, in a raid to save Eri, during which Nighteye is killed and Mirio is de-powered. Eri is taken in by the U.A. staff, and Class 1-A performs a rock concert for her during the school culture festival. During a battle exercise with Class 1-B, Deku begins to awaken all of the Quirks used by the previous users of One For All. He eventually continues his internship under Endeavor, alongside Bakugo and Todoroki.
The League of Villains defeats and merges with another villain group, the Meta Liberation Army, forming the Paranormal Liberation Front. A war ensues between the Paranormal Liberation Front and the pro and training heroes; Twice is killed by the new No. 2 hero Hawks, but most of the remaining top members escape, including Shigaraki, who now inherits All For One's Quirk and is possessed by him. Mirio is re-powered by Eri, and joins the heroes partway through the war. Ochaco develops sympathy for Toga after the latter interrogates her about Twice's death. Dabi reveals himself as the presumed-dead son of Endeavor, whose abuse led him to villainy, which in combination with the collateral damage of the war, shatters the public's trust in heroes. Thousands of imprisoned Villains break out, including the original All For One, causing Japan to descend into chaos. Believing his classmates are no longer be safe, Deku reveals One for All and leaves U.A. to hunt for All For One with Japan's top heroes. However, this leads Deku to physical ruin, and his classmates intervene to bring him back to U.A., which is now a refugee camp. Civilians protest Deku's return until Ochaco pleads to them that heroes need protection too.
After Deku recovers, Class 1-A student Yuga Aoyama is discovered to be a double agent for All For One and the one responsible for the first two League of Villains attacks. After reconciling with his class, the Heroes uses Aoyama's connection to lure the Paranormal Liberation Front into a trap that scatters them across the country for the remaining members to be defeated by the heroes. Toga transforms into Twice using her Quirk with Twice's blood and she nearly kills Ochaco, but the two girls come to an understanding and Toga dies saving Ochaco's life through a fatal blood transfusion. The Todoroki family subdues Dabi after preventing his suicidal final attack. All For One attempts to reach Shigaraki's location but is stalled by many heroes, including All Might using a powered exoskeleton, as well as a handful of reformed Villains. All for One's original body is destroyed by Bakugo, causing Shigaraki to briefly regain control of his body as he battles Deku, before being repossessed. Unable to defeat Shigaraki physically, Deku forcefully transfers One For All during Shigaraki's brief moment of control to damage him from within. Deku, aided by hero reinforcements, strikes the killing blow on both All For One and Shigaraki.
Eight years later, Deku's One For All has completely faded, rendering him Quirkless once again. He is now a hero course teacher at U.A, while his former classmates work as pro heroes or sidekicks. All Might gifts Deku a powered suit that replicates his old quirks, funded by both his former classmates and All Might's old colleagues, which he uses to return to hero work while continuing to teach at U.A. In the following months, Deku enters a relationship with Ochaco and becomes the No. 4 Hero.