Kohei Horikoshi Came up With My Hero Academia’s Most Well-Known Feature “To avoid making the story too dark”
Kohei Horikoshi, the creator of the popular manga series My Hero Academia, often explores dark themes in the story. We have seen many times in My Hero Academia, where Horikoshi sheds light on the dark stuff, whether it may be in the Dark Hero (Vigilante Deku) arc or the aftermath of Jaku City, where civilians were struggling with despair and committing suicide.
Even though Horikoshi explores dark themes in My Hero Academia, he tones down the storyline by adding heroism and the element of friendship to it. He makes a perfect balance between these two themes that every shonen lover likes to read. He even talked about this in one of his interviews.
Kohei Horikoshi Speaks About How He Keeps My Hero Academia from Getting Darker
In an interview, Kohei Horikoshi shared that the victories in his characters’ storylines aren’t straight. He worries that the story could become darker over time as he continues drawing like that. Horikoshi explains that his own personality helps him explore deeper themes.
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According to Horikoshi, the main story centers around Izuku and All Might. Their story is the core focus or the “vertical axis” of the plot. Unlike typical hero stories, their journey is not filled with only victories. All Might getting weaker and Izuku getting regular injuries, adds challenges to their life, making their story more relatable to others.
Horikoshi uses a strategy to keep My Hero Academia from becoming too dark. He adds a “horizontal axis” that includes the fun and unique features of the characters, known as Quirks, which balances out the “vertical axis” darker aspects of the story and makes it more enjoyable for the readers.
“This series is the story of Izuku and All Might, and I plan to make their story the main focus of the plot line, and the “vertical axis” that runs through the main story. It’s actually not a really glorious story at all, as All Might grows weaker every day and Izuku gets injured every now and then. Even the victories in the story for the protagonists aren’t won straightforward and simple. If I keep drawing the story involving these two characters, I feel like the story would get darker and darker as time goes on.
My own personality has the tendency to compel me to keep delving deeper and deeper into that. To avoid making the story too dark, I set up a “horizontal axis” to intersect the main story’s “vertical axis”, which is the “fun part”, also known as the Quirks to the heroes of the story, or side character characteristics. With the “horizontal axis”, it sort of mellows out the darker aspects of the “vertical axis”, so “enjoying the horizontal axis” is something that I insist upon, which is something that I watch out for. If I can make myself happier while drawing, then the story would seem that much brighter.”
Horikoshi has his own way of maintaining a good balance between depth and enjoyment. This helps him to keep the story on track.
However, many fans would have loved to see the story taking a dark turn since the Dark Hero arc and Paranormal Liberation War Arc are still some of the best arcs in My Hero Academia, even though for a short time.
You can read My Hero Academia manga on Viz and Mangaplus.
