Kohei Horikoshi finally did it. After ten years of quirk-filled chaos, the My Hero Academia manga wrapped up its run in Weekly Shonen Jump, and honestly, the internet hasn’t been this stressed out since the final season of Game of Thrones. It’s rare for a series to sustain such a massive global footprint for a decade. We watched Izuku Midoriya go from a crying kid with no powers to the greatest hero in the world—sorta.
That "sorta" is where the drama starts.
If you’ve been following the My Hero Academia manga since those early 2014 chapters, you know the vibe was always about "becoming" something. The central hook was the narration: "This is the story of how I became the greatest hero." But the final chapter, Chapter 430, took a sharp turn into reality that many fans didn't see coming. It wasn't just a victory lap. It was a look at the quiet, sometimes lonely life of a person who gave everything away.
The Final Arc Was a Total Fever Dream
Let’s talk about the pacing. Toward the end, Horikoshi was clearly pushing his body to the limit, often taking breaks for health reasons, and you can see that intensity in the art. The Final War arc was massive. It lasted over 80 chapters. That’s nearly two years of real-world time dedicated to one single afternoon in the story's timeline.
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Some people hated how long it took. Others loved the granularity. We got to see characters like Shoji and Koda get actual development regarding the "Mutant" discrimination subplot—a piece of world-building that felt a bit rushed earlier on but hit hard during the hospital siege. The scale was absurd. You had Shigaraki turning entire cities into dust while Bakugo was literally having his heart repaired by Edgeshot turning into a surgical thread. It was peak shonen absurdity, but with a level of visceral, body-horror art that Horikoshi excels at.
Seriously, look at the panels of Shigaraki’s transformations. The guy looks like a nightmare birthed from a Cronenberg movie. It’s easy to forget this started as a school comedy.
Deku Without One For All: The Big Controversy
The biggest sticking point for the My Hero Academia manga community is how Deku ended up. After the dust settled and the embers of One For All faded, Midoriya became a teacher at U.A. High. For eight years, he lived a relatively normal life while his friends—Bakugo, Ochaco, Shoto—climbed the hero rankings.
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It feels realistic. It also feels kind of depressing.
Critics argue that after saving the entire world, Deku shouldn't have been relegated to a "desk job" while his classmates got the glory. But that misses the point Horikoshi was trying to make. The manga was never just about punching the bad guy; it was about the "reach." The final chapters emphasize that being a hero isn't just about Quirks. It’s about the kid who reaches out to the person crying. By becoming a teacher, Deku is fostering the next generation of heroes. It’s poetic. It’s just not the "superpowered god" ending people expected.
Then there's the suit. The very last pages show All Might giving Deku a mechanized suit—funded by Class A—that allows him to be a hero again. It’s a total Iron Man moment. Some fans felt this cheapened the sacrifice, but others saw it as the ultimate "thank you" from the people he saved.
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What Horikoshi Got Right (And Wrong)
Horikoshi is a master of character design. Every single hero in the My Hero Academia manga has a silhouette you can recognize instantly. That’s a rare skill. He also managed to make the villains deeply sympathetic without making them "good." Shigaraki, Toga, and Dabi were victims of a society that didn't have a place for them.
- The Good: The emotional payoff for the Todoroki family. Seeing Endeavor face his sins wasn't a quick redemption. It was a slow, painful acknowledgment of abuse that didn't end in a happy hug. It was messy. It was real.
- The Bad: The female cast often felt sidelined during the final stretch. Ochaco Uraraka had a phenomenal moment with Toga, but beyond that, characters like Momo or Tsuyu didn't get the "main character" treatment many hoped for.
- The Weird: The foreign heroes. Stars and Stripes appeared, looked incredibly cool, displayed a Quirk that basically rewrote reality, and then died within a few chapters. It felt like a plot device to nerf Shigaraki rather than a natural part of the world.
The Legacy of the My Hero Academia Manga
This series defined the "Superpower" era of manga. It took Western comic book tropes and filtered them through a Japanese lens, creating something that felt both nostalgic and fresh. It dealt with heavy themes: What do we do with people who are "broken"? Is a society built on celebrity heroes sustainable?
The ending suggests that a "Greatest Hero" isn't one person. It’s a collective effort. The shift from "I" to "We" is the most important thematic transition in the entire 430-chapter run. Even if you didn't like the time skip or the teacher angle, you can't deny the impact this story had on the medium.
How to Actually Experience the Full Story
If you've only watched the anime, you're missing out on the finer details of Horikoshi’s art, which becomes increasingly detailed and "ink-heavy" in the later volumes.
- Read the Vigilantes Spin-off: If you want more world-building, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is essential. It’s finished, it’s darker, and it explains Aizawa’s backstory in a way the main manga never quite had time for.
- Check the Character Books: The Ultra Analysis books contain specific stats and lore tidbits that clarify how certain Quirks (like New Order or Overhaul) actually function under the hood.
- Analyze the Covers: Horikoshi loves referencing American comics. Look for the homages to Spider-Man and Superman in the volume art; they provide a lot of context for his inspirations.
- Support the Official Release: Using the Shonen Jump app or Manga Plus is the best way to see the high-res panels without the compression issues found on pirate sites. It makes a huge difference for the big double-page spreads in the final battle.
The journey of the My Hero Academia manga is officially over, but the debate over its conclusion will probably last another ten years. Whether you loved the grounded ending or wanted more fireworks, the series remains a masterclass in modern shonen storytelling.