Kohei Horikoshi Reveals The Original Ending Of MHA Before He Officially Changed It

My Hero Academia ended last year, and since then, the author of the series, Kohei Horikoshi, has had a chance to relax and also reveal his experiences with writing the masterpiece that he worked on for 10 years. Horikoshi did a phenomenal job with My Hero Academia, and it can’t be understated how much of an impact this story had on fans all over the world.

Horikoshi’s story largely focused on Izuku Midoriya becoming a great Hero, just as he stated at the beginning of the manga. It is safe to say that Izuku ended up fulfilling his dreams, but things weren’t always supposed to go the way they did for him. In fact, Kohei Horikoshi actually revealed that he changed the ending of the series completely for various reasons. The original ending of MHA would’ve seen Izuku Midoriya remain Quirkless, but Horikoshi eventually got different ideas.

My Hero Academia Was Supposed To End With Deku As A Teacher

Horikoshi Wanted Deku To Inspire The New Generation

• Horikoshi Changed His Plans Due To Circumstances
• The Ending Was No Longer About Deku Alone

My Hero Academia’s original story was supposed to be about Izuku becoming a great Hero. The very first chapter of My Hero Academia sees Izuku declare that it is a story of how he became the greatest Hero.

Fans certainly did see Deku’s incredible journey in My Hero Academia and it is quite clear to see that he did, indeed, become a phenomenal Hero, but the ending was changed drastically. Instead of it being Deku’s story, it ended up becoming a story of how he and his friends became great heroes. His dream of becoming the greatest Hero was completely flipped.

That’s not all. In the original ending, Izuku Midoriya was supposed to be Quirkless. Horikoshi had intended for things to come full circle. Just as Izuku started Quirkless and was inspired by All Might’s words, this story would’ve seen him inspire a new generation after losing his Quirk. Here’s what Horikoshi had to say about the changed ending of My Hero Academia:

Question: Chapter 1 ended with “This is the story of how I became the greatest hero”, and in chapter 324 that changed to “This is the story of how we all became the greatest heroes”. Then in chapter 430, the story ends with “This is the story of how we all continue to reach a hand out to others together”. Was this the plan from the beginning of the series?

Horikoshi’s answer: No! It wasn’t! I originally planned for it to end with Deku becoming a teacher and saying “You can be a hero!”. Having used up his powers but looking fully confident… like that. The reason it changed is that this series was no longer a story just about Deku and One For All. In this series I was exploring “What does it mean to be the greatest hero?” and the answer this manga came to is that it means “reaching a hand out to others”, so I thought I would put the answer in writing and that’s how the final monologue of chapter 430 became what it is now.

Why My Hero Academia’s New Ending Is Better

Deku Isn’t Left Without A Quirk

While My Hero Academia’s old ending would’ve been great, the new ending is much better. Not only does it put great focus on Izuku Midoriya’s friends, which is the main side cast, but it also gives Izuku some powers again. A lack of well-written side characters often plagues Shonen stories, so Horikoshi feeling the need to make them an integral part of the ending of the story is actually a great change.

Similarly, Izuku being Quirkless after all that he did just wouldn’t have felt right. Being rewarded for his bravery and his heroic spirit with a Hero Armor and allowing him to be a Hero once again was the perfect end.

The My Hero Academia manga concluded with 431 chapters for fans to read. All these chapters can be found on Manga Plus. When it comes to the anime, this series is still awaiting its final season, which will be released later this year. The series can be watched on Crunchyroll.