There aren't many characters who can stand up to Weekly Shonen Jump's most famous face, the The main character of One Piece, Monkey D. Luffy. over the years Luffy stood out as one of the recognizable characters around the worldeven for non-anime fans. Next to him were the likes of Goku from Dragon Ball, Naruto Uzumaki and Usagi from Sailor Moon. But now a new character may be thrown into the mix, and that is Izuku Midoriya My Hero Academia.
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Midoriya, also known as Deku, gave his best performance ever in My Hero Academia Season 8. This immortalizes him as one of the most recognizable faces of anime and as a rival even to Luffy as the main protagonist of anime.
My Hero Academia's Deku is revealed to be One Piece's Luffy's rival
One Piece is the best-selling manga in the worldand thus its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, achieved worldwide fame on a scale never seen before. Previously, when Naruto was serialized, you could say yes One Piece's biggest rival. But Naruto ended over ten years ago. Instead, My Hero Academia and its protagonist Izuku Midoriya rose up.
Deku became famous all over the worldeven more so now with how big season 8 of MHA was. Years ago, Oda's daughter was really worried about One Piece after she saw it MHA popularity.
“During one of my daughter's school trips, the kids pissed off the kids by playing the My Hero Academia anime song for them on the bus. When she got home, she asked me in a worried tone, 'Dad, will your manga be okay?'” – Eiichiro Oda in an interview with Horikoshi
Horikoshi reveals that he first wanted to shape Deku to be like Luffy
Surprisingly despite One Piece's fame and success, few mangaka cite this as part of their inspiration process for creating their own series. However, Horikoshi stands as an exception.
Kohei Horikoshi took great inspiration One piece create My Hero Academia. He previously revealed that while Izuku Midoriya was initially supposed to be the same as Luffy, he was unable to make him look like him.
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He tried to write a character like Luffyand instead looked for a character more suited to his style. Thus, My Hero Academia was born.
“When I started thinking about the project, it was right after the serialization of my second work, Barrage, ended. By then, I had a lot of admiration for Luffy from One Piece and I really wanted to create a character like him.
However, when my own work ended after two volumes, I realized that there was “no Luffy in me”. So I started looking again for a main character that was easier for me to draw and that could move forward even after defeat. In the end, the main character I drew in the previous My Hero one-shot best suited my style. I thought, “If I make the main character the easiest character to draw, I'll try to recreate the manga,” and so My Hero Academia was born. — Horikoshi
Izuku Midoriya and Luffy are two of Weekly Shonen Jump's most iconic characters
Although Izuku has definitely become one of the most famous anime characters around the world, the truth is that he still doesn't hold a candle to One Piece's Luffy. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't even come close to the success of MHA One piece.
My Hero Academia was never able to outsell One Pieceand never will be. Even at the end, with everything the series has accomplished, Luffy will always be the face of Weekly Shonen Jump.
However, Luffy and Izuku end up being two of the magazine's most popular faces, and each one offers something different and fresh for fans. With the end of MHA, it's quite obvious that Weekly Shonen Jump is now trying to find a replacement to stand side by side with One Piece over the next decade.
