Horikoshi reveals Izuku Midoriya's greatest failure

My Hero Academia is one of the biggest and most popular anime franchises of the last decade, and a big reason for that is the incredible story that series creator Kohei Horikoshi has woven around a cast of absolutely phenomenal characters. The protagonist of the series, Izuku Midoriya, is one of the most popular characters of all, and as expected. Fans love Izuku Midoriya for his incredible tenacity and more than that, for his kindness that drives him to save those around him in times of need. Izuku Midoriya is the epitome of what a hero should beand as a hero he carved out an untouchable place for himself, especially after the end of the final war.

While most fans consider Izuku Midoriya to be the perfect hero, there is actually one thing he has failed to achieve throughout his life as a hero, and that is his original goal. When the series started, Izuku Midoriya clearly mentioned that this was his story of how he became the greatest hero. At the end My Hero Academiahowever, Izuku is not considered the greatest heroand that title still belongs to someone else entirely because it's his mentor, All Might.

Izuku could never become the greatest hero

His dream was to never be the #1 hero

• Horikoshi flipped Izuku's words at the end

• Class 1-A became the biggest heroes

When talking about Izuku Midoriya's dream, there is a misconception among fans that largely stems from mistranslations in the manga. First of all, Izuku Midoriya never wanted to be the #1 hero. He definitely wanted to be like All Might, but the hero ranking itself never concerned him.

Izuku also didn't want to become the strongest hero ever, simply because he never said so. At the beginning of the series, he stated that My Hero Academia was the story of how he became the greatest hero. Greatest is a term that can have many meanings, unlike #1 and strongest.

However, at the end of My Hero Academia Horikoshi flipped over Izuku Midoriya's words. While he initially stated that he himself would be the greatest hero, what happened at the end meant that he and his classmates were all together the greatest hero. Horikoshi himself commented on this in an interview:

Q: Chapter 1 ended with “This is the story of how I became the greatest hero” and in chapter 324 it changed to “This is the story of how we all became the greatest heroes”. Then in chapter 430 the story ends with “This is a story of us all reaching out to others together”. Was this the plan from the start 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!”. He had exhausted his strength, but he looked completely confident… like this. The reason this changed is because the series was no longer just about Deku and One For All. In this series, I've been exploring “What does it mean to be the greatest hero?” and the answer this manga came up with is that it means “giving a hand to others” so I thought I'd put the answer in writing and that's how the ending monologue of chapter 430 became what it is now.

Horikoshi confirms that everything is still considered the greatest

Final MHA Fanbook confirms All Might As The Greatest

As confirmed by Horikoshi himself, while started the series with Izuku Midoriya's goal to be the greatest heroit wasn't just about him after all. Everyone from Class 1-A became the greatest heroes. Horikoshi himself has actually explained what it means to be the greatest hero, and for him it's all about saving someone by getting to them. In that regard, it makes sense that All Might is still considered the greatest hero in the world of My Hero Academia, even after Final War.

My Hero Academia the last fanbook officially confirms it All Might is the greatest hero of all time. This makes a lot of sense since he's been a hero for decades and has saved far more people than anyone else. All power was a symbol of peaceand while Izuku saved the world, he certainly didn't save as many as All Might. In the end, Izuku's goal that he announced at the beginning was never really accomplished.

The My Hero Academia manga has ended with 431 chapters for fans to read. You can find all these chapters on Manga Plus. As for the anime, the series is still waiting for its final season to be released later this year. The series can be watched on Crunchyroll.

Release date

April 2, 2016

Network

TBS, MBS, Nippon TV

directors

Shouji Ikeno, Tsuyoshi Tobita, Ikuro Sato, Takudai Kakuchi, Masashi Abe, Tetsuya Miyanishi, Kazuma Komatsu, Yoshifumi Sasahara, Masayuki Otsuki, Daisuke Tsukushi, Takayuki, Yamamoto, Yohei Fuku Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano

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  Daiki Yamashita

  Izuku Midoriya (voice)

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  Kaito Ishikawa

  Manga Fukidashi (voice)