My Hero Academia: One For All’s history was secretly inspired by one of the best sci-fi movies ever

My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi recently revealed how a classic from James Cameron inspired a big decision regarding One For All’s history.

After completing a decade of serialization, My Hero Academia has another big milestone this summer. The franchise’s fourth movie – My Hero Academia: You’re Next – is all set to premiere on August 2 in Japan.

With such a huge occasion on the horizon, Horikoshi sat down with Viz to talk about the manga’s global popularity. He also revealed which stories he didn’t include in the manga and why.

Speaking about any plotline he regrets not exploring, the author shared he has complete backstories of every One For All user. However, he intentionally left them off the main story. 

When asked if he plans to draw them at some point in the future, he answered, “No, not at all. Rather than drawing out all the well-thought-out backgrounds and episodes, I wanted to hint at those elements instead.”

Horikoshi also mentioned how Terminator 2: Judgment Day, one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, inspired him not to give away everything to readers and let them come up with their own versions.

“For instance, in Terminator 2, John Connor becomes a leader in the future, and Schwarzenegger’s character is sent from that future world,” he continued. “But there aren’t many depictions of the future itself.

“Because the future isn’t depicted in detail, the viewers’ imaginations expand, and I thought that was really great. So, I wanted to create something like Terminator 2.”

It’s an interesting decision from the author to not reveal the previous One For All users’ backstories. We got a glimpse at Nana Shimura’s past a little as well as Yoichi’s and how the transferable Quirk came to be in the first place.

We also know Kudo saved Yoichi from All For One before receiving the Quirk. He later passed it on to his protégé Bruce. However, aside from these, we have no clue how any of their hero lives were or how they each stumbled upon One For All.

But, as Horikoshi said, that may not be a bad thing as it allowed us to come up with our own theories. The past users are all very interesting characters, so making head-canons about them isn’t too difficult for the fandom.

Aside from the release of My Hero Academia: You’re Next, the franchise has another big event coming up that week. After ten years of journey, the manga will finally end on August 5, 2024, with Chapter 430.

Until then, check out our speculation on the upcoming My Hero Academia Chapter 429. You can also find out which love confession fans are hoping for and why My Hero Academia Season 7 Episode 12 is delayed.