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Shueisha released an official joint Takeru Hokazono × Kohei Horikoshi interview going over both creators thoughts on Kagurabachi and My Hero Academia. It is available in English and Japanese on the official site. In addition to talking about their own starts and inspirations, such as Naruto and Luffy from One Piece, they discussed each others’ manga series now that My Hero Academia ended and volume 5 of Kagurabachi is available worldwide.
The Kagurabachi and My Hero Academia interview began with Takeru Hokazono and Kohei Horikoshi discussing how they got started making manga. Horikoshi cited enjoying drawing and “copying Goku from Dragon Ball or drawing my own original Super Saiyans.” He then noted he got the Tezuka Award honorable mention for Nukegara with Masahi Kishimoto as a judge. Hokazono noted En Ten was his first work and was a Tezuka Award runner-up when Horikoshi was a judge. Both started seriously working as mangaka in college.
Both mangaka discussed their inspirations and series they admired throughout the interview. Kohei Horikoshi, in addition to mentioned Dragon Ball, brought up One Piece. He noted, “When I started planning My Hero Academia, the serialization of my second work, Barrage, had just ended. Up until then, I had an admiration for Luffy from One Piece, and I really felt that I had to create a character like him. But after my own works ended serialization twice, I finally realized that there isn’t a like Luffy within me. So, I decided to once again search for a protagonist that would be easy for me to depict. In the end, the main character in My Hero, which I’d previously drawn as a one-shot, suited my nature. Meanwhile, Takeru Hokazono mentioned, “Whenever I talk about My Hero Academia, Horikoshi-sensei says something like, “There’s no way you like it.” (laughs). It’s true that Naruto had a great influence on me, but I also love My Hero Academia.
In the second part of the interview, the two creators discussed each others’ works. This started with Hokazono talking about My Hero Academia. He noted, “What I find most impressive is how the storytelling aligns with the reader’s emotions.” He also cited Mirio as his favorite character and said he considered My Hero Academia volume 17 to be the best one. Meanwhile, Horikoshi noted, “…Kagurabachi is a work which has been able to keep the author’s personal sense of what is cool at the forefront, which I think is awesome.” He said Hakuri is his favorite character in the series.
My Hero Academia is over now, with the full series on Crunchyroll and Viz Media behind the manga. My Hero Academia: Vigilantes season 2 is now running and is on Crunchyroll with the first season. Kagurabachi is still running and Viz Media handles it.
