My Hero Academia: Horikoshi Pays A Big Tribute To Dragon Ball And Akira Toriyama

My Hero Academia has been the center of many conversations recently. The series ended last year, 2024, but fans of this manga are still sticking around, waiting for any new content to drop.

Last month, fans received the My Hero Academia Ultra Age Book, and in June, the MHA Artbook dropped, featuring new illustrations, as well as information about already existing ones. Recently, Horikoshi’s tribute to the Dragon Ball manga was also revealed, and it certainly touched some hearts.

Akira Toriyama Is A Legendary Mangaka

He Is The Creator of Dragon Ball

Akira Toriyama is undoubtedly one of the very biggest names in the manga and anime industry. After all, he’s considered to be a god by many, including the biggest manga artists, such as Eiichiro Oda, among many others.

Toriyama created the industry-changing series, Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball was a pioneer of shonen series, inspiring some of the biggest hits of all time in anime. For example, the series of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach were all inspired, in some way or form, by Dragon Ball. The influence of Dragon Ball can’t be understated, and many series would be very different, or wouldn’t even exist, if Toriyama had never created Dragon Ball.

Sadly, for many anime fans, however, Akira Toriyama passed away last year, in March of 2024. This was a shocking moment for many people since it came out of nowhere. Toriyama was born in 1955, and lived to be 69.

The Dragon Ball series remains his legacy, and even after his death, more content for the series continues to be released. For example, Dragon Ball Daima was released in 2024 after his death, and has been a huge success, with some fans awaiting a continuation of sorts.

With Toriyama’s death, many mangaka have paid homage to him in many ways, mostly through illustrations.

Horikoshi Reveals One of His Illustrations Was a Tribute to Toriyama

Illustration From Chapter 419

Horikoshi is the creator of the series My Hero Academia. His series has quickly become one of the most iconic in manga history. Horikoshi, like many others, has paid tribute to Akira Toriyama.

In April of last year, Horikoshi drew an illustration for chapter 419 of his manga, and that illustration definitely caught the eyes of many fans.

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It features My Hero Academia characters flying off with a huge dragon in the background. Many fans had a hunch that this was a reference to Dragon Ball, but until now, there was no confirmation of that.

Recently, with the release of the new MHA Artbook, Horikoshi revealed that this is, indeed, a tribute to Toriyama, and a reference to the Dragon Ball series. This tribute is certainly more low-key than what other creators have done, but fans have, nonetheless, appreciated the gesture from Horikoshi.

Where To Read and Watch My Hero Academia

Available on Manga Plus and Crunchyroll

The My Hero Academia manga was concluded by the mangaka, Horikoshi. The story features 431 chapters for fans to read. All these chapters can be found on Manga Plus, as the story used to be serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump when it was still ongoing.

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.

My Hero Academia

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 Fukui, Takuro Tsukada, Masatoyo Takada, Naomi Nakayama, Sayaka Morikawa, Takanori Yano

• 

  Daiki Yamashita

  Izuku Midoriya (voice)

• 

  Kaito Ishikawa

  Manga Fukidashi (voice)