My Hero Academia is ending after more than a decade – here's how it became an anime phenomenon

School's out for good with the end of My Hero Academia, but it's not just the end of another academic year. We're talking the end of an era, the end of a franchise that expanded and deconstructed an entire genre. Where else could you see the kind of earnest, hopeful superhero storytelling that came to define Kōhei Horikoshi's decade-long run in his manga and the show that followed?

So much more than just another story about super-powered school kids, My Hero Academia introduced us to countless heroes and villains who are just as inspiring as they are "quirky".

It's not just their powers or "quirks" that set them apart though (as weird as they often were). No, it was their determination to push through imperfection and fight for what mattered. Izuku Midoriya, especially, represented a new kind of hero in that sense, worlds removed from the dark or quippy protagonists popularised by Marvel and DC.

It's not just us who are saying goodbye to Midoriya and the gang though. After 170 episodes and four theatrical film releases, the English dub cast have been forced to reckon with the end of an era for themselves as well, learning to let go of a show that's dominated anime and their own personal lives for the better part of a decade.

"I'm definitely in the beginning phases of mourning," says voice actor Ernesto Jason Liebrecht (Dabi) ahead of the final episode: "It is really kind of a crazy thing to live with a character in your head for a decade of your life, to experience the level of character development that the creators so graciously provided to us as actors."

Justin Cook (Red Riot) was quick to echo that sentiment: "There's a part where you don't want to say goodbye to these characters, but at the same time, watching the story wrap up on its own terms… It's pretty powerful to be a part of it."

Very few titles make it to eight seasons in any medium, so the fact we're now here in the final stretch with some of the show's best reviews yet is nothing short of phenomenal.

It didn't always seem like that would be a given though. Luci Christian (Uravity) recalls huge hype at the start, only for the first season to come and go without much fanfare. "We all went, 'Oh well. That's how it goes. It's no big deal.' Then the second season came out, I think, or was about to come out, and it just went huge."

"I think My Hero Academia happened at a really perfect time," adds Christian. "It's kind of when streaming anime took off. It became a lot more mainstream. And I think My Hero Academia really reaped the benefit of that."

Between the peak visuals, innovative powers and epic saga at hand, it's always been easy to fall in love with My Hero Academia. Patrick Seitz (Endeavor) likens all that to the "frosting," so to speak, on the foundation of this series and its appeal.

"The cake, the underpinning, the structure of it all, is still about imperfect people trying to do better for each other… People want connection. They crave connection. They foster it, they love it, or they suffer for the lack of it. And I think that's what speaks to people about this. Yes, it has the power fantasy. It has the big fights. It looks great. The production is great. But again, that's, that's the frosting to the underpinning. If the underpinning weren't solid, the frosting would just collapse in on itself."

"My Hero Academia really breaks the mould of the Shōnen genre," adds co-star Christopher Sabat (All Might). "As somebody who's watched it with his kids, I think the thing that makes it special is that everyone gets to participate. With Shōnen, you'll traditionally have the main character that does everything, and everyone else stands on the sideline explaining to the audience why it's so cool that the main character is doing their thing. But in this show, everyone has a role to play."

Just as everyone has a role to play within My Hero Academia, everyone seems to have their own opinion about the show too, or at least how it ends. When the manga was completed last year, criticisms around the fate of Midoriya and the rushed feel of it all inspired Horikoshi's to write an additional coda that addressed these issues. This, of course, impacts the anime in turn.

"I thought it was interesting of Horikoshi to give us a little bit more," says Christian. "It's a little bit messy. I kind of like that. I think that's part of the story that he tells with these heroes, because it's not black and white. It's not necessarily tied up at the end with a bow, with the good guys winning. It's just not quite like that. So I'm okay with how it ends. I like it. I guess I'm okay with the bittersweet. And I always have hope that maybe he'll come back and give these characters more to do later."

Christian's not the only one who feels this way. "We live in a time where I feel like all the franchises keep coming back if you give them enough time," says Clifford Chapin (Katsuki Bakugo). "I'm not going to give up hope that maybe one day there will be My Hero Higher Education or something to follow this series."

But what would such a thing actually look like, assuming it does eventually happen one day? For two of the franchise's most significant heroes, it seems like it might be time for some long overdue rest.

Sabat's grateful that All Might lasted as long as he did. "Every single season has been just nail biting, wondering when this is going to be the season that they use All Might as a vehicle to make Izuku stronger. So I'm just grateful that he got as far as he did, and I think he could probably use a little time just at home. Maybe All Might and Midoriya can link up online and play games or something like that. They just need to chill."

Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya) is on board with that too. "If they want to make a show all about Deku's day-to-day life, I'm there for it. I just hope for him that he's living his best life. Deku's achieved so much in such a short time. He's proven himself on the world stage as the hero that he's always wanted to be. Now, I think hopefully he's just living proudly with the knowledge that he has made the difference that he has always wanted to."

The Todoroki family have a lot of recovering to do as well, and given all they've been through, the cast hope to see them work through that together.

"I would just want to see Endeavor living life as a civilian, doing no harm, trying to come to terms with himself," says Enji voice actor Patrick Seitz. "His story, it feels like Greek tragedy to me. He had the hubris. He was smote many different ways for it… His race is run as far as what I want to see. But if there were more material, I hope it would just be something day-to-day, pastoral, going to see Toya, speaking to the children that will still speak to him. No harm, no interactions with rage, just real slice-of-life, just something low stakes. Because for him, that is such high stakes."

"You hit upon a fantasy of mine," adds Liebrecht. "I had this weird notion that it would be really cool to see Engie and Toya in their recovery mode, living in some little house with a garden and Eng taking care of them, taking care of each other, and it just being a normal, beautiful life. Finally, peace, redemption, the turning of that page."

But what about Shoto Todoroki, the family's premier hero? "I have this idea of Shoto, having fully accepted who he is and where he's come from, taking some of his Dad's wants and needs doing them the right way," says David Matranga (Shoto Todoroki). "I have that idea of him out there in the world, heroing, really in the light, because Endeavor's idea was born in shadow, in intensity. So for Shoto to go and be a top hero in a different way, truly embodying that… I would be so jazzed for that."

As it stands, there are currently no plans to continue Shoto's story or revisit any of his peers in Class 1-A either. Not in animated form anyway. But with a Hollywood live-action adaptation on the way, not to mention a popular new anime spinoff titled My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, anything's possible.

"After you do this for a really long time," says Christopher Wehkamp (Eraserhead), "You suddenly realise that these shows don't always go away. My Hero Academia is so big and it's so meaningful to so many people, we could always hope that it's going to be back in some iteration or another. Vigilantes is kicking off now and, and that's a nice bridge to jump to if you really want to. There's always going to be hope that maybe someday down the road we'll see something else."

But even if this really is the end, even if it's time to say goodbye to Class 1-A for good, at least My Hero Academia was able to end on its own terms.

"At this point, I don't really know what it'll be like for it to really, actually end, but I'm happy that it gets to end," says Chapin. "There are so many shows we've worked on that don't get proper endings. The fact that we're going to at least get to do that is kind of its own little blessing."

And don't forget; My Hero Academia will always be here in some shape or form, ready to inspire a whole new generation. Kind of like One For All, when you think about it.

"I think we'll be talking about My Hero Academia for a very, very long time," says J. Michael Tatum (Ingenium). "I think it'll age incredibly well. New generations will continue to find it and be moved by it. And I think it'll go on to be — well, it probably already is —the gold standard that other shows will be judged by going forward."

My Hero Academia is available to watch on Crunchyroll.

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