Now that My Hero Academia is finally over, Shonen Jump is asking the whole world who the number one hero is
Please don't be Mineta, please don't be Mineta, please don't be Mineta...
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My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi promised a big announcement following the series' final chapter and it's… a worldwide popularity poll!
OK, that's probably not the kind of announcement a lot of you were hoping for, but it's not insignificant. For those that are unaware, character popularity polls are a pretty common occurrence for the bigger Shonen Jump titles, across series like Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsaw Man, and yes, My Hero Academia. The only problem for international readers is that these polls are Japan-only, meaning you can't vote for your favourite character to help them take the top spot in the popularity contest. Except, as announced by Shonen Jump, for the first time in My Hero Academia's serialisation, you can! In fact, there's a couple of polls you'll be able to vote in.
The first round is called Main Stage, and it kicked off yesterday, running until September 30. You can actually place one vote a date on the poll's official website, so if there's a character you're desperate to see come out on top, make sure you keep on it for the next couple of months. Then, in December, the winner of the Main Stage round will be announced on Shonen Jump's official YouTube channel on December 2, receiving the title World Best Hero, alongside a special video.
Round two is aptly called Plus Ultra Stage, running from December 2 at 8pm JST for only 24 hours, with the top three winners from the Main Stage available to vote for. In this round you'll be able to vote once an hour up to 12 times across the whole 24 hours, with the winner being announced on December 3, 9:30pm JST. Whichever character wins that round will be crowned The MHA, and will get a special illustration from Horikoshi, as well as a statue based on the same illustration at some point in the future, so make sure you vote wisely (nobody wants a statue of Mineta, after all).
My Hero Academia finally ended with its 430th chapter 10 years on since it debuted, and alongside the poll announcement, it was also revealed that there's a fan book coming January 2025, an art book coming in February 2025, and a manga art exhibition that will be held in Japan next summer.