My Hero Academia (or MHA for short) is an amazing show – but it’s also a manga and a whole series of movies! This means there are a LOT of things to learn about the characters, storylines and connections to other well-known animes. Do you know the hidden meanings behind the characters names? Or where Gang Orca really comes from? Read on and find out how much you know about My Hero Academia!

If you’re looking for other fun facts, check out these epic anime facts! Or for something a bit different, how about these extra-gross facts? Or these super-intelligent octopus facts!

1. Deku was going to be a grownup!

For all the quirks and superpowers, High School Academia is actually a pretty believable school. But it wasn’t going to be originally! In the first idea the writers had, Deku was going to be an adult! Which would mean the whole school setting thing wouldn’t have worked at all! Good thing they changed their mind!

2. Deku isn’t as popular as he used to be

When the series started Deku was by far the favourite character among fans – but that’s changed over the course of the show! Now fans are much more split between the other characters. So it’s probably not that Deku is less popular- just the other characters are MORE popular! And as we’ll see, some of the other characters are great!

3. Deku’s name means puppet

Deku was given his name by Bakugo, and it originally meant something like “wooden training puppet”. The point was that Deku was basically just good for beating up in training fights. Pretty rude from Bakugo! At least Deku has owned it!

4. English speakers miss out on a lot

As a Japanese made show, there are lots of clever lines and puns that are hidden in the names of characters and objects. A prime example is Deku himself, who’s real name is of course Izuku Midoriya. In Japanese this sounds a bit like “Green” and “Valley” – which hints at the colur of his hair and personality.

5. Deku’s Favorite Food Is Katsudon

Deku’s favourite food is katsudon – a rice dish that’s really popular in Japan. It’s rice topped with a deep-fried crispy pork cutlet, eggs, veggies and lots of other delicious things. It’s his favourite go to after a long day!

6. Mina the Alien

Pinky, or Mina Ashido, is an alien. But what less people know about is that lots of things about her character were based on the Aliens from Ridley Scott’s terrifying Alien movie series. She has acidic blood, as was even named Ridley in some early versions of the script!

7. Tsuyu & Hagakure Were Originally Boys

The first script for the anime had hardly any girls in it! Class 1-A originally consisted of only four girls, and there were 16 boys all in all. The main writer Horikoshi realised and changed Tsuyu and Hagakure to be girls. It’s still quite an unbalanced class though – it’s not 50/50 yet!

8. On the subject of Horikoshi…

Horikoshi – the main person behind the show – is a very talented anime writer. He’s worked on lots of projects in the past and has even managed to sneak in some of his characters from other projects. One example is Kuga Sakamata, or Gang Orca! You know, the killer whale!

9. All Might is based on Goku!

Horikoshi took influence from other popular animes, and (probably) based the character All Might on Goku from Dragonball Z. He used to practise drawing Dragonball characters, and now you mention it… there is a bit of a resemblance!

10. Tenya the Engine

Another hidden detail that you might not have noticed from the show is Tenya Iida’s hero name: Ingenium. Ingenium is the name of an car engine brand – so it’s a bit of a coincidence (just a bit) that Tenya and his brother have the engine quirk. This even makes big lumpy engine parts come out of their bodies, so they can go extra fast!

11. Is Shoto a Zuko ripoff?

So My Hero Academia and Avatar the Last Airbender aren’t that similar really. But some fans have pointed out that Shoto Todoroki has got a lot in common with the character Zuko from Avatar. Both have pyrokinetic powers, rubbish dads, and a burn scar above their left eye. Hmmm!

12. Ochaco Uraraka had very different powers

Between the original ideas, the manga, the anime and the movies, there have been lots of changes. One of them is that the cheerful Ochaco Uraraka was originally going to have a much more imposing quirk! The first idea the writers had was to let her grow to gigantic sizes, but settled on her zero-gravity quirk instead. Her gigantification quirk ended up going to Mt. Lady instead!

13. Deku shares his birthday with someone important

Deku’s birthday is on the same day as Ichigo Kurosaki, the lead character in Bleach – another amazing anime! Both Deku and Ichigo have kind of similar back stories. Both of them are normal kids that other people underestimate!

14. Kamui Woods fighting style…

Is based on Spiderman’s! You can actually see it in the way Kamui leaps around! Yet another example fo how My Hero Academia has been inspired by other shows. And as far as unexpected crossovers go – that’s a big one!

15. There are lots of fan theories!

Because MHA is so popular, there are lots of fans who like to read between the storylines and write their own explanations for why some things happen they way they do. Like what if Dabi was a Todoroki? Or that pretty much everyone is a traitor? We have no idea if these fan theories are true or not – but it’s fun to guess!