My Hero Academia's Screenwriter Knew The Anime Was In For The Long Haul
As a writer or other creative professional with an intimate knowledge of how storytelling works, one has a better-trained eye than the average viewer to be able to discern why a piece of narrative is going to be appealing and how it will achieve the longevity to see popularity and success all over the world. Kohei Horikoshi's "My Hero Academia" is one such example.
With an IMDb score of over 8 stars and 7.9 on MyAnimeList, the superhero-centric anime can be considered one of the most well-known ongoing titles in the industry. With Season 6 finished and a 7th announced, "My Hero Academia" seems to be drawing ever closer to its ending, with the manga's Final Act Saga, as the name implies, feeling like the climax of the story as a whole, featuring a battle between heroes and villains of even more impressive proportions than the one featured in The Paranormal Liberation War Arc.
Yosuke Kuroda, a screenwriter for the series who wrote the 2021 movie "My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission," had begun reading the manga even prior to the anime's release and he knew right away that the series had the potential to become the entertaining product that fans know and love today.
From the beginning Kuroda had his sights set on Episode 100
According to ComicBook, which alludes to a Newtype Magazine interview, Yosuke Kuroda was questioned about what he believes to be the secret that earned the series its undeniable fame and worldwide adoration. Kuroda answered that, because he was fond of the manga prior to working on the anime, when the opportunity presented itself for him to join the crew, he did not have to think twice.
"From the beginning, I was sure this anime was going to be a long one and my goal was to write the script for one hundred episodes myself." the writer went on to say, "Thanks to everyone, I was able to do that and we reached episode one hundred. My new goal is to write until the final episode of the anime. I'm going to watch out for my health and do the best I can to keep writing." This last comment about his health may well be an allusion to the fact that it is common for allegations to come up that members of a crew working on certain major long-running anime titles are often overworked in order to meet deadlines.
If you don't recall, Episode 100, which was Episode 12 of Season 5, titled "The New Power and All For One," was not as eventful as its number may suggest. It is sort of an in-between-Arcs episode in which one of the most memorable moments is what Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugo get up to after finally obtaining their Provisional Hero Licenses.
However, going around the internet for the last two years, one can note an emergence of opinions regarding the series that attempt to justify an apparent decrease in overall popularity.
Despite Kuroda's opinion, some fans think MHA has been losing popularity
In a two-year-old post, a Redditor asked the fandom why Season 4 of "My Hero Academia" was not generating as much buzz as the previous ones. In response, u/Kudos2me11 explained that when a series goes on for as long as Kohei Horikoshi's has, fans can start losing interest. They also add: "There's a lot of other big anime things going on that are drawing attention away from 'MHA.'"
In a different post of a similar vein, the OP makes an in-depth list of reasons why "My Hero Academia" has decreased in popularity "from the best new age shonen to an average action show." A fan, u/Maxzzs, disagreed, putting forth evidence that the manga, as of a year ago, was still one of the top-selling manga in both the US as well as Japan: "For all intents and purposes the franchise, revenue and popularity wise, is at a peak," they commented at the end.
In the most recent Reddit post of the three, the OP asked: "What happened between then and now that caused people to turn on the series?"
Age was a factor among other explanations given by u/heelydon, who ended their reasoning with: "People often are more interested in the NEW and exciting thing that everyone is talking about, rather than the season 6 of a shonen anime."
"MHA definitely "fell off", but not as hard as most here will have you believe." Argued u/danyoja, "Most fans simply just watch the show/read the manga and don't discuss it at all. That said, I think it's less of "falling off" and more of things "rising above it"."
For longtime fans of the series, here's hoping that MHA continues "rising above it" till it sticks the landing.