How was the My Hero Academia anime made?

Bones, in batches: the anti-Naruto way of making a Jump anime.

The anime’s origin is a producer’s judgement call. Toho producer Wakana Okamura, who had worked on the manga at Shueisha, chose Bones to adapt it: a studio she felt could deliver a high-quality adaptation with the reach to present it to the world. Kenji Nagasaki directed, Yosuke Kuroda wrote the series, and Yoshihiko Umakoshi designed the characters, staying close enough to Horikoshi’s drawings that the author gave him one famous note: make the eyes bigger and cuter.

Umakoshi has described how differently the show was built from the year-round Jump adaptations: where Naruto and One Piece produced episodes continuously, My Hero Academia was made a season at a time, in batches, which is why the films could be produced alongside the series without breaking it. The run: season 1 in spring 2016, then 2017, 2018, 2019–20, 2021, 2022–23, 2024, and the final season in autumn 2025, the whole series licensed in North America by Crunchyroll and dubbed for Toonami through season 6.

My Hero Academia, Vol. 8

Volume 8 (2016), the Stain arc era, where the anime found its footing.

THE SEASONS

Eight, 2016 to 2025

Seasons 1 to 3

13 episodes in 2016, then 25 and 25 in 2017 and 2018: the school years, the sports festival, and the summer of Kamino. The series finds its scale early.

Seasons 4 to 6

25 episodes each, 2019 to 2023: Overhaul, the festival, the war’s beginning. Directors multiply under Nagasaki’s chief direction as the production grows.

Seasons 7 and 8

21 episodes in 2024, then the 11-episode final season from October to December 2025 under Naomi Nakayama: the story closed in a decade, like the manga.

THE NAMES ON IT

The core staff

Kenji Nagasaki

Director of the series and chief director thereafter; directed the first film himself. The production’s constant.

Yoshihiko Umakoshi

Character designer across all eight seasons (with Hitomi Odashima from season 5): the man who translated Horikoshi’s line into animation.

Yosuke Kuroda and Yuki Hayashi

Series composition and music, start to finish: the same writer and composer for 170 episodes, four films, and the spin-off. The credits are unusually stable for a decade-long show.

How was the My Hero Academia anime made?

THE SEASONS

THE NAMES ON IT

THE MY HERO ACADEMIA SHELF

THE FIRST WORD