MY HERO ACADEMIA Director On The Show's American Influence

Anime News Network has posted an interview with the creative team behind the anime adaptation of  My Hero Academia from Studio Bones.  At AnimeExpo, ANN spoke to director  Kenji Nagasaki, producer Wakana Okamura, the voice of Midoriya Justin Briner, and the voice of All Might Chris Sabat.  Today, we bring you a portion of the interview with Nagasaki where he touches on the shows inspiration from American superheros from Marvel and DC Comics.  The manga's author,  Kōhei Horikoshi, is an admittedly huge fan of Marvel characters, particularly Spider-Man and The Avengers.  Said Nagasaki----

"As you might know, the original author is a very big fan of American comic heroes, and All Might was created putting together bits and pieces of those American comic heroes. However, the story in My Hero Academia is not necessarily just a traditional hero story, which is to save the world. With including all these different characters, it's more of a journey for each character to become their own hero, so in that sense it's very Japanese shonen. The mashing together creates something special for this anime and manga. In a sense, it does have American comic book heroes, but with the Japanese flavor. But as you can see, All Might is obviously American comic-influenced."

The manga was launched in September 2014 and currently has 9 published volumes.  The story arc breakdowns in the manga are as follows---

VOLUME 01 - Entrance Exams arc & Quirk Apprehension Test arc 
VOLUME 02 - Battle Trial Arc & Unforeseen Simulation Joint arc (partial)
VOLUME 03 - Unforeseen Simulation arc (partial) & Sports Festival arc (partial)
VOLUME 04 - Sports Festival arc (partial)
VOLUME 05 - Sports Festival arc (partial)
VOLUME 06- Field Training arc (partial)
VOLUME 07 - Field Training arc (partial) & End of Term arc (partial)
VOLUME 08 - End of Term arc (partial) & School Trip arc (partial)
VOLUME 09 - School Trip arc (partial) 

In addition to the nine volumes published, there are 15 additional chapters (issues) that have yet to be collected into a tenth volume.  The 13-episode first season has adapted volume 01, 02 and half of volume 03.   

Boku no Hero Academia currently streams on Hulu and FUNimation in the US.

Key Staff
Animation Studio: Studio Bones
Director: Kenji Nagasaki
Script Supervisor: Yōsuke Kuroda
Character Designs:  Yoshikiko Umakoshi

Mankind has developed superpowers known as "Quirks" with 80% of the population having some kind of superpower. These new abilities see the rise of both superheroes and villains. A prestigious school known as the The Hero Academy trains superpowered hopefuls into the heroes the world needs. Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he's part the 20% without a Quirk. Unwilling to give up his dream, he plans to take the exam and be accepted into a high school for budding heroes. Through a series of serendipitous events, he catches the eye of the greatest hero, All Might, who agrees to train him.