Is My Hero Academia author straying to a similar path of taking hiatuses as the HxH author?

The work culture in the anime and manga industry is notorious for being strenuous. Throughout the years many titles have been put on hiatus given the continuous poor health of the mangaka. This time around it’s My Hero Academia, ever since the manga entered its final arc the publishing schedule gets disrupted by breaks frequently. 

While this is disheartening for the fans, some more important questions rise about the health of the creator. Mentions of hiatus are synonymous with Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter, as the manga has taken multiple hiatuses. Sometimes even year-long ones. 

Hiatus-pattern of My Hero Academia manga so far

Weekly schedules are hard to keep up with and require the creator to overwork pretty often. Ever since My Hero Academia entered its final arc in 2021, Kohei Horikoshi has been taking breaks often.

Citing health issues and delay in production as the reasons. My Hero Academia is fairly popular and one of the most successful Shounen titles after the big three. In the year 2023 itself, the mangaka has taken more than 5 unscheduled breaks.

Despite frequent breaks, the creator has been persistent about getting chapters out without taking a long break. This is worrisome as nobody wants the creator to push themselves beyond their limits.

Kohei Horikoshi has had two of his previous manga cancelled in the Shonen Jump. This might be the reason restraining him from taking a proper break for a full recovery. As he might be worried about the fate of My Hero Academia.

Is My Hero Academia following Hunter x Hunter’s path?

Hunter x Hunter started with week-long breaks gradually transcending to month-long and eventually year-long breaks. Yoshihiro Horikoshi suffers from chronic back pain which restricts him from sitting for long hours.

Along with fatigue and his back pain, it became harder for him to keep up with the weekly schedule. The manga has returned very slowly to the fans. Although it doesn’t matter on the grand scale of things as the creator’s health comes first.

Kohei Horikoshi has been pushing himself and sustaining himself by taking frequent breaks. He is persistent about finishing the manga it seems. MHA doesn’t seem to be following the same path as HxH is already in its final arc.

This might be good news to fans but at the same time, nobody wants the creator to sabotage his health for the completion of the manga. At the end of the day, it’s his creation and everybody just needs to accept whatever decision he makes. 

Conclusion

It’s saddening that we get to see a repeat of the same situation. The condition has improved over the years but it’s far from even being decent. Creators continue to suffer and relentlessly push themselves. You need to reach a point where you’re unreachable to have some sort of autonomy with the publishing schedule. As seen with Eichiro Oda. 

At this point, mangakas suffering from extreme fatigue and having poor health don’t even faze anyone as it’s a common occurrence. And it says a lot about the anime industry. We can only hope for Kohei Horikoshi to complete his manga at his own pace without sabotaging his health.