My Hero Academia mangaka Kohei Horikoshi is again at the center of online controversy after a Twitter user discovered that many of the characters in Horikoshi’s work share birthdays with infamous fascist figures.
On Feb. 8, Twitter user @Object501 shared a graphic they titled “My Fascism Academy” which shows that characters Midoriya Izuku, Katsuki Bakugo, Endeavor, and Shigaraki Tomura have birthdays that correlate respectively to the establishment of the Japanese Communist Party, Adolf Hitler, World War II Japanese naval commander-in-chief Isoroku Yamamoto, and Imperial Japanese officer Kenji Doihara. Neither Weekly Shonen Jump, the magazine that publishes My Hero Academia or Horikoshi have commented on the allegations.
ほーれ謝ったから難癖が増えた#ヒロアカ pic.twitter.com/kpZlguejIJ
— じゅんじゅん (@Object501) February 9, 2020
Just one week prior on Feb. 3, Horikoshi issued a public apology for an entirely different controversy. In chapter 259 of the manga, the name of a mad scientist who experiments on humans was revealed to be Maruta Shiga. Some readers perceived the name as an allusion to war crimes and human experiments done by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. “Maruta” is the Japanese word for “logs” and was also used as a code word to refer to the victims of the experiments alongside the cover story that the facilities were actually a lumber mill. Victims, who included children, pregnant women, and the mentally handicapped, were purposefully infected with diseases, lobotomized, and subjected to vivisection.
Chinese companies Tencent and Bilibili even removed the manga and anime from their platforms as a response to the controversy. “I did not intend for that name to be associated as such. I take this matter very seriously and will change the name,” wrote Horikoshi. Just one week later, a name change was implemented in digital versions of the manga with assurance that the physical volume release would also change the name.
今週発売のジャンプで登場した志賀丸太という名前について、歴史的な出来事を想起させるというご意見を多くいただいています。命名にあたり、そのような意図を込めたつもりはありませんでした。ご指摘のお声を重く受け止め、今後は名前を差し替えさせていただきます。
— 堀越耕平 (@horikoshiko) February 3, 2020
The MHA fandom is going to make Horikoshi fall out of love with his series and inevitably make him stop writing My Hero Academia. The stress and constant anxiety that someone is going to tarnish your name for everything you write must be so physically and mentally draining. https://t.co/oLcfHQAKa7
— 
Elija (@KloutedKurta) February 11, 2020
Their birthdays were revealed ages ago, seems like some fan just went to history class and found out that some birthdays happen to be the same as some bad people and threw a fit no one gives a shit about. Like I highly doubt Horikoshi did that on purpose.
— Satori Tendou's stupid face (@SnailCactus) February 11, 2020
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