Discussion Horikoshi's Influences for Heroaca

[iceemperor]

There hasn't been a thread on what influenced Horikoshi during his career and even during the serialization of Heroaca so this thread is to discuss everything that has influenced Horikoshi in his career, from manga to american comics.

To start off, Jump Ryu shows the bookshelves in his studio. Some of the books on those shelves include:

• AKIRA
• ARMS
• EAT-MAN
• Vinland Saga
• the Law of Ueki
• Kekkaishi
• Gash
• Lots of Arai Hideki works

People have found a lot of Shogakukan and Square Enix published works on his bookshelves with Shonen Sunday works being the most number of works there. When asked during Jump Ryu which was his favourite to read he showed a volume of Arai Hideki's Kiichi. He said that he really liked Arai Hideki's depiction of humans and wished to be able to do it at a similar level (of course h proceeded to say he can't). From his bookshelves, he seems to prefer short to mid-length series though there are exceptions.

The biggest influence on his art is Osada Yu-ko, mangaka of Toto!, Shiori Experience, Magara, etc. In a 2016 interview he said that for him Osada's art is the most complete form of art for Shonen manga.

 

[Demonspeed]

Did you omit Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto and Spider-Man because they are too obvious?

 

[iceemperor]

Did you omit Dragon Ball, One Piece, Naruto and Spider-Man because they are too obvious?

From what I've read in interviews, Dragon Ball was the first series he bought as a kid but he was never influenced as much. Like no doubt there was influence but probably not as much as we think. Yes All Might was based on Goku's "relief element" but that might have been more ingrained than anything. OP and Naruto go without saying but he tried an MC like Luffy and it fell on its face and his editor even said he's not cut out for those kind of MCs. Bakugou is compared to Vegeta but Horikoshi has explicitly said that he;s based on Tetsuo from AKIRA. In fact, quite a bit has been taken from AKIRA, even if you watch just the movie.

Naruto was a series he read growing up as a teenager but there was a time he wasn't doing shonen manga. He was doing a lot of mature manga and an editor directed him to drawing shonen manga. I feel like Naruto is a sort of "roadmap" for him in that sense. Spiderman goes without saying.

 

[Nightwayfarer]

Dante from the Devil may cry series....probably.I'm pretty sure this guy has white hair,and he does look like Dante from DMC 2

 

[Son Detective Asurei]

From what I've read in interviews, Dragon Ball was the first series he bought as a kid but he was never influenced as much. Like no doubt there was influence but probably not as much as we think. Yes All Might was based on Goku's "relief element" but that might have been more ingrained than anything. OP and Naruto go without saying but he tried an MC like Luffy and it fell on its face and his editor even said he's not cut out for those kind of MCs. Bakugou is compared to Vegeta but Horikoshi has explicitly said that he;s based on Tetsuo from AKIRA. In fact, quite a bit has been taken from AKIRA, even if you watch just the movie.

Naruto was a series he read growing up as a teenager but there was a time he wasn't doing shonen manga. He was doing a lot of mature manga and an editor directed him to drawing shonen manga. I feel like Naruto is a sort of "roadmap" for him in that sense. Spiderman goes without saying.

I kind of feel that maybe also Hunter x Hunter plays also a role of influence for Horikoshi. The reason I say this is because that both series compared to other shonen today use the most strategy in their individual fights and chose to deconstruct typical cliches in manga and anime.

 

[Pr0teu5]

It’s may be a little to obvious, but I think that the way heroaca’s world functions and a few scenes are obviously inspired by One Punch Man.

take this scene for exapmple.

In the first image from OPM you have the fire using Phoenix man entering Prominence Hawk Mode.

In the second set of images you Endeavor, a fire user, getting help from Hawks to become a Phoenix and use Prominence Burn.

This is definitely an homage, and there are many more.

 

[KOBA]

Akame ga Kill. Horikoshi did told that Iida's armor inspired by Incursio.

But you can see clear resemblance between All Might and Budo as well.

Also you can said same about Lubbock and Kaminari, in both appearance, and personality.

 

[Avtarino]

He definitely draws a lot from manga and comics alike. I’m not sure he ever talks extensively about homages, inspiration, and such from the american comics, but some of them are suspiciously obvious.

I wonder if he just doesn’t want to bring up too many references to american comics that interview audience would be unfamiliar with (which mostly will be Japanese audience first and foremost). (or just bringing up too many references about american comics in a place that has its own comic culture i.e Japan—whose netizens can also be quite nationalistic and toxic some times)

Like, AM definitely draws from characters like Golden/Silver age Superman. He’s not too similar to Goku—who usually likes the thrill of battle and strong opponents—their only similarity is they’re the good guys and they also fight to protect something, but that’s pretty broad and generic characteristic.
And yet, we have seen him talk about Goku being the inspiration and not Superman.

We have had people on the internet compile Horikoshi’s cover homages and inspirations . You know the ones, things such as these

We also know that he’s a fan of Mike Mignola’s works and he tries (tried?) to emulate his style (you can clearly see this in one panel of AM vs AFO, but only in the weekly release)

Plus, the 5th OFA user is a literal walking Hellboy homage.

but there are definitely more that people barely talk about. Take this example: Vampirella. (you can even google her yourself)

and

I really wish a manga/comic nerd can interview him. He’s definitely a huge comic nerd but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any interviews where he can just geek out about his comic knowledge and it always seems that he’s holding back his breadth and depth of comic knowledge—which would be a delight to read about.

 

[avietar]

And let's not forget perhaps the most obvious inspiration:

Star Wars!

 

[cracker]

And let's not forget perhaps the most obvious inspiration:

Star Wars!

Maybe the reason Gran Torino didn't die was bcuz Hori was a huge fan of Yoda. So he didn't want his version of Yoda kicking the bucket.