My Hero Academia's Kohei Horikoshi confirmed as next Dragon Ball Super Gallery project entrant by Masanori Morita's installment

By Joseph Brogan

Modified Aug 30, 2024 19:39 GMT

Friday, August 31, 2024 saw My Hero Academia’s Kohei Horikoshi confirmed as the next participant in the Dragon Ball Super Gallery project celebrating the series’ 40th anniversary. Horikoshi was confirmed as the next entrant as the next up via the release of Blues mangaka Masanori Morita’s entry, which redid the cover of the 24th volume.

The Super Gallery project serves as a commemoration of the late Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga series, which originally ran from November 20, 1984 to May 23, 1995.

Each month, different mangaka will redraw one of the series’ 42 volume covers in their own unique style and rendition. The manga ran in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, which is also where the recently-ended My Hero Academia ran in its entirety.

Dragon Ball Super Gallery’s latest release sets up My Hero Academia’s Horikoshi as one of final four mangaka

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Masanori Morita’s entry into the Dragon Ball Super Gallery project redid volume 24’s cover, which featured Son Goku, Son Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta.

Morita’s rendition saw each redrawn in what seems to be an art style mostly similar to Blues. Each of the four are also given new expressions and moved around from their placements on the original volume. However, Son Goku and his scowl still remain front and center in Morita’s redraw.

While incredibly popular in Japan, Western fans may not be as familiar with Morita’s work due to his most famous works, such as Rookies and Blues, not being localized internationally.

The West never received an officially translated release of either, and while the latter did have an adaptation, it came in the form of two anime films in 1992 and 1993. It’s unclear whether or not they received an international release, but given the time, it’s likely that they didn't.

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As mentioned above, the release of Morita’s entry also confirmed that Horikoshi would be up next, making him one of the final four entrants in the project.

The volumes which remain are 1, 13, 30, and 42. It is widely speculated that, in the wake of Toriyama’s aforementioned passing, One Piece mangaka Eiichiro Oda will redraw volume 42 as the final entry.

Oda had a mentor-and-student-like relationship with Toriyama, which has been heavily documented throughout Oda’s career. With this in mind, and considering how Oda’s manga has reached the heights of Toriyama’s in terms of longevity and impact in Japan, it seems like the perfect way to end the project, hence the speculation. Likewise, it’s expected Horikoshi will do one of either 1, 13, or 30 for his turn next month.

Horikoshi’s My Hero Academia manga ran from July 7, 2014 to August 5, 2024. 422 of the manga’s 430 chapters have been collected into 41 volumes, meaning the final tally will be 42 with its release in Japan on December 4, 2024.