Over the past few years, My Hero Academia has grown into one of my favorite anime of all time. When it first aired, I tried watching it but couldn’t get into it. But when I tried it again in 2022, I fell in love. The anime is genuinely a masterpiece because it’s one great story told over a decade that includes dozens of great characters and some awesome action and visuals. With that much content, it’s only natural for there to be a ton of artwork.
That’s where the Ultra Artworks book comes into play. It’s a massive hardcover book that chronicles the entire history of the My Hero Academia manga and anime. The cost is a hefty $50, but it features nearly 250 pages of illustrations, sketches, and notes. The book comes out on October 13th, and you can pick up a copy now from Amazon. Despite its cost, it’s a solid pickup for fans of the series.
The first half of the book is a gallery with hundreds of illustrations and images. I don’t really know where most of the illustrations are from, but many of them look great. There’s some large ones too that take up a full page spread, and they’re all in color. Then you have the second half of the book, which is where most of the substance is. Here’s everything of interest.
Select full color illustrations from every manga volume.
More than 100 black and white sketches.
More than 200 pieces of commentary from author Kohei Horikoshi.
Sketches and posts posted to Twitter over the years.
That’s a lot of content that’s printed on hardcover stock. Personally, I think that $50 is a bit much, but having old commentary and tweets compiled into one place is a nice touch. This book is great if you’re a big fan of My Hero Academia.
8/10