My Hero Academia is the name of a popular Japanese anime series, which was launched at the beginning of 2014. By today the manga, created by Kohei Horikoshi, has already released five seasons and the next one is on its way. The franchise is telling a story of a schoolboy, who has the only target in his life — to become a hero.
The Japanese manga series plot is built around the story of Izuku Midoriya, a guy who wants to be a hero, but unlike most of the population of the planet, created in the anime, who have special skills from birth, called “quirks” in this world, does not have this opportunity. But all Izuku does is prove that this does not mean you have to stop, as a hero does not become because of superpowers or super abilities, but from the desire to help in the right place and the right time. In class, Izuku is the only one who can’t use a quirk, but despite this, the kid wants to enroll in the best hero academy.
The My Hero Academia manga was created in 2014, and first published on the pages of the Japanese Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine. That was the very first step, after which the manga became super popular and by today has already 32 volumes issued.
As for the anime under the same name, it was released two years later, in 2016. And its plot is fully based on the printed editions. The two parts of the franchise have different logos, but both are executed in the same intense and bright color palette.
What is My Hero Academia?
My Hero Academia is the name of a Japanese manga, which was created in 2014 by Kohei Horikoshi. The manga follows a story of a boy, who was born in a world where all the people have superpowers, but he doesn’t. By all means, the boy is trying to develop a superpower in himself.
The My Hero Academia manga logo was introduced with the first release of the comics in 2014 and has never been changed since then. That was a two-leveled inscription in voluminous shadowed uppercase letters colored in classic red, and outlined in yellow and black, with yellow lines thin.
The inscription was executed in 2 different massive geometric typefaces — sans-serif for the top “My Hero” line, and a college-style serif font for the bottom “Academia”, — and slightly slanted back, showing the wide black part of the shadow at front.
Of course, the initial badge was designed in Japanese, using the same style and color, though the English version followed quite fast after.
For the My Hero Academia animated series, the new logo was designed in 2016. This time the logo was composed of both Japanese and English inscriptions, with the upper level set in English, written in massive rounded white capitals on a red background, which repeated a shape of a horizontally extended arrow pointing up. The Japanese logotype was enlarged and set in a straight line under the red arrow, executed in yellow and featuring a thick black outline.
In both of the text-based logo versions, the franchise uses simple yet modern and powerful typefaces with massive shapes, heavy lines, and clean contours. The “Mu Hero” line in the manga emblem is written in a clean sans-serif, with straight lines and cuts, and “Academia” — in a geometric serif, resembling the traditional college fonts.
As for the second logo, used by the animation, the sans-serif on its upper part is more complex and stylized, with rounded arched vertical bars and straight ends pointed and softened details and customized shapes.
The red, black, and yellow color palette is what both logo versions are sharing without compromising. It is a combination of a very strong character and memorability. This color mix stands for strength, motion, and energy, and evokes a sense of happiness and progress.