After 10 years and more than 400 instalments, Kōhei Horikoshi's world-conquering My Hero Academia has finally come to a close. Chapter 430 of the hit manga was published in the most recent issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump and on the VIZ website yesterday, offering a tantalizing glimpse at the future of Deku and his classmates. To mark the occasion, One Piece creator – and Horikoshi's friend – Eiichiro Oda paid tribute to the series with a drawing that highlights the bond between the two artists.
The cover of One Piece Chapter 1,122 (below) depicts the villainous Smoker blazing away on two cigars, with the words "Hero Academia" visible in the background. It's accompanied with the caption: "Cover request: Redraw the artwork of Smoker a boy from Aichi Prefecture submitted 22 years ago." The boy in question was actually the then-teenaged Horikoshi, who sent some fan art of Smoker to Oda all those years back before he was himself a professional artist.
(Image credit: Viz Media/Shueisha)
Accompanying Oda's drawing was a message that (when translated) reads: "So now you get to play Pokémon Go as much as you want! Congratulations on 10 years, Horikoshi Sensei!"
This isn't the first time that Oda has used One Piece covers as a way to honor his fellow creators. He previously paid tribute to Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto with the cover for One Piece #766, which saw Luffy eating noodles with an unseen character implied to be Naruto himself. In a delightful bit of symmetry, Masashi Kishimoto added a Straw Hat Pirates logo to the cover of Naruto #700 as a nod to Oda and One Piece.
The final chapter of My Hero Academia is out now and can be read on the Shonen Jump website.
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