Studio BONES President Talks Adapting My Hero Academia Creator’s Upcoming Horror Story (Exclusive)
My Hero Academia’s anime recently came to a grand finale, as Crunchyroll released a final anime entry focusing on Eri as she returned to UA Academy. With creator Kohei Horikoshi seemingly stepping away from Izuku Midoriya and his fellow superheroes permanently, the manga artist is spreading his wings to venture into the horror world. Recently, we here at ComicBook.com had the chance to chat with the president of Studio BONES, Masahiko Minami, about potentially adapting this horror story to an anime. With the new special arriving later this month, BONES is already excited to check out Horikoshi’s return to manga.
At this year’s Otakon, one of the largest anime conventions in North America, Masahiko Minami discussed the legacy of My Hero Academia and talked about Horikoshi’s upcoming campfire tale, “I was not aware that Horikoshi-sensei was making this short story horror; I’m learning of that here for the first time.” Minami confessed during our discussion, “I’m very interested and excited to see his creativity applied to this new work.” Masahiko then explained that should the opportunity arise, BONES would love nothing more than to adapt the story of Don’t Laugh, Shijima-San, “If there is an opportunity, myself and Studio BONES would be very interested in bringing the anime to life.”
Reflecting on My Hero Academia
With the recent release of My Hero Academia: I Am a Hero Too, BONES is seemingly done with the franchise, barring the confirmation of another feature-length film and/or a third season of My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. Since the production house has over a decade of experience in creating this universe, saying goodbye to the shonen franchise was no easy task, as Minami explained, “It’s been over ten years since I met Horikoshi-sensei, and what really attracted me to this piece was the power and teamwork that was a part of the series. I was very happy we were able to adapt this series to the very end.” Unfortunately, Minami did not confirm whether BONES would return to the superhero shonen franchise in the future, though this is a definite example of “never say never.”
If you’re unfamiliar with the upcoming Don’t Laugh, Shijima-San, the upcoming short story is set to land in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump on August 10th next week. Many details surrounding the one-shot have yet to be revealed outside of a single issue, though the story has been described as a terrifying “boy meets girl horror story.” Running for around sixty pages total, it might be difficult to make a full anime series focusing on this story for now, but this might be just enough for BONES to potentially make a feature-length film at some point in the future.
