My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi has revealed his reading list during rare moments of downtime, and it’s not what fans might expect from one of shonen’s leading voices.
In a recent feature in Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine, Horikoshi admitted a preference for comfort manga from the romance and slice-of-life genres. The artist named Skip and Loafer by Misaki Tamakatsu and Blooming Love by Daichi Kawada as two of his current favorites, both of which are about as different from My Hero Academia as manga can get. Given the darker, more action-heavy direction Horikoshi’s own work is heading, it makes sense that the creator would seek out lighthearted stories to take a load off, and manga fans will be glad to see that he’s doing so with some of the best new series around.
Skip and Loafer's Favorable Comparisons
Of Horikoshi’s two favorite romance manga, Skip and Loafer is certainly the more well-known, receiving an anime adaptation from studio P.A. Works earlier this year. Creator Misaki Tamakatsu’s manga has been serialized in the magazine Monthly Afternoon since 2018, recently reaching a milestone of one million copies in circulation and picking up 2023’s prestigious Kodansha Manga Award. A high school love story that has drawn comparisons to classic romance anime like Kimi ni Todoke and Studio Ghibli’s Whisper of the Heart, Skip and Loafer is both familiar and fresh. The manga follows the seemingly mismatched couple of extrovert Iwakura Mitsumi and laid-back Shima Sousuke as they follow their dreams in the metropolis of Tokyo.
Blooming Love Is Brand New
While Skip and Loafer has been making waves for five years now, Horikoshi’s other favorite Blooming Love is just getting started. The manga has only published six chapters at the time of writing, and mangaka Daichi Kawada’s first series in six years since the brief run of their comedy-romance manga Kanojo wa Otousan in 2017. With that in mind, an endorsement from a mangaka like Kohei Horikoshi could provide a major boost for the fledgling series, as was the case with the My Hero creator’s shoutout to the new shonen manga Dragon and Chameleon. Like Skip and Loafer, Blooming Love is a high school romance story about two students, following the timid and artsy Shinatro Ibuki as he takes an interest in the classic tsundere archetype Kyoko Sugisaki.
For those interested in checking out Horikoshi’s recommendations, Skip and Loafer is available from English publisher Seven Seas Entertainment, while Blooming Love is free to read on Shueisha’s Manga Plus app.
Source: Anime Senpai