The Results of My Hero Academia’s Final Popularity Poll Are in – With Some Surprising Entries

My Hero Academia has released the results of its 9th popularity poll in the recent issue #19 of Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, the final issue before the series ends on August 5. While the results feature some usual names in the top spots, some characters managed to climb the ranks in the final list, as well as some entries that come as a complete, and humorous, surprise.

How Does Shonen Jump Run Popularity Polls?

Popularity polls are a tradition in Shōnen Jump and many other manga magazines in Japan. After around a year of serialization in a magazine, a series will receive the opportunity for a popularity poll, which involves readers voting for their favorite characters in a series. Even with manga becoming more accessible online in recent years, this event is still reserved for readers of the physical magazine. This event is a fun way to gauge the audience’s reaction to a series, and even an opportunity for an author to be creative with showcasing the results.

Horikoshi (My Hero Academia creator) is well-known for his color pages celebrating the yearly popularity poll. While the protagonist and main cast typically round out the top 10 of a popularity poll, it should be noted that for this event readers are free to write in whatever names they want, often to comedic effect.

Who Finished in the Top 10 for the last MHA Popularity Poll?

While the usual names rounded out the top 10, there were some surprise additions as well. Unsurprisingly, Bakugo ranked Number 1 in the popularity poll for the 8th time in a row, after only losing the position in the very first poll to Deku. The rest of the Top 10 remains unchanged from the last survey as well, with the results as follows: 1. Bakugo, 2. Deku, 3. Todoroki (Shoto), 4. Touya (Dabi), 5. Hawks, 6. Endeavor, 7. Kirishima, 8. Iida, 9. Ochako, 10. Shoji. These names have seemed to have the most staying power and presence in MHA’s 10-year run, but with such a wide cast of characters, choosing just the top 10 is always a difficult task.

For instance, Shigaraki is often regarded as an incredible antagonist not only for MHA, but for Shōnen and Anime at large, but he fell to 17th in this poll. All Might, one of the most recognizable names in Anime at this point, was just ahead of him at 15. But outside of the series cast, the standout part of all of these popularity polls are the entries that fans write in that manage to get enough votes to be reported by the magazine. For example, while Bakugo has remained the most popular in first place, he also appears in other forms throughout the poll results. At 40th place, there is “Bakugo brainwashed by Mahoro” (a character from MHA’s 2nd Movie). In 70th place, there is the Bakugo drawing that Horikoshi made for the Japanese Voice Actor’s Birthday. Even his Gauntlets make an appearance in 131st place. But funnily enough, characters from other series can also make an appearance.

Did Any New Characters Make It Into The Final MHA Popularity Poll?

Gojo from Jujutsu Kaisen makes it onto the list, albeit very far down. While these poll crossovers often happen with popular series, especially when the authors are known fans and/or friends of each other, it is interesting to see which series are becoming popular enough among current poll voters. As a good example, Kagurabachi is a relatively recent addition to Shōnen Jump, with only 2 manga volumes currently released in Japan. However, the protagonist Chihiro Rokuhira also appeared on this list. For fans of Kagurabachi, it might be an encouraging sight to see how much the fandom around the series is starting to grow.

While there is sometimes controversy around the legitimacy of these polls, with speculation of coordinated campaigns from groups of fans in Japan, it should be noted that these are mostly just fun showcases by the magazine, and don’t necessarily influence the direction of the story in any particular way. With this final popularity poll of My Hero Academia’s 10-year run being released, it is incredibly captivating to see just how the profiles of characters rose and fell throughout the series.

Check out the complete popularity poll results from the official MHA X (formerly Twitter) account. And check out the gallery below featuring some of the best anime moments from MHA’s top 10 characters.

My Hero Academia

In My Hero Academia, Young Deku is born into a world where people commonly have something called quirks, also known as superpowers. He himself is born without any, but circumstances lead to that changing. He enrolls at the UA High School, a prestigious academy where the worlds future heroes learn how to use their powers.