My Hero Academia Creator Kohei Horikoshi Honors Kobe Bryant in New Heroes: Rising Illustration

My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi honored Kobe Bryant by sharing a new illustration of Deku from the My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising film.

As you can see below, the illustration shows Deku flying through the air with Mahoro and Katsuma in his arms.

In the background Bakugo appears to be heading for the moon or the sun that looks very similar to Todoroki.

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Horikoshi captioned the photo writing, “I saw [My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising] in 4DX at the movies. It was very cool how they had (added) more realism! I wanted to eat with Mahoro and Katsuma.”

Here’s a better look.

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While it might not be obvious that the image honors Kobe Bryant, sharp-eyed fans were quick to pick up on the homage.

The shoes Deku is wearing are actually Nike’s Zoom Kobe 1’s. The Zoom Kobe 1’s were Bryant’s first signature shoe with Nike.

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My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising released in Japan on December 20th.

It was recently converted into 4D and re-released on January 24th. Following the 4D release, the film broke back into the top 10 at the Japanese box office coming in 9th according to Eiga.

It has currently earned about $14.25 million with 1.21 million tickets sold.

Related: New My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising Trailer Released with English Subtitles!

The film will hit theaters in North America on February 26, 2020.

What do you make of Kohei Horikoshi’s homage to Kobe Bryant?

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