New My Hero Academia popularity poll reveals unexpected results

My Hero Academia recently revealed the result of its ninth popularity poll — and fans find the results pretty surprising.

The popular shonen manga My Hero Academia announced its ninth popularity poll in Chapter 403 on the 46th edition of the Weekly Shonen Jump. This popularity poll was held solely in Japan and the voting period was from October 16 to December 18, 2023. A record number of readers voted for this popularity poll.

The results of the poll will be released alongside Chapter 419 on April 7, 2024. However, early spoilers have already revealed how the poll went. With such a large cast of characters, the poll results are quite hefty — but, expectedly, the most important rankings were given to major characters.

The series’ deuteragonist Katsuki Bakugo won the popularity poll once again. Bakugo has a huge fan following and it shows since the character has topped every popularity poll held in both Japan and US except the first ones. Following him at number two is the protagonist Izuku Midoriya aka Deku.

9th popularity poll results
1 – Bakugou
2 – Deku
3 – Shouto
4 – Dabi
5 – Hawks
6 – Endeavor
7 – Kirishima
8 – Iida
9 – Ochako
10 – Shouji
11 – Monoma
12 – Kaminari
13 – Aizawa
14 – Shinsou
15 – All Might
16 – Toga
17 – Shigaraki
18 – Jirou
19 – Sero
20 – Rody

— Rukasu (@RukasuMHA) April 4, 2024

The number three spot goes to another fan-favorite character, Shoto Todoroki. Shoto and Deku usually interchange the second and third spots in popularity polls. The only exception is the first poll in which Deku ranked first and Shoto was second in Japan and sixth in the US.

The rest of the top 10 are Dabi, Hawks, Endeavor, Kirishima, Iida, Ochako, and Shouji respectively. Fans find it quite unexpected how some major characters like All Might, Shigaraki, Toga, and Aizawa weren’t in the top 10s. 

Given their role in the story and their popularity in the fandom along with their ranks in the past popularity polls, they were expected to be among the top 10s. However, all of these characters were ranked within the top 20 entries of the ninth My Hero Academia popularity poll.

My Hero Academia will be returning in Spring 2024 with its Season 7 from May 4. In the meantime, get yourself reacquainted with our articles on the Best Jeanis and Dabi’s true identity.