My Hero Academia Season 5 Key Art Gives Class 1-B Some Room

The month of March 2021 is drawing closer, and that’s big news for fans of Shonen Jump‘s premiere superhero series. My Hero Academia Season 5 is scheduled to begin broadcasting on March 27, 2021. To build excitement, an elaborate key art illustration was revealed in the pages of COMIC Natalie on February 15, 2021 [Thanks, COMIC Natalie].

The picture was drawn by My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi and features no less than nineteen characters from the series:

The My Hero Academia Season 5 key illustration shows off the members of U.A. High School Hero Course Class 1-A, the central cast of the series and homeroom section of protagonist Izuku Midoriya. Izuku is joined by classmates like Ochaco Urara, Katsuki Bakugo, Tenya Iida, Tsuyu Asui, Eijiro Kirishima, Fumikage Tokoyami, Shoto Todoroki, and Momo Yaoyorozu.

The left side of the My Hero Academia Season 5 image is more novel. Especially for fans that haven’t caught read the manga’s “Joint Training” storyline, which the season is set to cover. Filling out that side of the page are the members of Class 1-B, the other first-year section at U.A. High’s Hero Course and a sort of rival crew for the leads. While members like Neito Monoma, Itsuka Kendo, and Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu have already made multiple appearances in the anime, other Class 1-B students are relatively unknown and only appeared as background characters. Seen in the illustration are Shihai Kuroiro, Yui Kodai, Kinoko Komori, Setsuna Tokage, Pony Tsunotori, and Jurota Shishida.

In the middle is a student from outside both Class 1-A and 1-B: Hitoshi Shinso. Last seen in the anime as Izuku’s opponent during the U.A. Sports Festival, Shinso has a mind control-based Quirk superpower. He can take control of the actions of anyone who responds verbally to him. In that storyline, Shinso used his Quirk to put the otherwise much stronger Izuku on the back foot, taunting him into submission and nearly forcing him to forfeit the match. Here he appears sporting a strange mask and wearing bandage-like gear similar to that used by Eraser Head, Class 1-A’s homeroom teacher.

For more detail on the My Hero Academia anime, check out this trailer aired by Toho Animation in December 2020:

My Hero Academia Season 5 will premiere on March 27, 2021 in Japan. Simulcast announcements are pending, though airings on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Funimation are expected in North America. A third MHA feature film is also in the works.